Latest / Rock My Finances / How do you capitalize in the Foster Care Industry while Empowering at-risk youth with Pamela Clay

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How do you capitalize in the Foster Care Industry while Empowering at-risk youth with Pamela Clay · Rock My Finances

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necessarily those of Lifeco Asset Management LLC. The content presented is in no way
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an investment advice, solutination, or an offer to sell securities or investment advisory
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fixed insurance products. Investments on fixed insurance products are different from investments of the
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stock market. Any guarantees provided by a fixed insurance product cannot be assumed to
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be guaranteed for any other investment. Welcome to to Rock my Finances show on
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k FORAGD Radio and Talk for TV, where we put to fund in finance
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joint Powerhouse Jaffer Jos CDFA CMC and Private Wealth Advisor as she collaborates with you
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to create clarity, control and confidence with your money, your way. It's
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not about the zeros, So what is it all about? Let's find out.
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Now, here's your host and weekly friend, Jennifer Josh. Hey,
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y'all, we have such a great show for you today. I'm so,
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so so excited. I can tell you that I am a very good host
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because I have not even met Pamela yet, and so I am very excited
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to have this conversation with you. I have been speaking with her assistant like
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all the time, know her voice, and saw her today and said,
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hey, so we know each other from our voice. So she's amazing.
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So she has an amazing staff, she has an amazing story, and I
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cannot wait for you to hear everything that this woman is doing because I'm here
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in her home, in her company, in the nonprofit. Everything is all
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rolled up into one which I know many women out there can hear this and
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we would do the same thing right like we just would like my clients come
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to my home all the time. So this is great, Okay, Miss
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Pamela are Clay director founder, I would imagine its co founder, co founder
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of Living Advantage, Living Advantage. I'm gonna let her tell you the story.
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However, it does have a little place in my heart because they help
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at risk youth, which if you know my story, very big in my
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heart and foster children. Yes, I'm so excited, so so glad to
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have you here. Well, thank you for having men. I'm excited as
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well, but I'm also warm that you actually felt compelled to come and be
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with us today. Absolutely, absolutely absolutely. I know you're working hard and
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and we know each other from WBN Women's Business Network Hills Chamber, right,
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Yeah, and so that's been some wonderful connections there. Yeah. And well,
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you know, you know what I would like to know a little bit
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Jennifer. Wow, Oh look at her type a taking control? What the
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hell is that? Well, I just feel that I want to know a
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little bit about why at risk is so writ to you and then up chime
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in because that way she's opening the onion, y'all. Yes, okay,
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So most people know my beautiful son, Parker has been suffering from addiction since
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he was twelve years old. We have one year and one month clean and
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he'll be twenty five very shortly. So it's been a long haul. He
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had the add and you know, all the great stuff to make him a
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little bit there. However, he's been at risk. This his last the
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long twelve thirteen, fourteen however many years it's been, and so of course
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you gravitate towards those people as well. Right, So I've seen so much
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through his um you know, all the different rehabs and then the NA meetings
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and you know everything that he's been doing, because he's always just said,
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you know, this is not what I'm trying to do, this is not
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what I'm trying to be, this is not my life dream. Of course,
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and not to me is the biggest thing. Look around you and say
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would you have signed up for that? Absolutely? They all did not,
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like so we need to have compassion and so that's my Yeah. So that's
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interesting because now I can time in yea. So Living Advantage started with my
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mother, Bernie's Clay, she's the initial founder. I saw her on the
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website as yeah, almost thirty years of being in the Los Angeles Unified School
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District and she was a special as a speech pathologist, so as a special
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ad teacher of course, God, yes, they usually with children who have
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what do they say, learning disability? Sure right? My mother found that
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ninety five percent of the kids did not have a winning disability. Generally they
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had challenges at home or you know, more emotional more mental. And so
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during the course of her almost thirty years in the school system, I used
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to always ask why was she always at court? Why was there always more
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family like dynamics as opposed to learning functions, learning visibilities? Right, And
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so as as I matured and became an older person, realized that at home
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is usually where the issues like he had a age yep, yep. So
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then they prescribe medication from the medication is how I'm sure your son got more
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you know, addicted to stimulant. Right, Um, sometimes you know,
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we we we put a stigma on a drug use. It's really you know,
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stimuli being stimulated. Coffee, starfee drinkers. Right, that's the same
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thing. I mean if you if you got to Starbucks every day, some
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people go twice to day, what is that considered? Right? Right,
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So the same thing. So yeah, call me if you're going to start
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twice. Okay, dude, that's not that's not I know, I know,
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I know some people have that artitact is going to start Bucks a couple
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of times. Yeah, absolutely, But in the transition to um, you
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know, being you know, highly stimulated and then being on medication, and
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then that's how my mom got involved with at risk youth. Oh my gosh,
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and you took over well, and they don't always follow in her parallel.
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I'm definitely not an educator. I'm not a social worker. My background
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is real estate investment. That's why I'm live rock my finances. Right,
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That's another reason why I guess her synergy is really good. Um. But
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in the inchrom of my mom deciding that it was time for her to retire,
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she wanted to continue her legacy and her work work work with you know,
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high high risk youth at RESK youth. And what that led to was
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m foster youth getting a home, a six bed home. We started in
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Orange County. My mom started the nonprofit Living Advantage in Orange County with a
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six bed grew up home for boys. Unfortunately, mom got ill. And
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you know, my thing was we invested out on my background. My initial
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co founding was the investment component, right. I was investing in real estate
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at the time. I had a lot of different type of more single family
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rehab in units, right, And so I said, well, how are
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it could it be? You know, they have a home with kids.
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Literally thirty years later, thirty years later this year, thirty years later,
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I am fighting the fight, and it's it's it's the kids that are just
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subjected to their family and their environment. Um, you have to think about
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foster youth abused and neglected and abandoned. That's that's kind of the stigma that
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they have, right, But if you think about it, it's really usually
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family issues where maybe the parents are having issues, right, have challenges,
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and the kids, the kids get caught up. You know, it's not
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in every single solitary situation is different, every single one. Not you know,
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not every parent is in jail right, abusing their child. You have
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some parents that you know, we're in the war, they went they you
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know, they're they're in the armed forces and they pass, right, they
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die being in the armed forces, they going foster care. How about the
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parents with mental mental illness, they going foster care. How about parents that
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just get in a car accident, right, these kids are in foster care.
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So it's not always you know, where the family or the parents have
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you know, been been abusing the children, and children are just these victims.
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But once they're in the system, then they become you know for sure,
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because our system sucks in this country. It's really tough they have a
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tough job. They have a tough job of keeping over a half a million
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kids in our country, over a half a million kids, half a million
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children in the foster care system. Yes, so when you're complaining about voting
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and all the bills and all this stuff that's happened, let's not forget about
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the five hundred thousand children that need good homes, and not only just good
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homes, but actually good mentors and parents to show them the way to a
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healthy, productive, successful and joyous life. We always forget about this sector.
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I believe. Another little tidbit, I was switching companies in two thousand
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nine and zero income for six months. Wow. So I was driving foster
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children. Oh, it was one of the homes and one of the facilities.
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It was the county. So I was driving to court, I was
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driving to medical, I was driving to visitations. I would pick them up.
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And so I did that for six months as well. And most adorable
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kids ever in the whole world. As it was so great, it was
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I'm so glad I did that night personality type of the kids. Yeah,
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and usually it's really survival mode. It's they're trying to figure out day by
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day just how to how they're gonna eat, where they're gonna sleep, how
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they're gonna why it's important to eat, yes, because when your children at
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that age, the first thing that comes to your head is the first thing
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that you want to do. So that's not going to be how am I
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going to be healthy a year from now because they don't even care. So
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there's so much of emergency. And I really believe that, so that I
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believe in law of attraction as well as spiritual and all of that. Right,
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So what we focus on persists. What we have in our brain shows
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up, So we need to put good things in their brain. So bless
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your heart for everything that you're doing. That's what living advantage does. If
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you think about someone in the in the foster care system, are in the
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juvenile justice system, right, what do they need? They need support,
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they need a mentorship, they need heroes, they need someone that's going to
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be consistent it. So on an average, I'll give you a little Let
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me give you a few stats so you can get our idea of over the
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half a million kids that are in the system, eighty percent of art of
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color, of course, low income, poverty, and one of the things
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that sticks out to me is that they're very transit. They move around while
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they're in the system. They move around a minimum of seven times up to
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twenty times. We have one of our one of our, one of our
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great kids. Now she's a young adult. She's moved thirty six times in
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the foster care system. I think over twenty schools. But guess what,
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went to UCLA, went to UCLA, got her degree, went to a
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law school, and now she's an attorney for foster youth and their parents.
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Oh right, that makes me yes, isn't that? Isn't that a wonderful
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testimony? And she's one of our, one of our kids. And that's
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why Living Advantage is going to be the mom and pops of foster youth nationally.
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We want you to join us to be the mom and pops. Our
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main goal is to ensure that they are consistently supported, whether it be academic,
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whether it be case you know, social services, whether it be an
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ear you know, just to mentor somebody that needs additional advice on life.
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We just did a wonderful VIP a VIP career match, right, what is
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the VIP career match? Well, very important people that are being matched with
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some of our wonderful supporters like Jennifer here and ensuring that they understand whether strengths
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are in their career goals. Right, we did aptitude tests making sure where
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their strengths are and then imagining them to some of the wonderful women in the
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business network and some of our other supporters. Karent Bass, right, Karent
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Bass, mayor Bass. Her company was there, her department was there.
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So our job is to support our kids happ is to be there when they
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need us, not necessarily for what their needs are, because sometimes think about
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it, when you're fifteen year old kid and you know you need to stay
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in school to graduate. Is that what's always gonna happen? Oh god,
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Okay, even with our kids, even with anybody, anybody's kids. So
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therefore we always have to look at it from what do our kids want?
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What are their passions, what are their aspirations? That's what living advantage is
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about. So one of the we had our thirtieth year anniversary, Yeah,
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thirtieth year Anniverse in nineteen ninety three. Yes, so we had our thirtieth
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year anniversary, and you know, what was my thirty years? What is
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my thirty years? Have been all about My business partner that also co founded,
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Eugenia Wilson. She's our program director. What is our culture of living
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advantage? What is the whole makeup of why we've been here for thirty years.
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We started out with group homes in Orange County, La County. UM.
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We we did all over a decade with having homes and then I realized
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that, well, so I'm a back up. Five more years from that,
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we started our virtual services twenty five years ago. We had an online
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community. I wish I was Mark Zuckerberg. I wish I was as smart
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as him right because I wouldn't be sitting there with Jennifer right now, be
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on our island. But that's what I would be with my kids for sure.
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Whole thing. That's one thing about UM, you know when I talk
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about our culture. So we started virtual services over twenty five years ago,
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right way before it was electronic mail, before email was popular. We did
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that because I'm not My background is in social service. My background is not
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academics. My background is an investment making money like finances. So bringing my
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skill set right to this organization, it was like, how can I solve
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the problem of these kids? And one thing that I felt one common denominator
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is that they need a foundation and consistency, whether even if it's just somebody
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to hey, living advantage for whatever, you know, whatever it could be,
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for anything I need to I need services, I need bus pass,
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I need to go to college, I need to figure out how to how
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to get my high school diploma, whatever it may be. They know they
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can call on one person and that's us, right, and we do that
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now not necessarily always being funded. You have to think about how services are
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provided to people because of funding, and then they have a particular service right,
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and if the person doesn't doesn't qualify, they're not eligible, then what
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happens they don't get the service right. So living advantages here with people like
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Jennifer, because we're always going to support them. We're always going to be
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there for them, so they have somewhere to go, regardless if they're twelve
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or if they're thirty two. We've had some instances where we've had supporters excuse
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me, former fALS, You've coming up in their thirties because they still didn't
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have their personal identifiable information, They still didn't have a driver's license, or
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they didn't have their birth certificate or there social Security card. So living advantage
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found a common denominator, a support system, and a foundation. But they
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always going to come to I love that. And do they have to be
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in your vicinity? No, not necessarily. So again, we of course
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have certain services in lost centralists and in riverside counties. However, when you
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think about the half a million kids that are scattered across the country, they
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just need to know what resources and services are in their area. So we
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have it's called in an elock box. We have a patent pinning software that
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we develop to maintain their personal information but also to keep their history, to
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gather their history so we know, let's say, for instance, if they
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get a job when they're fifteen and now they're twenty, are they gonna remember
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everywhere they lived or every job they had or where was the job specifically?
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We keep that information. My clients don't even know that. There you go,
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we keep their Democrats have a four O wink over here, a fo
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over here. I have no idea. The name of that company gives a
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change. There you go. I have no idea, and that's our so
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imagine our kids. So that's our job is to keep up with their their
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information. Now they have a history, they have a foundation, and any
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time they could be in Timbook two, they could be in New York and
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say, hey, I'm filling out a job application. I can't remember where
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I worked in one where I was two years ago. We all we do
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is go we were partners with Salesforce. That's a really popular cry. A
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lot of people know about that, and we were on their base. They're
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one of our partners, and so they can call us email us Texas and
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we can go in find out their their history, and now they can continue
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on with whatever it is that they're they're needing to do for that time.
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I love that. I love that. So that's one service. Do you
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have like a hotline? Yes, okay, it's one eight eight eight three
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seven one two five zero one, and so they can call that for any
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reason. Anyway, I'm stranded, I can't find my buzz pass. I'm
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yes, I don't know how to get to the next thing. How do
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I do a resume? Absolutely? Why do I want to do a resume?
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Yeah? Well, what the hell is the money gonna do for me?
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Now? There you go. But what I find is important is that
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on an average to think about any young person, right, is there aspiration
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They're like, I can't wait to get out and get a job. It's
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really to have money to do what they want. So you also have to
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identify, we identify why why do you think you want to not go to
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school? What is the purpose of not going to school and getting a job
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because I can make more money now, right, and I could do whatever
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I want to do. Well, guess what I have to learn the hard
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way. So one of the things that we I don't want to say teach,
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but we instill in our kids is the importance of education. So I'll
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give you a testimony. So I grew up with a mom and dad,
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brother and sister, uncle cousins. I grew up in a very strong household,
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very strong family dynamics, and I want to you know, really great
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schools. But I was the time who I didn't want to extend myself.
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I didn't want to do the class work. I want to go and do
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what Pamela wanted to do. Right, And I've worked since I was twelve
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years old. I always had a job. I always worked, and so
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I didn't understand what my mom was was was an educator, right, and
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my dad was. He was a master's degree in marketing, so you know
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very you know educated, you know family, Um, they believe in the
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college. They believe in. Of course, I didn't want to go to
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college. I wanted to do whatever. I wanted to go out and make
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that million dollars right now, and so in doing so, Um, I
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didn't have the best grades. I always in my in my you know how
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you have to take your placement tests, you take your place some tests I
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always scare really high. But then when it came down to doing the actual
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school work, even though it lazy, didn't want to be exactly Yeah.
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Yeah, it was interesting because even in college, they would call my mom
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and said, what the hell's going on with your kid? Why did she
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score high on the test? And not worth the dark? But it it
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it blocked me from being able to go to the school that I wanted to
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go to. When I finally decide what I wanted to do, it blocked
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me. So I give the story to my kids. I get that story
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to my kids to let them know it's not really about what you're gonna do
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today, is about what you might want to do tomorrow. So just keep
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your options open your options on and you can close them absolutely. Okay,
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cool, okay, great. So so now you have the eight hundred number.
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You how you're you're you're doing the software being able to keep them.
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What else do you do for the kid? So what we do on a
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daily basis is, of course education. We have LAU and we're in the
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Los Angeles Unified School District. We have access to our seven hundred and I
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think fifty thousand kids all in La LA Unified School District in the city.
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We have contracts with the Juvenile Justice System. So what we do is we
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go into the schools we assist it's called the Los Angeles ut Provence the LA
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Living at Bandage Dropout Prevention Service, and we target the kids at our you
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know, might drop out of school, so we just ensure that they don't
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and we explain the reasons why it's not a good idea, why it's great
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to continue to school. And you'll be surprised again it's not really about them
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not wanting to go to class or wanting to do the work. Sometimes it's
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a lot of again home family issues. You know, maybe the mom is
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ill, uh and the and the student has to take their their siblings to
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school. Right, it could be that they're taking care of their parents.
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It could do that they're going to going to work late at night because they
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have to you know, they have to pitching for the family and they're getting
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up late and they're school. Yes, so there's all again, every situation
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is different. That's why I live in Advantage and our supporters. It's so
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important that we're here for our kids because it's what they say, takes a
21:47
village to raise a kid. That's us where the village. So we have
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to look at who our future is, our false to youth, right,
21:53
our atriish youth. And now think about there's so many more. The percentage
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of of at risk high RISH youth are much higher than it was ten years
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ago. You would think with all of the different services and the different opportunities
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and funding that it would be that, you know that that balance would shift.
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But there's higher rates of at risk youth. There's higher rates of suicide,
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there's higher rates of car accidents, drug abuse, alcoholic everybody like you
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might your thing might be um, you know alcoholism. Right, you don't
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want to see kids or you don't want to see people you know becoming alcoholics
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when when you look at the rate as it was ten years ago, it's
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higher. So again, our job is taking our kids and ensuring that they
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have a pathway, that they have a foundation, and that they're going to
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do the things they need to do to be successful. Right. We want
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our kids, We want our our young people. Whether they're in foster care
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or not, we still we still are support system for them. Right,
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So anyone that needs help, anyone? So how young would you say you
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help? We start a round twelve twelve? I was usually when they when
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they're going to middle school, So twelfth the middle schools, Yeah, middle
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school ish, because we know we're trying to catch them before they get in
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the tenth eleventh grade, right and kind of make a decision where they could
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give a darn right, we don't care at that point. Yeah, okay,
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that's absolutely and so yeah, and then our job is really to go
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in making sure that they don't fell out of school, ensuring that they have
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all of their social service needs. Do you have your bus passed? What
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do you need to to stay in school in to get to school? To
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get to school? Right, stay in school and then to graduate on time?
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What about like the help them with the meal plans, oh or all
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that I mean, because that's there's so much red tape everywhere absolutely drives.
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That's crazy. Yes, So imagine being a child trying to figure out how
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to get all this. So we found our common denominator, right, our
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common denominator is making sure they have a foundation and they have their their their
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their identifiable information, the birth certificate, social security because now they can get
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the benefits, right, they have to get that first. They can't they
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can't enroll in school if they don't have an idea. They can't get there,
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donal there anything. That's what I identified. When they walk in the
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door, that's the first thing I get done. They go straight to get
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whatever the verse to get so they can have a photo ID. How many
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times have you heard people getting in all kind of trouble because they don't have
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an idea. You can't drive without d you can't do anything without some form
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of ID. Right, guess what the second thing it is? Advocacy.
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Advocacy See where you see, I'm good at talking. I can sit there
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and talk to you all day long. They can give you all the answers
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to whatever questions you have. I can tell you where to go, how
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to go, who to go, who don't need to talk to go on
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my phone? Right? Our kids don't have that, then they don't do
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that. A lot of kids don't have that leverage. So again, we
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advocate for them so now and we show them, We show them how to
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interact with the teachers, how to explain why they're showing up late, are
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not coming to school. And that's huge, yes, and especially for I
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mean from what I've experienced, this is a long time ago, but they
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didn't understand, like my son had many learning disabilities, not just the ADHD,
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but many more. And so until you got to that one special ed
25:17
teacher like your mom that knew what the heck was really really happening, all
25:21
the other teachers think something different. So advocacy to teachers, I get that.
25:26
How about the court system? Do you get involved in the court?
25:30
My program director so her background after she graduated from San Diego State, she
25:36
ended up and she got it for criminal justice for juveniles. Well, she
25:41
ended up being the probation camps for juveniles and she did that for over a
25:48
decade. And what a passion you ladies have. Yes, and guess what
25:52
she said I'm tired of doing the intervention. Living Advantages prevention. Yes,
26:00
I love that. So that's where I come from, and that's where the
26:03
other co founder comes from. Yes, and you know what's you know what's
26:08
you know what's interesting. I'm so glad you're here and you're involved because we
26:14
have to we have to get to the masses for everybody to understand that once
26:18
we get this foundation laid out and the kids see now. One reason why
26:23
I don't like give out the phone number we're not gun hold are the kids
26:26
is because you have to have a certain amount of funding to be able to
26:30
be to be consistent and not have eligibility issues like in other words, oh
26:34
we only have enough for twenty kids, you could we only deal with kids
26:38
and zip code nine zero? Yes, right, I meant that is the
26:42
worst. So Living Advantage over these thirty years have built all of these wonderful
26:48
UM relationships and so now we are building out being UM. We call it
26:52
the thirty three thirty Club, where we have three thousand people donate three thous
26:56
thirty cents. We can service three hundred kids a year. So guess what
27:00
every year we get three thousand, three thousand supporters every year three thousand,
27:04
so it keeps increasing to thousands of kids and eventually look at those million supporters
27:11
all over the country that say I can donate three thousand and thirty cents and
27:14
now we can service any kid we want. So you'll see that. You're
27:18
gonna see Living Advantage the billboards, kids callers, kids callers. Right now,
27:22
we have a partnership with col Fresh Free of EBT free free food.
27:27
They can literally get their EBT card and go out. Of course, they
27:30
give you a limit on the amount that they can, but it's still hard
27:33
to get the darned card. It's very difficult. You don't want to see
27:37
the application. You wouldn't fill out the application. I mean it's that.
27:41
And I'm an adult, you know I wouldn't feel out the application. It's
27:45
crazy. So that for sure. So how can someone donate? Go to
27:51
there. We've been scrolling your website Living Advantage Inc. Dot com, dot
27:56
org, dot org Living Advantage Inc. Dot org Living Advantage. They donate
28:02
all on that website. It should be you know, and you know what,
28:04
they'll also give us a call because what's gonna happen anyway, I'm just
28:07
gonna let you know once you don't, we're gonna call you anyway, because
28:11
it's gonna says. We're gonna say, Okay, what are your passions?
28:15
What do you like? We you know? Do you know we did a
28:18
survey and most people don't donate or don't get involved in our profits is because
28:22
they haven't found their passion. Well, I know Jennifer's passion is finance.
28:27
And guess what we do financial literacy workshops, virtual financially for our kids.
28:32
So I found her passion, So I know she's gonna be passionate about being
28:36
a supporter for Living Advantage. What are some of your hobbies, what are
28:40
your interests? What are your experiences that you would want to share with somebody?
28:45
That's all Living advantage is about sharing your experiences, sharing your expertise,
28:49
your knowledge with our kids so they can what so they can have that have
28:55
that knowledge and experience and if they need to experience. Absolutely, as we
29:00
know, words don't teach experience does. So let me ask you this,
29:03
A lot of people want to make sure that most of their money is going
29:07
towards the kids for sure or whatever. Yes, like how do you how
29:11
do you do that? So so it's really super simple. We actually if
29:15
you you can go on to our actual tax retims or our nineties, you
29:19
can see the percentage. We're like eighteen percent administrative and eighty you know the
29:25
other I think is eighty two eighty three programming. But you know what,
29:30
we call you guys and bug you guys so much. You guys are out
29:33
with us when we're doing our stuff at the school, when we're doing our
29:37
virtual, our hybrid in person workshops we've done. We do STEM where Step
29:42
organization. We partner with USC. We've been recipients of the Good Neighbors funding
29:48
for over ten years, so we work with Marshall School and Marshall the for
29:53
TURBI for Turbie help help us put together our patent PIN and technology USC for
29:59
Turby School. UM. We work with the USC a joint educational project.
30:03
They partner with us and they go out and give us the tutors to go
30:07
in the school, the USC Neghborood Schools, so we leverage and balance our
30:12
resources all day long. So again, don't worry you're gonna know what we're
30:17
doing, because we're gonna call you and say, hey, do you want
30:18
to come out? Do you want to participate and we even ask you,
30:22
what do you want to see for us to do right? Right? Because
30:26
we have I just met to one w ben she's tennis the tennis group.
30:30
She wants to do tennis lessons, so, oh that's great. My sister
30:34
got her scholarship from Beverly Hills High playing tennis. So I'm an advocate,
30:40
bodybuilder, I trophies all over the place. I'm a swimmer, I'm a
30:44
diver. I roller skate. Our kids have done so many things over these
30:47
thirty years. They've had so much fun. Say skied, they ski with
30:51
us, they snowboard. You trust me, you're gonna know what we do
30:55
if if you go on our website, if you look at our social media.
30:57
By the way, I'm looking for a really strong social media expert that
31:04
that wants to just blow us up, wants to make us go viral.
31:08
We want you to test out your skills with living advantage. I n c
31:14
come test your skills out, show us that you could take us viral to
31:18
get those million followers. Imagine imagine being able to literally take our kids to
31:25
do whatever we want, whatever they think they might want. That's our job.
31:29
Our job is to do that and we're excited about it. How many
31:32
kids do you have like at any one time, like average of we like
31:37
prime example, we're in gym, right, we're here about tis July.
31:40
We've already serviced over three hundred kids. We had a really good UM,
31:45
really good clothing drive with UM with one of the Beverly Hills orcs. I'm
31:48
sorry I can't name off hand, but it was at the Beverly Hills UM
31:55
fire station. Right, So we got all these wonderful clothes. And I'm
32:00
I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't like to get
32:02
a lot of used donations, right, because you know why, I want
32:06
my kids to have the best exact. All my kids, all my kids
32:09
would tell you we are we are always very important people to live in advantage.
32:13
They're always if they get if they get concert tickets, they get supporting
32:17
event tickets. Don't give me nosebleed, you better give me VIP in the
32:22
front. Or guess what I'll tell my kids they're watching on TV. They
32:24
won't go I've done that before, right, because yes, the experience is
32:28
fine, but my kids need to feel special, they feel important. Right,
32:31
And so we had this clothing drive, and I was a little kind
32:36
of adamant. I'm not adamant, just I wasn't really sure how receptive my
32:40
kids would be because I'm a little I am a little protective of my kids,
32:44
my babies. And so we got all these wonderful clothes. We had
32:47
this big clothing drive at the school. Oh my god. They loved it.
32:52
Oh my god. I had no idea they loved it that we ended
32:55
up going back. We ended up going back I think a couple of weeks
33:00
later, good and to do another. And they did some more. They
33:02
loved it so much they were asking for us to come out and get more
33:06
clothes. So there's a whole shift mindset with this generation because they care about
33:13
a planet, they care about we are going I want some new ship.
33:16
I didn't you know, they got a whole different mindset that they didn't have
33:21
consignment. They love not wasting they do. I know, I loved it.
33:25
It was so just heart heartfelt to watch the kids just get all involved
33:30
in and you know, make sure they share with their similature. They got
33:32
close. And then of course we said, well how about the os.
33:37
You know, some of the things that were a little sure people. So
33:39
it was really inspiring for me. And I'm look, I were always learning,
33:43
Yeah, I always learning. I was walking down the street and there
33:45
was a line and I'm like, oh, where are they going? And
33:49
it was a swap meet. Wow. I'm like, dude, you guys
33:51
are all twenty somethings. What the heck because and they were so excited.
33:55
I'm like, Okay, so this is a whole generation. Yeah, I
34:00
totally agree. And you're very busy with the kids, yes, and you
34:04
have so a lot of supporters. So let's say we're listen, someone's in
34:07
New York right now, and they're listening to us in New York. How
34:09
can they uh uh maybe even hook you up with the foster kids in New
34:15
York? Absolutely, so, um, that's what that's so what we've done
34:21
over the past is that we provide. We share it. Like one of
34:24
the things we do is we share our opportunities and our and our are sure
34:29
there's someone there in New York. So maybe you guys can partner until either
34:34
one of you can get big enough to do more, and we just share.
34:37
We just share information, We sai, we share strategies. Yeah,
34:39
that's great. If there's kids that need particular things that they don't have access
34:45
to or they're not sure of because you know, now we can go on
34:47
our phones and pretty much google anything. But you can google it, you
34:51
can call, but you might not get the response. Again, that's or
34:54
the red tape you get. Yeah, that's a lot. Let me ask
35:00
you that you might not know it. Okay, did it get worse over
35:04
cod Absolutely? Oh I'm sorry, No, no, no, it ridiculously
35:08
right, it got ridiculous for the simple fact that you have to think about
35:13
if you're looking at foster youth, a high risk youth, just at risk
35:15
youth in general, they're already you know, below the property level. The
35:20
only constant maybe is going to scope exactly exactly. The only constant is being
35:23
able to go to this, to this building and interact with their friends and
35:29
get the services that are there. Right. So if they're not getting that,
35:31
then how are they getting all of the interactions, they're getting the food,
35:36
they're getting the additional resources and benefits. Right. So, yes,
35:40
but that's what by us being already virtual, it was easier for us to
35:45
make that transition. But now that's where it come in. It came into
35:50
that's why We've been asking for funding for decades for virtual services. And the
35:55
first thing that of course most of the funders, the foundations, you know
36:00
how why it's not important, you know that that's not going to serve them.
36:04
But of course when with COVID, now everybody sees them, sees them
36:07
now. Yes, now they save advantage, but now again it's still the
36:10
same thing we're funding. Where's the funding and the red tape and the bureaucracy.
36:15
So that's why I feel that our community could better serve us, and
36:19
that way we could better serve our kids. I love that. So you're
36:22
always fundraising, you're always absolutely um yeah, increasing our support system so our
36:29
kids can have a constant, a constant you know. I kind of don't
36:34
want to bring up some of the you know, the office office stuff,
36:38
but we just had to shift with one of the political figures. They shifted
36:44
some funding around, and of course they're giving it to their friends, they're
36:47
you know, giving it to their people. Right, I'll just make it
36:51
simple. And so guess what now that that cuts us out, That makes
36:54
us have a setback for us to be able to continue our services. So
37:00
that's why I say we need to build and We need to do more of
37:04
these podcasts and let more people know that they're three thirty cents. It's going
37:08
to go a long way. That consistency will go a long way and have
37:13
so many more people where we don't have to worry about the political realm,
37:16
the political waters, the bureaucracy of if somebody else comes into this area.
37:22
Exactly, you need your own foundation regardless of what's going on in political that
37:25
is there. You have it, Yeah, we need it doesn't matter.
37:30
And that's what I do with my clients as I make sure that they're going
37:32
to have their money, their retirement, no matter who's in the White House,
37:37
no matter who's doing what, no matter what the stock market's doing.
37:40
You have to have a constant. So we have like that in realm to
37:45
the foundation. Yeah, the foundation and the constant. Yes, okay,
37:49
so we can we can obviously if we're in the area. We can help
37:53
physically as well. Well. We do our virtual so again you don't have
37:58
to be just like when we did the VP Career Match, we didn't have
38:00
all of our all of our vendor people here. Okay, they weren't at
38:04
the school. They actually we did we did a zoom or they might have
38:07
did one of the other type, the Google meets or whatever. Yeah,
38:09
but they get the virtual right and then guess what, even the ones that
38:13
weren't available there, we still have their information. We still knew exactly where
38:16
we still massed our kids. We don't. We don't need you present.
38:20
That's our job. That's why we're getting the funding, that's why we're getting
38:23
the wonderful support and contributions from all of you, So you don't have to
38:29
be present, but you know we're doing the work. I love that.
38:30
I love that, and I know we are all here to take care of
38:35
the children. We all have our passions, we have our missions. Mine
38:37
is women and I love this. And I can also say, um being
38:44
nurturing women as we are we are, we can be miss president of nonprofits
38:51
can be the most unhealthiest person, or staff of nonprofits can be the most
38:55
unhealthy because they're giving so much. How can we support you and your staff?
39:00
You know, I think what you're doing right now, Jennifer, just
39:04
coming out letting people know who we are and what we do. And you're
39:07
right. I've been up since three o'clock this morning. Yesterday, I was
39:12
at four o'clock. Yeah, didn't go to bed till midnight one o'clock.
39:15
Yeah. But again, my background isn't in health and working out. I
39:21
have a gym, have a gym here on premise, I do eat,
39:25
you know eighty percent. Well, I am my health now and my mom.
39:29
Okay, So if you guys don't know, my mom started the nonprofit
39:34
but got ill, she got breast cancer. And back then you got to
39:37
think about the nineteen nineties. You know, they were pushing the what is
39:40
it, the HRTs. Yeah, they were pushing the menopause medication and if
39:45
you look at all of the all of the side effects of that, my
39:50
mom had, every single one of them. It was it was heartretchie my
39:52
mother. My mother did marathons, my mother swam, My mother played tennis,
39:57
very healthy woman, extremely healthy woman. And to start taking me and
40:01
they say, don'tye take them max, I think three months, six months.
40:05
My mom took them for over a decade. Yeah, so they did.
40:08
They did, yes, and so that's how my mom got breast cancer
40:12
and ended up getting cancer and passing on. So I you know, I
40:15
do understand health, and so that's another thing I provide for my kids.
40:20
I think when my kids would come into the home, Like I said,
40:22
the first thing we would did is make sure they had their their identification.
40:25
Second thing we did is this is how you're gonna eat vegetables. In the
40:30
morning, you get your fruit. Right afternoon, we're hoping you eating something
40:35
else. And then at night they would have the first the first meal they
40:37
would have is vegetables, a bowl of vegetables. Sure they had, you
40:43
know, whatever they but guess what they would eat their vegetables first, because
40:47
guess what that helped filled them up. They had something nutrition is now the
40:51
vegetables and that was another thing you have. You will have a home with
40:53
six boys and you'll be surprised. One boy is eating sal another boy's eating
40:59
broccoli, and the boys I told him, I told myself, I didn't
41:01
give a dang what vegetable they had. They can have whatever you want.
41:06
And guess it worked so well, And it worked well when I my daughter,
41:09
when I had my baby, it worked well for my baby. But
41:13
you hold your baby. My baby's thirty five, Yeah, exactly, he's
41:15
my sweetie. Pipe. By the way, it's our thirtieth year for living
41:19
advantage. In my sixtieth year on Earth, mean too. Yes, September.
41:23
Yes, mine was March. Oh, Pisy, you are driven pis
41:29
thank you. I love that. I love that, absolutely love it.
41:31
This is the year Man of celebration is So do you still have group homes?
41:36
No? Okay, Now it's all virtual and supportive and advocacy and help
41:40
all we found that again, the you know, the bureaucracy that I keep
41:46
bringing that up, but you know, they had your hands tied. There's
41:50
so many, you know, so many. It's very limited on how we
41:52
can help our kids. So now see we go when we have I think
41:58
I don't know how many group homes we said so many more? Now,
42:00
yes, and do you have a grant writer on staff or help? Yes,
42:04
we we have. I just I hired a new one. But I'm
42:07
looking for a goal yes, always looking for grant writers. We're talking to
42:13
you in advantage. In advantage eight eight eight three seven one two five zero
42:19
one three seven one two five zero one. I love it. I love
42:23
that well. I love your energy. The kids must love you. Yeah.
42:27
I don't get to spend as much time with the kids as I would
42:30
like. But again, you know, as we continue to build capacity and
42:35
being able to take our you know, take go viral, right, yes,
42:38
then I would go like that that word. I'll be able to hang
42:43
out with my kids more. Okay, so we have seven minutes left.
42:45
W I know, and no one talked too much? Woman, I know
42:51
I'm terrible. Sorry, Okay, So let's um, if there's anything important
42:55
that you want to get in there. Well, I know one thing.
42:59
I'm writing a book. There I do when I'm writing in a book.
43:01
It's called how to Capitalize in the Foster Care System? Oh, you mean
43:07
to actually how to capitalize? So now you got Now you got to buy
43:10
the book to figure out how. And so I'm gonna you know, I'm
43:15
right almost at the end of the self editing. Good, so I'll come
43:20
back on specific talking about about the book. That way, it'll get people
43:23
to think. So right now you just have to think about how to capitalize
43:28
in the foster care system. So what is that book all about? Right?
43:30
How am I writing my very first book? And this is to show
43:35
you my expertise in this industry. But again, why how to capitalize?
43:38
Why is that so important? You'll find out soon? Oh my god,
43:42
that's gonna be so good. The left hangar, y'all Cliffhanger. I love
43:45
it. Open loop, open loop. Okay, good, so that's good.
43:49
Let me ask you this. Do you bring spirituality or religion in anywhere
43:53
in your company? Yes? So um. And when I'm talking, I
43:59
think one of the fresh things I talk about is that I'm a Christian.
44:04
I believe hohheartedly in the spirit of the Lord, my Jesus Christ. And
44:08
the main reason why I say that is because now you know where my cinner
44:12
is right and that's what my belief is. And I don't care what you
44:15
believe in, but whatever you believe in it, it's okay because that's your
44:20
center in the your belief. But now you know, Julie, where I'm
44:22
coming from, and I take a hard stand. I'm like that tree and
44:25
I'm not gonna move. I'm not gonna budge because that grounds me and that
44:30
allows me to all the blessings that I received my whole life. I'm able
44:34
to spread it out to everyone else. And that's why I make sure people
44:38
understand that. You know, I'm a strong believer, and I like to
44:45
share what I'm talking with my kids. I like to share experiences and testimonies
44:47
as to how it's strengthening me and how it's going to strengthen them. I
44:52
love that. So I'm a big twelfth stepper and so I do believe in
44:57
a higher power, God, Jesus, whatever you want, anybody, whatever,
45:00
But it's not just us, y'all. I talked to my angels every
45:05
day. My angels has got me through an amazing weekend and everything happened so
45:08
perfectly, and that was so not me. Wow, Like for me standing
45:13
here on this earth right now, I should not be here. So I
45:15
know that I'm here for a reason, and there's so much bigger at work
45:19
than just us. So to have that holding us up. Whatever you want
45:25
to call that, pick your name, I don't care, it doesn't matter.
45:29
Just knowing that you were not alone, it's not just you and more
45:32
of us. Power together is power, and power together make it stronger.
45:37
And also it allows us to be able to share it, Like when I
45:40
talk about your experiences, your expertise, your education, the thing that you
45:45
that you're passionate about. That that's why it's there, because it wants to
45:50
come out and be able to share it and give it to other people to
45:52
build them up, to make them strong. So now now think about how
45:58
to capitalize in the fast. I love her. Yeah that was good.
46:02
That was good. That was good. I'm looking forwards to even even Yeah,
46:07
I love it. So here's um it just left. What was it?
46:12
It was probably really good? Okay, but that that's that I ties
46:16
in together. Yes, it absolutely ties in. Oh there we go.
46:21
So sometimes m as teenagers, I'm gonna just call say it, uh in
46:29
when we're talking about religion or spirituality, and some of them turn completely everything
46:37
over, but then they don't take responsibility for what's really happening. Yes,
46:42
so just you as a human woman sitting next to me, in flesh and
46:45
blood on this planet. I I don't like checking our brain at the door,
46:52
is what I say. Like, Yeah, we have free will.
46:55
I have agency over myself, my emotions, my feelings, options in my
47:00
behaviors. And so how do you or do you bring that in anyway?
47:06
Absolutely so, Um, I told you one of the first things we do
47:08
when they when they step in the doors, make sure they have their information
47:13
right. So the first conversation I have is, um, I'll give you
47:17
a quick cestimony. So the first first boy that came into her home,
47:21
he was trevyall cocasing boy, pretty cute little boy comes in with a paper
47:24
bag and he comes in. I'm like, well, you know where,
47:30
And I slipped out kind of where's your mom and dad? Where's your social
47:34
I'm like, where's every He was like, oh, they just laughed.
47:36
They said that my paper works in the back. And I mean I was
47:39
florid. I mean I was just like, oh, my couse. You
47:42
gotta imagine. I've never experienced foster here. I grew up with the family,
47:46
right, I didn't know anything about that. You would have never been
47:49
left off nowhere kidding me never, So I wish yes. And so I'm
47:55
going through the questionnaire with this kid, and so course he doesn't know half
48:00
the questions and I don't know what's that. He is starting to cry.
48:04
I'm starting to cry, and onything I could think of was oh my god.
48:07
So guess what. Guess what You're gonna have to take responsibility for yourself.
48:12
But guess what my job is. Guess what my job is is to
48:15
be here to make sure it gets done. My job is to help you.
48:19
I'm here. You have a roof over your head, you have you
48:22
have food, you have clothing, You're gonna go to the doctor. That's
48:24
my job is all your necessities. That's your job, is the responsibility of
48:30
figuring out what you want to do and and my strength and my capability.
48:36
I got you. Oh that makes me feel so good. That's how that
48:42
makes me feel so the answer to your questions. That's how I start off.
48:45
Yes, and yeah for sure, And you start off and they and
48:50
that's the main thing. You have to let them know that, guess what,
48:53
I'm here for a purpose. You're there. You got to figure it
48:57
out, and there's certain ways. Then you start talking about you know,
49:00
I tell them my strength and my and my my grace comes from God.
49:04
That's where mine comes from. I know where mine comes from because God is
49:07
talking to me and told me that. Now we'll figuret where your uls come
49:09
from, or you can figure that out, but right now we're gonna see
49:12
what you want to do and where you want to go. I love it.
49:15
And then they just automatically were like okay, because you know, we've
49:19
had a lot of game bangers, you know us and you know the cool
49:22
guy. You know they're cool. Oh yeah, you know. And that's
49:25
the first thing you do is just say I'm over here, but I got
49:29
you now, you gotta tell me where we're going. Oh, I love
49:31
it. Oh, Pamela and so enjoyed our conversation. So we're gonna have
49:37
her back, y'all when she's going to give us the open loop of her
49:39
book. Yes, can't wait. How to capitalize on the in the foster
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system. Yes, okay, awesome, Thank you so much for coming.
49:45
Oh, thank you so much, greatly appreciate it. Oh love blah blah
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life. Thanks amazing living advantage dot ink dot org, lived an advantage ink
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doc org. Yeah, check it out. Don't ate that three thirty three.
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See what you can do. Anybody that's in the professional let's jump on
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there and be mentors. Let's see what we can do with family. I
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love it, I love you and your stuff are amazing. Thank you all.
50:10
Thanks Juan, I love my engineer. All right, thank you.
50:14
We appreciate you joining us today. And don't forget to subscribe to the rock
50:19
my Finances YouTube channel for more engagement and bonus content. Tell me what is
50:24
your money story? Let's find out with Jennifer four pm Eastern one pm Pacific
50:30
every Thursday right here on K four HD Radio and Talk for TV. It's
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not about the zeros. It's about the F word. Feelings, feelings,
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Jennifer can't wait to explore with you next week. Until then, let's all
50:44
say I rock my finances.