{"id":31516,"date":"2017-06-06T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T13:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=31516"},"modified":"2019-03-05T12:01:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:01:14","slug":"ep19-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/ep19-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep.19: Second Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-31516\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-31516\" class=\"sm2-31516 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover ;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"spp-player-background\"> 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class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Fif_Ghobadian_Road_22_Podcast_FINAL_2.mp3\">Ep.19: Second Chances<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" class=\"webui-popover-content share-buttons\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a 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Ghobadian and Alice Larkin Cahan of Road Twenty-Tw\" width=\"998\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape.jpg 998w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-525x283.jpg 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-768x414.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-300x162.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-100x54.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-862x465.jpg 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/22225135\/Road22_Fif-Alice-Kasey-OConnell_landscape-846x456.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 998px) 100vw, 998px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31524\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kasey O&#8217;Connel, Fif Ghobadian and Alice Larkin Cahan of Road Twenty-Two (Credit: Road Twenty-Two)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fif Ghobadian created San Francisco fashion brand<a href=\"https:\/\/roadtwentytwo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Road Twenty-Two<\/a> to provide jobs for women released from prison. The Iran-born entrepreneur, whose family fled the 1979 Revolution, says life in America gave her a special appreciation for second chances.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/orange-black-inspired-luxury-tshirt-company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See related article and video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>SUE: (as music plays lightly in the background) You\u2019re listening to Good on the Ground...<\/p>\n<p>VARIOUS VOICES: ...Good on the Ground...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...You\u2019re listening to Good on the Ground from The Story Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: So there are a lot of socially responsible companies, however, not that many, that focus on the formerly incarcerated.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Hi, I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And I\u2019m Sue Williams.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: This is the Story Exchange and today...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...we\u2019ve got a pretty amazing  story to tell you.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: It\u2019s about second chances...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...the Iranian revolution...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...and fashion.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: This will all makes sense in just a little bit.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: So, for this \u201cGood on the Ground\u201d podcast, we\u2019re headed to Northern California...<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I am Fif Ghobadian, founder of Road 22.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...to talk with an extraordinary woman...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...who\u2019s using the power of business...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...to tackle one of today\u2019s most pressing social issues.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Sit back, give it a listen and prepare to be inspired.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>FIF: Road 22 is a fashion brand with a social mission to employ women who\u2019ve been formerly incarcerated.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: We\u2019re inside Road 22\u2019s warehouse, in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: That burgundy looks pretty bloody good on you.<br \/>\n-I know, thank you. I\u2019ve been asking Sheri can I have one. I\u2019m going to represent Road 22.<br \/>\n-You already represent Road 22.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: The women are part of the fabric of our company and we create great clothes that you never want to take off.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Road 22 makes high-end luxury tee shirts.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: I think you call it urban clothing.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: It\u2019s $75 tee shirts, basically.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: They\u2019re expensive. Right.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: That\u2019s part of the strategy.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: And the reason the shirts were more on the fashion end and higher priced is because it\u2019s to bring awareness to a segment of the population that can make a difference. If you take it to someone who normally buys a designer shirt for like, $115, and now you bring this message across, maybe eventually people will realize this is a problem.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The social problem that Fif is talking about is the severe lack of opportunity for women released from prison.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: So when you get out of prison the way the system works is you get $200 and the money for your bus fare is taken out of that. And you\u2019re dropped by the bus in the downtown closest to the city to where you live and it\u2019s in the worst neighborhoods. So a lot of these women end up being homeless.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Just think about it...what are these women supposed to do? They have basically no money, no job, maybe nowhere safe to stay. And add to that, many struggle with addiction.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And not many employers will even take a chance on women like this.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: 70% of the people who get incarcerated end up back in the system. If life gives you a bad card how do you undo that? How do you reverse the hands of fate and go back on track?<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Fif came up with the idea for Road 22 in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I actually was reading Orange Is The New Black. I\u2019m reading Orange Is The New Black going, \u201cOh my God.\u201d It\u2019s kind of crazy, right. This woman goes to jail after ten years for something really minor, so I started, you know, at nights I would look on the Internet, people who got incarcerated, and it\u2019s, kind of the facts kind of shocked me.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world...when it comes to women, the female prison population is nearly eight times higher than it was in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And most women in state prisons -- about two-thirds of them -- are there for non-violent crime.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: What scared me is that once you cross that line and you\u2019re incarcerated it\u2019s almost impossible to come back into society.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: So Fif -- whose background is not fashion-related at all --<\/p>\n<p>SUE: No, she\u2019s actually a very successful mortgage broker.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She decided to create a socially minded company that would hire former female prisoners.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I thought, \u201cYou know what, I want to kind of do something to make, that makes a difference.\u201d I always thought it\u2019d be great to create clothes that competes with like, The Gap but it\u2019s cool, like tee shirts, sweatshirts that really felt good, that looked good, and then I married the two ideas.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: She found a design partner, Alice Larkin Cahan, and the two decided to start Road 22.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We jumped into it.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Fif actually sold a $300,000 investment property that was supposed to pay for her kids\u2019 college.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: Something inside me was really calling for it. So I sold the house, took the funds, and invested in the company.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: They paid several visits to the Central California Women\u2019s Facility in Chowchilla, California. That\u2019s the largest female prison in the U.S. People call it Chowchilla.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Their first idea was to have women in prison make the clothes.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: Yeah, so originally we thought we\u2019d just, we\u2019d do the work within the prison, create the shirts there while the women are there, right, captive group, they save the money, they can use that towards their future.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The vision didn\u2019t quite match reality.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: Just going to visit the prison took months to get clearance. Once you get in there, the women who they hire in their sewing facilities, they are lifers and these women get 50 cents an hour. It\u2019s probably the most heartbreaking scene I\u2019ve ever seen. These women work eight hours a day, they get 50 cents an hour, so for them to get paid by us is actually slave labor.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Fif and Alice decided instead to make Road 22\u2019s tee shirts in a commercial sewing factory in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And everything else is done in a warehouse, also in San Francisco, and there they hire formerly incarcerated women to fold, trim and package the company\u2019s products.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But the trips to Chowchilla have certainly had a lasting impact...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...including the name of the fashion label.<br \/>\nFIF: When I went to visit Chowchilla it was interesting because we drove on the Road 22, and Road 22 is the road in and out of Chowchilla but we, we refer to it as the road out of Chowchilla because it\u2019s the road out of that system.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We\u2019ve been sharing the story of Fif Ghobadian, who started Road 22 in 2014 with her partner Alice Larkin Cahan. Back at the beginning of this podcast...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...we mentioned something about the Iranian revolution.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: That\u2019s because Fif was born in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We were living quite comfortably, then the revolution happened.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: This, of course, was in the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I\u2019ve seen in my life what life is like when you have everything plus more. And then at a very young age I saw the extreme opposite.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The revolution led to the brutal death of many of her parents\u2019 friends.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Fif was 15 when she fled with her family, first to London, then eventually to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I came here in 1979 and went to school in Marin, which was quite shocking. We grew up really affluent in Iran so it was a pretty comfortable life all the way through, and then the reality hit that assets were frozen in Iran, my dad couldn\u2019t go back, and my parents had to claim bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Fif managed to attend Claremont Colleges near Los Angeles, but not without some financial struggle.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: My senior in college, my mom actually sold her wedding ring for me to graduate.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: When I spoke with Fif she really stressed the notion that life can go from good to bad very quickly.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: You can tell she has seen a lot in her life. I interviewed her on camera for our video profile -- you can watch it at TheStoryExchange.org -- and we talked about her family\u2019s situation. Let\u2019s listen...<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We were here for about a year before my father like, lost all his money.<\/p>\n<p>SUE (from tape): It must\u2019ve been terrible for your father, this gradually slipping down the economic ladder.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: A huge slip for him. So the concept of all of a sudden not having money was shocking, but in addition to that, looking for jobs. So, I remember my mom when I grew up didn\u2019t even know where the kitchen in the house was. Like, we always would have sit-down meals, the food would be served, it was a very, you know, different life. When we came here and money ran out not only did she sell her wedding ring, she also had to get a job at Macy\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Fif remembers how her father struggled...<\/p>\n<p>FIF: The only thing he could do, because his English wasn\u2019t great, was managing apartments. And I vividly remember him like looking in the paper, circling phone numbers, calling for those jobs. And I think that is actually what planted the seed of what money can do for you in your life and what privileges it gives you.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Her father was never able to recover financially, at least not in the U.S. He eventually returned to Iran, and died in September 2016.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: You can be the same person and you can have such a life with so many doors opening. And then you can all of a sudden lose all your money and there\u2019s not a single door that opens. So hence why there\u2019s this whole compassion within me to give people opportunities and to kind of break that barrier.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>RACHAEL: I was homeless for like, three or four or five years...I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s kind of blurry. And then I got arrested and was looking at some substantial prison time.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: That is Rachael Dunne. She used to be hooked on drugs, spent time in the county jail -- after that, she says she\u2019d go on job interviews, they\u2019d do a background check, and she\u2019d never get a call back. Until she went to Road 22. This soundbite comes courtesy of media site called HooplaHa.<\/p>\n<p>RACHAEL: When we were having our interview, they, you know, asked some tough questions and I gave them the answers -- they weren\u2019t shocked and appalled or like -- mmm --  they were just like, \u201cOh.\u201d They were interested in how it happened, and how those skills might be transferrable. And it was just, it was warm and welcoming.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Fif says Rachel has undergone a transformation since joining Road 22 a few years ago. In fact, Rachel is now the company\u2019s customer care manager.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: The most gratifying is seeing how the women change. Seeing the fact that they get an opportunity, that they\u2019re actually able to buy clothes for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: There are challenges, however.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We\u2019re dealing with people who have negative self-esteem. They feel like they\u2019re not worth anything so trust is a huge factor.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: There\u2019s a lot of training, and a lot of tough love.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We have one woman who came, who\u2019s part of our organization, who started out and she was really hung up on methadone, which is the drug they give people who are coming off heroin. And she actually was working with us but she was coming in late, she was falling asleep on the job, and so we basically said, \u201cYou know what, out. You can\u2019t do it.\u201d And she went, she went cold turkey, got off methadone, came back and she\u2019s been like the most reliable employee.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Road 22 is like a cross between a social service agency and a fashion line.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Exactly. The hiring decisions they make are completely different than most companies.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: All she need is a social worker or case manager.<br \/>\n-Really?<br \/>\n-Mm hm.<br \/>\n-And that still takes six month to a year?<br \/>\n-It might take less than that because she\u2019s homeless. It depends on her situation.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: To date, they\u2019ve hired 8 formerly incarcerated women.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And looking ahead, Fif says she\u2019ll hire more as soon as Road 22 grows.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: It\u2019s tough, definitely tough but I think we don\u2019t have the infrastructure that we wanted to have. Because we just don\u2019t have enough people, we don\u2019t have enough money, we, our sales need to get bigger, we need to get more exposure so that we can provide what we need to provide, right.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: They are facing lots of challenges, that\u2019s for sure. But Fif is really determined. To reach more people, they\u2019re expanding Road 22\u2019s product line.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: We want to have the fashion brand continue and we want to create a lower-priced line, a little less detail in the shirts that we can use for corporate marketing, corporate branding, because that\u2019s more volume generated, quicker turnaround, higher revenue.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: The company\u2019s shirts are now sold in about 200 stores.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Last year, the company broke even; this year, Fif told me they hope to reach the million-dollar mark in sales.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And did we mention Fif still works as a mortgage broker?<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Which is incredible, doing both.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: The goal is that Road 22 will grow to the point where I don\u2019t have to be a mortgage broker and work on Road 22. Currently doing both is pretty...creates a pretty fast-paced world.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We started this podcast talking about second chances...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Fif is certainly doing her part to make sure women are getting them.<\/p>\n<p>FIF: I love seeing people wear the clothes. That\u2019s fantastic. But, you know, I think the most gratifying is the change in the women\u2019s lives. You know, just even if we change four people\u2019s lives, right, that\u2019s a big change.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Our thanks to Fif Ghobadian at Road 22.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Join us next time to hear more stories about innovative and inspirational women doing the things you\u2019d never dream of. Or...maybe you would. This has been The Story Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: If you liked this podcast, please post a review on iTunes. It helps other people find the show. And visit our website at TheStoryExchange.org, where you\u2019ll find news, videos and tips for women entrepreneurs. Sound editing provided by Nusha Balyan. Interview recorded by Richard Neil. Executive producers are Sue Williams and Victoria Wang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran-born Fif Ghobadian created San Francisco fashion brand Road Twenty-Two to provide jobs for women released from prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":31517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[19843,20228,19682],"class_list":["post-31516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-fashion-industry","tag-social-responsibility","tag-women-empowerment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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