GPPR Junior Podcast Editor Jazlyn Gallego (MPM ’24) speaks with Michael Wallace, founder of Mint Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that serves the local homeless population. In this podcast, Wallace shares thoughts on public health policy solutions through his experience creating health clinics for the homeless in Washington, D.C.
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[Episode Starts]
Jazlyn Gallego: Good afternoon! Thank you so much for joining us with the Georgetown Public Policy Review Podcast led by students at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. We focus on the different areas of policy of course and we get to talk to experts in the field in different areas that folks are working in trying to solve issues out in the world. We are here today joined by Michael Wallace who is going to talk to us a bit about the Mint Projects here in Washington DC. I will turn it over to you. Thank you so much for joining us. Please feel free to introduce yourself.
Founder Michael Wallace: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. I went to a close by school. I don’t know if I can say the name. It starts with a G as well, George Washington. I studied public health there and really fell in love with the need for the upstream population. I studied at Howard, premedical and I really thought I was going to become a doctor. When I found public health I realized, there is a way to help people before they end up in an emergency. I really like to be in a more preventative mindset. As I continued through my schooling in public health, I found faith and was like ‘wow there is this whole faith experience and spiritual experience that comes before the social experience that we have on this earth as well. That is what led to starting Mint Project.
Gallego: That is incredible. Thank you for sharing that. My first takeaway was that as a student you saw a way to connect to your community and you found a way to go ahead and serve. That is so awesome and is a testament to those in a higher education program, whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student, that it’s never too early to go ahead delving into something greater if there’s something that calls to you as a passion project you want to learn more about and then develop something like mint project ultimately that is going to create a really huge access for something your community needs.I keep saying community but I feel like the word fits for you as you discuss your faith and how it comes into play with what you do and this togetherness as it plays a role in this.
You started to talk a bit about public health and making sure folks have access to public health and preventing phenomenons before they start and get really serious and making sure that we are taking preventive action in terms of solutions. Tell us more about Mint Project. It sounds like you were in school. You found out public health exists and that you wanted to get involved and now you lead this organization. Can you tell us more about its onset?
Wallace: Yeah so, I really love the way we started. I think you hit it head on about community. Our first work was a group of friends, brothers, and sisters to talk about what is love? What is faith? Why do we need to have faith? We used to host these roundtable discussions and go crash at a random hotel. Finally, we decided, you know what, we know it’s love so how are we going to get out there and do this. My greatest example of love is Jesus Christ. We said guys we are going out there in front of Union Station and give away care bags to the homeless. We gave out food. We gave out socks. We gave out water. We gave out anything they asked for. Some people asked if we could bring back a bible. We said okay, sure, we’ll bring back a bible. We just kept coming back every month or so until we realized that we are living out a mission, so we came up with the name Mint Project, a refreshing opportunity to volunteer and bond through service. We just kept hosting events and hosting events until we found ourselves actually being hosted by the city.
There were a lot of hard stories. Women running away from situations, different gender situations, domestic violence situations, different social needs, and mental health needs, different spiritual needs. So, we were like ‘we know that our job here, if we believe that faith is a portion of our job here is to show the greatest display of love possible.’ I was like, ‘well the greatest display that I’m aware of is Jesus Christ, so let’s just try to be like him.’ So we gave out food, we gave out water, we brought care bags anything they asked for.”
Gallego: That is incredible, Michael. Thank you for sharing that. I am really just moved by the fact that this was something that was community driven from the start. It was a group of young folks from the Washington D.C. area that were really inspired and motivated to get up and ensure that they were serving the people within their own neighborhood and hearing feedback to the questions “what is it that you need” Its very rare I want to say that we have those direct conversations and that we hear from the community where the help is needed and we’re having that conversation with them and asking “hey what is it that we can do for you?” I feel like it puts a face to a name, prevents us from thinking about the homeless community as just a statistic. It’s a very good learning opportunity.
Its been very eye-opening for me personally when I’ve done work with the homeless through my nonprofit work. It was very eye-opening for me to see that a lot of these homeless people are short-term homeless. People can be homeless for a matter of 30 days. They can be homeless for two weeks. Sometimes they really do just need someone to build them back up on their feet and connect them to housing or some other essential service that they need. It can be something so simple to get them back on the right track, but I think that we often lose sight of that because not all of us are in that situation, so it’s very difficult for us to think about how we would go about solving those problems.
Mint Project is such a good example of how folks can get really connected and really understand more. Step outside the world around and step outside your own shoes for a moment in order to think about how we can bring solutions to the table.
Tell us a bit about why public health matters.
Wallace: Yeah, public health is such a big topic. It’s a big thing. It’s a big responsibility when you think about “how can I effect an entire community, which is our word of the day right, or entire city, or entire country, or entire world even – and do so in a way that keeps that person in mind. Too often we try to solve the problem without including the person who we are trying to solve it for. That’s why I love public health. It is all about keeping the person in the center of your work.
I think that’s what makes our work at Mint Project so successful. When we asked ‘What do you need? What do you want out of life? What are you struggling with?’ We found a couple things: they were struggling with hope and their faith. It’s a personal and social and emotional need that links very closely to our physical needs. We also found that they lacked some structural support to have access to services; Medicaid, food, economic security, and even housing security.
We asked ourselves, “how can we be a part of that solution?” And we realized that we should bring those impacted to the table, so we said, “what we’re going to do is we’re going to hire those individuals suffering from housing insecurity.” We have hired over fifty homeless people and at-risk youth to improve their community.
Gallego: I love that you said public health is keeping the person centered. I had a professor this last semester who told us when we are writing public policy to take the streets to the suites. In other words, we are taking individual narratives of those that have been impacted by policy issues and then taking them to the capitol to members of congress and sharing those narratives. It really brings things to life when we hear ‘housing insecurity, economic insecurity, etc in the news. That’s one thing but when we bring a narrative, that is so much more important. We should always, always be thinking about solutions from the people who are living these experiences.
You touched on some really wonderful points when you were talking about all that public health encompasses. You were talking about housing insecurity, nutrition, insurance. Ensuring that they are in a safe, healthy environment but also making room for their mental health and emotional, spiritual well-being, and you bring that in through your faith so I think that is super interesting.
I just started working with the American Psychological Association. People don’t realize what a huge intersection there is between mental well-being and physical well-being. So much of our stress contributes to chronic health issues, so I think that that is such a great component that you’re bringing to the table to ensure that people feel like they have a support network. Faith is oftentimes so cultural, so making sure they have that cultural component and yes, that sense of belonging which is such a big thing, especially when you are going through such a hurdle.”
Wallace: It’s also just such a reminder that we’re bonding together as we try to encourage and water and plant seeds of love and positivity. All of our events require teamwork and partnership. It’s so important breaking through cultural divides as well. Even economic insecurity can create divides as well. When you realize how thin the line is to being housed, it really changes your perspective when you hear the stories people go through, and you see yourself potentially being there.
Jazlyn Gallego: Is there any story in particular that comes to mind that you would be willing to share with us?
Wallace: “So many stories. We have served hundreds of people. I think what moves me the most is when a volunteer calls me or texts me and says, ‘Michael, today I saw someone on the streets dealing with homelessness, and I bought them some food, and I went home, and I brought it to them the next day. The way that they sound so proud of themselves, I love it. That’s what it’s really all about. It’s about sparking a personal reliance among this greater calling to show love and peace, and patience to those that are in need.
A story I think that sticks out when it comes to the work in our shelters is that we have an individual, we’ll call him Leak. That’s his nickname. We hired him. He was homeless. We hired him and said
‘Leak, we need your help. We need to turn the outside of this shelter into something that is beautiful, something that brings more faith, a kind of a lighthouse for the youth so they can come to the shelter and receive services and have a safe space to hangout and play and be a child again if they need to and exercise.’
And then he’s like, ‘okay, I’ll do it.’
He stuck with us for ten weeks. He did an amazing job. He graduated. We had 60 volunteers make it happen. He came to me afterwards.
He was like ‘Michael, what are you gonna do next’
And I said “Were gonna build a clinic”. This is a youth that suffered with incarceration. He suffered from housing insecurity, violence in his upbringing.
He was like ‘Michael, come sit down.”
And I get a little nervous when someone says, ‘Michael, come sit down.’ So I thought ‘okay let me sit down”
*chuckles*
He was like ‘Michael, do you have a notepad.’
I was like, ‘yeah’
He was like, ‘You want to build a clinic, right? Here’s what you should do.’ *He starts walking* ‘You should reach out to your stakeholders. You should find out what kind of needs are the youth needing.’
He starts walking through the entire process that we taught them. That made us feel so proud seeing the fruits of our work and knowing that he can approach and solve any problem as long as you praise, plan, and execute.
Gallego: “We often hear certain narratives on whether or not we should be investing in certain types of people, those that have been incarcerated, and this is truly just defying the odds by not only taking part in the program but then leading and executing successfully, another initiative. That is truly wonderful. I know we touched on incarceration a second ago. I think that’s a really important part of probably public health. I haven’t delved into much of that myself, so I would love to hear more from you. I know that it’s really important to delve into the proportion of our population that has been incarcerated to make sure that we are taking care of them so that we can lower rates of recidivism or their likelihood to go back to incarceration and make sure that they have housing and job security so that they’re able to go and live more productive lives and ultimately lead to safer communities. Tell us what that means in terms of public health in terms of what the barriers might look like for health access for those that have been recently incarcerated or just in general maybe those in the community that you served.”
Wallace: You said it so well. It really is necessary to think about, how do we lower those barriers to access. In the end, we are all paying for each other. We are a bonded nation.We are here to serve each other. Whether we like it or not, our taxes are going towards the places where I work at. Many of the shelters that Mint Project partners with are funded through tax dollars because we have determined that we have this fundamental desire in America to uphold the poor to uphold the voiceless, the oppressed, and do break the chains on these individuals so they can build a better life. I think it’s because we’re founded on these Christian principles as a nation that makes us so equipped to actually to out and make sustainable change.
It’s having access to employment. Employment is such a huge driver for so many other social needs. Without employment, homelessness is so easy to creep up. There is lack of nutrition, food, transportation. We focus on employment for our vehicle for teaching about so many other things. We first screen them for their type of incarceration; violent or nonviolent crimes to figure out what type of rehabilitation is necessary.
Most of them desire to work. They really want to break out of their situation. We ask them ‘are you on food stamps? Are you on medicaid? Do you have a caseworker? Are you meeting with someone for your mental health? What is your faith walk? Are you meeting with a mentor?
It’s called the 6 keys of strategy coined from me from Covenant House. It’s all about taking the formerly incarcerated individual into the new promised land through 6 keys. Knowledge, physical health, emotional health, spiritual health, relational health/community health and financial health. If we can get all those in order using an internship, we determined that was the best vehicle we could think of to help them break out of that cycle of homelessness, drug use, low self esteem and the like. ”
Gallego: “Michael that’s amazing. I think that what I’m taking away from our conversation is the fact that so many of these issues are very intersectional. We might not always think about the fact that incarceration rates affect how healthy our communities are but ultimately if we are dealing with a cycle of folks that are going back to a cycle of poverty because they are continuously being incarcerated and recidivism is high, their rate of going back to incarceration is high, then when we need to think of how to break that cycle. We need to ensure that they’re healthy, productive, and that there is growth in our communities. We might not always put those things together but it does make sense.
Wallace: like an organism
Gallego: Yes. Exactly, like a whole organism functioning together to ensure that we have a strong healthy community that is safe and a good place to flourish so that super awesome Michael. Thank you so much for sharing.
In regards to public health, what do you think the major barriers are to health access for healthier communities? You mentioned earlier access to food and nutrition and mentioned the clinic that you’re building. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that? What can we do to push for better changes in health access? Whether its public policy or students talking to their members of congress.
Wallace: We’re not creating bridges enough and I think if we could create a policy I think it’s creating greater connections. Mint Project is all about building bridges between schools and universities and nonprofits and saying let’s bring meet the needs not just physically but of the souls of individuals so that they can better their own lives. If we’re going to do that it does take a policy lens as much as get on the ground and make it happen lens. Jazlyn you probably have a much more advance lens when it comes to policy development so I would probably defer to you and ask what would you do.
If I could choose one thing, I would say in the breathe of connecting people better, it would be funding programs that bring mentorship. It is so important. I wish we didn’t need it as much as we did but because the family structures break down so often from communities that have suffered from oppression, there is a knowledge barrier, a knowledge gap that doesn’t necessarily make it to the next generation. Having mentors, people that have been highly favored that look nothing like them say ‘this is where I got to where
I got. Here’s how you can do it too.’ That mentorship is so powerful. Shelters need it. Communities of need, need it. When it comes to how you can make that happen policy wise? I bow to you Jazlyn.”
*chuckles*
Gallego:
*chuckles*
Absolutely. Well, I think that this has been a really insightful conversation for me policy wise. I definitely have my wheels turning. My response is always thinking about the fact that every public policy solution always has to be multifaceted meaning that we can think about going to our members of congress advocating for a specific type of policy but as we mentioned earlier, we gotta take it from the streets to the suites as my professor says. We have to hear from the individuals who are enduring these hardships and situations and hearing that they need first and implement that. It sounds like that is what Mint Project is doing.l We can also implement community programs where we are learning about this issue first hand and the mentorship speaks to that and that mentorship is so important, not just for our own fulfillment but fulfilling our long-term mental health of our community, it will ultimately make sure that we are having a healthier community.
I think that’s really interesting. That really opens my eyes to something that I haven’t looked into and its that mentorship piece. I would also say that fulfills gaps in economic security too because then you’re learning from someone else’s skillset and how they got to where they are in addition to having someone act as a support system. I think that’s fantastic. I love that you identified that. It’s not being talked about in the policy realm. I will look into it and check that out.
It’s so important to uplift communities of colors living in these situations because we have faced such disparities of health. Over the last 100 years its been attributed to – I just did my paper on this this week which is really fun – it used to be attributed to our lack of nutrition things like that but they’re also finding in the past 20 decades, researchers have found that it’s also attributed to stress too and trauma. Individuals that you’re talking about that have been incarcerated or have had family members that have been incarcerated and don’t have the tools to come with the trauma that is coming with that – not only are you going to be facing economic issues and as a result likely issues with housing but you’re also going to be facing health issues too. You have so much internalized stress you can’t deal with and you don’t have the tools to go through that. In the last 20 years, research has found that we need to look at mental. Health when looking at why communities of color have such an offset
We’re thinking about stress and it’s like ‘okay, well, everyone’s stressed. Middle income people are stressed. High income people are stressed. The reality is that it’s high income people that are still gonna have the resources to go to the doctor go to health clinics at the end of the day even if they are dealing with the same stress.”
Wallace: and the time.
Gallego: and the time too yes! We gotta make sure these health clinics are open late at times that are equitable to people who are working really long hours. You know? And things like that. Just thinking about what the day-to-day looks like in the communities that need these resources. That’s really important.
I know you were saying ‘oh I’ll defer to you for this’ but I definitely think that you taught me a lot about what is needed in terms of a policy conversation. The ultimate thing that I’m hearing is that community and connection is needed. It’s not just to get amazing projects like this going, its really too build movements going to ensure that we have mental resiliency.
Wallace: It is so crazy that stress can really pass down from generations. I’ve read the research as well. It can be passed down to mothers. One of the studies was Black moms. Community stress and family stress can cause metabolic changes in the babies. This gives us the responsibility to say ‘okay how can we reverse the trend.’ Even from a personal perspective, conflict resolution and family training is so important.
What scale are we going to be using to decide is useful to measure that need?
At the end of the day, in public health, it’s so important. It’s our justification for spending so much money. Fortunately and unfortunately, we have to have some kind of scale that says this family or this person is more likely to experience this particular need because of this issue so we should fund this issue.
Gallego: Absolutely, I think the way that I have heard the most about this has been through public health surveys. I don’t know if you’re already implementing this at Mint but that would be a way to make sure these conversations are recorded so that the public is able to learn more about what issues they are currently facing. It’s astounding for us to hear ‘so many people are without this specific need in the Washington DC area. I know what you’re saying, it’s strange to think about quantifying things that are so essential for our day-to-day living. At the end of the day we have to ask ourselves how do we solve all of this going on? It’s strange to hit that balance, but I would definitely say that your organization has been doing it.
I know you have mental health clinics that you are starting up at Mint. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that looks like?
Wallace: We took 15 youth and asked ‘what are the needs mentally and spiritually that you need to move the needle on the issues that you are dealing with right now?’
We have youth that are experiencing homelessness or other communities that are at risk. People of color, Latino communities, at risk communities, transgender communities. We ask them, ‘what can we do to make this space better for you?’ They came up with amazing ideas. We took this underutilized room in a shelter that had some unfinished business. We said let’s turn it into something that is beautiful and peaceful. We trained them through the design process. We trained them through the public health process.
These are youth that some struggle to read. Some struggle to graduate high school. They were able to stay focused and maintain a trajectory of problem-solving that matched that of 6 figure public health specialists because the prospect of being empathetic is human and attainable. You don’t need a 6 figure salary to attain that, but often times when the six figures start rolling in, we forget about the people we are trying to help as we’re helping them. We’re like, ‘guys, don’t be like that. Be the person that’s gonna stay focused on the person that you’re trying to help. It helps that you’re also the person that you’re helping.
By the end of it, they created this beautiful room with murals. They had their own art and design team. They had a plant and installation team. A nature team. They had a digital experience team. They had a patient experience team. They wrote up their protocol and determine the best way to get the entire cohort of youth into a better mental health space was to create a beautiful space that would attract counselors, pastoral counselors, and mental health specialists to come. I am so pleased to say that they were successful.
We actually have a relationship with Georgetown Hoya clinic, and they are volunteering to come and serve from the space. We have received commitment from Gosha health which is a Christian-based healthcare company that’s gonna come provide mental health services and case management services. This provides any youth with housing support, mental health, provides access with food stamps and any other social service needs they have. This is all done right now in our partner site, DC doors which is our partner that has taken us in and said do whatever you need to do to give youth a better life experience. We’re really grateful for them.
Our next project is we’re beautifying a kitchen. We’re helping turn the kitchen into what they call “heaven’s kitchen” so it’s going to have beautiful colors, better appliances, and were gonna get it all straightened up so that they can host a continuous beautification program where we’ll train the youth in how to cook for themselves, how to have proper nutrition, and how to serve others who are in need as well.
Gallego: Wow, Michael. That is amazing. That is truly a program of empowerment that is a person-centered experience. You’re training people to lift up their own communities and lead projects that are ultimately going to better their neighborhoods, and that is so wonderful.
Thank you so much for talking to us about the Mint project. Can you please let us know how we can stay involved and stay up to date with all things Mint Project?”
Wallace: Yeah. M – I – N – T project. Org mintproject.org
We host all of our upcoming opportunities there, which include our monthly service projects like fashion shows at the women’s shelter we just had, which is amazing. Or cookouts at the men’s shelter.
Also, you can sign up for our beautification projects, where we hire homeless and at-risk youth and train them and empower them to empower their communities. All those events are found on our website to sign up.
Gallego: That is incredible. Thank you so much, Michael. As you noted, public health is keeping the person centered, and we are so excited to see how you are going to be able to do that with Mint Project, and we are excited to follow along.
Wallace: Thank you, Jazlyn. I am so glad that I got to come across you through Mint Project. I hope you get to tell your story about what made you want to volunteer as you have offered us. I am so thankful for people like yourself. We hope that your career and your policy work and your policy wonking I guess, is what they call it, all that takes off and creates a great impact because I can see that you really do care.”
Gallego: I absolutely do, and it has been such a pleasure learning from you. I really feel like I took a lot away from this conversation in terms of how to think about the bigger picture, but again as I mentioned, all parts of the solution are so necessary. We need folks that are gonna be lobbying for good solutions. We need folks that are on the ground talking to individuals going through whatever we’re trying to solve because, ultimately, the solution has to be person-centered, and that’s what this work is all about.
Wallace: Amen
[Episode Ends]
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