Maria S. Kim - Voice and Vocation

VOICE

&

VOCATION

VOICE

&

VOCATION

A workforce practitioners guide to building
hope, jobs, and opportunity

MARIA S. KIM

Copyright 2021 by Maria Kim. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Bare Design.

Interior design by Carlene Vitale.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means except by prior written permission, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in conjunction with an article in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or other publication. While the author has used her best efforts in preparing this book, she makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of its contents. Author specifically disclaims any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by a sales representative or retailer, or via written sales materials.

For inquiries about bulk purchases, permission to use any of the content of this book, or speaking availability, please contact Cara Collective at info@caracollective.org.

Library of Congress CIP data is on file.

ISBN:978-1-7371179-0-2 (hardcover)

978-1-7371179-1-9 (paperback)

978-1-7371179-2-6 (ebook)

Cara Collective

For Tom

who taught us that every day can be a great day,

if we choose to make it so

Contents

Prefaceix

INTRO TO CARA1

Lets Get to Work3

Our Story Begins in the Amygdala5

OUR PARTICIPANTS11

You Dream What You See13

We Are All in Recovery 15

Mirror Exercise20

Motivations23

Love Exercise29

OUR PRACTICE31

Building Buildings on Birdcages33

The Front Door Is Open, But the Back Door Is Locked41

Recruitment Decision Tree46

Thank You for Your Feedback51

Workplace Competencies54

Competency Observations57

Termination-ish Exercise58

A Dress Rehearsal Is the Best Rehearsal63

Weekly Evaluations66

I Am Because You Are71

Not Charity, But Strategic Advantage79

Placement Sales Cycle82

Employer Credentials86

We Are in This Together93

Oh, the Places Theyll Go!99

Advancement Eligibility99

Less a Safety Net and More a Trampoline105

Its More Art Than Science113

Artifacts115

Motivations (Deep Dive) 116

Next Step + Great Wall121

OUR INVESTMENT123

If You Build It, They Will Come125

Follow the Yellow Brick Road131

Performance Update132

Social Return on Investment135

The Business of Doing Good 149

AND NOW165

I Am Because You Are167

Always Essential171

Its All One Song177

References183

Acknowledgments189

About the Author191

Preface

In 2019, we laid to rest a hero, a dad, a hubs, and a grandpa; a John Wayne of philanthropy and a friend to all people and their infinite possibility. His name was Tom Owensan incredible entrepreneur and change-maker who would put all of our collective hustle to shame. Tom was also the founder of Carathe mission and method we lift up and dissect over the course of this book.

I cried a bunch in the wake of his deathlike the messy cry where your tears have tears, and the aching cry where your body is curling in on itself, confused by the tectonic shift it feels underfoot. The shift that is triggered when a giant breathes his last breath and takes his first step into a world beyond the one we know, the one we can see, the one whose air we breathe every up and down day.

Heres the thing about the tears, though. Amid them, I also laughed at old stories, twinkle-eyed at old memories, and smiled at the warmth Id occasionally feel when I knew his spirit was by our side.

The moment when this was most palpably true was during the homily at Toms funeral service, led beautifully and graciously by Father Hurley of Old St. Patricks Church. He anchored his homily in a Cara-ism, aint nothin to it but to do ita phrase our students came up with years ago and has evolved into daily parlance at Cara, something we shout out when one of us uses the word try . We use this phrase as a call to actionas an invitation to not give yourself an out before youve even gotten started, an invitation to declare affirmatively your intention and then, in true Nike form, just do it.

Father Hurley invoked this Cara-ism to help frame Toms legacy story because it embodies all that was, and remains, this giant of a man; a man who went after a mission of helping people experiencing homelessness and poverty to reconnect with gainful employment with a tenacity and a hunger and a persistence that was next-level.

You knew he was on a tear for the mission when he came at you with his yellow legal pad tucked sweetly and tightly into his brown leather briefcase, a little scuffed here and there, and a great metaphor for his rugged determinism. I remember countless sheets of that damn legal padriddled with names and ideas and questions and tests. And because his handwriting wasnt all that great, you couldnt try to eye-spy it from afar. You would just sitsometimes in holy terrorwaiting for him to get through his whole list.

The last time I saw him before he passed was at his home. What a gift that was. He had lost so much weight by this time that his face was very thin, and yet even at the tender age of eighty-two, he looked incredibly boyishcomplete with a mischievous grin at all the right moments and a co-conspirators look as we conjured up what was next for the mission that he first built almost thirty years ago.

While we were sitting there at his kitchen table, he asked for his yellow legal pad. Everyone around the table inhaled deeply, knowing all too well what this pad meant. And then he, in true Tom fashion, surprised us all. He wrote down the names and numbers of colleagues we mentioned who were key to recent successes. He called all of them in the days that followed. I was so gratefulas I know they all werethat they had this precious moment with him. We didnt know it then, but these were the last conversations he had with any members of the Cara staff.

As Father Hurley concluded his homily, he turned the conversation to us and asked: with the passing of leaders like Tom, how will we rise up? As leaders, as friends, as parents, and as community membershow will we rise up and run the trail that Tom and others have paved?

The responsibility of that feels incredibly daunting, and yet absolutely how it should be. Singularly, we may not presume the role of a giant like Tom; but togetheroh, togetherwe can change the world in a way even giants cannot do. And we can take what he dreamed so innovatively and so selflessly three decades ago and bring it to new heights, because we can stand tall on his broad shoulders and put our own backs in it too.

May this book be an invitation for you to walk in the way of a giant, to take what resonatesboth in the insights of interventions that have worked, and in the aha moments of those that have flopped. May we learn together, lean on each other, and do what Tom did: be tenacious, be hungry, and fight to deliver solutions that connect people experiencing poverty with hope, jobs, and opportunity.

Aint nothin to it but to do it.

INTRO TO CARA

Lets Get to Work

Imagine what life would be like if your worst day was on repeat:

• the day you were laid off
• the day your partner beat you so hard, you knew it was time to flee
• or the day you lost a loved one, and then you lost yourself.

For many people steeped in homelessness and poverty, the worst day is every day; and so, before we do the heavy lifting of getting back to work, we may first need to find a way to get back to hope.