Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
Speaker 2: You are tuned in to the Vitamin D with Dawn
Speaker 2: Day podcast and I am your host, Dawn Day, here
Speaker 2: to get you excited about your life so that you
Speaker 2: can live life on purpose and for a purpose.
Speaker 1: If this is your first.
Speaker 2: Time tuning in, welcome Vitamin D. It's upon of my name.
Speaker 2: My name is Dawn, and you get vitamin D from
Speaker 2: the sun. So I'm here a shed light into your life.
Speaker 2: And I do this with inspirational insights and conversations with
Speaker 2: celebrities and everyday people like you and me, because if
Speaker 2: you want to be better and you want to do better,
Speaker 2: then you're going to have to be able to see better.
Speaker 1: So join me on this journey of living.
Speaker 2: Our best lives and understanding and realizing how you are
Speaker 2: your greatest ass at get your vit.
Speaker 3: Indy right with me and get excited about your life.
Speaker 2: Hello, somebody, somebody, Hello home. I just have to say
Speaker 2: right now, I feel so good. Right people have been
Speaker 2: asked me to say, Dawn, how are you? I say,
Speaker 2: grateful and growing And we know that growing is uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: but this is what you have to ask yourself. You
Speaker 2: asked God to grow didn't you. Well, sometimes it will rain,
Speaker 2: and when there's rain, there's life, right, And just think
Speaker 2: of it this way. I've been saying this often. You've
Speaker 2: heard me say a hill ain't nothing to a stop.
Speaker 2: So we gonna walk it out right, We gonna put
Speaker 2: one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. When we talk about growth, when
Speaker 1: we talk about becoming more, we understand that.
Speaker 2: It is a trial going up because you're asking to
Speaker 2: be more than what you are right now. So when
Speaker 2: I ask you, or when I declare to you that
Speaker 2: it's time to get excited about your life, I have
Speaker 2: to ask you.
Speaker 1: Are you you ask God to grow? All right?
Speaker 2: It's Vitamin David Dante. I am here in live in
Speaker 2: to right. I'm in a studio. E no, we're not
Speaker 2: in the closet, and it feels so good.
Speaker 1: I feel so good, all right.
Speaker 2: But what's also extremely good right now is that I
Speaker 2: have a very special guest in the studio with me.
Speaker 2: I have the executive director for a nonprofit organization entitled
Speaker 2: Living Advantage. So Vitamin D family, put your radio way,
Speaker 2: send your energy, do whatever you got to do, and
Speaker 2: help me.
Speaker 1: Welcome. We one and only miss Pamela Clad.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 1: How you doing, Pamela, I'm.
Speaker 5: Doing grateful and wonderful, absolutely excited, excited, better live it
Speaker 5: because we live in our lives on purpose and for
Speaker 5: a purpose right solutely.
Speaker 2: They say gratitude is everything. The more grateful we are,
Speaker 2: the more things we have to be grateful for.
Speaker 1: What's you grateful for today? Today?
Speaker 4: I'm grateful to be here with don to get that energy,
Speaker 4: get that positive.
Speaker 5: Energy, get that vitamin D, get that vitamin D and
Speaker 5: take things to the next level. It's always one thing
Speaker 5: to talk it and you wake up and you express it,
Speaker 5: you pray, but it's another thing to actually do. That's
Speaker 5: what I have to be an action.
Speaker 1: Faith that works is dead.
Speaker 4: Absolutely today we're in action.
Speaker 2: And your action started way early because you pulled up
Speaker 2: on me when I was over at FM DOW. MS
Speaker 2: Katie came out and said, Dawn, I have somebody that
Speaker 2: would like to be on the FM DOW And because
Speaker 2: of the immediate transition, you still didn't let that go
Speaker 2: by the wayside. I came out to the thirtieth anniversary
Speaker 2: event for Living Advantage. We connected and you said, Dawn,
Speaker 2: I still want to do some stuff with you.
Speaker 5: That's right, absolutely, yeah. I mean I like where you were,
Speaker 5: of course, but wherever you are like to be a
Speaker 5: part of that.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: I think you have very special talent and you inspire
Speaker 5: people motivate, and that's what living advantage is all about,
Speaker 5: especially working with foster youth. Kids that don't generally have
Speaker 5: a strong foundation, have a family foundation. So living advantages
Speaker 5: are the moms and dads of foster youth, and Dundee
Speaker 5: is part of living advantage.
Speaker 4: I'm part of Dundee. So we're gonna inspire our kids
Speaker 4: to be the best they can we.
Speaker 1: Shet a mind.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Now, for anyone that may be unfamiliar, Living advantage started
Speaker 2: by your mother in nineteen ninety three, is that correct?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Tell us more well, mom was at your mom Miss
Speaker 5: Bernie missus Bernie's Clay.
Speaker 6: Okay, yes, say her name her, Miss Bernice Williams Clay.
Speaker 6: She was a special ad. She her background is speech pathology,
Speaker 6: so she was in special ad for the Los Angeles
Speaker 6: Unified School District. She did that for twenty seven years
Speaker 6: and then still being a young giving person, when she retired,
Speaker 6: she wanted to continue her efforts. She found that the
Speaker 6: majority of kids that were underserved in school, They didn't
Speaker 6: have learning disability abilities. It was mainly because of their
Speaker 6: family upbringing, their family issues. So you know, all when
Speaker 6: they say, you know, kids have learning disability generally, was
Speaker 6: not that, like eighty ninety percent had nothing to do
Speaker 6: with their learning capabilities. It was what their emotion on
Speaker 6: spiritual you know, was going on in their households. And
Speaker 6: so from there that's why she want She decided that she.
Speaker 5: Wanted to do a little more. And at the time
Speaker 5: I was a real estate investor. I said, well, let's
Speaker 5: go buy some houses and let's put the kids in
Speaker 5: and let's take care of them.
Speaker 4: And that's how we started living advantage.
Speaker 1: And it was in was it ninety six? Was it
Speaker 1: that you guys.
Speaker 4: First ninety six our first home, our first group home?
Speaker 1: Right, and then you took over the organization of ninety nine?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Yes, Mom became me all unfortunately, and you know, I said,
Speaker 5: how hard could it be? Right, how hard can it
Speaker 5: be to hire a bunch of folks? Thirty years later, Look,
Speaker 5: I'm here, like, oh my goodness, stunting.
Speaker 2: Care standing here, and I'm so grateful to have this
Speaker 2: conversation with you, because, as we know, may is Foster
Speaker 2: Care Awareness Month, Yes, as a foster care youth.
Speaker 4: Foster Care foster foster Youth Awareness.
Speaker 1: Month, Foster Youth Awareness. Yes.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad that we can put this to the
Speaker 2: forefront because I feel like a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 2: we hear about foster care but not really understanding what
Speaker 2: it is and why it's important. Yes, so tell us
Speaker 2: a little wit, tell us what about it. You know,
Speaker 2: I learned a lot. Tell us what exactly is foster
Speaker 2: care and those how they end up in.
Speaker 5: Absolutely so, one thing about foster care about you know,
Speaker 5: youth that are in the foster care system, children, babies,
Speaker 5: Each of them have their own history. It's everybody's unique.
Speaker 5: Some people are there because Some kids are there because
Speaker 5: maybe their parents passed or they you know, it could
Speaker 5: be just their parents are ill. Sometimes it has nothing
Speaker 5: to do with neglect, abuse, abandonment. Sometimes it's just a circumstance.
Speaker 5: You know. Let's say, when parents go to the army,
Speaker 5: they go to the armed forces, and you know, they
Speaker 5: end up dying or something. From there, the kids end
Speaker 5: up in foster care. And usually if they're in foster care,
Speaker 5: that means their family dynamics, their their aunts, their uncles,
Speaker 5: their cousins, their grandparents. You know, usually it's not a
Speaker 5: strong force. So that's how they end up in foster cure.
Speaker 5: Just not a strong enough family union unit. So that's
Speaker 5: where living advantage comes in. We are a support system.
Speaker 5: We started off with the group homes and then after
Speaker 5: twelve years, I decided I wanted to take on the
Speaker 5: whole foster care industry, the whole foster care system.
Speaker 4: I can do more good.
Speaker 1: You can be great.
Speaker 4: I gets it. That's why I'm here.
Speaker 5: You get it right, because we were already great. We
Speaker 5: had We were so good our homes. We had three
Speaker 5: homes all together, La County and Orange County. We were
Speaker 5: so good that we had other states on a waiting
Speaker 5: list because they wanted their kids to go to our
Speaker 5: independent independent living home. Because I started, we were the
Speaker 5: first Internet based computer base where we had our own
Speaker 5: what do you call it?
Speaker 4: It's just like Facebook.
Speaker 5: We house basis and community network on the internet right
Speaker 5: way before Facebook. To battle wasn't the smartest as as
Speaker 5: a Zuckerberd.
Speaker 2: Right, imagine what look where you are now? Exactly a
Speaker 2: my with your location is not your destination? Would you
Speaker 2: start and where you got to finish, you better catch
Speaker 2: it because it's.
Speaker 5: High absolutely and so you know, that's how we we
Speaker 5: form the foundation. So it didn't matter if the kids,
Speaker 5: because kids that are in the foster care system they
Speaker 5: usually move minimum of seven times up to twenty times
Speaker 5: while they're in the system. What yes, that's average seven
Speaker 5: And are you going to talk to out of if
Speaker 5: you have ten kids standing there, four of them will
Speaker 5: tell you they moved at least twenty times while they're
Speaker 5: in the system.
Speaker 2: I learned so much attending the thirtieth anniversary celebration, like
Speaker 2: one I didn't realize it was highlighted more about inconsistency.
Speaker 2: And when we talk about building somebody up for success,
Speaker 2: we know the key is consistency. And if you don't
Speaker 2: even have that instilled in you just because of whatever
Speaker 2: your circumstances of not knowing, then furthermore about it when
Speaker 2: it comes down to being prosperous. And that's why I
Speaker 2: love your organization. The name of it living advantage. So
Speaker 2: many of the youth are at a disadvantage simthing. They
Speaker 2: don't even have paperwork. You had a gentleman speak up
Speaker 2: talk about how he graduated and could not get a
Speaker 2: job simply because he didn't have a birth certificate.
Speaker 1: Things I feel as though, you know.
Speaker 2: An everyday person may take for granted and to say, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you're just lazy and then highlighting even further while a
Speaker 2: lot of people end up in the foster care system. Initially,
Speaker 2: in my own ignorance is simply not knowing. I thought
Speaker 2: it was a whole situation that I shouldn't say always,
Speaker 2: but my mind, based on the lens I have always
Speaker 2: looked at, was thinking that Okay, a parent probably was
Speaker 2: on drugs or they just decided not to take care
Speaker 2: of the child, but not thinking one day I could
Speaker 2: have been serving the armed forces and something happened.
Speaker 1: What if I had a car accident, it lost my mind?
Speaker 2: Disability, mental illness, mental taste, care of the child.
Speaker 5: Mental illness is a big one too. You know, you
Speaker 5: think somebody is being neglectful, but no, they have mental illness.
Speaker 5: You know, thirty years ago see mental illness learn not
Speaker 5: a big yes. So we can go on and on
Speaker 5: of the different reasons. And one of the things that
Speaker 5: especially when we first started, I found that that the
Speaker 5: social service agencies would really think the kids were, like
Speaker 5: you said, lazy or are being neglectful or you know,
Speaker 5: just being a bad kid. And a lot of times
Speaker 5: that has nothing to do with that. They're the victims.
Speaker 5: They're the ones who are the children, and they need
Speaker 5: guidance and support. So again, that's what living and maas
Speaker 5: is all about, is taking all of our community, taking
Speaker 5: all supporters, and being able to set a platform so
Speaker 5: we can take our expertise, our experiences and transition to them.
Speaker 5: Therefore they can be, like you said, prosperous and they
Speaker 5: can be you know, also just think about supporting, having
Speaker 5: the support, just knowing.
Speaker 2: That somebody I didn't That was another thing you realized
Speaker 2: that when you're in foster care. I mean the fact
Speaker 2: that you're in someone else's home. I don't like how
Speaker 2: this is going to come out of my mouth. Okay,
Speaker 2: make room for me, family, We make it room. Let
Speaker 2: me adjust it afterwards.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is there is it wrong to have a sense of
Speaker 1: feeling as though somebody doesn't want you? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: And I didn't want to just spit that out and
Speaker 2: put that over people, but how could you feel wanted
Speaker 2: when you have no place to call?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and you know that these people that are here
Speaker 5: in the household are being paid to just ensure it
Speaker 5: or to what do you say, take care of them?
Speaker 4: Right, They're can be paid to do that. So who
Speaker 4: who are feel comfortable?
Speaker 1: Who are feeling transaction?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you're a transaction.
Speaker 2: So you know another one that we didn't cover because
Speaker 2: we're talking about the LGBTQ, Yes, youth.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 5: That's it's I can tell you a story about that
Speaker 5: really quickly. So I never thought about so I'm I'm
Speaker 5: an unconditional person and I didn't learn that until like
Speaker 5: to like got into the nonprofit sector. I didn't know
Speaker 5: that I was an unconditional person. And when you think
Speaker 5: about a child that sometimes there are family disowns them
Speaker 5: because you know their LBGG status, the conditions, right. So
Speaker 5: I never looked at it like that. I never even
Speaker 5: once thought or saw a child not you know, being
Speaker 5: in the system because they weren't wanted from their family
Speaker 5: because of their sexual preference. My whole thought and that
Speaker 5: was who cares who? At the end of the day,
Speaker 5: when you look at the average amount of time people
Speaker 5: have sex, if you get lucky, you're having sex a
Speaker 5: half an hour.
Speaker 4: Guess what, that's only two percent of your whole life.
Speaker 1: That's only two.
Speaker 5: Percent so you got ninety eight percent of your whole
Speaker 5: life and people want to base it off who they're
Speaker 5: sleeping with.
Speaker 2: It reminds you, let's take a consideration that being part
Speaker 2: of the community doesn't mean all.
Speaker 1: That you do is have sex. What a life? It's
Speaker 1: just a simple pass exactly.
Speaker 5: And so kids, but sometimes you know disclose that the
Speaker 5: reason why their family doesn't want us because you know
Speaker 5: their sexual preference. And that to me, just it would
Speaker 5: break my heart because why would I not love you
Speaker 5: because of who you might be attracted to her?
Speaker 1: Not because who you ate, but because who you love
Speaker 1: and love is the way.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, how'd you go? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I learned a lot.
Speaker 4: I learned a lot.
Speaker 5: Well, I've been doing it for thirty years, but I
Speaker 5: learned a lot about me and my personality.
Speaker 1: Time.
Speaker 4: Why we're so good? Why live an advantage? Is so
Speaker 4: good at this?
Speaker 5: That's why I want to tell me why, because that's
Speaker 5: why you gotta come read my book How to Capitalize
Speaker 5: in the foster care system? Right and people say capitalize,
Speaker 5: what does that actually mean? So I'm gonna get I'm
Speaker 5: a divulge into that in a second. But when you
Speaker 5: just think of the thirty years I've been doing it.
Speaker 5: I learned a lot about myself. I started when I
Speaker 5: was thirty. I'm sixty years old. Come on, you've got
Speaker 5: a day, you know when you think about what how
Speaker 5: I've grown and how I've transitioned into being the being
Speaker 5: the great provider that we that we are, but how
Speaker 5: to take it and then have the community have our
Speaker 5: supporters also be great supporters for our kids. Right, So
Speaker 5: if it's living advantage as an organization, imagine having three thousand,
Speaker 5: having one hundred thousand people taking this movement and everybody
Speaker 5: being a mom and dad's of foster care and the
Speaker 5: kids being able to see that. Can you imagine if
Speaker 5: the kids can see three thousand people got you, I
Speaker 5: got you? You imagine how they would feel and how
Speaker 5: they would how they would take home to that and
Speaker 5: then just be the better person that they can be.
Speaker 2: And if yeah, and if you got sense, you would
Speaker 2: care because these are the people that's about to take
Speaker 2: it down as are That's right.
Speaker 1: These are the people.
Speaker 2: That's going to get these policies together, that's gonna sit
Speaker 2: out there in March.
Speaker 1: Who's gonna sit there and make a plan. Who might
Speaker 1: be the next person to might be a cure.
Speaker 5: Yes, might be your next president or just you know,
Speaker 5: I always look at it to your next doctor, your
Speaker 5: next lawyer, you know, your next service provider. Right, So
Speaker 5: we have to be able to start thinking about that
Speaker 5: and how we can grow as ourselves. A lot of
Speaker 5: people people have to be passionate about and they become
Speaker 5: donors or supporters.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: So I always think of being passionate about what you
Speaker 5: like to do. So what's your favorite, Hobey, what's your
Speaker 5: favorite pastime?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I like to speak. See, that's what I know.
Speaker 1: I know we can better on anything.
Speaker 2: Put me in any room, in front of any person,
Speaker 2: at any time and anywhere.
Speaker 1: What I will do is speaking.
Speaker 5: And so isn't that interesting? So let's say, for instance,
Speaker 5: you went and you talked in front of ten people,
Speaker 5: and we said, well, what's your passion You said speaking? Right,
Speaker 5: And then the kids take that, they understand, get to
Speaker 5: understand what that means, what that's about, and sometimes they
Speaker 5: you know what, I'm a good speaker too, and we talk.
Speaker 5: We have our let's say real estate agents, right when
Speaker 5: they say, I'm passionate about selling homes not for the money,
Speaker 5: but for the transaction and being able to give people
Speaker 5: a place home right giving them their dreams.
Speaker 4: So I would love to give a person their dream
Speaker 4: come on.
Speaker 5: And then again it just transcends, transcends to growing that
Speaker 5: passion and that motivation and a part and then again
Speaker 5: consistency being consistent with being able to give these different
Speaker 5: notations and opportunities to our kids. So that's what it's
Speaker 5: all about, just taking what we already do and then
Speaker 5: finding how we can be more passionate.
Speaker 2: And amplified and create the opportunities. And I love what
Speaker 2: you said. You know, I constantly say your location is
Speaker 2: not your destination. And oftentimes when I think about disadvantaged
Speaker 2: communities is the fact that there's a lack of resources
Speaker 2: simply not knowing or not having access.
Speaker 1: It's not in reach.
Speaker 2: And we understand, you know, doctor Seuss has one of
Speaker 2: the books, All the Places You'll Go, and it's like
Speaker 2: with our young people, let them know the places you
Speaker 2: can go, and when you go, that means you're growing,
Speaker 2: you're becoming more than what you are right now. And
Speaker 2: you know, just highlighting when we think of foster care,
Speaker 2: I'm immediately thinking of the disadvantage. And that's why I
Speaker 2: further love the organizational name living advantage.
Speaker 1: How can we live our lives to the advantage? There
Speaker 1: you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're gonna finish this conversation. We're gonna take a
Speaker 2: quick break, all right. I want to talk to you
Speaker 2: about your book you have coming out. Okay, uh, and
Speaker 2: tell us the title again.
Speaker 5: It's called how to Capitalize in the Foster care System.
Speaker 1: Capitalize. That seems like you're taking advantage of somebody living advantage.
Speaker 2: You better catch it. Miss Pamela ain't called to play
Speaker 2: with you all today. Listen, let me be right back.
Speaker 2: Let's get some money and we can continue this conversation.
Speaker 2: All right, Hold time. It's the Vitamin D for Dante
Speaker 2: podcast by This.
Speaker 4: Is Vanessa mel callaway peace.
Speaker 1: What's up everybody?
Speaker 5: This is Trade Chain and you are listening to Violent
Speaker 5: Dean with Donde.
Speaker 2: Okay, I told you I was gonna be right back.
Speaker 2: I have a special guest in the studio with me,
Speaker 2: Miss Pamela Clay. She is the executive director for the
Speaker 2: non profit organization entitled Living Advantage, Inc. Yes, and tell
Speaker 2: us why Living Advantage is so important.
Speaker 5: It's it's important because we have to think about our future.
Speaker 5: Our kids are our future, and when you have kids,
Speaker 5: that don't really have that strong foundation of a family support.
Speaker 5: They end up homeless, incarcerated, you know, unfortunately caught up
Speaker 5: in you know, illegal, you know, illegal circumstances because they're
Speaker 5: usually trying to fight for survival. They're trying to understand,
Speaker 5: you know, think about emotionally, when you don't have a
Speaker 5: mom or dad, or your mom and dad are not available,
Speaker 5: they don't support you, think about the emotional and mental
Speaker 5: capacities of where they are so living advantage. Job is
Speaker 5: to show them that people do care. You know, you
Speaker 5: might have you know, it's nobody. You can't replace a
Speaker 5: mom or a dad, but you can show them that
Speaker 5: there are people.
Speaker 1: That can be figured, that can be yes.
Speaker 2: And I can understand that My mom transitioned when I
Speaker 2: was twenty five, and as i've you know, grown up,
Speaker 2: had so many people of my friend's mothers who stepped
Speaker 2: in and just say I got yes.
Speaker 1: And it means a lot. Y'all know, I'm from datchis all.
Speaker 2: My family is in Detroit, so the time, even being
Speaker 2: in New York shortly after my mom transitioned and coming
Speaker 2: to LA, I've had so many people come forth just
Speaker 2: to be like doing I got you, even some of
Speaker 2: the FM listeners. Hey, family, I appreciate you all have
Speaker 2: just said hey, I got you right.
Speaker 4: That means everything. It means at least when you wake up.
Speaker 5: I have a part of So I have my book
Speaker 5: how to Capitalize in the foster care System, and part
Speaker 5: of the book talks about think about when you wake
Speaker 5: up every morning. As as adults, let's say us that
Speaker 5: are successful, Sometimes you wake up you'd be like, oh man.
Speaker 4: I got to face this day.
Speaker 5: You might have a circumstance, or you might have a
Speaker 5: challenge that you're working on, but you know that you
Speaker 5: have a support system. You know that at least my
Speaker 5: mom or my dad, or my brother, my sister, and
Speaker 5: my friends. You know that somebody is there to just
Speaker 5: hold you up or be there as a listener.
Speaker 4: Well, imagine not having that.
Speaker 5: Imagine waking up and literally don't even know where your
Speaker 5: next mill is coming from.
Speaker 2: You know, I had a friend, A few people like
Speaker 2: currently in my life and surrounding have been part of
Speaker 2: the foster c system. So this is conversation is right
Speaker 2: on time for me as well. And one thing that
Speaker 2: she shared with me, and I didn't think about it
Speaker 2: at first, she said that Dawn I don't save numbers
Speaker 2: in my phone. I said what, because at first I
Speaker 2: was offended. I'm texting who is this? When we started
Speaker 2: barking our friendship, I'm like, well, girl, do you know
Speaker 2: that I caused? You were like hey girl, And she
Speaker 2: said out of habit because growing up she was constantly
Speaker 2: changed in new people in your life. It's like, why
Speaker 2: I'm going to put a place for you and there's
Speaker 2: no place for you to stay.
Speaker 5: I've never heard of that one before. I never never
Speaker 5: thought of that. But isn't that sad?
Speaker 2: Even down to the factory that she was saying, and
Speaker 2: even down to the fact where she was speaking about,
Speaker 2: you know, when we think about the different traumas, and
Speaker 2: we talked about how mental health is something that we're
Speaker 2: bringing to the forefront right now. She has shared a
Speaker 2: time of, you know, the baggage that a lot of
Speaker 2: these kids are, these young people trying to process adult
Speaker 2: feelings of having the police come to the house because
Speaker 2: where is your mother and here you are trying to
Speaker 2: be let's just say, eight nine ten years old, the
Speaker 2: adult not wanting the police to come in here. And
Speaker 2: when we think about a child that maybe eight nine
Speaker 2: ten years old, you have this big man or woman
Speaker 2: because they're bigger people than you, guns in their hands,
Speaker 2: flash lights, they're bamming's noise, and then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden you get put in the back of a police car.
Speaker 1: Is anybody thinking of.
Speaker 2: What it's like to constantly be displaced, to be taken
Speaker 2: and then let alone when there's the whole notion of
Speaker 2: being a transaction. So when you say to me how
Speaker 2: to capitalize off the foster care system, what do you
Speaker 2: mean by that?
Speaker 1: Miss Alma?
Speaker 5: So when you look at capitalized capitalization, it's usually investing
Speaker 5: into a product or service or investing and then somebody
Speaker 5: gains wealth. Right, capitalization. We have a capitalist system society,
Speaker 5: So it's usually you have a product or service and
Speaker 5: you market it and you receive money for it. Capitalize
Speaker 5: So us as people, we are already of wealth. We're investment,
Speaker 5: we're successful, meaning that we just like primes them, we
Speaker 5: have an idea, we have a motivation of what we're
Speaker 5: going to do in the morning. We're happy or whatever.
Speaker 5: Our situation is, right, but our kids are less at
Speaker 5: a disadvantage, right, That's why they got them disadvantage youth.
Speaker 4: So what we do, how we capitalize is that.
Speaker 5: We're able to extend or transcend our expertise, our experiences,
Speaker 5: our passions to them. They grow, they they gain advantage,
Speaker 5: they gain wealth, right, they gain experiences, and then we
Speaker 5: capitalize as they capitalize, and as they grow and become
Speaker 5: better or more prosperous, or we grow and become better.
Speaker 1: So we do this together. Each one's teach one, each
Speaker 1: one reach one.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think there is a point where
Speaker 2: we talk about reaching there's a level of relatability. And
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking about you and I the excerpts that
Speaker 2: you have provided in the book, like one, I love
Speaker 2: how you highlighted how the reason you're here is God,
Speaker 2: and your belief in God has gotten you in the
Speaker 2: way because just as some of these youths who may
Speaker 2: have had, you know, trying time when it comes to
Speaker 2: coming up in the education system, were lacked thereof you
Speaker 2: can relate to that. And now you're at the forefront
Speaker 2: of saying how important choice is. So tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about what we can expect in the book
Speaker 2: and what was it like for you growing up.
Speaker 5: So I'm glad you brought that up because God is
Speaker 5: first place. God is the reason why I'm here. And
Speaker 5: so we know your cross, thank you, and you know
Speaker 5: that when you had that strong belief in God. I
Speaker 5: grew up with both of my my mom and my
Speaker 5: dad's side were Christians, okay, And so when you grow
Speaker 5: up in a Chrystal household, it's embedded.
Speaker 4: And then when you pray and your prayers.
Speaker 5: Come into it comes into light, and you know and
Speaker 5: you trust and believe. And I talk about that in
Speaker 5: a book where I was fortunate enough and blessed enough
Speaker 5: to have the light come to me at a young age.
Speaker 4: And so when you know for a.
Speaker 5: Fact that that being at that system, that that that
Speaker 5: God is there, then you're.
Speaker 4: Able to transcend that again to others. And so the main.
Speaker 5: Reason of the book is to let people know, or
Speaker 5: to let our kids know that there is a stronger,
Speaker 5: you know, a stronger sense that they have to start
Speaker 5: identifying with. They have to start making that connection. That's
Speaker 5: super important. Yes, it's great to connect with us, you
Speaker 5: and I, but they have.
Speaker 4: To connect with God. They need to find that that.
Speaker 5: Yes, because what happens, what happens if something happens to us, right,
Speaker 5: what happens that they if they get attached to us
Speaker 5: and we make a connection and it's something happens to
Speaker 5: us again.
Speaker 4: By the grace of God.
Speaker 5: So who is the main main, you know, main reason
Speaker 5: or the main thing that they need to be connected
Speaker 5: to as to God. Once they have that connection, then
Speaker 5: they'll know that everything else is just a blessing and
Speaker 5: just sometimes like you said, it's just a matter of
Speaker 5: it's a reason for it, you know what I say.
Speaker 5: Everybody's not it was for the season as a reason.
Speaker 1: There's a reason for every season exactly something.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So they have to start understanding that.
Speaker 5: And so to me, if they have that connection with God,
Speaker 5: first connect with the people that love them, that support them,
Speaker 5: and then it'd be easier for them to make the
Speaker 5: other connections in their life to be able to grow
Speaker 5: and prosper and be have a better quality of life
Speaker 5: and be happy. The main thing that I think all
Speaker 5: of us want, it doesn't matter how much money you have,
Speaker 5: is to have that peace of mind.
Speaker 4: And to have joy and to have peace of joy. Yes,
Speaker 4: those are the main things you have to have.
Speaker 2: I love how you said joy and not happy, because
Speaker 2: happy it's forever fleeting with joy.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it resides, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And we have to talk about when we're coming from
Speaker 2: that good place of where that joy is to reside. Now,
Speaker 2: one of the things that you had talked about or
Speaker 2: from the experts that you showed me is your whole
Speaker 2: passion for saving others. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: Why you want to save everybody? Have you saved yourself?
Speaker 4: So, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 5: I'm the type of person that I'm pretty much the
Speaker 5: same kill even kill. All the time you got us,
Speaker 5: I had one hour sleep, ten hours sleep. I'm usually
Speaker 5: the same. I have this certain piece right when your
Speaker 5: birthday three to three trade trace six track okay, yes,
Speaker 5: three March the third, and so yeah, it's like, I know,
Speaker 5: you know, over the thirty years, how many people if
Speaker 5: I saved. I haven't counted them. I haven't put the sticks.
Speaker 5: You know, I can't tell you a hundred, I can't
Speaker 5: tell you a thousand.
Speaker 4: But overall, I know.
Speaker 5: For a fact that we can save a lot of
Speaker 5: souls and a lot of a lot.
Speaker 1: Of dream dream a lot of lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, save opportunities and create possibilities.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And you know it's interesting because when we talk about possibility,
Speaker 2: I think of choice. You have choices of these possibilities.
Speaker 2: But listening to your story. And you grew up in
Speaker 2: a two parent household, Yes, I did.
Speaker 4: That was another thing.
Speaker 5: I grew up with a mom and dad, brothers, sister,
Speaker 5: kat dog. You know, I grew up with the whole
Speaker 5: gathering aunts, uncles, cousins. So I didn't even know. We
Speaker 5: opened our first home group home for foster youth, I
Speaker 5: didn't even know what that really meant. I literally did
Speaker 5: not understand it. Yeah, I didn't know. I had no
Speaker 5: idea what a foster kid was. I didn't know when
Speaker 5: our first one of the first kids that came into
Speaker 5: the home, I literally asked them.
Speaker 1: Well, where's your mom dad?
Speaker 5: And then I thought, well I know that much, Well
Speaker 5: where's your social work away?
Speaker 4: I didn't even I didn't even ask.
Speaker 5: I didn't even know how to ask the proper questions
Speaker 5: because I literally had no idea that, you know, people
Speaker 5: didn't have home. That's how you said we talk about ignorance.
Speaker 5: That's how ignorant I was when I first opened the
Speaker 5: home thirty years ago. Had no idea. So I, like
Speaker 5: I said, I've learned a lot because again that was
Speaker 5: my mom's you know, she was the founder, this was
Speaker 5: her passion. I was just supposed to be the you know,
Speaker 5: the silent investor, right and my unfortunately mom got ill
Speaker 5: and I said, oh, well, how hard could it be,
Speaker 5: you know, to run a home with kids, because I'm
Speaker 5: really good with kids. And of course we're here today,
Speaker 5: thirty years later, with getting hundreds of thousands of people
Speaker 5: to support our kids. Take it to the next level,
Speaker 5: have a movement, you know, just like how it is
Speaker 5: with Red Cross. Everybody knows what Red Cross does, right,
Speaker 5: Everybody knows the importance of when you have a disaster
Speaker 5: and people have to be helped and saved, right, well,
Speaker 5: living advantage is going to be the mom and dads.
Speaker 5: We are the mom and dads and foster youth, and
Speaker 5: your support will allow us to say, hundreds of thousands
Speaker 5: of kids across our country.
Speaker 4: Imagine the kids. Do you know. I've had other countries approach.
Speaker 1: Me, other countries, people countries.
Speaker 5: So we have a software application that maintains vital records,
Speaker 5: birth certificates, social Security cards, right, medical medical papers. There
Speaker 5: are certain countries that don't have a social security system.
Speaker 5: They don't have a tracking system. That's why sex trafficking
Speaker 5: is such a big deal because they can't track people.
Speaker 4: That like prime example, a mother can have a kid
Speaker 4: and they.
Speaker 5: Could take the kid and it's not traceable. It's no,
Speaker 5: you can't prove you had that kid because you don't
Speaker 5: have any social security Social Security number is a really
Speaker 5: big deal.
Speaker 4: A lot of times we don't. Again, we take it.
Speaker 2: I granted, we thought about it exact because how would
Speaker 2: somebody know I can't snatch and say give me your
Speaker 2: blood sample.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: So anyway, a lot of things we take for granted
Speaker 5: here in our society that we don't think about because
Speaker 5: it's natural, it's part of our system. However, but think
Speaker 5: about when a child is born, he's taken away from
Speaker 5: his parents, then how do you know who he is?
Speaker 4: So I've had kids.
Speaker 5: That didn't even know their own birth birth date because
Speaker 5: they didn't have their birth certificate. So they really didn't
Speaker 5: know when they were born because they didn't have any
Speaker 5: proof of it.
Speaker 2: And imagine living a life of not even having your
Speaker 2: own ideas exactly what does that look like?
Speaker 1: Exactly what kind of future does that build?
Speaker 4: So they're a foundation foundation.
Speaker 5: So when I started, when I took over the nonprofit,
Speaker 5: when I took over Caring for Aposter, you, my background
Speaker 5: again is solving problem I'm really good at solving problems.
Speaker 5: So you give me a problem I was solving in
Speaker 5: two minutes and keep it pushing. Right, So when I'm
Speaker 5: not my backgrounds is not a social worker. My background's
Speaker 5: not you know kumbaya. You know education. I was so
Speaker 5: bad in the school. Even in college, they would call
Speaker 5: my parents.
Speaker 2: I was just right because I'm gonna take several community colleges.
Speaker 2: Oh you wanted to go to LMU Yoyola Marramount University Beach,
Speaker 2: but they rejected.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they rejected me. Well because my grades were too
Speaker 5: low in high school and my behavior was a trust you.
Speaker 1: Oh you was a wild thing.
Speaker 4: That was a wild thing. Okay, Yeah, I was one
Speaker 4: of those bad kids in school.
Speaker 1: Why were you bad?
Speaker 5: Because I did what I wanted to do. I had
Speaker 5: a mom and a dad that supported me. They're super
Speaker 5: educated and the smart. Again, when you read my book,
Speaker 5: it tells you about my family background and my dynamics.
Speaker 5: So just I'm gonna give you a little So my
Speaker 5: father was the first American documentary to ever walk across
Speaker 5: the United States.
Speaker 4: Wait what yes, so again you.
Speaker 5: Got to read my book to know a little bit
Speaker 5: more about that. But actually you got to read the
Speaker 5: next book to know more about my dad. But my
Speaker 5: dad has a book called The Big Walk. It's about
Speaker 5: African American man that walked across the United States. He
Speaker 5: was doing a survey to see whether or not if
Speaker 5: integration was working. And as of today twenty twenty three,
Speaker 5: is integration working?
Speaker 1: Mmm?
Speaker 4: But what's the light bulb?
Speaker 1: Can red?
Speaker 4: Can Red have put the light.
Speaker 2: Backw can you put the light over the light book?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Wow, but that's a whole nother sea. That's a whole
Speaker 4: other book.
Speaker 1: So how did you overcome you? So? I know you
Speaker 1: said you have aspirations of being a millionaire.
Speaker 5: Yes, absolutely, Well you know I've done that a few
Speaker 5: times over. However, Wow, I invest my money back into
Speaker 5: my kids. I invested back into the So it.
Speaker 1: Ain't like you taking this in your own pocket.
Speaker 5: You are truly for living living advantages again, the legacy
Speaker 5: and what all of us in the community are going
Speaker 5: to bring to our kids. Now foster youth, of course,
Speaker 5: tell me about as six hundred you know, a little
Speaker 5: bit less than a million kids in America right, Well,
Speaker 5: look at out the disadvantage. There's so many disadvantaged youth
Speaker 5: that are in our society that need us probably just
Speaker 5: as much as our foster youth. Imagine us taking our
Speaker 5: kids and transforming them into whatever they want to be,
Speaker 5: but a good, better version that again can can just
Speaker 5: transpire into them growing.
Speaker 4: And what happens with.
Speaker 2: Us, We grow because we're lifting while we climb right,
Speaker 2: each one teach one and each one reach one. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: it's so interesting while we say that our children are
Speaker 2: our future, how we need to relate to these kids
Speaker 2: because for so long, from as early as they know,
Speaker 2: they didn't know that the future was possible because they're
Speaker 2: living day by day, sometimes not even having a suitcase.
Speaker 2: They just got a bag in which they're keeping their
Speaker 2: clothes in from one spot.
Speaker 1: To the next.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it's so important that we highlight to show
Speaker 2: gratitude and definitely give a grace. And we know what
Speaker 2: grace is a space to exist with the possibility of resources.
Speaker 5: When you say teach one, you know, we we said
Speaker 5: reach one, teach one, So you know, are we teaching
Speaker 5: on youth when they say youth are our future? So
Speaker 5: are we really taking the time out to do that?
Speaker 5: When you think of you know, your listeners here today,
Speaker 5: do you really take time to teach or give inspiration
Speaker 5: to our young people. You know, what type of what
Speaker 5: are you called tool? What type of way are we
Speaker 5: doing that Living advantage gives you that space. We've been
Speaker 5: doing virtual services way before the pandemic, way before. We
Speaker 5: were doing it back in twenty ten, doing virtual services
Speaker 5: because I like to go where the kids are.
Speaker 4: The kids don't have to come to me to get services.
Speaker 4: We make it where we go to them wherever they are.
Speaker 4: Because sometimes you have kids that are homeless, how are
Speaker 4: they going to be?
Speaker 5: Sometimes you have kids that are homeless, they don't have
Speaker 5: an ID, So we still say that.
Speaker 2: These kids are experience, ain't seen homelessness. They're by themselves
Speaker 2: on the streets. What do you mean, how would they
Speaker 2: even access living advantage or to know about it? Do
Speaker 2: you guys ride around and see how does that work?
Speaker 5: So what happens is that when we had our group homes,
Speaker 5: we were able to of course, kids come to us consistently,
Speaker 5: but we realized there's over half a million kids over
Speaker 5: it's oh, I think about six hundred thousand kids in America.
Speaker 5: So the reason why we transition to more of a
Speaker 5: public service where we are able to have contracts with
Speaker 5: the Apartment of Children, Family Services, our size unified school District,
Speaker 5: the County of Los Angeles Probation Department.
Speaker 7: We were cal fresh. You helped me at their own EBT.
Speaker 7: Call your partner with Ralphs. Yes, yes, you just had
Speaker 7: something with Amazon. Yes, yes, yes, Living advantages outside.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So how do you get We go to them
Speaker 5: many that you know partners, So we have different spaces
Speaker 5: where they're able to reach us. Again, they can reaches
Speaker 5: on all of the different social medias. They can give
Speaker 5: us a call, they can text us. So we're in
Speaker 5: the schools, so we reach them one way or the other.
Speaker 5: You know, it would be great to go around to
Speaker 5: reach out to them. But right now, that's why I
Speaker 5: support is so important. That's why our donors are so important,
Speaker 5: our corporate sponsors. I mean, they need to be able
Speaker 5: to invest into living advantage. So we're infesting in our
Speaker 5: kids and it's not always monetary. Again, showing up at
Speaker 5: our events, you know, being there talking to our kids.
Speaker 5: I'm doing ours. We do zooms with our kids on
Speaker 5: different workshops. We have workshops from art to three D modeling,
Speaker 5: all different types.
Speaker 1: Of Well, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2: When we come back, let's share with the family on
Speaker 2: how they can support Living Advantage.
Speaker 1: Let's tell them about the thirty thirty Club. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: let's tell about.
Speaker 2: The upcoming of it in August. Okay, and in all
Speaker 2: all the other awesome stuff you got going on. Absolutely
Speaker 2: tell me you're ready to pull up. They say, if
Speaker 2: you want to show up, you got to show out.
Speaker 2: They say, if you want to make change, it got
Speaker 2: to make sense. You're ready to open your pockets for this?
Speaker 2: You stay ready, You ain't got.
Speaker 4: To get ready. That's right.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: We're having a real conversation with a real person doing
Speaker 2: some real things in the community right now. And so
Speaker 2: when we come back, we are going to further this
Speaker 2: conversation with our very own executive director of Living Advantage, Inc.
Speaker 2: Miss Pamela Clay, during Foster Care Awareness Month's all right,
Speaker 2: holds on b R B.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Jaden Michael. Everybody your boy and around now.
Speaker 1: You're boomed in with Don Day.
Speaker 2: Get your dose of Vitamin D with Don Day, and
Speaker 2: get excited about your life. What I said, Hello, somebody, somebody, Hello,
Speaker 2: guess you're back.
Speaker 1: Hello. That's miss Pamela Clay.
Speaker 2: She is the executive director for the nonprofit organization Living
Speaker 2: Advantage where she's allowing foster care youth to live their
Speaker 2: lives to their advantage. How about that, And she's doing
Speaker 2: it by shedding and spreading her life.
Speaker 4: Yes, I like that.
Speaker 5: I'm at them, so this is being recorded, right, I'm
Speaker 5: gonna have to go back and pick up somebod these
Speaker 5: sayings so I can be as articulate and eloquent as
Speaker 5: Don Dae.
Speaker 1: Because you got to catch it.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, that's one reason I'm here, because I
Speaker 5: got to pick up all of these sands that Don does.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much merchandise coming out so on
Speaker 2: stand by Sailbirn so word. Before the break, we were
Speaker 2: talking about how supporters needed okay, because there is nothing
Speaker 2: more fulfilling to know that somebody says I got you.
Speaker 2: And when we talk about these young people, especially those
Speaker 2: who are experiencing homelessness, who are in the foster care system,
Speaker 2: they need somebody to raise their hand and say I
Speaker 2: got you. One thing you said and I want to
Speaker 2: highlight more as you talked about how Living Advantage is
Speaker 2: the mom and dad of the foster care system. Yes,
Speaker 2: you have a membership and call thirty three thirty Now
Speaker 2: you told us your birthday was Mars tharn.
Speaker 1: I'm a summing. It has something to do with which birthday.
Speaker 2: So tell us about support what that looks like in
Speaker 2: the thirty three thirty Club club.
Speaker 5: So thirty three thirty was it's based off my birthday.
Speaker 5: I do it like I'm all threes. I was even born.
Speaker 5: I think it was sixty. I was born at six o'clock,
Speaker 5: six thirty nine, So everything is thre's for me. So
Speaker 5: I just and you know threes.
Speaker 2: My mother's birthday is the visibly three. She was born
Speaker 2: in June sixth in nineteen fifty one. See fireplus one
Speaker 2: is six June sixth and six.
Speaker 1: Okay, there you go, so you get it.
Speaker 4: You know the threes.
Speaker 5: You know I said, father's son, Holy go low somebody
Speaker 5: and even know the threes. So a three person. But
Speaker 5: what the thirty three thirty Club does is it allows
Speaker 5: us to have a platform where we are supporting. So
Speaker 5: the minimum amount that you can donate is three dollars
Speaker 5: and thirty cents. Everybody can do that. We should go
Speaker 5: out and get a million people to donate just three
Speaker 5: dollars and thirty cents. But what it does it allows
Speaker 5: us to be in front of our kids and to
Speaker 5: be able to show our support transcend our expertise or experience,
Speaker 5: and it says it allows us to be there for
Speaker 5: the kids because it's not always about money. Again, money
Speaker 5: is one source that allows us to go out and
Speaker 5: have more staff to.
Speaker 2: You can always get more money, yeah, they can make
Speaker 2: more exact, but what we doing with the time exactly?
Speaker 2: They said, that's one of our most valuable assets because
Speaker 2: one suspend, it's going forever.
Speaker 4: Right, what are you doing with your time exactly?
Speaker 5: So your time is what we need by you being
Speaker 5: a supporter. What we found right when you go to
Speaker 5: look at statistics and you know when people donate, they
Speaker 5: have a tendency of being more obligated committed. So if
Speaker 5: you're committed, you'd be willing to come to a virtual workshop,
Speaker 5: come out to the schools to talk to the kids.
Speaker 5: You know, send me a video of a three minute
Speaker 5: video just saying hey, I got you, we love you,
Speaker 5: I'm here to support you. You know, whether you're supporting
Speaker 5: by three thousand dollars a month or three and thirty cent,
Speaker 5: you're committed to making sure these kids are having a
Speaker 5: better quality of life.
Speaker 4: That's what it's all, So.
Speaker 1: What can this three dollars and thirty cent really do?
Speaker 5: What it does is it tells you, hey, I'm a
Speaker 5: part of a three thirty three thirty club.
Speaker 4: I'm donating to support these fosters. You need to do it.
Speaker 5: That's enough money if you got if you got three
Speaker 5: thousand people don'tname.
Speaker 4: We can have three hundred kids a year.
Speaker 1: So how much does it cost for each child?
Speaker 5: It's on an average about seventeen hundred dollars a year,
Speaker 5: depending on specific services that we're doing.
Speaker 1: PI.
Speaker 2: We spend that much money on a maationship for a
Speaker 2: screaming side exactly, insurance on a call. That's why we
Speaker 2: say it might even for some clothes to get your
Speaker 2: hair and your nails. Did mean while we talking about
Speaker 2: a life exactly livingadvantage?
Speaker 4: Inc?
Speaker 1: Is it dot org dot com, dot org dot org?
Speaker 1: Pull up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, secure out how you can be a member of
Speaker 2: the thirty three thirty club. Yes, Now, what are some
Speaker 2: of the advantages of those who actually uh become a member?
Speaker 5: It was this week is really great. We had a
Speaker 5: I call it the VIP career match. Right, it's not
Speaker 5: a job fair, it's a VIP career match. What we
Speaker 5: did was again, these type of services are tailored specifically
Speaker 5: by living advantage. We don't do job. You don't come
Speaker 5: out and half a bunch of people out there passing
Speaker 5: out applications. What we did is it's a two day
Speaker 5: a week for at least four weeks. On Wednesdays, they
Speaker 5: do aptitude tests so they can figure out what their
Speaker 5: strengths are, what they believe in, what they like. Then
Speaker 5: they do a resume build because most kids in high
Speaker 5: school don't have a lot of background, so their resume
Speaker 5: is based off their aptitude or what they like and
Speaker 5: what they don't like. Let's say if they were dog
Speaker 5: walkers as a kid, or babysitters, or they like to
Speaker 5: play games a gamer. We figure out what it is
Speaker 5: that they're good at or what they like. And then
Speaker 5: once we have that built, then we go to our supporters,
Speaker 5: which everybody that is at the VIP Career are supporters.
Speaker 5: So we have Karen Bass yet she's there, her team
Speaker 5: is there, and all of our supporters are our career
Speaker 5: match and so now they donate and they're also given
Speaker 5: their time.
Speaker 4: They're at one of the schools.
Speaker 5: We have over a thousand kids that are going to participate,
Speaker 5: but we have our VIP kids that are intending both sessions.
Speaker 5: Wednesday is the Aptitude aptitude resume building Thursdays when they
Speaker 5: actually go and match. Now, a lot of our employers,
Speaker 5: a lot of our supporters are not even there physically.
Speaker 5: They're there virtually and they've already signed up. So they
Speaker 5: tell you what positions they have available. They do like
Speaker 5: a one two minute little video explaining what it's about,
Speaker 5: and the kids get to match. So it's vi PR
Speaker 5: supporters with their VIP kids who want to be a
Speaker 5: part of it.
Speaker 2: And this is a great way to even start a
Speaker 2: new community. People would like minded individuals. So that could
Speaker 2: we can evoke. But shyes, change in the great publicities,
Speaker 2: just to say you're out here.
Speaker 5: Yes, all of all of our supporters they have the
Speaker 5: press release we have. Yeah, so Katie, Katie isn't want
Speaker 5: to us.
Speaker 1: That's my girl.
Speaker 4: Yes, So Katie. What she does is she puts all
Speaker 4: of the different like we might.
Speaker 5: These are more corporate when you look at the sponsors
Speaker 5: on the back of the shirt, those of course our
Speaker 5: corporate supporters. Usc USC is one of our number one supporters,
Speaker 5: one of our number one sponsors.
Speaker 1: I mean from that is awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well what my main guy, my main senior case manager,
Speaker 5: he's a SC graduate.
Speaker 4: A lot of our staff are SC students and graduates.
Speaker 5: And so when you look at our corporate supporters, but
Speaker 5: then how about all of our smaller organizations that support us,
Speaker 5: even individual people. Well, what we do We put them
Speaker 5: on a press release, It goes out, it gets published,
Speaker 5: and then we call all of the news stations saying
Speaker 5: you better, like you said, you better pull up, pull up,
Speaker 5: you better pull up and see how we're making change.
Speaker 5: And so now we're advertising for our organizations, our supporters,
Speaker 5: so we're advertising for them, and then we get to
Speaker 5: showcase our kids.
Speaker 2: So again everybody wins because each one, each one, each
Speaker 2: one teach one.
Speaker 4: Capitalizing and the foster care system.
Speaker 2: And it's a good thing because when we talk about capitalization,
Speaker 2: talking about taking it to advantage exactly when this time
Speaker 2: we're talking about the lives of our young people. Yes,
Speaker 2: so they can start living at their advantage, living advantage.
Speaker 2: Come on, yes, you think I'm playing, well, I'm just
Speaker 2: telling you the truth. This is what we're doing, one
Speaker 2: person at a time, one life at a time. Now,
Speaker 2: you mentioned some of these organizations and I just want
Speaker 2: to make sure that we highlight them. You got La
Speaker 2: rams on here, Yes, yes, what was it like partnering
Speaker 2: with Ralph? So somebody can check out and donate?
Speaker 4: Yes, So when you go on our website you can
Speaker 4: click onto the routes.
Speaker 5: All you do is sign up and click Living Advantage
Speaker 5: as the nonprofit organization that you want to support in
Speaker 5: and every time you go shopping, we get a small
Speaker 5: percentage of that. So you don't have to do anything special,
Speaker 5: anything unique. You do not have to put any money.
Speaker 5: You're already shopping at routes anyway. So you go to
Speaker 5: the website, click on you click Living Advantage and automatically
Speaker 5: Rouse gives us a couple of you know whatever, the small.
Speaker 4: Percentages, but it matters.
Speaker 5: But it matters absolutely because again, when we get three
Speaker 5: thousand of you guys all signed up, look at it'll
Speaker 5: do for our kid.
Speaker 2: I remember we talking seventeen hundred dollars that can save
Speaker 2: somebody's Yes, we're talking about change the trajectory. Were we
Speaker 2: talking about a life that may actually can cure cancer? Yes,
Speaker 2: any type of disease. Invent the next car, save the
Speaker 2: you know, do something different with the technologies. Yeah, three
Speaker 2: dollars and thirty cents. That's it is that something that
Speaker 2: you can commit to absolutely and.
Speaker 5: Look what your commitment does though, Look at what your
Speaker 5: commit how it impacts some of some of the some
Speaker 5: of the most what do you want to call what
Speaker 5: I do? I want to say, I don't like my
Speaker 5: kids are always so special to make.
Speaker 2: So well, here's something that I think is important. We
Speaker 2: talk about giving a possibility so kids can live their advantage.
Speaker 2: Another thing is to highlight of the countless of celebrities
Speaker 2: that I've came through the Falster care system. I just
Speaker 2: learned yesterday after doing my research. Eddie Murphy was in
Speaker 2: the Falster care system for a year. Did you know
Speaker 2: Olympic gold medalists some Mo Biles was in the Foster
Speaker 2: care system since she was three years old. I also,
Speaker 2: when I attended your thirty year anniversary celebration, I saw
Speaker 2: the video from Tiffany Adams. These are people who are
Speaker 2: at a point where they didn't have consistency, but somebody was.
Speaker 1: In the background.
Speaker 2: That's somebody that could be you to say, ah, got
Speaker 2: you right, and now they looked at their dreams and
Speaker 2: said I'm possible. Somebody that may have said Oh it's impossible.
Speaker 2: I'm possible because my location is not my destination. If
Speaker 2: I fall down seven times, get up a and most importantly,
Speaker 2: when these kids are looking up at a disadvantage, if
Speaker 2: you can look up, you can get up.
Speaker 1: So family, are you ready to get up? Get up?
Speaker 2: For our young people. It's time for everybody to live
Speaker 2: at their advantage, and they can do that with living
Speaker 2: advantage in Now. If somebody wants to check out the
Speaker 2: website to follow you guys on social media, miss Pamela,
Speaker 2: where can they check you out at?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 5: Well, definitely go to you know www dot Living advantage
Speaker 5: i nc dot org. Once you go on, of course
Speaker 5: the social media, uh information is there.
Speaker 4: I think I had it on there. This is Katie's part.
Speaker 2: So you know I'm looking at instagrams Living Advantage there
Speaker 2: you go, and on Facebook it's living advantage inink.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 1: So all you got to do is that there advantage.
Speaker 1: How you want to live to my advantage? Put it
Speaker 1: in a Google search. You'll find it.
Speaker 2: What they say asking you shall see see if you
Speaker 2: shall find knock and the living advantage door will be
Speaker 2: open to you.
Speaker 1: Better care well lit, Parrol, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Absolutely my pleasure. For sure, this was an absolute honor.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate the work you're doing.
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you, I appreciate that.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you having me on and I look forward
Speaker 5: to more more of your your wisdom and more of
Speaker 5: the ways that we can expound on it and make
Speaker 5: sure that these people are understanding that all they need
Speaker 5: is three thirty cents, three minutes.
Speaker 1: Of their time. Minutes, so you remember it's all Now.
Speaker 4: You'll be teaching the kids, if the kids are a future.
Speaker 4: Now you have direct access to the future. And imagine, hey, you.
Speaker 1: Go to a tarror call reader, like go to somebody
Speaker 1: to tell you. But right now you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to create, to ship. You got the advantage to play
Speaker 1: a role in our future. So what you're gonna do,
Speaker 1: that's right, what you're gonna do?
Speaker 4: You do?
Speaker 1: You better catch it because it's high.
Speaker 5: Yes, it is.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you. I appreciate you again.
Speaker 2: For more information, if you'd like to check out Living
Speaker 2: Advantage and how you can support a youth in the
Speaker 2: foster care system, be sure to visit Livingadvantage ink dot
Speaker 2: or Yes m Miss Pamela is shedding their life and
Speaker 2: you know, we just amplifying yes, because there you go,
Speaker 2: you know, just because I usually have our guests right
Speaker 2: before they leave to leave a dose of Vitamin D.
Speaker 1: That can be a song, that can be a quote.
Speaker 2: Maybe anything that keeps you inspired. Is there anything that
Speaker 2: you can leave us with that inspires you to keep
Speaker 2: on keeping on a method, a word, anything?
Speaker 4: Well, you know what I always think about. I always
Speaker 4: think it's kind of cool, you know, to be the
Speaker 4: mom and dad to foster you nationally.
Speaker 5: Imagine being the mom and dad you literally would be
Speaker 5: tag trademark. You would be a mom and dad would
Speaker 5: foster you. And all you have to do is minimum
Speaker 5: three minutes of three dollars.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's up?
Speaker 4: I mean, imagine what that would what that would do
Speaker 4: for our kids.
Speaker 2: That's what I leave, all right, three dollars and thirty cents.
Speaker 2: Come on, make it makes sense so we can make
Speaker 2: this change. All right, family, I'm getting out of here.
Speaker 2: I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying this podcast,
Speaker 2: tell somebody to tell somebody else that doing Good Day
Speaker 2: got a podcast and it's entitled Vitamin D with da'nt Day,
Speaker 2: and it's available wherever you get your favorite podcasts. In fact,
Speaker 2: if you would like to be a guest, or perhaps
Speaker 2: you need some advice on your relationships, your career, what
Speaker 2: have you? Shoot an email Vitamin D at dawn daispeaks
Speaker 2: dot com. I want to be clear with you. You know,
Speaker 2: Vitamin D is all about shedding light on the good
Speaker 2: and the bad. Because if you want to be better
Speaker 2: and you want to do better, guess what, Miss Pamela,
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to be able to see better.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna keep it real with you because that's
Speaker 1: all I know how to be.
Speaker 2: And if you would like to catch up on some
Speaker 2: pass interviews and stuff, make sure you follow us on
Speaker 2: all social media. Vitamin D do one day and it
Speaker 2: make sure you're right in comments so somebody can see
Speaker 2: it and say, oh, I like that. I want to
Speaker 2: be about that.
Speaker 1: We got a movement going on. I also want to
Speaker 1: remind you that we take Vitamin D Live.
Speaker 2: We're live on our social media as of right now
Speaker 2: Tuesdays and Thursdays. Pull up on me at five thirty
Speaker 2: and soon we're gonna have the guests coming live. We're
Speaker 2: gonna change the time, we might do some locations. I'm
Speaker 2: just saying if you're stay ready. You ain't got to
Speaker 2: get ready.
Speaker 1: And of course, if you want the original source of
Speaker 1: vitamin D, that be me. Baby. You gotta follow me
Speaker 1: on all social media at Dawn d A. I speaks
Speaker 1: all right, Dan Dan Dan house kids here. I gotta
Speaker 1: get out the studio, all right.
Speaker 2: You know I always said, yes, I'm in the business
Speaker 2: of making dreams come true, and I damn so, I
Speaker 2: ain't gonna forget about mine. So until next time, family,
Speaker 2: always remember you are your greatest ass at get your
Speaker 2: right in
Speaker 3: Indy, right here with me, and get excited about your life.