One Woman’s Journey From Burnout To Community Impact

What happens when a safe room in your grandmother’s house becomes the blueprint for community change? We sit down with Tonya Pulliam, executive director and founder, to unpack a two-part mission: housing and life skills for young adults aging out of foster care, and a rebooted thrift storefront—Sarah’s Den—that quietly meets urgent needs on the sidewalk every day.

We start with Virginia’s journey from grim outcomes to the Fostering Futures program, which extends support through age twenty-one. Tonya explains why that extra runway still isn’t enough without stable housing, trauma-informed counseling, and real-world skills like budgeting, employment readiness, and navigating leases. The conversation turns personal as Tanya shares how her grandmother’s humor, standards, and “earn your keep” ethos inform staff culture and the way they celebrate small wins that build long-term confidence.

The story behind Sarah’s Den is as human as it gets: a man sleeping on the steps, a request for shoes, and a flood of neighborly generosity that outgrew a computer lab and became a sustainable thrift model. We explore how the store funds outreach while keeping a daily, no-questions-asked rack for anyone who needs clothes now. Tanya also reveals how relationships with developers unlocked entire buildings, creating safer, supervised hallways where young residents can stabilize without predators at the door. Along the way, she talks about burnout, the long arc of impact, and the unexpected messages from former mentees who return as thriving adults.

If you care about foster care reform, transitional housing, homelessness, and community-led solutions, this conversation offers practical insight and a grounded path forward. Listen for actionable takeaways on building resilient support systems, staying open to better-than-expected outcomes, and pairing compassion with structure to turn shelters into launchpads. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who works in youth services or housing, and leave a review to help us reach more listeners who want to turn care into change.

Transcript

Meet Tanya And The Mission

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me podcast of Gift the Fluff and our Drupal Real Entrepreneur, Real Drupal, and the Unfiltered Drug. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me podcast. I'll say it again. One thing I love about doing these interviews is I get to meet awesome people, great organizations that they work with. And oftentimes when you guys see us on the podcast on camera, we're literally meeting for the first time. So today is one of those cases. Today we have Tanya on the podcast. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

I'm well. Nice. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Absolutely. So give everybody a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Sure, sure. I am Tanya Pulliam, and I am the executive director for um a nonprofit called Sarah's Din slash the Unique Resource Center. But I'm also the CEO of a program called the PICF Training Institute that works with youth aging out of foster care.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Okay, nice. So kind of break both of those organizations down.

The Foster Care Gap And Fostering Futures

SPEAKER_01 1:03

I'll try, I'll try. So PICF is the parent company that is a for-profit organization that works with youth aging out of foster care. We place them into um apartments and give them, help them get life skills to learn to become self-sufficient.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Um so lots of counseling and job employment skills, you name it, everything to be a young adult on their own.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So we do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Let's park it there for a minute. So you don't know this about me yet. I used to work in mental health field for like 10 years. Cool, cool. So talk to us about that issue where, because I was primarily dealing with uh, you know, younger generation under 18, and it seems like the state, the government on a national basis is like the second you turn 18, it doesn't matter what's wrong with you mentally, you're on your own. Talk about the gap that's there and how you guys are providing that service.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

So many years ago, about maybe 15 years ago, that was the case. That was the that was what happened. At 18, um, people aged out and they were left to offend for themselves. And our outcomes for Virginia were really, really bad. Um, we were second to last in the country for positive outcomes for youth aging out of foster care. So a new initiative came in um probably in the last 10, eight, about eight to ten years. Um, it's called Fostering Futures that really invest in those young adults, giving them an opportunity to stay in some services from 18 to 21.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Still not the greatest, but it gives it it's better than it was. Yeah. So these young adults are allowed to stay in services, they opt in.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Um 21 mentally, they may still be like 12.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yes, and and a lot of a lot of trauma and delays that play into that. And you know, school moves and you know, you you miss a lot of educational moments, you miss the stability. And so at 18, yeah, chronologically you're 18, but really you're not.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Um, so even at 21, it's difficult to be on your own in this economy to live with no support.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So um we are that support right now. There are maybe 10, 15 programs like this in the state, maybe 20. Wow. Um, it's grown. Um when I first started that part of the program in 2017, there are about maybe seven, eight that we can name. But it's it's getting better. It is getting better with in terms of um people wanting to do this work. And it is difficult work. Yeah. It's difficult work.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Now that's that's one reason I got out the field because like I'm like, I don't know how I might compare and being a mental health worker to a police officer, but I'm like, I don't know how cops go home and just turn it off because just being a mental health professional, there are some days like I'm going home and I'm like, dude, this is emotionally drank. And it's hard not to, you know, you come home to your family and like what happened throughout the day doesn't spill into your homework.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Bleeds into your life.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

And that's really kind of how um, you know, we I got into this because I was a director many years ago for um a foster care agency, and we placed kids in foster homes. And I became a foster parent after I left that job.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And so it it just stayed with me.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

So you got a big old heart. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Something like that, or maybe I got some screws loose too. I don't know. But um, I became a foster parent and my foster daughter, she's just my daughter now. Yeah, um, she's 33, and um her children, one of them lives with me, and I'm I I I'm raising her fully. So I'm a parent through that. So it is part of your life. When you're in it, you're in it.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah.

Burnout, Boundaries, And Staying The Course

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Um, and sometimes you do have to take a break from it, you know. I took a break for a little while and tried, I did marketing for a few years. Um, because I just like I can't do this. It is draining, it can wear you out. But when your heart's in it, you give back in some way. Um, you know, you're helping people, whether you it's your job title or not.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yep. So let's go back further. So, like now hearing a little bit more about that from you. Um, where did this all start? Give us your background. Like, how did you even get into this field? Where did you go to school? Where'd you grow up? All that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Yeah, so I grew up on a small farm in rural um Charlotte County, Virginia. Nobody knows where that is. Um, but it's it's a couple hours from here.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

And uh farm girl. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

So like chickens, cows, all that.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

But my great-grandmother had chickens, and my grandfather he did hogs, so there were pigs and all the farmland. And I was raised by my grandmother.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

You had that good bacon growing up.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah, the good sausage, the real sausage, right? I'm not not a fan of killing time, though, because you know, it's just a whole lot.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

But um, I grew up, my grandparents raised me. Um, and so that's kind of like my first introduction because I very well could have been a foster kid.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

And if it wasn't for those two people that said, nope, I got it, we're gonna take take me and my sister in and raise us like they're like their own. Um, it was great. And then my parents are still involved, they they got themselves together, you know, and I have a great relationship with both of them too. But my grandparents are my foundation, which is um what Sarah's Den is named after. Sarah is my grandmother, and the safest place for me and my sister when I was growing up was her den. So I'm getting a little emotional. I wasn't expecting that today. But um, Sarah's Den is a thrift store right now um on Broad Street, and we do a lot more than thrifting. Okay, that's just that's just the thing that gets you in the door. But um, we work with the homeless population. Um, like I said, the safest place was for us was in her den, and we're doing the same thing for people who are down to their luck. We do a free giveaway every single day that we're open Monday through Friday where we're giving away clothes. We don't ask questions. If you need it, you can take it. Yeah um but we're also selling stuff on the inside, so we need you to come in to purchase when you can. But if you need it, you it's on the sidewalk like a sidewalk sale, and you can just come and get it. We don't ask questions.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Um I got two bins of clothes that I've been looking to do something with. Well, those are yours on the way out the back.

Roots, Grandmothers, And The Den

SPEAKER_01 7:05

I can put them in my car right now. Yep. Um, because we like I said, we it it there's a uh a nice thread for how we're able to do it. We're either giving it away, we are selling it um at the lowest prices you can ever see.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Um, or um we're able to just repurpose it uh and make sure that it gets into the hands of people of people who need it the most. Nice people who have uh fires. Um I had a lady, she was running by, literally running by the store, saw what we had and stopped, and she stuck her head and she said, I'm just fleeing my abusive husband right now, and I have nothing. And she grabbed some clothes and she was like, God bless you. She kept going. I'm I didn't even get a chance to respond. I'm like, wow, okay. Jeez impact. And I think that's the most important part for us is to be impactful um and being um just transparent with people, like this is what it is. Yes, we're gonna sell some of this stuff because we gotta keep the lights on. Absolutely. Um, but we do give away a great deal of it.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Let's let's go back to the den. Yeah. Um, so what was it about your grandmother's den that you found safety in?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Okay, so Sarah Poyam, if you even met her once, you would you would know that um she was hilarious. She had a great sense of humor, she was caring, she was no nonsense.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Um big mom is like that no more, eh?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Exactly. She could tell you something in love, and it's like, huh, make you think. And you're like, okay, I need to make a make a change in my attitude or the way I'm presenting myself or how I'm saying something. You know, I don't want to come off as that person. And she said it in such a way that it wasn't offensive. Yeah. It was probably funny. Yeah. And you're like, but there was truth in that, you know. And so she she's always instilled in my sister and all of all of her kids to be self-sufficient and to earn your keep. And she used to say, Amanda don't work, don't eat. Like, it's like, oh, okay. You know, like we have to do to to do things for yourself. Um, you know, she told me I was I was driving in the car with her, I was probably like 13 years old. She pulls over on the side of the road and she said, You have to always have your own money. And we're it's not even having a conversation about this. You always need to have your own money. You don't depend on a man to buy things for you. You have to have your own. And she put the car and kept on going. I'm like, where'd that come from? But I learned like those were nuggets that as I got older, I'm like, you can't depend on anybody to do things for you that you can do yourself. Yeah, of course you're gonna have have help along the way. That's normal. But I'm not gonna do, um I'm not gonna look for you to do things for for me that I can do for myself. And I've always had that in my mind. And I've instilled that in my kids, um in the kids that I work with. You gotta do it for yourself so you can um be sufficient and self-sufficient and live on your own, live a good life.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah, that's a big part of I think a society that we're missing right now in terms of we we don't have the matriarch of the family anymore to drop those life lessons and gems. Like, I mean, they they'd give you a sermon, put a plate of fried chicken in front of you, like feed your soul, feed your spirit. Like, we just don't have that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Nope. She was a she was a cook, she was a great cook. So um she would bake, so she made the best rolls in town. And to this day, I've never put a roll in my mouth like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Don't don't let my uncle hear you say that because he he got the best rolls of cooking.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

All right, okay. I I would take uh that uh I would like I take him up on that. My grandmother passed away in 2017, and no one in our family, except my aunt, she tries it. God bless her, but it ain't that it ain't that. Nobody got the recipe down like her. So um, you know, just missing some of those things in our lives. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

What were what were the jobs that you had prior to even getting to this hill? Did you go straight into mental health?

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Oh, so um yes, I did actually. So I I'm a graduate of Virginia Union. Um, went to union for my undergrad, left there, and went to um UNC Chapel Hill for my grad program. I went advanced standing. So I graduated from Union on Sunday, moved on Tuesday, Wednesday, took practice test on Thursday, and was in the classroom on Friday.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Jeez.

From Classroom Detour To Social Work

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yes, it was insanity, okay? It was insane. Um, and from there, um, I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, had a job offer lined up um by February. Um, graduated in May, went to work the next Monday. No break. All my friends were on vacation. Yeah, they were in Cancun, and I was at work. So um, it was kind of wild. And so I've I've been working in mental health from that point. I was a supervisor. Somebody crazy enough, fresh out of school, gave me a job to be a supervisor of an intensive in-home program, mental health program. And I've just kind of went through that, um, moved around. I was in Lynchburg for a while.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Oh, that's where I'm from.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Really? How about that? Okay, okay. I was there for about four years or so.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

What company did you work for in Lynch?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I worked for the Alliance for Families and Children.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

I didn't work for that company. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Well, I think they've changed their name now, rebranded, so they're not there anymore either. But I worked for them and learned a lot there. It was that's really kind of where I understood like the nonprofit world because I worked for a nonprofit there.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

So we worked with pregnant and parenting teenagers.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

So it's I've kind of been in this most of my career.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

What got you, like at what age were you like, this is my calling? Like for me, I always feel like uh one of my favorite things is that the most expensive real estate in the world is a graveyard because so many people go six feet under with their dream still in them. And I feel blessed just that I didn't recognize what I want to do for my life until I was 30 years old, which to me is pretty late. I'm like, man, if I had figured this out when I was 20, this empire would be a whole lot better than it is now. But I come to the point where I realize I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be at this moment in life, and you know, we'll continue to grow from there.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

So for you, when when did you come to this realization that like this is the place for me?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well, um, I was probably well, it was um I did my freshman year at college in uh at Union, and I wanted to be a teacher. So that was the plan. And I bombed out. I like the first year, like it was so bad. Like my grades were so bad the first semester. Um, actually, the whole fourth year over summer I got the little pink paper in the mail and said, Don't come back, you need to take a little break and get yourself together.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Yep, I was on academic probation my whole first year of college.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yep, that was me. And um, I took a break and I did some volunteering. I enrolled at Longwood trying to figure it out. Oh my gosh! That's crazy. So I went there for a semester and dropped out. I said, this is not it. Education is not what I want to do.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

What year did you drop out?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Um that very that first semester and a half, so that first year that I was there, and I was volunteering at Prince Edward High School. This is this is middle school, Prince Edward Middle School, and this is where I re realized what I wanted to do. There, I was shadowing some teachers, and it was a class like 26 kids.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

And we were doing lesson plans and got to walk around and helping people with their work, and there was one kid that just wasn't, he wasn't firing all the pistons, and I would spend all of my time with him. And the this teacher, she said, look, you got 25 other kids that need your attention. Yeah, you can't focus on that one. And I'm like, Yes, I can. Yeah, this is not gonna work for me. And that's when I looked at what social work was, and I'm like, this kid has so many situations going on at home that he was bringing in the class, and I knew about him, and there was nothing I could do about him in the academ from the academic role. I said, Nope, I gotta do something about it. So that was the turning point, and that's when I um went into social work.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah. I think I just saw a story yesterday, Teddy Bridgewater, former in a former NFL quarterback. Um, he coaches, he's a head coach for a high school football team. And he just got suspended because he provided some of the kids with food, transportation. Like these are kids that were in need, and he just went in his own pocket and helped them out, and he got suspended from that job. Like academia, for some reason, the way that's structured, like they don't enable you to help people, right? Which is the opposite of what you would think everybody that gets in that role is what they're looking to do.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Right. A lot of limitations. A lot of limitations. So that was my turning point, and I was like, okay, this is what I want to do. And I once out once I got into the field, I had straight A's.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

4.0 from that point forward. And I was like, wow, I found what I was supposed to be doing.

Measuring Impact Over The Long Haul

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yep. Yep. When you're being forced to learn things that you have absolutely no interest in, that's why I still go back and forth on. We were talking on the way up here, like um, like we both have four-year-old kids right now, and um, my oldest is five, and I'm just like thinking of like how I'm gonna coach them along the way in terms of because I went to school along with dropped out of the junior level because I was like, I want to be an entrepreneur, right? And entrepreneurship was a cuss word on college campus at that point in time. Right. So I was like, there's no point in me continuing to go into debt like to get a piece of paper that I know I'm not gonna use, so I'm out. Um, I tell people all the time, I think there are only three positions that you have to go to college for. You can be a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. Yeah, outside of that, this whole business I built, I learned all this off of YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

I didn't know anything about market. I didn't know how to turn these cameras on, nothing. Just learned it all from YouTube. But I and I go back and tell people, you don't even have to go to college to be a lawyer. You just have to pass the bar. It's probably really hard to pass the bar without going to college, but a whole show was made off of that called Suits, where the guy just he was a genius and read law books and was able to pick that up.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Um, with what you do, uh and especially in the Virginia area, um and how many years have you been been operating these businesses?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

So um 15 years for PICF, and um it'll be 15 years. No, we just had 15, so it'll be 16 years this December. Nice. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Well, first off, congrats. Because like you're getting past, I think, third year and seventh year are the biggest years from the year.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yes, and those were the years that I almost shut it down, too. Really? Like I'm about to shut it down. Yeah, I'm getting over the hunt.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Just having a conversation with somebody about this yesterday. I fully believe at this point in my life and career that 90% of success is just not stopping.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Like, you are always gonna come into heart. Jeff Bezos has hard times. Yes. Like, but if you just keep going, there is always something on the other end of that hill. Absolutely. Yeah, just fully convinced of that.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Just move, keep moving, keep moving.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

So over that 16-year period, um ask you a very personal question. Do you feel you've made a dent in this community from the work that you've been doing from the last 16 years? Because that was the part where I had to step away from that industry because like I felt like no matter how much I was doing, because there were some clients where it's just like, if I could get them to brush their teeth twice that week, that was a massive goal. Right. And I'm just like, I I I personally need to see more progression to feel like I'm doing something. Do you feel that you and your organization have made a dent?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

So it's funny you should say that I was driving in to to the here today and um my daughter's in the backseat. Okay, so it's like I know that like it's like I can see the tangible effects of my work in you know what we're doing. But I got a Facebook friend request from a young man that I used to work with many, many years ago. And I used to teach him to read. And at the time he wouldn't get it. It's like okay, I'm not I'm not sure he's gonna make it out of high school. And you don't see those things in the moment when you're right there, hands-on, like you don't know. There's no way for you to know what's what you're doing if it's gonna make an impact in their life, but you keep feeding, you keep watering, you keep encouraging, you don't stop your your part of the journey. What they do with it is totally up to you.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

This is on you. This is how I feel fulfilled, knowing that I did the best job in helping them to brush their teeth today, in giving them an apple today. Like I did this yesterday. Like, you need an apple because I want you to learn about eating fruits and vegetables. I don't know what's gonna happen after that. Yeah, but I got a friend, Facebook friend request from this kid that I'm like, hey, I don't really I don't even recognize you because you're now all grown up, like a grown grown man, and he's meditating and he has videos where he sends these videos, he has follow he has people following him where he's sitting and meditating and doing mindfulness. And I'm like, this is incredible! Like these are things. Things that I'm talking about, just a little blimpse in the moment when he was nine, ten years old. Now he's 28, 30, almost 30 years old, and it's a whole thing for him. You don't know what your impact is. You just have to do your part.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And that's how I feel about it. You know, I've had kids, sometimes you don't get the um feedback. It doesn't come back to you. Oh, yeah, that's right. But sometimes it does. And I Facebook was one of those ways. Um, I had a young, a young lady, she said, You helped me to read in a mentoring program many years ago. She has a PhD now. I'm like, I did that? And she remembers it. And she says, I just want to honor you today. Da da da da. I'm like, wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

You're a scientist.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So I mean, I do you don't see it always, but um, even just the small things, acknowledge them for where they are because that's just a stake. You put put a flag here, celebrate it, move on, and then people have more obstacles that they have to go through, but you don't know what they're pulling from. So you're talking about the matriarchs, right? And not having them um to drop those seeds. I do consider what we do. Yeah, you do consider that. We do we're we're dropping that. And um I try to instill that in my staff so that they can do it as well to the best of their ability, because I can't do it all.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

And this is their journey too, to learn those things.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

So, yeah, that's how we make impact.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Those moments, we're talking about me going to play golf later today, and like one thing you said there reminded me of the game of golf, it's like you can be having the worst round. But it's that one shot that you hit that's just so clean, you picked it perfect, lands right on the green, and in that moment you're like, this is why I play the game.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

This is why.

The Accidental Closet That Became Sarah’s Den

SPEAKER_02 21:46

And it's those moments, like getting those messages, because I've had some kids come back years later that I've mentored, and it was like, yeah, number one, you don't recognize them because they were little boys, little kids when you're when you're working with them. And they've come back and be like, hey, Mr. Sam, like I got I'm married now, like I got this going on, man. Like the time you took with me when you were working with me when I was like 13, 14 years old. Man, I just appreciate you so much. And like, you feel in those moments when you're working with them, like they don't get it. Like they listen to me. But like it's planting those seeds where like those are things that's the the interesting thing about the human brain is like all the information we receive, it it's stored in there somewhere. It is, and it's just waiting for that right moment in life where you have to pick it out and actually use it, and you're like, oh, that's what that lesson was. That's it. Absolutely. Talk about the the other organization. So you're talking more about the for-profit. What about the nonprofit?

SPEAKER_01 22:38

So um, Sarah's Den, we started that when we moved, okay, so back up a little bit. Um, it's a reboot. Sarah's Den is a reboot. Back um in 20, 16 years ago when we did um PSEF, the way this even came about, um, even a thought, um, we were on 18th Street, um, right there on broad, that little area by the the Exxon. Yep, yep. Had a little cute little office there. We were I was doing consulting. That was the that was my plan. I really thought when I when I came into um I jumped I jumped in this because I worked for a marketing firm. We were doing marketing working with hospitals and children's hospitals, and um we got laid off. And I said, I'm for six months I'm gonna go consult. That's what I'm gonna do. So for six months I consult, then I go back into the real world. Yeah. That was the plan. Well, um, what ended up happening is during those six months I had more work than I could even handle. I had to hire people. And then we got an office space. So we're down 18th Street, broad down there in Shaco Bottom.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

And um coming in, we're doing consulting, you know, not worrying, worrying or even thinking about um the community that we were in, which was our fault. So every morning I was coming in and there was a homeless man laying on my stairs. And I'm like, I pay$1,800 a month for the rent here. This is not what I'm looking for. That's uh the immediate thought. But there's nothing I can do about it because I'm actually in his home right now. This is where he sleeps at night. So instead of um, you know, calling the cops or something crazy like that, I would go to that McDonald's right there. I'd get a breakfast sandwich for me and a coffee, and a breakfast sandwich and a coffee for him. He didn't never spoke. I just sit at there and walk on in my building, go and do what I needed to do. Um, had some interns from VCU and they stepped over him one day and they came in and like, Miss Tanya, I'm laughing because I'm like, Oh, Miss Tanya, there's a homeless man on the outside, and we don't know what to do. I said, Well, did you speak to him? It was one of those summers, it's like a hundred degrees outside. And I said, Well, get him a bottle of water and let's go talk to him. And they're like, uh, okay. And we did, and we started talking to him, and he was he was non-verbal, um, clearly in psychosis, but he pointed down to his feet and I couldn't understand. I'm like, what is he trying to tell me? I pointed out to his feet and I looked at his feet, and his toes were on the ground. He had slit a hole through his sneakers because they didn't fit. And his toes were swinging over. And I said, Oh, you need shoes. But he couldn't tell me.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

So immediately I go to Facebook. Facebook has been my friend. I said, I have a friend here, he needs some shoes. I'm guessing between a nine and a ten, does anybody have a pair of shoes you can bring down? That turned into a snowball. Somebody's like, I don't have 10, but I have 11. Um, I don't have this, but I have that. Does he need this? Does he need does he need that? People start dropping stuff off at my door every day. And so we had a little corner in our in our cute little office that was designated for the homeless population and what we were doing. That snowballed into a whole room. And then it took over our computer lab. It was wild what was happening. The computer lab was extinct. It was like we're not even doing that anymore. So we started doing these giveaways on the street every Wednesday, I think. We did them every Wednesday. We partnered with another organization and they did a feeding. So we had clothes, they had food, we're giving away clothes, we never asked questions, we're just doing this. This was all a part of just goodwill, right? But it became bigger than my consulting firm.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

And it was crazy. So it's like, okay, this is taking over. I can't afford to do this because all my time and energy is now going to this, and I can't do this. So we closed it down. We just, I said, I'm not doing anything.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Consulting down.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Closed the no, we closed the closed closet down.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Oh, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Closed the cloud, closed closet down for a few years. It's like, okay, that was a thing in the past, a lot of lessons learned. We helped a lot of people, but we're moving on.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yep.

Securing Housing And Building Capacity

SPEAKER_01 26:32

We moved our office to in Rico for a little while. All these things are going on. Long story short, we ended up coming right back downtown to another office here. And the office space, the apartment buildings that we have on the front of it is a storefront. And we're leasing the entire building. And so we had 10 apartments and the storefront. It's like, what are we going to do with this? And it was like easy. But this time we're going to do it smart. We're going to be a lot smarter than before. And now it's thrift. And we have some income coming in because before there was none. So we have some income coming in, and now that's how Sarah's Den got its reboot. And it's like, okay, this is what we're going to name it. Because before it didn't really have a name, it was just the closed closet. You know. So it that's how we kind of um re-rebooted that, and it has been great. The last I think we're going into year five for Sarah. That's amazing. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

See, a big part I'll big thing I want people to take away from that story you just shared is you you were open to whatever was coming your way. Like when the right opportunity you said, if if I can do this, I'm gonna help, and we're gonna go this direction. And by allowing that into your life, it blossomed into something that you didn't even expect. Like, too many people get like laser focused and like this is what I gotta do, this is how I gotta do it, versus like sometimes you just gotta let the cards lie as they may. Like, let's roll with the flow, see how things end up. If this works out, it'd great. If it doesn't, it doesn't, we move on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Exactly. And and that that that truly is how a lot of things are. Some things don't fit um into what you're trying to do and don't force them. Um because if it's meant to be, it will be.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

And you know, I I'm a believer, and it's like, you know, when I spoke when I spoke to God, like this is what we need. And the I went, I went to some developers and I said, we need uh to be able to contain our young adults so that in these apartment complexes they're safe and we can monitor, monitor them, and we don't have other people that are preying on them. It would be great if we could just have a hallway. That's what I asked for. The small of my parts of my mind said, it's a hallway with what we could have all of our units on one hall. And and the developer says, What about a whole building? And I was like, say what now? And it was like they were renovating a building, it was in process already, it was ending, it was on the ending side, it was prepared. Look at good and we walked right in.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

And it's like, what? Yep. And we just went into our second building that same way um in the Manchester area.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Same way. So we got eight additional units there.

Hard Truths, High Highs, And Real Support

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Love that. Love that. That's great. As we close this up today, um, I want you to leave us with one note. What's one thing that you want the listeners, the viewers to under understand about your story, understand your mission, or maybe just a tip for their life if they're looking to pursue something, start something on their own. What would be your advice to them?

SPEAKER_01 29:31

My advice would be to um be open to the possibilities of um be open to the possibilities that are out there and don't limit yourself. Um, but also be prepared.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Be prepared for the ups and the downs because there are some really, really high highs that can really take over and you're like, this is the way it's. Yes, but there are gonna be some really that as equally as high there are some lows. Um and have some vetted supports.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Not the new folk. I mean, that's all it's fine and good, but you need somebody that's gonna be there through the ugly parts too. Um, that's gonna stick there with you and be um by your side. My sister is that for me. Um, you know, that those ugly we've been together for uh all our lives, you know, the good, bad, and ugly, but you know, somebody who can handle it, you know, and be okay with with when you cry and or when you're crying out or when you're angry, you gotta have somebody that's gonna be there to um pick you back up because those lows get low.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Amen to that. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

It's it's it's not um always peaches and roses, but it's definitely worth the journey. And it's it's that it's a journey.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yep. Yeah. Love that. Love that. If people want to reach out to you, they want to support, where can they go to get more information?

Where To Find And Support The Work

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Absolutely. Two ways you can reach us um for the P I C F that's the Young Young Adults program, that's you can go to our website. It's the P I C F dot com. Um if you want to reach out for our our nonprofit, that's Sarah's Den, S A R A H D E N dot com. Um, check us out. We're on Facebook, we're on um Instagram. You can Google us, Google my name, I pop up. Um, yeah, it it's we'd love to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. Appreciate you being here today.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Absolutely. We'll catch you guys on the next episode.