I didn’t wake up today until 1:30 in the afternoon. I was
so exhausted so I was psyched that I could use today to rethink some of my
business plan ideas and finally process everything that has been happening here
in India. My “breakfast” coconut water and meditation by the sea prepped me for
a day of some intense brainstorming and getting caught up on being a student in
the more traditional senseJ! I finally found a premier organization that I will
use as a case study for my business plan. In fact, I have obsessively searched
for the CEO of the organization and learned that she is currently taking some
time off so I am planning to write her
letter that will hopefully turn into a back and forth or at least a response. Fingers
crossed and good karma implored! I have finally concluded that I will be
focused on job creation, empowerment, and promotion of sisterhood/community among
women in Washington, DC. The social piece of the enterprise will be addressing
the implications of homelessness like mental health issues, sexual and partner
violence, drug use, sex work, and poor reproductive health outcomes. Yes I know,
this is a lot but that’s why I’m here in India where there are over a million
NGOs! To figure out how to tackle these nonsexy issues that are an everyday
reality and struggle for too many people in a measurable, impactful, and
SUSTAINABLE way. The rate of chronic homelessness in DC is out of control among
women and families- and has approximately risen to a 40% rate according to the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That is, families that
have experienced more than one episode of living on the streets, in a shelter,
or in any other place besides their home who also have some sort of
disability/disease are in need of improved social services in the District. I am
still trying to work out how advocacy and policy development will interact with
my program so in my next NGO visits I will definitely start asking those kinds
of tailored questions. Being in DC it should be a smooth transition. But I want
to know how to position myself as the go-to shop for policy recommendations or city
needs assessments. Similar to the 10-9-8 hot line we read about in our text, I want
to not only be the organization that serves its community through direct
services and share its best practices to other organizations but to also embody
the importance of being accountable for and making the government account for
the unmet/ignored needs of my community as well. 
I ended the day by having a steam room and sauna debrief
session with Jess who is actually a key person in my business plan research. Like
Bill Drayton from ASHOKA (ok hugely overstated, only in my dreams, and merely
symbolically), it’s incredibly important to have an advisory board of off line people
that encourage, support, and challenge you to take your business to the next
level. Just getting to know Jess in general was really awesome. She is really
knowledgeable about this community and very positive about making strides in
this area! It was perfect timing for our
talk too because shortly thereafter I met some folks from the State Department
with Lisa and Vidisha. Shopping around my idea was a little tough at first because
I was met with blank stares and a few pretentious questions but at least I had
some pre-counseling and was too relaxed to even get defensive. Looking forward
to fine tuning my plans but already feeling like I’ve made some progress!!
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