Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. Mike Williams, Founder and CEO of Dash Foundation and Dreams and Success on Inc. It's a social impact project that's focused on creating a therapeutic empowerment, housing and coaching network for young adults aging out of foster care or transitioning out of homeless. So my background and story that I highlight was being raised by a single mother who typically wasn't abusive physically or verbally. It was just more so on than neglect side. And so I ended up in the foster care system at the age of 12. And rather than being reunified with her, she ended up losing her rights. And so I ended up having to live in foster care until the age of 18. As a young adult jumping out of the system, I was embracing the wrong opportunities. Because I felt rejected from the system before. So when I aged out, I was in the streets and I was just doing unhealthy things. Out of that, I ended up becoming homeless by the age of 21. And so as I reflected on my life, I was like, yo, not that I just waste a lot of time, but I wasted a lot of resources that if I would have valued them differently, I could be in a different position now. So I wanted to create a program that put all the resources in front of young people and showed them the path that they're headed if they make the right decisions. And if you make bad decisions, that they could take you left and prevent you from getting to that end goal. The intentionality that we have at Dash is none other than my life experience. Because I've been an alumni in the system, I've been a professional in the system, I've been an advocate, I've been all these different parts. And so our program is very, very, very intentional. Every step of the way for the last 10 years of my life that's gotten me to where I'm at, I've had a checkbox. And I've basically duplicated my life checklist into a model that could be critiqued and unique for any individual that came into our network. This is a smart dream CEO, also known as Mike Williams. Always make sure to dream big, dream beyond, and dream now. Life is too short, there's a lot of chaos, and you gotta live it now. You're listening to voices that inspire.