Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Kala Jordan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Dr. Kala thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?
I recently turned 40 years old and as I have neared this milestone in my life, there have been many valuable lessons that I have learned. One of the most valuable that I am still in the learning phase now is to ask for help. As a daddy’s girl, the only person that I have ever felt like I could ask for help with no judgement were my parents. Of course, with my daddy, I never had to ask, it’s like he just knew and he made it happen. As I got older, I feel like this stifled my progress in certain areas, particularly with the launching and success of my Non-Profit organization. I have developed a do-it-myself mentality and as a result, I don’t always ask for help as I should. In talking to a close friend about my organization, he began to share all kinds of ideas and other things for me to do. It sounded great, but when I started to share reasons why it would be difficult for me to do this or that, he quickly shut it down and said….”THAT IS WHEN YOU ASK FOR HELP!” He started naming a list of people and the roles that they could play in helping to get things done. While we are very much alike, especially when it comes to the do-it-yourself mentality (I think it’s an Aries thing!), it seems like he understood and had experienced the impact of asking for help. I have shared some ideas and initiatives that I want to implement with my close friends and family, and the support has been phenomenal. Again, this is a work in progress because I am still struggling with letting go and sharing the responsibility. As I move closer to this, it provides me a feeling that I can and will accomplish the things that I set out to both personally and professionally. As I have learned many things in my past and experienced success, this is one that I will look back one day and say that I successfully learned this as well! Thanks to all of my friends, family, and acquaintances for the support. I appreciate it more than you will ever know!!!
Dr. Kala, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have worked in education for 17 years. During this time, I have worked in different capacities and have been able to identify many needs. After many years of wanting to make a change and “start” something, in 2018, we finally started the initial stages of planning how we wanted to make an impact in the community. We could never truly gauge how we could do that and what it would look like. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, we knew we had work to do. There were so many challenges that parents, teachers, students…the world faced during the crippling pandemic. We came together once again and decided to do a Back-to-School drive. We named the organization HartStrong. The event was held in Hartwell, Georgia, and through donations and sponsorships, we were able to provide book bags, school supplies, food, support for parents, on-site voter registration, etc. As we reflected on the event, we realized the need for additional support for parents to be able to support and promote successful outcomes for their children. From that, Im.P.A.C.T for Advancement was birthed. Im.P.A.C.T stands for Improving Parents and Children working Together for Advancement. We are an established non-profit organization that is focused on helping to strengthen the family structure by providing support in financial literacy and planning, continuing education, job development/preparation, mentoring, and homeownership.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
On November 2, 2019, I was scheduled to speak at a Commencement Ceremony for Innovative Healthcare Institute. As I was preparing my speech, may father had agreed to help me. The day before, he called me and asked me to come back to my house and to call and ambulance because he was not feeling well. I did and he was rushed to the hospital. We waited in the ER for hours. Finally, the doctor wanted to access his records from the VA Hospital, but was unable to due to it being the weekend. I told him that I had some records at home and would go get them. He told me that my father would likely be released before they got his records from the VA Hospital. I went home and upon my return to the hospital, I was met with some of the worse news of my life. My daddy’s heart function was less than 10% and I was told it was a matter of hours. I sat there, surrounded by my best friends, my mom, kids, and some family members and had to process the fact that this would be the last day with my dad. We worked on the speech earlier in the day, but he told me he would not be able to help me rehearse. This was the first time that he told me no and stuck to it. At 2:14 a.m. on the morning of November 3, 2019, my father passed away. He told me before transitioning to go ahead to the graduation. At 6:00 p.m. the same day, I stood before the graduating class at Innovative Healthcare Institute and gave the Commencement Speech. This was by far one of the hardest, yet most rewarding things I have ever done. It was hard knowing that wouldn’t get to share my experience with my father, yet rewarding to know that he was there to help me stamp the speech given to a class that had persevered and accomplished so much, just like him.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
When I started the Nonprofit Organization (NPO), I used my own capital to start everything. I attended a class and did research to understand the process for legally establishing the NPO. I then utilized this information to go through the process of establishing the NPO. It helped to save a lot of money.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.impactforadvancement.com/
- Instagram: im_pactinc
- Facebook: Impact Advancement
- Youtube: Im.P.A.C.T for Advancement
- Other: Please visit our website to make donations or send us an email with any opportunities to make an impact in the community.
Image Credits
Photo Credits: DSI Photogrpahy