Hello, my friend. It is good to be with you once again on Love Someone, my One Heart at a Time podcast series. What we're trying to do besides entertain you is inspire you, Inspire you to change the world one heart at a time. I am so happy to have a Hattie Mitchell with me today, the founder and the principle of a very very unique elementary school in Los Angeles. Her story begins many, many years ago. She was a girl of nineteen. Actually, as she describes it, it started way before that, when she was but a child with a very tender heart for the plight of the homeless population. I'm going to let her share her story from the beginning, but before we get started, I need to thank our sponsor today. This podcast is made possible by my good friends at the Home Depot. Given how often I'm at my favorite at home Depot, they are good friends. Now I know them all by name. When I'm in need of an appliance, I'm in the appliance department. When I'm in a planting mood, and I'm always in a planting mood, I'm in the garden department. This year I discovered just how good the Home Depot is with carpets as well selection installation special orders. My new friends in the flooring department were beyond helpful in choosing the carpet and then seeing that it was installed perfectly for my niece Terrisa. She and her husband Nick are expecting a baby any day now. The carpet we purchased was for the nursery of my soon to be born great nephew, and with the purchase just more than six hundred dollars, the installation was free, really, no fees at all. The home depot, more saving, more doing. So Hattie Mitchell, welcome to love someone with delilah Um. Do you know how I found my way to you? Hattie? No, I was not told the story. Okay, this is a fun story. I have a big family and at home right now, I only have four children, but I have many that are grown and gone. And Blessing is my little genius. Nothing slows this child down, nothing in life slows her down. And she came to me, I don't know about a month ago, and she said, Mom, I want you to watch this story. And it was your story. And I said, that's really touching. I'm really blessed that you wanted to share that with me, And she said, no, I want you to watch it because I want you to get to know the woman. She said, I want I want you to do a podcast about her. I want other people to hear what she's doing. I want other people in other cities to hear what she's doing and maybe they'll understand how important it is and help more kids. And I'm like, you're amazing. Yes, So I said to my fourteen year old daughter, who is in ninth grade, you know what, I am naming you the assistant producer for my podcast. For this series, Uh, you get to track this young woman down. And she did, and she did. She's incredible. She did found a way to you. She came to me just jumping and screaming and saying the lady that started the Creed Academy. She got back to me, mom, and and and so she turned it over to my sister, who is the producer of the show. And uh, and and now here we are together. Well, you have a wonderful family, obviously a wonderful story, and um, blessing is already a blessing too many, but um, just hearing that story is even a blessing to me. It's very encouraging. So tell me how how this all started. The Creed Academy, which you've been doing for how many years now? Um, well, I've been working on it for sixteen years. We've been open for two. I was a long pregnancy girlfriend. Oh yeah, good things take time. Um I was born, I always say, with this deep sense of empathy and compassion for people who are homeless, very very specific. Uh deep, and just a sense of connectedness, a sense of responsibility to this very specific group of people. I don't know why. I sometimes wished I, you know, did not feel the way that I feel when I see people on the streets. But from the time I can remember, and my mom tells me stories, you know, I was five years old and I would tap her while she was driving and I'd say, you know, give the man standing under the overpast five dollars, give him a banana. Do you have anything? And that translated into you know, in college, I would drive around with blankets in the back of my car, not alcohol like you know most college students. I had blankets, and I would give out blankets to people on the streets. So I've always just felt that there was some inequity, just a systematic issue with people living on the streets. I felt it was wrong. It was really unbelievable for me in America to see people UM not in homes, and and just there was like a moral obligation on on my end to do something. UM. There was a moment, however, where everything shifted and it this this passion and this sense of empathy just kind of transformed into this vision for this school. And that was when I was nineteen years old. I was volunteering UM downtown l A at Union Rescue Mission and I had finished volunteering and walked outside and I looked down and there was this little girl crawling on the sidewalk, and I was I was shocked. I was hurt, I was sad, I was angry, and I thought, this little girl has limitless potential and extremely limited options if she if she's to make it in the world, if she's to become anything, she will be in a book, she's one in a million because of the circumstances that she is born into. And I knew if I saw one, that there were more. And I knew the fact that I was looking at a little girl crawling on the sidewalk in a country and in a city with such wealth and resources, there was something wrong with our system. There was something wrong with what we were doing. And you know, I didn't know much about the world, but I knew I wanted to do something about kids um living on the streets, kids in homelessness, kids in poverty. And in that moment, just watch that little girl. All but five minutes I said, I'm I'm going to open a school. I think the answer. You know, I don't know much about the world, but I think the answer is a good education. So so back up, Hattie, how old were you? You said you've had this, this burning in your heart. You were nineteen and you saw this, this little baby crawling I'm guessing, hands and knees, yes, six months old on the sidewalk, and instead of looking away, you looked into the heart of the matter and said, at nineteen years old, I'm going to open a school, right, I'm going to do something. No, I couldn't look away. I had a moral obligation. I felt I had something to offer it, and even if I didn't, I had a moral responsibility to at least try to do something because we weren't doing enough as a society, as as a human you know, kind we were not doing enough if there were kids living on the streets in America. So you're nineteen years old, this this idea a school begins to germinate in your heart and in your mind and in your spirit. Then then what happened? Then nothing happened for a long time. It felt like fourteen years. There was something was happening. I mean things were happening, seed growing underneath the earth. You don't see what's happening, but it was happening, or or you wouldn't have very opened. Yeah. So I said, okay, well, you know, I have to be strategic about this. I can't just go open a school. What do I need to learn? What do I need to do? And the natural first step to me was, well, get in a classroom. So I decided, Okay, I'm gonna major in education. I will get my teaching credential, and I'll teach. I'll learn firsthand what goes on in the classroom on the day to day, and then I'll go from there. And from there I went on to learning about policy, and I went back to school for my masters. I interned um at the White House with the Obama administration and I worked on federal policy, and then I came back to l a and I worked as an administrator at a school in South Central UM. From there, I went to Louisiana I worked on state policy. So really I just took on various jobs to try and figure out and understand this system, the education system, serving kids in poverty, serving kids in the inner city, what that looks like all the way from the highest level at the federal government to the lowest level, you know, in the classroom. And I think that we're you know, looking at just the system as a whole. I sort of spoke about that, you know, when I first saw the baby on the sidewalk, which was like, you know, I don't know much about the world, but this doesn't seem right to me. And you know, as I've gotten older and learned more about the social injustices and inequities, UM, it's very clear that in America especially, we have a system um that really bites up and and spits out our low income people. Our minorities are black and brown people, especially the men, so you know, from boys to men. And as you said, it's like, if you don't end up in this cycle of poverty, you're likely going to end up in prison or dead. Um. Those are the options. And we can't undo um and disrupt this system that's been in place for so long because much of it derives from slavery and from segregation and years of racism. But what we can do is try to address the issues here and now and look to dismantling some of these cycles, which is why I chose the school. So yes, I'm passionate about serving people who are homeless, but I stayed away from adults, and I'm staying away from building more houses, and I'm staying away from building more institutions, whether that be you know, hospitals because of the mental ill or UM jails. I'm looking at serving kids so that we can break this cycle so they have a chance, because it's a cycle, and it's the system is doing exactly what it was intended to do, and it's to keep black and brown people oppressed and coming in and out of prison and DCFS you know, Department of Family and Children's Services UM or ending up dead. And I want to see that completely changed. So it took you six sixteen years, you said, for Create to actually be birthed. What did tell me where the name comes from. Well, my husband and I we actually were researching um names. Most of the Latin names were already taken by private schools and charter schools. So we look that the Greek language and I really wanted something that meant to create, and so crete means to create. And the the philosophy behind the name is that if you come to our school, you take a hold of the resources and the education that we provide, you can create your own future, despite what your trajectory may have been, you know, had you not had any interventions or because of the circumstances that you were brought into. So it's really our our children creating the future that they want for themselves. So tell me who who makes up your student body at CREE you're in Los Angeles? Yes, who makes up your student body? So we have a hundred and eighty students. Um. We have far more boys than girls. UM, which is not out of the norm for charter schools. Usually there's more boys. Um. We're sixty six percent African American. I remember these numbers off the top of my head. Uh. Um, Latino two percent, White, two percent other homeless, four percent foster. We are ten percent gifted free reduced lunch, which is actually lower than the surrounding schools. So of your students would not be eating probably if not eating at your school. Absolutely, and we serve three meals a day for those students. And then we are about twelve percent UM special ed meaning students requiring special and additional support for various disabilities. And who is this very charming principle that I see in the video hugging the kids every day? Oh, that would probably be me? Or is it a man? Uh No, it's a beautiful woman that I saw in the video that you know the kids name, Oh, that would be me. That would be it. Of everything that I learned about you, Hattie when I was researching you, the thing that there's so many things that I just I love you. I just love your heart, I love your passion, I love what you're doing. I love that you're not taking no for an answer. Um. But the fact that you know each child by name, that you know their stories, you know their families stories, that that was what touched me the deepest. Because a lot of people think that they can change the world through policies or politics, and maybe they can, but I believe and the whole reason I do what I do is that we're going to change the world, one heart at a time, and absolutely that comes through relationships. And when I saw the video Hattie of the kids running up and hugging you and you calling them by name and knowing their story and looking in their eyes and seeing the m for who they are, I said, this, young woman, it's going to change the world because you love each child individually. I do very much to a fault. I always say I have a hundred and eighty three kids. I have two of my own and a hundred and eighty one at my school. But yeah, I mean that's where it starts. It starts with with a true UM, A true love for humans, for humankind UM, an even deeper love for children, UM, which you know I kind of expressed, UM. I love every single one of them. I want the best for them. I treat them like my own because they are They're a part of of me and an extension of what I believe about the world and how they should be able to experience it for themselves. There's a woman that I hope you can meet one day named jan Haynes. I've known her for over thirty years but Jan runs my ministry, my foundation in Africa, not a foundation, it's a in geo and we, just like you, are hardest for children are Our mission is to be a voice for forgotten children, both here in America kids in foster care and in Africa, in West Africa, kids in refugee camps. And Jan spends about six months eight months out of the year in Africa living and working and and just um completely immersed in what we do. And I knew probably the first or second year after we had hired her for this position, I had gone over and I watched her at the school, and she knew we have three d eighty kids. We take care of orphans and disabled kids and kids with special needs. She knew each one by name. Wow, I just I'm so proud of you and the work you do. Hattie. Let's just take a break for a moment, have a sip of water, take a breath. There's so so so much more. I want to know, so much more. I want our listeners to hear we will be right back. How can we get the word out about creates so other cities can see this and and and see how good the students are doing, and how they're developing and learning and growing. Well, first, thank you for the kind words. UM, you know, I really do think that we were all put here for a very unique purpose, a purpose that only we could fulfill, you know, each one of us. And that purpose is always outside and greater than ourselves, and it definitely includes the people around you and the things that you care most about. So, UM, you know, at one, I always encourage people to dig deep and find, you know, their own passions to figure out because we all have it. So thank you, UM, you know, for your for your words, because it is um a lot and UM, I you know do need that encouragement, so I really appreciate that. Um. In terms of getting the word out, I think, UM you know, I always invite people to the school for tours if they're local. Um, we're on Crenshawn sixty Street, so kind of right in the heart of Hyde Park in in l A. And UM, for those who aren't local, just you know, visit our our website because we try to put as much information and videos and content about what we're doing so people are aware, um, not only of the school, but of the things we're doing, so that they can hopefully do some of the same things in their communities to support um, this really vulnerable, um but important population of kids. Well, I know, it's it's top news now, especially on the West Coast throughout California, Sacramento. Oh my gosh, the home homeless population is like quadrupled in the last two years in San Francisco, in Portland, Oregon, in Seattle, Washington. The homeless situation, the camps, the cholera outbreaks, the uh you know, just the the enormity of the problem. If people could grab hold of this clearly isn't a solution to the homeless problem, but it is a solution to breaking the cycle for the kids that you can get into a school like yours. I believe that that each one of those kids in your school, because of your love and your teachers and your you know, healthy meal programs, and the fact that you you know everything I've read, you look at the child holistically, and you try to meet their basic needs first before you try to educate them. You make sure that the have got a good night's sleep and food in their belly, and their health issues taken care of. Hattie, that's priceless, and all those kids, your hundred and eighty one other children besides your two biological children. They're going to have a shot at a different life because of that school. Absolutely, and I I do think this is an answer to the homeless issue. I think we've been looking at the issue all wrong, which is why it's quadrupled. Building more housing is a band aid on a bullet wound, building more medical facilities, incarcerating individuals who are homeless, making it a crime. Um, you know, arresting people that that's not the answer. The answer started back when they were five and when they needed to get to school so they could learn, so that they could go to middle school and do well and then go to high school and get a good job or go to college. Um. Unfortunately, the cycle of poverty perpetuates itself, and so lots of little things happen over the course of a child's life that create more and more barriers, barriers for their success, and it becomes at some point insurmountable. And so UM, I don't I don't think the answer. Yes it's helpful to have more housing, and yes there's a shortage, etcetera. But um, what I always tell people is the work we're doing today, you will see the results in twenty years, when there are less people on skid row, when there are less individuals experiencing homelessness, when the poverty rates UM go down, when educational attainment increases in that neighborhood, you know, specifically, because the answer is breaking the cycle. The answer is not giving someone a home. You can give them a home, but you have to teach them how to stand on their own two feet and give them the resources to do so. So, UM, I I really believe that this this is the answer is breaking the cycle at the roots so that um, people have a ounce to dream and and be and do something. Can you describe to our listeners how the exactly what the Creed Academy is. Oh? Absolutely so, um delilah, you sort of touched on it, But basically we look at basic needs first, which is unheard of because schools are all about achievement and test scorers and performance, and we say all of that set aside. What's most important is that when you come to school, you are fed, You are mentally and physically in a position to learn. So what that looks like is counseling offered at the school, dental cleanings, vision screenings, medical exams, we offer clothes, three meals a day, after school, care, transportation, housing for parents, UM. And this is all on the basic needs side, so all within our wellness program. That doesn't even touch on the academics UM, which is our first and foremost, you know, priority. It's what we are school, it's what we offer. But my belief is we've gone, like with many things, we've gone about educating our kids all wrong. And we assume that the kids coming to school have two parents at home, they've gone to college, they do their homework with their kids, They take them to the doctor and the dentist regularly, they provide counseling when the family goes through traumatic experiences, They get a good night's sleep, and they have a good breakfast, you know, when they get to school. For our kids in poverty, for our kids experiencing homelessness, almost none of those things are true. You're lucky if one of those things are true. And usually it's a single mom. The kids may or may not know their father. They're either deceased, incarcerated, or walking around somewhere and they're not sure who it is. The parent works an hourly job. They may or may not have medical insurance. And they're struggling just to make ends meet, so that child cannot um learn at an optimal level when they get to school. And that's where we've kind of blown up this idea of when you get to school, it's all about math and science and write reading and writing. Now, when you get to school, we're checking in with you to make sure you're ready to learn. Once you're ready to learn, it's all about math, science and everything else. But until then, I can't expect you to perform or even want to um, you know, learn without making sure your basic needs are first met. UM. On the academic side, we're exposing our kids to things that you know, our middle class and affluent families get exposed to like piano classes after school, in ballet and chess and sports, um, social groups, etcetera. We have all of that during the day. So for an hour every single day except Wednesdays, we have our Genius Hour and that's when kids get to choose an enrichment class that they want to go to for eight weeks. So we have chess, culinary, art, horticulture, a comics class, we have art um esteem class, so science and technology engineering, we have dance, UM and We're not just you know, providing kids with the four core subjects, but we're also making sure that you know, our creative kids are dancers, are singers, we have a theater class. You know, those kids are getting what they need so they can be successful and so they can develop a zest for education and for life, so they have something to hold onto to take them through, you know, UM for the next twenty years and really through those hard times that they will they will have. And where does the funding for create? Where do you find your funding for doctors to come and do exams for eye screening for the meal program. Well, our funding, most of it comes from the state. We are a public school, so we're funded UH just like any other public goal through UM attendance, So it's based on our attendance UM and it's provided by public funds UM. In addition to that, UM, I've been very strategic about partnering with organizations that are doing the things or providing the services that we need. So all of the things that I mentioned are actually free UM at no cost to us. We have partnered with organizations that provide dental screenings and vision screenings and physical exams UM and you know, we're helping them meet their quotas by providing the students, and so it's a win for both of us. So we've developed several partnerships, um, both with nonprofits but also universities and many How many hours a night, Hattie, do you sleep? It depends, be honest, because if you're a mama with two kids, even though I know you have a wonderful husband, and you're the first one they are greeting kids in the morning, and you're working all these relations ships, with these partnerships that you've found, you must get by on like six five six hours sleep some nights. Um. You know when I the first year of this school, I was working the sixteen hour days. Um, now it's about twelve to fourteen. Now you've really slowed down. But UM, you know it's I'm passionate, so it doesn't bother me. I don't. I don't if I had a superpower. I was asked the other day, if you've had a superpower, what would it be. My answer was that I would not require sleep. I think it's such a waste of time, and I don't understand why I have to do it. I wish I could be awake, just doing what I love to do, um, which is being with people and you know, serving my kids in my family. If it would be to be a clone so that I could actually that's good. Yeah. If I had like two or three clones, I could actually sleep and take care of my kids in Africa and cares and you know, maybe go see a play now and again. Yeah, that's true. I do try to get six to you know, eight hours of sleep at night. I'm just I'm one of those people that need sleep. It sucks. I wish I didn't, but I really do. So. Um. I work from you know, six thirty to about five thirty six thirty. Um, so that's my twelve hours. And then when I get home, it's I get two hours with my kids and I want to make them meaningful. I have the first two hours of the day in the last two hours of the day with them, so, um, I shut it off and it's all about them. And then when they go to sleep, I pick back up. I get on the phone, I'm on an email, you know, internet, etcetera. UM. And I worked till about eleven twelve. If it's a late night, one or two. But um so sometimes six hours, sometimes five. It just depends. You know how it goes. I know how it goes. And I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I just pray that God sustains you, that he continues to bring people into your life who will catch ahold of your vision and and help to birth crete schools or you know, like minded schools across the country. Absolutely, that's my that's my hope. I mean, you articulated it very well. That's that's the hope. Is to get this model just right to where I can say, you know, this works, this really works, and this is how you do it, and people can go and do it for more kids. I mean, there's just no reason why any kids should not have a chance. Uh here, there just isn't. There's a woman I've become friends with named Kim Bagoki, and Kim started a project quite by accident. Uh. She's a police officer and she was um volunteering at the women's prison near where she lives. And she threw out this question, if one person could have done something to change the trajectory of your life, what would that have looked like? And one of the women in prison answered the question. She set down and she wrote out a very thoughtful answer, and then she went to other women in the prison and had them right out their answers to that question. If one person or were one circumstance would have been different to change the trajectory of your life, what would that have looked like? And what what can realized through this? You know, quite by accident and asking that question was that it might be too late for them, but they could use that story to impact young people, to change the trajectory of their life. And so when these women and men, now it's in the men's prison, um have opportunities. They speak to at risk youth and say, if one person had told me what prison was like, if one person had told me that I had value, if one person had told me that I have great worth, I might not be here. And I think, Hattie, what you're doing is truly the answer to the if project. You and your teachers and your volunteers, and the dance instructors and the chess instructors and this science instructors I saw making rockets with the young boys. That is the answer to the big if question. I agree, if one person had said you're really smart, you could actually be a rocket scientist. That's right. That will change the trajectory of that young rocket scientists life. That's right. I couldn't agree more. I think it takes one person believing in you, um, just one because UM that then sparks the idea that perhaps there is something there. UM. And on the flip side, it could take one person you know, really discouraging you in your life. It could be a teacher, it could be a parent, UM that changes that trajectory. There's so much power in our relationships and in our words, UM, which you know goes back to what we talked about early on, just people loving and and ensuring the security and stability of the people closest to them. UM. I think that's the only way back to really restoring humanity and dealing with this issue. Because clearly everyone you know in that story and in the prison, everyone around them, you know, gave up on them at some point, and then they gave up on themselves. Well, thank you for being here, thank you for taking this time, and thank you for starting uh, thank you for seeing that baby on the street and and and deciding in your spirit you were going to change things and then doing it. Because a lot of people, I think are inspired to do something, but then life gets in the way, kids getting the way, work, school, blah blah blah, and they never they never follow through. And you did so thank you. Thank you. No, you don't have to thank me. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Um, but thank you. Hopefully more people will look up the Crete Academy and reach out and connect with you and start more schools and and do more great work for kids. I hope so I would be wonderful. Isn't amazing how open Hattie was to listening to and four that whisper in her heart. She heard it, she listened to it, and she let it guide her steps. Tattie took the necessary steps to get the degrees, to get the education, to get the experience to volunteer, so she understood the situation from the inside out, so that she had the credentials to do what that whisper in her heart was telling her to do in starting this school, so that her efforts would have the greatest impact possible. If you are a young person just starting out in your life, I hope Hattie's work inspires you to listen intently, and when you hear that whisper, in your heart, that urging to tell you to try something, to go out on a limb, then take action to lay your own foundation to self fulfillment and service to others. If you are in Act two of your life, or maybe even later in that greater production of life. I hope Hattie's story inspires you too, that you can take action today, right now, and that the well being of another takes root in your heart will bless you because it will make it difference in this world. In fact, those actions that you do to change the world for good begin a ripple effect that lasts far longer and become far stronger than anything you or I could have ever imagined. It is never too early if you are very young, and it is never too late to change the world one heart at a time. Do check out Crete Academy at Crete c R E t E Academy dot org, and then join me next time when we release a new edition of our podcast Loves Someone.

Hello, my friend. It is good to be with you once again on Love Someone, my One Heart at a Time podcast series. What we're trying to do besides entertain you is inspire you, Inspire you to change the world one heart at a time. I am so happy to have a Hattie Mitchell with me today, the founder and the principle of a very very unique elementary school in Los Angeles. Her story begins many, many years ago. She was a girl of nineteen. Actually, as she describes it, it started way before that, when she was but a child with a very tender heart for the plight of the homeless population. I'm going to let her share her story from the beginning, but before we get started, I need to thank our sponsor today. This podcast is made possible by my good friends at the Home Depot. Given how often I'm at my favorite at home Depot, they are good friends. Now I know them all by name. When I'm in need of an appliance, I'm in the appliance department. When I'm in a planting mood, and I'm always in a planting mood, I'm in the garden department. This year I discovered just how good the Home Depot is with carpets as well selection installation special orders. My new friends in the flooring department were beyond helpful in choosing the carpet and then seeing that it was installed perfectly for my niece Terrisa. She and her husband Nick are expecting a baby any day now. The carpet we purchased was for the nursery of my soon to be born great nephew, and with the purchase just more than six hundred dollars, the installation was free, really, no fees at all. The home depot, more saving, more doing. So Hattie Mitchell, welcome to love someone with delilah Um. Do you know how I found my way to you? Hattie? No, I was not told the story. Okay, this is a fun story. I have a big family and at home right now, I only have four children, but I have many that are grown and gone. And Blessing is my little genius. Nothing slows this child down, nothing in life slows her down. And she came to me, I don't know about a month ago, and she said, Mom, I want you to watch this story. And it was your story. And I said, that's really touching. I'm really blessed that you wanted to share that with me, And she said, no, I want you to watch it because I want you to get to know the woman. She said, I want I want you to do a podcast about her. I want other people to hear what she's doing. I want other people in other cities to hear what she's doing and maybe they'll understand how important it is and help more kids. And I'm like, you're amazing. Yes, So I said to my fourteen year old daughter, who is in ninth grade, you know what, I am naming you the assistant producer for my podcast. For this series, Uh, you get to track this young woman down. And she did, and she did. She's incredible. She did found a way to you. She came to me just jumping and screaming and saying the lady that started the Creed Academy. She got back to me, mom, and and and so she turned it over to my sister, who is the producer of the show. And uh, and and now here we are together. Well, you have a wonderful family, obviously a wonderful story, and um, blessing is already a blessing too many, but um, just hearing that story is even a blessing to me. It's very encouraging. So tell me how how this all started. The Creed Academy, which you've been doing for how many years now? Um, well, I've been working on it for sixteen years. We've been open for two. I was a long pregnancy girlfriend. Oh yeah, good things take time. Um I was born, I always say, with this deep sense of empathy and compassion for people who are homeless, very very specific. Uh deep, and just a sense of connectedness, a sense of responsibility to this very specific group of people. I don't know why. I sometimes wished I, you know, did not feel the way that I feel when I see people on the streets. But from the time I can remember, and my mom tells me stories, you know, I was five years old and I would tap her while she was driving and I'd say, you know, give the man standing under the overpast five dollars, give him a banana. Do you have anything? And that translated into you know, in college, I would drive around with blankets in the back of my car, not alcohol like you know most college students. I had blankets, and I would give out blankets to people on the streets. So I've always just felt that there was some inequity, just a systematic issue with people living on the streets. I felt it was wrong. It was really unbelievable for me in America to see people UM not in homes, and and just there was like a moral obligation on on my end to do something. UM. There was a moment, however, where everything shifted and it this this passion and this sense of empathy just kind of transformed into this vision for this school. And that was when I was nineteen years old. I was volunteering UM downtown l A at Union Rescue Mission and I had finished volunteering and walked outside and I looked down and there was this little girl crawling on the sidewalk, and I was I was shocked. I was hurt, I was sad, I was angry, and I thought, this little girl has limitless potential and extremely limited options if she if she's to make it in the world, if she's to become anything, she will be in a book, she's one in a million because of the circumstances that she is born into. And I knew if I saw one, that there were more. And I knew the fact that I was looking at a little girl crawling on the sidewalk in a country and in a city with such wealth and resources, there was something wrong with our system. There was something wrong with what we were doing. And you know, I didn't know much about the world, but I knew I wanted to do something about kids um living on the streets, kids in homelessness, kids in poverty. And in that moment, just watch that little girl. All but five minutes I said, I'm I'm going to open a school. I think the answer. You know, I don't know much about the world, but I think the answer is a good education. So so back up, Hattie, how old were you? You said you've had this, this burning in your heart. You were nineteen and you saw this, this little baby crawling I'm guessing, hands and knees, yes, six months old on the sidewalk, and instead of looking away, you looked into the heart of the matter and said, at nineteen years old, I'm going to open a school, right, I'm going to do something. No, I couldn't look away. I had a moral obligation. I felt I had something to offer it, and even if I didn't, I had a moral responsibility to at least try to do something because we weren't doing enough as a society, as as a human you know, kind we were not doing enough if there were kids living on the streets in America. So you're nineteen years old, this this idea a school begins to germinate in your heart and in your mind and in your spirit. Then then what happened? Then nothing happened for a long time. It felt like fourteen years. There was something was happening. I mean things were happening, seed growing underneath the earth. You don't see what's happening, but it was happening, or or you wouldn't have very opened. Yeah. So I said, okay, well, you know, I have to be strategic about this. I can't just go open a school. What do I need to learn? What do I need to do? And the natural first step to me was, well, get in a classroom. So I decided, Okay, I'm gonna major in education. I will get my teaching credential, and I'll teach. I'll learn firsthand what goes on in the classroom on the day to day, and then I'll go from there. And from there I went on to learning about policy, and I went back to school for my masters. I interned um at the White House with the Obama administration and I worked on federal policy, and then I came back to l a and I worked as an administrator at a school in South Central UM. From there, I went to Louisiana I worked on state policy. So really I just took on various jobs to try and figure out and understand this system, the education system, serving kids in poverty, serving kids in the inner city, what that looks like all the way from the highest level at the federal government to the lowest level, you know, in the classroom. And I think that we're you know, looking at just the system as a whole. I sort of spoke about that, you know, when I first saw the baby on the sidewalk, which was like, you know, I don't know much about the world, but this doesn't seem right to me. And you know, as I've gotten older and learned more about the social injustices and inequities, UM, it's very clear that in America especially, we have a system um that really bites up and and spits out our low income people. Our minorities are black and brown people, especially the men, so you know, from boys to men. And as you said, it's like, if you don't end up in this cycle of poverty, you're likely going to end up in prison or dead. Um. Those are the options. And we can't undo um and disrupt this system that's been in place for so long because much of it derives from slavery and from segregation and years of racism. But what we can do is try to address the issues here and now and look to dismantling some of these cycles, which is why I chose the school. So yes, I'm passionate about serving people who are homeless, but I stayed away from adults, and I'm staying away from building more houses, and I'm staying away from building more institutions, whether that be you know, hospitals because of the mental ill or UM jails. I'm looking at serving kids so that we can break this cycle so they have a chance, because it's a cycle, and it's the system is doing exactly what it was intended to do, and it's to keep black and brown people oppressed and coming in and out of prison and DCFS you know, Department of Family and Children's Services UM or ending up dead. And I want to see that completely changed. So it took you six sixteen years, you said, for Create to actually be birthed. What did tell me where the name comes from. Well, my husband and I we actually were researching um names. Most of the Latin names were already taken by private schools and charter schools. So we look that the Greek language and I really wanted something that meant to create, and so crete means to create. And the the philosophy behind the name is that if you come to our school, you take a hold of the resources and the education that we provide, you can create your own future, despite what your trajectory may have been, you know, had you not had any interventions or because of the circumstances that you were brought into. So it's really our our children creating the future that they want for themselves. So tell me who who makes up your student body at CREE you're in Los Angeles? Yes, who makes up your student body? So we have a hundred and eighty students. Um. We have far more boys than girls. UM, which is not out of the norm for charter schools. Usually there's more boys. Um. We're sixty six percent African American. I remember these numbers off the top of my head. Uh. Um, Latino two percent, White, two percent other homeless, four percent foster. We are ten percent gifted free reduced lunch, which is actually lower than the surrounding schools. So of your students would not be eating probably if not eating at your school. Absolutely, and we serve three meals a day for those students. And then we are about twelve percent UM special ed meaning students requiring special and additional support for various disabilities. And who is this very charming principle that I see in the video hugging the kids every day? Oh, that would probably be me? Or is it a man? Uh No, it's a beautiful woman that I saw in the video that you know the kids name, Oh, that would be me. That would be it. Of everything that I learned about you, Hattie when I was researching you, the thing that there's so many things that I just I love you. I just love your heart, I love your passion, I love what you're doing. I love that you're not taking no for an answer. Um. But the fact that you know each child by name, that you know their stories, you know their families stories, that that was what touched me the deepest. Because a lot of people think that they can change the world through policies or politics, and maybe they can, but I believe and the whole reason I do what I do is that we're going to change the world, one heart at a time, and absolutely that comes through relationships. And when I saw the video Hattie of the kids running up and hugging you and you calling them by name and knowing their story and looking in their eyes and seeing the m for who they are, I said, this, young woman, it's going to change the world because you love each child individually. I do very much to a fault. I always say I have a hundred and eighty three kids. I have two of my own and a hundred and eighty one at my school. But yeah, I mean that's where it starts. It starts with with a true UM, A true love for humans, for humankind UM, an even deeper love for children, UM, which you know I kind of expressed, UM. I love every single one of them. I want the best for them. I treat them like my own because they are They're a part of of me and an extension of what I believe about the world and how they should be able to experience it for themselves. There's a woman that I hope you can meet one day named jan Haynes. I've known her for over thirty years but Jan runs my ministry, my foundation in Africa, not a foundation, it's a in geo and we, just like you, are hardest for children are Our mission is to be a voice for forgotten children, both here in America kids in foster care and in Africa, in West Africa, kids in refugee camps. And Jan spends about six months eight months out of the year in Africa living and working and and just um completely immersed in what we do. And I knew probably the first or second year after we had hired her for this position, I had gone over and I watched her at the school, and she knew we have three d eighty kids. We take care of orphans and disabled kids and kids with special needs. She knew each one by name. Wow, I just I'm so proud of you and the work you do. Hattie. Let's just take a break for a moment, have a sip of water, take a breath. There's so so so much more. I want to know, so much more. I want our listeners to hear we will be right back. How can we get the word out about creates so other cities can see this and and and see how good the students are doing, and how they're developing and learning and growing. Well, first, thank you for the kind words. UM, you know, I really do think that we were all put here for a very unique purpose, a purpose that only we could fulfill, you know, each one of us. And that purpose is always outside and greater than ourselves, and it definitely includes the people around you and the things that you care most about. So, UM, you know, at one, I always encourage people to dig deep and find, you know, their own passions to figure out because we all have it. So thank you, UM, you know, for your for your words, because it is um a lot and UM, I you know do need that encouragement, so I really appreciate that. Um. In terms of getting the word out, I think, UM you know, I always invite people to the school for tours if they're local. Um, we're on Crenshawn sixty Street, so kind of right in the heart of Hyde Park in in l A. And UM, for those who aren't local, just you know, visit our our website because we try to put as much information and videos and content about what we're doing so people are aware, um, not only of the school, but of the things we're doing, so that they can hopefully do some of the same things in their communities to support um, this really vulnerable, um but important population of kids. Well, I know, it's it's top news now, especially on the West Coast throughout California, Sacramento. Oh my gosh, the home homeless population is like quadrupled in the last two years in San Francisco, in Portland, Oregon, in Seattle, Washington. The homeless situation, the camps, the cholera outbreaks, the uh you know, just the the enormity of the problem. If people could grab hold of this clearly isn't a solution to the homeless problem, but it is a solution to breaking the cycle for the kids that you can get into a school like yours. I believe that that each one of those kids in your school, because of your love and your teachers and your you know, healthy meal programs, and the fact that you you know everything I've read, you look at the child holistically, and you try to meet their basic needs first before you try to educate them. You make sure that the have got a good night's sleep and food in their belly, and their health issues taken care of. Hattie, that's priceless, and all those kids, your hundred and eighty one other children besides your two biological children. They're going to have a shot at a different life because of that school. Absolutely, and I I do think this is an answer to the homeless issue. I think we've been looking at the issue all wrong, which is why it's quadrupled. Building more housing is a band aid on a bullet wound, building more medical facilities, incarcerating individuals who are homeless, making it a crime. Um, you know, arresting people that that's not the answer. The answer started back when they were five and when they needed to get to school so they could learn, so that they could go to middle school and do well and then go to high school and get a good job or go to college. Um. Unfortunately, the cycle of poverty perpetuates itself, and so lots of little things happen over the course of a child's life that create more and more barriers, barriers for their success, and it becomes at some point insurmountable. And so UM, I don't I don't think the answer. Yes it's helpful to have more housing, and yes there's a shortage, etcetera. But um, what I always tell people is the work we're doing today, you will see the results in twenty years, when there are less people on skid row, when there are less individuals experiencing homelessness, when the poverty rates UM go down, when educational attainment increases in that neighborhood, you know, specifically, because the answer is breaking the cycle. The answer is not giving someone a home. You can give them a home, but you have to teach them how to stand on their own two feet and give them the resources to do so. So, UM, I I really believe that this this is the answer is breaking the cycle at the roots so that um, people have a ounce to dream and and be and do something. Can you describe to our listeners how the exactly what the Creed Academy is. Oh? Absolutely so, um delilah, you sort of touched on it, But basically we look at basic needs first, which is unheard of because schools are all about achievement and test scorers and performance, and we say all of that set aside. What's most important is that when you come to school, you are fed, You are mentally and physically in a position to learn. So what that looks like is counseling offered at the school, dental cleanings, vision screenings, medical exams, we offer clothes, three meals a day, after school, care, transportation, housing for parents, UM. And this is all on the basic needs side, so all within our wellness program. That doesn't even touch on the academics UM, which is our first and foremost, you know, priority. It's what we are school, it's what we offer. But my belief is we've gone, like with many things, we've gone about educating our kids all wrong. And we assume that the kids coming to school have two parents at home, they've gone to college, they do their homework with their kids, They take them to the doctor and the dentist regularly, they provide counseling when the family goes through traumatic experiences, They get a good night's sleep, and they have a good breakfast, you know, when they get to school. For our kids in poverty, for our kids experiencing homelessness, almost none of those things are true. You're lucky if one of those things are true. And usually it's a single mom. The kids may or may not know their father. They're either deceased, incarcerated, or walking around somewhere and they're not sure who it is. The parent works an hourly job. They may or may not have medical insurance. And they're struggling just to make ends meet, so that child cannot um learn at an optimal level when they get to school. And that's where we've kind of blown up this idea of when you get to school, it's all about math and science and write reading and writing. Now, when you get to school, we're checking in with you to make sure you're ready to learn. Once you're ready to learn, it's all about math, science and everything else. But until then, I can't expect you to perform or even want to um, you know, learn without making sure your basic needs are first met. UM. On the academic side, we're exposing our kids to things that you know, our middle class and affluent families get exposed to like piano classes after school, in ballet and chess and sports, um, social groups, etcetera. We have all of that during the day. So for an hour every single day except Wednesdays, we have our Genius Hour and that's when kids get to choose an enrichment class that they want to go to for eight weeks. So we have chess, culinary, art, horticulture, a comics class, we have art um esteem class, so science and technology engineering, we have dance, UM and We're not just you know, providing kids with the four core subjects, but we're also making sure that you know, our creative kids are dancers, are singers, we have a theater class. You know, those kids are getting what they need so they can be successful and so they can develop a zest for education and for life, so they have something to hold onto to take them through, you know, UM for the next twenty years and really through those hard times that they will they will have. And where does the funding for create? Where do you find your funding for doctors to come and do exams for eye screening for the meal program. Well, our funding, most of it comes from the state. We are a public school, so we're funded UH just like any other public goal through UM attendance, So it's based on our attendance UM and it's provided by public funds UM. In addition to that, UM, I've been very strategic about partnering with organizations that are doing the things or providing the services that we need. So all of the things that I mentioned are actually free UM at no cost to us. We have partnered with organizations that provide dental screenings and vision screenings and physical exams UM and you know, we're helping them meet their quotas by providing the students, and so it's a win for both of us. So we've developed several partnerships, um, both with nonprofits but also universities and many How many hours a night, Hattie, do you sleep? It depends, be honest, because if you're a mama with two kids, even though I know you have a wonderful husband, and you're the first one they are greeting kids in the morning, and you're working all these relations ships, with these partnerships that you've found, you must get by on like six five six hours sleep some nights. Um. You know when I the first year of this school, I was working the sixteen hour days. Um, now it's about twelve to fourteen. Now you've really slowed down. But UM, you know it's I'm passionate, so it doesn't bother me. I don't. I don't if I had a superpower. I was asked the other day, if you've had a superpower, what would it be. My answer was that I would not require sleep. I think it's such a waste of time, and I don't understand why I have to do it. I wish I could be awake, just doing what I love to do, um, which is being with people and you know, serving my kids in my family. If it would be to be a clone so that I could actually that's good. Yeah. If I had like two or three clones, I could actually sleep and take care of my kids in Africa and cares and you know, maybe go see a play now and again. Yeah, that's true. I do try to get six to you know, eight hours of sleep at night. I'm just I'm one of those people that need sleep. It sucks. I wish I didn't, but I really do. So. Um. I work from you know, six thirty to about five thirty six thirty. Um, so that's my twelve hours. And then when I get home, it's I get two hours with my kids and I want to make them meaningful. I have the first two hours of the day in the last two hours of the day with them, so, um, I shut it off and it's all about them. And then when they go to sleep, I pick back up. I get on the phone, I'm on an email, you know, internet, etcetera. UM. And I worked till about eleven twelve. If it's a late night, one or two. But um so sometimes six hours, sometimes five. It just depends. You know how it goes. I know how it goes. And I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I just pray that God sustains you, that he continues to bring people into your life who will catch ahold of your vision and and help to birth crete schools or you know, like minded schools across the country. Absolutely, that's my that's my hope. I mean, you articulated it very well. That's that's the hope. Is to get this model just right to where I can say, you know, this works, this really works, and this is how you do it, and people can go and do it for more kids. I mean, there's just no reason why any kids should not have a chance. Uh here, there just isn't. There's a woman I've become friends with named Kim Bagoki, and Kim started a project quite by accident. Uh. She's a police officer and she was um volunteering at the women's prison near where she lives. And she threw out this question, if one person could have done something to change the trajectory of your life, what would that have looked like? And one of the women in prison answered the question. She set down and she wrote out a very thoughtful answer, and then she went to other women in the prison and had them right out their answers to that question. If one person or were one circumstance would have been different to change the trajectory of your life, what would that have looked like? And what what can realized through this? You know, quite by accident and asking that question was that it might be too late for them, but they could use that story to impact young people, to change the trajectory of their life. And so when these women and men, now it's in the men's prison, um have opportunities. They speak to at risk youth and say, if one person had told me what prison was like, if one person had told me that I had value, if one person had told me that I have great worth, I might not be here. And I think, Hattie, what you're doing is truly the answer to the if project. You and your teachers and your volunteers, and the dance instructors and the chess instructors and this science instructors I saw making rockets with the young boys. That is the answer to the big if question. I agree, if one person had said you're really smart, you could actually be a rocket scientist. That's right. That will change the trajectory of that young rocket scientists life. That's right. I couldn't agree more. I think it takes one person believing in you, um, just one because UM that then sparks the idea that perhaps there is something there. UM. And on the flip side, it could take one person you know, really discouraging you in your life. It could be a teacher, it could be a parent, UM that changes that trajectory. There's so much power in our relationships and in our words, UM, which you know goes back to what we talked about early on, just people loving and and ensuring the security and stability of the people closest to them. UM. I think that's the only way back to really restoring humanity and dealing with this issue. Because clearly everyone you know in that story and in the prison, everyone around them, you know, gave up on them at some point, and then they gave up on themselves. Well, thank you for being here, thank you for taking this time, and thank you for starting uh, thank you for seeing that baby on the street and and and deciding in your spirit you were going to change things and then doing it. Because a lot of people, I think are inspired to do something, but then life gets in the way, kids getting the way, work, school, blah blah blah, and they never they never follow through. And you did so thank you. Thank you. No, you don't have to thank me. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Um, but thank you. Hopefully more people will look up the Crete Academy and reach out and connect with you and start more schools and and do more great work for kids. I hope so I would be wonderful. Isn't amazing how open Hattie was to listening to and four that whisper in her heart. She heard it, she listened to it, and she let it guide her steps. Tattie took the necessary steps to get the degrees, to get the education, to get the experience to volunteer, so she understood the situation from the inside out, so that she had the credentials to do what that whisper in her heart was telling her to do in starting this school, so that her efforts would have the greatest impact possible. If you are a young person just starting out in your life, I hope Hattie's work inspires you to listen intently, and when you hear that whisper, in your heart, that urging to tell you to try something, to go out on a limb, then take action to lay your own foundation to self fulfillment and service to others. If you are in Act two of your life, or maybe even later in that greater production of life. I hope Hattie's story inspires you too, that you can take action today, right now, and that the well being of another takes root in your heart will bless you because it will make it difference in this world. In fact, those actions that you do to change the world for good begin a ripple effect that lasts far longer and become far stronger than anything you or I could have ever imagined. It is never too early if you are very young, and it is never too late to change the world one heart at a time. Do check out Crete Academy at Crete c R E t E Academy dot org, and then join me next time when we release a new edition of our podcast Loves Someone.