Speaker 1: Are your ears bored? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Are you looking for a new podcast that will make
Speaker 2: you laugh, learn, and say get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Then tune in to Look At Though Our Radio
Speaker 1: Season ten Today, Okay.
Speaker 2: Look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novella, which is
Speaker 2: just an extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1: Season ten of Look At Thought Our Radio is totally nostalgic.
Speaker 1: We're diving in with a four part series about the
Speaker 1: Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2: But that's not all.
Speaker 1: Season ten is also launching in the wake of LA
Speaker 1: wildfires and a new Trump presidency. As always, we're leaning
Speaker 1: into community by conducting critical interviews with people leading the
Speaker 1: efforts to rebuild LA and fight back against oppression.
Speaker 2: Tune in to Look at Our Radio Season ten. Now
Speaker 2: that's what I call a podcast.
Speaker 1: Love with every listen right at your fingertips.
Speaker 3: Loga l.
Speaker 2: Ola, La Loka Morees. Welcome to season ten of Loka
Speaker 2: to a Radio. I'm Theosa and I'm Mala. Loka to
Speaker 2: a Radio is a podcast archiving are present and shifting
Speaker 2: the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitolo doos Row
Speaker 2: twenty four.
Speaker 1: Last time on Loca to a Radio. We spoke to
Speaker 1: Maria Garcia about Selena's impact on the early two thousands.
Speaker 3: I do genuinely believe that Selena was sort of like
Speaker 3: the the beta, like the first sort of like proto
Speaker 3: artists that birthed what would be later, what would evolve
Speaker 3: into like what we now know as modern Latinida.
Speaker 1: In today's episode of Loca to a Radio, we're going
Speaker 1: to be talking about the communities of Altadina and Pasadena
Speaker 1: who are rebuilding in the wake of really devastating wildfires
Speaker 1: that just took over La at the top of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. And the reason why this is important for
Speaker 1: us to talk about as Angelino's but b also because
Speaker 1: THEOSSA and I grew up in the area. I went
Speaker 1: to high school in Pasadena. We lived in East Pasadena
Speaker 1: at the beginning of my life, and Pasadena Altadena. We
Speaker 1: always had my siblings and I friends, classmates, family, community
Speaker 1: members who lived up in the hills and whose houses
Speaker 1: we would visit. Dances were held at people's homes in
Speaker 1: high school, so we were just like in the community.
Speaker 1: And I haven't lived in Pasadena and in the San
Speaker 1: Gabriel Valley for a very long time now, not since
Speaker 1: like twenty fourteen, but I still love the community and
Speaker 1: I still consider it to be my community.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. It feels like everyone that I've
Speaker 2: talked to that has had either roots in Alsadina or
Speaker 2: Pasadena like always considers that home. And for us, in
Speaker 2: particular with my family, there is such a deep and
Speaker 2: personal connection to Altadena because when my grandparents immigrated, they
Speaker 2: immigrated to Texas and then ended up in Altadena, rented,
Speaker 2: eventually bought a house on Harriet Street in Altadena, and
Speaker 2: that was the family home until two thousand and three.
Speaker 2: And it was because it was the family home, Grandma's house,
Speaker 2: my Grandpa's house, It was where everybody lived at some point.
Speaker 2: It was literally the safe haven. Anytime Mathias were going
Speaker 2: through a divorce, they would go to Grandma's house and
Speaker 2: Grandma Grandpa would you know, kind of mend, mend the family,
Speaker 2: mend the heartbreak, take care of the kids. And so
Speaker 2: that was definitely like such a special place for all
Speaker 2: of us. It was where I grew up going and
Speaker 2: until we moved to Southeast Dele like Altadena, Pasadena was
Speaker 2: home for us, and my brothers went to high school
Speaker 2: in Pasadena, my mom went to Blair High School, and
Speaker 2: we are just felt feel still so rooted in the community,
Speaker 2: even though we haven't lived there for over twenty years
Speaker 2: at this point. And so when we heard that the
Speaker 2: wildfires broke out, everyone in the family was like, what
Speaker 2: about Grandma's house? Even though it's not Grandma's house anymore,
Speaker 2: but it was still like, is her house still at
Speaker 2: even though it hasn't been ours for so long? And so,
Speaker 2: like you, I felt like that is still home even
Speaker 2: though it hasn't been our home for so long. And
Speaker 2: I think that a lot of people feel that way
Speaker 2: because if you're not familiar with Altadena, it is a
Speaker 2: black and brown neighborhood and it was a safe haven
Speaker 2: for so many people, and I think that's why there's
Speaker 2: a lot of grief. In addition to the physical homes
Speaker 2: being lost, it's like the community that was lost as well.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And there's been I think more writing done
Speaker 1: on this, but that Alta dina being a place where
Speaker 1: working class black and brown families could buy homes and
Speaker 1: like back in the day, like in the seventies, you know,
Speaker 1: and we're able to like own property, own land.
Speaker 2: That's what my grandparents brought bought their house in the seventies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a suburban environment. And something about la that
Speaker 1: I think sometimes gets lost when we talk about la
Speaker 1: is folks tend to like really hyper focus on like
Speaker 1: East Los Angeles South Central as being the locations where
Speaker 1: people of color live and exist, and we don't always
Speaker 1: talk about the suburbs as being very sea heavy places
Speaker 1: and places where people of color for many, many years
Speaker 1: and for multiple generations have deep roots and entire like
Speaker 1: like you've said, entire communities. And I think of the
Speaker 1: San Gable Valley as being one of those places. Right,
Speaker 1: Like our suburbs in La County are not necessarily all
Speaker 1: white suburbs, right, That's just not the reality of the
Speaker 1: County of Los Angeles, and Altadena has no exceptions. And
Speaker 1: you actually went out into the field and you went
Speaker 1: to the community to work being done out there in Pasadena, Altadena,
Speaker 1: and you conducted an interview. Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So recently I was able to connect with this project,
Speaker 2: this mutual aid effort called Dina Heels in the city
Speaker 2: of Pasadena on the historic Colorado Boulevard is the Paseo
Speaker 2: in Outdoor Mall. If you're local, you probably know what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about and surrounded by retail stores and restaurants,
Speaker 2: is Dina Heels, a marketplace and wellness center imagined by
Speaker 2: Revolve Impact, the Bito Coffee, Colibri Collective, and Homeboy Industries.
Speaker 2: Dina Heels is a mutual aid site offering a unique
Speaker 2: shopping and holistic experience for community members specifically affected by
Speaker 2: the Eden Canyon fires. In this interview, I speak with
Speaker 2: Carola Secata and Shieldba Shaw about their mutual aid efforts
Speaker 2: and what they're doing to help the folks recovering from
Speaker 2: the wildfires. Here's my interview.
Speaker 4: My name is Carola Secada she Ada pronouns. I am
Speaker 4: director's people of at Revolve Impact with Social Impact Creative Agency,
Speaker 4: and we are now at the space that we have
Speaker 4: named Dina Heels. That was an immediate response of a
Speaker 4: coalition that was built in response to the Eaton fire.
Speaker 5: And tell me about the space, Dina Heels. What kind
Speaker 5: of programming are you doing? Tell me about the space itself.
Speaker 5: It's multi use, it's very large, walk.
Speaker 3: Us through it.
Speaker 4: So Dina Heels. It was started as a little spark,
Speaker 4: so I was also I'm a team member of the
Speaker 4: Revolved team, but also I was impacted by the fires
Speaker 4: and lost my home, one of our cars, and all
Speaker 4: of our possessions, and so I took a couple of
Speaker 4: weeks off work and then when I came back, my
Speaker 4: team said, Hey, Corolla, we're actually going to meet.
Speaker 5: At this space.
Speaker 4: And I came and it was Dina Heels. So our team,
Speaker 4: in collaboration with Homeboy Industries, the city of Pasadena really
Speaker 4: came Antipedo Coffee came together to like it was like
Speaker 4: truly like old school Black Panther mutual aid style, like
Speaker 4: what are we all going to do? How are we
Speaker 4: going to show up? And so in working with the Paseo,
Speaker 4: they gave us two retail spots that had no cost
Speaker 4: through April. So one we made a mutual land marketplace
Speaker 4: with three Well we have a lot of relationships with
Speaker 4: a lot of values aligned brands and so they were
Speaker 4: able to donate thousands of clothinges. And across the way
Speaker 4: is the Wellness Center where we just provide healing centered activities,
Speaker 4: community building activities like healing circles, sound baths, one on
Speaker 4: one therapy, no cost of the community for fire impact
Speaker 4: of people.
Speaker 5: How does it feel to be working in this neutual
Speaker 5: laid effort while also being directly impacted.
Speaker 4: It's overwhelming. Number One, the generosity of our community in Altadina.
Speaker 4: I loved Altadina's the first community where I haven't had
Speaker 4: to hide any part of my identity. Right, I'm a
Speaker 4: first gen Peruvian queer mama, and I can be all
Speaker 4: that in Altadenas. So when this happened, the our put
Speaker 4: of love was just so overwhelming. And it still is.
Speaker 4: The generosity of everybody that I've had to really decide.
Speaker 4: Am I a participant in Dina heels or am I
Speaker 4: the organizer representing revoll Field?
Speaker 5: And how do you choose which god all lives showing
Speaker 5: up today?
Speaker 4: I really think that I have to ground myself and
Speaker 4: really be honest with myself. Do I need to be
Speaker 4: held or can I hold? And that's how I decide
Speaker 4: how my day goes these days.
Speaker 5: It's so important. And I want to go back to
Speaker 5: what you said about mutual aid. Can you define mutual
Speaker 5: aid for us? And how maybe Revolved is using mutually
Speaker 5: as an effort to assist the local community.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, mutually comes as just like community members coming
Speaker 4: together to meet the needs are most vulnerable, right, And ideally,
Speaker 4: no strings attached, no political transactions, nothing is just it's
Speaker 4: kind of like a fellowship of the rings. Everybody comes
Speaker 4: with their own gifts and like revolves the L's and
Speaker 4: colib recollective. Who is running our mutual aid marketplace comes
Speaker 4: with that knowledge and that gift of running a storefront.
Speaker 5: Who would you say, are the folks that are coming in?
Speaker 5: Obviously they've been impacted, but if you could maybe give
Speaker 5: us a profile.
Speaker 4: So we've had from families that had six homes, actual
Speaker 4: structures that lost them all, to a single parent with
Speaker 4: a child, to today. We had a person that was
Speaker 4: a musician and had lived in her house for thirty
Speaker 4: years and lost all her instruments and lives by herself
Speaker 4: and because of insurance bs was had to live in
Speaker 4: her car for a couple of weeks because they were
Speaker 4: writing insurance was putting the wrong name on her chast.
Speaker 4: So it is really a white spectrum of folks, but
Speaker 4: it's very much a mare of Altadena.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the start of the fires are the onset, and
Speaker 6: even in the immediate weeks of the aftermath, we saw
Speaker 6: droves of people volunteering.
Speaker 5: We saw a lot of mutual aid, monetary aid, it's
Speaker 5: been a couple of months. It's been about two months
Speaker 5: at least since the initial fires started. Do you think
Speaker 5: people are still showing up the same? Is there still energy?
Speaker 5: Could as a broader LA community be doing more? What's
Speaker 5: your temperature on that?
Speaker 4: I feel like the intensity of how people show up
Speaker 4: is the same. I think the numbers might have dwindled
Speaker 4: a little bit. But also it's funny because now after
Speaker 4: two months, people are starting to realize and know that
Speaker 4: Dina Heels is here at this shopping So we're seeing
Speaker 4: like now in upswing of people. So for example the marketplace,
Speaker 4: it's just by word of mouth and there's like five
Speaker 4: hundred people on the list waiting to shop. Our process,
Speaker 4: coly recollective process is very dignified. So it's you fill
Speaker 4: out this form and then you make an appointment. So
Speaker 4: each family has their own shopping appointment. We welcome them,
Speaker 4: give them coffee, give them a meal, and they have
Speaker 4: a shopper that helps them curate the stuff that they
Speaker 4: need and so so it's just their time, which just
Speaker 4: from an impacted person who I've been to donation centers
Speaker 4: where it feels like everybody's just kind of rushing it
Speaker 4: feels like a Black Friday energy because they feel like
Speaker 4: they just lost so much and so they feel like
Speaker 4: they have to grab quick. But then there's a los
Speaker 4: sense that your neighbors right next so you also needed
Speaker 4: to grab stuff, you know. So so yeah, so I
Speaker 4: think it's it's funny because I think that the key
Speaker 4: players are coming in for the long term, and so
Speaker 4: we're starting to see that.
Speaker 5: So there's a lot of wellness happening clearly at the
Speaker 5: wellness space from yoga, and I also know there's healing circles.
Speaker 5: Can you tell me about some of the healing circles
Speaker 5: that are taking place here in this space.
Speaker 4: Every other Thursday there is a men's healing circle and
Speaker 4: it's led by Mariela Rochell Signo Lessons and also in
Speaker 4: partnership with yanc from Hands and Soil, and it's been
Speaker 4: from what I hear, it's been very fruitful, very healing,
Speaker 4: very vulnerable space and starting in a couple of weeks
Speaker 4: the alternate Thursday, we're gonna lead a women's circle like
Speaker 4: a mother's led circle.
Speaker 5: And you mentioned there being very targeted efforts to let
Speaker 5: the community know that this exists. What are ways that
Speaker 5: you're letting them know. Is it word of mouth? Is
Speaker 5: it social? How are you reaching the folks that really
Speaker 5: need this mutual aid?
Speaker 4: That is a continual effort and we're learning every day
Speaker 4: and so we also have a very diverse So there's
Speaker 4: the blocks that we're encountering our language right, digital literacy
Speaker 4: access into a generational issues that elders might not be
Speaker 4: so equipped to just navigate digitally. So we are really
Speaker 4: leaning on the community orgs to let us know what
Speaker 4: is the best way to communicate. Is it a flyer?
Speaker 4: Is it an in person presentation? Do we also sign it?
Speaker 4: We have a partnership with Ultimate. They have promo dodas promotes.
Speaker 4: Do we use them to let folks know that we're here.
Speaker 4: So we're using like all grassoms, organizing all the digital media,
Speaker 4: and every day we learn a little bit more about
Speaker 4: how we can emphasize this.
Speaker 5: It sounds very collaborative, which is the nature of Revolved
Speaker 5: and they'll do and the partners that y'all have. Do
Speaker 5: you think that do you feels can be a potential
Speaker 5: model for mutual late efforts in LA and beyond?
Speaker 4: I mean absolutely, I really we're trying to make the
Speaker 4: case that we need to be here for at least
Speaker 4: two to three years. That is at the minimum, what
Speaker 4: this rebuild is going to take. And yes, we're as
Speaker 4: a revolve, we're trying to capture the model, trying to
Speaker 4: make a blueprint of this is what it takes. These
Speaker 4: are the values that everybody has to agree with. These
Speaker 4: are the conscious relationship agreements that each org and each
Speaker 4: partner has to come in and being unapologetic about and
Speaker 4: also coming in with enough I don't know what I
Speaker 4: don't know to be able to learn, and that I
Speaker 4: think when we find people, especially now in the political
Speaker 4: climate that there's so much distrust even within movements, I
Speaker 4: think we have to be very clear on those things,
Speaker 4: on those values so we can make this flow.
Speaker 5: And you mentioned that you have this space until March,
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, until April. The April and you want us.
Speaker 5: You're making the case that you should be here longer.
Speaker 5: So what can we expect for the next couple of months.
Speaker 5: If anyone is listening and in.
Speaker 4: The area, you got to sign up to Dina Hills
Speaker 4: dot com and we have a weekly newsletter of all
Speaker 4: the events that are going Our partners are now giving
Speaker 4: us information so we can populate that that newsletter as well,
Speaker 4: from like legal aid to any healthcare stuff to housing,
Speaker 4: even renters' rights, whatever you need. We're trying to just
Speaker 4: compile all the information because there is an access and
Speaker 4: overwhelmness of.
Speaker 5: Go to this source, go to this source.
Speaker 4: It's just that itself is overwhelming. So do that also
Speaker 4: our Instagram, we have stories and we're just uh and
Speaker 4: our events that are coming up from the protections themselves
Speaker 4: so they can explain to the folks what they're what
Speaker 4: they're experiencing. And just a lot more like partners and
Speaker 4: brands the mutually marketplace. We're getting a lot of tractions
Speaker 4: in terms of donation from some bomb and do fashion
Speaker 4: brands and I just keep an eye.
Speaker 5: Out, amazing, what do you want people or anyone listening
Speaker 5: to know, as someone that was impacted, if you could
Speaker 5: put that hat on for us and let the audience
Speaker 5: know what they should know and how maybe they can
Speaker 5: just show up.
Speaker 4: That grief is like the ocean, and sometimes it lulls,
Speaker 4: sometimes it's tsunamis And after two months, barely our shock
Speaker 4: is wearing off, or adrenaline is wearing off, and grief
Speaker 4: is barely starting to set in. So to really just
Speaker 4: remember that advocacy for systems change to make sure that
Speaker 4: we're made whole is important as well as the healing,
Speaker 4: the community, building, the proximity, the joy. It needs to
Speaker 4: be equally as important.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: If everything else you want, the.
Speaker 4: Ship got the radio for president? Look at that radio
Speaker 4: for president.
Speaker 3: Test.
Speaker 5: My name is Sheelda shaw A. Working on a fire
Speaker 5: relief project and this has taken taken on an epic
Speaker 5: proportion of its own. But so we founded an organization
Speaker 5: called the Galibi Collective and it is working with Dina
Speaker 5: Heels to provide a marketplace to provide goods for Bamient
Speaker 5: members and households that have lost their home. Tell me
Speaker 5: more about the collective. Yeah, we originally started out the
Speaker 5: entire organization was really by the seat of our pants.
Speaker 5: We saw a need, we filled it, saw another need
Speaker 5: started feeling that and people felt very called to this
Speaker 5: mission and we were just we threw up a pseudo name.
Speaker 5: We just put Eaten Fire Support Roo. You're running it
Speaker 5: very quickly, just focusing on execution, and over time there
Speaker 5: were the same ten women twelve women that kept coming
Speaker 5: back and there was this beautiful energy. The place would
Speaker 5: hump and I think that positivity of women working together,
Speaker 5: inspired by something just coming from all different walks of
Speaker 5: life joining together and then collective really resonated with us.
Speaker 5: And so we started to look at real names, and
Speaker 5: Glibri felts very appropriate because Galibris and Latin culture represents
Speaker 5: strength and resilience, especially after trauma or grief, and so
Speaker 5: seeing one, it's like a symbol of renewal or resurgence, revival,
Speaker 5: and it's exactly what we were doing, and it felt
Speaker 5: very attuned to the mission and the women and the
Speaker 5: energy that we were celebrating. Tell me about the marketplace
Speaker 5: that you're running and how you got involved with that.
Speaker 5: Background is in retail and fashion from a brand perspective,
Speaker 5: and so I ran I ran called Viana for thirteen years.
Speaker 5: I was the co founder alongside Carla Gargo, and so
Speaker 5: she's continued to run the brand, and I, you know,
Speaker 5: as with the fires on January seventh, felt very called
Speaker 5: to contribute and I felt like I was uniquely positioned
Speaker 5: to do certain things. I knew a lot of brand
Speaker 5: founders I could reach out to that to get donations.
Speaker 5: I knew I have a user's center background, so I
Speaker 5: knew I could ask families what they needed, and what
Speaker 5: I really we really started with was a lot of
Speaker 5: people were jumping in for donations, which was incredible, but
Speaker 5: very few people were stopping to ask the families what
Speaker 5: would actually be useful or supportive. So we started there
Speaker 5: with the form and just gathering needs and then sourcing donations.
Speaker 5: We started packing care packages out of Finance Intervention program
Speaker 5: in Lincoln Heights and so we were running a full
Speaker 5: distribution center making it very easy for volunteers to shop
Speaker 5: a pack for families. We're able to do twenty twenty
Speaker 5: five famals a day at the height of the center,
Speaker 5: and our whole goal was to really start to get
Speaker 5: to phase two of this project, which we jokingly call
Speaker 5: let me choose my own underwear, to really empower our
Speaker 5: families more so, our whole vision with all that background
Speaker 5: is to say, we challenge ourselves to think, could we
Speaker 5: create an experience that gave these families the respect and
Speaker 5: dag maybe they deserved right these households, to give them
Speaker 5: a sense of normalcy that they could actually choose their
Speaker 5: own items. Try it on, get a coffee right for
Speaker 5: just a few you know, like a few hours in
Speaker 5: that day shop and like we used to, right like
Speaker 5: they used to, And so that's what we did. So
Speaker 5: we created an entire storefront. We have a full back
Speaker 5: of house with everything bend to organized. We have a
Speaker 5: full front of house, the floor. We're offering everything for men's, women's,
Speaker 5: and child. Who are the types of people that are
Speaker 5: coming in and are shopping at the marketplace? Actually, I
Speaker 5: could give you a very strong demographic profile because we
Speaker 5: were very intentional, intentional about who we went after in
Speaker 5: the beginning. And when I say when we went after,
Speaker 5: I mean who did we want a service from our mission?
Speaker 5: So we primarily targeted marginalized communities of the Eton fire
Speaker 5: only people of color. We went through all the gofundmes,
Speaker 5: the African American list, the Filipino list, the disabled lists,
Speaker 5: the LATINX list, and we basically actually even went to
Speaker 5: the ones that were most underserved. So on the go fundme,
Speaker 5: for example, I said twenty five percent filled, but it's
Speaker 5: a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars raise. That was
Speaker 5: not necessarily who we were targeting. We were going after
Speaker 5: the families that only asked for five you know, and
Speaker 5: had one hundred percent lost everything and didn't have insurance,
Speaker 5: so we started there and then we partnered with a
Speaker 5: lot of group some community centers in Outstema directly, and
Speaker 5: then from there we went word of mouth. So anyone
Speaker 5: who came to pick up a package, do you have
Speaker 5: a neighbor who's elderly that hasn't been able to complete afore?
Speaker 5: Do you know someone else that you want to compete
Speaker 5: this for? So it was a very word of my mouth.
Speaker 5: We potentially did not rely on social media so we
Speaker 5: could attract the same population and it's been really amazing
Speaker 5: to see that these people know each other and there
Speaker 5: they're in each other's neighbors. What is the shopping experience? Like,
Speaker 5: I know that you have your intake arms and there's appointments,
Speaker 5: but if you cole walk us through what Clobal shopping
Speaker 5: experience looks like. We designed the shopping experience and flow
Speaker 5: and process to be the most empowering for households when
Speaker 5: they come. So the first step is to fill out
Speaker 5: the form. We get all your hushole information. We understand
Speaker 5: where you're at, what your other needs, so do you
Speaker 5: Our whole mission, just to back up real quick, is
Speaker 5: to provide something that's efficient, curated and safe, and the
Speaker 5: safe for it is why I wanted to highlight that
Speaker 5: safety for us from the beginning was is it a
Speaker 5: suitcase if I deliver it to convention center? Do they
Speaker 5: have a way to move it? Arount?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: Is it bad to give them new products when they
Speaker 5: might pick target on their back right? So it was
Speaker 5: always about creating safety, adding dignity, making it efficient, and
Speaker 5: making it curated. And so safety to us in this
Speaker 5: context with the store is to create opportunities for them
Speaker 5: to shop in a relaxed way. So we don't want
Speaker 5: it to be too crovid. So once they fill the form,
Speaker 5: we make sure that we have the sizes for what
Speaker 5: they've requested. I don't want them to show up and
Speaker 5: not have things for them, so we make sure that
Speaker 5: we have the things to meet their household needs. We
Speaker 5: run the list every night, so it takes us about
Speaker 5: an hour an hour and a half to run the
Speaker 5: list for twenty to twenty five that are coming the
Speaker 5: next day, So there's two households that are invited for
Speaker 5: half hour and then when they get there the hot hours.
Speaker 5: Really for us to control the inflow, there are a
Speaker 5: lot of day as long as they walk, we have coffee.
Speaker 5: They're given a wagon, there's people to pull sizes for them,
Speaker 5: help them shop for their households. Like there was a
Speaker 5: man yester was shopping for a family four, but he
Speaker 5: didn't know what his wife liked. Right, So we help them,
Speaker 5: We help them with that process. They're encouraged to try on.
Speaker 5: We have dressing rooms. They some people stay two to
Speaker 5: three hours. Some people weave in forty fives. Right, So
Speaker 5: the entire process is to really just give them as
Speaker 5: much of a human experience as possible. We have food,
Speaker 5: we give lots of hugs, We spend time connecting on
Speaker 5: their stories. So for that reason, it's a little slower,
Speaker 5: but the day is designed so that the family with
Speaker 5: the families in mine with the most respective attention. I
Speaker 5: want to bring up in this word danity. You used
Speaker 5: it a couple of times to describe the type of
Speaker 5: work that you're doing and wanting.
Speaker 7: To give family dignity they deserve. How would you define
Speaker 7: dignity in this context and why maybe that's something we
Speaker 7: should consider when where maybe volunteering or want to connect
Speaker 7: with an organization that's doing work and having dignity at
Speaker 7: top of mind.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's the it is and I'm glad you picked
Speaker 5: up am. That is the real central driving value of
Speaker 5: all of this, the volunteer effort, the outpouring of donations,
Speaker 5: the outpouring of money and love in Los Angeles has
Speaker 5: been unreal. Like I've heard from friends who have said
Speaker 5: they thought La didn't have a soul. Their transplants from
Speaker 5: New York and they are blown away and they take
Speaker 5: back their words, like they understand what Los Angeles is
Speaker 5: about because of how the community has come together. That said,
Speaker 5: people don't always know how to direct that love. And
Speaker 5: so what we've seen pop up are a lot of
Speaker 5: experiences that require family members to drive places when they
Speaker 5: don't have time, to wait at super long lines to enter,
Speaker 5: to not have the items that they need to have
Speaker 5: to sift through bins of used clothing, and so everything
Speaker 5: in the store is brand new, and we ensure that
Speaker 5: they don't have to wait when they get here. Those
Speaker 5: kinds of things really give them that dignity back. And
Speaker 5: the main thing that we do that we spend hundreds
Speaker 5: of hours doing, like hundreds of hours, is it takes
Speaker 5: a lot of work to revenue tail right. And so
Speaker 5: in these donation center it's an event or a pop
Speaker 5: up where they're doing it for three days, one day,
Speaker 5: six hours. The packing, sorting, displaying, you're doing the best
Speaker 5: you can. You're putting it in bins. You're kind of
Speaker 5: sorting it enough. Oh extra small, small can go together.
Speaker 5: We can put three decks and fours and five excel
Speaker 5: in one bin. Not really going to resonate when you're shopping.
Speaker 5: When you're shopping in a store, you know where your
Speaker 5: size is. It's all presented to you. So we've spent
Speaker 5: extra time most of the time again, hours and hours
Speaker 5: to make sure it's that kind of shopping experience. Two
Speaker 5: months ago. They never would have even imagined where they were,
Speaker 5: so to give them any kind of dignified shopping experience,
Speaker 5: that's where the dignity is. It's in those little details
Speaker 5: that people don't even realize that their things are hung
Speaker 5: on a rack, there's a size label, right, there's a
Speaker 5: nice white bin in which it's displayed. It's on a shelf. Right.
Speaker 5: They don't have to reach down and go through something
Speaker 5: on the floor, those kinds of things. It's those little details.
Speaker 5: I'm sure there's also families like you mentioned that never
Speaker 5: could have imagined that this is what would have happened,
Speaker 5: and there's so much vulnerability in that there's only really
Speaker 5: asking for help. And what are the kind of feedback
Speaker 5: You've been getting from members of the community that I've
Speaker 5: come by and gone through the shopping experience. The feedback
Speaker 5: has been real. Like they say, it's the first time
Speaker 5: they felt normal. It's the it's like a very human
Speaker 5: experience that it you know, for a few hours of
Speaker 5: the day. It was what brought them joy that they
Speaker 5: were able to just they felt like themselves again. That's
Speaker 5: why we do it, that's why we pour I mean
Speaker 5: on paper, you know, this is a lot of people
Speaker 5: are playing a numbers game, right on paper. We have
Speaker 5: already serviced over three hundred families roughly at five to
Speaker 5: six members per HOUSELD. Right, so that's you know, close
Speaker 5: to fifteen hundred people roughly. I'm not counting that to
Speaker 5: that level. But we gave fifteen hundred people I dignified
Speaker 5: shopping experience, do you know what I mean? And that's
Speaker 5: that took hundreds and thousands of hours to produce.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: We put up a store in one week and it
Speaker 5: took so many hands on deck to do it right.
Speaker 5: And in partnership with community and so I think that's
Speaker 5: the part that I want people to really walk away with.
Speaker 5: It's in those little things that make something takes it
Speaker 5: from a Okay I helped to like I serviced.
Speaker 4: Talk about that.
Speaker 7: What's the difference between helping and being of service?
Speaker 5: We've seen we've been calling it kind of in the community.
Speaker 5: It's doctor astrod Hager. Violence intervention programs use these words
Speaker 5: that her father used to tell her when she was little,
Speaker 5: about this concept of cheap grace. And it's where you're
Speaker 5: kind of just you're sending a few dollars, you're asking people, oh,
Speaker 5: I checked in with someone so, and look, I think
Speaker 5: that any grace in the situation is appreciated. But there's
Speaker 5: something difference between being in service to someone versus just helping.
Speaker 5: And to me, a lot of the help I've seen
Speaker 5: majority has been cheap grace, a lot of words. You know,
Speaker 5: a little bit of volunteer time here and there, which
Speaker 5: all of it is necessary to need that stuff, but
Speaker 5: to really help build back the whole community, you need
Speaker 5: to be in service, and you need to sit with
Speaker 5: them and you need to hold their hand. And what
Speaker 5: we tell them all the time is that we cannot
Speaker 5: bring back their home. We cannot bring back their memories,
Speaker 5: We cannot take away this streak, but for a brief moment,
Speaker 5: we can walk alongside them and be in service. And
Speaker 5: I'm gonna help share that.
Speaker 2: For more information about Dina Heels, head to Dinahels dot com. Also,
Speaker 2: if you'd like to contribute directly to carolaz Gofundmes she
Speaker 2: and her family rebuilt, We're going to link that in
Speaker 2: the show notes. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3: I See Those.
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