You founded the organization Fashion & Compassion. Please tell me more about it.
It’s now called BraveWorks and was founded about 10 years ago. It originally started from work I was involved with in Central Africa, mainly selling products like paper beads and baskets made by marginalized women who were overcoming various challenges in Rwanda and Uganda. Through the process of doing that here in Charlotte, I became friends with a woman who had left the lifestyle of commercial sexual exploitation.
She was starting a bakery business to help other young women leave prostitution. We started working together, and she was always looking for ways to employ other women. So, we gathered women and paid them to put together new jewelry designs from broken paper-bead necklaces, accumulated from those I was selling, and some beautiful Ethiopian crosses. We found magic occurred around the table as we all strung beads together and talked and shared. I would hear the women’s dreams and think, “I know someone who can help with that.” The social capital connections took effect, and we saw it was becoming a beautiful space for the women.
The project was informal and going well, but we didn’t have a regular place to gather. Eventually, a church agreed to share their space. With a dedicated place, we started a series of weekly jewelry projects. Now, after several years and far more structure, we have three projects that serve refugees and immigrants, as well as women overcoming trafficking, domestic abuse, addiction and incarceration. Local organizations serving women in transition refer people to the program. The women are paid spend their time making jewelry and participating in small group mentoring and lunch-and-learn programs focused on spirituality, work, life, etc. We leverage social capital to the support the women in meeting goals they’ve set. It’s become a safe space for women to come and share their heart with peers. It’s like a family, and the women love it! We sell all the jewelry and products they make in a boutique in South End. The program runs about three to six months, and we even have an alumni program.
After a decade of work with BraveWorks, is there one particular lesson learned or “aha” after the experience?
It has been about three years since I’ve worked with BraveWorks in a fulltime capacity. I’ve learned a lot about the community and coming alongside women in difficult situations. I have so many learnings about how to do that well…and poorly, too.
I learned a lot about myself, in that I’m more of a starter. I loved and was super energized when things were new. When things became more operational, less new and I had to rein in my ideas, then that became more challenging for me. I was grateful that we had a supportive board that allowed me to take the next step by hiring someone to become the new executive director.
Another lesson had to do with engaging the women in their own journey. They had to set their own goals. It is easy to say, “looking at life, this should be your goal”. We wanted the women to look at their life holistically—in terms of practical needs like housing, jobs, etc.; emotional needs such trauma healing and counseling; and spiritual needs, regarding a faith community and a desire to grow in a relationship with God. The women valued having the opportunity to set a variety of goals, rather than a single practical goal. They had a voice in what they need instead of being told what they need.
How has faith been an influence in your work and path?
My faith has been a lot of what has gotten me involved in this work. Faith is important to me. It has given me clarity and purpose in my own life. I like to see when people are addressed as “whole people,” as I mentioned earlier, and to have a safe space to explore faith and other things. Too often we say that faith cannot be a part of nonprofit work and that it must be separate. I love having it all together. While my relationship with God is personal, I also have experienced it in community and those have been some of my most meaningful experiences. I believe that discussions of religion and faith should not be eliminated. I love for women to have a choice in the matter and that it’s not forced on them either. That’s not helpful.
What’s your happy place and why?
My happy place is practicing yoga, outside. I love yoga and try to incorporate my faith into my yoga practice. It’s a place that is meditative. It makes my body feel good and my spirit feel good. That’s something I enjoy.
You work both locally and globally. Are there ways that one has informed the other?
Absolutely. When I first got more deeply involved in nonprofit work, it started with a trip to Rwanda and Burundi in 2008. I was taken by the suffering that had happened in Rwanda and felt like I wasn’t really doing anything to help or prevent or serve those who’d been suffering. It was a wake-up call for me.
In some ways, I had closed my eyes to injustices in my own backyard and my own community. So, it was an interesting journey that took me globally to come back and become more connected locally. While I’m still connected to global work, a global awakening brought me to my local work. I’m now more invested here in Charlotte.
