Unshakeable Founder Debbie Isaacs on her nonprofit’s mission to help women find stability and independence

In this episode of the Women on the Move Podcast, host Sam Saperstein talks with Debbie Isaacs, founder and president of Unshakeable, a nonprofit that serves women offenders by addressing their trauma and needs. Unshakeable’s mission is to guide women survivors in recovery from traumas that include domestic and sexual violence, trafficking, homelessness, and addiction. “Our goal is to set them on a career path to achieve financial independence and stability,” Debbie says. Originally motivated to help just one woman achieve financial stability, Unshakeable has since changed hundreds of lives.

Making change

Debbie shares that she was already over 50 when she was inspired to launch Unshakeable. Living in Las Vegas, she had been a video producer with a successful business making “sizzle reels” for people pitching reality TV shows. She heard about a municipal court program that was helping women in recovery change their lives—and it ended up changing her life. “I sat in the courtroom and listened to the women share their stories and it was one of those moments where I just felt, I'm not here to tell their story, I need to change it,” she recalls. “One of the women shared that she had gotten dressed for herself that day, meaning that for the first time in months, her pimp wasn't telling her what to wear.”

Listening to more women share their stories that day, Debbie was drawn in not only by their heartbreaking experiences but also by the realization that she could relate to many of their feelings. “My physical circumstances didn't match, but how they felt matched,” she tells Sam. “And it didn't match only me, it matched friends of mine.”

And so Unshakeable was born, and soon incorporated into 501(c)3 that partners with other nonprofit organizations that provide housing and therapy. Unshakeable brings their Empower to Employ program, at no charge, to clients of those organizations in order to support their return to the workforce and into a sustainable career. Unshakeable programming includes three phases. Phase 1 is the “I AM” series, which includes a two-day conference where clients hear from community leaders, c-suite executives, and other professionals, who teach them business acculturation and other skills to build self-esteem. Phase 2 is career coaching, which is at least a two-year commitment to all clients, starting with an individualized case assessment and then moving into Phase 3, the bigger picture where case workers evaluate needs and bring clients from immediate employment to a longer-term career plan.

Today, Debbie says, Unshakeable partners with about 20 nonprofits in Las Vegas. Her focus is what she calls the “Four Rs.” That includes Rescue, where the goal is to find shelter for clients and possibly treatment or court. Next is Residency, where they find stabilized, temporary housing. Then comes Recovery, which is the therapy component. Finally, there’s Ready: “I tell people we’re the Get Ready part or the Rest of It, which means we partner with organizations here like Safeness, Shade Tree, and WestCare. We become their workforce development and allow their case managers to help the clients get the therapy they need, or then we work together."

Eye to the future

This summer, Debbie says she’s been traveling and connecting with other nonprofits, learning more about the needs that exist. “Housing is the number one factor that people are ending up on the street or in a situation of staying with somebody that is abusing them,” she tells Sam. “I think the other thing that works [is] the specialty court approach where we're not jailing people for misdemeanors and we're looking at that system as, can we create reform as opposed to just putting somebody into jail.”

As for the future, the vision is to grow Unshakeable in Nevada with a dream of expanding to another state and cities. “And one of the biggest things on our heart is to launch a social enterprise by the end of second quarter next year,” she says. “So that is an ambitious undertaking, but that's really the heart of Unshakeable. We have enough history here that we know our impact matters and it works and it's sustainable and there's thousands of other cities that we think that we could grow into. So that's an undertaking of ours, and the social enterprise, that will be our big focus.”

 

Disclaimer: The speakers’ opinions belong to them and may differ from opinions of JP Morgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates. Views presented on this podcast are those of the speakers; they are as of October 19th, 2023 and they may not materialize.

 

Full transcript here