You know the Pacific Northwest
is so blessed to have so many
nonprofits and volunteers who
recognize when others need support.
So for more than a decade,
dignity for Divas has been helping
women experiencing homelessness.
Founder Nikki Gayne Butler knows all
too well about the stigma and the
struggles that come with homelessness.
Thank you so much for coming
to talk about this.
Yes, I'm so glad to be here.
So first of all, tell
me about the name, dignity
for Divas and how you help.
Ohh yes, so dignity for Divas.
It started with my own.
Journey of homelessness and the
word dignity is the number one point
of helping people through trauma.
You have to have dignity involved.
It's about how you serve, yeah,
and that's important.
Especially you have this beautiful
Wellness Center tell me about that.
Our Dream Academy is incredible
so we are able to host all
of our workshops there.
All holistic self care allowing women
to heal and work on truly overcoming
their journey of homelessness.
Coming out on the other side,
so it's just fantastic.
We're right South Lake
union. We're looking at
pictures of it right now.
It really is beautiful.
So what do people?
What can people do there?
What can they learn?
Ohh, so we have job training workshops,
yoga, guided meditation,
beauty classes, financial literacy.
So it's really a full circle.
And that's what it takes to really change
and shift your mindset so that you can
start living your life in a different way,
right? So it's not just.
About getting housed?
Yeah, that's just the first piece.
Yeah, we work to help them keep the key.
I think that is so important.
So you say you mentioned earlier
that you understand that you've
dealt with this yourself?
Can you kind of tell us more about
your journey and how that journey
helped shape this organization?
Yeah, you know, and it's such a blessing.
Sometimes. I go wow, it was the best
thing that ever happened to me because
it put me in a position to help
others and everything that we built,
especially our primary.
Program are welcome.
Home program was built off of the need
that I had that wasn't met and you know
there's a lot of services out there,
but I'm really strong on how you serve.
It's the way you serve somebody so I
built everything off of what I didn't see
was available for me and I just said,
you know what?
I'm going to build
it. OK, what I just want to
hug you for that wonderful
you just said it was the best
thing that ever happened to me.
Not many people would say
that about homelessness.
Yeah, well for me.
It brought my purpose out.
Hmm, and I always tell people a lot of
times you know we go through so many
different things, each individual.
Yeah, and sometimes we're like.
Why is this happening?
You know, pull out what it can do for
you and what you can do for somebody
else through what you're going through,
because sometimes your biggest pain
builds you to your best purpose.
Well, you
have a choice, right?
You can let it tear you down and
bring you into a horrible place.
Or you can choose to do what you've done.
What are you going to do?
With what happened to you,
what are you gonna do with it?
I love that yeah,
and in your case you've
created dignity for so many.
You've given them dignity.
I should say, champions for change.
That's the organization that's having
this huge celebrity basketball tournament.
I've been here and we talk about,
but dignity for Divas is one
of the benefiting partners
they've chosen a few charities.
What will the funds mean for dignity?
And for now and in the future?
So first of all, what an exciting
time rate to be just included in
this huge event, which is crazy.
Amazing, you know these three athletes
coming together again supporting
the community, which is incredible,
but for us it's a way to help us build
our capacity for real because we're
we're just overwhelmingly so many people
reaching out to us wanting services.
So this will allow us to
reach even more women.
OK, and provide even more services to them.
What was it like to find out
that you were a recipient?
Oh my God.
I was I first ran around literally in
a circle for I think about 10 minutes.
I was like I like that.
I like that, you know.
And then I was like Oh my gosh,
like you know.
So it was just such an honor because
I think the cool thing is Seattle.
Really comes together and then it was
like wow and then everything that we
do is to help women who are in Seattle
bring their lives back together.
So I was just like full circle moment.
I love it
and it gets the name recognition
out there so never you'll never
forget dignity for Divas now and
it's so important to to to address
this topic to talk about it because
we may not be homeless ourselves.
We may be blessed that we we don't
have to deal with that right now,
but homelessness affects all of us
and you have thoughts on this right?
I I'm telling you.
I I say this probably everywhere I go,
we are all experiencing homelessness together
and it may not be a direct experience.
But if you walk by someone and you're
seeing them in need and you don't know
what to do and you're just like Oh my God,
what do I? What do I do?
It affects you in some way.
You're going to think about that person.
You're going to go home and
your community where you live.
There's so many individuals that
are in need and it's overwhelming
to just want to help.
And you don't know what to do.
And it's easy. Also,
I think to dismiss and say,
oh, that must be this.
It must be that.
And because we don't want to
deal with it because it is sad,
the reality of it is sad.
But it's important, right?
That we continue to have
that empathy as human.
Yes, we have to. We have to,
we can't I always say,
you know you can't be the judge
because you don't know what brought
them there and and regardless
of what brought them there.
I think it's our job to help bring them out.
What can we do to collectively make
this lasting change? How can we help
you know it's so interesting.
There so many ways when I have
people that come out to us
and are like what can we do?
What can my family do?
Yeah, how can we help?
I think always utilize what areas
are your strengths and use that to
help you know there's some people
are like I love to cook well.
There you go, maybe you and your
kids can cook a meal for a shelter.
Yeah, or if you love to organize, well,
maybe you can reach out to a shelter and say,
can I come help organize your pantry?
You know?
So monitor is always important again,
I tell people we can't keep
the lights on with lotion.
Yeah, I'd like to but we can, yes,
but there's also so many ways that
you can reach out and help on a level
that doesn't overwhelm yourself,
you know and just kind of find
things that you already like
to do and then do that.
I love that what a great,
just such great advice.
Take your strength and share it.
I love it. Thank you so much.
Ohh I'm so excited to tell you
about this and we're gonna have
more information about dignity for
Divas both as well as how you can
help and how you can get help.
So let's go to our website and
the Champions of change celebrity
basketball game is this Sunday,
June 26th at Climate Pledge Arena.
It's coming up quick.
It's going to be a blast with sports
stars from the Seahawks to the storm
to the Sonics coaching and competing.
And you can go.
To championsofchange.org to
find out more who's on the teams
and get the tickets again,
you better hurry because
it's coming up quick.