Giving Back

Giving back to my community has always been central to who I am. Over the last 20 years, I've helped raise more than $8 million for local nonprofits.

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My focus has been on underserved kids and teens, women who have survived abuse, mental health, the homeless, and dogs.

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On a personal level, I've shown up in the most direct ways I could:

• I helped get gang-affiliated kids off the street.

• I taught job training to ex-convicts, and for six of them, I paid an hourly wage.

• I collected interview clothes for the homeless including shoes

• I taught interview training to teens

• I mentored a young boy for 5 years whose father was in prison as part of the Inspire Youth Project

• I brought clothes, professional photographers, cake, and an afternoon to a women's halfway house, to remind them they are still beautiful and not forgotten.

• I fed the homeless in Chicago, cleaned at a local church, and cooked at a food bank.

• In New York, I handmade 370 winter coats for an entire school, and more than 20 handmade suits for a YMCA program.

• Walked and cared for dogs at a shelter

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Some of my most meaningful work has been one on one when I spent cold Chicago nights sitting with people experiencing homelessness, just listening, and offering what I always needed myself: acknowledgment and a hug.

Today, I spend time at a retirement home, walking with any elderly that want to get out for a few hours.  And. To date, 303 people have told me our conversations on TikTok are the reasons they did not attempt suicide; something I am proud of on a level I cannot explain at times.  

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Below are a few examples of the institutional projects I created, where I brought community members together around a shared vision.