Learning and Touring through Houston

Earlier this year, our team took off for our 2nd annual strategic offsite, this time in Houston, TX. Houston, with its rich diversity and unique urban model, offered a fresh perspective outside of our usual environment, allowing us to explore effective community engagement, program innovation, and of course- their Chinatown. We met with highly impactful organizations and individuals that we’d love to introduce to you.

Meet our new (and some old) friends, who all taught us so much:

Southern Smoke Foundation

Southern Smoke is a nonprofit founded and powered by current and past F&B workers who have felt the hear of their industry firsthand. Their efforts are dedicated to creating a meaningful safety net of support that doesn't exist for most people in their world – including covering necessary costs like healthcare, addressing mental health, extending aid and more.

We met with Catarina, Lindsey and Victoria from their team, connecting over our fears of saying no, and how prevalent this issue is in the pains of a growing org. We’re still learning how to do this, but we know that it’s critical to stay true to our mission, and make the impact we want to have on our constituents. We spoke about the power of working with students and academic institutions, something we whole heartedly agree on.

Ryan Levasseur

Ryan was formerly with Rice University and part of the team that developed the Ion. Prior to relocating to Houston, Ryan worked with our friends at HR&A! He currently consults with Houston's Launch Pad.

Like every meeting of New Yorkers, current and former, we started by diving deep into Houston-NYC compare and contrasts. While we could have talked for hours and hours…over coffee, we spoke with Ryan about the need to define what we view success as - and defining clear KPIs. While our work will always be rooted in community, it’s important to consider time, effect and impact with decisions we make and initiatives we create.

The Ion District

The Ion anchors a 16-acre innovation district in Houston, a hub focusing on quality collaborations between entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, corporations, academics, and the Houston community. Their vision is to cultivate a transformative culture of people, places, ideas, and experiences that build the world we want to see, creating a better quality of life for all of Houston.

We were in awe by the thousands of events The Ion hosted in 2023, many operated by its network of partners. We connected with their Corporate Engagement Officer, Ragen over the challenges of measuring impact, especially with a multifaceted mission and programming calendar.

One of our favorite parts was visiting their Maker’s Lab, an accessibly priced lab for entrepreneurs and creators to test, create and innovate.

Salvation Army Houston

The Houston Area Salvation Army is a member of the Coalition for the Homeless, an organization that acts as a catalyst, uniting partners and maximizing resources to move people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing with supportive services. the Coalition has achieved impressive metrics to support constituents by working with and identifying core strengths of partnering non-profits.

We had an incredibly inspiring meeting with Kenneth. Two (of the many) things we took away were avoiding the savior complex – a reminder of our founding value, “we are partners not saviors”, and the importance of removing duplicative process and it’s importance when it comes to organizing, especially to avoid distrust and disenchantment with constituents.

Project Row Houses

Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities. We went on an incredible tour with PRH’s Docent Manager & Installation Coordinator, Sol.

We were so inspired by the holistic, but clearly defined approach of PRH and their sister organizations. On our tour, Sol took us through restored shotgun homes, which have been converted into galleries. Behind the galleries were affordable housing. We then walked a few blocks over to a black-owned bookstore, a recipient of an incubator grant. We were inspired by how all these entities were working together to grow generational wealth within the community, yet each project felt like it’s own living breathing initiative.

Chinese Community Center (with Alan Chin)

Our friend and fellow New Yorker Alan Chin is a photojournalist whose current archival project, “A Chinese American Family Album”, aims to preserve the history and cultural heritage of Chinatown communities.

We helped Alan with Day 1 of his archiving at the Chinese Community Center (which was sprawling). We had the pleasure of meeting so many members of the Houston Chinatown community, including the revered Bobby Joe Moon. Bobby was a Mississippi Delta family and pulled out incredible photos while sharing his story. Listening the Bobby’s (and many other) stories reminded us of not only the diversity within the Chinese-American diaspora, but also between the different Chinatowns across the country.

Tour of Houston’s Chinatown with Pierre Yu

Pierre (our co-founder Jen’s dad!!) is a real estate developer who has been through the transition Houston’s old and new Chinatown. We learned so much by exploring Chinatown through Pierre’s eyes. As a developer, he emphasized the need for evolution within small businesses to keep things fresh, as well as the importance of curation. In a Chinatown full of shopping complexes, each one must ensure a healthy mix to avoid competition, but still entice customers to come.

Some of our (many) takeaways were the importance of maintaining a focused mission, and the power of work that is informed by the specificities of your community. We learned great insights on operational efficiency and success metrics. All of these lessons underscored the need for clarity in our mission and innovation in our approach, and have already been guiding our team’s work and direction.

We are so grateful for the time, expertise and warm hospitality from all of these groups. If y’all are ever in Houston or the TX area, we highly recommend you pay a visit or show them some support!