February 3, 2025 • 40 mins
She was a successful trial lawyer and partner at a major firm! Now, Jennifer Friend is the CEO of Project Hope Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending youth homelessness. Discover her inspiring journey and unique approach to leadership on the Driven Leaders Podcast.
Jennifer shares valuable insights from her career transition, including:
The Power of Authenticity: Learn how embracing her personal story of homelessness empowered Jennifer to become a more effective leader.
Finding Your Calling: Discover how a powerful sermon and a moment of self-reflection led Jennifer to leave her law career and pursue her true passion.
Overcoming Fear and Doubt: Uncover how Jennifer faced her fears and took a leap of faith to make a meaningful difference in her community.
Leading with Empathy and Compassion: Learn how Jennifer's personal experiences shape her leadership style and drive her commitment to serving others.
Tune in to hear an inspiring story of transformation, courage, and the importance of aligning your work with your values!
#DrivenLeaders #ProjectHopeAlliance #Homelessness #Nonprofit #Leadership #Motivation #Inspiration #CareerTransition #Faith #Authenticity #Empathy #OrangeCounty #Podcast
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
and that their worth is inherent, the better our kids
are able to internalize theirworth and hopefully figure out
that they are successful becauseof who.
They are not.
Despite it, we are making surethey have everything they need
for the dorms.
They want to do an internshipin a lab over the summer that
doesn't pay?
Then we're figuring that outbecause we know they want to go
(00:25):
to grad school.
We have to be in it until ouryouth are able to be financially
independent established adults.
These kids are doing thesethings themselves.
They just need the opportunityto show up as themselves, and so
our work is deep and we arecommitted to our youth, so we
would rather serve less youth ina transformational way until we
(00:47):
can, and we'll just continue tobuild and grow.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hi, I'm Jon Patterson with Patterson Autos, and
welcome to the Driven LeaderPodcast, where we talk to
leaders, leaders on our team,leaders in the community that
are driven to do more, and wedefine leaders, like Craig
Grishel does, as leaders arepeople of influence.
So, whether you're in charge oftwo people, three people, five
people, hundreds of people, ifyou're influencing them to do
(01:15):
more, be more.
We want to honor you, and todayI am so grateful to be joined
by my friend, jennifer Friend,the CEO of Project Hope Alliance
.
Welcome to us.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Good morning.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Good morning to you, my friend.
It's so great to have you, butI want to, before we get into
what you do and how you do it, Iwant to share that Jennifer and
I had met briefly before, butthe first time we got a chance
to really dive in was at a hotsummer day Very hot, I mean,
maybe the hottest day of lastyear it was, I think so.
(01:50):
Where we were judging a bunch ofhomes for homemade and I think
that we were just grateful toget inside a cool restaurant on
105 degree day and 100 degreesof humidity.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
In that conversation I got a chance to learn a little
bit more about you and aboutProject Hope Alliance, and so
that's a conversation we'll getinto in a minute, but also for
those of you watching.
We are proud parents of-.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Ducks, ducks, ducks yes.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yes, if you are an Oregon Duck fan, we are with you
.
Yes, so both of our kids, yourson, your daughter, parker is a
sophomore, correct she's ajunior now, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Which is unreal, and my son, connor, graduated from
University of Oregon and both ofthem played in the marching
band, which is super cool, andthey did that in high school the
same high school.
Go Sailors.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Go Sailors exactly.
So they were just far enoughapart whatever four years or so
where they didn't interact.
But we have had very similarparenting experiences throughout
high school and college andit's really, it's really fun to
share that affinity with you.
So you and your husband, myselfand Julie we get a chance to,
you know, have that love for theDucks.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yes, the season didn't end the way we wanted it
to, but we did win the Big Tenthe first time in, so I'm going
to say that that's something tobe very proud of.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Absolutely, and they're going to be, you know
assuming.
Well, if Ohio State beats NotreDame, Oregon will be the only
one lost team out there, sothey'll still have that to go
for.
Let's forget about the firsthalf of the Rose Bowl, shall we?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yes, I think so.
I'll just think about the RoseParade and how wonderful that
was.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was beautiful pageantry, we love it all.
But yeah, that first half ofthe Rose Bowl wasn't quite what
we were looking for, was it?
So walk me through yourbackstory.
So, for those of you listeningfor the first time, and those of
you that aren't familiar withJennifer's backstory, tell us
about your family, tell us abouthow we're sitting in front of
each other, and we'll go intoProject Hope Alliance a little
(03:39):
bit more, but I want our team toknow more about you.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, so I grew up in Orange County.
I went to school actually inNewport Mesa Unified School
District.
I'm one of four kids.
I have three little brothers.
I say little, but they're six,four, six, three, six, two and
all played college football twolinemen, so not real small, not
too tiny.
I'm the only girl in the oldestand my dad was an entrepreneur.
In the 70s he had this crazyidea that one day everyone would
(04:10):
walk around with their ownindependent phone and he worked
for Motorola, was notindependently wealthy
entrepreneur and we had somereally good times and we lived
on East Ocean Front in NewportBeach.
I went to Newport Elementaryfor fourth, fifth and sixth
grade, but then we had somereally, really rough times and
(04:31):
so when I was in sixth grade wasthe first time my family got
evicted and we ended up livingin motels in Garden Grove and
Westminster, up and down Harborand Beach Boulevard, off and on,
really until I graduated highschool.
I went to Huntington Beach HighSchool, go Oilers although my
(04:53):
household is now a sailorhousehold and I went to
community college, worked fulltime, transferred to UCI, like
we have all these.
Oh you are.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You've got all the mascots.
I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yes, you know, and I worked 50 hours a week and went
to school full time, while I wasat UCI as well.
Wow, and then I wanted to be alawyer because I had decided,
while we were living at theTropic Motel, that I personally
needed a job where I could makeenough money to buy a house, put
my kids through school and nothave to worry about not having
(05:30):
enough money or enough food.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And my dad always said I should get paid by the
word, so being a lawyer, perfect.
I went to Whittier Law Schoolwhen it was in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And I was a trial lawyer.
When it was in Los Angeles andI was a trial lawyer, I made
partner at 38 because I was.
I kind of felt like I wasbehind the ball because it took
me seven years to get throughundergrad while working and all
that stuff.
But you know it's illogical aswe get older but when we're
younger, Right.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
The 20 something version of yourself is like I've
got to go, I've got to go.
But the truth of the matter isone of the smartest guys I ever
talked to said your twenties area time for education, your
thirties are a time forclarification and your forties
and fifties are a time formaturation.
And for you, while you weregoing through it, you're
thinking okay, I got to getthrough this.
But the truth of the matter is,by the time you're 30 years old
(06:19):
, hey, figure out what you wantto be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
No, that's absolutely right, and you know the wisdom
we gain in our 50s is if wecould like ship that back to our
younger selves, but I alwaysknew that there was something
that I was being called to do.
I didn't really necessarily knowwhat it was, and the fact that
I had experienced homelessnessfor a lot of my childhood was
(06:44):
something that my family, we hid.
We didn't tell anyone, no oneknew.
We pretended like we were housesitting places and we created a
narrative that was false aboutwhere we were living, and so I
kind of grew up with thisthought that if people knew what
I'd really been through, thatthey would think my parents were
(07:04):
weird.
They would think I was weirdand they would think I was
undeserving of what I hadaccomplished, and so that was a
narrative that I worked reallyhard to build up.
I think about even the way Iwas a trial lawyer and there are
not a lot of female litigationpartners and I was in the
construction industry as well.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Also a male-dominated business right.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Absolutely, and I armored up in Brooks Brothers
like the best of them right,yeah.
And it's interesting to bereflective about how even the
way I dressed or even the way Iwore my hair was really to try
to eliminate any question that Ibelonged really to try to
(07:48):
eliminate any question that Ibelonged and I spent a lot of
energy kind of fighting what Inow understand.
I used to think that I wassuccessful despite what I went
through, and I now understandthat I am successful because of
what I went through and thatshift I'm so grateful for.
And if it weren't for havinggone to Project Hope Alliance
and completely upending myprofessional career, integrating
(08:10):
all of myself into one person,I never would have, I think,
fully appreciated that and beenable, as a leader, to instill
that in the leaders within ourorganization, leaders within our
organization, because so manypeople show up to the workplace
thinking that they have tocompartmentalize who they are
and it ends up reflecting aninauthenticity, ineffectiveness,
(08:33):
so it could look like lack ofcommitment.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Instead of and I'm not talking about like you don't
have to walk in and tell yourboss everything right.
But they're who we are is whythey hired us in the first place
, right?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Without a doubt.
I mean, you are who you are, youknow, with all your baggage and
without all your baggage, andthat's the person that you know
we all want to.
You know we've got roughly 300teammates here and we try and
consistently say is hey, look,stuff's going to happen and we
want to be able to walkalongside you.
We just created a chaplainposition at all of our stores so
that if somebody is having arough time at their home with
(09:09):
their spouse, with their kids,with their family members that
you know an HR manager isn'treally built for that, but you
know you can close the door witha chaplain and they can say,
hey, let me help you walkthrough this.
And we found, in the shortperiod of time that we've had it
, a lot of very rewardingdiscussions and I've talked to a
few of my teammates thatthey've been really happy about
it.
And back to your work it's youknow we're all flawed, right,
(09:33):
and you know, I think the soonerwe all realize that we've all
got baggage, whatever that mightbe, the sooner you embrace it,
the sooner you can get movingforward right.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So for you, okay.
So I remember being awestruck.
So on the hot summer day, we'reinside thank goodness we've got
air conditioning as we'reeating Italian food for lunch.
But you're sharing the storyand I was totally unfamiliar
with it, right, and you said,hey look, I was doing this,
(10:03):
partner, attorney, construction,all of these things and the
gentleman that was sittingacross from us.
yeah, steve morrow, steve morrow, shout out to steve, great guy,
yes, and and I know that you'vedone some work with him a
little bit in that space and foryou to share that you've been
doing all of that and you madethe change.
Walk our listeners through howthat change even came to pace,
because it doesn't seem like avery logical thing for most
(10:27):
people, right?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
It's not logical.
It was absolutely,unquestionably, a faith decision
for me, so it is not logical.
So logic doesn't dictate thatyou take a 75% pay cut the month
that you're being promoted tothe highest level of partnership
within your firm.
But back to me feeling likethere was something, that I had
(10:52):
a calling, but I didn'tnecessarily understand what it
was, even when I was in seventhgrade.
So I first found out.
My brother one of my brotherscalled me and said I just
watched this thing called theMotel Kids of Orange County on
HBO and it's this documentaryabout this school that serves
kids experiencing homelessnessthat are living in motels in
Orange County.
I need you to watch this.
He's like I don't know whatwe're supposed to do with this,
(11:14):
but I need you to watch it andthen pray about what we're
supposed to do and I was likeall right, I'm in Sure why not?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So I watched the documentary and and I saw kids
that were going throughhomelessness and believing that
that was going to be their wholestory.
Understandably so, because whenyou're a kid- you don't have
the blessing of hindsight orforesight.
(11:43):
You're in that moment andsomething really struck me that
one of the things that got mybrothers and I through this
experience was our faith inknowing that this didn't define
us and it wasn't our whole story, it was a chapter.
So one of my brothers and Idecided that we were just going
to like bust in to one of theProject Hope board meetings.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So we bust in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We're like, hey, we just kind of want to see.
You know, my brother had hisown business and like where does
I don't know, we just want tosee what's.
And it was a group of likeamazingly beautifully hearted
folks that had partnered withthe First Presbyterian Church in
Orange and they were providingclothing.
They had a really small foodpantry at this school and they
(12:30):
were providing clothing.
They had a really small foodpantry at this school and they
were providing transportation toand from motels and shelters to
this one school.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So their total programming budget was like
$30,000 a year, gotcha.
So like any good type Aoverachiever, I walked out of
that meeting the secretary ofthe board.
I love it, yes.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I'm jumping in.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Well, yeah, the board , I love it.
Yes, so I'm jumping in.
Well, yeah, so, and I will saythat one of the things I've
learned is I feel like we arecalled to show up and God will
reveal to us what the nextpieces are.
So I did tell the board, thoughhey, nobody knows this story
about my family, so this isbetween us.
Like, I'm not going to be apublic spokesperson.
(13:10):
I will work hard, I willadvocate for our youth, but just
FYI.
So a year or so later, we hadpartnered with UCI to build this
mock, fully life-size motelroom art piece that was based on
the tropic motel room that myfamily of six lived in for nine
(13:34):
months so this is while you'restill an attorney doing all yeah
and nobody knows, like nobodyreally knows my story oh, gotcha
all rightum, and so my dad died suddenly
when this happened.
At the same time I I hadconvinced Orange County Register
reporter to talk about thesynergistic nature of the
(13:55):
business community donatingmoney my brother's businesses
had donated $10,000 to pay forthe materials UCI had donated.
The head of scenic design atthe Claire Trevor School of the
Arts and all of the gradstudents to build this thing, an
anthropologist to make it like,researched it and then the
nonprofit needing to tell astory and how, when we bring all
(14:17):
three together, like anythingis possible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So back to my suiting myself up.
I suited up that day because Ifelt really anxious and nervous,
because every Sunday, for thelike three months prior, the
whole sermon series was on whatis God uniquely calling you to
do what?
While I am chair of the ProjectHope Alliance board, looking
(14:41):
for a CEO, so I meet with areporter I prayed before I got
out of the car because I knewthat something was up, and so my
prayer was that Jennifer Friendwould step aside and that
whatever God wanted to do wouldbe the thing that would lead
Love it.
It was very scary for me to praythat.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Scary for anybody, right?
But yes, in your situation,right, it's almost like an
out-of-body experience.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It was, and so I show up, I introduce myself to the
reporter and we're in the motelroom and if you've ever been to
Second Harvest Food Bank, it wasthere for 10 years.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So that art piece that was in their main floor,
that's me.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
No, I did not know.
Okay, I've been to SecondHarvest, I don't know, dozens of
times.
Yeah, had no idea.
Yeah, so that's Sinking thestory, yeah so that's us.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So I'm sitting on the bed with a reporter and the
reporter is like I can't getover how personal and specific
this feels Like.
How did you get this kind of afeeling?
And I said, off the record, Isaid I lived here for nine
months.
This is based on my family'sstory and for nine months this
is based on on my family's story.
And he goes Jennifer, that's thewhole story.
(15:53):
Are you ready to tell it?
And I said no.
I said but God is so, you knowwhat, let's do it.
So I told the story for thevery first time.
It ended up on the front pageof the register before it came
out.
That little girl who was inseventh grade that thought that
kids would think I was weird orwouldn't like me if they knew
that I was living in a motelcalled an emergency partner
(16:16):
meeting, so I could tell mypartners hey, this is the
program.
Yeah.
And they were like why are youtelling us this?
Like, okay, like.
But in my head I thought thatthey were gonna be like oh yeah,
she's not one of us.
Like what I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I mean, you know, Satan does a great job of
creating all kinds of stories.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Without a doubt, and all of a sudden, this false
narrative is existing in yournoggin.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah.
So I remember calling a coupleof my biggest clients and I was
like I just want to let you know, the story's going to come out
on the front page of tomorrow'spaper.
And one of them startedlaughing and he was like I knew
there was something that droveyou more than any other attorney
I have ever had.
And this is like a major, majorunderground construction
company.
And he was like yes, and I waslike so this is okay and he goes
(17:03):
okay.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You're my lawyer for life and it was shifting that
narrative right that I wasn'tsuccessful despite what I went
through, but because of it andlooking at it in a different way
.
So once it came out in thenewspaper I realized I'd be at
cocktail parties and people werekind of like they didn't know
what to do with the fact that Ihad been homeless.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Because they had all these preconstructive narratives
.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Of the types of people who experience
homelessness.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I fit none of them.
And then I'm in church oneSunday and the sermon is on
Esther and talking about howEsther lived in two worlds.
She was the queen, so she hadaccess to all of that, for sure.
But she was Jewish, so she waspart of the other, so she had
the ability to bring bothtogether.
(17:51):
And for such a time as this inthe history of the nation, god
was calling her to rise up inthe way that she inhabited two
worlds to lead people forward.
And then kelly commisher, whowas preaching the sermon, who is
a very dear friend of mine saysGod does not call the equipped,
(18:11):
he equips the call.
And I sat there and I juststarted crying because I knew
exactly what I needed to do.
And my mom happened to be inchurch with me that Sunday and I
went home and told my husbandthat God wanted me to resign
from the partnership of my lawfirm and be the CEO of Project
Hope, which at the time had oneemployee and served like 35 kids
(18:34):
and had like no budget, with abudget of 30 grand or whatever
it is.
And he said how much does thatpay, which is fair.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We had a brand new child right.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So we had a house on a quarter acre in Newport Beach.
We had a brand new baby.
Our son now is 15, but then wehad Parker.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
She was five.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
We had a mortgage that was reliant upon my income,
absolutely All the things, andI'm like this is how much it
pays?
And he was like that's a 75%pay cut.
And I said, I know, but I'mtelling you that I'm really
afraid of being disobedient.
This is so clear, like I'd loveto say that I was like, yay,
(19:13):
you know no I was here.
I was so, but I knew that God'sfaithfulness had been so present
in my life up to that pointthat I would.
I would be actively beingdisobedient and choosing to not
believe that he would continueto be faithful in my life, and
that wasn't something that I waswilling to do.
So my husband generously saidso I'm going to say no right now
(19:37):
, but give me a little bit tothink about it.
I need to marinate in this for afew minutes, please, or days,
or weeks, or months, so he cameback like a couple weeks later
and he said I did the math andwe could live on credit for a
year because he sells realestate.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So like that's not a guaranteed you know income,
feast or famine sometimes, right, that's right, and so I left my
book of business at the firmand I resigned.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And January 1st 2013, I started as the CEO of Project
Hope Alliance.
I had a desk in a multi-purposeroom of Skyview Elementary.
I was fortunate to hire LaShawnHigh, who was a social worker,
so he at least knew what he wasdoing, and we decided that we
(20:25):
wanted to build a model of carethat would be transformational
for our kids and have them bethe last ones in their family
lineage to experiencehomelessness.
And so we just decided that wewould always do the right thing
at the right time for the rightreasons.
We would never put ourorganization or ourselves at the
center of the circle, but itwould always be the kids, even
(20:47):
if that seemed counterintuitive.
Right but it would always be thekids, even if that seemed
counterintuitive, right, and I'mso grateful to say that we
served over a thousand last year.
We're in three school districts, one charter school system, we
have a 94% high schoolgraduation rate for our kids,
which is almost 30% above thenational average and makes them
(21:09):
400% less likely to experiencehomelessness as adults, and this
community has built us up intoan organization of 30 full-time
team members.
That's pouring $3.4 millionworth of programming every year
into our community.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So Okay, so one amazing I mean I just I'm
sitting over here just awestruckof the basics that I knew and
now, just even hearing it, Ithink maybe just hearing you go
into the details it's wonderfulto hear and walk us through.
So what are the services thatProject HOPE is providing these
kids that are in compromisedsituations?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, one of the things I learned sitting in that
multi-purpose room of that oneparticular school was that and I
had such a huge learning curve,right Like I come from, I was a
trial lawyer for 13 years andnow, all of a sudden, I'm
running a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You put me in a courtroom.
I know what I'm doing, but yeah, over here, what the heck?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I mean, it took me three hours to figure out how to
print a letter on letterheadone day and I was just crying,
thinking I'm such a moron Like Ican't do this.
So what I learned, though, wasthat the social services
industry I guess because it isright Like we are a business, so
oftentimes it requires peoplecome to it in order to receive
(22:27):
services.
Our kids have zero agency whenit comes to where they go how
they get places right, any ofthat Right.
But they come to school, and soin my mind, I thought this model
of care that we're building, weneed to build it so that it
plugs into the public educationsystem.
So what we did was we createdthis model of care that has a 30
(22:52):
youth experiencing homelessnesswho are assigned to one case
manager.
That one case manager has theirown office on a public high
school campus.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So how do you identify those 30 kids?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's lots of ways.
Teachers identify them for uswhen kids are registered for
school.
There are questionnaires thatgo out.
Sometimes, parents willindicate that they're
experiencing homelessness.
A lot of our janitorial teamsare seeing kids show up on the
school campus at 5.30 in themorning wearing the same thing
that they saw them showing up at5.30 in the morning the day
(23:25):
before.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Gotcha, because I imagine you know for these kids,
just like you, you know they'renot raising their hand saying,
hey, give me help.
But the teachers, thejanitorial staff, they can help
guide what the real need is andyou could say, yeah, susie over
there or Jimmy over there,there's all the signs in the
world that they're experiencingthis.
Probably a kid that you shouldbe talking to.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's exactly right, and so Newport Harbor High
School was actually so.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Principal Bolton said yes to us before we Shout out
to Sean Bolton Great job, Loveyou bud.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yes, he basically decided he was going to ask for
forgiveness rather thanpermission.
Possibly I mean I'm sure heasked for permission.
But he gave us a office on theNewport Harbor High School
campus five days a week that hadits own bathroom inside the
office.
So we have a small food pantry,we have a hygiene pantry, we
(24:17):
have clothing and what happensis so if Susie, like, let's say,
Miss Adams, is like guy,Susie's always hungry.
She's falling asleep a lot oftimes.
I know she's wearing like thesame clothes.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
And she has a hard time turning in assignments that
are like externally required tohave go to the library or do
things yeah.
So Miss Adams will say to Susiehey, susie Lupita is over in
room 103 and she's part of thisorganization that's a student
support organization perfect I'mgonna let you leave class and
just go check in with her andsee if there's anything that
(24:51):
lupita can do to like.
I don't know if you have anyneeds or anything's going on in
your life.
So suzy goes to our office.
There's no signage, because backto right, absolutely, I know
right so there's no signage andlupita's just like hi, like you
know, this is my name and MissAdams thought maybe something
was going on Like is thereanything you want to talk about
(25:14):
In the course of building thatrapport and that trust, susie
will reveal yeah, we're livingin a car.
Hey, my family of like five isrenting the floor of the kitchen
at one bedroom apartment overnear Shalimar and I only can
sleep between 2 and 5 am becausepeople are in the kitchen until
(25:38):
2 and after 5 am.
So then Lupita walks alongsideSusie and does everything, from
going into the classroom andadvocating for her to be able to
catch up work, figuring out howdo we get tutoring.
Partner with UCI, differentuniversities, to get specialized
tutoring.
Also, if Susie has mentalhealth needs, we have a lot of
(25:58):
partners that we drive our kidsactually to therapy.
We won young girls an amazingtrack star, but she was wearing
Converse that had holes in thebottom running track in Converse
.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It doesn't work that way.
It does not work that way.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So we had partnered with the Chargers.
They had donated all of thisequipment specialized for all of
our youth who were in sports.
Susie got a whole bag full ofrunning shoes, athletic wear,
all that stuff.
So it's really showing up anddoing life with Susie until
she's 24.
Because our work is deep, weare truly in it for the
(26:38):
transformational generationalchanging.
So when Susie graduates highschool, then we find out while
she's there you want to go tocollege, you want to go to
culinary school, you want.
We have a lot of youth that areincredible artists.
So we're buying them artsupplies, we're buying the
musical instruments, we'reensuring they can go to science
(27:00):
camp, we're ensuring that theycan go to prom, that they have a
senior picture, that they havea senior yearbook.
As much as we can normalizetheir experience to let them
know that they are not definedby their housing status and that
their worth is inherent, thebetter our kids are able to
internalize their worth andhopefully figure out that they
(27:22):
are successful because of whothey are, not despite it.
Yeah, much sooner than like 52.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Walk me through age 24.
Okay, I get 18.
I think the logical thoughtprocess is 18, maybe 19.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
But walk me through why 24.
When our kids go to college,their needs change and morph,
and they become different.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And when our youth that we serve become 18, a lot
of the restrictions that maybesome unhealthy parent
relationships might have placedaround our ability to help them
become eliminated, gotcha, sowe're able to actually help them
find their own permanent,stable housing.
Advocating for them to be ableto get a lease, we are making
(28:05):
sure they have everything theyneed for the dorms.
They want to do an internshipin a lab over the summer that
doesn't pay?
Then we're figuring that outbecause we know they want to go
to grad school and the way youget to grad school is by doing
one of these internships.
And unfortunately right now thecompetitive ones don't pay.
So when we're looking atactually ending the cycle of
(28:28):
generational homelessness, wehave to be in it until our youth
are able to be financiallyindependent, established adults.
And 24 just seems to kind of bethe number.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
No, it seems like a logical play I was at a meeting
the other day as it relates tofoster kids, and that was.
They say that one of thebiggest challenges is when
foster kids get out of thefoster system at 18, they have
no direction.
That's right and that you knowthe massive numbers like 80% of
them are on drugs, in jail ordead, and so that time between
(29:02):
18 and 24 is invaluable.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It is and unfortunately, most of the
nonprofit sector shuts down at18.
So again, and by doing thelandscaping of the nonprofit
sector when I was just you know,one thing that was a great
skill that I learned as a triallawyer was my ability to absorb
a lot of information and becomean expert on a subject that I
(29:25):
had never even heard of in ashort amount of time.
So I just ingested, digested andanalyzed a lot of information
and so we started committing toour youth to age 24.
Well before others starteddoing it, because I saw a huge
dearth of services, I was like,well, what happens?
And now that I am a parent of a20 year old, I know like the
(29:48):
needs change, the guidancechanges, the opportunity to
speak into their life and andhelp support it changes.
And you know, if I had hadProject Hope Alliance when I was
in undergrad, it wouldn't havetaken me seven years, Sure Right
.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, and you know, I just think about that time, you
know, as we talk about our kids, not just the similarities of
Harbor and Oregon, but I thinkabout that time where age 14 to
18, it's their friends, it's allthose activities, and so they
have that piece of the world andthen, whether they go off to
college or community college orwhatever, their situation is
(30:23):
that formative time between 18and 22,.
It's amazing, you see, thepersonalities morph more and
more and the life experiencesare different.
Right, and we always joke thatwhen our son went away to
college at about November,december, all of a sudden he
called my wife Julie and he saidhey, you know, when you told me
(30:44):
about such and such, you wereright about that.
And all of a sudden, my wifeJulie and he said, hey, you know
, when you told me about suchand such.
you know you were right aboutthat and all of a sudden my wife
put the phone on mute and saidget over here.
He said we were right about it,right.
So you know kids are soheadstrong at that time and your
ability to walk alongside themwell past, you know, high school
, I think, has got to be sotransformative.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
It is, I mean, and transformative was what we're
looking for got to be sotransformative.
It is, I mean, andtransformative is what we're
looking for.
So we're not trying to be thebiggest nonprofit in Orange
County.
We're not trying to see, youknow, we have wait lists at our
schools, so we have wait listsof districts that want us to
come onto their campuses.
So it's just a matter ofgetting more resources so that
(31:23):
we can then scale.
More resources so that we canthen scale, and I really do
believe that we are.
That's where we're going to be,because we're right now touted
as one of the nation's modelsfor best practices for ending
generational homelessness,because people can't touch our
high school graduation rates andI go back to that point not
because Project HOPE is notmaking our kids smarter.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
They're not all of a sudden doing well in class.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
The IQ didn't just go up because of the tutoring.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
No, we're just eliminating the barriers so that
they can show up as themselves,so that they're not showing up
as someone who didn't get sleepor they're not showing up on the
track as with someone who hasholes in converse.
And we have kids.
One of our young ladies is.
She was one of the best kickersin the state of California.
(32:10):
She got a full ride,scholarship to college.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
And one of he actually went to Newport Harbor
High School football player.
He was also a kicker.
He had the opportunity to gobecause he was scouted at a game
to go to a kicker camp in LasVegas and the guy was like, if
you can get him there, so wepaid for that.
We paid for he and his mom tostay in a motel that was there.
We paid for the kicker camp, wemade sure he had all the
(32:34):
equipment he needed and he wentto school on a scholarship like
these things.
These kids are doing thesethings themselves.
They just need the opportunityto show up as themselves, and so
our work is deep and we arecommitted to our youth.
So we would rather serve lessyouth in a transformational way
until we can and we'll justcontinue to build and grow, as
(32:56):
opposed to diluting the workthat we do.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That makes sense.
Go deep as much as you can inthe places that you can until
you can expand beyond that.
I love that.
So I want to be mindful of yourtime and the schedule, but
let's talk about what's next.
So is what's next taking itfrom whatever it is, 10 schools
to 15 schools to 20 schools Isthat what's next?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So what's next, and now at the same time, is that
CalOptima just awarded us a $2.1million systems change grant
Bingo.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I love it the first time.
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Thank you.
It's the first time they'veever issued a systems change
grant and we literally wrote ourorganizational vision as the
grant application and they fullyfunded it.
And our vision is that, withinOrange County, orange County's
public school system is devisedin a way that allows for our
(33:48):
students experiencinghomelessness to thrive.
So we're doing everything rightnow, from educating educators,
administrators, school nurses,school security personnel on how
to identify and refer studentsexperiencing homelessness.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Just like that janitor, just like the teacher
Adams right.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
That's right and we are working to create one
questionnaire for all of OrangeCounty public schools to truly
get students experiencinghomelessness identified, because
right now the way they'reasking the question is different
depending on what schooldistrict you're in.
Newport Mesa has just revampedit and it is very dignity based.
It says you know which one ofthese housing experiences is
most like yours and you check abox, instead of what's in most
(34:34):
school districts, which is areyou currently homeless?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, I don't know if social services is going to
show up at my motel room.
I don't know if it's a crimefor me to live in a motel with
my kids.
So I'm not going to check thatbox, which means that we're not
allocating the right amount ofresources, but also shifting the
thought mentality fromdeficit-based to asset-based.
Like you want an entrepreneur,pick somebody who has had to
(34:59):
reverse engineer something intobeing.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Without a doubt Right .
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And those are our youth.
So this work that we're doingin actually building out a
coordinated system of care forstudents experiencing
homelessness in Orange County,we're looking to scale that
across the country.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
That is spectacular.
Well, for those that arelistening to us and our
conversation.
The truth of the matter is,jennifer, I wish I could talk to
you for the next two hoursbecause I am so fascinated and
for us, we're super involved inthe Orange County Rescue Mission
and walking alongside thosefolks.
We've had a number of graduatesand even children's of the
(35:34):
graduates that are working withus and we're pouring into.
So I think our interests alignsignificantly.
But for somebody watching thisand hearing your story for the
first time, how can they help?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
So they could go to projecthopeallianceorg.
We have a volunteer page.
We have volunteer opportunitiesthroughout the year.
We're getting ready, believe itor not, to start gearing up for
our summer enrichment for ouryouth.
When school closes, we open upeven bigger.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
So there are lots of opportunities to volunteer.
We take our kids surfing to thebeach, to science camp, bowling
lots of opportunities tovolunteer.
We take our kids surfing to thebeach, to science camp, bowling
all of those different things.
So someone could either donateto make those enrichment
opportunities possible or theycould volunteer to help us bring
them into being.
Maybe they are someone who hasa connection that they might
(36:22):
want to make, like they have arestaurant and they would love
to bring our kids back into thekitchen to show them what it
might look like to be in theculinary arts, all of those
types of things.
So it's projecthopeallianceorgand if they go on there, we'd
love to welcome them as a memberof what we lovingly refer to as
Team KID and really continue toend the cycle of homelessness,
(36:44):
one child at a time.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Well, we know that you've got a huge fan here and
Team KID love to be part ofthose members.
So we will definitely, in ourautomotive organization, be
supporting you and what you aredoing.
But we are so grateful for yourstory, so grateful for you
sharing, so grateful you'resharing your time and so excited
(37:06):
about next steps, because itfeels to me like this is just
getting started and what youhave been able to accomplish so
far and your leap of faith istremendous.
I am so in awe of that.
I think about some of the risksthat I take as an entrepreneur.
You know, when I left corporateToyota to become a car dealer
and working and scrambling thehundred hour weeks and that type
(37:29):
of stuff, I felt like I had asafety net and my wife was super
supportive in it.
But your situation and mine aresimilar but different, and I
think about those that arelistening and watching this.
The risk that you took had tohave been you know, you and your
husband having longconversations, but the passion
(37:51):
that you have for the cause thatyou have so impassionately
embraced far outweighs, you know, the income that was lost in
that short period of time.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Oh, I mean I never could have done it without Rob.
I mean my husband and I justcelebrated our 29th wedding
anniversary.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Happy anniversary, thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
But it's hard.
It's hard work, but the bestwork is hard, and I am so
grateful at 50, almost 55, toknow that God has given me this
opportunity to live and walkinto my calling.
And I think that all of us canremember that he doesn't call
the equipped, he equips thecalled.
(38:31):
So if there's something that'son your heart to volunteer, an
organization to volunteer for,but you think, shoot, I don't
know, like I don't, just do it,just show up and you'll be
absolutely amazed at whatunfolds and you'll be absolutely
amazed at what unfolds.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, rule number one show up.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, and show up and amazing things happen.
Well, jennifer Friend gosh, Iam so honored to have this time
with you and I so look forwardto all of our future
conversations, and my guess is,from this, we're going to help
you and the cause and ProjectTopa Alliance and Team KID
become even more accessible tomore places throughout Orange
(39:11):
County.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Thank you for all that you and your team does for
our community.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Well, thank you, I appreciate you Well, appreciate
your time and make it a greatday.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
All right.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Thank you for joining us on the Driven Leader Podcast
with my friend, jennifer Friend, and all I can say is wow.
The story is amazing.
Her personal story, herwillingness to share and grow
and learn and not let thesituation that happened with her
as a youth define her, butallow that to be a motivation
factor to create the career thatshe had the career as an
(39:43):
attorney and a partner andmaking a switch to pour into the
youth of Orange County.
And watching Project HopeAlliance grow into what it is
and what it will be is wonderfulto watch.
Jennifer, I am so grateful foryou and I am so looking forward
to growing alongside with youand supporting all that you and
your team are doing.
Thank you for listening to theDriven Leaders podcast and don't
(40:07):
forget if you like what youheard, like, share, subscribe so
that we can grow in thecommunity even more.
Make it a great day.
and that their worth is inherent, the better our kids
are able to internalize theirworth and hopefully figure out
that they are successful becauseof who.
They are not.
Despite it, we are making surethey have everything they need
for the dorms.
They want to do an internshipin a lab over the summer that
doesn't pay?
Then we're figuring that outbecause we know they want to go
(00:25):
to grad school.
We have to be in it until ouryouth are able to be financially
independent established adults.
These kids are doing thesethings themselves.
They just need the opportunityto show up as themselves, and so
our work is deep and we arecommitted to our youth, so we
would rather serve less youth ina transformational way until we
(00:47):
can, and we'll just continue tobuild and grow.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hi, I'm Jon Patterson with Patterson Autos, and
welcome to the Driven LeaderPodcast, where we talk to
leaders, leaders on our team,leaders in the community that
are driven to do more, and wedefine leaders, like Craig
Grishel does, as leaders arepeople of influence.
So, whether you're in charge oftwo people, three people, five
people, hundreds of people, ifyou're influencing them to do
(01:15):
more, be more.
We want to honor you, and todayI am so grateful to be joined
by my friend, jennifer Friend,the CEO of Project Hope Alliance
.
Welcome to us.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Good morning.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Good morning to you, my friend.
It's so great to have you, butI want to, before we get into
what you do and how you do it, Iwant to share that Jennifer and
I had met briefly before, butthe first time we got a chance
to really dive in was at a hotsummer day Very hot, I mean,
maybe the hottest day of lastyear it was, I think so.
(01:50):
Where we were judging a bunch ofhomes for homemade and I think
that we were just grateful toget inside a cool restaurant on
105 degree day and 100 degreesof humidity.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
In that conversation I got a chance to learn a little
bit more about you and aboutProject Hope Alliance, and so
that's a conversation we'll getinto in a minute, but also for
those of you watching.
We are proud parents of-.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Ducks, ducks, ducks yes.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yes, if you are an Oregon Duck fan, we are with you
.
Yes, so both of our kids, yourson, your daughter, parker is a
sophomore, correct she's ajunior now, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Which is unreal, and my son, connor, graduated from
University of Oregon and both ofthem played in the marching
band, which is super cool, andthey did that in high school the
same high school.
Go Sailors.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Go Sailors exactly.
So they were just far enoughapart whatever four years or so
where they didn't interact.
But we have had very similarparenting experiences throughout
high school and college andit's really, it's really fun to
share that affinity with you.
So you and your husband, myselfand Julie we get a chance to,
you know, have that love for theDucks.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yes, the season didn't end the way we wanted it
to, but we did win the Big Tenthe first time in, so I'm going
to say that that's something tobe very proud of.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Absolutely, and they're going to be, you know
assuming.
Well, if Ohio State beats NotreDame, Oregon will be the only
one lost team out there, sothey'll still have that to go
for.
Let's forget about the firsthalf of the Rose Bowl, shall we?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yes, I think so.
I'll just think about the RoseParade and how wonderful that
was.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was beautiful pageantry, we love it all.
But yeah, that first half ofthe Rose Bowl wasn't quite what
we were looking for, was it?
So walk me through yourbackstory.
So, for those of you listeningfor the first time, and those of
you that aren't familiar withJennifer's backstory, tell us
about your family, tell us abouthow we're sitting in front of
each other, and we'll go intoProject Hope Alliance a little
(03:39):
bit more, but I want our team toknow more about you.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, so I grew up in Orange County.
I went to school actually inNewport Mesa Unified School
District.
I'm one of four kids.
I have three little brothers.
I say little, but they're six,four, six, three, six, two and
all played college football twolinemen, so not real small, not
too tiny.
I'm the only girl in the oldestand my dad was an entrepreneur.
In the 70s he had this crazyidea that one day everyone would
(04:10):
walk around with their ownindependent phone and he worked
for Motorola, was notindependently wealthy
entrepreneur and we had somereally good times and we lived
on East Ocean Front in NewportBeach.
I went to Newport Elementaryfor fourth, fifth and sixth
grade, but then we had somereally, really rough times and
(04:31):
so when I was in sixth grade wasthe first time my family got
evicted and we ended up livingin motels in Garden Grove and
Westminster, up and down Harborand Beach Boulevard, off and on,
really until I graduated highschool.
I went to Huntington Beach HighSchool, go Oilers although my
(04:53):
household is now a sailorhousehold and I went to
community college, worked fulltime, transferred to UCI, like
we have all these.
Oh you are.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You've got all the mascots.
I'm impressed.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yes, you know, and I worked 50 hours a week and went
to school full time, while I wasat UCI as well.
Wow, and then I wanted to be alawyer because I had decided,
while we were living at theTropic Motel, that I personally
needed a job where I could makeenough money to buy a house, put
my kids through school and nothave to worry about not having
(05:30):
enough money or enough food.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And my dad always said I should get paid by the
word, so being a lawyer, perfect.
I went to Whittier Law Schoolwhen it was in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And I was a trial lawyer.
When it was in Los Angeles andI was a trial lawyer, I made
partner at 38 because I was.
I kind of felt like I wasbehind the ball because it took
me seven years to get throughundergrad while working and all
that stuff.
But you know it's illogical aswe get older but when we're
younger, Right.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
The 20 something version of yourself is like I've
got to go, I've got to go.
But the truth of the matter isone of the smartest guys I ever
talked to said your twenties area time for education, your
thirties are a time forclarification and your forties
and fifties are a time formaturation.
And for you, while you weregoing through it, you're
thinking okay, I got to getthrough this.
But the truth of the matter is,by the time you're 30 years old
(06:19):
, hey, figure out what you wantto be doing.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
No, that's absolutely right, and you know the wisdom
we gain in our 50s is if wecould like ship that back to our
younger selves, but I alwaysknew that there was something
that I was being called to do.
I didn't really necessarily knowwhat it was, and the fact that
I had experienced homelessnessfor a lot of my childhood was
(06:44):
something that my family, we hid.
We didn't tell anyone, no oneknew.
We pretended like we were housesitting places and we created a
narrative that was false aboutwhere we were living, and so I
kind of grew up with thisthought that if people knew what
I'd really been through, thatthey would think my parents were
(07:04):
weird.
They would think I was weirdand they would think I was
undeserving of what I hadaccomplished, and so that was a
narrative that I worked reallyhard to build up.
I think about even the way Iwas a trial lawyer and there are
not a lot of female litigationpartners and I was in the
construction industry as well.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Also a male-dominated business right.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Absolutely, and I armored up in Brooks Brothers
like the best of them right,yeah.
And it's interesting to bereflective about how even the
way I dressed or even the way Iwore my hair was really to try
to eliminate any question that Ibelonged really to try to
(07:48):
eliminate any question that Ibelonged and I spent a lot of
energy kind of fighting what Inow understand.
I used to think that I wassuccessful despite what I went
through, and I now understandthat I am successful because of
what I went through and thatshift I'm so grateful for.
And if it weren't for havinggone to Project Hope Alliance
and completely upending myprofessional career, integrating
(08:10):
all of myself into one person,I never would have, I think,
fully appreciated that and beenable, as a leader, to instill
that in the leaders within ourorganization, leaders within our
organization, because so manypeople show up to the workplace
thinking that they have tocompartmentalize who they are
and it ends up reflecting aninauthenticity, ineffectiveness,
(08:33):
so it could look like lack ofcommitment.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Instead of and I'm not talking about like you don't
have to walk in and tell yourboss everything right.
But they're who we are is whythey hired us in the first place
, right?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Without a doubt.
I mean, you are who you are, youknow, with all your baggage and
without all your baggage, andthat's the person that you know
we all want to.
You know we've got roughly 300teammates here and we try and
consistently say is hey, look,stuff's going to happen and we
want to be able to walkalongside you.
We just created a chaplainposition at all of our stores so
that if somebody is having arough time at their home with
(09:09):
their spouse, with their kids,with their family members that
you know an HR manager isn'treally built for that, but you
know you can close the door witha chaplain and they can say,
hey, let me help you walkthrough this.
And we found, in the shortperiod of time that we've had it
, a lot of very rewardingdiscussions and I've talked to a
few of my teammates thatthey've been really happy about
it.
And back to your work it's youknow we're all flawed, right,
(09:33):
and you know, I think the soonerwe all realize that we've all
got baggage, whatever that mightbe, the sooner you embrace it,
the sooner you can get movingforward right.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So for you, okay.
So I remember being awestruck.
So on the hot summer day, we'reinside thank goodness we've got
air conditioning as we'reeating Italian food for lunch.
But you're sharing the storyand I was totally unfamiliar
with it, right, and you said,hey look, I was doing this,
(10:03):
partner, attorney, construction,all of these things and the
gentleman that was sittingacross from us.
yeah, steve morrow, steve morrow, shout out to steve, great guy,
yes, and and I know that you'vedone some work with him a
little bit in that space and foryou to share that you've been
doing all of that and you madethe change.
Walk our listeners through howthat change even came to pace,
because it doesn't seem like avery logical thing for most
(10:27):
people, right?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
It's not logical.
It was absolutely,unquestionably, a faith decision
for me, so it is not logical.
So logic doesn't dictate thatyou take a 75% pay cut the month
that you're being promoted tothe highest level of partnership
within your firm.
But back to me feeling likethere was something, that I had
(10:52):
a calling, but I didn'tnecessarily understand what it
was, even when I was in seventhgrade.
So I first found out.
My brother one of my brotherscalled me and said I just
watched this thing called theMotel Kids of Orange County on
HBO and it's this documentaryabout this school that serves
kids experiencing homelessnessthat are living in motels in
Orange County.
I need you to watch this.
He's like I don't know whatwe're supposed to do with this,
(11:14):
but I need you to watch it andthen pray about what we're
supposed to do and I was likeall right, I'm in Sure why not?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So I watched the documentary and and I saw kids
that were going throughhomelessness and believing that
that was going to be their wholestory.
Understandably so, because whenyou're a kid- you don't have
the blessing of hindsight orforesight.
(11:43):
You're in that moment andsomething really struck me that
one of the things that got mybrothers and I through this
experience was our faith inknowing that this didn't define
us and it wasn't our whole story, it was a chapter.
So one of my brothers and Idecided that we were just going
to like bust in to one of theProject Hope board meetings.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
So we bust in.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We're like, hey, we just kind of want to see.
You know, my brother had hisown business and like where does
I don't know, we just want tosee what's.
And it was a group of likeamazingly beautifully hearted
folks that had partnered withthe First Presbyterian Church in
Orange and they were providingclothing.
They had a really small foodpantry at this school and they
(12:30):
were providing clothing.
They had a really small foodpantry at this school and they
were providing transportation toand from motels and shelters to
this one school.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So their total programming budget was like
$30,000 a year, gotcha.
So like any good type Aoverachiever, I walked out of
that meeting the secretary ofthe board.
I love it, yes.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I'm jumping in.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Well, yeah, the board , I love it.
Yes, so I'm jumping in.
Well, yeah, so, and I will saythat one of the things I've
learned is I feel like we arecalled to show up and God will
reveal to us what the nextpieces are.
So I did tell the board, thoughhey, nobody knows this story
about my family, so this isbetween us.
Like, I'm not going to be apublic spokesperson.
(13:10):
I will work hard, I willadvocate for our youth, but just
FYI.
So a year or so later, we hadpartnered with UCI to build this
mock, fully life-size motelroom art piece that was based on
the tropic motel room that myfamily of six lived in for nine
(13:34):
months so this is while you'restill an attorney doing all yeah
and nobody knows, like nobodyreally knows my story oh, gotcha
all rightum, and so my dad died suddenly
when this happened.
At the same time I I hadconvinced Orange County Register
reporter to talk about thesynergistic nature of the
(13:55):
business community donatingmoney my brother's businesses
had donated $10,000 to pay forthe materials UCI had donated.
The head of scenic design atthe Claire Trevor School of the
Arts and all of the gradstudents to build this thing, an
anthropologist to make it like,researched it and then the
nonprofit needing to tell astory and how, when we bring all
(14:17):
three together, like anythingis possible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
So back to my suiting myself up.
I suited up that day because Ifelt really anxious and nervous,
because every Sunday, for thelike three months prior, the
whole sermon series was on whatis God uniquely calling you to
do what?
While I am chair of the ProjectHope Alliance board, looking
(14:41):
for a CEO, so I meet with areporter I prayed before I got
out of the car because I knewthat something was up, and so my
prayer was that Jennifer Friendwould step aside and that
whatever God wanted to do wouldbe the thing that would lead
Love it.
It was very scary for me to praythat.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Scary for anybody, right?
But yes, in your situation,right, it's almost like an
out-of-body experience.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It was, and so I show up, I introduce myself to the
reporter and we're in the motelroom and if you've ever been to
Second Harvest Food Bank, it wasthere for 10 years.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So that art piece that was in their main floor,
that's me.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
No, I did not know.
Okay, I've been to SecondHarvest, I don't know, dozens of
times.
Yeah, had no idea.
Yeah, so that's Sinking thestory, yeah so that's us.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
So I'm sitting on the bed with a reporter and the
reporter is like I can't getover how personal and specific
this feels Like.
How did you get this kind of afeeling?
And I said, off the record, Isaid I lived here for nine
months.
This is based on my family'sstory and for nine months this
is based on on my family's story.
And he goes Jennifer, that's thewhole story.
(15:53):
Are you ready to tell it?
And I said no.
I said but God is so, you knowwhat, let's do it.
So I told the story for thevery first time.
It ended up on the front pageof the register before it came
out.
That little girl who was inseventh grade that thought that
kids would think I was weird orwouldn't like me if they knew
that I was living in a motelcalled an emergency partner
(16:16):
meeting, so I could tell mypartners hey, this is the
program.
Yeah.
And they were like why are youtelling us this?
Like, okay, like.
But in my head I thought thatthey were gonna be like oh yeah,
she's not one of us.
Like what I don't know.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I mean, you know, Satan does a great job of
creating all kinds of stories.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Without a doubt, and all of a sudden, this false
narrative is existing in yournoggin.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah.
So I remember calling a coupleof my biggest clients and I was
like I just want to let you know, the story's going to come out
on the front page of tomorrow'spaper.
And one of them startedlaughing and he was like I knew
there was something that droveyou more than any other attorney
I have ever had.
And this is like a major, majorunderground construction
company.
And he was like yes, and I waslike so this is okay and he goes
(17:03):
okay.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You're my lawyer for life and it was shifting that
narrative right that I wasn'tsuccessful despite what I went
through, but because of it andlooking at it in a different way
.
So once it came out in thenewspaper I realized I'd be at
cocktail parties and people werekind of like they didn't know
what to do with the fact that Ihad been homeless.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Because they had all these preconstructive narratives
.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Of the types of people who experience
homelessness.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Without a doubt.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I fit none of them.
And then I'm in church oneSunday and the sermon is on
Esther and talking about howEsther lived in two worlds.
She was the queen, so she hadaccess to all of that, for sure.
But she was Jewish, so she waspart of the other, so she had
the ability to bring bothtogether.
(17:51):
And for such a time as this inthe history of the nation, god
was calling her to rise up inthe way that she inhabited two
worlds to lead people forward.
And then kelly commisher, whowas preaching the sermon, who is
a very dear friend of mine saysGod does not call the equipped,
(18:11):
he equips the call.
And I sat there and I juststarted crying because I knew
exactly what I needed to do.
And my mom happened to be inchurch with me that Sunday and I
went home and told my husbandthat God wanted me to resign
from the partnership of my lawfirm and be the CEO of Project
Hope, which at the time had oneemployee and served like 35 kids
(18:34):
and had like no budget, with abudget of 30 grand or whatever
it is.
And he said how much does thatpay, which is fair.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We had a brand new child right.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So we had a house on a quarter acre in Newport Beach.
We had a brand new baby.
Our son now is 15, but then wehad Parker.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
She was five.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
We had a mortgage that was reliant upon my income,
absolutely All the things, andI'm like this is how much it
pays?
And he was like that's a 75%pay cut.
And I said, I know, but I'mtelling you that I'm really
afraid of being disobedient.
This is so clear, like I'd loveto say that I was like, yay,
(19:13):
you know no I was here.
I was so, but I knew that God'sfaithfulness had been so present
in my life up to that pointthat I would.
I would be actively beingdisobedient and choosing to not
believe that he would continueto be faithful in my life, and
that wasn't something that I waswilling to do.
So my husband generously saidso I'm going to say no right now
(19:37):
, but give me a little bit tothink about it.
I need to marinate in this for afew minutes, please, or days,
or weeks, or months, so he cameback like a couple weeks later
and he said I did the math andwe could live on credit for a
year because he sells realestate.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So like that's not a guaranteed you know income,
feast or famine sometimes, right, that's right, and so I left my
book of business at the firmand I resigned.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And January 1st 2013, I started as the CEO of Project
Hope Alliance.
I had a desk in a multi-purposeroom of Skyview Elementary.
I was fortunate to hire LaShawnHigh, who was a social worker,
so he at least knew what he wasdoing, and we decided that we
(20:25):
wanted to build a model of carethat would be transformational
for our kids and have them bethe last ones in their family
lineage to experiencehomelessness.
And so we just decided that wewould always do the right thing
at the right time for the rightreasons.
We would never put ourorganization or ourselves at the
center of the circle, but itwould always be the kids, even
(20:47):
if that seemed counterintuitive.
Right but it would always be thekids, even if that seemed
counterintuitive, right, and I'mso grateful to say that we
served over a thousand last year.
We're in three school districts, one charter school system, we
have a 94% high schoolgraduation rate for our kids,
which is almost 30% above thenational average and makes them
(21:09):
400% less likely to experiencehomelessness as adults, and this
community has built us up intoan organization of 30 full-time
team members.
That's pouring $3.4 millionworth of programming every year
into our community.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So Okay, so one amazing I mean I just I'm
sitting over here just awestruckof the basics that I knew and
now, just even hearing it, Ithink maybe just hearing you go
into the details it's wonderfulto hear and walk us through.
So what are the services thatProject HOPE is providing these
kids that are in compromisedsituations?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, one of the things I learned sitting in that
multi-purpose room of that oneparticular school was that and I
had such a huge learning curve,right Like I come from, I was a
trial lawyer for 13 years andnow, all of a sudden, I'm
running a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
You put me in a courtroom.
I know what I'm doing, but yeah, over here, what the heck?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I mean, it took me three hours to figure out how to
print a letter on letterheadone day and I was just crying,
thinking I'm such a moron Like Ican't do this.
So what I learned, though, wasthat the social services
industry I guess because it isright Like we are a business, so
oftentimes it requires peoplecome to it in order to receive
(22:27):
services.
Our kids have zero agency whenit comes to where they go how
they get places right, any ofthat Right.
But they come to school, and soin my mind, I thought this model
of care that we're building, weneed to build it so that it
plugs into the public educationsystem.
So what we did was we createdthis model of care that has a 30
(22:52):
youth experiencing homelessnesswho are assigned to one case
manager.
That one case manager has theirown office on a public high
school campus.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
So how do you identify those 30 kids?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's lots of ways.
Teachers identify them for uswhen kids are registered for
school.
There are questionnaires thatgo out.
Sometimes, parents willindicate that they're
experiencing homelessness.
A lot of our janitorial teamsare seeing kids show up on the
school campus at 5.30 in themorning wearing the same thing
that they saw them showing up at5.30 in the morning the day
(23:25):
before.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Gotcha, because I imagine you know for these kids,
just like you, you know they'renot raising their hand saying,
hey, give me help.
But the teachers, thejanitorial staff, they can help
guide what the real need is andyou could say, yeah, susie over
there or Jimmy over there,there's all the signs in the
world that they're experiencingthis.
Probably a kid that you shouldbe talking to.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's exactly right, and so Newport Harbor High
School was actually so.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Principal Bolton said yes to us before we Shout out
to Sean Bolton Great job, Loveyou bud.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yes, he basically decided he was going to ask for
forgiveness rather thanpermission.
Possibly I mean I'm sure heasked for permission.
But he gave us a office on theNewport Harbor High School
campus five days a week that hadits own bathroom inside the
office.
So we have a small food pantry,we have a hygiene pantry, we
(24:17):
have clothing and what happensis so if Susie, like, let's say,
Miss Adams, is like guy,Susie's always hungry.
She's falling asleep a lot oftimes.
I know she's wearing like thesame clothes.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
And she has a hard time turning in assignments that
are like externally required tohave go to the library or do
things yeah.
So Miss Adams will say to Susiehey, susie Lupita is over in
room 103 and she's part of thisorganization that's a student
support organization perfect I'mgonna let you leave class and
just go check in with her andsee if there's anything that
(24:51):
lupita can do to like.
I don't know if you have anyneeds or anything's going on in
your life.
So suzy goes to our office.
There's no signage, because backto right, absolutely, I know
right so there's no signage andlupita's just like hi, like you
know, this is my name and MissAdams thought maybe something
was going on Like is thereanything you want to talk about
(25:14):
In the course of building thatrapport and that trust, susie
will reveal yeah, we're livingin a car.
Hey, my family of like five isrenting the floor of the kitchen
at one bedroom apartment overnear Shalimar and I only can
sleep between 2 and 5 am becausepeople are in the kitchen until
(25:38):
2 and after 5 am.
So then Lupita walks alongsideSusie and does everything, from
going into the classroom andadvocating for her to be able to
catch up work, figuring out howdo we get tutoring.
Partner with UCI, differentuniversities, to get specialized
tutoring.
Also, if Susie has mentalhealth needs, we have a lot of
(25:58):
partners that we drive our kidsactually to therapy.
We won young girls an amazingtrack star, but she was wearing
Converse that had holes in thebottom running track in Converse
.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It doesn't work that way.
It does not work that way.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
So we had partnered with the Chargers.
They had donated all of thisequipment specialized for all of
our youth who were in sports.
Susie got a whole bag full ofrunning shoes, athletic wear,
all that stuff.
So it's really showing up anddoing life with Susie until
she's 24.
Because our work is deep, weare truly in it for the
(26:38):
transformational generationalchanging.
So when Susie graduates highschool, then we find out while
she's there you want to go tocollege, you want to go to
culinary school, you want.
We have a lot of youth that areincredible artists.
So we're buying them artsupplies, we're buying the
musical instruments, we'reensuring they can go to science
(27:00):
camp, we're ensuring that theycan go to prom, that they have a
senior picture, that they havea senior yearbook.
As much as we can normalizetheir experience to let them
know that they are not definedby their housing status and that
their worth is inherent, thebetter our kids are able to
internalize their worth andhopefully figure out that they
(27:22):
are successful because of whothey are, not despite it.
Yeah, much sooner than like 52.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Walk me through age 24.
Okay, I get 18.
I think the logical thoughtprocess is 18, maybe 19.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
But walk me through why 24.
When our kids go to college,their needs change and morph,
and they become different.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And when our youth that we serve become 18, a lot
of the restrictions that maybesome unhealthy parent
relationships might have placedaround our ability to help them
become eliminated, gotcha, sowe're able to actually help them
find their own permanent,stable housing.
Advocating for them to be ableto get a lease, we are making
(28:05):
sure they have everything theyneed for the dorms.
They want to do an internshipin a lab over the summer that
doesn't pay?
Then we're figuring that outbecause we know they want to go
to grad school and the way youget to grad school is by doing
one of these internships.
And unfortunately right now thecompetitive ones don't pay.
So when we're looking atactually ending the cycle of
(28:28):
generational homelessness, wehave to be in it until our youth
are able to be financiallyindependent, established adults.
And 24 just seems to kind of bethe number.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
No, it seems like a logical play I was at a meeting
the other day as it relates tofoster kids, and that was.
They say that one of thebiggest challenges is when
foster kids get out of thefoster system at 18, they have
no direction.
That's right and that you knowthe massive numbers like 80% of
them are on drugs, in jail ordead, and so that time between
(29:02):
18 and 24 is invaluable.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It is and unfortunately, most of the
nonprofit sector shuts down at18.
So again, and by doing thelandscaping of the nonprofit
sector when I was just you know,one thing that was a great
skill that I learned as a triallawyer was my ability to absorb
a lot of information and becomean expert on a subject that I
(29:25):
had never even heard of in ashort amount of time.
So I just ingested, digested andanalyzed a lot of information
and so we started committing toour youth to age 24.
Well before others starteddoing it, because I saw a huge
dearth of services, I was like,well, what happens?
And now that I am a parent of a20 year old, I know like the
(29:48):
needs change, the guidancechanges, the opportunity to
speak into their life and andhelp support it changes.
And you know, if I had hadProject Hope Alliance when I was
in undergrad, it wouldn't havetaken me seven years, Sure Right
.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, and you know, I just think about that time, you
know, as we talk about our kids, not just the similarities of
Harbor and Oregon, but I thinkabout that time where age 14 to
18, it's their friends, it's allthose activities, and so they
have that piece of the world andthen, whether they go off to
college or community college orwhatever, their situation is
(30:23):
that formative time between 18and 22,.
It's amazing, you see, thepersonalities morph more and
more and the life experiencesare different.
Right, and we always joke thatwhen our son went away to
college at about November,december, all of a sudden he
called my wife Julie and he saidhey, you know, when you told me
(30:44):
about such and such, you wereright about that.
And all of a sudden, my wifeJulie and he said, hey, you know
, when you told me about suchand such.
you know you were right aboutthat and all of a sudden my wife
put the phone on mute and saidget over here.
He said we were right about it,right.
So you know kids are soheadstrong at that time and your
ability to walk alongside themwell past, you know, high school
, I think, has got to be sotransformative.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
It is, I mean, and transformative was what we're
looking for got to be sotransformative.
It is, I mean, andtransformative is what we're
looking for.
So we're not trying to be thebiggest nonprofit in Orange
County.
We're not trying to see, youknow, we have wait lists at our
schools, so we have wait listsof districts that want us to
come onto their campuses.
So it's just a matter ofgetting more resources so that
(31:23):
we can then scale.
More resources so that we canthen scale, and I really do
believe that we are.
That's where we're going to be,because we're right now touted
as one of the nation's modelsfor best practices for ending
generational homelessness,because people can't touch our
high school graduation rates andI go back to that point not
because Project HOPE is notmaking our kids smarter.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
They're not all of a sudden doing well in class.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
The IQ didn't just go up because of the tutoring.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
No, we're just eliminating the barriers so that
they can show up as themselves,so that they're not showing up
as someone who didn't get sleepor they're not showing up on the
track as with someone who hasholes in converse.
And we have kids.
One of our young ladies is.
She was one of the best kickersin the state of California.
(32:10):
She got a full ride,scholarship to college.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
And one of he actually went to Newport Harbor
High School football player.
He was also a kicker.
He had the opportunity to gobecause he was scouted at a game
to go to a kicker camp in LasVegas and the guy was like, if
you can get him there, so wepaid for that.
We paid for he and his mom tostay in a motel that was there.
We paid for the kicker camp, wemade sure he had all the
(32:34):
equipment he needed and he wentto school on a scholarship like
these things.
These kids are doing thesethings themselves.
They just need the opportunityto show up as themselves, and so
our work is deep and we arecommitted to our youth.
So we would rather serve lessyouth in a transformational way
until we can and we'll justcontinue to build and grow, as
(32:56):
opposed to diluting the workthat we do.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That makes sense.
Go deep as much as you can inthe places that you can until
you can expand beyond that.
I love that.
So I want to be mindful of yourtime and the schedule, but
let's talk about what's next.
So is what's next taking itfrom whatever it is, 10 schools
to 15 schools to 20 schools Isthat what's next?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So what's next, and now at the same time, is that
CalOptima just awarded us a $2.1million systems change grant
Bingo.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I love it the first time.
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Thank you.
It's the first time they'veever issued a systems change
grant and we literally wrote ourorganizational vision as the
grant application and they fullyfunded it.
And our vision is that, withinOrange County, orange County's
public school system is devisedin a way that allows for our
(33:48):
students experiencinghomelessness to thrive.
So we're doing everything rightnow, from educating educators,
administrators, school nurses,school security personnel on how
to identify and refer studentsexperiencing homelessness.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Just like that janitor, just like the teacher
Adams right.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
That's right and we are working to create one
questionnaire for all of OrangeCounty public schools to truly
get students experiencinghomelessness identified, because
right now the way they'reasking the question is different
depending on what schooldistrict you're in.
Newport Mesa has just revampedit and it is very dignity based.
It says you know which one ofthese housing experiences is
most like yours and you check abox, instead of what's in most
(34:34):
school districts, which is areyou currently homeless?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Well, I don't know if social services is going to
show up at my motel room.
I don't know if it's a crimefor me to live in a motel with
my kids.
So I'm not going to check thatbox, which means that we're not
allocating the right amount ofresources, but also shifting the
thought mentality fromdeficit-based to asset-based.
Like you want an entrepreneur,pick somebody who has had to
(34:59):
reverse engineer something intobeing.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Without a doubt Right .
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And those are our youth.
So this work that we're doingin actually building out a
coordinated system of care forstudents experiencing
homelessness in Orange County,we're looking to scale that
across the country.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
That is spectacular.
Well, for those that arelistening to us and our
conversation.
The truth of the matter is,jennifer, I wish I could talk to
you for the next two hoursbecause I am so fascinated and
for us, we're super involved inthe Orange County Rescue Mission
and walking alongside thosefolks.
We've had a number of graduatesand even children's of the
(35:34):
graduates that are working withus and we're pouring into.
So I think our interests alignsignificantly.
But for somebody watching thisand hearing your story for the
first time, how can they help?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
So they could go to projecthopeallianceorg.
We have a volunteer page.
We have volunteer opportunitiesthroughout the year.
We're getting ready, believe itor not, to start gearing up for
our summer enrichment for ouryouth.
When school closes, we open upeven bigger.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
So there are lots of opportunities to volunteer.
We take our kids surfing to thebeach, to science camp, bowling
lots of opportunities tovolunteer.
We take our kids surfing to thebeach, to science camp, bowling
all of those different things.
So someone could either donateto make those enrichment
opportunities possible or theycould volunteer to help us bring
them into being.
Maybe they are someone who hasa connection that they might
(36:22):
want to make, like they have arestaurant and they would love
to bring our kids back into thekitchen to show them what it
might look like to be in theculinary arts, all of those
types of things.
So it's projecthopeallianceorgand if they go on there, we'd
love to welcome them as a memberof what we lovingly refer to as
Team KID and really continue toend the cycle of homelessness,
(36:44):
one child at a time.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Well, we know that you've got a huge fan here and
Team KID love to be part ofthose members.
So we will definitely, in ourautomotive organization, be
supporting you and what you aredoing.
But we are so grateful for yourstory, so grateful for you
sharing, so grateful you'resharing your time and so excited
(37:06):
about next steps, because itfeels to me like this is just
getting started and what youhave been able to accomplish so
far and your leap of faith istremendous.
I am so in awe of that.
I think about some of the risksthat I take as an entrepreneur.
You know, when I left corporateToyota to become a car dealer
and working and scrambling thehundred hour weeks and that type
(37:29):
of stuff, I felt like I had asafety net and my wife was super
supportive in it.
But your situation and mine aresimilar but different, and I
think about those that arelistening and watching this.
The risk that you took had tohave been you know, you and your
husband having longconversations, but the passion
(37:51):
that you have for the cause thatyou have so impassionately
embraced far outweighs, you know, the income that was lost in
that short period of time.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Oh, I mean I never could have done it without Rob.
I mean my husband and I justcelebrated our 29th wedding
anniversary.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Happy anniversary, thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
But it's hard.
It's hard work, but the bestwork is hard, and I am so
grateful at 50, almost 55, toknow that God has given me this
opportunity to live and walkinto my calling.
And I think that all of us canremember that he doesn't call
the equipped, he equips thecalled.
(38:31):
So if there's something that'son your heart to volunteer, an
organization to volunteer for,but you think, shoot, I don't
know, like I don't, just do it,just show up and you'll be
absolutely amazed at whatunfolds and you'll be absolutely
amazed at what unfolds.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, rule number one show up.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, and show up and amazing things happen.
Well, jennifer Friend gosh, Iam so honored to have this time
with you and I so look forwardto all of our future
conversations, and my guess is,from this, we're going to help
you and the cause and ProjectTopa Alliance and Team KID
become even more accessible tomore places throughout Orange
(39:11):
County.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Thank you for all that you and your team does for
our community.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Well, thank you, I appreciate you Well, appreciate
your time and make it a greatday.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
All right.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Thank you for joining us on the Driven Leader Podcast
with my friend, jennifer Friend, and all I can say is wow.
The story is amazing.
Her personal story, herwillingness to share and grow
and learn and not let thesituation that happened with her
as a youth define her, butallow that to be a motivation
factor to create the career thatshe had the career as an
(39:43):
attorney and a partner andmaking a switch to pour into the
youth of Orange County.
And watching Project HopeAlliance grow into what it is
and what it will be is wonderfulto watch.
Jennifer, I am so grateful foryou and I am so looking forward
to growing alongside with youand supporting all that you and
your team are doing.
Thank you for listening to theDriven Leaders podcast and don't
(40:07):
forget if you like what youheard, like, share, subscribe so
that we can grow in thecommunity even more.
Make it a great day.
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