Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mitchelle Woodson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mitchelle , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

On October 5, 2006, nine women gathered for dinner at co-founder Rachel Jensen’s home to discuss the challenges of homelessness. The ladies passed many of their displaced neighbors on the streets and it was becoming increasingly clear that a few bucks here, a meal there, were only temporarily helpful. They desired a tangible way to restore basic dignity to these individuals and understood these unhoused neighbors were citizens too. Each person had their own story: mothers and fathers, someone’s child, a man forgotten after becoming disabled during war. Many endured great tragedy.

That night, the female professionals decided to call themselves Girls Think Tank, originating from “girlfriends.”

Now named Think Dignity, the organization has grown, and is many members strong and our efforts are reaching the masses. From our original project – distributing survival backpacks to those living on the streets during the coldest months – to standing with them at City Council, we’ve learned that by speaking and acting out, real change occurs.

Think Dignity provides a way for citizens like you to become hands-on change agents in San Diego.

Our strength lies in our collaborative, volunteer-based model. Each of us doing our small part makes a big difference, and working together can make the world a better place. We mobilize our community partners and volunteers to accomplish our collective goals. Our success story is not grandiose, but comes from small steps taken every day. We call this micro-activism at its finest.

The model is simple: We hold monthly open forums at the Basic Dignity Coalition to discuss issues impacting our community. Upon identifying the issue, we gather information and conduct on-the-ground research. From there, we craft community-based solutions to the challenge, including coalition building, organizing, and advocacy.

Our efforts result in meaningful change here in San Diego, such as the expansion and growth of our programs which include providing access to storage, showers, hygiene items, nutritious meals and legal representation.

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

My passion lies in advocating people that have historically been marginalized by oppressive systems. Immediately after law school I knew I wanted to work towards social justice. I was fortunate enough to join the Think Dignity as the Staff Attorney spearheading the Homeless Youth Legal Advocacy Project. As the Staff Attorney, I directly represented homeless and at-risk youth in their criminal defense matters while also maintaining relationships with community partners to aid in pairing each client with social services, housing programs, counseling, high school and college courses, job readiness and internships. My primary goal was to ensure that each client was given the proper resources to support their growth and nourish their passions.

Now, as the Executive Director, I oversee the daily management of Think Dignity’s operations. These programs including providing people experiencing homelessness access to storage, showers, hygiene items, nutritious foods and legal representation. Most importantly, we advocate and organize the community towards system level changes that support housing as a human right, basic access to sanitation and decriminalization of poverty. Our fierce advocacy for San Diego’s homeless community has led to the growth and notoriety of Think Dignity as organizational leaders in the areas of homelessness and poverty law. Our expertise and knowledge is highly sought after as we’ve presented at Yale Law School’s Rebellious Lawyering Conference, National Legal Aid and Defenders Association’s Annual Conference and the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, amongst many others. We’ve also received recognition for our advocacy efforts as the recipient of the 2019 Molina Community Champion Award, 2020 Anthony M. Medina People’s Champion Award, 2020 Community Inspiration Award, and the 2021 & 2020 Aetna Community Heart Award.

Think Dignity remains steady in our mission to advance basic dignity to people experiencing homelessness through advocacy and innovation.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In both my personal and professional life I have had the unique privilege of witnessing the resilience of people most impacted by the criminal justice system.

Not too long ago I represented a client who was repeatedly arrested for sleeping. Arrested for sleeping on the sidewalk. Arrested for sleeping on the street. Arrested for sleeping in his car. During the course of my representation, he was arrested 2 additional times. On the day of our court appearance he had just been released from custody and I took him back to my office to give him food, clothes and hygiene items. He also took a quick nap. When I gently woke him up so that we could head to court he was so startled that he jumped up in a panic. On our way to court he apologized profusely for the way that he reacted when I woke him up. He stated that it was because the past couple of times he has been woken up it was by a police officer – the same police officer – that would arrest him for sleeping. During this time, it was raining heavily in San Diego. So much so that one of our bridge shelters had flooded out. For hours, I called every homeless serving agency I knew and I could not find one place to shelter him. This is what I do for a living and I could not find one place to shelter him.

After 3 hours of calling, I broke down in tears. Tears because as an attorney, I did everything I needed to do, I got him out of jail and was successful in getting all of him cases dismissed, and yet, that still that was not enough. Tears because despite my efforts, the system was failing our people. Fortunately, I am surrounded by a community of people ready to take action and support people in need. We found him a room for the night, and eventually, a housing program that connected him to the resources he needed to become self sufficient. Now, he has maintain both a stable housing and steady employment while he continues to work towards becoming the best version of himself.

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

Think Dignity provides a way for our community to become hands-on change agents in San Diego.

Our strength lies in our collaborative, volunteer-based model. Each of us doing our small part makes a big difference and working together can make the world a better place. We mobilize our community partners and volunteers to accomplish our collective goals. Our success story is not grandiose, but comes from small steps taken every day. We call this micro-activism at its finest.

The model is simple: We hold monthly open forums at the Basic Dignity Coalition to discuss issues impacting our community. Upon identifying the issue, we gather information and conduct on-the-ground research. From there, we craft community-based solutions to the challenge, including coalition building, organizing, and advocacy.

Our efforts result in meaningful change here in San Diego, such as the expansion and growth of our programs that provide free storage, showers, hygiene items, nutritious food and quality legal representation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thinkdignity.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thinkdignity
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thinkdignity
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/thinkdignity
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thinkdignity
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/thinkdignity