We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Darin & Leilani Gregg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Darin & Leilani thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

We have a heart to serve those in addiction and homelessness that do not have financial resources for drug &/or alcohol treatment. We feel strongly about a long-term (12mo.) residential model that is zero cost for individuals stuck in the cycle and bondage of addictions.
We serve women 18yrs of age and older currently located in Farmington, New Mexico. As a 501c3 non-profit, named Come As You Are, we feed the homeless on our streets here weekly and provide housing for a year for women wanting help from all types of addictions. We also provide vocational training for these women through our CAYA (Come As You Are) Cleaning business, landscaping business, and two food trucks. This empowers them with job skills and the money from these business pays for their year long residential treatment and any needs they may have while on their healing journey.
Most treatment centers are short-term, 30days, and at an astronomical cost to the individual.
Our mission is to provide a safe faith-based community where you can come as you are and experience abundant living through the renewing love of Jesus.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Darin and Leilani Gregg founded this nonprofit in May 2019 after being in decades of addiction themselves. As the founders their heart for those lost in addiction, homelessness, and those that have “fallen through the cracks” was the passion that lead them to this valuable work.

“We have a heart for those that don’t have resources and those that don’t have insurance or need more than a short term program. We have both been success stories from long-term treatment models and believe whole heartily in the faith-based therapeutic community long-term model. The success rates speak for themselves with an average of 70-80% success rate for those that complete the full year.”

Come As You Are is a 501c3 nonprofit, that houses women for 12months who are overcoming all types of addictions, domestic violence, and homelessness. We provide a safe loving environment that teaches life-skills, business development/job-skill training, counseling, biblical foundations, family therapy, 12-step christian recovery groups, parenting classes, child-hood sexual abuse classes, helping women obtain their GED & drivers license. They also work with legal system for women needing to break the cycle of a criminal lifestyle. All while providing discipleship training daily so these women can learn to walk in their God giving talents and calling. The faith-based approach through the love of Jesus is what makes this model successful. Were not just looking for a band-aid, good tools, quick fix but full life transformation and renewing of the mind over a long period of time.

We believe Jesus is the cure and He’s still doing miracles today!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We always say that vulnerability breads vulnerability. So, when it came to getting our name and mission out to the communities when we’ve started these we lead with our personal stories. We shared our life’s struggle and those who helped us come out of those pits and into the true recovery and healing journey. We always lead from our hearts and personal experiences when meeting new colleagues or other nonprofits. We spent a great deal of time and effort knocking on doors and setting appointments with the local law enforcement, newspaper, nonprofits, others businesses in the field, etc. Every time we would share out story it seemed God opened a door.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We initially opened a residential and commercial cleaning business that was licensed and bonded. We knew we could train the ladies in this business, provide vocational training for them, and 100% of the proceeds could go back into the nonprofit for revenue. Our goal was 40% to start, with the other 60% being individuals donors and an annual gala fundraising event.
We worked on the cleaning contracts, while adding donors to our database that would commit to the first two years to get us launched. We had one donor that committed to pay our salary for 20months to help get us started. Along, with a handful of monthly donors to cover all the basic expenses. It was about creating a budget then going for the donors and cleaning contracts to cover that operating budget.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cayafarmington.com
• Instagram: comeasyouarenm
• Facebook: Come As You Are

Image Credits

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