We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sashauni Aaeliyae . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sashauni below.
Sashauni, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
The Pretty Girl Foundation actual began as a community outreach project idea that came to me in 2017. At the time, the experiences I had living in numerous households from birth to 12, and having not lived with a biological parent until the age of 12, led me to working with youth aging out of foster care. During this time, I found out firsthand that an insurmountable proportion of the homeless community is comprised of foster care youth ages 17-21 years old. This experience as well as my own personal experiences living from home to home during my childhood, created a passion within me to do more to help meet these needs of the homeless community, but due to the lack of finances and resources, made me believe that this was too overwhelming of an endeavor to begin.
Despite these challenges, God remain faithful to my purpose and a number of miraculous moments begin to band together to confirm the need for more organizations that curated to the needs of the homeless community; and as time went on, this broad idea slowly became more conclusive, as God began to reveal how my own personal, educational, and work experiences had prepared me to take on this community outreach project from a mere idea and in to a nonprofit organization.
At the end of 2020 during my final semester of my MSSW program at the University of Louisville and during my separation from my ex-husband, I was required to take a class that required me to select a societal problem and create a nonprofit organization that aimed to solve that issue. As I was a survivor of domestic violence and had always had a soft spot for the homeless community due to my childhood experiences as a foster youth, I selected domestic violence as the issue I wanted to tackle. During my research, I discovered that there was a link between domestic abuse and homelessness and found that Louisville, the city that I was now living in to complete my graduate degree, was one of the top leading cities in the United States whose homeless community was largely comprised of domestic abuse survivors. I am so grateful for that class because had it not been for the class literally taking me step-by-step through the measures of how to create a nonprofit organization, I am unsure if the foundation would have been founded. By the end of the class, I had already created the mission and vision statements, business plan, articles of incorporation, bylaws, an organizational structure for the nonprofit, and only needed to obtain the necessary permits and certifications to establish the foundation as a nonprofit organization.
A key challenge in setting up and maintaining the nonprofit has been finances; and knowing what I know now, I would have found a fiscal sponsor, identify source of start-up funds, budget for utilities, develop a marketing plan, and make a resource development plan prior to establishing the nonprofit. While the nonprofit have received donations over the years, and I been grateful for the the donations that have been received, these donations only make up only 15% of the cost to support all the needs of the organization, and the other 85% has come from my personal funds, which I now have come to realize is not a feasible solution due to the increasing demand for assistance.
The advice I have for any young professional who might be considering starting their own practice is to just start. You were given that dream, aspiration, and purpose for a reason and the fear of having a lack of resources or finances should not deter you from starting your business because the need for your business is much greater than that fear. I am a true believer that it will all smooth itself out as you go.
Sashauni, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
When I was 17, I went to college and met who I had believed to be the man of my dreams. He was my first boyfriend, my first everything, and I ultimately fell in love with him.
Ten months later he proposed the day after I found messages, he shared with other girls that were sexual in context. Though I had broken up with him following the discovery of the messages, he still proposed to me in public and I felt pressured to say yes as I did not want to embarrass either one of us.
At the time, there was nothing that I wanted more than to create the family that I never had. I desperately wanted to be loved and as a result of the physical and sexual abuse that I endured as a child, and living from home to home, I had labeled myself unworthy of real love and ultimately got lost in the idea that someone actually wanted to marry me, that I still chose to marry him six months later.
While at the hotel on our honeymoon, I knew that I had made a grave mistake; but reasoned that due to the abuse and neglect I had experienced throughout my childhood, this was the only love that I was worthy enough to have.
The marriage was tumultuous, filled with lies, manipulation, deceit, infidelity, and physical, mental, spiritual, and financial abuse, and I was isolated from any family or friends. After multiple attempts to leave, I finally had the strength and the courage to leave him for good after 7 years., and found the determination within myself to step out on faith and began living the life I had made myself believe I had no business living. I become an entrepreneur and founded multiple businesses including The Pretty Girl Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping survivors, such as myself, put back the pieces of their lives after escaping abuse. The Pretty Girl Foundation is determined to make an impact by creating programs and activities designed to be a catalyst to help keep the public informed and educated on how we can help create a world free of violence.
Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?
Shortly after obtaining the necessary permits and certifications to establish the foundation as a nonprofit organization recognized by the Secretary of State, I began crowdfunding. While I felt embarrassed asking friends and family, and sometimes even strangers to financially support the organization, I knew it was the only way, at that time, to put together enough initial capital to launch our first initiative, The Pretty Project Initiative, which provides survivors with hygiene and toiletry kits.
When victims flee domestic abuse, they are often forced to leave their homes, with nowhere else to turn, and often times with just the clothes on their backs; and I knew that their needs surely overrode whatever fears or reservations I might have dealt during that time in the grand scheme of things.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Other than training/knowledge, I think displaying empathy is most helpful for succeeding in this field. During the last 10 years, research has shown that something as minute and fundamental as displaying empathy to clients have been linked to improved client
outcomes and have found that empathetic practitioners are more effective in helping clients reach their goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.
theprettygirlfoundation.org/ - Instagram: https://instagram.
com/theprettygirlfoundation? igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= - Facebook: https://facebook.
com/theprettygirlfoundation - Other: info@
theprettygirlfoundation.org