We were lucky to catch up with Darika Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Darika, thanks for joining 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.

How do we differentiate from other organizations? Simple, we promote working together to mend the gap. To help everyone, we have to unite as one. We also focus on the hygiene insecurity issue Los Angeles County has. Out of 100 people, 80 % struggles with gaining access to hygienic products. Should someone have to make a difficult decision between purchasing a sanitary product or a sandwich? This is the difficult decision underserved individuals face daily. Focusing on hygiene products matters to us because everyone deserves to be clean. We serve everyone, no matter age, gender, race, nor ethnicity. In the past 8 months, we have helped 3,139 individuals. We are dedicated to making outreach a norm, most people living on the streets aren’t aware of resource events.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, my name is Darika Brown and I jumped into the nonprofit organization field because I was tired of seeing people cry! I am a first-time college graduate, majoring in Sociology, taught me the importance of working with others. Knowing that you cannot classify each individual as one. Studying Sociology provides you with the knowledge of knowing different behaviors between humans. Which prepared me slightly to be able to work with the underserved community. At Stopping Cry’s, we provide hygiene products to the unhoused and low-income communities. For over 3 years, we had the pleaser of seeing the need of hygiene, the elderly not being able to shower in months, the youth not being able to wash their hair in weeks, and individuals using the restroom on the sidewalk and not having tissue to clean themselves. We voted to donate hygiene products because a lot of organizations did not have any. Since Covid-19 was affected everyone, we thought what better way to reduce the spread of viruses and bacteria. I am also an author; I love writing poetry and fictional stories. I started writing in elementary school, I also felt that people are overlooked, isolated, and treated poorly. This began my path to writing to be heard. I have 6 books on Amazon, the last one I wrote is called ‘A Poetic Abrasion’, I’m also featured in three other books. I also have a Podcast called Poetic Sundays, since I have stage freight, I perform my poetry on my Podcast. I am mostly proud of my team, three people and we are helping so many people! I want people to know that we LOVE everyone. We don’t have a restriction on who we help. I want people to know that our core values are the reason why we are able to help so many people. Our core values are Cleanliness, Acceptance, Love, Serve, Pass the torch, and Equality.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It’s a pleaser to say, our CFO, Derrick Brown was able to create multiple ways we receive funding. He started by creating different fundraisers such as Krispy Kreme, when they donate, they receive a Krispy Kreme e-gift card. He also started our T-shirt fundraiser, when they donate, they receive a Stopping Cry’s T-shirt. Since Derrick had his own business creating gifts, he was able to give away lingerie, oil essentials, skin care products, sage, etc., when our donors donated. Since hygiene products can be pricey, we wanted to start helping the community right away, instead of waiting for grants.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We wanted to conduct our business differently, so we decided to give to others. We wanted to build a partnership with other organizations, so we could be able to help more communities. We wanted to show everyone that you can achieve more by working as one. Since we started during the pandemic, we decided to do outreach instead of events. Since others didn’t have hygiene products, we decided to sponsor them. We decided to start doing events and outreach at the same time. This is why we donate on Touching Hearts Tuesdays, No More Tears Thursday’s, and Shelter Saturday’s. We also are trying to start a hygiene locker program, which will provide hygiene products to students, free of charge. We are also trying to start a mobile shower program, which will provide shower access to the individuals we serve living in encampments. Usually, we donate 7 days a week because so many people are living on the streets.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stoppingcrys.godaddysites.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stoppingcrys?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/53bzqi_rKww?feature=share
• Other: https://anchor.fm/darika-brown