Alex and Willie sit down with the founder and director of Project Save, Carl Cook to dig into his life's story. Although growing up in one of the few prestigious African American families in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Carl had his own struggles to overcome.
Growing up under two successful parents (his father was a federal judge and his mother was a podiatrist with her own practice), as a child, Carl struggled with dyslexia.
At a very young age he began secretly drinking to hide his insecurities and began leading a double life. By the time he was a teenager, he was into gang life as well as serious drinking and drug addiction—and wound up homeless on the streets of Cleveland’s dangerous Hough neighborhood.
For 20 years of his life, Carl struggled through the kind of violence and addiction the rest of us only see on the news or in the movies. Despite all of this, he also earned a degree in Culinary Arts from Beachwood Culinary School which he still uses in his career to this day.
Even in gang life, Carl had always been a leader. So, on October 24, 2005, he made a decision. He took his last drink, stopped all the drugs, and asked for help. He wanted out, he wanted a better life—and what’s more, he wanted to devote his life to helping others in the same situation, improve the quality of their lives. His list of achievements toward that goal are remarkable:
He founded Project Save in 2006. Its mission is to work hands-on to help prevent other men, women and children from entering into the cycle of homelessness and poverty.
He is an alumnus of the Emergency Men’s Shelter at 2100 Lakeside, and he returned to be a Food Service Director for seven years.
He Co-founded The Metanoia Project, focusing on the shelter-resistant population that no one else was able to serve.
For the last eight years, he’s run The Courage to Change program, successfully working with homeless men and women to give them to tools to literally find the courage to change their lives and get employed and off the streets.
Since 2011 is the director of the food service at St Herman’s House - Focus Cleveland and is also a caseworker and program director.
He speaks throughout Northeast Ohio to countless organizations, schools, churches, synagogues, and mosques—reaching out to children, adults, and families wherever he can. Listen in, as dig into the life of Carl Cook!
Follow The Black Culture Podcast on:
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/theblackculturepodcast
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/theblackculturepodcast/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/theblackcultur
Listen to The Black Culture Podcast on:
Apple: https://anchor.fm/s/4bceb01c/podcast/rss
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fna3xt
Google: https://bit.ly/3w7ZrbS
#blackculturepodcast #tbc
