- This month on the Spark, our theme is "Uniting to Serve and Invest in Others".

We'll learn about a nonprofit spreading joy and kindness through the repurposing of flowers and the sharing of personal experiences.

An organization ministering to the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of men, women and families who are homeless, addicted, and in crisis.

And an organization on a mission to empower and champion the economic growth of black business owners.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2023.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948.

Our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of the Spark.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for the Spark is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, the Memphis Zoo, and by My Town Movers, My Town Roofing.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea, inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park and this is The Spark.

They're a nonprofit spreading joy and inspiring kindness through the repurposing of flowers and the sharing of personal experiences.

We're here with the President and Founder of 901 POP, Petals of Purpose, Stephanie Simpson.

And let's start out, take us back to 2019 and what led you to launch 901 POP.

- Thank you so much, Jeremy.

Well, actually, I was sitting right here at my desk, I think it was a Thursday in May, and I had flowers on my desk from a volunteer organization that I was involved with, and it was almost like it was heaven sent I like to say.

I had lost two grandparents in 2018 who I was very close to.

One was in a senior living community and one lived with my parents and they'd been involved in my life my entire life.

And I was just thinking about them and the flowers and I started thinking, "Wow, this may be a good time for me to do something in memory and to honor them."

And in the past, I had thought about this when I'd had events with friends and functions about, we would, you know, we would on a small scale, repurpose the flowers after an event and give them to loved ones.

And I thought, you know, this is sort of a sweet spot in my life where I didn't have any huge volunteer commitments.

And I just, the idea was there.

And then I remember going home and that weekend, like starting to write a business plan.

I was so excited about the potential because I knew it's kind of an easy thing to do that can make a huge impact in the lives of others.

- Unpack the magic of the process.

- So what we do is, it's typically big weddings, but we also do nonprofit events.

Sometimes we can incorporate other types of events if we already have a large one, because when we repurpose the flowers and go to a nonprofit or to a senior living community, wherever we might take the flowers, we wanna be able to give them to everyone there.

And so it's large events.

And so what we'll do is after a wedding, our volunteers, they rescue the flowers, they pick 'em up, they transport 'e m to our arranging suite, and they make sure they're all in water.

Sometimes they need to give the hydrangeas a little extra love.

And then the next day our volunteers will come in and if we're arranging that da y, they'll get right to work.

If we're arranging like the next day, sometimes we arrange on Sundays or Mondays, depending on volunteer availability, we'll give them fresh cuts, fresh water, new vases, and then our volunteers.

So we have volunteers that pick up, we have volunteers that either prep and/or arrange, and then we also have note writers and they write notes on their own to accompany the bouquets.

So then we have volunteers that deliver the flowers.

Usually at least once a month, we have volunteers that go in and actually hand deliver.

And then sometimes, depending on the location, we do a drop off.

So if maybe if we're taking to an inner city school to spread joy and encouragement wi th those staff members, we just drop off and they would pi ck them up at a, you know, central location.

But if we go like to a senior living community, maybe we'll take children.

We do a lot with youth because we think it's important, especially today for teens and tweens to get off their electronic devices and have conversations, intergenerational communication.

So we do that a lot with our deliveries.

- Give us some stats that warm your heart.

- So, you know, we started in September 2019 and there were 6 of us that started 901 POP and we ended, 2023 we had more than 600 volunteers that were involved in some part of our process.

Some of those volunteers are regular and come multiple times during the year.

And then some of those may have just been school kids that were involved with this special project.

But to think that we've gone from 6 to more than 600 is really remarkable.

And then this spring we're going to deliver.

We're very close, we're over 19,000 bouquets delivered, so we're gonna hit the 20,000 mark very soon.

But, you know, Jeremy, it's the magic happens in those one-on-one conversations that sometimes, you know, you don't get, when you look at statistics.

It's, you know, the lo neliness that we're battling, especially today, you know, we have all the technology at our fingertips, but yet people are more lonely than ever.

And so not only are we spreading jo y with the recipients that we're going in and having those moments of magic, you know, where you have that connection.

We also are providing an opportunity for our volunteers of all ages and stages to do something meaningful with others.

- So how can the community support 901 Petals of Purpose, 901 POP?

- I love that you asked that.

There are multiple ways you can get involved.

Just as simple as saving your vases.

You know, vases collect dust under our kitchen sinks, right, or in a closet?

So get those vases out.

We like 'em when they're a little bit shorter because once again, you know, like seven inches or smaller because we're doing individual bouquets.

So donating your vases, donating some of our supplies, we have a wishlist on... Amazon wishlist on our website.

Of course we love financial contributions because we are a growing organization and as we grow, we have operational expenses.

Even though our labor is our volunteer time and our flowers are donated, you know, there still are organizational costs and then donating time and talent.

- So where do we go to learn more and get involved with 901 POP?

- You can go to our website, which is 901pop.org, and we have a form that you can complete to get on our volunteer list so that you'll get volunteer opportunities.

Also, our monthly updates about what's going on, any special events that we have.

We also have a page on Facebook, 901 POP as well as we're on Instagram.

So we hope you'll join us to spread joy.

- Well, Stephanie Simpson, thank you for all you and your amazing team do, thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for having me, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - They're an organization ministering to the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of men, women and families who are homeless, addicted, and in crisis.

We're here with the Transient Program Pastor with Memphis Union Mission, Reverend Jeff Patrick.

And let's start out, give us a little bit of history for Memphis Union Mission.

- Memphis Union Mission was created in 1945 by businessman called named T. Walker Lewis.

He felt that there was a need because of all the Navy guys coming into the city of Memphis and kind of terrorizing the city to have a place, it was called a Skid Row stopgap, a place where men could come in who had been drunk and get sober, get cleaned up.

And so for 70 some odd years we've been in downtown Memphis, reaching out to those who are battling addictions, those who are homeless.

And that's just an incredible work.

I think it's Memphis's best kept secret.

- When you look at serving meals, clothing you all do a lot and you have a lot of statistics in terms of the impact.

Go ahead and start walking us through some of the different programs and the opportunities on your end.

- So I work at the Men's Emergency Shelter in downtown Memphis.

We handle between probably 275 to 300 men every single night.

We have a long term drug and alcohol program for men that starts at this location, goes 10 miles north of Memphis to a place called Calvary Colony.

They do about six months out there.

Then they graduate and go to our transition house there at Walnut Grove and Tillman, and they can live there an additional year.

They have to get a job.

They're required to save 60% of their income.

We have a place across the street from us called Extended Stay where men can go who have an income and pay to stay there.

It's a program just to kinda help them.

It's not a drug program, but guys that really aren't battling that just need a inexpensive place to live.

Then we have Moriah House.

A lot of people don't know we own that, but it's a women's facility out east where women can go with their children and stay for a year to get off drugs and alcohol.

And then finally we have five houses, three bedrooms, fully furnished for families to move into rent free for six months.

And so I've been trying to get in that for 10 years and they won't let me do it, but anyway, it is a great program.

- So you've got the physical, the emotional side, but spirituality plays an important role in this too.

And so talk about the faith aspect.

- Well, this past year we did 142,000 plus nights of lodging all across Memphis Union Mission in all of our locations.

We provided 376,000 plus meals, more than that.

And so, people come in here to get off the streets, to get a bite to eat, to get cleaned up.

But we do have chapel twice a day, seven days a week.

And so we invite the people to come in, especially here at the men's shelter, to come into these chapel services, just to present an opportunity for an understanding of what we believe, the hope that we offer people.

And I will tell you that my 22 years of being here, I've seen hundreds of changed lives where men just walk from that old lifestyle and started all over.

- Give us an illustration of that life transformation and also too the aspect of healing families.

I think that's another really important piece to this, is the healing of families.

- You know, drugs and alcohol destroy families.

And so, I've seen so many guys come in here thought that they'd lost everything.

No one would have anything to do with them.

And so, you know, people show tough love and so, but one of the scriptures talk about God is the God of reconciliation.

So many times we see guys start living right, start going out, getting a job, and they become a man that a woman would wanna be married to, their wives come back to 'em.

We see that happen a lot, both in the men's shelter and out at the women's facility as well.

- So how can the community help your efforts at Memphis Union Mission?

- Well, number one, of course, we get no government funding to do what we do.

We're the first free shelter for men in the city of Memphis where guys can check in free every day.

They have a place to come in.

We don't put men out every morning.

They're welcome to stay in.

We do encourage 'em to go find work, but they're welcome to stay in if they need to.

And so we need people to come alongside people in the community.

If I had 300 men staying here at the men's shelter, that means I'm doing 300 showers every day.

So, where do you get the underwear and the socks for that?

So communities can come along an d provide socks and underwear.

We invite churches to do what I call Undie Sunday where everybody brings a package of underwear and donate it to the Mission.

And they do that.

And so, one is the finances will be very helpful because of no government funding, it's a free shelter too.

Anything that a man needs to get ready in the morning to shave, to brush his teeth, comb his hair, clean his ears, clip his nails, anything like that, belts, you know, pants, that is always very helpful for us.

And then there are volunteers.

We invite groups to come in and actually serve meals.

Every day we serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So there's organizations, not just churches but business come along and they will actually help serve a meal.

So we booked those literally weeks and months in advance.

So to do that, they need to go to memphisunionmission.org and hit the volunteer tab and begin going through there to navigate through that to volunteer.

- Well wrap up with contact information, website, social media, phone number.

Where would you direct us to go to learn more and get involved with Memphis Union Mission?

- Alright, great.

Memphisunionmission.org tells everything we do.

We're located at 383 Poplar Avenue.

Our number is 901-526-8434.

Stop by and see us.

I'd love to show you our brand new facility and what all we do here.

- Well, Reverend Jeff Patrick, thank you for all you and your amazing team do here in our community.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Alright, thank you very much, I appreciate it.

[upbeat music] - The Spark Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2023 nonprofit award for organizations with a budget greater than $5 million went to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis.

[upbeat music] - Habitat for Humanity has been around for 40 years in Memphis.

So that's from 1983 to today, helping to create home ownership opportunities for families who otherwise would not have the possibility of buying a home.

That's because they can't afford a house with an interest rate of any amount.

And in today's market where the interest rate is 7%, it would really be out of their ability to afford it.

So, we make it possible by providing a zero interest mortgage for families to be able to buy a home for the first time.

So Habitat works with the applicant for more than 13 weeks to get them ready for home ownership.

That means 13 weeks of financial literacy, budgeting, planning, all of the elements that would make them understand what it means to be a home buyer for the first time.

And so we put them into a situation of affordability and creating an opportunity for children to have maybe a bedroom for the first time, a quiet space to study.

And we see often that ed ucational attainment improves because a child is not bothered by noise and other activities in the household.

They have a quiet place to study.

So we're excited that Memphis Habitat is building its 600th house, that's hard to say, this year.

And it just means a lot of significant impact.

And we've built all over the county in many communities from north to south.

And it means that we are helping hundreds of families have an opportunity to change their lives for the better.

And we're providing an opportunity for the community, for volunteers, members of congregations and corporations and universities to come out and touch the work by volunteering.

Without Habitat the 600 families that we've served would not be home buyers.

There is no other program that would serve them.

We are building taxpayers with every home buyer and that's contributing to the community.

And we're taking vacant and abandoned lots and we're making them viable again.

And we're helping build up the community because these buyers for the first time can consider that they are in a place to actually build wealth.

There's some debate about home ownership really generating to wealth building, but when there is no interest rate, we absolutely know that every mortgage payment, because it is principal, taxes and insurance, no interest, that we are helping low to moderate families build wealth for the first time.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - They're on a mission to empower and champion economic growth for black business owners.

We're here with Danielle McGee Gibson, Founder and CEO of Black Business Boom.

And let's start out, Danielle, you have your own story of being an entrepreneur, so share your story and what led you to launch Black Business Boom.

- Absolutely, so about 12 years ago, I opened the doors to my first business on the south side of Chicago, Spatique Spa Lounge.

And I learned so many hard lessons through that journey and I realized I just, I had never been taught many of these things about the day to day of running a business and being able to grow and scale a business.

And so I took a lot of the lessons that I learned over that four to five years of being in business and put 'em together with this mission of getting that information that's needed to the black business owners across the country.

- So go ahead and dive in because it's a lot of free resources, it's connections and relationship building, it's access.

So talk about what you do.

- Absolutely.

So we actually started as the Groupon for black-owned businesses, having a coupon platform with over 400 businesses on that platform in 25 states across the country.

And what we learned through that process that was there were a lot of other black business owners struggling with many of the things that I struggled with.

So we pivoted and we continue to pivot and pivot and add new things to support black-owned businesses.

And so that does include our trainings that we offer, our Boomin' Marketing program that teaches you how to use marketing to grow your business online and offline, as well as our Boomin' to the Bank program, which is all about having a strong financial foundation as black business owner and also being ready to access the capital.

And then we've just recently added that component.

How do we actually get the capital in the hands of the business owners that need it?

And we've done that by partnering with Kiva as a Kiva referral hub where we're all able to offer zero interest loans for black business owners up to $15,000.

So, we're just constantly growing and pivoting and asking our audience what do they need to be successful on their entrepreneurial journey and finding ways to be able to provide those things.

- Talk about Boomin' University.

- Boomin' University, we actually launched in 2020 and that started with our Boomin' Marketing program and it is just grown.

We've had over 500 business owners to go through our Boomin' Marketing program.

We've had 150 business owners go through Boomin' to the Bank.

It's a very comprehensive program, both are very comprehensive where we are having group learning, one-on-one coaching, as well as we're providing free services like social media strategy as well as bookkeeping for those that need help with having bookkeeping for their business so that they're able to file their taxes.

So we're really trying to provide all of these wraparound services and we provide them all free of charge thanks to our grants and sponsorships from our corporate partners.

- Talk about why this work is so important in the broad scale.

- Absolutely.

So when black business owners thrive, it has an effect on the overall economy.

Those entrepreneurs are able to go and hire folks in their community.

They're able to pour back into other business owners in their community and it just has a overall effect on the economy and creating that economic development that we truly need in black communities so that we're able to stay in our communities.

Here in Nashville where I am, many of us are being pushed out of our communities because we can't afford to live in them.

But if you have a thriving business that gives you a greater opportunity to stay put in your neighborhood and to actually pour into the others that are in your neighborhood as well.

- You have some lofty goals.

And so talk about breaking barriers for black businesses.

- Absolutely.

So we are looking to support 1500 business owners by 2030.

Our goal is to not only provide them with technical assistance through our trainings, but also to provide them one-on-one coaching and capital.

So we do have a really lofty goal of deploying capital to over 1500 business owners and we are on track for that goal, so through our partnership with Kiva, as well as through our partnerships with the Urban League here in Middle Tennessee, the Metro Teachers Credit Union, Citizens Bank.

So we are looking for financial in stitutions that help us to reach that goal.

We are also looking for folks that can invest in our loan fu nds so that we are able to get that capital out to the small business owners.

And again, Kiva has been a magnificent partner in this work, making it really easy for business owners to access capital through their platform with zero interest as well as no minimum credit score.

So that really is removing a lot of the barriers that small business owners, small black business owners experience with not having collateral, having lower credit scores than our counterparts and many of the other things that stand in the way from us accessing the capital that we need to be able to grow our businesses.

- How can the community support Black Business Boom?

- Absolutely.

We're always looking for mentors for our small business owners.

We're always looking for facilitators and trainers that are willing to offer a free workshop for our community.

We are looking for financial institutions, both traditional banks as well as community development financial institutions that we can partner with to offer technical assistance.

And we are absolutely looking for folks that are willing to invest in the work that we do and make sure that these small business owners gain access to these resources as well as investors into our loan fund that enables us to be to get that capital into the hands of the black business owners.

- We'll wrap up with where we go to learn more and get involved with Black Business Boom.

- Absolutely.

You can find us at blackbusinessboom.com.

You can also follow us on social media @Blackbusinessboom on Instagram as well as on Facebook.

And feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, Danielle McGee MBA, or shoot me an email danielle@blackbusinessboom.com I'm happy to connect.

- Well, Danielle, thank you for all you and your amazing team do, thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you so much for having me Jeremy.

I appreciate the opportunity.

[upbeat music] - "Uniting to Serve and Invest in Others" may be the theme for this month's episode, but as we saw, it's more than a theme.

It's an invitation to physically get involved and to help power the good.

Nonprofits here in our community like 901 POP are fully dependent on volunteers to spread joy and inspire kindness by repurposing flowers, writing handwritten notes of inspiration, and delivering them to individuals who could use a smile.

Likewise, Memphis Union Mission is uniting volunteers to minister to the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of men, women and families who are homeless, addicted, and in crisis, serving a meal, being part of Friday Family Nights, helping with gardening or babysitting are all easy ways to serve and invest in others in a way that helps transform lives and heal families.

Then organizations like Black Business Boom are uniting the community to serve and invest in others by building the platform and ecosystem to provide access to capital, mentorship and resources to uplift and drive black businesses forward.

As the famous Gandhi quote notes, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

When we're uniting to serve and invest in others, we're finding ourselves and fueling our purpose while spreading joy, compassion, and kindness here in our community.

So where can you plug in and become a spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The Spark.

We look forward to seeing you next month and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [acoustic guitar chords]