Episode 3: LavaMaeX

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows

Show Guests: Doniece Sandoval founder and Kris Kepler Chief Program & Strategy Officer, Lava MaeX

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host.

Series Introduction: This episode is part of a series of interviews we conducted through our participation in the Bay Area Video Coalition’s TV Show titled San Francisco Nonprofits Spotlight. The interviews were conducted via Zoom from April to June 2020 during the height of the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Shelter in Place requirements. The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the pandemic. 

Show Guest Doniece:  Along the road. One of the things that we learned in working with people was that the way that you treat them, it was almost more important than the service itself, right? So, we coined this philosophy called radical hospitality.

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode we feature the voices of Doniece Sandoval founder and Kris Kepler Chief Program & Strategy Officer of LavaMaeX. I first met Doniece back in 2014 when she was launching lava mae through her innovative idea of converting old Muni Buses into Mobile Showers. To find out more about the origins of lava mae please visit my website georgekoster.com and take a listen to Episode Two in my three-part series titled Homeless in San Francisco

LavaMaeX is the latest iteration of Doniece’s original vision of providing radical hospitality to un-housed people through mobile showers, toilets and its pop-up care villages, which provided access to wrap around support services and resources for people experiencing homelessness. LavaMaeX is a nonprofit accelerator bringing their open source tool kits, in-depth training and strategic partnerships to communities around the world to empower them to take these critical services to their un-housed community members. 

Show Host George: I'm here today with Donice Sandoval, the founder and Chris Kepler, the chief program and strategy officer at Lava MaeX. They join me remotely, um, from, uh, quarantine via zoom. So, thanks to both of you for being here today. And, uh, I want to start off with just asking Doniece to provide us a little, um, backstory on the why, uh, of lava Mae? Why did you start it start it?

Show Guest Doniece: Sure. Um, well I founded it in 2013 and sort of in the couple of years leading up to that, um, I had a   sort of very life changing experience. Um, I was living in San Francisco in a neighborhood that was the once the Western Addition and became NOPA after the city began to gentrify.

And three of my neighbors, all African American men in their eighties. Got evicted over a period of about two years, and one by one we watched as the same thing happened. Um, they moved into their cars, had those eventually repossessed and ended up on the streets. And every time we kept trying to connect them with services and particularly housing.

But the wait lists were so long. That. Um, sadly, each one of them ended up dying on the streets and that was so utterly devastating to me. My family. Um, my background is not in working in social services, um, I’m a marketing, PR, executive. Um, but I decided I wanted to do something and when I learned that there was this incredible lack of showers and toilets for people living in San Francisco, I thought.

Maybe I could do something. And then I learned nanny was retiring, old diesel buses. So, a light popped on in my hat. And I thought, what if we could take those buses and do something good with them by converting them into showers and toilets on wheels for people who are un-housed? And so, um, we launched our program in 2014.

And had a tremendous response. Shortly afterwards, we really started seeing that our guests were running to a, saying that they were having to run to four or five other places to get additional services. So, we started thinking, why don't we bring more partners to the street? Uh, project homeless connect was a partner of ours, um, or was an advisor.

And so, I went into it and I said, I would love to take your model and marry it with ours and bring an array of services from showers, haircuts, and clothes to medical, dental, legal, and wrap it around community to create these powerful events. Along the road. One of the things that we learned in working with people was that the way that you treat them, it was almost more important than the service itself, right?

So, we coined this philosophy called radical hospitality, which is about treating people with extraordinary care. It's about meeting them and seeing them at their highest level, and 99% of the time, that is where they meet you back at. And it's about this incredible, powerful. Human to human connection. Um, here we are, uh, all these years later, and a lot of changes have happened.

The programs have grown. Um, one of the things that we began to see last year was that, uh. In addition to our work, we were seeing communities pop up all over the world who were taking our model and run with it. And we began a while back to, uh, support them in various ways, which I'll let Chris talk about.

But as we looked at what lava was going to be in the future, because in. January or so of last year. I quickly realized that we were going to hit our 2020 impact goal to serve 30,000 Californians 16 months ahead of schedule. So, we began to think with all of these things in motion and what's happening, what should our future consist of.

And so, we made a very strategic decision to shift our focus from direct service, although we still do direct service to supporting more communities and teaching them how to do the work that we do. Because sadly, access to hygiene is a crisis all over the world. And so, we relaunched in January as a Lava MaeX and, uh, shifted our programming, which, um, Chris is now beautifully leading.

George: So, um, I think before we turn to, that point, uh, over the last five years, Doniece would use, what would you say has been the largest impact of your efforts? Um, and the community's efforts? Because not only have you put together this wonderful nonprofit, but you've also, put together wonderful partnerships and you brought a lot of volunteers, a lot of people, you know, to, uh, the popup villages, et cetera.

Doniece: Yeah. I would say that probably our two most profound impacts are, one, we raised awareness about an issue that was not on most people's radar. People think if you're on house, you need housing, you need food, you need clothes. But understanding the fact that access to showers and toilets was a dire and you know, dire crisis in most communities was something that really.

People didn't know about until lava mae kind of emerged on the scene. So, I think that was really important. The second is, as you mentioned, we're building from day one rooted in collaboration and partnership, right? We recognize that one of the most powerful things we can do is to get people to participate in this effort because it's going to take all of us, but that also.

When you have an opportunity to actually meet and converse with, get to know people who are un-housed. What you find out is that they are more like you like us than they are different from us. And then breaking down the barriers. Then you break down the myths around homelessness, and the more we can do that with people, the more we feel we can affect long-term powerful change to end the crisis that is homelessness.

George: Thank you. So, Krist, I'm going to turn to you and, and have you kind of walk the audience through. So, if you've got the accelerator and the whole DIY piece, and then, um, your most recent project with the DIY handwashing.

Show Guest Kris: Yes. Yes. So, you know, the process for us from a programming perspective in terms of how we came to this idea is it was very organic.

So as a pandemic hit, we were seeing the increased need to offer, um, you know, hand-washing services on the street. Um, and so, uh, I did some research and found that, um, you know, even if you wanted to run a large-scale handwashing station, it was very expensive or not even available anymore. Or if you wanted to purchase this online, it was severely, it was backordered.

Um, and so. The combination of doing that research as well as, um, looking at some really interesting initiatives that other organizations were doing. For example, love beyond walls, um, has pre-made ready sinks that they're deploying to communities. Um, which is a wonderful initiative that we were inspired by as well as a partnership between Los Angeles community action network.

And USC. Annenberg school of communication. They created some hand washing stations to deploy in skid row. Um, all of those kinds of ideas and inspirations came together, and we said, why don't we just, why don't we just, you know, create our own? Because there's, there's, there's nowhere for these. Uh, units to be found.

So, a coworker and I got out our sketchpad and sketched up some ideas. We purchased some of these parts. We put a prototype together and tested it out in Oakland around Lake merit. Um, and that's how the program was, was born. And so, our goal with this is not just to deploy these two communities, but. In our backyard, which we're doing, but to also educate, uh, anybody to be able to do this.

And by offering them things like a supply list, uh, an instruction manual and a video tutorial to help them do it. So, the whole goal is to make these programs easily accessible and deploy-able in their communities so that they can. Uh, serve people, uh, in a, in a more effective way, especially around hand washing, which is such a, it's such a critical need right now.

George: And you guys have a Go Fund Me campaign going right now when you're trying to raise.

Kris: We do. Yes. And so, part of what we're doing is, as I mentioned, we're deploying a few, um, locally that we will be working with partners and encampment leads on. Um, the other goal is to fund-raise for replicators around the U S and the world.

To be able to fund them some, some, uh, some money to be able to purchase the parts and to maintain and deploy the unit. So the goal for us is really just to get these out in the world so that people can, can wash their hands and, and, and, uh, you know, it's, at this point, it's a life saving measure, which we think is really critical for, for hygiene and health.

Doniece: Can I jump in here, George, and just say when it, uh, piggyback quick. Chris said, when she said, our goal is to get these out into the world, right? So, this is true of our hand washing stations. This is true of our mobile hygiene program, and this is true of our Papa care villages, right? We are all about sharing our IP and making it accessible without.

Cost to anyone. In fact, we attempt to bring resources to communities that don't have their own means to be able to produce these programs, whether it's, um, the Go Fund Me campaign, which is designed to raise $50,000. So, the communities who can't afford to create one can get a stipend from us to, you know, buy the materials and put them together.

So it's really about, you know, we recognize that we're not trying to sit on top of a. Of a hygiene empire. What we're trying to do is empower local communities because we know local communities know best what they need, right. And how to deliver it.

Kris: Yeah. And I will also say, you know, we're really looking at these handwashing stations, not just as a, a product that sits on the street, right? It really is a way for people to connect. So, you know, you can educate people that are on the streets, on how they need to wash their hands.

You could, um, give out hygiene kits around the hand washing stations. You could bring other partners with you to the streets to deliver. Uh, medical help or, um, you know, other, other food, right? Uh, bag lunches, things like that. So, it's really a way to connect people to the community. We're still offering a very, um, a critical service and bringing people together around it.

George: So, um, that brings me to, uh, the other piece of the puzzle, which is, I know that, um, lava Mae has been working for years trying to, uh, to diversify funding. And I just noticed that you had a wonderful strategic partnership with Unilever and, um, their new program, the right to shower. Could you talk a little bit about that and then how that is helping support, um, the accelerator work?

Kris: Sure. Yeah. So, the right to shower, um, is a, is a Unilever brand, um, that is an extremely socially conscious brand. And, uh, they, the right to shower is selling. Um, so, and cleanser. And the great thing about this brand is that. Um, a port, a portion of the proceeds go to funding replicators to provide access to hygiene. So, the main mission and goal is to provide broader access to hygiene for everyone. And so, it's a wonderful partnership because we can work with replicators help fund them through the right to shower program to enable more hygiene to be on the streets.

So, when we first started last year with them, um, the main focus was on mobile hygiene and, and, and getting more showers on the streets. And now we're pivoting that program to also include funding for the hand washing stations so that the concept of hygiene is, is being broadened as we see the needs. So not just the showers, but the hand-washing piece and all of that all wraps into this larger goal of providing hygiene worldwide.

George: So how can people get involved in supporting LavaMaeX’s work?

Kris: Um, you know, I think, well, a, there's, you can donate, um, that would be really, you know, as Doniece mentioned, we are actively fundraising for hand washing stations so that we can fund other people to deploy worldwide. Um, you know, you can, we have a lot of, uh, we have some providers now or individuals that have reached out to us that are.

Creating masks and wanting to donate to us. So, some of it is what are your skillsets that you can actively leverage at home and be able to donate? Um. Things like, you know, handmade masks, um, to organizations. Um, you know, I would also say, um, reach out to your local legislature. Right? Um, a lot of it is about, you know, how are we as a larger community coming together to solve this problem and making sure that everybody is accountable and offering.

Services and hygiene to two people on the streets because the situation is very dire. So making sure everybody knows how important that is and, and using your voice, right. Using your voice in the larger for the larger issue.

George: And then final question for both of you. What do you see, um, you know, as good things coming out of the pandemic itself to address our unhoused community members?

Doniece: Well, I'll start. I'm for one am optimistic by all of these small acts of kindness rate. I think that this pandemic has kind of shaken us to our core. Woken us up a little bit and said, you know, we've been living in these little bubbles, sort of very self-oriented. Maybe we've got our families in that bubble too.

But beyond that, you know that that's. The way we'd been investing. And that's changed, whether it's like the neighbor to neighbor, literally, or as you think about where the crises are and how you support, right? So, as Chris said, people making masks, people making shields, people donating, uh, supporting their local restaurants, uh, people checking on a neighbor to see if they have the food and the groceries they need.

All of those kinds of things I think are. Well, let me say, I don't know if I think, but I hope are changing our societal DNA, right? Because we had gotten a very self-centered, and my vision is that we will emerge from this stronger, more connected than ever before, which will have this incredible ripple effect on, on issues that need to be solved like homelessness.

Kris: Yeah. And I would also add to that, um, that, you know, we always talk about at lava Mae, that everybody's two paychecks away. What is it, two paychecks and a crisis away from, from being unhoused? Right. And so, at this point. It is, it is horrific because as we all know, people are getting sick and many are losing their jobs.

So, it's reality now that this could happen to anyone, right? But they could be living on the streets because they cannot find a job in the next however many months, or you know, in the short term. So, it is a, it is a, um, it's an equalizer, right? It really makes you stop and think. Um, how, what, what does humanity mean to me and how would I want my neighbors to help me?

Um, overall, in terms of other silver linings for lava Mae X, I would say that we're really using this as an opportunity to innovate and to staying engaged with our guests and to track the needs week to week and to say, how can we truly help them. And innovate products and services around the immediate need, um, while thinking about what that means for the long-term. Um, so there's, um, there's, there's just, there's a, there's a lot of opportunity for us to come. To come to the streets with new programs, to, uh, to increase access to hygiene.

George: So, thank you, Doniece and Kris for sharing your work today. Um, we will make sure that viewers, have your contact information, website, social media so they can follow your work and get engaged, and please stay safe and healthy as we all work our way through this new normal. Thank you both for participating

Doniece: Thank you, George.

Kris: Thank you.

Episode Outro – Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voices of Doniece Sandoval the founder and Kris Kepler the Chief Program & Strategy Officer, of Lava MaeX. As part of their response to providing support for unhoused community members to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, Doniece and Kris mentioned their DIY handwashing sink prototype and toolkit for communities to build and deploy worldwide. Since the original recording of this episode they’ve raised over $30 Thousand Dollars of their targeted $50 Thousand Dollars Go Fund Me campaign and have deployed their handwashing stations in Los Angeles and Berkeley California. To find out more about the program please visit www.lavamaex.org

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view and personal stories from the voices of change makers and their nonprofits featured in the series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofit and staff members, featured in this episode please go to my web site georgekoster.com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to this episode. Please consider a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada as well as the wonderful team at Bay Area Video Coalition. Go to www.bavc.org to find out more about Bay Area Video Coalition’s services. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to georgekoster.com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows like this. Please rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and share this story with your friends. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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