A conversation with humanitarian and homelessness advocate Adina Lichtman

Are You Waiting For Permission?

Adina is from West Orange, New Jersey, and is now living in the East Village of NYC. She founded Knock Knock, Give a Sock, a Non-Profit focused on Humanizing Homelesness one sock at a time. KKGS is a nonprofit that collects socks for the homeless while also building relationships between neighbors living in homes and in shelters by bringing them together for dinner. Adina has also authored 2 children's books on homelessness. Adina believes these books and dinners can help humanize homelessness and change the way we interact with our neighbors on the streets. She also adds:

“One cold night in November, I was handing out sandwiches to people experiencing homelessness in NYC when one man approached me. “It’s great that you’re giving out sandwiches,” he said, “but one thing we really need is socks, especially as winter approaches.” Here I was, sandwiches in hand, assuming I knew the best way to help people. In reality, helping is about listening, and hearing the needs of different communities. It was a powerful lesson, and I wanted to put it into action. I began that night, with a simple step: I went door-to-door on my NYU dorm floor and knocked on everyone’s door. I asked if they would donate just one pair of their own socks to someone experiencing homelessness. To my surprise I got over 40 pairs of socks in a single night, from a single floor. The next morning I walked out of my dorm room to find a huge pile of socks in front of my door from other people who had heard of what happened. It started small, but I knew it was such a simple concept that it could easily be grown. College students love to do good, but sometimes they need a literal knock on their door to do so. And most everyone has an extra pair of socks they can donate. That’s when the initiative Knock Knock, Give a Sock was created.”

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Your hosts of Are You Waiting for Permission? are Meridith Grundei and Joseph Bennett. They're friends, co-hosts, actors, improvisers, and coaches. She lives in NYC and coaches actors, business professionals, and presenters to fully engage with their audience, and themselves. She also mentors young actors and directors. He lives in San Miguel de Allende, México, and coaches artists and other creative beings about the beautiful business of art — and life.

You can find Meridith: Meridith Grundei the performer artist gal. Or if you are looking to be a more confident and credible speaker, please reach out to Meridith here at Meridith Grundei Coaching

You can find Joseph at Joseph Bennett the artist/coach extraordinaire

*Special thanks to Amy Shelley and Gary Grundei of high fiction for letting us use their music for the Are You Waiting for Permission? podcast.

And... while the podcast is free, it's not cheap. We'd be thrilled to have your support on PATREON

Thank you.

Your hosts of Are You Waiting for Permission? are Meridith Grundei and Joseph Bennett. They're friends, co-hosts, actors, improvisers, and coaches. She lives in NYC and coaches actors, business professionals, and presenters to fully engage with their audience, and themselves. She also mentors young actors and directors. He lives in San Miguel de Allende, México, and coaches artists and other creative beings about the beautiful business of art — and life.

You can find Meridith: Meridith Grundei the performer artist gal. Or if you are looking to be a more confident and credible speaker, please reach out to Meridith here at Meridith Grundei Coaching

You can find Joseph at Joseph Bennett the artist/coach extraordinaire

*Special thanks to Amy Shelley and Gary Grundei of high fiction for letting us use their music for the Are You Waiting for Permission? podcast.

And... while the podcast is free, it's not cheap. We'd be thrilled to have your support on PATREON

Thank you.