Houston P. A. hosted by Laurent

Mike Nichols is the president & CEO of Coalition for the Homeless. They've been helping homeless people get tested and treated for COVID and together with local non-profits and local governments, they've raised $65 dollars to permanently house 5000 individuals. Most of it is our federal tax dollars coming back to our area and working to help our neighbors. They are successfully "diverting" homeles...

Brian Carr is the chief advancement officer for Northwest Assistance Ministries (NAM). They are a community-based nonprofit, serving basic human needs to their neighbors. The pandemic has not slowed them down one bit. Their Meals On Wheels plan is going strong and in August and September, NAM served nearly 5,000 families during its 3 food distribution events. And they will be doing it again. They...

Oli Mohammed is the Founder and Executive Director of The Houston Furniture Bank. On top of never closing down during the pandemic, they just opened a brand new facility in the Woodlands with a challenge for all who live there: let no kid sleep on the floor. This is a major expansion for this organization and they are able to open this facility thanks to the generosity of several other non-profits...

Becky Best is the community relations and grant manager for Houston PetSet, an organization that advocates for the safety of animals. They are also bussing and flying stray taken in by our shelters, sending them up to Northern states where there are waiting lists to adopt a pet. Houston has to put down over 200 healthy animals per week and up North, shelters are empty and people have to wait for a...

Christine Mansfield is the marketing and development manager for the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, one of the coolest places to visit during a pandemic. Naturally full of UV and fresh air, they are about to welcome a bunch of goats who will graze the prairie. These "organic lawn mowers" like to chomp on weeds and other undesirable invasive plants so it's not just for looks or for the tourists...

Meredith-Leigh Pleasants is the manager of talent and school support for Good Reason Houston. They are encouraging people to become teachers by making training programs and other tools available online. They aim to reform schools in such a way that every school is high performing and full of great, talented educators. We discuss how attractive becoming a teacher can be even if you have another car...

Mike McGuff is Alzheimer's Association's Ambassador for Texas' 7th Congressional District. Before the pandemic struck, he was supposed to go to Congress to speak with our representatives. He became an advocate after his mother died of early onset of Alzheimer's, a cruel affliction that killed her while Mike was still in his 20s. Since then, he has worked to raise awareness for the need for researc...

Retired Lieutenant General Doug Owens is the CEO of the Lone Star Flight Museum. They have reopened with social distancing rules and their website now offers virtual tours and classes. They opened a new exhibit: Fight to the Finish, featuring WWII artifacts, pictures and personal stories of Americans who were there. They also welcomed a visitor: the only F4 Phantom II is now on display. They're ab...

Lucy Coady is the campaign director for No Kid Hungry, an organization that helps provide meals to kids living in poverty. They also advocate for legislation like the federal food distribution programs implemented during the pandemic. They are also launching Dine, Shop or Share for No Kid Hungry with the help of big companies who will kick back funds to No Kids Hungry. Check out their website to s...

Maisha Colter is the CEO of AVDA - Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. They are celebrating 40 years of serving Houston. They have helped over 100,000 survivors of domestic violence being new, successful lives by providing free legal representation through protective orders, divorce, child custody, child support and adoption cases. AVDA has also provided state-accredited, group counseling for more t...

Gaye Jackson is Houston's Lemonade Day City Director. Lemonade Day is a youth entrepreneurship program available to all children for free. All parents and kids need to do is go to the website to take part in the program. They'll learn financial literacy with the basics of running a business: supply, demand, the cost of the first and the profit that can me made from the second, it's all designed to...

Kevin Hattery is the president and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston. They have been on the forefront of educating children and parents during this pandemic and their efforts are really impressive. They are helping to deliver meals to their kids, they're keeping in touch with all of them and they have reopened their clubs by following the CDC's rule. The rules are stringent. Kevin talks...

Charles Rotramel is the CEO of ReVision, an organization that works to break the cycle of isolation among disconnected youth caught up in the juvenile justice system. They do it by matching youths with volunteers and these days, these volunteers are serving meals 5 days a week to keep in touch with their clients. They've served over 6000 meals since the start of the pandemic shut down. The program...

Bob Stokes is the president of the Galveston Bay Foundation and Haille Leija is their Habitat Restauration manager. The first Annual Houston Oyster Festival is on April 4. It'll be a day of great Texas seafood, and an opportunity to learn about restoring our oyster reefs and how crucial it is to good conservancy in the Galveston area. A single oyster will filter 50 GALLONS of water per day! They a...

Julius Young is the new chairman of the board of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston and Will Leven is a member of the board of directors of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston and he serves on the Executive Committee and Chairs the Development Committee. Their Org is extremely successful in providing after school programs for kids of all background. Their sporting and fun activities they are...

Lauren Bair is the marketing coordinator for Child Advocates and Kelly St. Mary is the sponsorship director for the 32nd McDonald's Houston Children’s Festival which is happening on April 4 & 5. They're closing down several blocks of Downtown Houston for the biggest festival of its kind in this country. It all benefits Child Advocates who train mentors to help youths going through our court system...

Elizabeth Kennedy is the director of development for the University Libraries at the University of Houston. They are creating Open Educational Resources (OER), teaching and learning resources – aka textbooks – that are published in the public domain. This means that anyone can freely use and re-purpose them. When a single textbooks can cost more than $120 and amount to over $1000 of necessary purc...

Genevieve Keeney is the president of The National Museum of Funeral History. She used to be a medic in the US Army and she is now a licensed mortician specializing in education. The National Museum of Funeral History is opening a new exhibit honoring George H.W. Bush on President's Day. There's a lot that goes into organizing a series of national funerals and we learn about the army of people it t...

Christine Holland is the CEO & executive director of Rebuilding Together Houston. By repairing homes, they revitalize communities like the Second Ward where they are currently concentrating a lot of their efforts. Most of the work done on houses is by volunteers and you should sign up to help seal the outside of a house or help install safety features. They'll train volunteers and those are two of...

Cristina Cave is the community relations manager for BakerRipley and she's back to talk about FREE tax preparation services. They've helped over 320,000 households with this awesome program. People qualify if they declare less than $58,000 in yearly income and they'll get top-quality, professional tax preparation advice from certified tax preparers. Cristina also cautions against signing loans aga...

Cristina Vetrano is the president and CEO of CanCare, and organization which provides a support group for people fighting cancer (and their caregivers). Megan Vondra is one of their volunteers. She beat Hodgkin's lymphoma which gives her the most powerful tool to help someone going through the same ordeal: she knows just about everything they're going through. Cancare volunteers are like sounding...

Kevin Doffing is the chief operating officer of Combined Arms. They are a once stop shop for veterans transitioning from military to civilian life. They can help find employment and access other social services such as mental health. They're also going to be reopening their facility, including their super gym that is open for free to all veterans. It's all possible thanks to their partnerships wit...

Dirk Van Tuerenhout is the Curator of Anthropology for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Their new exhibit Stonehenge: Ancient Mysteries and Modern Discoveries presents over 200 artifacts from Great Britain, most of which have never left the Isles. There is also a massive touchscreen table where visitors can do their own research. The stones which are over 5000 years old, are still a mystery....

Tama Lundquist and Tena Lundquist Faust are co-presidents of Houston Petset. For the second survey in a row, the UTHealth School of Public Health's "Health of Houston Survey" reported that stray animals were the top concern of respondents, outranking crime among other issues. Houston Petset has a "Report Cruelty" link which allows citizens to report any animal they think is being mistreated. They...

Danni Dancer is the social studies educator at for the Children's Museum of Houston and Alleigh Stewart is their life science educator. They have a snow machine and that means that every Houstonian can find out what it's like to walk in it, throw it around and marvel at mother nature. That's the Children's Museum is all about. It's one of the best Holliday destinations for kids and parents. We tal...