Annc: Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld, LLP, focusing on business law and commercial litigation, is proud to support Rob on the Road - Region Rising.

More information available at murphyaustin.com.

And now, Rob on the Road, exploring Northern California.

Rob: These women have something to celebrate.

It's graduation day at Women's Empowerment, a Sacramento area nonprofit that transforms women experiencing homelessness into this-— housed, employed, confident, and smiling again.

Marking 20 years of service to helping the homeless recover, 1,700-plus women are now off the streets and living life with diplomas, degrees, jobs, and joy.

Lisa Culp created Women's Empowerment in the closet of a thrift store two decades ago, now a leading nonprofit that rescues people from the brink of losing it all.

Lisa Culp joins me now on Rob at Home.

Tell me about a woman's experience.

And first of all, how is she selected?

Lisa: So, when they come to the orientation, they find out about what the services are that they're here to receive.

Our job, once they have decided that they want to apply for the program, is to screen for motivation.

Our job is, really, to screen them in and not to screen them out, because that's what they've experienced most of their life.

Rob: Wow.

I love that.

I love that shift and... and vision, that lens.

Screen them in, not out.

Lisa: And we meet them where they're at.

They may have one day clean and sober.

They may have just fled a domestic violence relationship.

Um, they may be sleeping in their car.

They may be couch surfing.

They may be, even, outside.

Um, that's not what matters.

Those are their circumstances.

That's not who they are.

Um, and who they are and what they want to do with their life is what's important.

Rob: How will you be able to test willingness and motivation when someone is in the midst of the storm and possibly not even thinking clearly?

Lisa: Right.

So, you're right.

89% of the women who come to Women's Empowerment have experienced domestic violence.

46% have been assaulted within the last three months.

Rob: Wow.

Lisa: 73% are single moms.

60% experience mental illness and six- 58%, um, have a substance abuse history.

So, we know that and what we're looking at when we-— when our social worker, um, and we have very well-trained social workers who are trauma-informed, to really look past the behaviors and see-— ask them, "What is it that you want to get out of this program?

Are you looking for a job?"

We are a job readiness program with, you know, beautiful wraparound services, but we're looking to see if you want to get a job, go back to school, um, and if one of those two things are what you want and are willing to work hard for, um, then we're willing to work hard with you, 'cause it's a rigorous program.

And-— But along with all of that rigor comes immense support, um, both from staff, volunteers, graduates from the program, um, and probably the most special support comes from each other.

You know, these women have felt so isolated and so marginalized for so long.

When they begin to hear each other's stories, they see where they connect.

They see that intersectionality and they no longer feel as alone or as, um, thrown away.

Rob: You know, there's something powerfully, um, binding when you are in a room filled with people who all have different stories, but have a tie that binds.

And the circumstances fade away because the pain is the same.

The journey is different, but the pain is the same.

And when we can unite in that and then move forward, that's where magic happens.

I was, uh, going through a lot of videos with graduates and one of your graduates said, "It was more than just having nowhere to go.

I had nowhere to grow."

Lisa: Yes.

Rob: Ooh, that was- That one was really good.

Um, and person after person said they would go through their journey... Lisa: Yeah.

Rob: ...and then, it was as if this moment happened where they said, "...and then I found Women's Empowerment," and everything about them, when they were speaking and telling their story, changed.

Lisa: Yeah.

Rob: It was a hard reset... Lisa: That's exactly what it is.

Rob: ...birth, Renaissance, growth.

And I have to tell you, you know, every time we see someone who's experiencing homelessness, at one point in that person's life, they were the most special person on this earth to someone.

And that's what Women's Empowerment makes them feel again.

Lisa: I think that's really true.

I think we see the best in them, we see their potential, um, and we see that flicker of hope, that courage to dream, that courage to dare to fail, um, because they failed so many times before.

Um, and it's just so easy.

It's so-— It requires so little love to make such a huge difference in someone's life.

Rob: Lisa, you know, we talked about, uh, people wanting to really, really change.

And you have a story about someone who wanted the "dis"-— dis-abled, dis-eased, "dis"-— They wanted that gone.

Um, it was someone you were working with that... that said to you, "Can you get rid of this 'dis'?"

Can you tell me about that?

Lisa: So, this was when we were very early on, when we were, you know, a program of Loaves and Fishes, before we became an independent nonprofit, and she had come from breakfast over at Mary House.

And one of the servers at Mary House said, "I think you should go over and talk to Lisa," and so she came over and she said, you know, "Is there a Lisa here?"

and I said, "I'm Lisa," and she held up her disabled bus pass, and she just held it up and she showed it to me.

And she said, "Can you take the 'dis' out of this disabled pass?

I want to be abled."

And I said, "I can't do it alone, but I can do it with you.

And if you really want that, I bet we can make that happen."

Rob: Wow.

Lisa: And she is- We're 20 years into this.

She was probably in the second year, third year, and she's held a job ever since.

Rob: That's amazing.

Lisa: Yep.

Rob: That's fantastic.

You know, I'm looking at you and I see so many people behind you that... that we are talking about right now, and... and those are the... the faces of change.

Lisa: That's right.

Rob: Um, and we will come back to that blank spot I see over your shoulder in a moment.

But first, I'd like to talk with you about something that you have never shared at this level.

Um, and it happened in 1993, and you were involved in a horrible accident at-— right there in front of Loaves and Fishes.

Do you want to tell me about that?

Will you share that with me?

Lisa: Sure.

Um...

Rob: Because... because it shows so much about you, Lisa.

There is a reason.

Lisa: Yeah.

Rob: Okay.

Go ahead.

Lisa: So, I was working at Loaves and Fishes.

I had just returned from living in Nicaragua, a small country in Central America, the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

I'd lived there during the time of the war.

Um, almost everybody in Nicaragua was poor, but when I came back to the United States, 10 years later, I was absolutely shocked by the difference in poverty in Nicaragua and poverty in the United States.

Rob: How so?

In Nicaragua, people were very poor, um, but they still had community.

They still had family.

They still had, um, a social network.

They had a sense of dignity.

They had a sense of pride.

Every child you could ask who was five years old maybe could or couldn't read, but could recite a poem from... and would say it with such pride in his or her country.

Um, and when I came back to my home in Sacramento, um, the change in the numbers of people that were experiencing homelessness, first, was shocking.

Um, the number of women and children who were experiencing homelessness was incredibly shocking.

Um, because when I had been volunteering before I left, it was almost all men.

Um, and what they didn't have here is they didn't have community.

They didn't have a sense of dignity.

They felt judged, isolated, criminalized.

Um, and so, that motivated me to-— When I went to Loaves and Fishes and talked to people, um, it was, really, the first time-— 'Cause I was in culture shock coming back to the United States, not so much when I went to Nicaragua-— Rob: And by the way, there had been a revolution.

You were-— I mean, all of that, you were there and went through, and then you came home and saw an entirely different level, layer of poverty.

Lisa: Yeah.

Yeah.

And one that was far grimmer.

There was lots of hope in Nicaragua, lots and lots of hope and joy and song and, um, community.

Um, there weren't fences between people's yards and there was sharing.

Um, and when I came here, I saw how bleak and despairing and hopeless so many people felt.

Um, so I started to work with Loaves and Fishes and I was-— At that point, um, I was-— I started off as the first female street monitor.

Um, and then I started working in jail visitation there.

I'd been back from Nicaragua about six months.

Um, while I was in Nicaragua, I got married and I had my baby... my baby boy, who's just had a baby.

Rob: Oh wow.

Lisa: So, I have a three-month-old granddaughter.

Um...

Rob: Congratulations.

Lisa: Thank you.

She's the new light of my life.

So, Sister Nora Lowe and I were walking down the street, North C Street, towards the dining hall at Loaves and Fishes, and there was a car that was leaving, and it stopped at the stop sign, um, and we continued in the opposite direction.

And then, all of a sudden, the car sped up in reverse and... hit us from behind.

And we were both thrown, from what multiple people say, about 40 feet.

Rob: Oh.

And Sister Nora Lowe died.

And I had a serious back, neck injury, and a traumatic brain injury.

And it took years of physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, water therapy, any kind of ther... therapy you can think of, um, to be able to return to work.

And I had set three goals for myself.

You know, one was to be able to hold and play with my son.

Two was to be able to walk again.

And three was to be able to return to work because it's one of the best expressions of who I am.

And as long as I focused on that- And Loaves and Fishes was absolutely wonderful.

They let me come back one hour a day, then two hours a day.

Chris and Dan Delany let me go sleep at their house 'cause I needed to take a nap because it just was so much effort to process things in my brain, um, and it was exhausting.

And so, after 15 years, I could work full-time, but long before I could work full-time, I started to talk to the leadership at Loaves and Fishes.

And I said, "Survival services are so critical for every woman, man, and child who comes here..." and Loaves and Fishes does a beautiful job of that, but that revolutionary part of myself wanted a pathway out of homelessness, out of poverty, for the women and children I was working with.

Rob: Could you have ended up- Lisa: Pardon?

Rob: Could you have ended up in the same situation after the accident?

Lisa: Yes.

What happened, um, was my husband, um, had to leave his job, quit his job, so he could take care of me, um, and our baby.

Um, the only income we had was from worker's compensation, which was pretty pathetic.

Um, and the house that we were renting, our landlord told us he was putting up for sale.

We had no money, no credit.

Um, we'd only been back a few months.

Um, and I looked at my family and I thought, "This is how it can happen."

You know, I have a college degree.

My husband was getting his PhD at the time.

Um, we had a beautiful, bright little boy, um, and we were going to be without a place to live.

And I was terrified, because not only-— I'd been working with people who were homeless and I can...

I can- I have a tremendous amount of empathy and I could feel that, but I'd never felt like what it could be for me.

Um, living in a war zone was less scary than being homeless on the streets of Sacramento.

Rob: Wow.

Lisa: Fortunately-— Rob: Wow.

Lisa: Yeah.

Fortunately, I have family in Sacramento and, um, they let us come live with them until we could get enough money saved to move into, um, an apartment.

Rob: Lisa, I- First, I have to just say how sorry I am... Lisa: Thank you.

Rob: ...that you had to endure such a horrific experience, and for the loss of your friend and coworker, Sister Nora.

Um, do you remember the accident?

Lisa: No.

I was hit from behind.

I'm blessed not to have flashbacks.

Um, I remember bits and pieces, um, nothing an hour-— nothing an out-— nothing an hour before-— Only an hour before, I could remember.

And then, I remember waking up in the emergency room at UC Davis hospital when they were stitching my head and I kept asking, "Where's my baby?"

um, and I was obviously delirious.

But, um, as horrible as that accident was, um, what I tell the women who I share this with-— I don't usually share it with people other than the women-— is that, no, I would never have wished that accident to have happened, certainly not for Sister Nora, nor for myself and my family.

But what I learned from that accident and the wonderful people it brought into my life, the healers into my life, you know, occupational therapists, physical therap-— I still connect with them.

I had a... a neuropsychologist who said to me, um, "There are abilities that you will never have again, but who you are, the accident could never take away."

Rob: That's powerful.

Lisa: And that stuck with me.

Um, and so, that's what I tell the women is that, you know, no one can take away who you are.

There are layers and layers and layers of trauma that we've experienced, but who you are is in there.

And we're going to do a process of excavation so that you can reclaim who you are, who you want to be, what you want to do, reclaim that power, so that you're not dependent upon, you know, the government for financial stability, or an abusive partner for financial stability.

You are going to be the captain of your own ship.

Rob: You know, when you share your personal story, this is why I asked you to share it here.

In that awful mess that you had to go through, the most foundational message came through... Lisa: Yeah.

Rob: ...because of how you handled it.

And that is a testament to who you are and the human spirit.

And you see that in every person that comes in your door.

I only imagine, when you share your story, how that opens the room.

Lisa: Yeah, and it's beautiful to watch and that's why I share it with them, because it gives me the opportunity to say none of us are our disabilities.

None of us are our circumstances.

All of us have the right and the possibility to rebuild our lives.

Rob: What is something that you have on your heart right now, after discussing that with me and... and sharing that?

Is there something that must be shared from you?

Lisa: I would share with your viewers, um, two things.

One, that homelessness is very complicated, but that making a difference is simple.

And the second thing is before anyone passes judgment on someone who's experiencing homelessness, find out their story.

And the longer people are on the streets, the more deteriorated their mental health becomes, the more desperate they become, the less hopeful they become, the harder it is for them to make changes.

Um, but no one started off being born wanting to be homeless.

No one wanted to grow up and live on the streets and not have three meals a day, and not have shelter from the storm, not have shelter from Sacramento's blistering heat.

That was no one's choice.

Sometimes, we don't have a good choice and a bad choice.

A woman who's in a domestic violence relationship chooses either to stay in that domestic violence relationship because she has a home and probably children, or to become homeless and flee that situation.

I'm not sure- I mean, I know which one I would choose, but it's not-— there's no-— there's not a good choice there, living in a violent relationship, or being homeless.

All of the shelters are full.

They're not even- Even the two new shelters that have a hundred bed capacity, their waiting list goes back to the beginning of October.

We're now in December.

Um, the domestic violence centers are full.

So, they are going to be homeless if they leave right now.

Rob: And they know it.

Lisa: And they do it anyway.

And, you know, there's one woman who comes to mind, she was working at Amazon making $19 an hour 'cause she'd been working there for two years.

She had four children.

She came to Women's Empowerment.

She came to class on time every day, while sleeping in her car with her four children.

Her children-— This was when schools had all closed, so we just brought the kids in.

And these were older children.

We normally work with infants and toddlers, but there was no way I was going to let them sit in our parking lot in their car.

And so, we made them breakfast.

We set up educational activities for them, um, connected with the school district, because they had-— they... they... they didn't even have Chromebooks because they didn't have an address.

And so, we got them Chromebooks from the school district, so that they could use this as their home address and begin to do school so that, you know, when they finally did get into housing-— and that was something that just happened this week.

They got into housing, um, not in California 'cause it was too expensive.

They ended up moving, um, and they have a three-bedroom apartment for the four kids and mom, and she is a manager at Amazon, now, in Texas.

Rob: Wow!

Lisa: Yeah.

Rob: Wow.

What a powerful story.

Lisa: Yeah.

She's a powerful woman.

Rob: That leads me to the spot over your shoulder that is blank.

Lisa: And so, when a woman gets a job or gets into housing, she comes back and she comes to our table, which each woman puts something on it that has meaning for them, um, and shares with the class as our-— part of our daily opening.

And she picks up the bell that's there always, and she rings it and she tells the women that she's gotten a job, or she's gotten into housing.

And so, just yesterday, the woman in that blank space got a job, and she told her story.

And the women-— I mean, she had the women in tears because of how hard she's worked, and she talked to them about never giving up, always showing up for yourself, and seeing and taking advantage of every opportunity.

Um, and this was not her first job.

This was her second job.

She'd gotten a promotion.

And so, with the advanced training that she'd received at Women's Empowerment, she got a job as a property manager.

So, she got housing...

Rob: Wow.

Lisa: ...as well as a job.

Rob: Wow.

Lisa: And that is priceless.

Rob: What a powerful story.

All of it.

The beginning, the middle, and I won't say "the end"... Lisa: No.

Not the end.

Rob: ...but the next chapter.

Lisa: The next chapter.

Rob: I...

I just have to tell you, Lisa, that you are one of the most remarkable people I have ever had the joy of meeting, and I cannot thank you enough for sharing your story, but most importantly, for who you are and what you do.

Lisa: Rob, it's been such a pleasure to talk with you.

You make it so easy for people to share their stories and to open up.

Um, I would love to have you come down and meet the women someday, so that, um, you can hear their stories.

Um, and they'll feel your goodness and they'll open up and talk with you.

Rob: Oh, thank you.

I would love to come.

Lisa: It's good for them to have positive male role models.

Pardon?

Rob: When COVID clears and we can do that, I'm there.

Lisa: All right.

I'll hold you to that.

Rob: You're amazing, Lisa.

Thank you so much.

With Women's Empowerment, serving Sacramento, and serving people, souls, making a real difference, Lisa Culp.

Thank you so much.

Lisa: Thank you, Rob.

♪♪ Annc: Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld, LLP, focusing on business law and commercial litigation, is proud to support Rob on the Road -— Region Rising.

More information available at murphyaustin.com.