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How A Homeless Woman Released From Prison Became 'My Greatest Mentor'

This article is more than 7 years old.

This is Mentoring Moments (#26), a series of wow-you-need-to-know-these stories from successful women of multiple generations. Mentoring Moments is now a podcast.

Six years ago I gave Veronika Scott, a 20-year-old product design student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, the stage at the United Nations to share her class project design that would fill a need for Detroit’s homeless population: a self-heated, waterproof coat that transforms into a sleeping bag, and is an over the shoulder bag when not in use.

Veronika Scott, Founder of The Empowerment Plan. Photo credit Jonathan Fambrough

As Veronika stood on that stage and told her story, she struck me. I saw a young woman who has that special spark that will ignite others to fix what's wrong in the world. And that’s what she did. After graduating from college, she founded The Empowerment Plan, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization that hires single parents from local shelters and trains them to become full time seamstresses who make the sleeping bag coats. These women earn a stable income, find secure housing and gain back their independence for themselves and for their families. What started out as a project to keep the homeless warm quickly became a model that is breaking the cycle of poverty.

Since 2012 The Empowerment Plan has provided employment to 30 people, assisted all their employees in permanently moving out of the shelter, impacted 75 children now growing up in stable homes, distributed over 15,000 coats to homeless individuals across 30 states, six Canadian provinces, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, and France. Soon they’ll be scaling into new cities and launching the first ever retail product that will lead The Empowerment Plan to achieving self-sustainability.

It's been wonderful to be a part of Veronika's journey. She is the youngest recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, won the 2014 DVF People’s Voice Award and is a CNN Hero. I may carry the title of mentor (and board member of The Empowerment Plan) in our relationship, but the reality is that Veronika inspires me. This is Veronika's Mentoring Moment, in her words:

One of my greatest mentors presented herself to me at one of the most desperate times in her life. At 58 years old, Annis Maxwell was released from a decade-long prison stay. When I met her at the shelter there was something that struck me about her immediately. She assumed that she was not going to get the job, but inside I knew I had to give this woman, who had been written off as worthless by so many, a fresh start.

Max, as we came to call her, was a very tough cookie! A few months after joining The Empowerment Plan, she opened up and became the den mother to myself as well as the other seamstresses. I lucked out finding Max, or her finding me. She was one of the first three people I hired onto the team and was the first person to own The Empowerment Plan vision with me. She had no reason to place her trust in this 21-year-old girl with no business experience, but she took a chance on me, the same chance that I took on her. We built the company together. She believed in the organization having a strong future, not just for her livelihood, but for many others. Max made sure that everyone called me Ms. Scott and treat me with the respect I felt like I hadn’t deserved yet. Most of all she believed in me as a leader before I had ever felt like one.

Max truly embodied everything I wanted The Empowerment Plan to stand for and, despite all she had been through, created a culture around the importance of family, empathy, and a true sense of caring for others. She was the heartbeat of our family.

It wasn’t, however, until after Max passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack in the fall of 2013 that I realized the permanent imprint she left on me. Our whole team attended her funeral together. When her son got up to speak that day, he thanked me, saying, “I have gotten to know my mother more in the last three years than I have my entire life and you have given my daughter her grandmother back.”

It was at her funeral that Max gave me the largest and maybe even the most lasting gift. She made me finally see The Empowerment Plan as something much more than a silly class project. It was in that moment I realized that without the opportunity we gave her, she could have passed away alone, still sleeping on cardboard. Instead she was able to leave behind a home, a car, a college fund, and a whole legacy for her family.

Coming back to work without Max was one of the hardest things I have had to face. What do you do when the person you have unknowingly built a culture around dies? Although the core of our team was gone overnight, only in her absence did I realize how critical culture is to a company. It took some time and hard work to bring that sense of family back, but the lessons she taught and the values she instilled have continued to stand strong. Today, although our culture has adapted, it is her strength, wisdom, and patience that hold our team together, which I am eternally grateful for.

Mentoring Moments Series:

#1: What I Did When My Boss Threw A Stapler At My Head is here

#2: How To Break The Rules, Spread A Little Mischief And Make A Mint is here

#3: Do You Need A Shrink Or A Mentor? And What's The Difference is here.

#5: Why Women Need To Stop Worrying About Being Liked is here.

#6: What's Better Than A 50% Pay Increase? One Woman's Expensive Lesson is here

#7: The No. 1 Way To Tackle What's Really Holding You Back is here

#8: Millennial, Mother Of 50: She's Breaking The Rules And Saving Lives is here.

#9: Nice Women Finish First When They Ask The Right Questions is here.

#10: Millennials Beware: 'You Can't Let One Bad Guy Push You Out' is here

#11: Women Sleep Better When You Listen To The Silence In Your Head is here. 

#12: Five Words That Turned This Self-Made Woman Into A Multi-Millionaire is here.

#13: Two Things Great Leaders Do Every Day is here.

#14: How An Entrepreneur Made A Choice She'll Never Forget is here.

#15: How This Entrepreneur Turned Her Ignorance Into A Huge Success is here.

#16: Two Words That Made This Millennial's Network Explode is here.

#17: When This Woman Changed Her Name, Her Career Took Off is here

#18: How A Taxi Ride Drove This Self-Made Woman's Career is here.

#19: 6 You-Need-To-Know Lessons That Will Make Your Career Explode is here.

#20: 3 Gritty Tips That Will Make You Way More Exciting And Successful is here.

#21: 5 Words That Made This Millennial A CEO is here.

#22: Can Success Be Dangerous? This Woman Found The Answer On A Starbucks Cup is here.

#23: 7 Simple Words That Will Make Your Career Soar is here.

#24: Why Women Need To Stop Being Afraid To Ask For Help is here.

#25: 7 Powerful Lessons That Will Ignite Your Inner Fire And Your Career is here.

#26: How a Homeless Woman Released From Prison Became 'My Greatest Mentor' is here

#27:  To Find A Mentor Stop Asking 'Can I Pick Your Brain?' Do This Instead is here.

#28: Her Boss Verbally Slapped Her - Now She Runs Her Own Show is here.

#29: Top Poker Player Wins $11.6 Million And Goes To Work Thinking She's A Loser is here.

#30: How A Sex Ed Class Prepared This Woman For The Biggest Pitch Of Her Career is here.

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