April 28, 2025 • 57 mins
In this episode, we present Dionne Dowdy-Lacy, a powerful advocate from Youngstown, Ohio. A mother, grandmother, and community leader, Dionne shares her journey from a vibrant childhood through personal challenges to creating opportunities for returning citizens. You’ll hear heartfelt stories of resilience, family, and the drive to help others rewrite their futures. Most of all, you’ll meet a woman who lives her mission of care through action, not words.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
- Life Growing Up in Youngstown
- School Days and Teenage Motherhood
- Finding Purpose After Adversity
- Launching United Returning Citizens
- Real Change Through Advocacy
- Dionne’s "One Word"
So press play and be moved by Dionne's inspiring story. Ladies and gentlemen, Sound United Presents... Dionne Dowdy-Lacy!
Be sure to subscribe wherever you vibe with podcasts or visit our website. www.soundunitedpresents.com
Sound United Presents is a community-focused podcast powered by Sound United Podcast Studio. Produced by Kimberly Gonzales and D. Lee Scott
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
D. Less Scott (00:12):
Hello, ladies and gents, welcome to Sound United
Presents, a diverse andinclusive podcast focused on
local entrepreneurs,professionals and unsung
community heroes.
Within each episode, our guestswill candidly share their
stories filled with triumph,failures, humor, lessons learned
, insight and some nuggets ofwisdom.
I'm very excited about this,and I hope you are too.
(00:34):
Let's get started.
Hey folks, once again, thankyou for hitting the play button
and listening to Sound UnitedPresents, powered by Sound
United Podcast Studio.
I'm your host, d Lee Scott.
Making it sound crispy isKimberly Gonzalez.
Today finally got her in.
We had to call people and itwas like maybe nine to ten
(00:56):
different people.
Her people had to call mypeople, my people called hers,
but we got her here.
She's here and I'm thankfulbecause I learned about this
organization maybe two years agoand off my I was talking to her
and talking about how.
I didn't know who ran theorganization.
I just heard about it about twoyears, somewhere in a year and
a half.
Our topics today is somethingvery near and dear to me, to
(01:19):
both from a from a family memberstandpoint and just from a
society standpoint.
I'm going to be talking aboutsome reentry stuff, criminal
justice, her personal story alittle bit, and just, we're
going to navigate, navigate herworld and get some some insight
and things like that.
So with that, ladies andgentlemen, sound United presents
(01:40):
Miss Dion Doughty Lacey.
Welcome, the crowd goes crazy,the cannons are going off and
everything.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (01:52):
Welcome to the show thank you for having me
yeah, couldn't listen.
D. Less Scott (01:56):
There's a whole backstory with season four, me
deciding to do it and and I hadplenty of time to think about
who I really wanted to you, youknow, cause this is an important
season for me and there'sthere's information our trailer
kind of talks about a little bit.
So to get you on here was justvery, very, very special to me
because you are, you were doingsomething that's very amazing,
(02:17):
many things amazing in thisparticular case with the
organization and stuff.
Being executive director ofUnited Returning Citizens.
I should probably have put thatout there, but you know I'm not
going to.
I'm gonna allow you toelaborate on that a little bit.
But no, to have you here meansa lot and I truly, truly, truly,
truly mean that.
And we have some mutual friendswho speak about you a lot too,
who have spoken about you, likewhen we get into it a little bit
(02:40):
.
I'll say I know one of them waslike she about her business,
like she about her business, youknow, and she going to bring
you along, just do you know,just just really good stuff.
And that's how you know it'sgood people when the people that
they are connected to speaks ofthem right in rooms that
they're not in, and that'sincredible.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (02:58):
So that's cool to know, yeah.
D. Less Scott (03:02):
So kind of briefly tell the audience about
yourself a little bit yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:05):
So kind of briefly tell the audience about
yourself a little bit.
Well, I am a girl fromYoungstown, Ohio, born and
raised.
I have three children.
I have 11 grandchildren.
D. Less Scott (03:22):
I'm a community advocate, I'm a teacher, I'm a
counselor, I'm a champion andI'm a healer.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:27):
What's that Youngst, that South side?
D. Less Scott (03:29):
Ain't they working on the high school over
there?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:32):
Yeah, we went there the other day.
They let us go inside and itwas so many memories that was
like 30, almost 40 years ago,but just to see, like the
bathrooms we used to go into andour Spanish teacher, it was
very nostalgic.
D. Less Scott (03:47):
Is the locker still there?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:48):
Yeah, like we were touching it, I'm like look
at this it was cool.
D. Less Scott (03:53):
So what are they are they trying to?
Are they trying to make that aschool, or is it just kind of?
I think they're restoring itjust like leasing rooms and you
know more of like a businessincubator more or less.
Oh, that's wonderful.
So I think so, yeah, yeah,that's wonderful, yeah yeah,
it's better.
I hope it it goes well yeah,because sometimes they'll do
(04:14):
those schools and they'll turnthem into like um residential
yeah, type thing.
So it's really nice to hear thatthey're gonna.
You know and I could actuallysee that like businesses or
nonprofits in there, you knowwhat I mean Like a very good
community incubator.
That is a wonderful idea.
So did you like?
What was you thinking when youwere in there?
I know we kind of getting offtrack a little bit.
(04:35):
You were in there and you werelooking at the lockers and the
restroom.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (04:39):
Like would you be somewhere.
But you know you have momentsthat you remember.
You know, when you were inthere, like I know it was
shameful to think about this,but when I got put out of
Spanish class for talking toomuch, I remember that one.
I remember us racing down thehallway, you know, at lunchtime
I remember us selling pencilsand erasers in the hallway, you
(05:01):
know.
You remember.
You know the girls hangingaround the water fountain.
You know, he's a 10, he's a two, he's a four, you know.
So all that stuff came up.
It was nice, you know some.
I mean, I think that's like thelast school that's still
standing.
So you know we actually got togo into the school that we went
to you know other schools thathave been rebuilt, you know, or
(05:24):
just taken down completely, butthat school.
D. Less Scott (05:26):
So I was like oh, I'm thankful and the
architecture, and just you knowthe wherewithal of it just being
there.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, caught up with any?
D. Less Scott (05:36):
did you catch up with any friends you ain't seen
in years?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:38):
Yes, that's what I mean People we haven't
seen in 30, 40 years.
To see them, Then we're all inthe same.
D. Less Scott (05:48):
You know some of us like we're redoing pictures
that we had like with our handson our hips and stuff.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:52):
So it was nice.
D. Less Scott (05:54):
How was life?
I mean growing up in Youngstownlike.
Did you spend a lot of time onthe south side?
Was all of Youngstown yourplayground.
What was life like?
Was all of Youngstown yourplayground?
What was life?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (06:03):
like.
I had a great childhood.
I had a mother and father thatworked at General Motors in the
post office.
My church was right across thestreet, so we was very
spiritually, foundationallyreligious, if that makes sense,
perfect sense, perfect sense.
(06:23):
We had a big family.
My mother has seven sisters andthree brothers, so I had
cousins.
So my cousins were my friendsand they lived maybe a block or
two from each other.
So we would walk, either wewould go to the park or go over
to each other's house and wewould just hang out.
And then my dad was from Warren, so in the summers we would
come over here to Warren or goto church over here Grace, ame
(06:44):
or Packer Park, you know allthose places.
So it was really cool.
You know, it was just a regularchildhood Did you?
D. Less Scott (06:54):
you know what kind of stuff did you climb
trees.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (06:57):
I was a tomboy so I played football with
the guys.
I climbed trees, I was racingall the time.
Our next door neighbor, hedrove motorcycles so we would be
on the dirt bike with him.
Get my legs all burnt up, stillget up, get back on it.
We did like they don't playoutside.
We played outside.
(07:18):
We played.
What did we play?
Skip hopscotch?
We would play dodgeball Racing.
We would just play.
You know racing.
We would just play.
You know just the regular jacks, regular stuff that kids would
play, did you?
D. Less Scott (07:30):
play marbles?
Nah, I always ask people thatbecause we grew up on marbles on
the east side, here in Warren,we used to play marbles all the
time.
I was telling my son about it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (07:39):
We used to call it spansies when you went
around one time you one, twotimes two spansies, and all that
, but you didn't play marbles.
Hmm, I know, because I don'teven know what spansy is, so I
know freeze tag now freeze tagyeah abc block green light, red
light.
D. Less Scott (07:57):
Oh yeah, that was a classic.
I think adults should play thatlike that's a good exercise
game like get a bunch of adultsand play that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (08:04):
So yeah, we're gonna see it on.
D. Less Scott (08:06):
We'll see it on tiktok it ain't, I said we'll
probably see it on tiktokbecause it's fine, that's,
that's an adult game.
It is that you can play.
You can play it in childhood.
You play it in adult.
I mean, if you, if you like me,it might be through a party
you'd be like, well, if you getcaught, you gotta have a shot of
tequila.
Yeah, and you gotta get back inthe game just with some extra
see, just with some extra comedy.
(08:26):
Your fish out of tequila, youtrying to stop yeah, that would
be fun, yeah yeah, maybe I'll.
Well, I ain't on TikTok, maybeI'll Instagram something like
that.
I'll have everybody sign arelease, though, so they can
come back and get it.
Yes, even my best of friendsand family.
What do you remember most aboutthat era?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (08:48):
growing up um I adore a park, I don't know.
I adore park fries.
Um the cookie castle, jackrabbit having birthdays with all
my cousins over sleepovers,cognac lake I've never been
there.
No.
D. Less Scott (09:06):
No, I've never been there Back then.
That was just that was thething, that was the spot, yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:11):
Geauga Lake, cedar Point.
You know because General Motorsalways had the tickets to go
there.
D. Less Scott (09:15):
So oh, yeah, yeah .
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:17):
So we were always going.
D. Less Scott (09:18):
You like the Jackrabbit?
Yeah, yeah, man, yeah, okay,the jackrabbit was the orange
right, was the orange one right,that other one was the wildcat.
Yes, yeah, I ain't like thatone at all.
I ain't like neither one.
But I never rode the wildcat.
It was too close to that waterno, I loved it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:33):
I didn't like that spider that went around.
D. Less Scott (09:35):
See, I love the spider, yeah, bumper cars, the
spider and that Silver Rocket,the ones that went around.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:46):
Anything that went around just wasn't for me.
D. Less Scott (09:48):
You know what I like the most, though the French
fries.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:51):
They were the best the French fries yeah
everyone keeps trying toduplicate Like these are all
Aydara fries Not.
D. Less Scott (09:59):
Nah, it was something about grabbing that
spray bottle of vinegar too.
It was Something about grabbingthat spray bottle of vinegar
too.
Something about grabbing aspray bottle of vinegar and
putting them on your fries.
It just I don't know.
I don't know.
And the hill too, because Iremember we used to roll down
that hill.
My mom, would you know.
We would go see my grandfather.
He stayed on Idora, was itIdora?
He stayed.
We would go see him.
(10:19):
I remember him vividly becausehe would always put milk in his
scotch, which I tried that once.
That's disgusting, but we wouldgo to our door part too.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:28):
I know what you're talking about.
D. Less Scott (10:29):
Yeah, we would do that, and my mom had a
8-millimeter video back.
When they first came out I waslike, mom, you had the money
then because she worked atPackard, so we got old footage
of that and the Jeep that youcould drive.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:43):
Then we used to, when it snowed, we used to
slay it down.
D. Less Scott (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, and we had Packard Park to do that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:50):
Yeah, we had Mill Creek, but that was just
like if we was over my aunt'shouse we could just go slay it
right in right there.
D. Less Scott (10:56):
What do you remember most?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (11:07):
Like, boom, we talked about the different
things you did, but when you sitback, what do you remember most
about your childhood?
Now I'm going to tell you thisfeeling what I remember most
about my childhood is feelinglike I am supposed to do
something impactful here,somewhere here in the valley,
here.
So I just knew it was somethingthat I'm supposed to do.
Impactful, like it wassomething that I was supposed to
(11:30):
do with people, because peoplewere always like around you know
me or you know I was.
It was easy to be around peopleto talk to people, so it was
something I knew that was justgoing to be impactful.
D. Less Scott (11:47):
So you didn't have like a dream career, like
when I grow up I'm going to be anurse.
Ok, so that.
Ok, nurse a nurse.
Was there any reason?
Why Was it a TV show?
I always go back because I askpeople like you know, I want to
be like a police officer for ahot second because it was Hill
Street Blues and starts gettinghutch.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:06):
I wanted to be a nurse because I wanted to
take care of people, but Iwanted to be Diane Carroll off
of Dynasty because she was aco-businesswoman.
D. Less Scott (12:17):
First of all you bring it back to the nostalgic
shows Dynasty and Dallas.
But yeah, I remember Dynasty.
Did she have the black hair?
Yeah, yeah, I remember her.
But yeah, I remember Dynasty.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:24):
Did she have the black hair?
Yeah?
D. Less Scott (12:25):
Yeah, I remember her.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:26):
Thank you, she was the black lady with the
fur, you know.
D. Less Scott (12:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:31):
So that was like the first black woman I'd
seen, like really doing business.
D. Less Scott (12:36):
Because there wasn't a lot of examples of that
back at that time.
No, it was Good Times, timesthe jeffersons don't forget
sanford and son, because that'smy show really well.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:48):
I was like, was there was no one on there.
I'm like, well, don't want tobe her uh, um.
D. Less Scott (13:00):
So when we talk about school we talk about you
going to, but elementary where'dyou go to elementary school?
I'm not really familiar withyoungstown, but I don't.
I don't like to pull cause.
I asked people from Warnock's.
You know what I mean, so it'sonly Monroe.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:11):
What is that?
It's gone.
D. Less Scott (13:13):
Gone.
Okay, where'd you go to middleschool?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:16):
Calvary Christian Academy.
D. Less Scott (13:19):
Here Gone yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:21):
The school is gone, but the church is still
over there, Mount Calvary Okay.
And then of course, high schoolyou was, yeah.
So I went to Mooney and thenall of my cousins were going to
South and so I begged my mother,because Mooney didn't have
proms.
Then what?
No, someone had got drunken orsomething and drove and killed
(13:42):
themselves or something.
So they didn't have proms for along time.
D. Less Scott (13:45):
Wow yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:47):
So I wanted to go to the prom.
So I begged my mother to let mego to South.
D. Less Scott (13:55):
Convinced her, and the rest was history yeah.
I'm a warrior, Did you take any?
I believe it.
I believe it.
Did you take any like classeswhere there's certain things
Cause, you know, back in the daywe had a plethora College prep
Courses Okay.
So no workshops, no metal shopno.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:12):
No, no, like I was on debate team at Mooney.
D. Less Scott (14:18):
Oh, you was doing it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:19):
Yeah, like French class.
D. Less Scott (14:21):
Is that how you convinced because of that debate
skill?
Is that how you convincedbecause of that debate?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:26):
skill.
Is that how you convinced yourmom?
D. Less Scott (14:27):
I believe so.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:29):
Okay, yes.
D. Less Scott (14:36):
But I had to convince her that I would keep
my grades up.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:38):
That nothing would change, you know.
So no sports, anything likethat.
No, when I was there I playedsoftball, ran track, I did
volleyball at Calvin ChristianAcademy and I was on a dance
team.
When I went to South, amajorette, okay.
D. Less Scott (14:54):
So what did you as you went through school?
You get to high school.
High school comes to an end,right?
What did you do after highschool?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (15:03):
Well, I was a teen mom, okay, so at 16, I got
, got pregnant and I had myoldest.
So then when I got out I didn'tgo to school.
So by 21 I was married okay andthen I had two more kids.
So then by then I was a wifewith three kids by 23.
(15:24):
So I was just uh, not just uh,I was a domestic engineer.
D. Less Scott (15:31):
Wait, domestic engineer.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (15:34):
I was a domestic.
I'm writing this, I'm writingall this stuff down Perhaps.
So I was a domestic engineer atthat time and, um, when the kids
all went to school and stuff, Itold my husband, like you know,
I don't have anything, I needsomething.
And so I went to massagetherapist school.
(15:57):
So I am a massage therapist.
I went to take my kids one timeto get their teeth cleaned and
then, while they were doing that, I went next door and got a
massage by Penny King and ifanyone hears this, they know who
she is and I said the way thatshe make me feel I have to have
other people feel this.
So I went to school to be amasto therapist.
D. Less Scott (16:20):
How long does that take to do?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (16:21):
It was 18 months Okay.
D. Less Scott (16:23):
So you still licensed to.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (16:25):
I still have my table.
I just gave one the other dayso.
D. Less Scott (16:30):
So you have it as a as a business too no, I don't
do it as a business now yeah,okay, yeah, all right, yeah,
because I don't want to becommitted to that right, because
you have a, you have anorganization you run in.
You run in an organization thatwe're about to talk about.
But before I even get I kind ofmentioned it earlier, but
before we get to, like I reallywant to go into because when you
(16:54):
in the field that you're in andit makes sense now that you say
impactful, right, you knew youwanted to help.
Yeah, make an impact and dowhat inspired you to open up, to
, even to found that yourorganization- it was personal.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (17:10):
Ok, I have two felonies.
My husband went to thepenitentiary, my father was in a
penitentiary, my uncles, mybrother went to jail.
But all of these people were sointelligent, creative,
innovative and so like I didn'tunderstand, like what was the
(17:33):
problem?
Or why were we there, or theythere, and what did they need
not to be there or go thereanymore or to recidivize?
And so they told me, like youknow, you know what it is,
opportunities and resources.
So I became a AmeriCorps VISTAand then I told them, in order
(17:53):
to be one, you all had to let mebring United Returning Citizens
with me and allow me to usethat through my VISTA.
And they did.
And I had the first felonfriendly job fair where we went
to get employers that would hirefelons, and so we kind of
(18:13):
started that.
And then everything else thatwe did as far as vistas and
community stuff, I always addedto the bullet point felons to
the bullet point felons.
So just keeping that in theconversation, you know what I
mean so that they would knowlike we are a part of whatever
that you all do in thiscommunity.
And so we had to like push thenarrative of what felons or what
(18:37):
I was going to have peoplebelieve what a felon was or was
not.
D. Less Scott (18:44):
Do you go into that?
Did you have a lot of buy-infrom employers to be a part of
this?
Because you know back in it maystill be out there, I'm sure,
but they had it.
Was that paper, like when youknow you got in trouble, you're
looking for a job let's say youjust got out of jail or prison
or you know it could have been achild support issue and you
(19:06):
couldn't find work.
Right, they said here, here'sthis paper, go, you know, go,
fill out.
And I remember not saying justyou know, just not saying Arby's
does this, because I got to becareful because this day and age
, but anyway, arby's was onthere.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (19:42):
It was like all these companies and they
would you know, give you that,yeah, and the majority of them
some that didn't why they should, because I didn't want to spend
my time on like woulda, coulda,shoulda, like that's wasteful
time.
You know, I tell my grandkidslike you get a moment, you know,
into whatever that's happening,because your feelings are valid
(20:03):
.
D. Less Scott (20:06):
Then the rest of that energy you got to solve the
problem.
Do you going back?
Do you feel like it's easiernow for and I say I call them
return or restore citizens?
I mean during my back when Iworked for FHI, that's.
You know that was the thing.
But do you feel likeopportunities are opening up
more now than back then, let'ssay 10 years back or so or is it
(20:28):
still kind of the same as faras, like you know, people not
wanting to give an opportunity?
And I give example like Iremember, cause I shared what I
did prior to you know, off mic,you know working with flying
high and doing that stuff.
But I remember cause I wastrying to find out why, like, if
(20:48):
a person does their time,whatever they did, right, they,
they did their time they gotthey they shit in order Right,
and they ain't even got a Jwalking ticket and they've been
out for five years or somethinglike that, and they still can't
find work.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (21:02):
Right.
D. Less Scott (21:02):
Nobody wants to hire them.
They got a housing issues rightA nuclear family, but they
can't be a nuclear familybecause he or she has a felony
so they can't move in to helpraise.
I mean it's just so crazy with,with, with all this stuff.
But I remember someone tellingme that their justification was
it was a banker, like on why?
And I said, well, what doesthat matter?
(21:23):
Like I could understand it wasa banker or something, right?
I said, well, what does thatmatter?
Like I could understand if itwas a banker or something, right
, okay, of course you ain'tgonna work in a bank, right?
I understand the banks thing,like that.
But other than that, like howcan you not give somebody an
opportunity?
They time they doing the rightthing?
Right and they got to survive?
Has it changed a little bit foryou?
Like in that, in that realm, asfar your organization, what you
(21:43):
deal with the people who comein, has it changed?
Is it easier now?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (21:47):
No, it's not easier.
I think that we're making moreopportunities for ourselves
instead of just continuallyasking someone to help me to
keep saying no.
I think our mindset now is moreof like okay, if that's not
working, how can we makeresources and opportunities for
(22:11):
ourselves?
This is a big world and there'sgreat opportunities out here.
So maybe let's look out the boxand see you know who do support
returning citizens, whatcompany or what jobs can we, you
know, go to that.
Don't do backgrounds or itdoesn't matter.
(22:32):
Do you have a background?
Like let's concentrate on thosepeople and those things and see
how we can grow from there.
That's kind of like my mindsetand the mindset that most of the
clients that come in, that Ieven have conversation, you know
, I'll tell them like just lookat it from that way, because
they're overwhelmed and they'rebeat down.
It's already you just we'renormal or whatever, and just
(22:57):
being rejected is bad to us.
So just think of youcontinuously.
You're already beating yourselfup because you know what you've
done.
You know not to you yourself,your children, your mother.
You know you're embarrassed,you're guilty, you feel guilty.
So now you come out here andthen they're telling you the
same thing over and, over andover again.
I've seen grown men cry becausethey're frustrated.
(23:19):
It's not that they're not ableor they're not capable, there's
just no one's letting them be aman.
D. Less Scott (23:27):
To have an opportunity or to provide for
the family, or you know, andalways I think too, like
sometimes it's hard.
I say it's if you're in arelationship and you have that
that situation, it's veryimportant to have a strong
relationship with your partner.
It doesn't mean marriage or,you know, it could be boyfriend,
because at the end of the day,when all that, when you getting
beaten up out there just tryingto find an opportunity, just
(23:51):
anything, the last thing youwant to do is come home and get
beat up some more because youknow you need to find a job and
you out there trying to find ajob, and now you got this, this
dynamics, and not only is itinsane a typhoon going inside of
the house, it insane a typhoongoing inside of the house, it's
a typhoon going outside.
And so I always say, like that,that relationship with whoever
(24:11):
it is, is very, very, veryimportant because, it can be
uplifting as well too.
You know, yeah, how has your,when you initially started the
organization, the vision you had, how has it evolved?
I mean, you kind of talkedabout a little bit on just like
your position on certain things,but how has it evolved?
I mean, you kind of talkedabout a little bit on just like
your position on certain things.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (24:28):
but how has it evolved?
I really didn't have a vision.
So this was really started byWayne Huggins.
I met him at a leadership Ithink expo or something Somebody
at church gave me this and say,hey, dion, you need to go there
.
So when I went there, I seenhim and this is what he was
doing.
So I was like, okay, I could dothe women, you could do the men
.
And so he was like okay, but he,you know, he wanted to do
(24:54):
something else and so I stillwanted to do this.
So I just took over and then Ijust continued it yeah because
he was doing like memberships.
You know I just wanted to.
You know, do direct services.
You know I wanted to touch topeople and make sure that they
were okay and, you know, givethem plans and goals and things
like that.
And that's where it started andevolved with, because I used to
work with Mahoney ValleyOrganizing, so that's like
(25:19):
organized.
D. Less Scott (25:20):
Oh yeah, inbock, yeah yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (25:21):
So organizing and advocacy was like wonderful
, like going out there and youknow, because when I was young I
was a tomboy, so I used tofight all the time, so you know.
So when you get old I'm likewhat is all this fighting for,
you know?
And so now I understand, youknow, with all this fighting
(25:43):
that I was doing then, like I'malways trying to fight for the
equality of people, I believe inpeople's well-being and human
rights, you know, and a right tohave everything everyone else
has, you know it was founded,originally founded by Mr Huggins
.
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (26:00):
By Mr Huggins, and then y'all united like kind
of like the Wonder Twins yeah,this and that, and then he kind
of moved on to other things, andthen you and then I just grew
it from the needs of the clients.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (26:14):
That's how I got my programming by what the
needs were.
When we came in, we weresurveying them as they came in.
That's when we, you know, wedidn't know anything Like when I
came in here.
I was not computer savvy oranything like that.
I just knew how to do thepeople.
So we were just doing thegroundwork.
You know, we were having likebrunches for fathers, for CCA,
(26:38):
and then inviting their familiesyou know what I mean so they
can come and be there, you know,and giving them, even though
you know, like if no one toldyou happy father's day, happy
father's day, I gave them like akey change, just something to
make them feel worthy, like Ialways tell them, like we're
worthy, we are worthy.
You know, um, we were doingexpungements.
(26:59):
We're still doing expungements.
You know, to this day, the lastone we had, I think it was like
37 people just being able togive people you know a second
chance.
You know it was like elevenhundred.
You know collateral sanctionsthat they can't even be a part
of.
So now to be able to have thatchance to pick passionately what
you want to do as a career, Ithink it was cool.
We used to do a lot of cleanuparound.
(27:20):
You know the neighborhoodHillman Street, that's where I
live off so we were alwayscleaning that up.
Hillman Street that's where Ilive off, so we were always
cleaning that up.
Just little things, just toconnect the community with
returning citizens, to see themin another way other than
somebody coming through a dooror, you know, selling drugs or
things like that.
(27:48):
So, what programs andinitiatives do you offer?
I know you mentioned some alittle bit and just now you know
, as of today, what type ofthings do you offer returning
citizens?
So today we do housing,workforce, resume, building,
mental health, art therapy, eft,tapping, grief classes,
entrepreneurship.
Wow, urc grows horticulture,yeah.
D. Less Scott (28:05):
That's a lot.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (28:07):
Yeah, it is.
D. Less Scott (28:08):
It's a lot, though, but I assure you I can
almost guarantee it's all needed.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (28:13):
It's all needed, yeah, but we're going to
just bunch that together andjust kind of concentrate on it.
I'm changing to advocacybecause I think that we can show
up better if we're just in therooms.
And if we do that, because thehousing problem that we have,
you know, we can't change thatfrom out here we're going to
have to be in those rooms, we'regoing to have to go down in
(28:33):
Columbus, we're going to have towrite letters, because it is
just saddened to me every timesomeone come and they're looking
for a home, that we just can'thelp them, you know, and a lot
of these landlords just don'twant to deal with someone that
just has gotten out of prison.
D. Less Scott (28:50):
I mean, do they in conversation with somebody?
Do they just do you get?
Because to me, everything youknow, you can get to a pure and
authentic answer with thequestion why Do some of these
landlords, do they break down?
Why?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (29:08):
I mean, is it just for liability?
Know, but that's what the mostof them would say.
Insurance like, that's whateveryone, that's what even the
employers, employers say thattoo.
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say yeahyeah, so that's what they say,
you know, and so what could youdo?
But, like we said, theopportunity is a lot of people
that have went to jail you knowwhat I mean, that they was
hustlers.
So when they come out theystill know how to hustle
(29:29):
something else, not other thanwhat they were hustling before.
So they are buying upproperties and so they already
know from experience it's hardto come out here and have, you
know, somewhere to live.
So then they buy houses and sothat we can rent for them, or
they'll do apartment buildingsand so they can do, you know,
rent out rooms or things likethat.
So you know, we are trying tomake opportunities within
(29:53):
ourselves.
D. Less Scott (29:54):
Good, good, that's really good.
Yeah, I never understood thathousing thing.
That's why initially from going, you know, just liability is
always that thing, but then youknow somebody has an F5.
Liability is always that thing.
But then you know somebody hasan F5.
They got you know, six monthscommunity service and three
years probation.
They got an F5.
Nothing violent.
They still can't find housing.
(30:16):
You know something like thatit's crazy.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (30:18):
Listen, it's some people that came in there
that don't have a background,you know, have anything and have
a good job and having a hardtime finding houses.
So you know, housing is justbad out here period.
D. Less Scott (30:31):
What are some early challenges you had with
the organization, like when you,you know, became yours, like
what were?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (30:36):
some early challenges.
Funding support really liketaking serious, you know, or
underestimated, that was a lot.
D. Less Scott (30:52):
Is it partly because of the initiative,
partly because it's verydifficult sometimes?
Well, we can just say people ofcolor, women like you, have all
these, and was that part of it,did you?
Did you face a lot of that like?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (31:09):
it was a little bit of both initiative
because of what we're doing andpeople just like that's just not
important to a lot of peopleand just being who I am, you
know and not you know they don'ttake black women serious how
you.
D. Less Scott (31:26):
Do you overcome that, though?
Like to get away with?
How did you overcome I mean,I'm not saying it's all like
completely wiped away, but howhave you pushed the needle
forward Because you're doingamazing work?
I mean, that's out there.
How did you overcome some ofthat?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (31:40):
I know what my purpose is and I know why I'm
here.
So, regardless of what you say,what you do, this is meant to
be, and so he's going to give mewhat I need to do, what I have
to do.
So I just did the work and Idid it well enough so they will
(32:03):
respect me and know there's noway that you can say no.
There's no way that you can say, oh, she doesn't do that or oh,
they're not doing that.
D. Less Scott (32:10):
Yeah, when you, I think, when you know yourself
and you know your purpose.
It's like in the medieval days,the knights you got this shield
, yeah.
Shoot your bow and arrow, theyain't gonna stop me.
You know, I know my purpose.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:25):
Yeah, and if you're not going to help me,
there is someone else in thisworld that will.
D. Less Scott (32:31):
Do you get a lot of support rallying around you?
Now I do, From the time thatyou know, from the beginning to
where it is now.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:37):
I really do, I do Personal and business
people and organizations andstuff.
All around, all around, yeah.
D. Less Scott (32:43):
People definitely speak highly of you.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:46):
I All around.
D. Less Scott (32:47):
Yeah, people definitely speak highly of you.
I mentioned that earlier.
They do.
I hope so the organization.
Do you have an impactful storyof someone who's gone through
the organization programming?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:55):
Yeah, it's two of them.
One was he just recently gotkilled.
His name was Will Miller.
His name was Shimmy.
D. Less Scott (33:04):
I read Okay, yeah .
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:08):
So when he first came out, he came to us
and, um, he just did the work,we supported him.
You know, I mean, like we weresaying then, like he couldn't
even get insurance, we had towrite letters.
You know, we had to um goadvocate just so that he can
have insurance, you know, as areturning citizen.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what?
D. Less Scott (33:25):
do you mean it's like car?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:26):
insurance no, like life insurance.
D. Less Scott (33:28):
Okay, wait, wait, wait, life insurance.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:33):
Life insurance, Even with his housing
.
We had the mayor write a letter.
We still couldn't get himhousing.
D. Less Scott (33:39):
That's wow, yeah, I didn't know life.
You know what I mean Like yeah,what know life.
And you know I mean like yeah,what type of?
I don't know.
That that's just so weird to me.
That's why my eyes kind of gotbig like wait, did you say, was
it automobile insurance?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:52):
no, it was life insurance.
Life insurance and just for himto be able to turn his life
around and to do what he'd loveto do and get to be I mean paid
and for him to be able to makean impact.
Because when he came he said Ijust want to change what I've
done, you know, in the past, andto me that was just a great
(34:12):
impact and it's still, eventhough you know he's not here.
It's still making a greatimpact on the young men that's
in this community because herelated to them so well and he
was able some things like youknow, people like oh, I used to
push for him to get paid, youknow, and they just felt like,
because he did 26 years in thepenitentiary, that he shouldn't
get paid.
He has a skill that y'all don'thave.
(34:34):
That's insane.
Yeah, can you go in that roomwith this guy that's about to
kill these two and squash it?
No, that's a skill, yeah, soyou have to pay people for their
skills.
You know what I mean.
Just because he didn't go to,you know he did.
He went to college, he was inthere 26 years.
He went.
Yeah, that's how he was able tocome out here and to be able to
(34:56):
do that, so that was impactful.
Another one is Kashara.
She works with me and everybodyknows her.
You know from her back past Imean past background of what she
used to do.
You know stick up and she, agirl you know hustle, all that
kind of stuff.
And now you know she does thesame thing.
(35:21):
She does the mentoring, shedoes our housing, she does a lot
of personal and businessdevelopment for herself, which
is very important.
I tell all of them it's veryimportant to sustain where you
at or what you're doing.
And now you know she's justdoing great things Like she has
so much respect.
You know so many girls.
You know that's just coming outjust looking up to her.
You know what I mean.
She's just making a differencein that way.
D. Less Scott (35:41):
Yeah, I think when you were talking about the
skill set, the negotiationskills, right, and how you know
people can go to college or takethese classes or go to an
academy to learn how tonegotiate, but there are people
who just have that given skill.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (36:00):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (36:01):
And I always give example when I talk about this.
There was a lady in ourneighborhood that, uh, there was
some beef in our neighborhoodand it was a younger group of
kids and you know you alwayshave them, you know she was 70
something maybe, but you knowyou have these people in the
neighborhood that they saysomething, you do it, no matter
how old you are.
Miss such and such, or mr suchand such, you do it.
(36:22):
And there was some beef in thisneighborhood and if that beef
wasn't controlled, it was goingto go from street to street to
street to street Because, as Isaid before, you know, warren,
probably like Youngstown, likepeople connected, you know you,
you my blood cousin, but we goway back.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (36:38):
Yeah, we go back to.
D. Less Scott (36:40):
Boston baked beans we good, and so that would
have been a nasty situation.
Yes, and this lady got them,two young men, together and it
was over.
I can't drink Pepsi.
It's so sweet.
I remember seeing seeing herbecause we were a neighbor and
some fried whiting fish andPepsi and told them, young
brothers, to straighten that outand don't leave until it's done
(37:01):
.
And beef salt yeah, negotiation, you have to respect that.
And beef salt.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (37:05):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (37:06):
Negotiation.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (37:07):
You have to respect that.
Now, hers was a little bit morethreatening, yeah, you know,
but however, you know what Imean.
D. Less Scott (37:12):
By any means yes by any means.
We can't have this going on.
But I think you know, when youlook at the person okay,
somebody who may have made amistake or what have you,
whether it's the first or secondtime right, like, who are we to
sit and just condemn forever?
I call you.
Know what I call it Economic,it's like having albatross
around your neck.
(37:32):
It's just economic.
It's a death sentence.
Economically right, because howare you supposed to survive?
How are you supposed to takecare of your family?
You know there's thesenarratives like you know these
empty households and we need aman or one.
You know nuclear households.
Well, you ain't giving thisyoung, you ain't giving them an
opportunity to do it.
They know what they're doing.
So is it really Exactly so?
Is it really about that?
Or what is it really about?
(37:53):
You don't want them getting thejob, you don't want to employ
them.
I remember when we did sometraining at I think it was
Indiana State University.
We went up there for sometraining for programming with
FHI, for, you know, restorecitizens, whatever and this man
had got up and said one way oranother, we going to eat.
Know that.
(38:14):
And he was an OG, like before OG.
He got up, he was tired of thequestions, you know, and he said
one way or another, we going toeat and we would rather eat
this way than the other way,than taking it off your plate.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (38:29):
Yeah, either you're gonna give it to me or
I'm gonna take it.
Yeah, but I'm gonna live.
My family gotta eat, just likeyours.
But if you're just holding allthe apples in your basket, what
I'm gonna do, either I'm gonnayou're gonna give me one
maslow's hierarchy of needs Isay that when I'm on panels and
stuff, either you're going tohelp them or they're going to
(38:50):
come through your car window.
D. Less Scott (38:52):
You know how has the support been for you know,
like for you and yourorganization?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (38:59):
it's been great.
You know, from the city, fromthe mayor, all the way to other
grassroot organizations.
You know from the city, fromthe mayor all the way to other
grassroots organizations, thesupport here you know is good,
my Rotary team.
I mean family.
They support well the city, thehood.
D. Less Scott (39:19):
You got love from all around.
Yeah, all around, love from allaround.
How do you so?
If you were the czar of youknow, giving people opportunity
to return to citizens and allthat right, and your insight
would help make change the lawsor policies, whatever like that.
What do you think communitiesand people could do better in
this, in this re-entry process,to help that population?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (39:42):
It would be judging, because if you didn't
judge, you know they would havemore open opportunities for them
.
But just that, I mean, it'sjust simple.
They just should give themopportunities.
You know what I mean?
Just give them a chance, that'sall.
Just give them a chance, and ifthey mess up, then OK, but you
just at least give them a chance.
I know I think his name is Markor something down here at the
(40:06):
Bistro.
D. Less Scott (40:08):
I've always messed it up.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (40:09):
He just rebranded, yeah, I remember
having a conversation with him,because when he first came, you
know I was trying to likecontract with him so we can have
people that work there, and hesaid most of the people that he
hired was returning citizensbecause they showed up, Mm hmm,
he said you know, this is agreat opportunity for them, or
(40:30):
they know it's an opportunityfor them.
You know what I mean.
So they take it serious andthey're consistent and I'm
trying to tell the otherworkforce like that's something
you know that they have toconsider.
Like they don't want to go backto jail, they want to be able
to take care of their families.
You know they want to feelproud of who they are and what
they're doing.
D. Less Scott (40:53):
So if you give them a chance, they'll continue
that, because that's a goodfeeling.
What's the?
You don't have to have anaccurate number.
I keep feeling like it was 69%back in the day.
The recidivism rate right now?
Yes, when is that at now?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:03):
That's, it only went up.
It's 73%.
It went up, it went up, it wentup.
It went up.
It was 73%.
It went up, it went up, it wentup.
D. Less Scott (41:10):
Hmm, yeah, are you finding it's more?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:13):
Women, really Mm-hmm.
D. Less Scott (41:15):
I was about to say young people.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:17):
Nope.
D. Less Scott (41:18):
More women.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:19):
Yep.
D. Less Scott (41:19):
Is there.
Do you have a thought processon why that is?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:26):
Yeah, all the men are gone.
So the men and the women startthinking that they're these
masculine people, and so they'redoing what the men were doing.
So, they're getting the crime inthe time that the men were, you
know, because they're feelinglike they have to take care of
their families.
The best thing to happen toCOVID is a lot of women found
(41:47):
out what their real skills were,that they didn't have to do a
nine to five, you know, likebaking, cooking, making cups,
bedazzling things, you know.
So it brung out theirentrepreneur, creative part of
them and so it is shifting alittle bit because they're
finding their self in a newspace doing new things and it's
making them feel veryaccomplished and proud.
(42:09):
So we do a lot of support withthat.
But we know there's a lot ofwomen it's like 30% up of women
that are going and coming out ofthe penitentiary.
D. Less Scott (42:24):
Statewide.
Are there some states that aremore friendlier to restore
citizens than others.
I don't know where Ohio ranksin all this, but you know
they're all kind of about thesame.
Wow, that's insane to me.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (42:39):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's just a stigma
of who you know, people ofreturning citizens or felons or
people coming home from prison.
You know, it's just that stigmais just going to be that and
you just just gotta have arelationship with your community
to to help that situation bebetter and that's it.
You know people just thinkthey're bad people just off the
(43:00):
rip labeled.
You bet you did that, let metell you I, um, was with this
group of people.
I've been with them a long time.
I didn't come out say you knowwhat I did, or anything,
background or whatever.
So someone felt like Ishouldn't be hanging around with
these people, or you know.
So they came to tell them thatI had a background, you know.
(43:22):
And so they all came to me likeDeanna, oh my God, did you have
a felony?
You're a felon and you know.
So I was like, oh, yeah, andthey was like two.
I'm like yep, did it twice,yeah.
And they were like, well, well,we already like you, so I don't
even know, you know, like soyou know what I mean.
So that's the point I'm tryingto say.
Like you know what I mean, thatwas 20 years ago.
(43:43):
You know I was an angry younggirl.
You know what I mean.
I did the work to find out why,and so now that I you know, so
it's a lot of people like me andthat's what I wanted to show
them, like this is who I am, theperson that you like and that
you're saying like, oh, I stillwant to be around.
You know what I mean.
That didn't even make adifference to you.
D. Less Scott (44:01):
It's wild that you know you are not the same
person you were then, but it's.
And but in this particular case, a lot of people just they
stick to that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (44:14):
What?
D. Less Scott (44:14):
you did 20, 10, 30, you're still that same
person, but any other, any otherarea, even people who get
divorced, you know yeah, now youcan change and become a you
know better person.
Yeah, but you can't changebecause you, you know you you
did time or you made a mistakeand didn't do time.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (44:28):
You just got yeah, because I didn't do no
time, but I just was, was angrylike stabbing and fighting and
you know all that kind of justwowing.
I can't see you fighting what Ihave to personally fool you.
D. Less Scott (44:44):
Okay, and so you're making all this community
advocacy.
You're doing this and itcarries a lot of weight, a lot
of responsibility, a lot ofemotion.
Some days it's crack open thechampagne, other days it's.
I quit you quit, and then youturn around and you hire
(45:06):
yourself back.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (45:07):
Yes, Because you see someone.
Oh, Misty, thank you, I got mybaby back.
Blah, blah, blah.
So you're like let me get myboots on, tie them back up.
D. Less Scott (45:17):
How do you with all that, with going through all
that?
How do you handle thatwork-life balance between an
organization with a lot ofresponsibility and compassion
and wanting to help, and justyou like the things you want to
do?
How do you balance all that?
What do you do?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (45:33):
Be intentional about that.
I learned to really beintentional about that and make
time for that, because, if not,there's so many times that like
it would make you depressed.
I've been depressed about it,you know, anxious, like I said,
I didn't quit, like you know.
This is just not for me.
I think something else shouldbe.
(45:54):
But when I go away, you knowfor a while, you know for a
weekend or a week or somethinglike that and come back when I'm
rejuvenated and my family, likeI'm close with my family, like
we have to, there's cousins ofus, about 10 of us, so we get
together and it's like we fillup each other's love cup because
it'd be like, all right, y'all,see y'all in like three more
(46:15):
months.
You know what I mean, because weget to vent about everything.
You know what I mean.
We know each other.
You know we allow each other tocry, laugh.
There's no judgment or anythinglike that.
You know we're going to kick it.
You know play games, like yousaid, cook, eat, like those
things are special.
Those are special times.
I mean.
Those are things that, uh, makeme feel good.
Those are things that I love.
I love being around my family,um, and just making memories so
(46:40):
family's important.
D. Less Scott (46:41):
What kind of games are y'all?
Oh man you jumped up.
You about to get into thisanswer they get them all off.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (46:49):
Tiktok, it's always a drinking game, yeah, or
they do.
We do dice games space, oh no.
D. Less Scott (47:01):
The fun stuff.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (47:02):
Yeah, you know stuff like that.
D. Less Scott (47:05):
You know, you can add red light, green light to
that now with the tequila shots.
Listen, I was thinking aboutthat.
I said next time we go're gonnaplay that yeah oh, what nugget
of wisdom would you give the 18year old you oh, believe, just
believe.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (47:23):
I just didn't believe back then.
It wasn't that I didn't have itor wasn't there, I just didn't
believe enough, you know, for me, or wasn't there?
I just didn't believe enough,you know, for me or for anyone.
So I would just be like D girl,believe that what you feeling,
believe that what you seeing,believe that what you doing,
believe that.
D. Less Scott (47:44):
Okay.
So I'll always like to askpeople this the one word thing,
and if there was one word thatyou would use to define you or
what you exude, what word wouldthat be and why?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:00):
Care.
D. Less Scott (48:02):
I know we talked about a lot of things that you
do in the care, but explain care, so that's on your T-shirt.
That's the word.
Now why?
Let's go deeper.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:11):
Because it's the right thing to do.
We're here as people on thisearth to care for one another.
That's why we have needs, wants, desires, and I want to be a
part of that.
I want people to care for me.
I want to care for them.
You know what I mean.
I want people to care for me.
I want to care for them.
You know what I mean.
I want them to care for theirfamilies you know what I mean so
(48:33):
that they could be well.
I just want people to be well,you know.
If we all go out to eat, I wanteverybody to pay for their own
stuff don't ask me for shit, notnot be like.
D. Less Scott (48:47):
I gotta go to the bathroom.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:50):
You see the waitress and waiter come in and
you just conveniently gotta goto the restroom.
D. Less Scott (48:55):
I'll be right back, my phone ringing.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:58):
I gotta take this call real quick.
Yes, yes, yes.
D. Less Scott (49:01):
Yeah.
So I got a random questionround, this yellow piece of
paper right here with somerandom questions.
See, I handwrite them too.
These ain't tight, I handwritethem.
I sit and think about that, Ithink about the questions I want
to ask.
So you ready.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:16):
I am.
D. Less Scott (49:16):
Okay, let's start with hmm, If your life was
turned into a movie, a moviegenre, what genre would it be
and who would play you?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:30):
would it be and who would play you?
What genre would it be?
It'd be like well, I don't knowwhat genre the grease was in.
D. Less Scott (49:42):
Musical.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:42):
Yeah, okay, cause I'm a musical kind of
cause, I think I'm a discodancer.
That's what I was in my pastlife.
So, and who would I have playme?
I would do Kiki Palmer yeah,because she's an all-time.
Or Tiana Taylor Because they'relike all-around dancers and
(50:04):
yeah and actors.
Tiana Taylor yeah, because shegot a little grit to her yeah,
so it would be a musical.
D. Less Scott (50:11):
Yeah, it would be a musical.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:12):
Definitely a musical Okay.
D. Less Scott (50:16):
Be all kind of choreography going on in your
movie.
If emotions could be bottled upand sold as perfume, what would
your signature scent be called,and what emotion would it be?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:34):
What emotion would it be.
It would be.
What emotion.
It would be happy.
D. Less Scott (50:45):
So it would be happy.
Right, that would be theemotion.
What would the name be?
Because you can't take thehappy either, because you get
sued what would the um?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:56):
what is it called um quintessence?
D. Less Scott (51:01):
okay.
So if somebody got a ball ofquintessence, they know that the
motion is going to be happy.
Okay, all right.
So, um, what theme song wouldyou want to play every time,
like on your entrance, you goout to speak or when you walk
into a room?
(51:22):
What theme song would you want?
I got a couple of them.
Okay, you can get two all Allright.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (51:29):
Lovely Day, because everybody knows it's my
favorite song.
Lovely lovely day, like when Icome through it's just going to
be a lovely day.
Y'all Lovely day, okay.
Then the other one is DMX.
Which one?
D. Less Scott (51:45):
Who we Be is my favorite.
I be looking in the mirror likeda-dum, da-dum, da-dum.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (51:50):
I'm like I don't know my favorite, I'd be
looking in the mirror like, ohyeah, that's a DMX one.
D. Less Scott (51:56):
Since you was busting some lyrics there a
little bit, you was kind ofsinging a little bit.
Here's another one.
What is your go-to karaoke songand how confident are you in
your singing abilities?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:07):
I cannot sing , but I will perform, and my
favorite karaoke is what's hername?
Two Time, Two Time.
What is it Lauryn Hill KillingMe Softly?
D. Less Scott (52:24):
Okay.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:25):
That's your go-to.
Yeah, because I'm all not like.
Oh you know, I'm just killingit softly.
D. Less Scott (52:33):
Okay, see, that wasn't too bad.
Yeah, you could do it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:36):
You say it real quick In the whisper voice,
you just sing the whole time.
Killing me softly.
D. Less Scott (52:41):
Yes, If you could close your eyes and, upon
opening them, be anywhere youwanted to be, where would that
be?
Como, Italy?
Is that a that's like?
Have you been there or is that?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:57):
just you like Italy?
D. Less Scott (52:59):
Yeah, I'm afraid to go to Italy.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:04):
Yeah, it was my like.
It's only two places I've beenin the world where, when I'm
there, I'm like gosh, this couldbe home, north Carolina and
there, okay yeah, but I don'tknow.
I'm going some places this year, so I'll see.
D. Less Scott (53:18):
So you do travel to get away and things like that
.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:21):
Yeah, like I'm going to go to Australia,
new Zealand and Fiji and we'regoing to be gone like
20-something days Beautiful.
So when I come back I'll beready.
I'll be like, did you?
D. Less Scott (53:35):
be on.
It Might come back with alittle accent.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:38):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (53:41):
I feel like I could ask you these forever, but
I'm going to.
This is my last randle.
Fill in the blank.
Every young woman should ownblank.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:50):
Every young woman should own blank A white
fresh blouse, a khaki pants, ablack skirt and a blue jean
denim jacket.
D. Less Scott (54:04):
Essentials yeah, those are the essentials, yeah,
okay, so how can people stayconnected with you, or how can
people support what with you, orhow can people support?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (54:13):
what you're doing.
They can go to.
Our website is United ReturningCitizensorg Nice website, by
the way.
D. Less Scott (54:23):
I'm giving you a compliment.
Okay, nice website.
Yeah, I see User-friendly,vibrant.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (54:28):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Or you could come to 611Belmont, youngstown, ohio,
445-02.
We're there from Monday throughFriday, 9 to 3.
Or you can hit us up at any ofour social media platforms Now
what they are United ReturningCitizens at Facebook, instagram,
(54:52):
tiktok, and they did say Ithink it's called Snapchat, or
oh, snapchat, snapchat, okay,yeah oh, you're about everywhere
.
You reaching all thedemographics yeah, yeah, because
we have, you know, the youngguys.
They coming here, you know whatI mean.
So we want them to know we'rehere to support you.
You know.
Yeah, because I want them toknow we're here to support you,
you know, yeah, yeah, because Iwant them to be good dads so
(55:14):
that you know the nextgeneration of kids could be good
.
So we need some good in thehood.
D. Less Scott (55:19):
Absolutely.
You know, do you got a closingmessage you'd like everybody to
know?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:22):
Be kind, be well yeah.
D. Less Scott (55:46):
And be nice to your returning citizens, you
know.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:48):
I mean, show them grace, they need a little
grace.
D. Less Scott (55:49):
It's hard, it's rough for them and, of course,
they for having me.
This was a great conversation.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:51):
It was a blast.
D. Less Scott (55:53):
Listen, I knew it was going to be a blast.
When KG was doing the soundcheck and we started busting
lyrics, some DMX and everythingelse, I was like, oh, this is
going to be a good interview.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (56:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
They said, Dan, you're a littlegoofy.
I said just a little bit.
D. Less Scott (56:07):
No, you, no.
Well, folks, thank you forhitting the play button.
We deeply appreciate you takingtime to listen to Sound United
Presents.
This is Deshaun Scott signingout.
This episode was produced bythe Sound United Podcast Studio
led by Kimberly Gonzalez.
(56:27):
Photography and video contentproduced by the D5 Group.
And be sure to visit ourwebsite, soundunitedpresentscom,
where you can catch up on allthe episodes and get some behind
the scenes content.
I'm Deshaun Scott.
Thank you for listening.
Ready to launch a podcast orcreate standout audio content?
(56:56):
Sound United Podcast Studio haseverything you need Studio
rental, consulting, contentdevelopment, marketing support,
and we even offer remote editingservices.
And we can help you, whetheryou're local or nationwide.
So book your discovery.
Call at wwwthesounducom.
That is wwwthesounducom.
(57:20):
Or do it the old-fashioned wayand call 330-238-7157.
That is 330-238-7157.
It's time for you to empowerwith sound.
Hello, ladies and gents, welcome to Sound United
Presents, a diverse andinclusive podcast focused on
local entrepreneurs,professionals and unsung
community heroes.
Within each episode, our guestswill candidly share their
stories filled with triumph,failures, humor, lessons learned
, insight and some nuggets ofwisdom.
I'm very excited about this,and I hope you are too.
(00:34):
Let's get started.
Hey folks, once again, thankyou for hitting the play button
and listening to Sound UnitedPresents, powered by Sound
United Podcast Studio.
I'm your host, d Lee Scott.
Making it sound crispy isKimberly Gonzalez.
Today finally got her in.
We had to call people and itwas like maybe nine to ten
(00:56):
different people.
Her people had to call mypeople, my people called hers,
but we got her here.
She's here and I'm thankfulbecause I learned about this
organization maybe two years agoand off my I was talking to her
and talking about how.
I didn't know who ran theorganization.
I just heard about it about twoyears, somewhere in a year and
a half.
Our topics today is somethingvery near and dear to me, to
(01:19):
both from a from a family memberstandpoint and just from a
society standpoint.
I'm going to be talking aboutsome reentry stuff, criminal
justice, her personal story alittle bit, and just, we're
going to navigate, navigate herworld and get some some insight
and things like that.
So with that, ladies andgentlemen, sound United presents
(01:40):
Miss Dion Doughty Lacey.
Welcome, the crowd goes crazy,the cannons are going off and
everything.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (01:52):
Welcome to the show thank you for having me
yeah, couldn't listen.
D. Less Scott (01:56):
There's a whole backstory with season four, me
deciding to do it and and I hadplenty of time to think about
who I really wanted to you, youknow, cause this is an important
season for me and there'sthere's information our trailer
kind of talks about a little bit.
So to get you on here was justvery, very, very special to me
because you are, you were doingsomething that's very amazing,
(02:17):
many things amazing in thisparticular case with the
organization and stuff.
Being executive director ofUnited Returning Citizens.
I should probably have put thatout there, but you know I'm not
going to.
I'm gonna allow you toelaborate on that a little bit.
But no, to have you here meansa lot and I truly, truly, truly,
truly mean that.
And we have some mutual friendswho speak about you a lot too,
who have spoken about you, likewhen we get into it a little bit
(02:40):
.
I'll say I know one of them waslike she about her business,
like she about her business, youknow, and she going to bring
you along, just do you know,just just really good stuff.
And that's how you know it'sgood people when the people that
they are connected to speaks ofthem right in rooms that
they're not in, and that'sincredible.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (02:58):
So that's cool to know, yeah.
D. Less Scott (03:02):
So kind of briefly tell the audience about
yourself a little bit yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:05):
So kind of briefly tell the audience about
yourself a little bit.
Well, I am a girl fromYoungstown, Ohio, born and
raised.
I have three children.
I have 11 grandchildren.
D. Less Scott (03:22):
I'm a community advocate, I'm a teacher, I'm a
counselor, I'm a champion andI'm a healer.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:27):
What's that Youngst, that South side?
D. Less Scott (03:29):
Ain't they working on the high school over
there?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:32):
Yeah, we went there the other day.
They let us go inside and itwas so many memories that was
like 30, almost 40 years ago,but just to see, like the
bathrooms we used to go into andour Spanish teacher, it was
very nostalgic.
D. Less Scott (03:47):
Is the locker still there?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (03:48):
Yeah, like we were touching it, I'm like look
at this it was cool.
D. Less Scott (03:53):
So what are they are they trying to?
Are they trying to make that aschool, or is it just kind of?
I think they're restoring itjust like leasing rooms and you
know more of like a businessincubator more or less.
Oh, that's wonderful.
So I think so, yeah, yeah,that's wonderful, yeah yeah,
it's better.
I hope it it goes well yeah,because sometimes they'll do
(04:14):
those schools and they'll turnthem into like um residential
yeah, type thing.
So it's really nice to hear thatthey're gonna.
You know and I could actuallysee that like businesses or
nonprofits in there, you knowwhat I mean Like a very good
community incubator.
That is a wonderful idea.
So did you like?
What was you thinking when youwere in there?
I know we kind of getting offtrack a little bit.
(04:35):
You were in there and you werelooking at the lockers and the
restroom.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (04:39):
Like would you be somewhere.
But you know you have momentsthat you remember.
You know, when you were inthere, like I know it was
shameful to think about this,but when I got put out of
Spanish class for talking toomuch, I remember that one.
I remember us racing down thehallway, you know, at lunchtime
I remember us selling pencilsand erasers in the hallway, you
(05:01):
know.
You remember.
You know the girls hangingaround the water fountain.
You know, he's a 10, he's a two, he's a four, you know.
So all that stuff came up.
It was nice, you know some.
I mean, I think that's like thelast school that's still
standing.
So you know we actually got togo into the school that we went
to you know other schools thathave been rebuilt, you know, or
(05:24):
just taken down completely, butthat school.
D. Less Scott (05:26):
So I was like oh, I'm thankful and the
architecture, and just you knowthe wherewithal of it just being
there.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, caught up with any?
D. Less Scott (05:36):
did you catch up with any friends you ain't seen
in years?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:38):
Yes, that's what I mean People we haven't
seen in 30, 40 years.
To see them, Then we're all inthe same.
D. Less Scott (05:48):
You know some of us like we're redoing pictures
that we had like with our handson our hips and stuff.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (05:52):
So it was nice.
D. Less Scott (05:54):
How was life?
I mean growing up in Youngstownlike.
Did you spend a lot of time onthe south side?
Was all of Youngstown yourplayground.
What was life like?
Was all of Youngstown yourplayground?
What was life?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (06:03):
like.
I had a great childhood.
I had a mother and father thatworked at General Motors in the
post office.
My church was right across thestreet, so we was very
spiritually, foundationallyreligious, if that makes sense,
perfect sense, perfect sense.
(06:23):
We had a big family.
My mother has seven sisters andthree brothers, so I had
cousins.
So my cousins were my friendsand they lived maybe a block or
two from each other.
So we would walk, either wewould go to the park or go over
to each other's house and wewould just hang out.
And then my dad was from Warren, so in the summers we would
come over here to Warren or goto church over here Grace, ame
(06:44):
or Packer Park, you know allthose places.
So it was really cool.
You know, it was just a regularchildhood Did you?
D. Less Scott (06:54):
you know what kind of stuff did you climb
trees.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (06:57):
I was a tomboy so I played football with
the guys.
I climbed trees, I was racingall the time.
Our next door neighbor, hedrove motorcycles so we would be
on the dirt bike with him.
Get my legs all burnt up, stillget up, get back on it.
We did like they don't playoutside.
We played outside.
(07:18):
We played.
What did we play?
Skip hopscotch?
We would play dodgeball Racing.
We would just play.
You know racing.
We would just play.
You know just the regular jacks, regular stuff that kids would
play, did you?
D. Less Scott (07:30):
play marbles?
Nah, I always ask people thatbecause we grew up on marbles on
the east side, here in Warren,we used to play marbles all the
time.
I was telling my son about it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (07:39):
We used to call it spansies when you went
around one time you one, twotimes two spansies, and all that
, but you didn't play marbles.
Hmm, I know, because I don'teven know what spansy is, so I
know freeze tag now freeze tagyeah abc block green light, red
light.
D. Less Scott (07:57):
Oh yeah, that was a classic.
I think adults should play thatlike that's a good exercise
game like get a bunch of adultsand play that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (08:04):
So yeah, we're gonna see it on.
D. Less Scott (08:06):
We'll see it on tiktok it ain't, I said we'll
probably see it on tiktokbecause it's fine, that's,
that's an adult game.
It is that you can play.
You can play it in childhood.
You play it in adult.
I mean, if you, if you like me,it might be through a party
you'd be like, well, if you getcaught, you gotta have a shot of
tequila.
Yeah, and you gotta get back inthe game just with some extra
see, just with some extra comedy.
(08:26):
Your fish out of tequila, youtrying to stop yeah, that would
be fun, yeah yeah, maybe I'll.
Well, I ain't on TikTok, maybeI'll Instagram something like
that.
I'll have everybody sign arelease, though, so they can
come back and get it.
Yes, even my best of friendsand family.
What do you remember most aboutthat era?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (08:48):
growing up um I adore a park, I don't know.
I adore park fries.
Um the cookie castle, jackrabbit having birthdays with all
my cousins over sleepovers,cognac lake I've never been
there.
No.
D. Less Scott (09:06):
No, I've never been there Back then.
That was just that was thething, that was the spot, yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:11):
Geauga Lake, cedar Point.
You know because General Motorsalways had the tickets to go
there.
D. Less Scott (09:15):
So oh, yeah, yeah .
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:17):
So we were always going.
D. Less Scott (09:18):
You like the Jackrabbit?
Yeah, yeah, man, yeah, okay,the jackrabbit was the orange
right, was the orange one right,that other one was the wildcat.
Yes, yeah, I ain't like thatone at all.
I ain't like neither one.
But I never rode the wildcat.
It was too close to that waterno, I loved it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:33):
I didn't like that spider that went around.
D. Less Scott (09:35):
See, I love the spider, yeah, bumper cars, the
spider and that Silver Rocket,the ones that went around.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:46):
Anything that went around just wasn't for me.
D. Less Scott (09:48):
You know what I like the most, though the French
fries.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (09:51):
They were the best the French fries yeah
everyone keeps trying toduplicate Like these are all
Aydara fries Not.
D. Less Scott (09:59):
Nah, it was something about grabbing that
spray bottle of vinegar too.
It was Something about grabbingthat spray bottle of vinegar
too.
Something about grabbing aspray bottle of vinegar and
putting them on your fries.
It just I don't know.
I don't know.
And the hill too, because Iremember we used to roll down
that hill.
My mom, would you know.
We would go see my grandfather.
He stayed on Idora, was itIdora?
He stayed.
We would go see him.
(10:19):
I remember him vividly becausehe would always put milk in his
scotch, which I tried that once.
That's disgusting, but we wouldgo to our door part too.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:28):
I know what you're talking about.
D. Less Scott (10:29):
Yeah, we would do that, and my mom had a
8-millimeter video back.
When they first came out I waslike, mom, you had the money
then because she worked atPackard, so we got old footage
of that and the Jeep that youcould drive.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:43):
Then we used to, when it snowed, we used to
slay it down.
D. Less Scott (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, and we had Packard Park to do that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (10:50):
Yeah, we had Mill Creek, but that was just
like if we was over my aunt'shouse we could just go slay it
right in right there.
D. Less Scott (10:56):
What do you remember most?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (11:07):
Like, boom, we talked about the different
things you did, but when you sitback, what do you remember most
about your childhood?
Now I'm going to tell you thisfeeling what I remember most
about my childhood is feelinglike I am supposed to do
something impactful here,somewhere here in the valley,
here.
So I just knew it was somethingthat I'm supposed to do.
Impactful, like it wassomething that I was supposed to
(11:30):
do with people, because peoplewere always like around you know
me or you know I was.
It was easy to be around peopleto talk to people, so it was
something I knew that was justgoing to be impactful.
D. Less Scott (11:47):
So you didn't have like a dream career, like
when I grow up I'm going to be anurse.
Ok, so that.
Ok, nurse a nurse.
Was there any reason?
Why Was it a TV show?
I always go back because I askpeople like you know, I want to
be like a police officer for ahot second because it was Hill
Street Blues and starts gettinghutch.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:06):
I wanted to be a nurse because I wanted to
take care of people, but Iwanted to be Diane Carroll off
of Dynasty because she was aco-businesswoman.
D. Less Scott (12:17):
First of all you bring it back to the nostalgic
shows Dynasty and Dallas.
But yeah, I remember Dynasty.
Did she have the black hair?
Yeah, yeah, I remember her.
But yeah, I remember Dynasty.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:24):
Did she have the black hair?
Yeah?
D. Less Scott (12:25):
Yeah, I remember her.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:26):
Thank you, she was the black lady with the
fur, you know.
D. Less Scott (12:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:31):
So that was like the first black woman I'd
seen, like really doing business.
D. Less Scott (12:36):
Because there wasn't a lot of examples of that
back at that time.
No, it was Good Times, timesthe jeffersons don't forget
sanford and son, because that'smy show really well.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (12:48):
I was like, was there was no one on there.
I'm like, well, don't want tobe her uh, um.
D. Less Scott (13:00):
So when we talk about school we talk about you
going to, but elementary where'dyou go to elementary school?
I'm not really familiar withyoungstown, but I don't.
I don't like to pull cause.
I asked people from Warnock's.
You know what I mean, so it'sonly Monroe.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:11):
What is that?
It's gone.
D. Less Scott (13:13):
Gone.
Okay, where'd you go to middleschool?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:16):
Calvary Christian Academy.
D. Less Scott (13:19):
Here Gone yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:21):
The school is gone, but the church is still
over there, Mount Calvary Okay.
And then of course, high schoolyou was, yeah.
So I went to Mooney and thenall of my cousins were going to
South and so I begged my mother,because Mooney didn't have
proms.
Then what?
No, someone had got drunken orsomething and drove and killed
(13:42):
themselves or something.
So they didn't have proms for along time.
D. Less Scott (13:45):
Wow yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (13:47):
So I wanted to go to the prom.
So I begged my mother to let mego to South.
D. Less Scott (13:55):
Convinced her, and the rest was history yeah.
I'm a warrior, Did you take any?
I believe it.
I believe it.
Did you take any like classeswhere there's certain things
Cause, you know, back in the daywe had a plethora College prep
Courses Okay.
So no workshops, no metal shopno.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:12):
No, no, like I was on debate team at Mooney.
D. Less Scott (14:18):
Oh, you was doing it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:19):
Yeah, like French class.
D. Less Scott (14:21):
Is that how you convinced because of that debate
skill?
Is that how you convincedbecause of that debate?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:26):
skill.
Is that how you convinced yourmom?
D. Less Scott (14:27):
I believe so.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:29):
Okay, yes.
D. Less Scott (14:36):
But I had to convince her that I would keep
my grades up.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (14:38):
That nothing would change, you know.
So no sports, anything likethat.
No, when I was there I playedsoftball, ran track, I did
volleyball at Calvin ChristianAcademy and I was on a dance
team.
When I went to South, amajorette, okay.
D. Less Scott (14:54):
So what did you as you went through school?
You get to high school.
High school comes to an end,right?
What did you do after highschool?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (15:03):
Well, I was a teen mom, okay, so at 16, I got
, got pregnant and I had myoldest.
So then when I got out I didn'tgo to school.
So by 21 I was married okay andthen I had two more kids.
So then by then I was a wifewith three kids by 23.
(15:24):
So I was just uh, not just uh,I was a domestic engineer.
D. Less Scott (15:31):
Wait, domestic engineer.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (15:34):
I was a domestic.
I'm writing this, I'm writingall this stuff down Perhaps.
So I was a domestic engineer atthat time and, um, when the kids
all went to school and stuff, Itold my husband, like you know,
I don't have anything, I needsomething.
And so I went to massagetherapist school.
(15:57):
So I am a massage therapist.
I went to take my kids one timeto get their teeth cleaned and
then, while they were doing that, I went next door and got a
massage by Penny King and ifanyone hears this, they know who
she is and I said the way thatshe make me feel I have to have
other people feel this.
So I went to school to be amasto therapist.
D. Less Scott (16:20):
How long does that take to do?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (16:21):
It was 18 months Okay.
D. Less Scott (16:23):
So you still licensed to.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (16:25):
I still have my table.
I just gave one the other dayso.
D. Less Scott (16:30):
So you have it as a as a business too no, I don't
do it as a business now yeah,okay, yeah, all right, yeah,
because I don't want to becommitted to that right, because
you have a, you have anorganization you run in.
You run in an organization thatwe're about to talk about.
But before I even get I kind ofmentioned it earlier, but
before we get to, like I reallywant to go into because when you
(16:54):
in the field that you're in andit makes sense now that you say
impactful, right, you knew youwanted to help.
Yeah, make an impact and dowhat inspired you to open up, to
, even to found that yourorganization- it was personal.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (17:10):
Ok, I have two felonies.
My husband went to thepenitentiary, my father was in a
penitentiary, my uncles, mybrother went to jail.
But all of these people were sointelligent, creative,
innovative and so like I didn'tunderstand, like what was the
(17:33):
problem?
Or why were we there, or theythere, and what did they need
not to be there or go thereanymore or to recidivize?
And so they told me, like youknow, you know what it is,
opportunities and resources.
So I became a AmeriCorps VISTAand then I told them, in order
(17:53):
to be one, you all had to let mebring United Returning Citizens
with me and allow me to usethat through my VISTA.
And they did.
And I had the first felonfriendly job fair where we went
to get employers that would hirefelons, and so we kind of
(18:13):
started that.
And then everything else thatwe did as far as vistas and
community stuff, I always addedto the bullet point felons to
the bullet point felons.
So just keeping that in theconversation, you know what I
mean so that they would knowlike we are a part of whatever
that you all do in thiscommunity.
And so we had to like push thenarrative of what felons or what
(18:37):
I was going to have peoplebelieve what a felon was or was
not.
D. Less Scott (18:44):
Do you go into that?
Did you have a lot of buy-infrom employers to be a part of
this?
Because you know back in it maystill be out there, I'm sure,
but they had it.
Was that paper, like when youknow you got in trouble, you're
looking for a job let's say youjust got out of jail or prison
or you know it could have been achild support issue and you
(19:06):
couldn't find work.
Right, they said here, here'sthis paper, go, you know, go,
fill out.
And I remember not saying justyou know, just not saying Arby's
does this, because I got to becareful because this day and age
, but anyway, arby's was onthere.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (19:42):
It was like all these companies and they
would you know, give you that,yeah, and the majority of them
some that didn't why they should, because I didn't want to spend
my time on like woulda, coulda,shoulda, like that's wasteful
time.
You know, I tell my grandkidslike you get a moment, you know,
into whatever that's happening,because your feelings are valid
(20:03):
.
D. Less Scott (20:06):
Then the rest of that energy you got to solve the
problem.
Do you going back?
Do you feel like it's easiernow for and I say I call them
return or restore citizens?
I mean during my back when Iworked for FHI, that's.
You know that was the thing.
But do you feel likeopportunities are opening up
more now than back then, let'ssay 10 years back or so or is it
(20:28):
still kind of the same as faras, like you know, people not
wanting to give an opportunity?
And I give example like Iremember, cause I shared what I
did prior to you know, off mic,you know working with flying
high and doing that stuff.
But I remember cause I wastrying to find out why, like, if
(20:48):
a person does their time,whatever they did, right, they,
they did their time they gotthey they shit in order Right,
and they ain't even got a Jwalking ticket and they've been
out for five years or somethinglike that, and they still can't
find work.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (21:02):
Right.
D. Less Scott (21:02):
Nobody wants to hire them.
They got a housing issues rightA nuclear family, but they
can't be a nuclear familybecause he or she has a felony
so they can't move in to helpraise.
I mean it's just so crazy with,with, with all this stuff.
But I remember someone tellingme that their justification was
it was a banker, like on why?
And I said, well, what doesthat matter?
(21:23):
Like I could understand it wasa banker or something, right?
I said, well, what does thatmatter?
Like I could understand if itwas a banker or something, right
, okay, of course you ain'tgonna work in a bank, right?
I understand the banks thing,like that.
But other than that, like howcan you not give somebody an
opportunity?
They time they doing the rightthing?
Right and they got to survive?
Has it changed a little bit foryou?
Like in that, in that realm, asfar your organization, what you
(21:43):
deal with the people who comein, has it changed?
Is it easier now?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (21:47):
No, it's not easier.
I think that we're making moreopportunities for ourselves
instead of just continuallyasking someone to help me to
keep saying no.
I think our mindset now is moreof like okay, if that's not
working, how can we makeresources and opportunities for
(22:11):
ourselves?
This is a big world and there'sgreat opportunities out here.
So maybe let's look out the boxand see you know who do support
returning citizens, whatcompany or what jobs can we, you
know, go to that.
Don't do backgrounds or itdoesn't matter.
(22:32):
Do you have a background?
Like let's concentrate on thosepeople and those things and see
how we can grow from there.
That's kind of like my mindsetand the mindset that most of the
clients that come in, that Ieven have conversation, you know
, I'll tell them like just lookat it from that way, because
they're overwhelmed and they'rebeat down.
It's already you just we'renormal or whatever, and just
(22:57):
being rejected is bad to us.
So just think of youcontinuously.
You're already beating yourselfup because you know what you've
done.
You know not to you yourself,your children, your mother.
You know you're embarrassed,you're guilty, you feel guilty.
So now you come out here andthen they're telling you the
same thing over and, over andover again.
I've seen grown men cry becausethey're frustrated.
(23:19):
It's not that they're not ableor they're not capable, there's
just no one's letting them be aman.
D. Less Scott (23:27):
To have an opportunity or to provide for
the family, or you know, andalways I think too, like
sometimes it's hard.
I say it's if you're in arelationship and you have that
that situation, it's veryimportant to have a strong
relationship with your partner.
It doesn't mean marriage or,you know, it could be boyfriend,
because at the end of the day,when all that, when you getting
beaten up out there just tryingto find an opportunity, just
(23:51):
anything, the last thing youwant to do is come home and get
beat up some more because youknow you need to find a job and
you out there trying to find ajob, and now you got this, this
dynamics, and not only is itinsane a typhoon going inside of
the house, it insane a typhoongoing inside of the house, it's
a typhoon going outside.
And so I always say, like that,that relationship with whoever
(24:11):
it is, is very, very, veryimportant because, it can be
uplifting as well too.
You know, yeah, how has your,when you initially started the
organization, the vision you had, how has it evolved?
I mean, you kind of talkedabout a little bit on just like
your position on certain things,but how has it evolved?
I mean, you kind of talkedabout a little bit on just like
your position on certain things.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (24:28):
but how has it evolved?
I really didn't have a vision.
So this was really started byWayne Huggins.
I met him at a leadership Ithink expo or something Somebody
at church gave me this and say,hey, dion, you need to go there
.
So when I went there, I seenhim and this is what he was
doing.
So I was like, okay, I could dothe women, you could do the men
.
And so he was like okay, but he,you know, he wanted to do
(24:54):
something else and so I stillwanted to do this.
So I just took over and then Ijust continued it yeah because
he was doing like memberships.
You know I just wanted to.
You know, do direct services.
You know I wanted to touch topeople and make sure that they
were okay and, you know, givethem plans and goals and things
like that.
And that's where it started andevolved with, because I used to
work with Mahoney ValleyOrganizing, so that's like
(25:19):
organized.
D. Less Scott (25:20):
Oh yeah, inbock, yeah yeah.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (25:21):
So organizing and advocacy was like wonderful
, like going out there and youknow, because when I was young I
was a tomboy, so I used tofight all the time, so you know.
So when you get old I'm likewhat is all this fighting for,
you know?
And so now I understand, youknow, with all this fighting
(25:43):
that I was doing then, like I'malways trying to fight for the
equality of people, I believe inpeople's well-being and human
rights, you know, and a right tohave everything everyone else
has, you know it was founded,originally founded by Mr Huggins
.
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (26:00):
By Mr Huggins, and then y'all united like kind
of like the Wonder Twins yeah,this and that, and then he kind
of moved on to other things, andthen you and then I just grew
it from the needs of the clients.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (26:14):
That's how I got my programming by what the
needs were.
When we came in, we weresurveying them as they came in.
That's when we, you know, wedidn't know anything Like when I
came in here.
I was not computer savvy oranything like that.
I just knew how to do thepeople.
So we were just doing thegroundwork.
You know, we were having likebrunches for fathers, for CCA,
(26:38):
and then inviting their familiesyou know what I mean so they
can come and be there, you know,and giving them, even though
you know, like if no one toldyou happy father's day, happy
father's day, I gave them like akey change, just something to
make them feel worthy, like Ialways tell them, like we're
worthy, we are worthy.
You know, um, we were doingexpungements.
(26:59):
We're still doing expungements.
You know, to this day, the lastone we had, I think it was like
37 people just being able togive people you know a second
chance.
You know it was like elevenhundred.
You know collateral sanctionsthat they can't even be a part
of.
So now to be able to have thatchance to pick passionately what
you want to do as a career, Ithink it was cool.
We used to do a lot of cleanuparound.
(27:20):
You know the neighborhoodHillman Street, that's where I
live off so we were alwayscleaning that up.
Hillman Street that's where Ilive off, so we were always
cleaning that up.
Just little things, just toconnect the community with
returning citizens, to see themin another way other than
somebody coming through a dooror, you know, selling drugs or
things like that.
(27:48):
So, what programs andinitiatives do you offer?
I know you mentioned some alittle bit and just now you know
, as of today, what type ofthings do you offer returning
citizens?
So today we do housing,workforce, resume, building,
mental health, art therapy, eft,tapping, grief classes,
entrepreneurship.
Wow, urc grows horticulture,yeah.
D. Less Scott (28:05):
That's a lot.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (28:07):
Yeah, it is.
D. Less Scott (28:08):
It's a lot, though, but I assure you I can
almost guarantee it's all needed.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (28:13):
It's all needed, yeah, but we're going to
just bunch that together andjust kind of concentrate on it.
I'm changing to advocacybecause I think that we can show
up better if we're just in therooms.
And if we do that, because thehousing problem that we have,
you know, we can't change thatfrom out here we're going to
have to be in those rooms, we'regoing to have to go down in
(28:33):
Columbus, we're going to have towrite letters, because it is
just saddened to me every timesomeone come and they're looking
for a home, that we just can'thelp them, you know, and a lot
of these landlords just don'twant to deal with someone that
just has gotten out of prison.
D. Less Scott (28:50):
I mean, do they in conversation with somebody?
Do they just do you get?
Because to me, everything youknow, you can get to a pure and
authentic answer with thequestion why Do some of these
landlords, do they break down?
Why?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (29:08):
I mean, is it just for liability?
Know, but that's what the mostof them would say.
Insurance like, that's whateveryone, that's what even the
employers, employers say thattoo.
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say yeahyeah, so that's what they say,
you know, and so what could youdo?
But, like we said, theopportunity is a lot of people
that have went to jail you knowwhat I mean, that they was
hustlers.
So when they come out theystill know how to hustle
(29:29):
something else, not other thanwhat they were hustling before.
So they are buying upproperties and so they already
know from experience it's hardto come out here and have, you
know, somewhere to live.
So then they buy houses and sothat we can rent for them, or
they'll do apartment buildingsand so they can do, you know,
rent out rooms or things likethat.
So you know, we are trying tomake opportunities within
(29:53):
ourselves.
D. Less Scott (29:54):
Good, good, that's really good.
Yeah, I never understood thathousing thing.
That's why initially from going, you know, just liability is
always that thing, but then youknow somebody has an F5.
Liability is always that thing.
But then you know somebody hasan F5.
They got you know, six monthscommunity service and three
years probation.
They got an F5.
Nothing violent.
They still can't find housing.
(30:16):
You know something like thatit's crazy.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (30:18):
Listen, it's some people that came in there
that don't have a background,you know, have anything and have
a good job and having a hardtime finding houses.
So you know, housing is justbad out here period.
D. Less Scott (30:31):
What are some early challenges you had with
the organization, like when you,you know, became yours, like
what were?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (30:36):
some early challenges.
Funding support really liketaking serious, you know, or
underestimated, that was a lot.
D. Less Scott (30:52):
Is it partly because of the initiative,
partly because it's verydifficult sometimes?
Well, we can just say people ofcolor, women like you, have all
these, and was that part of it,did you?
Did you face a lot of that like?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (31:09):
it was a little bit of both initiative
because of what we're doing andpeople just like that's just not
important to a lot of peopleand just being who I am, you
know and not you know they don'ttake black women serious how
you.
D. Less Scott (31:26):
Do you overcome that, though?
Like to get away with?
How did you overcome I mean,I'm not saying it's all like
completely wiped away, but howhave you pushed the needle
forward Because you're doingamazing work?
I mean, that's out there.
How did you overcome some ofthat?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (31:40):
I know what my purpose is and I know why I'm
here.
So, regardless of what you say,what you do, this is meant to
be, and so he's going to give mewhat I need to do, what I have
to do.
So I just did the work and Idid it well enough so they will
(32:03):
respect me and know there's noway that you can say no.
There's no way that you can say, oh, she doesn't do that or oh,
they're not doing that.
D. Less Scott (32:10):
Yeah, when you, I think, when you know yourself
and you know your purpose.
It's like in the medieval days,the knights you got this shield
, yeah.
Shoot your bow and arrow, theyain't gonna stop me.
You know, I know my purpose.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:25):
Yeah, and if you're not going to help me,
there is someone else in thisworld that will.
D. Less Scott (32:31):
Do you get a lot of support rallying around you?
Now I do, From the time thatyou know, from the beginning to
where it is now.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:37):
I really do, I do Personal and business
people and organizations andstuff.
All around, all around, yeah.
D. Less Scott (32:43):
People definitely speak highly of you.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:46):
I All around.
D. Less Scott (32:47):
Yeah, people definitely speak highly of you.
I mentioned that earlier.
They do.
I hope so the organization.
Do you have an impactful storyof someone who's gone through
the organization programming?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (32:55):
Yeah, it's two of them.
One was he just recently gotkilled.
His name was Will Miller.
His name was Shimmy.
D. Less Scott (33:04):
I read Okay, yeah .
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:08):
So when he first came out, he came to us
and, um, he just did the work,we supported him.
You know, I mean, like we weresaying then, like he couldn't
even get insurance, we had towrite letters.
You know, we had to um goadvocate just so that he can
have insurance, you know, as areturning citizen.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what?
D. Less Scott (33:25):
do you mean it's like car?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:26):
insurance no, like life insurance.
D. Less Scott (33:28):
Okay, wait, wait, wait, life insurance.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:33):
Life insurance, Even with his housing
.
We had the mayor write a letter.
We still couldn't get himhousing.
D. Less Scott (33:39):
That's wow, yeah, I didn't know life.
You know what I mean Like yeah,what know life.
And you know I mean like yeah,what type of?
I don't know.
That that's just so weird to me.
That's why my eyes kind of gotbig like wait, did you say, was
it automobile insurance?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (33:52):
no, it was life insurance.
Life insurance and just for himto be able to turn his life
around and to do what he'd loveto do and get to be I mean paid
and for him to be able to makean impact.
Because when he came he said Ijust want to change what I've
done, you know, in the past, andto me that was just a great
(34:12):
impact and it's still, eventhough you know he's not here.
It's still making a greatimpact on the young men that's
in this community because herelated to them so well and he
was able some things like youknow, people like oh, I used to
push for him to get paid, youknow, and they just felt like,
because he did 26 years in thepenitentiary, that he shouldn't
get paid.
He has a skill that y'all don'thave.
(34:34):
That's insane.
Yeah, can you go in that roomwith this guy that's about to
kill these two and squash it?
No, that's a skill, yeah, soyou have to pay people for their
skills.
You know what I mean.
Just because he didn't go to,you know he did.
He went to college, he was inthere 26 years.
He went.
Yeah, that's how he was able tocome out here and to be able to
(34:56):
do that, so that was impactful.
Another one is Kashara.
She works with me and everybodyknows her.
You know from her back past Imean past background of what she
used to do.
You know stick up and she, agirl you know hustle, all that
kind of stuff.
And now you know she does thesame thing.
(35:21):
She does the mentoring, shedoes our housing, she does a lot
of personal and businessdevelopment for herself, which
is very important.
I tell all of them it's veryimportant to sustain where you
at or what you're doing.
And now you know she's justdoing great things Like she has
so much respect.
You know so many girls.
You know that's just coming outjust looking up to her.
You know what I mean.
She's just making a differencein that way.
D. Less Scott (35:41):
Yeah, I think when you were talking about the
skill set, the negotiationskills, right, and how you know
people can go to college or takethese classes or go to an
academy to learn how tonegotiate, but there are people
who just have that given skill.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (36:00):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (36:01):
And I always give example when I talk about this.
There was a lady in ourneighborhood that, uh, there was
some beef in our neighborhoodand it was a younger group of
kids and you know you alwayshave them, you know she was 70
something maybe, but you knowyou have these people in the
neighborhood that they saysomething, you do it, no matter
how old you are.
Miss such and such, or mr suchand such, you do it.
(36:22):
And there was some beef in thisneighborhood and if that beef
wasn't controlled, it was goingto go from street to street to
street to street Because, as Isaid before, you know, warren,
probably like Youngstown, likepeople connected, you know you,
you my blood cousin, but we goway back.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (36:38):
Yeah, we go back to.
D. Less Scott (36:40):
Boston baked beans we good, and so that would
have been a nasty situation.
Yes, and this lady got them,two young men, together and it
was over.
I can't drink Pepsi.
It's so sweet.
I remember seeing seeing herbecause we were a neighbor and
some fried whiting fish andPepsi and told them, young
brothers, to straighten that outand don't leave until it's done
(37:01):
.
And beef salt yeah, negotiation, you have to respect that.
And beef salt.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (37:05):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (37:06):
Negotiation.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (37:07):
You have to respect that.
Now, hers was a little bit morethreatening, yeah, you know,
but however, you know what Imean.
D. Less Scott (37:12):
By any means yes by any means.
We can't have this going on.
But I think you know, when youlook at the person okay,
somebody who may have made amistake or what have you,
whether it's the first or secondtime right, like, who are we to
sit and just condemn forever?
I call you.
Know what I call it Economic,it's like having albatross
around your neck.
(37:32):
It's just economic.
It's a death sentence.
Economically right, because howare you supposed to survive?
How are you supposed to takecare of your family?
You know there's thesenarratives like you know these
empty households and we need aman or one.
You know nuclear households.
Well, you ain't giving thisyoung, you ain't giving them an
opportunity to do it.
They know what they're doing.
So is it really Exactly so?
Is it really about that?
Or what is it really about?
(37:53):
You don't want them getting thejob, you don't want to employ
them.
I remember when we did sometraining at I think it was
Indiana State University.
We went up there for sometraining for programming with
FHI, for, you know, restorecitizens, whatever and this man
had got up and said one way oranother, we going to eat.
Know that.
(38:14):
And he was an OG, like before OG.
He got up, he was tired of thequestions, you know, and he said
one way or another, we going toeat and we would rather eat
this way than the other way,than taking it off your plate.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (38:29):
Yeah, either you're gonna give it to me or
I'm gonna take it.
Yeah, but I'm gonna live.
My family gotta eat, just likeyours.
But if you're just holding allthe apples in your basket, what
I'm gonna do, either I'm gonnayou're gonna give me one
maslow's hierarchy of needs Isay that when I'm on panels and
stuff, either you're going tohelp them or they're going to
(38:50):
come through your car window.
D. Less Scott (38:52):
You know how has the support been for you know,
like for you and yourorganization?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (38:59):
it's been great.
You know, from the city, fromthe mayor, all the way to other
grassroot organizations.
You know from the city, fromthe mayor all the way to other
grassroots organizations, thesupport here you know is good,
my Rotary team.
I mean family.
They support well the city, thehood.
D. Less Scott (39:19):
You got love from all around.
Yeah, all around, love from allaround.
How do you so?
If you were the czar of youknow, giving people opportunity
to return to citizens and allthat right, and your insight
would help make change the lawsor policies, whatever like that.
What do you think communitiesand people could do better in
this, in this re-entry process,to help that population?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (39:42):
It would be judging, because if you didn't
judge, you know they would havemore open opportunities for them
.
But just that, I mean, it'sjust simple.
They just should give themopportunities.
You know what I mean?
Just give them a chance, that'sall.
Just give them a chance, and ifthey mess up, then OK, but you
just at least give them a chance.
I know I think his name is Markor something down here at the
(40:06):
Bistro.
D. Less Scott (40:08):
I've always messed it up.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (40:09):
He just rebranded, yeah, I remember
having a conversation with him,because when he first came, you
know I was trying to likecontract with him so we can have
people that work there, and hesaid most of the people that he
hired was returning citizensbecause they showed up, Mm hmm,
he said you know, this is agreat opportunity for them, or
(40:30):
they know it's an opportunityfor them.
You know what I mean.
So they take it serious andthey're consistent and I'm
trying to tell the otherworkforce like that's something
you know that they have toconsider.
Like they don't want to go backto jail, they want to be able
to take care of their families.
You know they want to feelproud of who they are and what
they're doing.
D. Less Scott (40:53):
So if you give them a chance, they'll continue
that, because that's a goodfeeling.
What's the?
You don't have to have anaccurate number.
I keep feeling like it was 69%back in the day.
The recidivism rate right now?
Yes, when is that at now?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:03):
That's, it only went up.
It's 73%.
It went up, it went up, it wentup.
It went up.
It was 73%.
It went up, it went up, it wentup.
D. Less Scott (41:10):
Hmm, yeah, are you finding it's more?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:13):
Women, really Mm-hmm.
D. Less Scott (41:15):
I was about to say young people.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:17):
Nope.
D. Less Scott (41:18):
More women.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:19):
Yep.
D. Less Scott (41:19):
Is there.
Do you have a thought processon why that is?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (41:26):
Yeah, all the men are gone.
So the men and the women startthinking that they're these
masculine people, and so they'redoing what the men were doing.
So, they're getting the crime inthe time that the men were, you
know, because they're feelinglike they have to take care of
their families.
The best thing to happen toCOVID is a lot of women found
(41:47):
out what their real skills were,that they didn't have to do a
nine to five, you know, likebaking, cooking, making cups,
bedazzling things, you know.
So it brung out theirentrepreneur, creative part of
them and so it is shifting alittle bit because they're
finding their self in a newspace doing new things and it's
making them feel veryaccomplished and proud.
(42:09):
So we do a lot of support withthat.
But we know there's a lot ofwomen it's like 30% up of women
that are going and coming out ofthe penitentiary.
D. Less Scott (42:24):
Statewide.
Are there some states that aremore friendlier to restore
citizens than others.
I don't know where Ohio ranksin all this, but you know
they're all kind of about thesame.
Wow, that's insane to me.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (42:39):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's just a stigma
of who you know, people ofreturning citizens or felons or
people coming home from prison.
You know, it's just that stigmais just going to be that and
you just just gotta have arelationship with your community
to to help that situation bebetter and that's it.
You know people just thinkthey're bad people just off the
(43:00):
rip labeled.
You bet you did that, let metell you I, um, was with this
group of people.
I've been with them a long time.
I didn't come out say you knowwhat I did, or anything,
background or whatever.
So someone felt like Ishouldn't be hanging around with
these people, or you know.
So they came to tell them thatI had a background, you know.
(43:22):
And so they all came to me likeDeanna, oh my God, did you have
a felony?
You're a felon and you know.
So I was like, oh, yeah, andthey was like two.
I'm like yep, did it twice,yeah.
And they were like, well, well,we already like you, so I don't
even know, you know, like soyou know what I mean.
So that's the point I'm tryingto say.
Like you know what I mean, thatwas 20 years ago.
(43:43):
You know I was an angry younggirl.
You know what I mean.
I did the work to find out why,and so now that I you know, so
it's a lot of people like me andthat's what I wanted to show
them, like this is who I am, theperson that you like and that
you're saying like, oh, I stillwant to be around.
You know what I mean.
That didn't even make adifference to you.
D. Less Scott (44:01):
It's wild that you know you are not the same
person you were then, but it's.
And but in this particular case, a lot of people just they
stick to that.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (44:14):
What?
D. Less Scott (44:14):
you did 20, 10, 30, you're still that same
person, but any other, any otherarea, even people who get
divorced, you know yeah, now youcan change and become a you
know better person.
Yeah, but you can't changebecause you, you know you you
did time or you made a mistakeand didn't do time.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (44:28):
You just got yeah, because I didn't do no
time, but I just was, was angrylike stabbing and fighting and
you know all that kind of justwowing.
I can't see you fighting what Ihave to personally fool you.
D. Less Scott (44:44):
Okay, and so you're making all this community
advocacy.
You're doing this and itcarries a lot of weight, a lot
of responsibility, a lot ofemotion.
Some days it's crack open thechampagne, other days it's.
I quit you quit, and then youturn around and you hire
(45:06):
yourself back.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (45:07):
Yes, Because you see someone.
Oh, Misty, thank you, I got mybaby back.
Blah, blah, blah.
So you're like let me get myboots on, tie them back up.
D. Less Scott (45:17):
How do you with all that, with going through all
that?
How do you handle thatwork-life balance between an
organization with a lot ofresponsibility and compassion
and wanting to help, and justyou like the things you want to
do?
How do you balance all that?
What do you do?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (45:33):
Be intentional about that.
I learned to really beintentional about that and make
time for that, because, if not,there's so many times that like
it would make you depressed.
I've been depressed about it,you know, anxious, like I said,
I didn't quit, like you know.
This is just not for me.
I think something else shouldbe.
(45:54):
But when I go away, you knowfor a while, you know for a
weekend or a week or somethinglike that and come back when I'm
rejuvenated and my family, likeI'm close with my family, like
we have to, there's cousins ofus, about 10 of us, so we get
together and it's like we fillup each other's love cup because
it'd be like, all right, y'all,see y'all in like three more
(46:15):
months.
You know what I mean, because weget to vent about everything.
You know what I mean.
We know each other.
You know we allow each other tocry, laugh.
There's no judgment or anythinglike that.
You know we're going to kick it.
You know play games, like yousaid, cook, eat, like those
things are special.
Those are special times.
I mean.
Those are things that, uh, makeme feel good.
Those are things that I love.
I love being around my family,um, and just making memories so
(46:40):
family's important.
D. Less Scott (46:41):
What kind of games are y'all?
Oh man you jumped up.
You about to get into thisanswer they get them all off.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (46:49):
Tiktok, it's always a drinking game, yeah, or
they do.
We do dice games space, oh no.
D. Less Scott (47:01):
The fun stuff.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (47:02):
Yeah, you know stuff like that.
D. Less Scott (47:05):
You know, you can add red light, green light to
that now with the tequila shots.
Listen, I was thinking aboutthat.
I said next time we go're gonnaplay that yeah oh, what nugget
of wisdom would you give the 18year old you oh, believe, just
believe.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (47:23):
I just didn't believe back then.
It wasn't that I didn't have itor wasn't there, I just didn't
believe enough, you know, for me, or wasn't there?
I just didn't believe enough,you know, for me or for anyone.
So I would just be like D girl,believe that what you feeling,
believe that what you seeing,believe that what you doing,
believe that.
D. Less Scott (47:44):
Okay.
So I'll always like to askpeople this the one word thing,
and if there was one word thatyou would use to define you or
what you exude, what word wouldthat be and why?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:00):
Care.
D. Less Scott (48:02):
I know we talked about a lot of things that you
do in the care, but explain care, so that's on your T-shirt.
That's the word.
Now why?
Let's go deeper.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:11):
Because it's the right thing to do.
We're here as people on thisearth to care for one another.
That's why we have needs, wants, desires, and I want to be a
part of that.
I want people to care for me.
I want to care for them.
You know what I mean.
I want people to care for me.
I want to care for them.
You know what I mean.
I want them to care for theirfamilies you know what I mean so
(48:33):
that they could be well.
I just want people to be well,you know.
If we all go out to eat, I wanteverybody to pay for their own
stuff don't ask me for shit, notnot be like.
D. Less Scott (48:47):
I gotta go to the bathroom.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:50):
You see the waitress and waiter come in and
you just conveniently gotta goto the restroom.
D. Less Scott (48:55):
I'll be right back, my phone ringing.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (48:58):
I gotta take this call real quick.
Yes, yes, yes.
D. Less Scott (49:01):
Yeah.
So I got a random questionround, this yellow piece of
paper right here with somerandom questions.
See, I handwrite them too.
These ain't tight, I handwritethem.
I sit and think about that, Ithink about the questions I want
to ask.
So you ready.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:16):
I am.
D. Less Scott (49:16):
Okay, let's start with hmm, If your life was
turned into a movie, a moviegenre, what genre would it be
and who would play you?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:30):
would it be and who would play you?
What genre would it be?
It'd be like well, I don't knowwhat genre the grease was in.
D. Less Scott (49:42):
Musical.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (49:42):
Yeah, okay, cause I'm a musical kind of
cause, I think I'm a discodancer.
That's what I was in my pastlife.
So, and who would I have playme?
I would do Kiki Palmer yeah,because she's an all-time.
Or Tiana Taylor Because they'relike all-around dancers and
(50:04):
yeah and actors.
Tiana Taylor yeah, because shegot a little grit to her yeah,
so it would be a musical.
D. Less Scott (50:11):
Yeah, it would be a musical.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:12):
Definitely a musical Okay.
D. Less Scott (50:16):
Be all kind of choreography going on in your
movie.
If emotions could be bottled upand sold as perfume, what would
your signature scent be called,and what emotion would it be?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:34):
What emotion would it be.
It would be.
What emotion.
It would be happy.
D. Less Scott (50:45):
So it would be happy.
Right, that would be theemotion.
What would the name be?
Because you can't take thehappy either, because you get
sued what would the um?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (50:56):
what is it called um quintessence?
D. Less Scott (51:01):
okay.
So if somebody got a ball ofquintessence, they know that the
motion is going to be happy.
Okay, all right.
So, um, what theme song wouldyou want to play every time,
like on your entrance, you goout to speak or when you walk
into a room?
(51:22):
What theme song would you want?
I got a couple of them.
Okay, you can get two all Allright.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (51:29):
Lovely Day, because everybody knows it's my
favorite song.
Lovely lovely day, like when Icome through it's just going to
be a lovely day.
Y'all Lovely day, okay.
Then the other one is DMX.
Which one?
D. Less Scott (51:45):
Who we Be is my favorite.
I be looking in the mirror likeda-dum, da-dum, da-dum.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (51:50):
I'm like I don't know my favorite, I'd be
looking in the mirror like, ohyeah, that's a DMX one.
D. Less Scott (51:56):
Since you was busting some lyrics there a
little bit, you was kind ofsinging a little bit.
Here's another one.
What is your go-to karaoke songand how confident are you in
your singing abilities?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:07):
I cannot sing , but I will perform, and my
favorite karaoke is what's hername?
Two Time, Two Time.
What is it Lauryn Hill KillingMe Softly?
D. Less Scott (52:24):
Okay.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:25):
That's your go-to.
Yeah, because I'm all not like.
Oh you know, I'm just killingit softly.
D. Less Scott (52:33):
Okay, see, that wasn't too bad.
Yeah, you could do it.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:36):
You say it real quick In the whisper voice,
you just sing the whole time.
Killing me softly.
D. Less Scott (52:41):
Yes, If you could close your eyes and, upon
opening them, be anywhere youwanted to be, where would that
be?
Como, Italy?
Is that a that's like?
Have you been there or is that?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (52:57):
just you like Italy?
D. Less Scott (52:59):
Yeah, I'm afraid to go to Italy.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:04):
Yeah, it was my like.
It's only two places I've beenin the world where, when I'm
there, I'm like gosh, this couldbe home, north Carolina and
there, okay yeah, but I don'tknow.
I'm going some places this year, so I'll see.
D. Less Scott (53:18):
So you do travel to get away and things like that
.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:21):
Yeah, like I'm going to go to Australia,
new Zealand and Fiji and we'regoing to be gone like
20-something days Beautiful.
So when I come back I'll beready.
I'll be like, did you?
D. Less Scott (53:35):
be on.
It Might come back with alittle accent.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:38):
Yeah.
D. Less Scott (53:41):
I feel like I could ask you these forever, but
I'm going to.
This is my last randle.
Fill in the blank.
Every young woman should ownblank.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (53:50):
Every young woman should own blank A white
fresh blouse, a khaki pants, ablack skirt and a blue jean
denim jacket.
D. Less Scott (54:04):
Essentials yeah, those are the essentials, yeah,
okay, so how can people stayconnected with you, or how can
people support what with you, orhow can people support?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (54:13):
what you're doing.
They can go to.
Our website is United ReturningCitizensorg Nice website, by
the way.
D. Less Scott (54:23):
I'm giving you a compliment.
Okay, nice website.
Yeah, I see User-friendly,vibrant.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (54:28):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Or you could come to 611Belmont, youngstown, ohio,
445-02.
We're there from Monday throughFriday, 9 to 3.
Or you can hit us up at any ofour social media platforms Now
what they are United ReturningCitizens at Facebook, instagram,
(54:52):
tiktok, and they did say Ithink it's called Snapchat, or
oh, snapchat, snapchat, okay,yeah oh, you're about everywhere
.
You reaching all thedemographics yeah, yeah, because
we have, you know, the youngguys.
They coming here, you know whatI mean.
So we want them to know we'rehere to support you.
You know.
Yeah, because I want them toknow we're here to support you,
you know, yeah, yeah, because Iwant them to be good dads so
(55:14):
that you know the nextgeneration of kids could be good
.
So we need some good in thehood.
D. Less Scott (55:19):
Absolutely.
You know, do you got a closingmessage you'd like everybody to
know?
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:22):
Be kind, be well yeah.
D. Less Scott (55:46):
And be nice to your returning citizens, you
know.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:48):
I mean, show them grace, they need a little
grace.
D. Less Scott (55:49):
It's hard, it's rough for them and, of course,
they for having me.
This was a great conversation.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (55:51):
It was a blast.
D. Less Scott (55:53):
Listen, I knew it was going to be a blast.
When KG was doing the soundcheck and we started busting
lyrics, some DMX and everythingelse, I was like, oh, this is
going to be a good interview.
Dionne Dowdy-Lacy (56:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
They said, Dan, you're a littlegoofy.
I said just a little bit.
D. Less Scott (56:07):
No, you, no.
Well, folks, thank you forhitting the play button.
We deeply appreciate you takingtime to listen to Sound United
Presents.
This is Deshaun Scott signingout.
This episode was produced bythe Sound United Podcast Studio
led by Kimberly Gonzalez.
(56:27):
Photography and video contentproduced by the D5 Group.
And be sure to visit ourwebsite, soundunitedpresentscom,
where you can catch up on allthe episodes and get some behind
the scenes content.
I'm Deshaun Scott.
Thank you for listening.
Ready to launch a podcast orcreate standout audio content?
(56:56):
Sound United Podcast Studio haseverything you need Studio
rental, consulting, contentdevelopment, marketing support,
and we even offer remote editingservices.
And we can help you, whetheryou're local or nationwide.
So book your discovery.
Call at wwwthesounducom.
That is wwwthesounducom.
(57:20):
Or do it the old-fashioned wayand call 330-238-7157.
That is 330-238-7157.
It's time for you to empowerwith sound.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.