There
is a lot of talk these days about the decline of values in our youth
and their self centered nature. From my vantage point I believe those
theories are either overstated or just plain wrong. In March 2013 I
posted an article about 6 year old Dylan
Siegel who wrote a book to help his friend suffering from a rare
illness. Our future is in good hands if the two new examples below
are representative of today's youth and young adults and I believe
they are.
Yesterday,
as I entered an Albertsons grocery store in Boise, an 8 year old girl
named Emily and her 6 year old brother were near the entrance selling
cups of Kool Aid (Peach Mango and Strawberry) to raise money for a
classmate with cancer. She explained to me that her friend was
undergoing Chemo Therapy and had lost all her hair. Emily wanted to
buy a wig for her friend so she would not be self conscious about her
appearance. Emily and her Mother went to a wig shop and the owner
told her that if she could raise $30, the wig shop owner would
contribute the rest of the money for the wig. I am happy to report
that as I left this young entrepreneur with heart and purpose, she
had made almost $80 in just one day. That is a lot of Kool Aid at 50
cents per cup. Many people gave Emily up to $10 to support the cause.
Perhaps
Emily will grow up to do something similar to 23 year old Veronika
Scott, a remarkable young woman filled with passion and purpose.
For Veronika's “Design Activism” class at the College
for Creative Studies in Detroit. Professor
Stephen
Schock charged his students to “Design to fill a need” that wold
benefit the disadvantaged in their community. Students had to design
a project that was doable.
 |
| Veronika Scott Founder of The Empowerment Plan |
Veronika
decided to do something to help the homeless, a group that tugged at
her heart and for which she was passionate about assisting in some
way. One
in every 42 people in Detroit are homeless, some 20,000 people.
Scott's passion stems from her own family situation. She tells ABC
News,
“I was raised in a situation of poverty. It wasn't abstract as it
is for most people. So knowing that can happen to my family means
that can happen to anyone."
Veronika
went to the Neighborhood
Service Organization, a community development center
in Detroit and started talking with the Homeless.
Scott
tells the New
York Times what she was able to glean from her research; “I
noticed that there were people sleeping outside of shelters even when
they could have been inside. There are many reasons why people are
homeless, but I could see one thing all of them needed: warmth.”
Ultimately,
Scott
came up with the idea to design and produce a coat that would double
as a sleeping bag. Now that is imagination!
According
to a blog post for ABC
News, “For
five months, and even after her class ended, Scott worked with the
homeless at the shelter Neighborhood Service Organization in Detroit
to develop the first prototype of the coat.”
 |
| Sleeping Bag Coat Photo by Brittany Thomasson |
The
result is a self-heated waterproof coat that transforms into a
sleeping bag at night.
“I
became known as the crazy coat lady,"Scott said.
Scott
says her original concept was to offer comfort, warmth and pride to
the homeless, but one homeless woman's words would not only alter the
concept, but propel Veronika
Scott in a direction should could never have anticipated.
"This
Homeless woman told Veronika, “Your coats don't matter, jobs
matter. We need jobs, not coats.”
"It
was then about who I could employ." said Scott. At that point
the coats became a creative and worthy by-product to aid the
homeless, but her true mission became to give the homeless what they
needed most, a job.
As
for the coat/sleeping bag itself, Veronika probably did not even
realize what she was on to. “The
truth is Veronika’s garment has great international ramifications,”
Imre Molnar, a dean at the College for Creative Studies tells the New
York Times,
“Her coat could be used by refugees or for disaster relief
operations.“She came up with a great idea that is simple, but well
researched. Because of her passion for the homeless, I can’t see
her not succeeding.”
It has been reported that the Red Cross in interested in the coats as
well.
In
December of 2011, Veronika Scott founded a non-profit organization
called, “The Empowerment
Plan.” The Empowerment Plan's mission is;
“We're
a Detroit-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the
homeless community. We hire homeless women from local shelters to
become full time seamstresses. These women manufacture a coat that
transforms into a sleeping bag, which is then given out to homeless
individuals living on the streets at no cost to them.
We
believe in giving second chances to those who want it, and providing
warmth to those who need it.”
"At
the end of the day, people gravitate to the coats because it's easy
to understand, but the uniqueness in what we do is who we hire,"
Scott said. "That woman really changed the whole direction."
(Source: Crains
Detroit Business.)
Scott
encountered her share of people suffering from what I call Negavitis
in Don't
Seek Success – Be Happi. The Empowerment Plan website explains
it this way;
 |
| Veronika Scott with one of her Employees Photo by Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times |
Veronika
started the Empowerment Plan as a 20 year old product design student
at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit. It started as a class
project and became a non-profit organization when she graduated in
December 2011. During the creation of the project, she was told over
and over again that this organization would never succeed. Not
because the person running it had no business experience but that the
homeless women she hired would be almost worthless, that she would be
lucky to have anyone show up, let alone make a coat.
"Everyday
I enjoy proving all of those people wrong. The homeless women I hire
are powerful, driven, and I am privileged to be a part of their
lives."
Veronika
is quite proud of her first employee, Elisha, a homeless woman
living with her children in a homeless shelter. Veronika and Elisha
started making their coats in a room the size of a closet at a
Detroit homeless shelter, where they did not even have enough room to
layout the coats. Today, The
Empowerment Plan has a staff of 14. As for Elisha, she learned
new job skills, earned money and was able to move herself and her
family out of the shelter and into their own apartment after just a
few months. (Source; Forbes).
In
2012, The
Empowerment Plan
distributed more than 1,000 coats to people in need, and Scott said
it plans to hand out 4,000 coats nationwide through other
organizations.
Veronika
tells Crains
Detroit Business,
"I
never in my wildest imagination and dreams ever expected it to become
like this," Scott said.
The non-profit raised $25,000 last year with a goal of $700,00 this
year. Contributors include companies like General Motors which also
donates materials that allow the coats to self heat.
Veronika
is not resting on her laurels. Next up is a For Profit company based
on a one for one model. Scott explains her vision of the For Profit
Company to the New
York Times this way;
 |
| Veronika Scott models the Sleeping Bag Coat |
Veronika
Scott found her profitable passion and purpose through her desire to
help the homeless. She came up with a very imaginative and creative
idea to provide a practical garment which would provide comfort,
warmth and pride to the homeless. But as one insightful homeless
woman bluntly told her, pride and self worth come from jobs, that is
what the homeless truly needed. Veronika could have ignored that
advice and continued on with her coat/sleeping bag design, but
Veronika listened and her mission evolved to not only produce a
valuable asset for the homeless but to empower them with a job giving
them a sense of purpose, a second chance and a way out.
When
brainstorming and researching your profitable passion, keep your eyes
and ears open, your original idea may very well evolve into something
you did not initially imagine. In last week's post, Shelly
Fisher was making costume beaded jewelry to aid various
charities, but when somebody asked her to design a attractive custom
designed medial alert bracelet, she listened and her passion evolved
into something spectacular to help save lives.
To
learn how you find your own profitable passion and purpose in life,
see Don't
Seek Success – Be Happi.
Be
Great!
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