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Hello, and thanks for joining us for sustaining us here on KLCS PBS.

I'm David Nazar.

When we talk about sustainability, this buzzword of sorts often refers to things like water, energy, air, wind, solar, even finance.

However, these days, sustainability is about a lot more than just preserving the future of our environment as an example of having a sustainable workforce.

So everyone has a good future, particularly during a post-COVID world.

Well, that's going to be a key ingredient going forward.

And if we can all find a way to employ everyone, for example, homeless people or people who've been let out of prison, well that's going to help all of us.

And that is where we begin our broadcast as we introduce you to an organization doing everything humanly possible to get folks back into the workforce for a better future.

Tens of thousands of homeless people live on the streets of Los Angeles.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless people live on the streets of the US.

And even if some of these people are temporarily homeless, the likelihood that they return to the streets is very high.

Consequently, hundreds of thousands of people are let out of U.S. prisons every year.

Much of this population gets rearrested within a few years.

The overwhelmingly high volume of returnees to prison is what's known as recidivism and as homeless rates and crime rates have been drastically increasing throughout California and the entire U.S..

Many social science experts who study these issues say providing this segment of our society jobs is crucial, crucial to giving them a sustainable life and critical to the future of our society going forward.

Having money to live as well as self-worth and a purpose help keep people off the streets or out of the prison system.

James DeSanto knows all about this.

James was incarcerated.

My past, unfortunately, involved a lot of dysfunctional criminal behavior.

I did end up in prison.

I came out of prison and found it very challenging, very difficult to find a job.

No one was willing to hire me.

It was not for lack of trying.

I was online.

I was on foot, really putting forth a solid effort.

And I got a lot of positive feedback.

You seem like you've made great changes.

You seem like you're on a good path.

But we're really not ready to put our neck out and put you on our payroll.

Monica Francis knows all about this.

Monica had no permanent place to live.

I was in a bad place in my life to where I needed to come back to Los Angeles, which is home.

I had two duffel bags, $3, and I did have a place to go, but it was temporary.

I was looking for a job.

I couldn't find a job because there were too many gaps in between me being unemployed and working.

And I just needed some help.

That help was eventually on the way for Monica and James.

They were lost, yet somehow found hope when they got connected with a nonprofit known as Chrysalis.

The motto here is Changing lives through jobs.

And just as a name says, Chrysalis changed the lives of Monica and James and thousands of people like them over the years.

This once unknown Southern California nonprofit founded nearly 40 years ago, now has offices all throughout SoCal and has placed tens of thousands of people into the workforce over the years.

Chrysalis does this through a host of services.

For example, one on one support from an employment specialist.

Job search tool kit and employment preparation classes.

How to info about things like talking to employers about difficult issues like past prison convictions or being homeless.

Then there's all kinds of help with personalized resume writing and special training with practice interviews.

There's online job application assistance, computer lab and telephone accessibility, transitional employment opportunities, referrals to community partners.

Even clothing is provided also hygiene items, necessities to help rejoin the workforce.

Having the job is one thing, but also having a place that believes in you and is willing to.

That did a lot for me.

Them putting their name behind me and give me an opportunity and say, We believe you can do this.

So that all plays into, you know, working to combat those recidivism rates.

Despite his past, Chrysalis knew that James could have a promising future.

This nonprofit knows a prison record or a concrete zip code on skid Row does not have to define who you are.

What began as a chrysalis job training eventually worked its way into a promotion with a nonprofit.

James is now the supervisor of what's known as the Chrysalis Rhoads Program.

So I decided to get involved in the roads program in which we work with Caltrans, and we work clean up the California freeways.

We do litter abatement and landscaping and in my particular crew.

So that was available to me.

They also offered me resources to get clothes, work clothes, work boots, the necessary amenities I would need to work.

And that continued on when I was a client for several months where if I needed something, I just reached out to them.

For a while, life was not easy for Monica.

She knew she had made some bad decisions in her past.

Possibly got involved with the wrong people and was dealing with the consequences.

She also knew that she had a lot to offer society and that given an opportunity, she was going to seize upon that no matter what she had to do.

What sacrifices she had to make to succeed in life.

So I came in, did the orientation for about a week, and I was employed.

Wood Works Team.

I clean up downtown Los Angeles.

I started off as a sweeper.

I got training.

I also received resources for job placement at other places.

Lo and behold, years later, I became a supervisor.

They gave given me all the tools that I needed to be successful in my job title today.

As both Monica and James explained, this unique nonprofit in the Southland gives them and so many others the belief and the optimism to succeed.

A safety net was their lifeline to a new found life.

They're not turning anyone away.

No one is turned away.

Regardless of your background, your race, color, any age, none of that.

None of that.

I mean, I'm getting a little teary added because, you know, they helped me so much.

We really need a sense of belonging, need to feel like we're part of the community.

And Chrysalis does that.

You know, I'm helping able to give back now.

I'm a supervisor.

I'm in a position where I'm helping people in the position I was in not so long ago.

Let me help turn you up on some of these professional skills.

Let's get you a little more employable.

Right.

So this is this is this is what I do now.

It's great because I get to work.

I get to get my hands dirty, but I also get to provide and give back.

Chrysalis has what's known as an employment social enterprise program.

Simply put, this comprises a few different business avenues, so to speak.

They're designed to help place folks in transitional jobs that are planned specifically for their respective skill set, since many often have no job experience whatsoever, or when they first meet with Chrysalis.

They're able to take that experience and put it on a resume to actually help them get a more sustainable and lifelong employment opportunity later on in life.

There are four different programs in our Chrysalis enterprise format.

They include works, roads, staffing and safety.

We partner with business improvement districts throughout Los Angeles City, and we do litter abatement as part of clean teams in those business improvement districts.

Crystal staffing offers and opportunities for someone who may have somewhat moderate work experience that client that is more independent to work in a staffing environment.

That means we partner with various businesses to provide custodial services and perhaps litter abatement and other services direct hire.

This allows them to go out and independently work with specific partners that have opportunities on more of a moderate or high level safe keeping is a transitional jobs opportunity where we partner with different other nonprofit organizations and we provide cleaning services, custodial services specifically, as well as public storage for people who are experiencing homelessness.

The Roads Programs is a transitional dance program for folks who really thrive in a group or team environment.

We partner with Caltrans to help with litter abatement along our city and county's highways.

What we've seen is that oftentimes people who go through our program end up mentoring others and helping them along the way.

Those we serve sometimes are struggling with housing instability.

They're trying to reenter the community after having been incarcerated or coming contact with the criminal justice system.

They're sometimes struggling with mental health issues, substance use issues, and we can kind of give them that hope and stability as well as resources to our partners, especially for our clients that are trying to reenter our communities after being involved in the criminal justice system.

The cycle back into that system is so strong.

The data shows that about two thirds to 70% of those who are released from prison will return within two or three years.

As it relates to issues of poverty, you know, often getting a wage and getting a job may not be enough.

It's that you can lose that job and then you're a paycheck away from falling back into homelessness.

And that cycle that we aim to address is helping get someone not just a job but on a career path.

And get a job and then get a better job so that they're less vulnerable.

A client is anyone who is experiencing barriers to employment.

So all of our clientele, I think about 72% of them have experienced homelessness in some form, and roughly 58% of our clients have been impacted by the justice system in some way.

So some of the barriers that our clients are facing are homelessness or being unsafely house or being laid off from a job, or when they are fired, laid off from a job.

There needs to be able to transition and they might not have the skills that they need to be able to do that.

So what that looks like is we really help clients with building out resumes and practice interview.

And then in addition to that, we offer help to provide them with scholarships for trainings and certifications that they can gain and learn new skills to help them when they want to switch careers.

So our clients attend a wide variety of jobs from working in a warehouse to a more recently through our sector program.

We've had some clients work in it and do asset management.

Our goal is really not to only help them find a job that will meet the bare minimum, but also find a job that has a thriving wage.

As we know, cost of living is insanely high in L.A. and Orange County, so we really want to make sure that clients are not only finding a livable wage, but a three level wage.

Robert Anderson is thriving these days.

Robert was out of prison on parole, did not know what to do, and then he met with the Chrysalis counselors.

They were very engaging and understanding what my situation was.

My preference was to get back into driving trucks was which was used to be my field of expertise to say so I'm very skilled in driving trucks and there's too many trucks that are out there on the road that have grown.

That has been my life, and that's how I raised my kids.

You know, as a truck driver, I've been around for a while, you know, and this small bump in the road, I was in the back of the van just like everybody else.

You know, And the last thing I thought I would be was a road supervisor.

But here I am instead of sitting in the back taking direction, and I'm the guy who's giving direction.

Nobody's been rejected here.

Everybody has been accepted and accepted with their faults.

They may be struggling with mental illness, some with drug issues, and sometimes they need somebody to say, look, you know, I support you, you know, and I want to help you.

I reflect over and over again when people come to Chrysalis, they are at a really, really tough fork in the road.

They have to choose to try to transform or not.

And Chrysalis provides that cocoon, that space where someone can transform from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Monica says that happened to her with a lot of help.

She acknowledges her first meeting with Chrysalis, the assignment of an employment specialist who worked with her on a weekly basis.

Her job training, the job listing she was given, the computer lab assistants, the resume building, the practice interviews, the transportation tokens, bus passes, even parking assistants when she had a job interview.

Now, the best part for Monica reuniting with her children, her reason for living.

They're really proud of, really proud of.

I mean, since I've been here, I've hit the ground running and I haven't stopped and I won't stop when I'm on the streets doing my job.

The vendors, the residents.

Thank you so much.

That is just like an extra breath of fresh air throughout the day.

To hear that, to know that you're doing a good job.

And joining me now to discuss this further is Letty Galli.

Letty is the executive director of an amazing nonprofit in Orange County, California, known as Lot 318.

Also joining the panel is Amy Gore.

Amy is a director of operations for United, another great Orange County nonprofit.

Thank you both so much for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Letty, let's begin with you.

Before you tell me all about Lot 318 in your organization, tell me about yourself.

Well, I was born in Cuba, and I moved out to New York when I was three years old and moved into a community that was pretty much Latino base and went to school in Brooklyn, New York.

And my community was really very much Hispanic, so much that I couldn't when I went to school.

Right.

I couldn't get any help in school wanted like that.

But I got to just have a funny story to share with you.

I had a neighbor that came to my mom's house one day and said, Hey, I didn't know you had a cat.

And my mom was like, We don't have a cat.

She said, Well, what's this cat food doing here?

We thought it was tuna fish because it was cheaper than tuna.

And so we were eating cat food.

So that's kind of my upbringing, you know, growing up in a family that could not speak English, but yet at the same time, I was able to get an education.

I was able to go to college and and succeed.

Right.

So my community in Brooklyn is where we learned English.

And I learned to just, I guess, find myself right.

And then I moved out to Long Island, and here I am in California.

I can safely say, you don't just talk the talk.

You walk the walk.

So, Letty, what is lot 318 What do you folks specifically do with a lot there?

Well, what three teens stands for loving others in truth and it comes from my favorite books comes the Bible first John 318 and it says, Dear brothers and sisters do not love in word and tongue, but in accident.

In truth.

So we come alongside our community.

We want to invest in a child.

We want to change a generation.

We want to build a community.

And we do that by loving them.

In truth, in the good, the bad, the ugly.

We say, Hey, we're here for you.

You have worth, you have value, and you are loved.

And I think once you get that and you get relationship built, life changes and people start to believe in themselves and they realize, you know what?

I want more to my life than what circumstances have.

So elaborating comes alongside people, still students, families to empower them to be the best them that they were created to be.

Amy, your personal story and then tell me exactly what I see United is.

Yeah, terrific.

So I grew up overseas and I came to the U.S. just to get my college degree.

I ended up getting married and meeting somebody local here in our first year of marriage, we signed up for a camp for kids in the foster care system.

And that camp absolutely changed the trajectory of my life.

And so leaving that camp, my husband said, We're going to do this every year that we can.

That was 20 years ago.

And really, it just introduced us to the realities and the needs of children in the foster care system right here in our community.

So then when we launched O.C.

United, it was really as a result of those those relationships and that awareness that had been built about needs in our community.

And similar to what Letty said, we offer a lot of programs and services for the community.

But what we've learned is we've understand, understood adverse childhood experiences and the role of trauma in the brain that really programs and services are only as effective as you providing safe community for people to heal from their trauma and to grow in connection with other people.

So that's what we want to be here.

United is just a safe landing spot in our community for people to be seen, to be heard and to grow.

And of course, we're talking about how we help our youth prevent them from being homeless, prevent them from getting into life of violence, of crime.

So let me let me begin with you, and let's talk about homelessness.

It's really a critical issue in Southern California today.

We in California, particularly Los Angeles, Orange County, where Amy is, it's the highest population of homeless people in the United States.

Collectively, collectively with L.A.. A.C., what does Lot 318 do?

And then we'll find out about O.C.

United to help prevent young people from being homeless.

I'm not sure if folks realize just how many younger people are living on the streets these days.

I mean, it's insane.

Larry Yeah, 100%.

One of the things that we try to do is we tried to prevent the homelessness.

Homelessness is real, It exists.

And we first started in the community.

There was a few of families that were homeless.

But as we've progressed throughout the years, we realized that if we can educate our families and our students at a young age and really let them know that we care, that they're not alone, we want to then let them know, Hey, what are your needs specifically?

And to be honest, during the pandemic, we all will suffer.

We are hurt a lot going to pandemic fought the lottery team, took advantage of that, and we were able to really meet the needs of the families like one on one.

It's great you're going to food pantries.

We go to the drive thru, so what do you need specifically?

And we saw getting a list this long and by the end of the 16 we were getting this this long because they trusted us and they saw that you know what they they really going to come through.

And so we we would get their list of volunteers to go and purchase it and they would get specific meals that they needed, whether it was diapers, whatever.

So we realized that one of the things we try to do is to prevent that homelessness because it's real and we're all just maybe one paycheck away from that.

So how did we come alongside the families and let them know, trust us?

We want to be able to provide resources for you so that we can avoid that, if that makes any sense.

It absolutely does.

Amy, what does your organization to do to help young people not land out on the street, not be homeless?

Yes.

Absolutely.

So we have a couple of approaches.

First of all, we do provide housing for former foster youth and at risk young adults.

So we have a four unit apartment complex and we have a four bedroom home where we're able to provide actual housing for people that are experiencing homelessness.

The other part is what he was talking about is, is we have a lot of times people think the homelessness issue is the people that we see on the street.

There's there's a lot of people that are in shelters, that are in motels, that young kids that are couch surfing, that are sleeping in their cars.

And those are the people that we really want to try to reach.

Because once young adults, especially looking at the foster care system, in particular, when you have a teen runaway, it's about 48 hours before they're approached by a trafficker.

So so we've got like critical windows here of involvement with with these young kids to be able to help provide a supportive, safe environment for them.

So we're both on the housing end and and on the prevention end.

And then we provide job training and equipping within the shelters.

So we go to our local county shelters and we have an eight week job training mentorship program that we match a mentor with somebody in the shelter.

They do the class together, and then that mentorship continues on for the following six months.

So those are a couple of the ways.

As United stressing homelessness.

What I'm going to ask your personal opinion about something with your street cred, and I say it in the most affectionate way do not censor your answer and do not be politically correct.

Why do you honestly believe our young people today, our youth, they run into all kinds of trouble, all kinds of problems.

They land out on the streets.

They're in jail.

They're in prison.

What the heck is happening?

That is it's a very serious question you're asking.

And and I truly believe that when there's no love, when there's no community, I don't believe that we were meant to be an island, believe were meant to be in community.

And when we lack that, we look for other locations, other places where may not be as constructed.

And so I think when we can just come alongside a student and just give them that hug because maybe sometime, maybe that person hasn't been touched or hugged in a while.

And because what we've seen is it's relational, we want to be able to say, hey, we love you, you care.

And again, you have value.

When when you hear that and you're hearing it from us every day, it starts to change your mind.

We start to believe it.

You start, you stop believing the lies.

You start receiving these positive words of affirmation.

Yes, I can do this.

Yes, I can go.

I can break the cycle of whatever this is called because I have someone who believes in me.

And so I'm going to move forward because if I mess up, I know that that person is going to be there for me.

And no matter what happens, we're going to be able to say, Here, give me a hand up right?

We're going to be there for that child, because there's no greater there's no greater joy to know that somebody cares for you.

So when you know so many cares for you, the sky's the limit.

Amy, your opinion of what's going wrong in society today with regards to our young people?

Yeah, I think it's complicated.

Like we've been talking about each.

I mean, we want when we say, like, what's going wrong?

It's because we want a solution.

We want one fix.

And and I think the longer you do this work, you realize that each person comes with their own unique value, their own unique story.

And like what you were saying, if you look at if you look at gang involvement, right, you go to a gang because we're all wired inherently for a sense of purpose, for a sense of belonging, for a sense of power.

And so if you don't have that, you will go seek it and you'll see it in an unhealthy ways.

And so one of the ways that we can counteract that is just providing safety, providing belonging, providing purpose and showing healthy ways and and like Buddy was saying it, what what breaks my heart the most is the number of young people I talked to that have no one to call in crisis.

And I can't even wrap my mind around going through life without somebody to call.

And so I think as we look at what's wrong, I think I think the answer isn't in a quick fix and it's actually not in in in a lot more than seeing the person in front of you and being a place of safety for them.

Larry, final question to you.

I could talk to both of you for hours.

It's an amazing interview and great information giving everybody in our final 30 seconds.

The violent crime rates are soaring throughout the US.

Why are young kids involved in so many crimes these days?

I think this for the same reason the purpose of wanting to be accepted or wanting to be a part of something.

We all want to be a part of something.

So when you can't get it again with a judge who went to school, you got like like you said, you're going to find it.

You're going to you're going to go and search it.

So that is where I think where we can come alongside a child, an adult, and walk in life with that like hand in hand can hell or high water.

We're going to get through this.

Right.

And so that is when they know you care, they're going to take extra steps and try.

If they fail this, they're going to try because you're not going to be there saying, what are you doing or whatever?

What are they used to?

We're going to come alongside and love them.

In truth.

You both have amazing organizations.

We are going to revisit interviews with you on a future broadcast.

Thank you so much to Eddie Galli and Amy Ga for the great interview.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And for more information about our program, just click on KLCS.org and then click.

Contact us to send us your questions, your comments, or even your story ideas.

We can hear from your or contact me @DavidNazarNews on Twitter.

That's @DavidNazarNews on Twitter.

And be sure to catch our program here on PBS or catch us on a PBS app for all Things sustainable.

Thank you so much for joining us for this edition of Sustaining US here on KLCS PBS.

I'm David Nazar.