Today we’d like to introduce you to Katrina Hobbs Everett.
Katrina, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
For some reason I always have such a hard time knowing where to start. I guess it makes the most sense to start by saying that fate and faith have shaped all that my life is today. I don’t really remember at what age I met my current husband, but I know he came to ask me out on a date the night I was on my first unofficial date with my now Ex-husband.
He never ended up asking and I spent almost 12 years married to my X and in the midst of my divorce, my current husband confessed his long-standing love for me. We were very good friends already so what ended up forming was a partnership. In addition to being life partners, we quickly became business partners as well.
He came with a long-standing idea that I never wanted to pay attention to, which ironically fit perfectly with my hearts’ passion and my vision for expanding the existing nonprofit I had let go of at the time. The result was the birthing vision of Power of Self-Education (POSE) Inc. We started doing the work of POSE in 2010 through our local church by helping friends and family that would contact us for guidance, counseling, advise and other aspects of social-emotional help.
Once the favors became consistent enough to warrant weekly scheduled time to assist, we decided it was time to incorporate. We incorporated in April of 2014 and shortly after became a 501 c(3) nonprofit. Since that time we have grown our scope of services, population served, and volunteer base. Currently we have been blessed to bring the vision of POSE to a healthy place where there are growing collaborations and fruitful endeavors that lead to positive outcomes for those we serve.
We always started with ourselves and led by example demonstrating the power of self-education, research, empowerment, and action. It has helped us to sustain momentum to carry out our passion for community work, while balancing our blended family of 9 (inclusive of our combined crew of 7 children ranging from age 2 to age 17).
Faith and family are the foundations of everything for us, and we rely heavily on our personal relationship with God, and small group of faithful friends who inspire and motivate us. Relationships and connection is what its all about. True community. My journey into who I am today was largely formed by leadership programs in College that gave me a platform, and mentors that challenged me but also gave me the encouragement, confidence and support to grow into who they knew I could be.
They saw a leader in me and helped to cultivate me until I was confident enough to see that leader in me as well, they stayed with me until I was confident enough to stand on my own. That has become my personal life mission to inspire, encourage, and motivate all who I encounter. It is my way of paying it forward.
I am really excited for this next season because my husband and I are in the process of launching our own business to do public and motivational speaking, trainings, consulting, media solutions and art programming. I am also writing a memoir which should be completed soon.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. There have been many challenges along the way. I am what I call a “recovering introvert” so I had times where my anxiety would win and prevent me from growing fully in certain areas, but I always had my faith to fall back on. My most impactful mentor was my professor Jane Gagliardi.
Honestly, I credit so much to her helping me in some of my darkest moments. Her calm, firm, practical voice brought me back to center. She would look me square in my eye and tell me that I WAS going to make it, and not only make it but I was going to THRIVE. It was a challenge I always accepted.
Being a female CEO of color has also brought its fair share of challenges. Especially with my commitment to challenge bias, power, privilege and promote equity in settings, situations, and systems where people are not accustomed to talking about challenging topics such as race, or implicit bias. I have grown into quite an expert in having difficult conversations.
In fact, I have found that after 20 years in Human Services and dealing with crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques, that it has equipped me quite well to confidently hold people accountable AND keep them safe, in the challenging space of the uncomfortable that comes with the commitment of being constructively disruptive for the best possible outcomes.
I believe that we as humans tend to grow best when we become a little uncomfortable. I welcome challenges because they naturally trigger thought and require me to get creative as well as increasing my faith.
Please tell us about Power of Self-Education (POSE) Inc.
POSE Inc. started in 2010 and incorporated in April 2014 with the state of Massachusetts. Our motto is: “Empowering communities through education” Power of Self-Education (POSE) Inc. is a faith-based community engagement & advocacy organization. Our mission is “to inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen communities”.
We envision communities where all individuals have the opportunity for a higher quality of life including (but not limited to):
*Education
*Employment
*Food, clothing, and shelter
*Health (mental, physical, and spiritual wellness)
*Rich cultural offerings
*The ability to connect and give back to the community
Our Core Values:
*Community: We listen to and learn from our communities. Our goal is to identify the causes of community problems and connect individual or group needs to the appropriate resources.
*Equity: We strive for equity and we focus primarily, but not exclusively, on people who are vulnerable.
*Inclusiveness: We practice and champion inclusiveness in our communities. We honor diverse strengths, needs, voices, and backgrounds of all members of our communities.
*Empathy: We value the personal experiences and journeys of all in our communities. We believe working in unison to foster understanding and to create a partnership between all parties involved.
*Leadership: We believe in empowering community leaders to invigorate social and civic engagement.
*Thought-provoking: We believe in the engagement of thought-provoking conversations about the positive and negative factors that impact individuals in our communities.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Family cookouts. I loved the safe freedom of playing in my own backyard, swimming, swinging, riding my bike jumping rope, etc… and still being able to see my family all over the yard talking, laughing, and just being happy. My mother will be 80 in September, and my dad is 82. As time passes it seems to steal moments from us, so these fond memories of my dad on the grill, or working in the yard and just being a great dad are what I hold on to most. They mean everything to me.
Contact Info:
- Address: 409 Washington St. Haverhill, Ma. 01832
- Website: http://poseinc.org
- Phone: 978-457-3676
- Email: kateverett@poseinc.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poseinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POSEInc.org/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/POSEInc
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinahobbseverett/
Image Credit:
Alison Colby-Campbell
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