Skid Row To CEO Ft. Pastor Troy Vaughn | Counsel Culture Show

Once again, it is an honor, privilege, and a pleasure to join you all. And, uh, my esteemed guest, who truly is the highest class of civilization, uh, sitting with us here on our platform, "Council Culture." Because, you know, it's not about canceling one another, it's about counseling one another. And this is a safe space and a brave place for us as men to feel together, reveal together, so we can heal together. And this brother has done all that and is doing that each and every day, really fighting a good fight, walking the walk. Um, and honestly, just, just truly the highest class of civilization. Uh, it, it's an honor to know him. Um, the president, and as I say, from skid row to CEO, he's the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Mission. Uh, but also a man of faith, a true man of God. The one and only, Pastor Troy Vaughn.

Thank you, my brother. I appreciate you.

Yes, sir. We're doing well, man. I'm really trying to, um, stay on assignment.

Yeah, yeah. That's what you said. That when, when you stay on assignment, God gives you the alignment. That's right. You dropped that knowledge on us last night. We was hanging out. And I mean, just the freshness of what you're doing here with "Council Culture" and really giving an opportunity of free expression is really powerful, right? And I think, um, we need more, more of this kind of dialogue. We felt so much healing last night when we was at the Soul House, yeah, specifically talking, uh, with people from our community about mental health for black men. Yeah. And it was powerful. And your testimony, I, I know you ain't talking my testimony, man. Your testimony. And that's what I want to share with, you know, our audience today, man. Because truly, you are living the life of, uh, not only redemption, but just really, it's a dream, you know what I mean? For all that you went through. I mean, being a veteran, being someone who come up, has come up through the streets, and an unconventional upbringing. And I mean, literally, as I said, to be a person who was once on skid row, living on skid row, to being the CEO, literally coming out of a cardboard box. I used to sleep on Crocker and 7th Street. And, and I remember, you know, sometimes I had to dig through trash cans to eat. And my whole life had just kind of came to this place, um, you know, when I got out of the Corps. You know, my father and I, we were estranged. And, um, he died. And he was found dead in Centinella Park, um, in Englewood, with a needle on his arm in a porta-potty. And I was at home on leave. And I had been in the Corps now for about three years. And I was at home on leave. And I answered the phone from the coroner's office. And they gave me the news to give to my mother. And the wail that came from her, I snapped. And I felt like I was never going to have an opportunity with this man to kind of reconcile all the pain that we had went through coming up, and the lifestyles we had to leave, and what we had to sacrifice. And I started to just swirl out of control, man. And I actually started using to kind of stuff my feelings. I started drinking heavily. And then it kind of transitioned from there. Um, I, I ended up getting out of the Corps on, um, I went into medical. I had a psychiatric break. I started self-medicating. And I really became nomadic, almost schizophrenic on the streets, man. I had drug-induced psychosis. And I wasted away all of the money I saved up and everything. And I was just living in a condition that was very disappointing to myself, but to my family. And I lost everything. I really lost everything. But my mother kept coming out, you know. And, and then one day, when she said she can't come out no more, that was my rock bottom. I had already been homeless. Wow. And, and my mother would always, whatever shelter I was in, I would drum, train cars, I would be in state, hitchhike, be in other states, living in shelters, living in. I was, I remember one time I was living in a pig farm, man. A pig farm. Yeah. I woke up. I was in. I woke up. I would go to. That's a prodigal son story, ain't it? I literally was going to sleep with flies on the wall. Wow. Right here, like this. That's how close I was to the ceiling. And I would wake up tripped out because they would all be gone in the morning. Wow. And I said, I just can't do it. I walked out. But they would work you for a meal. Wow. And I was willing to do anything just to eat. And, uh, including digging in trash cans and whatever. And this was after being a veteran. This was after being in the Corps. Back then, when you came out, there was no real service connectivity at all. And panhandling, doing all the things that you see people doing. But it was, it was, I was invisible. And that hurt me too. Because I, I really served my country. And I came out and it was just like nothing. And so when God touched me at the mission, I met some really good people. And one of the people that I met, her name was Dr. Lula Balton. And she's my godmother today. And she's being honored with Bishop Blake tomorrow night at the West Angeles. Cuz she helped found the West Angeles CDC. So I'm going to the 30-year celebration tomorrow night. Wow. And, um, but she instilled in me the value of education. And I became a clerk when I was living in the mission. She was a director of education. And, um, and she said, you know, you need to go back to school. You're gifted, you're talented, but you need to go back to school. So we fought. And I lost that battle. And I checked in at Trade Tech. Okay. And I met my wife. Wow. And she was sitting in front of me. And I didn't realize, I was so scared of education and everything else because I had literally burned, blew my vessels in my brain, man. It was gone. And, um, I remember when I made my covenant with God, I said, if, if you save me and give me your mind, I'll serve you for the rest of my life. I tell you, God literally gave me a new brain. Wow. He literally gave me a new brain. And I went, I met this wonderful woman named Darlene. She was sitting in front of me. Um, we got married after knowing each other for six months. We celebrate 30 years this year. Wow. And, um, congratulations. Yeah. We have beautiful children now, grandchildren. And, and she just, boom, she put me through school for 10 years. She was working for the phone company. Um, and we graduated, um, Trade Tech. And she says, you know what? You keep going to school. I keep working. She was making most of the money. I was working temp jobs. I was doing. You had the Obama story. You. She was Michelle and you was Barack. 10 years, put you through. I said, one day, I'm going to retire you. Wow. I said, I said, one day I'm going to retire you. I couldn't believe that I had this queen who had my back, man. Nine years my senior. She'll say 10, but it's really nine. And, um, but beautiful inside and out, a diamond. And, um, funny, cuz I remember, I was, the Lord was telling me every morning like this, "This is going to be your wife. And you got to propose." You got to. I was living in the mission, man. I was broke. Didn't have nothing. My credit was a mess. I was a mess. And I'm trying to, like, 30 years old. I was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, and I remember the Lord say, "You got to ask her to marry you." And I went to. I was sweating bricks. And I was like, "Okay, I have to ask her." And I remember it was a Saturday because we was in an adult learning program called P.A.C.E. And I was like, "You know what? I got to do this." So I said, "I ain't hungry." She said, "I ain't hungry." And so we didn't go with the study group or nothing. And we was on this grassy knoll. And I was like, sweating. I said, "I got to tell you something." She says, and she put her finger on my lip. She says, "I already know." And, and I, and I, and I said, "What?" She said, "Yeah, God visited me last night. And he told me that you're my husband." And she had this notebook that she had, "Virtues of a Godly Man." The virtues of a godly man. And she had that in her Bible. She was in some message. She had God, um, and she kept those notes. And she said, "God says this is who he is for you." And I remember writing this poem because I wanted to propose to her officially. And so I wrote her a poem:

"When I first met you, I knew in my heart

That we would be in each other's lives from the very start.

And one way I did not know, so I choose to be your friend,

And just allow our love to grow, to blossom into what only God knows.

But it's sure to be pure, like a single white rose.

And if it's in His will for you to be my wife,

It'll be because we started out first as friends for life."

And that was my proposal. Wow. That's romantic. You a true love story right there. The notebook ain't got nothing on you. That's that's amazing. 30 years later. 30 years later, we killing it together. We started our ministry together in Inglewood. We have a church called Restoration Family Worship Center. I've been ordained with the Assemblies of God for about the length of time we've been married, um, pastoring the church that we helped co-plant. And then we started an organization called Christ-Centered Ministries. And, uh, and it was just an organization that we were helping do feeding programs out of the church, outreach. And, um, and God blessed us. I remember, um, I finished school and I was working, doing some consulting work for clinics. And God had really blessed my life, and financially and everything. And I was able to retire my wife. She's been retired now, um, about almost 15 years or more. Oh, wow. Man. And so I was able to retire her and settle. And we, we've been very successful from a business standpoint and financial standpoint. And I started serving on boards and doing consulting work. And I remember, um, they offered me like $350,000 to stay at this one place. And I told them I couldn't do it because my mom had got diagnosed with cancer. And I said, "I have to leave here. I can't work right now. I got to go just pastor to the church." And I said, "I can do it." I turned it down. And I took care of my mom. Let me tell you something, it was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. Wow. To go care for my mom. I didn't know how or what, because I was giving up a bankroll. Yeah, real bankroll. And, and I was giving it up. And so I was like, but I felt like God was going to bless me. And he did. He prospered our ministry in a way that I can't even explain right now. Wow. And so my mom ended up passing away. When I started at the mission, September 1st, 2020, my mama passed in November of 2020. Oh, in our home. She was with us in our home, cared for. And this was unheard of in the middle of COVID and everything. Family was able to say goodbye to her. And that was for one thing that I promised I would give her, that she wouldn't be in some hospital somewhere, that I would be able to give her the dignity that she needed. And I was able to honor that. And it gave me pride. And I knew I had made the right decision those years before to care for her and be her, because I was her caretaker, right? And, um, and I took that job very seriously. And my sister says, "It's unheard of for a man to do what you're doing for your mom." I would literally bathe her, wash her, take care of her. Oh, wow. And, um, and do everything that she needed me to do, take care of all her business, and do all that. And while I was doing that, God was blessing our ministry. And so now we have over 300 employees. Wow. We have interim housing, one of the largest second chance organizations, um, in the country that's providing services to people. Um, and so we have, we grew from nothing to now our budget is close to $30 million a year. I came, I was serving on the board of LA Mission, running my re-entry organization called the Los Angeles Regional Re-entry Partnership. And we went from 20 agency member organizations to now 875 agencies where we deal with criminal justice issues across the nation, here in the state of California, LA County, across the nation, and really making an impact in those spaces. And so I wanted to do more. And I remember my covenant with God where I promised that I would deal with the issues of homelessness. And I had went and made all this success and going and do this work in the healthcare space and the criminal justice space. And I said, "I want to get back." And I had my friend, Herb Smith, who was running the LA Mission at the time. He asked me to serve on the board. Yeah. First black man on the board. First, first. I, well, I wasn't the first black man on the board, but the first president, CEO, that was the first black president, CEO. Yeah. And so I, um, it was so crazy. So I said, "Yeah." And then like two years later, I'm the president and CEO. He's, he's retiring. Um, the board asked me to step in. I said, "You know, I got my ministry, I got my church, I got my stuff, my businesses. I can't let none of that go. Like, it's rocking. Like." And so I said, "I'll step in and help during the transition for the interim piece." And that's what I did. And then after, after that, they asked me to stay on for a period of time. And so I signed an agreement to stay on a little longer. And, um, and now it's been life-changing for me too. Because I didn't know how God was going to work in my life when he told me to go back to skid row. I just knew I needed to go back. And I didn't know in what capacity he was going to use me. But I did want him to use all of me. I didn't want to be restricted. You know, sometimes you can, you know, as a man of God, you can go to places and they'll tell you, "Well, you can't talk about your faith." Or if you were criminal justice involved person, "Well, we don't want you to promote that." But I, in this role, I mean, I'm able to be my full self, right? And they, and I can use all of me. My four testimony, being somebody coming out of the criminal justice system, somebody that was homeless, you know, a businessman, you know, all these things I'm able to use in this role for such a time as this to make the change that I think is necessary. I mean, you being an example for young black men, individuals on, you know, skid row, individuals, homeless individuals anywhere. I mean, you truly have overcome, you know, that, that stigma. Or even sometimes people don't want to give vets a chance. People don't want to, like you said, you felt invisible, you know what I mean? For so long. And now you, I mean, you're the CEO. And not only are you a CEO, you're an active CEO who's making changes, who's making a difference. The things that you've done, and, uh, your time at the, at the mission has never been done before. I mean, that, it's felt nationally, it's felt globally. And I mean, it, it truly is one of the, the greatest testimonies I, I've ever heard. So that's why I said, I mean, it's definitely a movie. I mean, "The Pursuit of Happyness" ain't got nothing on you, man. I, I want to do that movie too. You got to. I, I really want to do it. And I, I want to do it because I, when I tell people at, at the mission, when they see me and I'm walking, and I pray for them all the time, and I go see them. One of my things I tell them, I said, "You know what? I'm your future, and you're my past." I look them in the eye and I tell them that with a level of sincerity because I want them to understand that I was one of the people that was, were literally sleeping and sitting in chairs, coming in the mission for a meal, coming into the mission for a shower. That was me at the time. Back in the day, we used to have these voucher beds from DPSS. And so they would give you these homeless vouchers where people can go in. And sometimes I would sleep at the Weingart, go to the mission. And it was so funny because I ended up working for the Weingart. I started my, working in the arena as a staff person at the Weingart Center Association for the Homeless. And that's where I cut my teeth on it. And I grew through the ranks and became an Executive Vice President there and created a lot of programs and systems. And that's where I, my, got really honed my skill because I was going to school, working there, running our church. It was crazy, man, cuz I had this little beat-up van. I still got that van. And I, cuz I don't like to sell my first anything. So I was like, I got the van still. And, uh, it was crazy. I would drive the van to work on Friday for lunch. I would go to the LA Regional Food Bank, pick up food, stack that van up with food, all the donations, come back to work, finish the day, leave there, go to the church, unpack everything, and do the giveaway on Saturday. Wow. And I would do that all by myself for years. I did that. Wow. I mean, when people meet you, people know you. I mean, you have such a beautiful spirit, such, such a beautiful message. But I mean, what makes you do what you do? What makes you, I mean, other than the resilience that's in, in your nature? But I mean, to know that you could go from, I mean, even just the story that you just told, like that has to be something that drives you to say, you know, "I'm not going to let this negativity. I'm not going to let the pressures of the world. I'm not going to let feeling invisible take me out." Because, you know, that's what I'm saying. One of the reasons why we built "Council Culture." We've seen people in, you know, less situations than yourself not be able to take it, not be able to handle it. And, you know, they, they do certain things that allow them, you know, not to be here. But you, you overcame so much adversity, so many obstacles. Uh, how?

Well, my faith is central to that. You know, I think, you know, my faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is key to that. That I really see the, the Lord, especially his earthly ministry, as an example of how we should treat humanity and how we should be in humanity ourselves. You know, a lot of times, you know, people take Jesus out and put him in this aerial space. But when you study his life, and there's a book called "Jesus CEO," and how he did governance. And I studied that book in terms of leadership, and how he went about really focusing on his core team and instilling his value systems in them so they can carry the message when he was gone. I use that, that model today. And so I would say that's the number one thing. And then the number two thing is my wife. When you have somebody that believes in you, um, and when you didn't have anything, like, really believes and sees the king in you, because I was with a lot of women, but none of those women were able to bring out the king in me. And, and so she did it through who she was. And I wanted her to see me successful. I couldn't let her see me fail. And I didn't never want her to see me in that way. And so it became a driving force in me, um, to, um, honor this woman of God who was became a gift to me from God, and to honor her in a way that, um, she was worthy of, right? Like, because her sacrifice to get me to a place, because a lot of times when we get somewhere and we, men, you know, we get up and we get a little bag and stuff, and we'll leave somebody who helped us get there. And this is a common practice in our culture. And I didn't want to do that. Plus, I like my extremities and all of that. My mom, sisters wasn't having that. But, but on another level, I knew that she was worthy of everything that she had invested in me. So it's like I needed to, um, give their back more in space. But she gave me a family, she gave me children, grandchildren, a sense of security, a home. So when I'm out here in the world, I can grind. Because when I go home, I go home to peace. I go home to tranquility. I go home to a place that's kept, um, and I don't have to worry about anything. And she takes care of me. I take care of her. So that's another one. And then my family, and particularly people who love me through it. My sisters, or my two sisters, Cy and Deion. Let me tell you something, brother. You talking about two black queens. When I, they let me sleep on their floor, they fed me when I was homeless. They never, they never judged me. And that's why I hold them down to this day. Because it's those kind of circles and those kind of friendships. So that is the stuff that drives me. And then the last thing I say that drives me is that, you know, I want to be what I didn't get. And I want to create the systems that weren't there for me so that people like me don't have to do it the way I did it. And to make sure that there's a pathway for them. And I feel like, you know, I owe it. I do. I feel like I owe it to the people who invested in me, the people who trusted me, the people who, you know, held me down when I couldn't hold myself down, lifting me up. And, and so those are the things that give me up. And, you know what? And I'm mad at the devil. I'm mad at the devil. And I don't know. I know he don't like me to get up. Because when I get up in the morning, and I have a, I'm very, um, regimented about my prayer life, my exercise life, my value systems, and stuff like that. And so I'm really highly motivated. And I don't have, I don't need external things to motivate me. Like, it's internal. Like, I get on my clock is on, man. And I'm focused and I'm strategic about what I want to do and how I want to do it. And I know I'm capable because I'm, you know, I've educated myself. But, you know, I'm also a person who's coming from lived experience. So I have the education to carry out what I want to do. Because I feel like there's nothing that I cannot do. But I also know that it has to be tempered. I tell people this all the time, Nick. Without a vision, people perish. But off the people, the vision will never come to pass. So we can be a visionary all we want. But if we don't understand the people that we have, and we don't articulate the vision in a way that they can grab it and run with it, it'll never really materialize. Because we can't do it. We need other people around us to do it. And so I seek those people out. They seek me out. I align myself with that. And I let them get it done.

It is, they say, a vision without a plan is just a hallucination. That's exactly right. You just, you got to have a plan of people to put it all together. That's exactly right. And then you got to trust them. Yeah. You know, you're a person that, you know, that surround yourself with people that you can trust. And those talented people. Because there's no way somebody, a mogul like you, who's so well-versed in so many different things and gifted in so many different ways, can hold it all together without the people you have. And it's evident, right? Because there's a level of, you know, weight that you carry from an anointing standpoint. But I don't see it on you. I don't see you stressed out about it. It doesn't mean that you don't have things that you, that's concerning you. But you know, there's other people that can hold some of that for you. And that's what leaders do. Yeah. And that's what we have to do, man. It's so powerful. I mean, uh, and I want you to just expound and, and touch on the invisible man, you know what I mean? Specifically as a black man, specifically as a veteran, I mean, serving your country, and then, you know, obviously the pain of losing your father. But even coming home, and I, I just, cuz I don't understand that process of knowing how do you get to be a, a man that pretty much has it together? I mean, anybody in the military can probably knows that, you know, that's not, that's not easy, you know what I mean? Like that, just to be in the armed forces in general takes a lot. But then to come home and get to a space where now it's, as you called it, rock bottom, homelessness, skid row. Is that? And, and I'm, I'm just curious at that standpoint in your life, did you define that as like psychosis? Did you define that you like being invisible? Did you no longer want to be here? Like, what is that experience of knowing, man, I'm, I'm sleeping in cardboard boxes, I'm sleeping with pigs and flies, like that? Because to me, that sounds unfathomable. But it was your everyday existence.

It was. And I think it's demoralizing. But you get to a place where you get desensitized. Like, because there's a level of toughness too, that you have to have on it. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to get to a place where you become numb, almost. Because every day is survival of the fittest in a different way, right? And I mean, you got to work for a meal. You got to work for it. We work now. But to get up every day, not knowing when your next meal is, if you're going to be able to take a shower, you know, these kind of things most people in society are not worried about. But when you're living on the streets, you are. Right? And then sometimes you just say, "Forget it." And, you know, when you think about women in particular, who are homeless and on the street, um, they suffer even deeper than that. And a lot of them, you know, they have to, uh, allow their, you know, get to a place where their body odor becomes a protection zone for them because they don't want to be raped no more, or they don't want to be victimized anymore. And so they want to create a, you know, you know, kind of like a defensive mechanism. Wow. I never thought about that. To be able to live in a space. And so we, we have these kind of things that were you on. And when you serve your country and you come home and nobody sees you, it's even more demoralizing. Because you felt like, at least I'll be able to get some services from what I've already invested and what I've already put in. But when people don't see you and don't recognize that, and these are people that you signed up to fight and protect. And it comes on. And then it's like, "Wait a minute." And now everything is crazy. And then, you know, drug-induced psychosis is psychosis, no matter how you look at it. But, you know, being able to get high and to do that, and then get paranoia while having that's not enjoyable on no level. Like, how you gonna be getting high and then you paranoid, looking out of windows, see the police getting, you know, you know, tweaking all out of crazy and stuff like that. Until the point where you start even not having to get high, feeling that way. And that's the problem, right? And that's the psychosis that I was experiencing. Um, you know, this level and sense of paranoia. And for a long time, even when I stopped using it, and I tried to get back into corporate America, I had a sense of paranoia. And some of it was based in reality because as a black man trying to move up, you know, I had a chip on my shoulder. You know, I would always get in arguments and confrontations. And because I didn't really know how to process my emotions and my feelings, because I always felt like, you know, I had to defend myself in a way. And it wasn't working for me. And my aunt, my aunt Valine, my father's sister, um, I was working with her, and she was an executive. She called me to the office. She says, "Listen to me, young black man. You never gonna make it if every time you get offended, you want to fight. You have to figure out how to absorb that tension differently and not let them see you feeling that way. Now find a way, um, to be assertive without being perceived as aggression." Because one of the things we always do when we're assertive as black men, they see it as aggression. And our counterparts, our white counterparts, our Asian counterparts, when they are assertive, they're just assertive in the space. If we're assertive in the space, we got to be careful that our tone is different, body mannerisms are different, how we express ourselves, the words and the passion we speak for is different, our inflection, our intonation is different. And we got to be mindful of that in the workspace. Otherwise, we're viewed as a threat. And, and so that's a real reality that I'm dealing with even now today. I have to deal with that. I have to outperform my counterparts at a whole another level. If I slip up one time, all of what I did good doesn't matter. The one slip up is all they want to talk about. Facts. And, and that is an unfair practice. But that's what we're dealing with. And I, I cannot afford to go into these spaces and react because I have children, I have grandchildren, I have a wife that needs me, I have a church that needs me, I have people in the community that trust me to get up every day. I got people that trust me. I got hundreds of people depending on me to get up and get it right so they can put food on their table. Right? That's a responsibility that I hold, to be real. And I don't get to, I don't have an opportunity to mess up. And so I learned when I was coming out of my stupor, coming out of the lifestyle I was in, that I needed to sharpen and be different. I didn't want to smell like smoke when I came out of the fire. And I didn't want people to be able to even perceive through my conversation, how I articulated myself, that I ever been homeless, that I ever been, you know, afraid to take a quiz in school or anything like that. I wanted to be polished to a place where I can show the excellency of God and what and who I am, and the expression of who I am. And so I worked hard to do that. And, and I think that when we are helping people to come out, we have to instill these values in them so that they understand that it takes hard work. Um, it's not just a matter of faith, because faith without works is dead. And you got to put the work in.

Yeah, man. And your sincerity is so real. It's so true. Uh, um, I, you know, anyone who knows you, I mean, there's a light that surrounds you. There's an aura that just, like, man, that's, that's a just brother who loves strongly and loves people, loves what he does. Uh, and you're doing the work. You know what I mean? Where we see a lot of pastors and preachers, they, they talk a good game, they got a good sermon. But then at the end of the day, it, it feels really self-indulgent at times, specifically, you know, a lot, you know, in this generation, we see, you know, uh, because we pontificate a lot, we get on our soapbox, and, you know, we, we judge, we say, "This is what the kingdom is about. This is not what the kingdom is about." But specifically when it comes to the homeless, the word teaches that, you know what I mean, uh, "What are you going to do for your brother?" What are, that's right. You know, the fact that you not only, you truly live that, you truly walk that. Uh, and that's why I mean, as you know, it's your, your path and your, and your walk is only going to be exalted. Just because it's like, you don't find too many people that are sincere and can actually say they came from it. You got it out the mud, you know what I mean? Like, like, and, and so people going to listen when you talk, man. So, I mean, with this problem of, of homelessness, and we'll, we'll, we'll cover that even more in our next session as we begin to wrap this up. But I think I want you to, uh, elaborate on, uh, going back to that, I, the mindset. I mean, like you said, whether it's drug-induced psychosis or even like when, you know, for, for whatever reason, God has put it on my heart to always, you know, lend a hand, a ear, and a heart to the homeless. So, you know, I've been working at the mission for, you know, over 15 years. And, you know, wanting to, we're doing more, but wanting to do so much more. And that's why I'm so inspired by brothers like you. I mean, truly, the CEO, and you, you just open the doors and say, "What can, what else can we do?" Um, and wanting to be more than just a celebrity who shows up on the holidays, you know, like, uh, but I see some, when I see these individuals, man, one, I do see them. You know, and I think now, even more in our communities, we're, we're seeing the growth of homelessness. We're seeing the growth of mental illness. But even, you know, I'm even careful to, to even define it as mental illness because then now we're putting labels, discrediting labels onto individuals that have a story, that want to be seen, that have the ability to be a CEO, um, but at this point, for whatever reason, they're lost. There's a lot of pain, there's a lot of hurt. And I think as a community, we got to know that that's our brother. We got to know that that's our sister. We got to, you know, be able to reach out and, and understand this is a problem that can be fixed. 100%. One individual at a time. One individual at a time.

Brother, it's like we was talking about last night. Often times in our community, especially when it comes to black men, we overly diagnose serious disorders like, and we label it as schizophrenic, right? Or, you know, mood disorders. We underdiagnose those. And they could just be depression, anxiety. And then we don't seek the treatment out because people are labeling us differently. And then we don't have confidence in the system. And so we got to figure out how to wrap our arms around our community, ourselves, and really create opportunities for things like this. This is why this is so powerful because, you know, when we talk about being able to counsel through something and create a talking environment, because narrative therapy is real. Talk and speak therapy is real. Healing circles are real. Tapping into, um, our spirituality is a real thing. And so "Council Culture" is a platform that allows for this expression of healing. And I think that's what's really going to come about with this because we get to really now talk about issues and people can know that there's a way out. There's a different pathway for me to deal with the things that I'm dealing with. And I'm not alone. Because sometimes we think we're alone. And we don't think nobody else has experienced anything that we're experiencing or feeling the way that we feel. And we have to create a free space. And so we're inviting people in their living rooms, in their jobs, to come into this space. You're basically saying, "Come into this conversation with us so that we can talk about what solutions can look like in this space that we call homelessness." And it's only going to be solved when we all have free expression about it and have a voice at the table. It can't just be the politicians or places like the LA Mission that's doing it by itself. We need the creatives. We need people that are in. We need people that are being impacted into the space to get their voice to the table so that we have to begin to solve solutions together. And I think this for me is the platform to begin to help us do that, man.

Well, brother, from your mouth to God's ears. Uh, I know if you're a part of it, the anointing is going to be on it. Because not only do you have so many initiatives and plans that you're building as CEO of the Mission, but, uh, we got some stuff that we cooking up together. And like you said, you know, um, even in this session, I mean, you, you probably blessed so many with your testimony. And, you know, we're going to pause here for this session. But our next session, let's dig deeper. Let's talk more about, you know, solving the crisis of homelessness. And, I mean, we, we can do it. We, we going to do it. We definitely going to do it. So make sure you like, subscribe. Um, we feel your comments. We're going to address it. We're going to talk about it. Uh, and we're going to connect. But just so, if you know, I always want to do this, uh, if people do want to help, volunteer, donate, what, what should they do?

They should just go on the website, lamission.org. It's real simple. LA Mission dot org. And, um, you have every opportunity to volunteer, to give. And we want people with talents and gifts and ideas to come forward. Um, resources is always needed, especially during this time. We need help with in-kind gifts. And kind, um, so that we can meet the need of the people. Um, food donations, canned goods, vouchers, to help us get hygiene supplies for people. And especially right now during the raining season, because some of the things we do at the LA Mission is we give out ponchos and different opportunities for people to come in. We provide, um, um, shelter for the inclement weather. But we go out into the highway because some people are shelter-resistant and they want to live in the tent. And so we try to make sure they're safe as possible. Walls of the mission, exactly. We got to go to them. And get, a lot of people don't even understand, like, even like, you know, socks. Socks are important. Are some of the most important things to homeless people. It's some of them because when you got socks that turn into rocks on your feet, and that you can't be, like, it's not a good thing. But like, it's so, so we all can do something. Everybody can do something. And not even, not just the LA Mission, but there's organizations and missions in each and every city. But like I said, in our next session, we're going to talk about all the programs that you created, some more of the things that we're putting together, starting here. But, uh, join us next time. This has been a great one, uh, again with my brother, Pastor Troy. Yes, sir. Let's do it. Yes. Ah.