Homeward Indy
Homeward Indy
Episode 30: Introducing Bryan Ball - Project Manager at CHIP and the Newest Member of Homeward Indy Podcast
When the staggering truth hits that 71% of families in Indianapolis shelters are Black households, it's impossible to ignore the call to action. Bryan Ball, our guest and newest member of the Homeward Indy team, shares his expertise and powerful mission to reshape this grim statistic. With the goal of slashing homelessness in the Black community by 35% come 2025, Bryan, a project manager at CHIP for priority populations, draws from his own experiences to illuminate the journey from shelters to stable living. Our conversation traverses the expanse of systemic barriers, emphasizing the need to switch from a crisis mindset to the security of a home and the critical role of community collaboration in making meaningful strides.
The episode culminates with a heartfelt nod to Bryan's multifaceted talents, as we not only recognize his admirable work against homelessness but also his vibrant contributions to the performing arts. We welcome Bryan Ball, whose dedication and artistry are integral to our vision at Homeward Indy, as we forge connections that extend beyond the numbers and into the hearts and homes of those we serve.
because I was, too, one of those individuals that was knocking on the shelter steps door black homelessness in Indianapolis in particular shows up differently and we have again, as Brian said, 71 percent of the families in shelter are black households and that's egregious.
Speaker 2:The real main goal is to try to move the family out of the crisis mindset into being able to breathe, and the main part of that is having their own place to call home so they can have a space to breathe, and it's certainly not able to breathe inside a shelter wall. That fear is always still there, lingering behind me, about going into homeless again, because it can happen to any one of us. One false move.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Homeward Indie, a bi-weekly conversation where we meet the people working to end homelessness in Indianapolis and hear their stories. I'm Elliott Zanz.
Speaker 1:And I'm Steve Barnhart.
Speaker 3:Hello Homeward Indie listeners. Welcome to episode 30 and welcome to our newest team member. Brian Ball is the project manager for priority populations at CHIP and he is joining Steve and I, elliot Zanz, as a member of the Homeward Indie podcast team. Today, steve and Brian discuss Brian's role, background and passion for theater. I am even present to participate Without further ado. Welcome, brian. This is a friendly reminder that the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they belong to or represent.
Speaker 1:Well, today's an exciting day. We get to announce a new member of our team here on Homework, indie. Our guest today, brian Ball. Thanks for being with us, brian. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3:We're so glad you're here.
Speaker 1:We are excited to hear about what your relatively new role at CHIP. Is that correct? Yes, how?
Speaker 2:long you been with CHIP now. Oh, I say a little over three months now. Started the beginning of the year, january 8th, okay, and so approaching over three months now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the honeymoon's over.
Speaker 2:Oh, a little bit, the honeymoon's still later.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, good. Well, what we want to try and do here today is learn about your role with Chip, but also learn more about you, because we'll see how this progresses in the future, but we're looking forward to you playing a part on Homeward Indie as well. I'm glad to be here, thank you. What are your responsibilities with CHIP?
Speaker 2:Well as one of the newer members on the team, as a project manager. My role on the team is to help reduce the homelessness population, especially in the black households, by 35% by 2025. The black households by 35% by 2025. And the priority populations at the top of the list. There's many, but at the top of the list is the families, the black families that are in our shelters.
Speaker 2:The shelters have about 70% of black households in the shelters that are waiting to get permanent supportive housing or housing of some sort, that have been sitting waiting for months, maybe even longer than months, maybe a year that are needing to move up out of the shelter into their own space with their family.
Speaker 2:And so I'm part of helping that movement happen by working with a lot of the community partners, especially the shelters, to bring them together at a safe place for them to really be transparent with one another on what their needs are, what has been working for them and what has not been working that's causing this slow movement going on within the shelter, even on a bigger level than just the shelters. How can the whole collective effort come together to make this movement happen? And so I'm pretty much providing, you know, the backbone support from the COC of Indianapolis to help convene these regular meetings and interactions with the shelters, and also getting to know the shelters even more in depth with trying to build trust with them, because I was, too, one of those individuals that was knocking on the shelter steps door.
Speaker 1:You have lived experience and you know what those families, those individuals are facing. Yes, and we want to get to that, because we think that's a lot of what you really bring to the table with Homeward Indies. You've only been at it three months, but what is it that needs to be addressed? That's creating this issue.
Speaker 2:A more refined approach with getting vouchers out to the families in the shelters, more vouchers being distributed among the shelters For right now we only have five that we're getting from IHA so far that can be shared amongst the shelters that are participating. So five a month. The goal is to increase that number by the time this summer approaches. On getting more vouchers distributed amongst the shelters, but right now trying to refine the process of getting those vouchers out to the families that really need them. But not only that, but to also figure out more creative ways outside of that, when there's not a whole lot of vouchers available on how to best serve a family to move them out of the shelter. As far as maybe mental health help or financial coaching or career coaching.
Speaker 2:What I found so far, and even previously before Chip, is that the mental health and the career part of it is one of the two big hindrances on why a family might not be able to move forward. There's been some trauma that has related, that has impacted their movement, and also, too, the lack of not a whole lot of affordable housing. If a career or a particular job is not paying enough to support the family, what is that family supposed to do if it's not enough money going out. And a lot of times, you know, a lot of places provide financial coaching or financial literacy. But it's not so much about just the financial literacy, it's also about having enough financials to even budget it out or even have a savings financials to even budget it out or even have a savings.
Speaker 1:A check can only go so far, if you're making $14 or $15 an hour.
Speaker 2:That's not enough, yeah, and I know they say that small amounts add up, but in the day and time we live in, that's not always enough time to have those little amounts build up to something big.
Speaker 2:A lot of times families need a significant amount of money, built up quickly to make true impact in their life and that really feeds on what they're being paid as far as income in their careers or if they're even in the career that they really want to be in, to grow in that career.
Speaker 2:A lot of times a lot of families will accept positions and roles that they're not passionate about and they only stay there for a short period of time and move on to something else. Or a crisis happens and the employer is not very empathetic or receptive of what's going on in that family's life and they end up losing that job and they're back at square one again. So it's a constant back and forth of oh I'm on the right track, and then one false move happens and they're back in crisis mode. So that's the real main goal is to try to move the family out of the crisis mindset into being able to breathe, and the main part of that is having their own place to call home so they can have a space to breathe and it's have a space to breathe and it's certainly not able to breathe inside a shelter wall even though even though it might help for a night or a few months, you're still not completely breathing, none of us could flourish.
Speaker 1:I don't think, if we're honest with ourselves in that environment. I mean, it's great that those places exist, but they aren't meant to be full-time homes.
Speaker 3:No, and I also want to shout out to Child Care Also.
Speaker 2:Hi, Elliot Zand is here, actually in the conversation today for anyone coming on my apologies for not not mentioning your name.
Speaker 3:I see how it is I'm so excited to be here and to welcome you, brian, into our team um this is the team.
Speaker 3:This is the team here's our team, we're doing it thank you, elliot um, very welcome I. But yeah, I just want to shout out child care too, because that's another key piece of families as defined by our HUD homelessness definition. Here we're talking about households with at least one minor child, um as part of that household. Another piece of this is that families have to remain in shelter in order to not be separated from their children.
Speaker 3:And that is another huge barrier to folks being able to access different resources, access childcare. Transportation is always an issue. All of these factors compound for families.
Speaker 1:So say that again, Elliot, I want to make sure I understand, or Brian, jump in With that. They have to remain in the shelter to stay with their children.
Speaker 3:Well, they have to remain sheltered. So children cannot be unhoused. So if anyone finds a family sleeping in a car, for example, and they have minor children with them, those kids will be taken by the state. It's another way to punish poverty. Right, you get set, you get your children taken away. Of course we agree, we don't want any kids sleeping in cars. I don't want any adults sleeping in cars.
Speaker 3:No one should be unhoused, obviously, but that's not what we're dealing with. So make sure like this is also one of the reasons that family homelessness is less visible, the kind of homelessness that folks generally think of. You think of. You're usually a single older white male there's usually an implication of substance use.
Speaker 3:There's all the stereotypes around that. Those are the folks we see visibly most often on the street corners standing in the median trying to get access to resources. Black homelessness in indianapolis in particular shows up differently and we have again as b 71% of the families in shelter are black households and that's egregious. But being in that shelter situation keeps them together but also makes it hard because the shelters don't necessarily. Some of the shelters have different childcare options. Like, I'm not saying none of them are helping with this. They absolutely are doing their best, their best. But having consistent child care while you're trying to go job hunting, while you're trying to establish yourself and then trying to get enough money to pay for a place that you can stay with security deposit and rent, it's very expensive.
Speaker 3:Most folks in housing couldn't afford to get new housing right now in indianapolis, our rent has also increased 31 in the last couple years, and it's higher than it's increased more than anywhere else in the last couple of years, and it's higher than it's increased more than anywhere else in the United States. So we are feeling it hard.
Speaker 2:Yes, most definitely. And the goal with with a person who is a family who is renting a place. A lot of times we forget about the mindset of they want to be homeowners too, but they don't always think that they will be able to even own their own home, and I think we have kind of lost that mindset of renting. It's only supposed to be a temporary thing for something that's more permanent. It's not supposed to be running Now. If that's a choice that the family or individual has, that's fine, but the rent is so high now there's no true equity being built up for that family because all the rent is going towards the actual owner of the property.
Speaker 2:And back to what Elliot was saying is a child care does play a big role in that. If there are not a whole lot of child care options, a lot of times a mother or a father might not feel comfortable with leaving their child any place. And if it's not quality child care, then there's another added on trauma that's being happening if they're not sure about who's watching their child. And then there could be another uh involvement with uh dcs as well. Um, and dcs is just another layer of even more uh pressure on that family to try to find work, and so a lot of times the pressure causes a family just to kind of just freeze a bit, yes, and then there's no movement, and that's where I've seen a lot of that freeze happening is when DCS isn't involved.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying to find work, I'm trying to find a place for me to stay, and not all the time the social capital is not always there for a family just to stay with a relative. Sometimes the relative just doesn't have enough social capital of their self to support a family or a relative. Um, or there's some trust issues with friends. It's one thing, you know, uh, having friends that are supportive, but it's another living with a friend, yes, and making a living situation work, especially when both parties might have some barriers they're trying to work through. Um, and I'm know, passing on from my own personal experiences, but also from experiences that I've heard from families over the years is that I thought we were friends, but it's a whole different ballgame when you're living together and trying to make it work.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, cohabitating creates all new challenges and all new risks too because if you're moving your children into another family's household or another set of humans household, you don't always know what's going on with them, if they're safe or if their boyfriend or their brother is safe for those kids to be around. It's just a lot to navigate and especially for, I would say, the black community that's been, you know, systemically disenfranchised for years and years and years. It's really hard for folks to have that extra capacity, money, space to offer, even if they want to. It's just really setting everyone up for failure and it's not reasonable.
Speaker 2:I agree, and the family structure is not the same as it used to be, you know, back in the 50s and 60s, where you had multi-generational households that are supporting everybody in one household.
Speaker 2:We do see a lot of them in the Latinx community, where you have the whole family unit supporting one another. But that's not always the case now in other different communities, especially nowadays, it's such a high-paced, fast-paced environment that we live in now that's not always a grandparent or a great aunt or uncle that is there to watch the children or support the family, or there might be too much conflict, with communication barriers or misunderstandings that will cause too much tension in the household, especially in the black community. So it would be nice that we saw that family structure from how it used to be in the 50s and 60s, where families did kind of come together and really support one another. But it's not always there, because sometimes there is a lot of death in the household, where a family has passed on, or there's just no family connection, strong ties anymore due to, you know, family removing themselves out of the individual's life because of misperceptions, of bad decisions that were made, out, of being pressured into crisis situations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I recall hearing from some other family shelters that another big issue out there is finding that housing that is large enough for a family to even if they wanted to and had, you know, maybe multiple generations, they just don't exist. When it comes to getting support, that is true.
Speaker 2:That is true especially when you have children that are of, you know, different genders. You know you have to make sure that there's an appropriate number of rooms for that separation among children that have different genders as well. And then if a deposit is $4,000, that family might not make it to even get to that deposit, to even get to the place, even if they are approved to move into that place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even if they have the money to make the rent do they have the money to get in the door, and there's also the fact that if it's using vouchers or any hud funding, there's a two heartbeat per room rule so bigger families require housing that, frankly, doesn't really exist, um, and so I really am hoping we can keep pushing and advocating.
Speaker 3:I know some communities have had a really great success with direct cash payments to families. Here's twelve $12,000. Find something that works for you. Go, and they haven't had folks come back. It's been really successful, and that's what I would love to see here, if we're talking about creative solutions.
Speaker 2:That is true.
Speaker 3:Because people need money, and especially the black community has been disenfranchised from generational wealth in a very targeted and ridiculous way, and the way out for those families is to just give them money. What if we just gave people what they needed to survive?
Speaker 1:Wild.
Speaker 3:But we have created an increasingly inhospitable housing economy to the point of extreme crisis, now for everyone.
Speaker 2:And also to add to that, elliot, too, when you are, you know, giving that assistance to the families to move forward, actually explaining what this assistance can do for the long term yes with housing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes with housing navigation, because a lot of times, um, when there is assistance that does come out, the family is so oh, I got through that.
Speaker 2:This was a journey just to get the key and to get this assistance. Once they get into the house, a lot of times they need a break, a mental health break. For a while that might be, uh, for some families that might be a week or two to a month. Uh, it might be longer than that, depending on what trauma they're holding. But I think sometimes where it's missed when assistance is given for that big hurdle is how that assistance can impact the family for the long run on what this can look like for them. Sometimes we're focused on just a crisis at hand as we forget, like, by doing this now, you maybe can even own a home down the line with this, if you maintain, put these things in yeah, and how to start working, yeah yeah, and so that was always the good thing about working in diversion is those conversations did come up on what what life can look like for for you a year from now if you maintain this housing.
Speaker 2:You know what your credit score could look like by being a renter, what your career development can look like, your mental health can look like Sometimes. Those conversations I always had because we're constantly in crisis mode, just trying to get them to that first step of being in a safe place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think really good call out on the recovery time, because I definitely saw this with folks that I housed when I was in case management. I would house someone, they would finally be in a safe space and then they were just like, oh yeah, they get to take that deep breath. And also someone who's been in survival mode and compacting their trauma down with a press for years. When you stop and have enough breathing room, sometimes that all comes right back up and hits you and I think we really need to start acknowledging that.
Speaker 3:People need time and they need time doing nothing. They need time resting, like they have years of rest to catch up on, and that's not something we can magically fix or hand wave away like. That takes support of a completely different kind that we haven't like. I mean, that's a whole other realm from where we currently are as a system, but we should be talking about it because when we're trying to figure out who's going to succeed in housing or not, I think the folks who have the support and the ability and enough space, due to whatever confluence of circumstances, to genuinely rest and re-approach life are going to do much better because they're not flinging from crisis into and taking all of the skills that got them through all the crises and not taking the time to consider how they're going to impact, because those skills don't always translate and it's like I remember I got out of this situation.
Speaker 3:Maybe I was threatened so I was really belligerent and I was scarier and I got out of that situation. You can't do that with your landlord. It's not going to work for you, but they. But that's not how the brain is wired. And we really need to have so much more grace for folks when we're helping them out of this?
Speaker 2:Yes, most definitely, cause it's like a new normal, and that was a thing, that a situation, a experience that I had was what is a new normal for me? Because a lot of times they'll feel that what the life they've been living is the the only normal way, and so it looks differently. So you have to really think what is this new normal for me? Because it doesn't feel like it's it's right, even though it's good, it doesn't feel like it's different it's. Is this really for me?
Speaker 3:yeah, you're waiting for the other shoe to drop right you're like. This feels fake. Like the last time I felt some sense of safety, it was a lie so now you're still on edge. Um, and yeah, what does? What does what can it look like to like re-reconceptualize normal, like that's a huge thing and that's beyond just even psychology, like so that's just your neurological wiring as a human animal of like.
Speaker 3:Here's how I'm responding to things exactly, and how I'm reacting to stressors and being, and like it takes so much practice to rewire your brain to respond differently exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1:So if I were to summarize this so far as brian, you have a huge job ahead of you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's just one part of it. That's just one part of it. It also is made up of other different parts that have not yet been tackled yet. Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So let's now take a step back a little bit and talk about what brought you here, what brings you to this point? Obviously, a lot of trust and faith has been put in you to tackle what you have ahead of you. What life experience, education, etc. What got you here?
Speaker 2:Well, it's been a long journey to get to this point, but I can start off by saying what got me here is about this week, and next week and actually May 1st will be the 18th year anniversary of when the experience of homelessness happened with me. It was around this time of year and I was going to college full time at IUPUI. My career vision at that time was being a journalist and a news anchor, but a crisis happened that I had to pivot and take a step down from full-time college and become a caretaker of a ill parent that was in in their 40s. My mother had struggled and battled with a lot of complications with diabetes over the years and was very heavily involved in dieting and exercise for a long time.
Speaker 2:But as you get older you kind of slow down and you're picking up. You're taking on a lot of work and a lot of life stresses, and that does relate back to the single parents. My mother was a single parent and so a lot of the trauma and a lot of the navigating through the system of trying to have a stable house I was not exposed to. That was not discussed in my household. It just when conflict arised, it was fixed. It was no discussion, so I felt that my childhood was quite carefree coming up.
Speaker 1:But she was in the background doing all this.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and I did not see the trauma that she endured until I became a teenager and noticed a lot of tears, a lot of heartache going on, but there was always a stable home there. But I know I would get tidbits from her saying you will see what I'm going through. I'm really trying to prevent from you seeing this. That's why I'm pushing you so hard in school and being involved in extracurricular activities and pushing you in your education to keep you going like this. And you know she managed to finish her college degree while, you know, taking care of me as a single parent and then working full time in a managerial role, which was not her passion because her degree was in liberal arts, but that was what she was doing to provide that constant stability in the household. I'm sure you are familiar with the term Alice assisted limited income restraint. Alice is the mothers that kind of fall in the poverty level that they're on the cusp of getting ahead but not quite, because the income is not completely there. So if you go make too much money you might lose your child care and other subsidies, and so she was always on that cusp like making too much. So she did make too much income where some other resources were not available to her but there were still. There still was a need there. But she was able to pivot and and and manage and worked even harder without that assistance but working long hours, and so that was causing a lot of uh issues on her health. But, um, and she kind of put her work and me first before her health and health wellness. And so by the time I was in my early twenties she had went into the hospital and you know she was recovering but she ended up passing away at 48.
Speaker 2:And during that time I did decide that I was going to stop school because at that time I inherited a home, a car, property tax and all utility bills that fell on me Now as a 22 year old. So my life went from being a full time college student to being a full time adult trying to run a household and do adulting, a full-time adult trying to run a household and do adulting. And so a lot of times what I see in a lot of young adults and youth, if there is not a strong support system, they will get misguided. And so I was one of those youth and young adults that was misguided. There was a lot of advice given to me that was not really in my best interest and I made a lot of decisions when it came to my finances that caused me to fall into homelessness. So by the time the winter of 2006 approached, I was sleeping on a kitchen floor at a friend of mine's house, and so I remained on that kitchen floor all through winter and then managed to um kind of barter for a room to rent.
Speaker 2:Uh, while I was living there and in during that time, I was, you know, involved in a lot of domestic violence, situations that were going on within that household with the family, and also, as well, dealing with identity issues as far as my sexual identity. So all that was going on, with that trauma, and also physical health problems and mental health, with depression, and so it took a few years to get out of that. But I know that being respectful and also communicating and advocating for myself which was something that was a very hard thing to learn really helped when it came to trying to find social capital, being aware of advice and also seeking out resources that I was not familiar with growing up. So it took several years to get to a point of stability and it had been for a lot of different community centers and the centers of working families like Goodwill, which was when my life really started to turn around, because I did have a mission coach with Goodwill at that time, eddie Rickenback, oh yeah, yes, who's still there. Who's the director of workforce development and coaching? He's still there, but he was my coach at that time and that's really what pushed me to look into case management, coaching and human services is by my interaction with him at Goodwill pushing me while I worked there at Goodwill, goodwill pushing me.
Speaker 2:While I worked there at Goodwill, I was able to go to school at Ivy Tech and complete internships and also start to save money. Even though you know the pay might not been where I wanted to, it was a start and so I may remain consistent and clear minded and with my landlords that I work with at that time you know, rent was not that high I mean, I was only paying 350 at that time and then the highest was just like 600 and something dollars a month. But really working with your landlords and finding good landlords that really truly cared about their tenants really helped. And so I think, if it hadn't been for a combination of the services that are out there in the community, and also INHP, the Indiana Housing Neighborhood Partnership. I wouldn't have been a homeowner today, so I was able to, you know, be a first time homeowner oh, you went through INHP.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's really cool. We should talk about that another time. I'm intrigued.
Speaker 2:And Goodwill Industries and having good social capital at school, at Ivy Tech and Indiana Western University, and also through faith-based organizations, that really helped to build that social capital. That's what got me on a stable track. Now, of course, that fear is always still there, lingering behind me, about going into homeless again, because it can happen to any one of us one false move. So that's what drives me constantly, and what's gotten me to this point is to understand that there are still people that are dealing with this every day that I would love to see get on a track of stability, whatever that looks like for them. That's what drives me, and that fear of being homeless again. It's something I can't let go of.
Speaker 2:So that's what drove me to get to this point and get more involved with CHIP in this full on way. And getting more involved with CHIP in this full on way, it's because something has to be done, because it's just becoming a very, very heavy. It's becoming very heavy, especially seeing a lot of young people who are homeless, youth and young adults who have no guidance, and so by the time they get to 30, their life is so disarrayed because of that guidance. And so, as long as I have a breath in my body. I will continue to keep being involved in human services and trying to make an impact on the community in any way I can, especially in in housing, because without housing and your physical and mental health, I, I did you you can't function. That's my opinion of it yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Housing is fundamental.
Speaker 2:It's everything yeah yeah, and it's just. It would be nice that, uh, if we can see more employers understanding that.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know it needs to be a societal priority in a way that is going to require a big culture shift, like we've got to reprioritize because there is one. There's one way out, but we don't have to live this way in the meantime, exactly like we can do better taking care of each other exactly.
Speaker 2:And then and you just hit it right there on the head you know whether you're a leader in your workplace or you're just a staff or all leaders, and that that that staff would like to be on a different level to in their life and progress and breathe and and have vacations with their families and have a nice home they can come home to and have savings that are set aside. You know, I don't. I I always had a difficult time, you know, trying to accept, oh well, that one person has gotten to this point of success in their life. Well, what makes that person so much more worthy of getting, of getting to that level, than any other person, when everybody wants those things?
Speaker 2:So why is it that we have to have the system where it's keeping people down here, like, oh, you're not supposed to get up here, we're all supposed to rise up to the occasion, um, and so that's what drives me is, I would like to see people where I'm at today, um, and then remain that way, because the fear does linger on with me every day. Every day I wake up in the morning, um, that fear is there will. Will this be the day where I return to homeless again? So, um, that that's my story with it and that's what got me here today. Uh, that drives me really grateful.
Speaker 3:You are here, thank you we are.
Speaker 1:you're gonna bring so much um to the table for homeward indie um, and that's's just a little piece of what you're going to be doing here in the future, and we really look forward to your involvement with this. What are your dreams in terms of how you might contribute to Homeward Indie?
Speaker 2:My dreams to contribute is to bring more individuals with lived experience on here to voice what they've been through, to voice what they have done to get to a point of stability, to what stability looks like for them, something to show that they can be transparent, speak up about what does this really look like to them? Because we can, you know, discuss things and and assume, but you won't know until you really ask that individual. What has this really been like for you? Because each individual story is so different. Each individual story is so different, and so that's my dreams is to bring more people with lived experience like me to to be more open with what they've been through, to bring awareness like this is what I've been through. This is what worked for me.
Speaker 2:This might not work for you, but just to know that we're not alone, because a lot of times when those situations where you are experiencing those crises and homeless, you feel as though that you're by yourself and that there's nowhere to turn. You feel trapped, you can't trust anybody. But I would like to help build that trust with people and bring awareness and even individuals who are not working in the homeless uh, the homeless system to understand. This is a big deal and that's what's impacting other areas of social services. Is this issue with homelessness, um, because a lot of times people want to like, oh, that's too complicated. Yes, it is kind of complicated, but this is the root cause, uh, on why individuals might not be able to retain employment. There is something going on at home or there might be a lack of home, um, so that's that's where my vision is, and also bring awareness to and bring in other partners in the community that are contributing to this movement of getting individuals out of poverty as well. So that's my vision and goal. That's super.
Speaker 3:Which is fantastic. We are very here for that, thank you, and I'm excited for collaborating with you on figuring out the best way to do that and honor folks respectfully and non-exploitatively because I am very here for that, thank you. We'll make it happen. Exciting things to look forward to.
Speaker 2:Most definitely, most definitely.
Speaker 1:Well, elliot always ends our closing segments on this by talking about the journey. The journey we're on, and this is part of the journey for all of us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it absolutely is Real quick, though I want Brian to talk just a little bit about your awesome theater work, if you want to share. Oh yeah that's something you've been doing a lot.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up, elliot. So, yeah, before you know, the crisis happened, my passion did lie, and still does, in theater and performing arts, and so as a teenager and as a child, I was in performing arts. But when life crisis and life journeys intervened and changed my path, it kind of it pushed me to put my passion aside. Now, since I'm in instability now, uh, theater has came back into my life and my passion for it.
Speaker 2:So I am a part of the indie theater community, um, and that is another way I cope, uh, and it's it brings me into a happy place, um, so I've been in quite a few shows here in uh, indeed, the last three years since I've been back into the Indy community theater scene. And my current current show that I'm working on now is called Platanos and Collard Greens, which is discussing how the Latinx community and the African-American community have a lot of commonalities, especially when there are two young people that are coming together in a romantic way, and so it's also addressing some racial perceptions from different cultures coming together, especially with the Dominican population and the Puerto Rican population, some of those racial biases that are going on, and then also, from the African standpoint of it, some of those racial misperceptions on the African American end of that. So that show really tackles into the blending of of two ethnic backgrounds, wow so that sounds fascinating.
Speaker 3:You're in it deep.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's, that's uh, not not light stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're working with yeah, we uh, we show. We had our opening performance this past friday, april 19th, at ball state university. We did um and then it's being uh done in anderson. Uh, it was in and Anderson this past weekend and this upcoming weekend, this last weekend of April in Anderson and then it'll be here in Indianapolis at the District Theater on May 3rd, 4th and 5th. Friday, saturday and Sunday. Ok, two performances on Saturday, 2 pm and 7 pm at the District Theater, but a talk back after the 7 pm performance for the audience to ask questions about that, because the show is very informative about educating on the different ethnic backgrounds.
Speaker 3:That's so fantastic. Thank you for the recap.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I'll shout out I have seen Brian perform and he is truly phenomenal and worth going, so if that's available, listeners, go check it out. Thank you, ellie. All right, thank you all for joining us on this super exciting team expansion episode of homeward indie. We're honored to welcome you on our journey homeward, brian. Thank you, brian, thank you.