For more than 25 years, my guest, Patricia Wilkins has worked across the United States and Ghana at the intersection of education, community development, youth opportunity, workforce development and social impact. As Founder and CEO of BASICS International, a nonprofit organisation committed to breaking cycles of poverty by creating pathways to education, opportunity and self-sustainability, her journey to this work has not been traditional.

She began her professional career in New York's fashion industry, working in fashion production and textiles before eventually leaving corporate America and moving into international service. Her work took her from New York to Russia and West Africa.

With a strong belief that where a child is born should never determine how far they can go, Patricia has been putting this belief into practice impacting 300,000 lives as BASICS celebrates 25 years of service to Ghanaian families.

In addition to her community development work, last year she penned her first book, So You Started a Nonprofit… Now What? - a practical and honest reflection on the realities of building and sustaining mission-driven organizations. As an author, social entrepreneur and creative, she is especially interested in the space where community, culture, technology, storytelling and good ideas come together to create meaningful change. And this what your’ll hear shine through in our conversation.

Where to find Patricia and BASICS International?
On LinkedIn or https://www.linkedin.com/company/basicsinternational/
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube
Show your support BASICS here!

What’s Patricia playing?
Magnetic Chess
Othello
Phase 10
Left Center Right

Other topics of interest:
A Brooklyn Story on Winthrop Street
A brief guide to Flatbush, Brooklyn
A short story about Chorkor, Ghana
About Camp Aklowah
About Shai Hills, Ghana
About Liberia’s Civil Wars
Abouth the Congo People, Americo-Liberians

Special Guest: Patricia Wilkins.

This week’s encore episode revisits a conversation with a fellow teammate and black woman in real estate, motivational speaker, 5-time Olympian representing the Bahamas, and #ChocolateCardinal, Jacqueline "Jackie" Edwards-Flowers.

As an adjunct to our collaboration with Black Women in Real Estate, which, so far taken us from London, via Nigeria and Barbados, to The South Bronx in the United States. Keeping local in the US, we’re traveling across the country from New York to California, via the Bahamas (and Jamaica) where we get into real estate from the value-added perspective. With a professional background spanning competitive sports, personal training, entrepreneurship--she founded a compressions socks company, and event planning, Jackie’s path in real estate is grounded in the know how and passion to apply her marketing, design and project management skills in getting to “Sold!”

Be sure to continue following our #BorderlessBuilding series, back next month, with another scaffolding conversation and Pan-African women’s real estate story (pun in tended 😉).

Where to find Jackie?
Gold Medal Home Staging and Design
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On Thumbtack
On Wikipedia

What's Jackie watching?
HGTV
The Bachelorette
The Bachelor
The Real Housewives of Atlanta

What's Jackie reading?
Crushing: God Turns Pressure into Power by T.D. Jakes

Other topics of interest:
Thomas Robinson Stadium
Frank Rutherford
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Brooks Johnson
Mike Powell
Meet Dr. Ross Flowers
Altra Running Shoes

Special Guest: Jacqueline "Jackie" Edwards-Flowers.