We Are All PerfectlyFlawed

Currently, 67% of our American population survives on less than $60,000 a year per household. The average cost of living ranges from $38,266 for a single person to $85,139 for a family of four. To live comfortably in a city, an individual needs to earn roughly $96,500 annually. Only 65 million people receive social assistance, such as food stamps, and the average participant can become dependent on such programs for 6-13 years on average. Only about 6.7 million people access peer support services of any kind. And while the percentage of U.S. adults receiving mental health treatment increased from 19.2% in 2019 to 21.6% in 2021, 42% of U.S. adults with a diagnosable condition reported in 2023 that they could not afford to access the treatment they needed.

What do all these numbers indicate? That a great number of Americans are struggling to survive, and the odds seem to be stacked against them. Despite this, or maybe because of this, Americans are also fighting to make it through and maybe make things just a little bit better in the end. We see this evidenced by more than 5 million new small businesses coming to market every year and new charitable nonprofits emerging at a rapid rate as well, particularly since COVID struck. The trouble is, many of these new products, services, and jobs remain out of reach for millions of people to access and thus generate business and social value that sustains. 

At the height of the most extreme social disconnection between generations ever seen, there has also been a sharp widening of the gap between employment offering financial security and those qualified to obtain this employment. Access to learning new skills and employers failing to evolve in the ways employees need are compounding this problem. The result of this can be measured in losses in revenue and profits, and rising food and housing insecurities, poverty, mental health conditions, and suicide at alarming rates. 

While the people are struggling, businesses too are facing their fair share of new pressures and challenges. High turnover, losses in sales, poor customer experience, flooded markets, and failing to understand the current evolution of commerce are common problems businesses of all sizes are trying to navigate. Roughly 50% of all small businesses fail in their first 5 years. With a variety of different factors which may contribute to these struggles, the fact is that they cost billions in lost revenue every year. 

The core of these problems is a lack of unity and collaboration. Independently, businesses struggling and people struggling both look like insurmountable challenges with no end in sight. Looking closer, we can also see that the worse one domain gets, the worse it makes the other. When people struggle, so do businesses, and vice versa. Currently, there is a disconnect between organizations, companies, government agencies, and the American people. 

We want to fix this. To start, we are forming coalitions of organizations, businesses, and initiatives under common domains. These coalitions and their community members continuously collaborate through groups, workshops, other projects, and annual summits to better get to know one another and to learn from and with each other. Utilizing the breadth of knowledge, wisdom, and experience of our coalitions and community members, we special cater audits, consultations, and trainings for companies to help them in overcoming their unique challenges. The result of this is a symbiotic relationship between the business world and the community at large. This relationship allows an exchange of information of what employers are seeking in employees and what employees and customers are seeking in companies, thus creating mutual stability and success. 

Another result of this relationship is our ability to provide our community with the resources they need to heal, grow, and connect. We are an agency of direct action, finding ways to remove or reduce the barriers folks face in getting their most basic needs met. We have big plans for our community, and we are prepared to do the work to get there. Beyond our workshops and other learning opportunities, we are generating robust and unique concepts for housing access, food sharing, transportation access, 1:1 action-based peer support, community cash infusions, and rebuilding localized communities with the guidance of the folks living there. We believe in the collective wisdom and goodness of people, and we are here to bring us together with the things that matter to us all. 

From Jayme, Executive Co-Director:

A little over two years ago, I started to pursue this vision of an organization that was steered by the community with an objective of uplifting our communities in the most important ways possible. Since our humble beginnings of a couple of meetings a month, we have hosted dozens of workshops, countless peer support spaces, a plethora of social gatherings and events, and council meetings. We were able to incorporate our non-profit organization, PerfectlyFlawed Productions, and we learned a LOT along the way.  

Earlier this year, we recognized that we needed a brief period to pause our events and recalibrate, so we took this summer to do just that. Now, we are prepared to share with you the new PFP. First, we have renamed the non-profit as the PerfectlyFlawed People’s Foundation to better establish its purpose of directing charitable funds to the resource accessibility initiatives hosted by the foundation. Next, we have decided to incorporate PerfectlyFlawed Productions, the for-profit company. In short, there are many factors which make this a company unlike any other, starting with hiring practices and stretching far beyond the services we offer.

We have three main objectives. First, we want to unite organizations and initiatives across the nation which have aligning domains of interest. The purpose of uniting them is to begin deep, ongoing collaboration so that all may learn for each other and leverage the wisdom in their own practices. Second, we want to create a centralized resource hub which our community can access for ridiculously low-cost workshops centered around real skills and tools folks need to progress in this world. By bringing our coalitions and communities together, we’re able to generate real content, dialogue, and relationships which helps rebuild communities in real time. Lastly, we are going to utilize all of this rich collaboration to audit, consult, and train outside companies in the areas businesses are most in need of support, such as high employee turnover or evolution challenges.

We have a rigorous business plan to generate substantial income which will not only allow us to employ upward of 60 people within the first 5-10 years, but also will also allow us to generously give back to our community members most in need of support with things like alternative financial assistance and permanent housing. Yes, we have a keen eye on creating life-changing profits, but we have an even sharper eye on how we can utilize the successes of the company to truly support our communities towards better living. We’re on a mission to set new standards in business and prove that a company can be a pure social enterprise while still rewarding people most vested in the company.

Currently, we have a fundraising goal of $20,000. This amount will cover certain filing fees, necessary business subscriptions to our platforms, legal fees, marketing materials, and a small amount of payroll for 3 employees. This small amount of seed money will secure PFP’s future and our ability to launch an incredible project. This will also give us better support when we reach out to investors or large donors in the very near future. What we are asking for now is your support in helping us to reach this goal so that we may support others in their growth.