Transcripts For CSPAN2 Kat 20240705

Notes from an accidental activist. Kat is also founder executive director of spread vote and project id and the cofounder and ceo of the project id action fund. In addition to being named one of times magazines six people and groups fighting for a more equal america, kat has been featured in the New York Times times, the Washington Post atlantic, essence glamor, npr, pbs, betty and marie claire and. Those are just a few. Thank you for being here, kat. Thanks glamorous. Its a weird one to throw in there. Its like npr washington than glamor. Glamor cosmo girl, my favorite. And i was like, oh, finally im an it girl. I mean, glamor. Yes, i in pr, i want cosmopolitan. Yes its just so just a reminder that the southern of books remains completely because of Strong Communities and we want to keep it that way. Thank you. Firstly, our key sponsors, Metro Nashville arts commission, ingram content group, the tennessee arts commission, Vanderbilt University and books. You can donate on the web at ww dark humanities, tennessee dawg the humanities tennessee at the tennessee headquarters or year via venmo at hq. M t n hum ten please also visit humanities tennessees online literary publication, chapter 16, which i write for at chapter 16 dot org. So the way that weve structured this is that kat is going to read for us, well return for a conversation between kat and i and then well open it up for. Q a and also, as a reminder, we arrive at the q a portion. Please use the microphone upfront to make sure that everybody can hear you and that it correctly transmit to the folks watching via cspan. Okay so take it away. Kat well, thank you. I was just. Kashif my grandmother was a librarian and i love librarians so i am so excited to be here with three amazing librarians and also you guys cspan booktv the best tv. Im so this is book. Its pink, its beautiful american identity and crisis notes from an accidental activist and im going to read i think just four short sections will help sort of orient us to what book is its short so you can read it in a weekend. I did that on purpose, so hopefully will find it entertaining. So ill start with the first passage. From the first chapter i. Chapter one. Doesnt everybody have an idea my first ever id client was miss ella. She was born in either 42 or 1947 and had lived in georgia. All of her life. I had been trying to someone to trust us enough to let us help them get their id when. A Partner Organization in atlanta called gary a man. I would get to know well had called and asked if someone could help his family friend miss l. A. , an i. D. , she was ailing from four types of cancer at the same time, and she needed an id to get medical care. Gary had known miss ella his entire life and she had helped him nurse his father through cancer. So now he was the favor. But miss ella didnt have any documents sure. Of her real birth date and didnt think shed ever even had a birth. So gary had no idea to turn. I jumped on case with extreme fervor. I really wanted to get our first i. D. , but it was also immediately clear that miss ellas life depended on it. If i miss ella now, it would still be a real challenge, but we would be able to help her. We know so much more now. We did back then about getting ids at the time. My small team and i did everything we could. A volunteer went to marcellus house in rural georgia and found old insurance policy and newspaper clippings that we might have been able to use as proof of life for a delayed certificate. Incredibly Elementary School still had her transfer. In some states you can use a birth record and a family bible, a birth certificate substitute, but only the preacher who wrote the record was still alive to sign an affidavit. Miss ellas childhood minister. Most certainly was not. We didnt know then that we could submit a freedom of information act request to the Social Security administration for an obscure called a new modern record to confirm her birth. We know that now, even after we figured out how to make request in a way that the ssa would accept, it still takes months to hear back after a while with no success finding a suitable birth document and with ms. Ellas Health Declining every day, we decided to try for a passport. Theoretically, with enough of life documents, you can get a passport, a birth certificate, getting a passport is tough in a different way than a department of Motor Vehicles i. D. Is tough. And getting a passport is much more expensive. But it was worth a shot. It took more one try to get marcella to the post office to apply for her passport because she kept having emergencies. Eventually got her there, applied with a mountain, documents that the passport employee thought wasnt sure would work and waited and waited and waited. And then rejection devastated. We read the reasoning. None of the documents were acceptable as proof of citizenship and decided try again as we were to find more documents. Ms. Ellis sister. She had found ms. Ellis birth. I almost shrieked with joy. I arranged to meet with gary and allowed to take her to the dmv. On my way he called. Miss ella had been rushed to the hospital she couldnt make it to the dmv and it turned out that she never would. She died a few days later, more than a year after we started her id journey. My first client would also be the one who never got an i. D. I think about myself every day. She is the reason that we must make it easier to get an id she is the reason that i do i do. So so im i have this little section in the book where i go through try to describe in excruciating why its so difficult for people to get an id because that is a question get all the time i am in so im just to walk you through step one first step you have to prove your identity. This is usually done with a birth certificate with which 57 of our clients dont have. An side note 15 to 18 million American Adults dont have. Their birth certificate or citizenship records. 68 of adults in the country. Take a second and think about where your birth certificate is. Do you know . If so, congratulations are one of the very few people who can immediately pull it up. For most who have homes and stability, their birth certificate is still a wild ride. Now try being someone who has moved a lot or was evacuated of hurricane or wildfires. Or perhaps you like one of our clients whose mother always kept documents, but then her mother passed away and our clients arent immediately threw. Everything the mother owned include our clients birth certificate. The day youre born, youre good at two things pooping and i think i dont know a lot about babies, so maybe they dont poop day one. If so, then all youre good at crying, maybe eating. Do they sleep . This is not a book about babies. The point is, one thing that i know, babies sure are not good at is holding on to documents. So lets say that youre one of these unorganized babies who keep a few pieces of paper together and 34 years later, you need an id and for that you need a birth certificate. If you go to vital records and ask for birth, theyll ask you for your id. So what next . Well, a little website vital check, which well talk about in chapter three. That is a life, but also one of the most absurdly challenging ways to prove your identity short of literally chopping off a finger and putting it in the mail. Its also expensive. It costs us 30 to 90 to get a birth certificate. This and dont be a naturalized who needs a new certificate of naturalized option. Those puppies cost as much as one pair of chloe flats are 69 reasonably priced burritos. 555 for a document that the government can literally print out at any and perhaps you were in puerto rico and need a new birth certificate. Our should be a 52nd state after washington d. C. Well, first of all pr recently invalidated id all birth certificates from before first 2010. So yes you do need a new one second until very recently, you needed everything to be done inperson on npr after hurricane maria, we had to have a street team, puerto rico running around getting notarized and signed for the many evacuees we were helping in orlando. So hopefully you have someone at home. And what if you born in a country where perhaps the administrative are not as easily navigable other places its an adventure. You cant just walk into the dmv, prove that you were, in fact born because you are in fact standing there. You need a piece of paper to prove it. But lets say youve done that. Hurrah you have a birth certificate, youve accomplished step one, which i am so the next part is the book. While talking the id crisis and our clients and what it looks like, i also talk a lot our journey starting the organization because my process of learning about this and how hard it is is the same process that everybody goes through. I am. And so in this section i talk. When i arrived in virginia to start our chapter there, having been in georgia, i am and i the change we made and how things sort of shifted for us. When i arrived in virginia, i immediately meeting with groups of potential volunteers and training them. We met in living rooms, restaurants, library, conference rooms, wherever we could. The and enthusiasm of the volunteer the same. But my approach changed i started by talking about the need for ideas in their communities. I shared a Washington Post article about how difficult it is to obtain ids and how much it matters in peoples lives. I told the volunteers that 225,000 registered voters in virginia did not have id that they needed to vote a karen in the audience once me that i didnt need to lie and exaggerate to make a point i showed her the exact study that proved that these numbers were accurate. But as angry as i was at her approach. I wasnt by her skepticism. It was clear very early that knew how big this problem was. After i got through the basics, i told these prospective volunteers that the most important thing we needed to do was find partners not Voting Rights partners, not political groups, not Voter Registration organizations, partners were serving the same demographic that we wanted to serve homeless shelters, food banks, free clinics. I had realized in that long car ride from georgia that we were doing the wrong way. We needed go where people were trusted and where we be validated. It only took a few phone calls for me to learn that these organizations were well aware of the id problem, that their entire communities were full people who needed ids, and that organizations did not have the funding expertise or manpower themselves to get people ids. I found our opening in arlington. We found our first partner fish and loaves was a popular food bank that jumped at the to have us come set up a table and take on id clients we had finished building a brand new online form courtesy of the hard working volunteers at ragtag, this incredible form which we still use, allows us to distill all of the information that we need to determine exactly. Our clients need to get an id into simple online answer tree. And that first day i had only practiced it a few times and i wasnt even sure how well it worked on mobile phones. Our goal to arrive at the shelter a bit early, set up our laptops and paperwork, do a little on the Ground Training and then hope that maybe a few people would show up who needed ids. I drove up to the church in my steadfast prius and lugged my bags full of gear past a parking lot full of people inside. Incredibly kind Staff Members showed me to a table and soon the three volunteers meeting me showed up. I was just about to start unpacking when the staff member yelled if anyone needs an id, these folks will help you. It was a rush. A rush to the table. And before we knew what was happening, there was line out the door. So for setup and training, we grabbed our phones pulled up the intake forms and the next 2 hours in taking client after client after with no hesitation told us their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers. They pulled out long expired ids, medicare cards and tattered birth certificates. They told us their life stories, stories of loss and struggle addiction and incarceration. And a lot of hope, mostly hope. They asked if we would really help get their ids and confess that they didnt have any money. Thats okay. We said well pay for it. I did not at that moment know how i was going to pay for it. My poor amex was already under the weight of my now fourth month on the road, but i knew that no matter, what happened . I would find a way. At the end of the 2 hours we packed up our gear looked at one another for a long time until staff member that we would be back next week. I got in my car and cried we had finally figured it out. But thats so powerful that is so powerful. So in the book you talk about people who had not had ids for, some of them for decades. And when they were at the moment of register for an id and you were working with them, they did not believe they were actually to get the id. Can you talk about what that was like when they finally those of them who did get it, that moment of was it relief was it still disbelief . What was going on in that moment . So one of the things that i have learned is how how much people who have been let down over and over and over again, the government, by the system, by people who say theyre going to help them, dont actually believe that anything will ever happen. And its happens all the time. People come up and say, well, someone said, you can get my birth certificate, but i dont believe it and i get it because i see it now. Ive been in the system so long and i see how everything. Alm thats supposed help fails over and over again im and so a few things happened. We have ive had ron crying in my car because they got an i. D. Or birth certificate and they didnt think they ever were going to i. One of the things people say often is im a person again because you just youre not you dont exist without an i. D. , i am a lot people will ask us or our volunteers, like, where can i apply for a job, like the first thing they want to do is apply for a job. Im or they know like, oh, now i can go to the case manager because now i can get housing or whatever and theyre like, oh, they know what they want. But theyre, you know, theyre so excited to jump because they, they have the key to open all the doors that have been closed to them. I am theres its always theres always a lot of excitement. Theres always a lot of relief but, you know, theres always a lot of emotion. Im, you know, always people just saying thank you and. I, i, i always feel terrible because i was they dont thank me like this is just a thing you should done. And im just like the person doing it. But like, i dont, you know, i feel guilty when people show so much gratitude because its, its a thing you should just have. Im, you know, its it is always. It is what we volunteers who would start with us and be really and a little scared you know like lot of people whove never even dealt with folks unhoused or formerly incarcerated or whatever i am and then inevitably you get the first person your id and you see and realize like, oh my god, this persons life just changed. Its like, this is why this has become my lifes, because weve helped 11,000 people get ideas and i, i cant not do that because. I know what that does for each person. Yeah. The the what the stories that stood out to me was the person who got his id and then immediately went and signed up for the national guard. Oh yeah. I was like, oh, okay. That great. He wasnt playing. He said, you know, his he felt that it was his duty, protect where he lives and where he lives as america. And so it was surprising, but its interesting. One of the things that you say also in the book, which i think really ties the book together is we are helping people get ids so that they live the lives that they want to live, not the lives that we wish to upon them. And i think that speaks to the universality, the work, but also, you know, some people would read this book and say, oh she wants more ids so that people vote more people will vote democrat in america or something. But youre saying something entirely different with this book . Yeah. I mean, and thats, you know, a big reason that wrote it the way i did is that, you know, the only context we really have for ideas this country is voting. I thats the only way we talk about it politically. But there are 26 million adults who dont have the ids they need to get a job and a place to sleep at night. And im trying really hard recalibrate that understanding. I and for me and i think for anyone, once you really get what this is about, its very difficult. And i, you know, i have this debate with donors, for instance, all of the time who want to know like, well, what percentage of them are going to vote a certain way, this or that . And im say like i dont ask and i dont care that youre sleeping on the streets. They need to feed their children. They need an i. D. Thats what i care about. And you know we have a really robust and very successful voter turnout program. But that is the thing we do during elections and it is not amount and we do not force anyone to do. We dont ask them what their Political Party is, just i think that house people should be to vote. And sometimes were in the dmv with them and they choose the most random party that they can find on the list to register with it. Its like, sure, you want to be the purple rainbow party, go for it. Its america, you know. But for me, what im trying to do is help people understand that life matters. I was at a a donor, put out a fundraiser for i said this incredibly beautiful, very expensive in los angeles that her father had given her. And i am we were talking before the Party Started and i was talking to her about you know ids and we los angeles we have a stunningly epic im problem its its there are no words to describe how bad is i and she could see from the cliff her pool the city and i was talking about you know these people and all the people skid row and how where theyre you know every week and they need ideas and people blosser they can live and get jobs etc. I and then i said, you know, and once you help folks with that, theyre more likely to vote. And she said, well, thats the part that i care about. And i think my mouth kind of dropped because it was like she was so comfortable saying that even though she was in this multimillion house just given to her by her father and and what i am trying really, really hard to do is help humanity back to folks like the number of people who say, well, people want to be homeless. So nothing. No, the thing you have in your that you take for granted is the thing that is preventing people from getting houses or snap or wake or an education or anything else. And its 26 million adults. We should care. And we we dont. And i love how youre reframing the issue as because, you know, especially, you know today where we are in the state of the union with, you know, an Election Year coming up, we hear voter id, voter id, voter id, but youre separating and sort of sort of saying theres and then theres an id issue thats a human rights issue, especially in this country. That means that if you dont have you cant access the safety net, that many of the people who now dont have ideas have paid for so many years. And i think thats an important distinction to make. It is the other thing that i was telling is if you want people to vote, you know, if you dont, youre a person, then you are not going to be empowered to access your civic rights. Right. So when we go to people to talk to them about voting, but they dont know where theyre sleeping at night, you know, and the government hasnt done anything for them and they cant feed their children, etc. , then theyre thinking about voting like, you know, thats not that they want to do. Its something, not something they think they can do. And its not something that frankly interested in. But part of the reason that we have really high voter turnout numbers is because we build relationships with folks we commit to them, we get them. The thing need and then they of a sudden have doors open to rebuild their lives. And then when we say, do you want to talk about voting the no. Yeah, of course they do. And they cant wait. But you cant have one without the other. And the mistake that we make, we go into poor communities two months before elections. Mm. And we try to get them to vote and then we blame them when they dont. And its like well you didnt actually address any of the issues that they need for their lives. Why would they you know. Yeah, absolutely. Mean when you just appear and seem to care about them at that moment. I mean people can see right through that. Yeah. What are the other things. I thought that was just endlessly was the way in which the government or governmental offices could like volunteers returned and returned and were frustrated and were about to burst into or did and then finally that the Office Worker whomever, they were just like hit print and printed the document that yall had been requesting for so long. Yeah. Can you talk more about why it is so difficult. I noticed that you sort of identified 911 and the fact that hijackers had used legal ids to, you know, do what they did to get on planes. And so and so forth. And after that things became a lot more difficult. But i wanted you to of tease that out a little bit more and identify whats the purpose . Who benefits from ids being so difficult to acquire . Did you ever read that atlantic article, the cruelty is the point. I have of it. Ive not yet read it. Its well, it may be less harrowing now that were in between trump eras. Maybe, but i. Oh, god. Oh, god, im sorry. Nonpolitical. Yes, i am. But its its done on purpose. So his reference 911. This is a is a problem that is a function of 911. The 9911 terrorists had about 36 ids that they got legally. Right. Im and so obviously everyone sort of freaked out. So real i. D. Came from the 911 commission when they said weve got to make these things more difficult. Now, its been, what, 22 years and real i. D. Still is not in effect and probably never be. And so single state and the district, they werent going to wait. And one thing that people dont realize probably even think about or care about, because why would you. But im the requirements for what you need to get an i. D. In most states is not statutory its just a person the head of the department of transportation or a secretary of state or in d. C. Its literally just muriel bowser. Like, its just its just somebody, most states who decides. And so they made a lot of changes post911. Every single state made it much difficult to get an i. D. You used to be able if you moved from tennessee to texas, you could just take your tennessee id and theyd give you a new texas i. D. Now time if you want a new idea a new state, you need all of your documentation, your birth certificates, this and that. Whatever im in texas, actually, just last year changed the law. So now, because in most states, you dont need birth certificate if youre replacing your id if you lost year got stolen or something in texas now just now, a birth certificate, every single time, even if youre replacing it. Thats texas im and so so you know part of why no one knows that this is a problem is that for probably everyone in this room when we got ids it was a lot when we got our first one and then we sort of been, you know, renewing or revising since. But also because in america, we dont recognize something as a problem until its been at least a hundred years. Its like 20 years. We like we just discovered that there was Police Brutality four years ago. Like were weve thats been happening for five years, right . So like were just were very slow on the uptake. Im and so because all those things were made so much more difficult birth certificate the types of documents that are required i they also they a lot of different security measures in id that you have no idea theyre all of these then im it specifically done to make i. D. S more difficult to get because we did what we do and we overreacted to a situation and didnt think about the people it would impact on the other side i and so yeah so you know we had we had a volunteer and we could not someone a Social Security card because its so without an id and she finally just started crying and the woman at social skill administration was like, yeah, all right, here you go because they do they have that power i think we discovered that in virginia the dmv just pull up someones birth certificate because a volunteer you should have a lot of moms as your volunteer is because a mom starts crying and all of a sudden a bureaucracy like opens doors and then the volunteers are the dmv worker is like, you know, and i could just pull it up from here. And what you can what all of this time and so you know that and i have several examples in the book of all of the ways that every know we have built into system all of the that we need to make it easy everyone to have an id they we just purposefully dont use for that function because we purposefully making it difficult to get an idea. Yeah. And i think that also adds value to the id once its acquired. I mean, i appreciate what you said about sometimes the rules seeming arbitrary, you know, state, state by state. I remember when i had to get tennessee license, i went to this dmv and or the county clerks wherever was i dont remember in rural tennessee, they snatched my new york id punched a hole in it that the officer said, oh, ive got to hold on to this. I stood there with my jaw open and he handed me the tennessee i. D. I was like, okay. And that was kind of it. We never had a new york drivers license again and in other counties in tennessee. Different. Its just its so it feels so random often. I mean, its random sometimes by statute or by rule and sometimes just by dmv workers. So im in 16 states. If you are undocumented, can get something called an ab six drivers license, which is i you in almost all of the states you cant if youre undocumented get just an i. D. , but you can get a drivers license because a, we need people to get to work. I and b for sort of theres a Public Safety argument. But you cant do anything with it and the states will, theyll put big black lines or all these things that. Youre like, you cannot get any benefits. They want. Be sure on this license, its very clear you cannot use it for anything. Basically driving to work and the rules to get one are really complicated and we get them in l. A. And had two people from the same family who all have the same exact documents and dmv windows right next to each other. And one person was accepted and the other wasnt. And it was literally just the discretion of the person at that desk. And we knew they all had their stuff. This is what i do for a living and. It was literally just john said, yes, and dave said, somebody hungry . And i was like, im talking to like literally and then theres theres nothing you can do, you know, we can call the manager or whatever, but, you know theres, its just sometimes its really just up to the discretion of the person at the desk. Wow. Is horrifying yeah. Its also ive had so veterans theres a whole chapter about veterans have a big problem in this country with unhoused veterans and veterans have ids and im in some states like california they can use their d d to 14th but they get rejected a lot. I, i have almost come to blows with several dmv workers who will reject a veteran and say they just they dont feel like taking their dd to 14 and ill have the paperwork showing that its you know no california va allows this and etc. Ive had to fight with dmv because someone just is just doesnt like the look of the paper or the veteran or whatever and if they choose to reject it, theres nothing you can do. Well, you can be me and yell at them and almost get arrested and then i scare them into accepting thats what we call commitment to the work. Wow. I mean, that thats remarkable. But one of the other things that you say in the book is that most of us wouldnt know these things are happening if weve never to struggle to get an id or if weve always had one. What about have you had instances in which people mean . Actually, you do talk about this. They had id, they somehow lost id and then perhaps they realized like, oh is actually a problem for so many other. Yeah, so know were very segregated socioeconomic status in this country. Right. So youre in a room of people where everyone has an id or, youre in a room with of people where everyone doesnt. So thats why i say and section of the book like once i started talking to people who served the people we wanted to serve they all like yeah no. I know that every social in america knows that people dont have ideas they may not know is 26 million, but they know every home they shop. Right . Like everyone who works, the people who dont have them. And i think thats i am when it comes to you know were seeing all over the country this huge increase in homelessness and we get a lot of people who are welleducated, you know, hothouses, whatever. But were all one medical disaster away from being unhoused. Im, you know, just something has to happen, you know, in l. A. , if youre not in a rent controlled building, which you are one day, your rent is 1000, the next its 5000. Youre out on the street right . I am. And so you see two different things. Sometimes you see people have a lot more empathy for folks who are on the street because they understand what it looks like. I sometimes people the Clarence Thomas route. I am, but it sort of depends but i think that that, you know, there are two groups, you know one of the things that happen and one of the sort of only articles you read i am in 2016 about voter id were seniors you know had had an i. D. But then havent needed one for a long time or whatever. And you then all of a sudden id laws passed and they didnt know that the laws had changed because theyre 90 and they have actually been 90 for a while. And so then they go to get an i. D. They cant get one and they cant vote and. So we have a lot of situations like that are so many seniors who, you know, like myself, ive had a lot folks who are older and they have cancer and they you can get sort of certain kinds of really basic Health Care Without an i. D. , even like urgent care. Basically, the not even then on the time and so then there are desperately in need of an i. D. For or for health issues, but maybe needed one in a while, havent been driving, etc. Im you also so one i am tactic of lot of domestic abusers is that they lock up ids and documentation because it makes it more difficult for us for someone to escape. Im and so i had a client who escaped a violent abuser in indiana and police like got him on a plane essentially and sent her to l. A. But she without any documentation because she couldnt get anything. And they had just got her away. But then was on the streets of l. A. And she didnt have any documentation. And, you know, they put him on a plane to l. A. , but then were sort of like, well, good luck. And so, you know, eventually she found out, i was skid row operation and came in and, you know, we had to help her get everything all over again. But that has happened a lot where people finally are able to escape and have to make a decision. And maybe ive always had other documentation but dont have free access to it. So there are so many different ways. I mean, right now in maui, i was just talking to a lawyer whos helping probono because the family in maui had, you know, 3 minutes to get out, hopefully with their family and maybe their dog. They did not all their documents out. But you know what you need for fema assistance. You need an idea. So now theyre theyre stuck know and so i am there are tons of situations where people have everything have the house have the birth certificates, etc. And then life hits them and then all of a sudden they find themselves in a situation they didnt know, even a situation they could be at. Yeah. I mean, i also just like recall being shocked. I didnt know that you could only get ten copies of your Social Security cards a lifetime maximum and youre not allowed to laminate it. I was just lost. So you cant leave any Social Security card, but you get it at birth and then youre 70. Youre still supposed to have it and you can only get two. And weve had people not many, but weve had some people who have hit their ten limit and then, you know, can do like a whole process. But yeah, theres a lifetime limit of Social Security cards that dont. I was shocked by that, i literally was like, okay, i need to take a minute. Yeah, thats insane. Yeah, put it in safe. I was going to ask. What should we do with our documents . Not like, whats the best . I mean, should we keep them all . I mean, obviously in, like, fireproof boxes, i guess, which are which can be expensive, but how we protect our documents. Yeah, i mean, so what i would say is i partially, it depends on where you live, right . Like if you live in an that is prone to hurricanes, prone to fires, things like that, you really need to be sure that your documents are in some sort of fireproof, waterproof case, etc. Im, you know, because youre more likely to you know, ive got family in North Carolina every year. They evacuate. They still live there, but every year they evacuate right here. I lived in louisiana same thing. I am partially like even if you just have a filing like you know that your house is necessarily burned down, im its just important know. All right ive got a folder my birth certificates here my social card is here. Have a picture on your phone. Because if you do have to get it replaced, its really helpful to. Have all of the information thats on there. Im or something happens, you know i we have a lot of clients are suffering from different forms of illness and cant often remember mothers maiden name right or things like that and so if you can at all have a digital copy that you save in the cloud you can access from you know the library whatever that at least thats helpful to have to know what your information is from. Im a lot of states now are doing digital drivers licenses and ideas and just having that information in a place where you can it. Youre still going to need to order the copy and all of that. But at least its helpful to have all of that information. But yeah, its you know, i, i, if, if my house ever burns down and im my passport, i always know where my passport it is my most valuable possession. And i always have it in a specific place i know i can get it in a hurry because no matter what, someone breaks into my house, like im getting my passport. Yeah. Because that document opens every other door. Im and like i, i know that i do not ever want to be without it. No debt. Yeah. Duly noted. Okay, i. Of course have a gazillion more questions, but were going to open it up to you all at this time. So if you do have a question, please come up to the microphone and actually i think you can use if you use this one at the front, this sort of person. Oh, this one right here. Perfect, great, excellent. Thank you for being here. And youre amazing work. You of describe yourself as an activist. I guess my question is how do you sort of avoid oftentimes when you do difficult work like this the cynicism of kind of how do you fight against saying why do i keep doing this . Why do i keep going . If youre going to have like, say, for instance people at the dmv who just someone an id because, they feel like it or theyre just having a theyre hungry or something or like that. So do you sort of fight back against the cynicism of the work youre doing . You yeah. Now, thats a great question. So two ways im one way is just knowing where the only people and almost everywhere that we where the only people who can help and so i know if were not doing it then no one is. And if were not for that person at the dmv or new york is the toughest place to get both an id and a birth certificate. It is a its my nightmare right. And if were not doing it, no one else is. And we are now the leading experts in the country on how to get these birth certificates, how to get these ids. And we get, you know, we get just flooded with calls and, emails every single day of people who need help and its its its worth it, right. We have to. And but the thing we do is we have a policy arm project, ida action fund and were working on making policy changes so that i, ive spent the rest my life trying to get 26 Million People an idea which is it going to happen . So we have a bill in congress we have legislation in the california legislature. Were working on changes with local and state governments all over country with the goal of of being able to eliminate this problem entirely. And so i, you know, for for a while we were building up and everything. And once we got to a point where we were really good at this and i knew we sort of had it down, i knew i cannot spend the rest of my life just helping one person at a time because youre just sort of spitting into a hurricane, right . Like its its its never going to stop. And theres always going to be more people. And when i started this, there were 21 Million People who didnt have it. And now its 26, right . So 85 million more in seven years. And so the policy arm having a bill in Congress Like knowing, okay, im working on these wide scale solutions, know i would like i think a lot about what must be like for ralph nader to get in a car and see a seatbelt on an airbag and be like, i did that right. Like, and i really want be 70. And for it to just be a hilarious joke like there is a time people that have ideas, right . Like think thats my goal. And able to work on that larger goal. Me deal with all of the small frustrating things. Its okay, you can take your time. You take it. Yes, we have. We time. No need to unless you just want to get your cardio in. Ive done a lot of work, volunteer work with children in foster. How prevalent is this in the foster arena, especially once kids are 18, they havent been adopted or theyve been emancipated earlier. I can imagine thats a big task. It is. I have a whole chapter about young people in my book, which features and former foster youth a lot. So yeah i the the stats for and im so glad youre doing that work the stats for former foster youth and im their employment and income rates after foster care are shameful like we should really be embarrassed as a nation im and there i theres is a huge problem with you know there is actually federal money so that every single former foster kid theyre emancipated is supposed to get a stack with other documents. First of all, it doesnt happen every state but also there also immediately homeless and they lose those documents and then theres nothing to help get replaced. So we work with foster, which is the biggest Employment Organization for former foster youth and with a lot of organizations. Im that to help them replace those documents. But its the biggest challenge for former foster youth. So one of my big crusades thing that infuriates me is allowed to an adopt a child. And it happens all of the time. And so we get foster youth whose names have been changed multiple times, who have been adopted and adopted. They have no idea when their name was changed, their name that they use doesnt match their name with their Social Security. They dont know what county were in and what court they went to. They were nine years old to get their name changed, etc. And there are so many things are so complicated about helping get all of their documents because when you go to the dmv, youre supposed to have the original document for every you change, you changed your name. Oh, i didnt know that. Oh, yeah, yeah. So and so it impacts women significantly obviously, but it also really significantly impacts for my foster youth and we have so many youth who that is a real challenge for them. I am an know youre dealing with documentary challenges that almost no other demographic has while at the same time dealing with very young people who are coming from very traumatic, who have no stability, who often dont have anyone, who help. I theres the stories probably in the book. Im in in fort worth. We had a young man whos adopted family dropped him on a Street Corner the day he turned 18. He was still in high school. Yeah. Thats in the book. Yeah. And just good luck and. Didnt give him a birth certificate, didnt give him any documents or anything. And luckily he found us and we had to go to his member of congress to get help because it was so complicated. I meant to be able to help him get his id and his birth certificate and then staff were amazing and like found a family at church that when he came in because he was still in high school but his 18th birthday they kicked him out and that happened as shocking amount i so yeah there there are very few groups in this country i think foster kids and people with disabilities in this country we really really do not care if they live or die. Yes, maam. Two, the oh, sorry. Can you use mic over here . Yes. We just want to make sure that the folks online hear thank you and can take your time and. Why isnt there any consequence to the socalled of these people believe me, i think they theyre absolutely should be. Im as far as i know theyre not i think its legal. But i am i yeah. There should be its. It is an appalling thing that is allowed to happen. Thank you. Our ability to share data on a massive scale these days, birth certificates. Lets just start there. Why hasnt there been a National Movement to just have a Central Access that this would it would i have to imagine would make your work a lot easier. Ive had to get personally it one of my kids before and i had to remember were which county they were born in. And i had to get to the right hospital and it was not easy. And so im sure if your kids, especially your people whove moved around and maybe they didnt know, its really hard. So why there been a movement to especially you go to School Documents . Like, why hasnt there been a National Movement to fix this . Im i think the people who would be able to make changes dont have a really time getting their birth certificate im weve also weve privatized as most people dont know theres pretty much every state has turned over all of their online birth certificate operations to a private company to vital check, which is the only company. So that whole government operation is in the hands of one company. I have given them so much money they should give me an award high or job or something and so were kind of going opposite way, right . Every single county has their own rules and then states and etc. And. Im because there is one way to do things by mail or in person. Then theres this private company that does things to every different sort of state or rule. I am online. And its actually the its getting more difficult, i think. I think its just, you know, this is the first book anyones written on ids, right . There are books about this. Nobody knows about this issue. We all just sort of privately suffer. Also its bureaucracy. So we expect suffer. Im you know, and we dont realize or talk about this is what im trying to change like that this is changes someones life you know i just had a bill that my governor gavin newsom somebody throw eggs at his house but im big and its one of the things that we would have is make birth certificates for low income californians birth certificates are like 30 each. And ive had single moms with four kids come because they all need birth certificates. And thats a lot of money and you need if you get section eight housing you need to get an id if you to put your kid in School University for kids theres all these things and so individually, you know, with all of these issues, with documents, with ideas with with a lot of issues that impact vulnerable. We are only the people who are suffering are the people who are working. Those people really know. And care that its an issue. The rest of us, like 11 of adults in america, dont have, but 89 do. And thats really good enough for america. Right. And so we just dont care. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I think we have time for one more question, will. Yes, do it. Now that you have your long term vision and strategy i know you probably started more locally helping people one on one, where do you find gaps . Where do you find the gaps are where you are now . Great question. So were actually in the middle of shifting some to address that. Im you know, for the first seven years, a lot time has been spent convincing people this is an issue. Im a lot of time has been spent learning how do we get a burst of in pensacola, florida, for someone doesnt have an id, things like that im and now im were at a point where weve done this so much in so many and were so well known that we have organizations and Government Agencies coming to us and saying, can you show us how to do this . Im and, you know, one of the things that we started doing, we started a little bit in 2019 and then covid really sort of forced us to to scale it is while we were working with staff and volunteers getting ideas on the ground, we were training and Funding Organization around the country to do this work themselves because there are some places, you know, a lot of food banks or shelter is a different where they may not have the capacity to be able to go through this intense process. But there are a lot of social workers and case managers and organizations, you know, different rehabs and schools and whatever where theyre already doing a lot of inperson with their clients and they really need ids to access most of the things that theyre trying to give them, but they dont have the training or funds in order to be able to actually make it happen. And so have been training hundreds of organizations around the country how to do this themselves and then funding them as able. And so now one of the things that were actually sort of switching is doing a lot more of that, a lot more of going to agencies and organization and social workers and saying, hey, we can train you on. We have a proprietary that we build that we would let you use that will make it easier. We have on exactly how to get birth certificate in every single state without an id. Right . And like all of these things and were putting all that together because, you know, our goal is never to be. I dont to be the only National Organization gets people ideas. But i want there to be 5000 of them. I our goal is to make this ai something that everybody do. And so with the policy, one of the things were doing is theyre saying like, oh, we can just you know, we work with so many goodwills and Salvation Army is a national, but we work with them in like five states. I and, we want to, you know, be able to go and say well just train of your good wells on how to do and your goodwill so you have the money i am, you know, and i and like speaking to librarians first of all, theyre doing gods work. But also a lot of libraries are to hire social workers because. Libraries really are centers of where Vulnerable People are vulnerable. Go for assistance with, everything from access to the internet, for jobs, applying for services. And so we are talking to a lot librarians about, you know, how can we train you . Lot of libraries are trying to start their own id programs, but they dont really know what theyre doing, etc. And so thats really what i think our next phases is becoming more of a sort of like nonprofit id consultants can go to all of these places, say, we will get you set up and show you how to do this. Also, you know, youre a small im awesome at fundraising. I will teach you how to fundraise and how to get and all of the things you need to do. This on your own. I am so that we can have people in all 50 states that are doing this and really scale it in a way that we just wouldnt be able to do if we were trying do it hands on as our own organization. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Well, founder and executive of spread the vote and project id kat calvin. Thank you for being here with us. This has reminder her book is american in crisis. And we now heading to the author signing tent. You can meet us there. This concludes our session and i hope that you enjoy the rest of the southern festival of books. Thank you. Thank we are awaiting the other side of the chamber to come forward with a number that we can agree upon. Leader and mcconnell and i will figure out the best way to get this forward. Neither mcconnell nor i want it to shut down. Good evening, e. Thank all so much for coming out good evening everybody and thank you all so much for coming up tonight