The Shriver Report – Women with Drive: How One Organization is Giving Women a Lift
Navigation

Special Edition

Women with Drive: How One Organization is Giving Women a Lift
Fotolia_56090482_WomeninCar

© Nobilior – Fotolia.com

When Molly Cantrell-Kraig was let go from her job, she knew she was at a crossroads. She had to decide between finding another traditional media job, or taking a chance to build an organization that she believed could enhance the lives of women in need.

She chose to take the leap of faith and the Women with Drive Foundation was born.

Since lack of transportation can hinder those in poverty from seeking and keeping a job, the non-profit organization gives women in transition a car for two years. In exchange for the transportation, the women must participate in an assessment that identifies their individual barriers to independence, then sets them up with a foundation advisor who assists them on a two-year journey to help them become independent.

As they state on their website – the organization does not give a hand out. Instead, “This short-term intervention identifies stalled women with drive and provides a needed jump-start to liberate them and their children from dependence on welfare.

We provide access to a car…she provides the drive.”

Women with Drive has been drawing the attention of many since its inception, due to their tangible resources for women and their inspiring leadership. Most recently, Cantrell-Kraig was honored as one of CNN10: Visionary Women in honor of Women’s History Month in March 2014, and featured as one of 32 global influencers in Social Media and Inspirational Leadership by The Huffington Post in 2013.

We caught up with Cantrell-Kraig to ask about her seed of inspiration and lessons she has learned along the way – jump-starting her own life, and now helping others do the same.

 

TSR: What was the seed of inspiration that sparked Women with Drive?

Cantrell-Kraig: The woman we strive to serve was me 25 years ago, when I returned to college as a nontraditional, single mother. My oldest daughter was 4 months old when I went back to school. I didn’t have a car, so a friend who was a welder at a nearby factory drove me to college, dropping me off at a burger place across from campus where I did homework until classes began. I refuse to believe that I am the only driven woman in the United States who wishes to build a better life for herself and her children, and so we created something in WWDF that can facilitate her evolution and transition.

TSR: You have mentioned that you started Women with Drive during a down time for you when you were between work. What was the hardest part of starting over, and taking the risk to start your own organization during that time in your life?

Cantrell-Kraig: The hardest part was deciding where to start. I had never established a nonprofit, although I had served on various boards. I failed forward for about 18 months. Not having a clear template was frustrating for me, because I am used to succeeding. “Failing” was humbling and enriching at the same time. I am forever grateful to the people who helped me learn.

TSR: What was the hardest obstacle you faced in getting your organization up and running?

Cantrell-Kraig: My own procrastination, which was rooted in insecurity. Once I learned that action is the cure to failure, it became easier to move through iterations of our model. We learn to ride a bike through skinning our knees. Once I internalized that building WWDF was a different type of bicycle, I moved faster.

TSR: What has been the best piece of advice that someone gave you along the way?

Cantrell-Kraig: 1. Focus. 2. Try things out. 3. Try again. My biggest challenge was learning how to clarify and distill the Oort Cloud in my head and communicating clearly to others. To give advice, I would recommend building what I refer to as my Margaret Mead Crazy People Inner Sanctum. I literally had three people in my orbit that, regardless of the time of day, if I texted, “I’m not crazy, and this will all work out,” their stock answer was, “You’re not crazy, and this will all work out.”

TSR: What has most surprised you about your journey – whether it be about starting an organization, starting over or the work you do with women in various transitions in their lives?

Cantrell-Kraig: How much of me I’ve yet to discover. That there is always another layer to us ~ one that is obscured by whatever our current perceptions of ourselves that currently exists. Much as you can’t give what you don’t have, I’ve had to build a model that can support others’ journeys. It reminds me of two quotes from Jim Rohn: “Success is something you attract and accumulate by the person you become.” and “The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it.”

It’s exhilarating to find that you are reflected in those you choose to allow within your orbit. It’s liberating to understand that you are the driver of your life. We become ourselves by building ourselves for others. What a rush.

 

molly-1057 copyAccording to a national study, the number one reason welfare to work programs fail is lack of reliable transportation. Herself a former single mother, Molly Cantrell-Kraig established Women With Drive Foundation in order to build a collaborative solution to systemic generational poverty with a focus on providing not only the missing element of transportation, but the necessary component of process and structure for the participants they serve.

Included among the CNN10: Visionary Women in honor of Women’s History Month (March 2014), and featured as one of 32 global influencers in Social Media and Inspirational Leadership by The Huffington Post in February 2013, Cantrell-Kraig moved to Chicago in order to learn how to scale their organization nationally. Over the three years’ prior, Women With Drive Foundation had received requests for cars from women in Jordan, Senegal, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Romania. Since being featured in the Huffington Post and on CNN, they have received requests to open chapters across the country.

Also a speaker covering topics as varied as building relationships between entrepreneurs and the media, women, poverty, social entrepreneurism, tech and impact investing, Cantrell-Kraig has appeared as either a speaker or panelist at NextGen:Charity in New York City; TechWeek Chicago and Pitch Week, Chicago. She was also invited to attend the premier episode of the Ricki Lake Show, in Los Angeles, where the episode featured online communities that had an impact offline.

Cantrell-Kraig also serves as a featured blogger for Successful Blog, appearing on Sundays.