The Point

Brian serves as co-founder and President of America’s Kids Belong (AKB). Hundreds of thousands of kids in the US foster care system are unseen and suffering, left to feel like they don’t belong. We dramatically improve their experience and change their outcomes by fighting for belonging in safe, loving families and supportive communities.

AKB brings together faith communities, government entities, business leaders, influencers, and the communities around them to join a life-changing movement where vulnerable kids find belonging and thrive.

Brian has written curriculum for national campaigns such as Bono’s “One Sabbath Campaign,” and World Vision’s “Faith in Action.” Brian and his wife Julie have two adult daughters, have been foster parents for years, and currently have a young man who aged out of foster care as part of their home.

Links & Contact

[email protected]

americaskidsbelong.org

https://www.facebook.com/amkidsbelong

Dr. Scott Larson is president and founder of Straight Ahead Ministries, an international faith-based organization working with juvenile offenders in more than 300 juvenile detention centers in 15 states and five countries with a myriad of aftercare programs when youth return home.

Scott has authored 13 books on working effectively with troubled youth and has been a speaker to youth, parents, teachers, social workers and youth workers since 1983, and is an adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Center for Urban Ministerial Education, and Gordon College.

He is also the co-founder of the Every Youth, Every Facility initiative, focused on partnering with ministries to reach every youth in the 1,200 juvenile detention centers in the U.S.

Scott and his wife Hanne reside in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

Contact: 

[email protected]

Website

www.straightahead.org 

www.everyyouth.org

Kayla Raymond is a wife, mama, social entrepreneur and dreamer.

She has lived full-time in Haiti for 7 years while establishing and growing a nonprofit alongside her family

During this time she also founded a successful social business called Rosies

But what she considers her greatest success is growing her family through adoption.

All of her experiences have made her passionate about orphan care, \job creation and reaching those in material poverty in a holistic way.

You can read her rantings at www.kaylagrooters.com and shop Rosie's website at www.rosiesboutiquehaiti.com

To sustainably fight poverty in Haiti, Julie Colombino-Billingham created a social business that provides consistent and dignified jobs.  Deux Mains is a Haitian owned and operated business that handcrafts high-quality, footwear, handbags and accessories.  97% of all raw materials in production are either repurposed or sourced locally on the island, and manufactured in our solar facility.

In a country where 85% of the population does not have access to the formal jobs and only 1% of the population is University educated, Colombino designed a model using the best practices of the nonprofit and for profit sectors.  She incubated a nonprofit arm of the business called REBUILD globally that provides revolutionary education and paid job training programs to the most vulnerable.  Every program graduate is then guaranteed a dignified, living wage job at Deux Mains.

Under Colombino’s leadership, the past 10 years has been a dramatic evolution from earthquake recovery to a sustainable and eco-friendly business that was quickly propelled into the world of ethical fashion. Just a few of the partnerships deux mains has created include: United Nations, Kenneth Cole, Eileen Fisher, USAID and the Clinton Foundation to fight poverty and strengthen families in Haiti.

Julie is the newest recipient of the Southern Living Beauty Awards for her work as a female entrepreneur.  She was a finalist in the 2017 Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Haiti.  She is the 2016 Martin Bell Scholar, and recently received her MBA from Rollins Crummer Graduate School of Business.

Julie's book, From Death to Dollars, will be available in 2021.   It is based on her real-life encounters post-earthquake and documents the growth of the social business ecosystem she created to instill dignity, financial security, and an ethical fashion business in Haiti.

Shop Deux Mains (Code THE POINT15 15% off)

Rebuild Globally Non-Profit

Julie’s Ted Talk 

He’s an author, a director, a founder, and a professor.

He has lived and worked around the world in areas like Yugoslavia, Kosovo, India, Iran, Sierra Leon and Haiti where he partnered with local communities, refugees and nonprofits in areas of social justice

Not only has he written three books but his writing has also been showcased in publications like the Washington Post and Christianity Today.

Currently he is the director of humanitarian and disaster leadership at Wheaton College where he helping to create one of the first programs of its kind all while taking the time to share with us his story that will inspire you on this episode of The Point Podcast.

Personal Website: https://kentannan.com

Wheaton College Program: https://www.wheaton.edu/academics/academic-centers/humanitarian-disaster-institute/

Rachel Goble grew up in an interconnected and multicultural world. Whether traveling to Central America with her family to survey land for the founding of a non-profit or trudging through the Sierra Nevadas as her parents sought to awaken Christians to our role as creation’s caretakers, Rachel learned early that the world’s peoples and problems are connected and that we must all help in overcoming them.

After earning degrees in Business Economics (BA) and Cross Cultural Studies (MA) Rachel co-founded The Freedom Story to prevent child trafficking in Northern Thailand through education, resources and mentorship. After developing close relationships with the children The Freedom Story serves, Rachel founded Ethical Storytelling, a community of non-profit practitioners and storytellers learning how to integrate a new standard of storytelling. Today, Rachel serves as the CEO of The Freedom Story and Executive Director of the Goble Family Foundation.

Rachel enjoys travel equally as much as she enjoys a night in with her pup, a glass of wine and Netflix. She calls Oakland, California home.

LINKS + RESOURCES

WEBSITE: 

SOCIAL MEDIA: 

Elisa Bachmann is a Marriage and Family Therapist. She spent years in Haiti developing programs for the orphaned and elderly. She believes that brokenness is actually what connects us. In this episode she tells us about her own journey with trauma and how we can all use trauma-informed care to better our relationships in both our personal and professional life.

Counseling Care: http://counselingcare.us/team/elisa-bachmann-ma/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisa-bachmann-2b7a86b4/

In this episode we are talking with one of Kenya’s most brilliant women who is a true warrior for justice.

Her name is Wariara

She is the Advocacy Manager at world renowned nonprofit where she has spent the last 20 years advocating patients with HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis, and has had a large part in creating a holistic program that also helps bring justice to victims of sexual violence. We learn how she became started in this field as she offers a unique perspective on the evolution of care for those with HIV/AIDS and how to correlates with sexual violence. 

Nikole Lim is a speaker, educator, and author of Liberation is Here. As a storyteller, Nikole shifts paradigms on how stories are told by platforming voices of the oppressed—sharing stories of beauty arising out of seemingly broken situations. Her heart beats for young women whose voices are silenced by oppression and desires to see every person realize the transformative power of their own story. Nikole is the Founder and International Director of Freely in Hope, an organization that equips survivors and advocates to lead in ending the cycle of sexual violence.

Nikole has been deeply transformed by the powerful, tenacious, and awe-inspiring examples of survivors. Their audacious dreams have informed her philosophy for a survivor-led approach to community transformation. Nikole holds a bachelor's degree in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University and a master's degree in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a native of the Bay Area and can often be found buying African fabric on the streets of Nairobi. Her work centers on uplifting the leadership of survivors—believing that they will be the ones to bring us all into liberation. In it, her hope is that the world may be transformed by them—just as she has.

Buy autographed copies of Liberation is Here: http://bulk.liberationishere.com/

Become a Hope Circle Member: http://freelyinhope.org/hopecircle

Follow Freely in Hope on Instagram and Facebook

Follow Nikole on Instagram and Facebook

Join your La Pointe Foundation friends, and international social entrepreneur Callie Himsl as we explore the intriguing and complex world of social justice. 

✔️Together we examine education, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and the pursuit of social justice.

✔️We interview experts in the field and local leaders to learn what works and what doesn't so we can find ways to help without hurting. 

✔️We bring a straight-talk, candid deep-dive into complex issues both globally and in our own backyard.