Driven Leaders Podcast
The Driven Leaders Podcast shares inspiring stories from successful individuals across industries. Tune in to discover their secrets to success and unique journeys, gaining valuable insights and motivation along the way.
Driven Leaders Podcast
Making a Difference: Gina Cunningham and Sonia Lister on HomeAid OC | Driven Leaders Podcast
Welcome to the Driven Leaders Podcast, hosted by John Patterson! In this episode, we sit down with two incredible leaders who are making a real difference in the fight against homelessness: Gina Cunningham, Executive Director of HomeAid Orange County, and Sonia Lister, President of Jackson Tidus and a HomeAid board member. Discover how HomeAid, a national non-profit, partners with the building industry to develop affordable housing for families, seniors, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Learn how you can get involved, whether you're a professional offering your skills, a company looking to give back, or an individual wanting to volunteer or donate.
Don't miss this inspiring conversation about the power of community and the fight to end homelessness.
At Homemade Orange County we build a brighter future for those facing homelessness, and we couldn't do it without dedicated partners like Patterson Autos. Their unwavering support helps us provide shelter and hope to families in need. Thank you, patterson Autos, for being a driving force for good in our community.
Speaker 2:Patterson Autos driving community driving change.
Speaker 3:The first step is just raising your hand at your company and just take a little bit of time and see where you fit in and don't worry about it, because you'll find your spot. That's why we're here.
Speaker 1:Our whole mission is to go and build units of housing to make sure people have a roof over their heads, and I think that's part of what I love about the work that I do is I don't think about this as a job. This is just part of who I am.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Jon Patterson, and welcome to the Driven Leaders podcast, where we get the opportunity to talk to leaders both inside our organization and outside our organization that are making a huge difference, and the way we define leaders is people of influence, people that influence one, two, a team of five, or people that influence thousands, and I am so blessed today to have people that are outside our organization that I've gotten to know incredibly well over the last really, you know, five to 15 years, 20 years in some cases, and so grateful to have both Gina Cunningham and Sonia Lister on with me today. So and this is a first so most of our Driven Leaders are all done in person, and so not only is this a first for us to be doing a Driven Leaders on a virtual scenario, but also a first where I'm getting a chance to do two people at once, and for those listening, you'll really have an appreciation as to why I'm talking to both Gina and Sonia at the same time. So, ladies, welcome, it's great to have you here today.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john, great to be here, john.
Speaker 2:Thank you Well, so grateful, so grateful for both of you and all that you do. So, before we get going, I just want to let you both know and just affirm all the hard work that you are doing and have done and the impact that you've made on the community, and so super grateful for all of that. But let's have some fun informal conversation and, sonia, I'll start with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, you, your family, what you do for a living all that fun stuff.
Speaker 3:I'm Sonia Lister. I'm president of Jackson Titus and commercial real estate attorney by trade. I'm a Valley girl through and through. I grew up in Burbank with my parents and my brother and sister. I went to Burbank High School, graduated in the 80s before heading down to UCI. My parents this is a big part of my story, so I always talk about my parents. My parents met at UCLA in the 50s. My dad, a 6'5 English major playing basketball under John Wooden, ended up becoming an English teacher at Harvard-Westlake. And my mom she was an absolute rock star who literally broke barriers as one of the first women in STEM. She turned her math major into an incredible career as a mathematician at Lockheed Martin. And as for me, I've been incredibly lucky in life. I met my husband, glenn in the seventh grade. We started dating in college and we just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. And we have two amazing sons, henry, who's 24, and Max, who's 21.
Speaker 2:That is awesome and I a little side note I've known Sonia for a long time because their son Henry and our son Connor were best buddies in elementary school and it's been a great to watch your kids grow and just you know, the relationship that my wife Julie and I have with you and Glenn is second to none and so grateful to have you in our lives. And the funny thing is is we get to talking to Gina. I never would have met Gina but for our relationship with you. So thank you, sonia. Gina, how about you Tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again for having me, john. I'm Gina Cunningham and I'm the executive director of Homemade Orange County and that is a nonprofit that helps people experiencing homelessness, primarily through our development of housing and a lot of community outreach that I know John has helped with over the years. So let's see what's a fun fact about me. I grew up in the city of Orange, the same city that my mom grew up in. Interestingly enough, my mom lives with me and has for the past five years, and we just recently moved back to Old Town, orange and we are literally living on the street where we both went to elementary school. So it's fun to be back home.
Speaker 1:Another good fun fact about me is that I'm a deadhead through and through, so I'm a hippie helping the homeless and that's just who I am. Saw Jerry Garcia long before he passed and definitely enjoy just the people and the love and the camaraderie that comes around that type of music. It's kind of the same feeling I have at work. I've known Sonia now for 28 years, because I just celebrated my 28th anniversary at HomeAid just last week. So I have been grateful to have her as a friend, a colleague and a member of our board of directors, which she's on a year pause right now, but we always like to bring her back, so great to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, awesome, and I did not know that you were a gal from Orange and near the Orange Circle. You've got to be able to give me and every other listener of some great recommendations on those awesome restaurants that are in that Old Town, orange area, because there are so many great ones.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, john. I'm also a member of the Orange Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, so we just had a great meeting this morning. We've got a lot of great, vibrant community in the downtown plaza. Since I'm talking publicly, I call it the plaza, but those of us that grew up there still call it the circle, and we invite everyone to come to Old Town and really enjoy the old ambiance. I'm a proud owner of an old home in the Old Town District, and so it's great to be back.
Speaker 2:I love going and visiting there during, especially during the holiday season. The stores and the restaurants do such a great job. Every time I go by Chapman University I'm fortunate enough to lecture there a couple times a year and when I do I always get that nostalgic feel driving in through Old Town, orange. It's just a really special place and there's just not too many places like it. Forget about in Southern California, throughout the entire state. Just a blessing to our community for sure. Yeah, wonderful, so fun.
Speaker 2:Another fun fact right so I never would have known about HomeAid but for the fact that Sonia, once upon a time this would have been probably gosh, this is probably pushing somewhere between 15 and 20 years, 15 and 20 years ago said hey, we're doing this, this charity event, and I'm trying to remember where the first one was, but it might've been, you know, the first one that I attended. I don't know if it was at the Balboa Bay club or by the, maybe even by the spectrum or something to that effect, but, um, I just looked at it as a chance to go out and party with my friends and, sonia, you got a lot of us involved in that, and so talk to us about your involvement right. So you are a real estate attorney, you're the president of your law firm and you somehow made this real estate connection to HomeAid, and so I want to know how that all came to pass. And I'm sure a lot of people listening, but as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, you know my journey with HomeAid actually started when I was a young associate at my first law firm, morrison Forster. I've been at two law firms in my career Morrison Forster and now Jackson Titus and they were the law firm that originally created the corporate framework for HomeAid and I just kind of fell into it, picking up work and helping where I could doing legal work for homemade, pro bono legal work, and I was really lucky that my firm supported that kind of community involvement. Everything changed in 1998 when I joined the board. That was it. I was hooked for life.
Speaker 3:Gina calls me a lifer and that's for sure. And at first, I'll admit, it was just a great way to connect with my real estate clients who shared this passion for giving back of the true homemade model. And we team up on committees, plan these amazing fundraising events, invite our friends like you, and honestly it was a blast. But becoming a mom really shifted my perspective completely. I started seeing everything through the eyes of family and my heart just broke for the parents and families and individuals who had to seek shelter in our homemade projects. And, as you know, life kind of changes and my interests lately have really been with seniors, and I think it has a lot to do with my in-laws passing, and my parents too. But in any event, that's kind of my start and it's just been great.
Speaker 2:It's been a wonderful, wonderful road the outside to think outside the box. It's like we all get caught up in our day to day. We get working in business on a regular basis and oftentimes it's not looking at where we can use our skill sets like you have done, and thank goodness that you know your law firms have supported it, but you're able to provide that wonderful skill set that you have to help a nonprofit where people are so much in need. So you're an attorney, you understand real estate and and and boy. Gina, having somebody with Sonia's skill set on your board has got to be incredibly wonderful and certainly helpful for everybody that's out there. So, so, so, gina, why don't you kind of fill in the blanks? So homemade, so we kind of touched around it, but let's really dive into how you got into HomeAid and how it's making a difference in the community.
Speaker 1:Okay, Absolutely, and Sonia has been a huge part of this.
Speaker 1:As she talked about, she worked for the firm that started our corporate documents when the idea of HomeAid was actually born in 1988.
Speaker 1:We did a volunteer project for another nonprofit, through the Building Industry Association and its members, born because they were able to come in and do a renovation by reducing the cost of construction by donating their time and materials. And so HomeAid was formed out of that idea in 1988, and Sonya's been involved since the beginning and it has become a national nonprofit that is actually working through the building industry to go out and develop housing anywhere from emergency to interim housing to permanent affordable housing, because that is really what's needed to help people that are experiencing homelessness. So HomeAid that started here in Orange County started growing in the neighboring counties in our early days throughout the state of California and we've gone all the way across the country. Throughout the state of California and we've gone all the way across the country. We have 19 affiliates that are doing what we started here in Orange County to really help other nonprofits build their housing for a reduced cost. It's been incredible.
Speaker 2:So, for example, our connection with the Ronald McDonald House. So give everybody a, for example, so HomeAid and your relationship with Ronald McDonald House. How does that all fit?
Speaker 1:Well, ronald McDonald House was actually not a partnership project of ours, john, but I know that you have also helped the Village of Hope, the Orange County Rescue Mission, so that's a great example of how we came in when the Navy conveyed the land over to the city of Tustin years and years ago when bases were being closed, and we came in and helped the rescue mission renovate about six acres, there was existing barracks on that property. We built a new dining hall, a chapel area, and really helped bring that project to life for over 200 people that are experiencing homelessness that have been utilizing that space. Let me think now, since it's 2025, and I think we dedicated that in 2008, it's been operating now for what's the math on that 13 years.
Speaker 1:My boyfriend, the accountant, would be very upset that I put you together out of my head really quick. But it's because we bring the partnerships, the collaboration, together, whether it's government, industry, private individuals like yourself and I like to call it the magic that happens when we see a project get built for anywhere between 30 to 100 percent less of what it would have cost in the retail market to develop housing. So our talents needing real estate lawyers like Sonia to come in and help us with contract negotiations. She has taught me a lot about interpretation of the law in my career and, especially, as I've been our executive director for five and a half years, learned a lot from her. She is a very powerful, intelligent woman that I lean on all the time.
Speaker 2:I like to call her the velvet hammer. She's got such a smooth touch, but boy can she navigate her way around things. And here's to both of you and anybody listening. So I just became that commissary. The kitchen and the dining area. People always think about a rescue mission as being a less than scenario. Maybe we have an image of maybe a downtown slum type scenario, and the Orange County Rescue Mission couldn't be further from that. You walk in and it's a luxury apartment complex. The chapel is amazing, and you know, and I didn't know, how intimately involved HomeAid was in creating that. So to anybody listening, and to you, to Gina and to Sonia, I mean boy, the work that your teams did in creating that space has just been absolutely spectacular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think anybody who's interested in the work that HomeAid does should take a tour, should call Gina and the team and take a tour, because that's the work that Homemade does should take a tour, should call Gina and the team and take a tour, because that's the thing that gives me the most pride, I guess, or just makes me so happy when you take a tour of these places and you see, like you said, john, I mean, everyone is first rate and the care, the design, the you know architecture, the you know just the craftsmanship that goes into these, these projects are incredible. And then when you kind of, especially for the kids, when you come in and you throw in all the pillows and all the extra stuff that really make those places their home, which it's going to be for, depending on where you are it could be temporary, but it also could be for a period of time, like at the rest mission, it's just, it's so cool to see it really is. It just warms my heart.
Speaker 2:So yeah, gina. Tony Sonia just touched on something that I think so many people don't know. Oftentimes, when we think about people that are affected by homelessness, we have this image of this person that is sitting by the road looking for you know a dollar or what have you. But what I found is so many you know what is it? A third to 40% of all homeless folks are children under the age of 13. So can you elaborate a little bit on the whole family experience and not just so much it being at an individual level?
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, john, for giving me that opportunity. I mean, we see people experiencing homelessness on the streets and so that's what our image is, and I don't think people realize that we have thousands of people here in Orange County that are at risk or on the edge of homelessness. Family homelessness is bigger than we actually can imagine because families hide. So you might see that individual experiencing homelessness on the street. Families hide because they're afraid, if they don't have a place for their children, that someone might come and take their children, and it is a moment for me to be able to try to educate people that we've got seniors. Sonia touched on this earlier. We call it the silver tsunami in the nonprofit world because senior homelessness is increasing every year. I believe last year's count was an increase of 23%, and hence the reason my mother lives with me Now. She doesn't love for me to share that story, but it is very expensive to live on your own in any area of this world, especially.
Speaker 2:Orange.
Speaker 1:County, yes, and seniors are struggling having a fixed income If they can't quite make that gap meet, or they don't have a roommate or they don't have family to lean on. Homelessness is easy to land into if you don't have a steady stream of income that's meeting the demanding rents that are happening every day. So homelessness is not what we always imagine. Homelessness affects all of us and the only way for us to help end it is to really build housing to make sure that people have a safe place to live.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about different projects that you both are working on together. I know, sonia, you're a little bit of a hiatus right now, but so many of the projects that you have done you know. First, sonia, to you a couple of the projects that have really been passionate for you, and then to you, gina, of the different myriad. Because you know, when we talk about homelessness and projects kind of, I think most people think about it in the esoteric okay, there's some houses out there, but when you fundamentally see something that has made an impact, I think that goes a long way. Sonia, why don't we start with you?
Speaker 3:Because you were talking about a couple of projects, and I've been on the board for a long time, so I've seen a lot of these projects built, but the ones that kind of stand out to me are a few. So one is the Family Care Center, which is the first homemade owned project that we had. Our model is typically for years it had been until 2017, we either build or renovate projects, like with the Orange County Rescue Mission, and lend our support, facilitate the construction and renovation and so forth, and then actually turn it over to the nonprofit. It's a gift, it's a gift back to them. So the very first homemade-owned project was the Family Care Center and that's the first emergency shelter for families in Orange County and it's doing incredible and it opened in 2017, I think, or 2018. July, july, 2017.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's just been near and dear to my heart, because going there is just fantastic and that's for the people that don't now have to hide, honestly, and they can get help and then get to their next spot. The next is the Yale Center, which was the County of Orange project which came up during COVID, and that was a big, big project and that's where Gina really learned a lot about the law and we had this great partnership with the County of Orange, and Gina can tell more about the center itself, but it's an incredible place for truly like people who need to come off the street. It's a great place to go and get help and resources. And the other one is just sort of a fun one that's coming online next year and it's La Vida Village in Orange and it's a great three old historic bungalows in the County of Orange that Homemade has purchased the City of Orange, that HomeAid has purchased the city of Orange sorry, but the HomeAid's purchased from the city. We're renovating them, keeping their historic nature and adding ADUs on the back and that is gonna be for families and seniors to meld those two populations, to really kind of come together, which I think is fantastic.
Speaker 3:But the fun story is HomeAid has a fundraiser every year. It's a gala and an old one was Project Playhouse and we brought it back last year and had this big event where we had five playhouses I think that we auctioned off to the public and Jackson Titus bought the Barbie Dreamhouse which we it was a cool Barbie Dreamhouse I know which is amazing which we're donating to LaVita House and it'll be installed for the kids of LaVita House next year, hopefully sometime. So thank you to Jackson Titus for doing that, always a great supporter of Homemade, but that was a fun kind of different way of lending our support last year.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. Sonia, Thank you for the story on all three of those and I imagine for you and certainly I'll turn it to you here in a second you know, one thing that I imagine both of you have been part of is, you know, whatever that show, the extreme makeover, that guy Ty would say, move that bus, and the people just start, you know, just getting so elated and cried over all the wonderful things that's going on. So I imagine both of you have had a number of those experiences where you're opening up a house for the first time that the benefactors, the people that are able to use it, are just beyond thrilled and just can't imagine the wonderful things that have happened. So you know, Gina, you get a chance to do this all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, and those are my favorite days, john the day that we have the big ribbon and we get to dedicate the project and you know that people are going to be moving in. It is like that magic, extreme makeover moment. Move that bus. Because that's why we're here. Our whole mission is to go and build units of housing to make sure people have a roof over their heads, and there isn't anything that I love more. I do love the moment we put the shovel on the ground when we start the project.
Speaker 1:But when we dedicate the project, or just yesterday on La Vida Village that Sonia was referencing, we did a very small ceremony where, before we started drywalling, the ADUs and the actual old historic homes were gutted as well. The ADUs and the actual old historic homes were gutted as well. We signed the walls, we signed the beams with notes of love and hope and it brings that sense of calmness and just gives that moment a special moment for those families. As Sonia talked about, with seniors is her thing and this is really going to help our senior community. Orange is a very old community, as we talked about at the beginning of this, and we're trying to keep at least anyone that will have these affordable housing units as their home to be orange-tied, so they're tied to the City of Orange. Somehow They've lived in the City of Orange, they grew up there, and make sure that we can keep our residents safe and housed.
Speaker 2:And that's got to be a pretty special thing. Like Sonia was saying, you have both older residents and younger residents coming together in the same spot, so that's got to be a neat community feel as well.
Speaker 1:It's going to be great because the three homes are next, obviously next door to each other and we've taken down the walls, and it will have a whole community feel, from a children's playground to a playhouse, to an outdoor barbecue area, to a gardening area. I think we even have dreams to have cornhole out there somewhere. So it'll give our seniors, who may not have anybody else in their life but themselves, the sense of community. They'll have family again. They might be able to babysit and share their wisdom with the younger generation and thrive until their end of days.
Speaker 2:So that's our hope and we certainly know there'll be plenty of kids cruising around the Barbie dream house dedicated by Sonia's law firm, so that will be truly. I've got a funny story. We were doing that project Playhouse, kind of judging. I was popping in there and some little girl was on the top bunk of one of the beds in that area and she basically gave me a stern look and said, hey, this is my Barbie moment right now, get out of here. So it was. That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:That was nice. Special thank you to City Ventures for building that. Good job. Keep, keep, good job, sonia. Yes, I'm having lunch with Michelle later. She'd be mad if I didn't say so.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you, city Ventures. Michelle's also a Passport member, who I believe is a lifer too, so wonderful.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. Well, we talked about the previous projects. We talked about some of the projects that are coming up. So what's next? I mean, you know how far out do you plan these things out, gina? Is it something that you're looking at a project a year, five years, 10 years down the road? I just don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we actually have another project that is going to start being occupied next month and that is FX Residences and that's a 16-unit, basically an apartment building, John. That is for chronically homeless adults, so it's single-bedroom units. This is for people that are literally coming off the street with the highest vulnerability, with the highest vulnerability, and a chronically homeless adult is actually defined to have a diagnosed mental or physical disability or an addiction or dual diagnosis and has been experiencing homelessness for more than a year or multiple episodes that make up a year of experiencing homelessness. So this is another homemade owned project that will be a first of its kind to really help this population and we're excited to have that occupied here in the next probably few weeks and then it takes years. We've got a lot of applications.
Speaker 1:Some projects have been adopted already to work here in Orange County and then we have a lot of applications at our committee, which is made up of board members and other volunteers. Our housing committee really goes out and vets see if we have the resources to be able to adopt it as a homemade project and we really like to start working with that nonprofit as early as if it's just a piece of land, help them get through entitlement, really help them work on the best design that they can on the property that they have to build. That is going to be, you know, centered around the population that they're serving. So I would love for developments to be quick. They often take a really long time but by HomeAid coming in and really helping nonprofits and our team bringing the expertise to the table, we help those nonprofits really be able to do that in a much faster process and obviously at a reduced cost. So we have a lot coming in the horizon, a lot of units to be built.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's where somebody like Sonia, with her expertise and the other board members that, whether it's law or building or what have you, they have that vision from their day-to-day operation to be able to help you with stuff that's going to be coming down the pipe. You know six months, 12 months, you know 18 months and what have you, Sonia, have you found that to be the?
Speaker 3:case? Yeah, absolutely. And when Gina talks about the housing committee, I mean these are. This is a group of professionals made up of architects, engineers, contractors from the best companies in Orange County. These are mostly board members, but also volunteers outside of our board who just come together and these are top people in companies. You know my clients. It's really great to have that support and you know that's what makes HomeMade so great is all these different industries coming together, practices coming together, whether it be law, construction, you know, architecture, engineering, environmental, whatever the need is, homemade has that support and just leveraging all those different expertise together was basically, how you know, the foundation of HomeMade and how it was created, but it's continued all these years and it's just fantastic to see that model work.
Speaker 2:And Sonia, I'm going to tee up a question to you based off of what you just said, and that is getting involved, right? So, whether you're an attorney or an engineer or a building construction guy or gal, how does somebody get onto the board and how did it happen for you? I mean, obviously it started with the law firm that you're in, but you see people coming on all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's so many ways to get involved with homemade and I love this question because it reminds me of where I started.
Speaker 3:And if you're a professional, if you're in law, real estate, in the construction industry or really any field I mean any field the first step is just raising your hand at your company and, you know, getting your company involved, getting yourself involved.
Speaker 3:I've been fortunate enough to have the support of Jackson Titus, and not only in, you know, supporting me in providing pro bono services for the firm, but also, you know, volunteering and providing financial resources and just getting involved. You know, I think, starting with your company and I think that's great the real magic happens when you join a committee and that's where you really get to learn what HomeAid does. There's a lot that goes on and there's a lot of good that it does, but that's where you'll meet other professionals and who might share your passion for giving back. I found my closest connections within HomeAid, both personal and professional, just through my committee work and it's one of those things I always tell new board members coming in like just take a little bit of time and see where you fit in and don't worry about it, because you'll find your spot.
Speaker 2:That's great and, Gina, not just the professionals like Sonia that have joined your board, but there's other volunteer opportunities for people beyond board members that could be helping HomeAid in so many different ways, whether through work or donation. Help listeners understand how more people can get involved.
Speaker 1:Great. Thank you, john. So I believe that you've been involved in some of our Essential Drive collections. We do a big diaper drive around Mother's Day to really collect essentials that moms and fathers need to make sure that their babies are safe and dry. So we've collected. I think last year, including all the wipes, we collected over 3 million items to be able to give back into the community to those nonprofits that are serving families with children. We've also done sock drives. We've done toiletry hygiene item drives.
Speaker 1:We have volunteer opportunities at our emergency shelter in Orange where you could come and maybe tutor or mentor a child, put together a fun event for them, bring a different meal than what they're used to eating every night and maybe plan a little cookie decorating party. We will have more opportunities at our permanent supportive housing project that's going to open for chronically homeless adults next month and then, when La Vida Village opens, we have a vision to be able to do maybe community events every quarter and really just help support the families on their journey to self-sufficiency. So we have lots of ways that people can get involved. We always need help with our fundraising gala. We also have a 24-hour giving day on April 23rd where we try to raise $175,000 in 24 hours and we need peer-to-peer fundraisers. If you have a wide network, if you're an influencer, please connect with me. Gina G-I-N-A at HomeAidOCorg H-O-M-E-A-I-D-O-CO-R-G, please connect with me and I will connect you to the right place. Find your passion to really help people that are unhoused.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome and you know, we touched on a myriad of different people that could be involved, whether it's somebody like Sonia or an engineer, or a real estate attorney or somebody in construction, right down to providing diapers and helping out financially and being part of that community and providing support for those that are so much in need.
Speaker 2:What I hope is from our conversation, not only are we bringing attention to a wonderful charity, but challenging those people that are listening to say, hey look, I'm looking for something. This could be that something for me in a number of different ways, starting small and growing it big from there. So I hope that our listeners are able to take away gosh. You know I've been looking for just this and just this could be a perfect home aid contributor that isn't there right now. So that is so great. As we, as we bring this to a close, just I'd like to. I'd like to ask one last question to both of you, and that would be any last minute thoughts for for just anybody listening, and Sonia, I'll lead with you, and Gina Gina is the head of the program I'll have you close it.
Speaker 3:So, sonia, any any last minute thoughts for anybody that might be listening. Yeah, you know, after all these years with Homemade, I keep coming back to something my mom showed me, which is everyone has a story worth hearing, and I started as a young attorney just trying to help out where I could. And here I am still learning and growing from every person I meet through my involvement with HomeAid and through people and through my interactions with people like Gina, who is just an amazing person. If there's one thing I want listeners to take away is don't wait for the perfect moment to start making a difference. Just do it. Whether it's HomeAid or any other organization that speaks to you, just do it and show up, be present and have some fun doing it.
Speaker 2:Amen to that Gina close me out? Did Sonya just tee that up for you.
Speaker 1:Perfectly, I love her to death, and I think that's part of what I love about the work that I do is I don't think about this as a job. This is just part of who I am, and my mother shares a story, since we've been talking about our parents, that she'll say out loud is most children would bring home stray animals. Gina always brought home stray people, and she's right. I have brought many people home, even for just one night, that were experiencing homelessness, or a friend that I learned had nowhere else to go but living in a motel, and at the time I had no idea that that's actually a definition of someone experiencing homelessness if you don't have a permanent nighttime address. And so I would leave your listeners with this, john.
Speaker 1:Inherently, even myself, when we see someone on the streets that's struggling, want to wonder what did they do to get themselves here, and I want your listeners to always remember that anyone you see experiencing homelessness has experienced some form of trauma in their life that has brought them there, and it was not necessarily their fault that all of us, or many of us, could be one paycheck away from losing everything. We experienced that in the Great Recession, families that had degrees, great jobs, lost their jobs, lost their housing, and so, instead of maybe wondering or judging what brought that person there, wonder how you might be able to help them, even if you look them in the eye and smile.
Speaker 2:I hope that everyone that is listening and watching this gets out of it what I did, and that is the hearts that both of you have for those in need and those people that we often make judgments on that are a stereotypical homeless person just aren't that that the drive and the support and the going above and beyond that both of you and your teammates have done to to help the homeless throughout Southern California and beyond is is so admirable and I'm so grateful.
Speaker 2:And the reason you know why we and I'm so grateful and the reason why we do this is to hopefully give somebody a thought that they could be more for somebody else than just themselves, because so oftentimes in our world we're so worried about what's happening on the day-to-day with each and every one of us that we don't consider how we could be helping others and oftentimes we have that void that could be filled just by getting involved. So, so grateful for each of you and you are so wonderful Driven Leaders and I'm just so grateful to have both of you in my life and I'm grateful for all the wonderful things you do and so grateful for John and uh.
Speaker 2:so we're grateful for john, hope you all. Truly. I am, I'm honored to know both of you and I am so excited about what you do and what you have done, what you are doing. So, to each of you, uh, thank you so much for, for taking the time out, um, and being part of our first virtual and and two person podcast at the same time, and and kind of working through the nuances of that. So, thank you and just thank you to each of you for what you have done, what you are doing and what you will be doing, because that is truly a person. You are both, each individually, a person of influence, not just one person at a time in the process, impacting hundreds, if not thousands, along the way. So, thanks to both of you, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to join me today. Thank you, john. Thank you, john.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to today's Driven Leader podcast with Gina Cunningham and Sonia Lister and wow, two ladies that are true Driven leaders, people of influence, and it was great hearing the story of how Sonia got involved as a board member into HomeAid as a young associate.
Speaker 2:Now she's the president of her law firm and they're having such massive impact as other professionals engineers, construction people, what have you are able to help as board members along the way. And to Gina Cunningham you know, in that not-for-profit business, her heart for the homeless and making an impact and understanding that homeless people aren't necessarily that person that you're sitting by the side of the road. They're people that have had a trauma that put them in that place and you, me, everyone listening can have a big impact, whether it's using your professional services, donating diapers or anything in between. So if you're looking for some place to drive and use some of your talents, this is a wonderful place to consider. And if you like what you heard today, don't forget to like, share or subscribe so that you can pass it on to somebody that you know and we can make more Driven Leaders out of the people that we know. Make it a great day.