thanks for creating every crazy tv idea we have a special the ones coming thank you, thank you, thank you. for letting me do this for 20 ys dad this one is for you. love you. [applause] : : >> later journalist erica barnett looks at addiction in america and discusses her own struggles with alcoholism, her book is quitter, a memoir of drinking, relapse and recovery. >> as folks are arriving, i will say good evening and welcome tonight live online bookstore, i'm one of the owners of greenlight were so excited to

host tonight's event with nikita stewart with "troop 6000", the girl scout troop that began in a shelter and inspired the world, she will talk with the visionary behind it and her daughter, you are in for an excellent time tonight, before we really start i just want to say huge thanks to everyone for making this happen, all of our participants for being here, the publisher and all of you for showing up, the storefront is currently close but our community is here and we really appreciate that. a couple of housekeeping things, if you are logging in now you can see the speakers but they cannot see and hear you, they can see your name so they know you're here, you can use the share icon to share comments, if you're with the girl scouts crew let us know what group you're with, if you want to ask a question we will have a q&a section later on with the q&a icon and you can click on that to type in your question and if you see a really good one you can upload it to make sure we get to that question with the

q&a. we are recording tonight's event, look at audio and video of social media channels later on, might be on c-span later on in the portly tonight featured book "troop 6000" is available from sale from greenlight bookstore.com, i pasted the link in the chat, or book stores are closed buyer warehouse for fast director home shipping, if you care about supporting the careers of authors and the ongoing existed of independent bookstores, buying tonight's book is a really good way to show your support, tonight were offering $5 off on a future book when you purchase from green light website you can use the coupon 6002 apply your discount and get a copy of "troop 6000" tonight in march 27. let me introduce our speakers tonight, giselle burgess is a visionary and program manager of "troop 6000" a girl scout program designed to serve girls in the new york city shelter system, after living with her

five children a great need a benefit for a program like this to be offered with girls living in the shelter system as well, she been recognized for her dedication by her community and local councilman and she's received a proclamation from the city of new york for her outstanding service, achievements in her community and devoting her life to empowering and uplifting women throughout queens, giselle and her daughters continue to advocate for girls and women living in the shelter system and are determined to make the stigma of homelessness. we will talk to nikita stewart who is a reporter with the new york times, and they recognized her in 2018 for coverage of homelessness, mental health and poverty. she's been a finalist for the livingston award and investigators award enjoying the new york times in 2014 after working with washington, she was with us a few weeks ago to interview another book about homelessness, really proud and excited to have her with us here tonight, i've been excited about this book for a long time as i

mentioned my daughter is a girl scout and this is a great story about girl scout in new york city, i'm looking forward to hearing more, "troop 6000" is nikita's book until the inspiring true story of the first girl scout troop find founded by a girl in queens, new york and an amazing nationwide race park, nikita will start us off with a background on the book and reading from the book and then she will talk with giselle and karina and then she will take some questions from you. >> thank you first of all thank you for having us tonight, hi giselle and karina, it's so good to see you. one of the things i want to talk about tonight, this story goes way back before 2017, although we first spotted each other across the room in 2015 and i had no idea that you all would experience homelessness and i

would end up writing a book about your journey, in 2015 i had taken on the b of social services and poverty for the new york times and i decided i would go to any shelter anyone invited me too. so jimmy, council member in queens invited me to go to a shelter in queens that had been made out of a hotel, i showed up and i was surprised to see these girl scouts serving the thanksgiving lunch, karina and her sisters were there and giselle was there and i did not write anything that day, i left,

i still inside the shelter, i met women expensing homelessness and while the girl scouts were cute. fast-forward, year later giselle was in the shelter system and then she came up with an idea of "troop 6000" in all read to you a little bit from the chapter called 6000. the troop needed a name, giselle suggested troop 1101, the zip code, although clever and easy to remember, the name would conflict with long-held tradition, girl scouts in the city were limited to four digits, the numbers had corresponded with the burroughs in the bronx the troops were numbered in the 1000, brooklyn troops for 2000, manhattan to troops were 3000, queens were 4000 in staten island troops

were 5000, this new troop was unique, belong to girls who did not know where they belong, it would not make sense to use the numbers normally applied to troops in any of the five boroughs, given that his numbers had no fixed addresses, wasn't the troop of girls no matter where was located really like a floating borough in its own right or even a shadow borough, the rest of society was ignorant or did not want to acknowledge its residents, at some point girl scout staff realized that the 6000 designated years earlier for specialized troops like those with girls of specialized needs and were no longer youth in the girl scouts of greater new york settlement on a name "troop 6000". , you realize this is big, this is going to be amazing, meredith told giselle, giselle wanted to jump up and down, as usual, what

if she cannot recruit more girls, what if she could not recruit parent volunteers, what if she could not maintain the momentum she already achieved, three days after the troops officially named, giselle hit her anxiety and stood on the stage and accepted a pro a proclamation from jimmy who selected her to be honored at his annual black history month celebration. giselle was proud of her heritage which included her father's black southern route, she was in a themed company, for jimmy's event included the faces of martin luther king jr., malcolm, rosa parks, wtd the boy, betsy coleman and president barack obama. the celebration was held at the neighborhood settlement house were a longtime nonprofit of the immigrants and youth, giselle stood on the stage with her children and scouts from the sunnyside and woodside troop, the proclamation made no mention of giselle's homelessness or "troop 6000", it was a reminder

for giselle that people were expecting her to be great, she had to make "troop 6000" big or than a girls, where as giselle burgess' work had a ripple effect, the girl she recruited mentors go on to build a better world of community and ms. burgess is an incredible role model to not only her five children but the children across queens and where as giselle burgess has truly enriched all of us with their service and worthy of the esteem of all new yorkers, now therefore jimmy van bremer, majority leader of the new york city council gratefully honored giselle burgess for her outstanding service and enduring contributions to the community. expectations were now in writing, giselle gave herself two weeks to find volunteers and to recruit more girls. so giselle, tell us what

happened next. >> i remember going back to the office recruiting volunteers, recruiting girls, i got home that day, i had a complete blue uniform on and i had permission in the hallway and i remember the first buyer sitting up and i thought what are you doing, and putting up flyers with girls and volunteers and they said you cannot put anything on the wall and i was i got permission i spoke with the person in the supervisor and they said it's fine so you can call the supervisor to confirm, i'm standing in the hallway with my papers waiting and then i'm like you can go ahead and i remember

every single floor, took the elevator and on each elevator there is two elevators, i'm getting off all floors and taking it when you read of the elevator in the common area where everyone is getting their food and stuff like that, we have those girls and there was training at the volunteers i remember having to get lunch and i had everything set up for people to come down in trying to help me and no one came i had all this food and no one was there, and i was going to do a training the following day so i call her and i'm like where are you in it started 15 minutes ago so she was like okay, i'm just getting up and she's like okay i'm coming down.

so she's downstairs and were eating and i'm just talking to her and i'm going to watch his training video and go over everything with you, she is eating and then she's like all right, i'm going to answer some questions because cory was not paying attention. >> we get to a lot of that in the book, i'm also wondering, after that i showed up and what made you decide to let me for probably you for more than a year end be in your face and show me details of your life? >> it was hard in the beginning, i remember every time you come around, it was like being a skeptic, every time i say something in writing in the book, she's riding in the notebook occurs, but then just seeing you, it was when we went

camping and we took the girls camping for the first time and seen the way the you interacted with the girls and the way that you did with us, we started to feel really comfortable around you, she is cool, she is ready, she's really genuine and it was a trip to remember. >> i center turn we came up with some questions to your questions, this one -- >> you're a writer and enjoy it but what attracted to you to our story, what made you want to write about our story. >> from the very beginning, at the time in early 2017, the mayor had just announced a plan

that the city was going to try to open 90 new shelters around the city, expand another 30 because there still is not any capacity, enough capacity in the new york city shelter system to accommodate the thousands of people who are expanding homelessness, so there was a lot of people around the city were upset about homelessness and where shelters were being placed in some neighborhoods felt that they were getting the short end of the stick, so neighborhoods had 0 shelters and did not want any shelters and there was a lot of conflict at the time of her homelessness and shelters and when i heard about the truth and the shelter, i was like oh my goodness and it just feels

different than everything else i've been writing about homelessness in this moment in the city and so i immediately jumped on it and it took me a while to get in touch with giselle but finally when i got in touch with her and did initial interview over the phone i was like wow, this is going to be a terrific story but i have to see the scouts in action but i was obviously amazed at what i saw in there with the story and i went viral and then i thought i guess i should write a book and see what happens, i am annoyed via whether "troop 6000" was going to floors or fail but i remember i sat down with giselle in the breakfast room at the sleep in and i asked her, would you be willing to allow me

to be in your life and the life of your girls, or i don't know how long this is going to take, at least the year and she said absolutely, wow this is fantastic. she was also skeptical of what i was up to but i've just still amazed that your honesty and in allowing me into your life and that goes for all of the other parents and girl scouts who participated in the book, when i say participated, allowed me, i interviewed people's mamas and families and in atlanta, the like what is going on, we all got through it and i hope

readers see what i saw over 18 months. >> i have a question, during this whole time that you've gotten to know us and you been with us, what has been the most challenging moment for you. >> the camping trip was challenging in terms of i didn't know whether "troop 6000" was going to floors or fail i was like oh no, what if troop 6000 totally falls apart, that was hard in the most difficult part was i could not be part of the story, i cannot interfere there was people and that was not

quite right or i was just thinking about when someone loses a job and a family member needs to wire money and i was like stop, stop so that was a difficult part of watching people and not being able to help but knowing i would have to use my journalistic tools, the tools of journalism to have an impact. >> what was your personal favorite part of the book to write? >> there are so many, i have

several chapters that warmed my heart or are heartbreaking and when i was writing them i was like oh my goodness, of course the opening of the book which almost did not end up in the book, it ended up being the beginning with haley who is karina sister and giselle's oldest daughter, that was one of my favorite chapters, the chapter about giselle first deciding that were going to try to have the truth here and go around and put up flyers, that was the first chapter i ever wrote, it changed but it was the first chapter i ever wrote, that was still dear to my heart, then

i love ugly christmas writer and i love man enough to be a girl scout, i love you are a powerful woman, then read the whole thing, i love every chapter. >> do you want to ask me a question? >> let's see, do i have more questions for you, what was the most difficult part to read about yourself or others. >> i think the hardest part for me is reading the decisions i have made in life and although they are not all perfect, i do not regret any of them, i have learned from a lot of mistakes

and a lot of challenges i've had in life and i feel like it's really made me who i am today, persistent and perseverance and just really determined to make sure that i provide something better for my children and for myself but being able -- just reading everything that i've been through in being able to close my eyes and put myself there. >> karina, what is your favorite part. >> my favorite part, altogether and we finally established a truth and it was all one, i like seen all come together because there's a whole book in series of events that were happening and stuff that was happening for us and just see nothing and it was a happy ending.

>> that's my favorite part, the way the book ends is my favorite part. don't give it away. >> you know what is interesting, when i was first outlining the book, it kept changing because i was always around even when i was writing i was reporting, you would think that obviously you're in the home and not in shelter so everybody knows that and they're no longer in shelters, that is not a surprise in the book but you know i thought that the book would in with when you all finally found a home, that you found a home in more things kept happening and i actually think the events that occurred after finding housing were just as important because

it shows how fragile life can be and how there's all these unexpected things that happen in your life where you like oh my gosh another obstacle so i think it is important for people to understand that everyone needs housing and they should have a right to housing but sometimes that's not the end of the story, sometimes you need more support. >> definitely true, i wanted to make sure to touch base on the importance and impact that girl scouting has had for me, even before "troop 6000". as a single mom and trying to find myself in trying to find and learn how to raise my children and care for them the

best way that i could without feeling like i wasn't worth much in it came as such an amazing time, am so grateful for the women that i had in my life to push me into girl scouting and they were always making sure that the camping trips in becoming a leader in them being in the situation and living in a shelter and taking all of that in telling my kids this is a journey, we will get over it, we will get past it and making sure that everyone we came into contact with with love and happiness and we wanted to get everyone else and we wanted everyone else to feel as well. definitely touching on the committee, how important committee is, it really shows it makes a difference, it was such

a big change from walking into the shelter and everyone with her head down or i won't be here long enough to make friends, and building the community and say hi to everyone and calling everyone sister and family members and we looked out for each other and advocated for each other. i am grateful for that. >> i thought when i sent you down and i want to follow the truth, i thought i was going to be writing about homelessness from the eyes of girl scouts and what they really ended up writing about was a sense of community, a sense of belonging, a desire to want to give more even when you have the least and i was not a girl scout when i was a child, my family had to

pick and choose what we could afford and at the time girl scouts was not one of them but i always admired the uniforms and i was like what would that be like in the past three years i've been a big kid and learned a lot and learned all the songs in the girl scout promise, there was a great big moose, and so the power of an organization like the girl scouts to bring joy too so many girls is just so important, i do worry now that were in the pandemic and so many people have lost their jobs and we know evictions are around the corner and more families are once again going to be joining

the new york city shelter system and "troop 6000" is now in 20 shelters but there are 450 shelters in new york city and i think about 100 of those are for single adults, more than half i believe are for families with children so that should tell you there are also girls also need to be served. >> if you do go to girl scouts in yc.org, you can support "troop 6000", by volunteering, being able to donate and purchasing cookies, please buy your cookies and of course, what is the number, 12000 kids in the shelter at this point.

>> it's 12000 who are of girl scout age, it's a good dream to reach all these girls and the ones that we do have an grateful for, we still have meetings, or holding virtual meetings and were sending a message to them during this pandemic and "troop 6000" means family, we will make sure we are following up with her girls in our families and even our girls are following up with, that is important for people to know, is continuous and this was something that started as something so small and turned into something so enormous and we want to be able to continue that. >> are we going to do q&a? >> are you guys ready for questions, they are pouring in. >> we will see which ones have

uploaded and we will start with those, what are the ages of the girls from the original troop now and how are the girls doing. >> the oldest is now 18 and she is going to be graduating, unfortunate her family is still in shelter and she is hoping to go to college, we stay in touch and she gives me story ideas, one of the first stories i did during the pandemic was about remote learning and it was because she reached out to me and she said nikita, what am i going to do, my sister does not have a device, this is going to be horrible for students and i was like oh my goodness, i'm on it, i could not interview her because were to close down but i

found other children interviewing including a young man she did not know who was in her shelter which still does not have wi-fi. >> you are still talking to them that is awesome. >> karen asked how many "troop 6000" are there, only in new york city or has it expanded? >> "troop 6000" has expanded to other and they have adopted it and i think we have maybe seven or eight other councils, it might be more but the last i heard of was seven or eight that have adopted. >> this one might be for karina, joanne asked what was most meaningful to you and why.

>> probably one of my badges for completing my own cadet book. >> cadet 30 or bronze award? >> cadet journey, that was a lot of work for reading the book and answering the questions, that was a lot of work. >> and working together, that was probably the most proudest i have. >> that is really cool. >> lori asked, did this project and maybe this is for you, did this project affect how you cover new york city, what are the lessons you want leaders to take away about our city and any quality or other lessons? >> i don't know if it changed my view, i think i came in with her perspective of someone who did not grow wealthy and someone

whose family had been on food stamps with free and reduced lunch, this was not foreign to me but i think it reiterated what i wanted to get it crossed and i think the public has a tendency to view homelessness as the man on the street with a cardboard sign in homelessness in new york city especially, people look like me, they are women, many black and hispanic who are working families, to me this book shows that and also people are people and sometimes there are obstacles, the

economics, the education and unfortunately it ends in homelessness and at this point we think our government is going to have to really think about housing policies, not just in new york city but around the country. >> i think this one is for giselle, allison asked what advice do you have for encouraging and recruiting e-mail parent leaders like you and roles like this? >> good one, for recruiting first of all i will always say food brings everyone together, having a meal, breaking bread with someone, sitting down and being able to connect with that person and speak with them in finding some type of mutual community and having that

conversation in opening up to this is what i'm doing and this is important because given a reason whites important, it's tough situation for women and girls and we need to be an outlet to lead them in to a better direction in life and offer them opportunities and support, we all need that in a tough situation in a tough place, we look for that person to lean on for a little bit, we just need to help each other in express that and being down-to-earth and being as real as we possibly can and stressing on the importance of leading these girls and women to better futures. >> that is awesome, i have a couple more questions for you. are you up for it. >> yes. >> iris asked what girl scout level you are. >> i'm a senior. >> heidi asked, curren can karik

about the bravery about speaking out about her living situation and how it helped to break the stigma and stereotypes of two homeless people are. >> when i first went to the shelter system i was fairly young, fifth-grade or something like that, it's the type of thing that kids your age don't really think about, so they only know what the meaning is, whatever you tell someone i am homeless, they're going to think that you live on the street, like nikita said, the stereotype in new york city and around the world, you sittin you see someog on the training doing something in that first for me, i was never really ashamed because i knew it was normal and natural because the school i went to i thought they would judge me because i was in a homeless shelter and i don't like to be pitied so i did not want them to

pity me but when i did end up telling them, there was an understanding and a lot of confidence that breaks the stereotype of what homelessness is because what people really think it is is not what it is. >> that is great. >> this one is for megan, i think it's maybe for all of you, you could say your own, what is your favorite -- >> the first song i ever learned was meredith door to door they, we went to camp and she broke out and i thought it was a cool song and ever heard. >> what is your favorite. >> which one is the worm and he ate the leaf and he grew big ols

were there so we made a remixed version of my mom because it would say the worm kept eating so then my mom kept having kids and it would be more and more kids. [laughter] >> what about you nikita. >> i am partial to big boots but i also like -- >> were going to have to have a single long after this. >> another person asked what does it mean to have this program in your community and not at or through the school? >> for me i guess it's very

conflicting, why don't we have these programs in school, we do have a homelessness population and a lot of children excreting homelessness, i'm sure there's other types of programs and who are in the same situation can build the communities into i wish they would have been in school as well but to be able to build it where we lived in where we were everyday meant a lot to me, that was important because that was our home and that was her territory and our safety. >> one more, i was curious about this, we talked about this earlier, how is troop 6000 operating during this pandemic giving issues during shelter. >> i am grateful to say that the majority of the girls that we are serving do have devices at this time, i know it's hard to

get through them given the children that are in the new york city, we have issues were girls maybe not going to up public or private school and they don't have that, one thing is we are fortunate enough to have donors and funders who have been able to let us know, if you need anything for your girls, can we donate and help out and we've had donations of blacktop and issues where we can get girls, that's right the big issue in the we are trying to work on it and figure different ways to handle them. it is really challenging in the using the hotspots and were able to at least offer -- rechecking families weekly and personally letting us know the iva

challenge and i need help and were able to find ways to provide for them. >> that is good to hear. >> i think were winding down on the audience question, there's a couple more that just came in a lot of folks want to share their favorite songs, this is a repeat after me, i like that one. [laughter] >> here's one from allison, what kind of events do you or did you want to do with troops across the city, troop 6000 have opportunities or want to talk about the issues of homelessness with others. >> like with other troops? >> i guess so, where they interacting with other girl scout troops, did it feel like it was a thing where you are trying to get a message across? >> i know from the events in the

book that it was a little awkward especially the first camping trip when the girls were interacting with troops from around the city and in fact giselle did not want to even -- she just wanted them to be girl scouts that camping trip, troop 6000 that it went viral but not everyone reads the news, and so a lot of the girls and even leaders did not know there was troop 6000 and the like wait, the like 1000, 2000, what is troop 6000 so i think now there has been more education

throughout the girl scouts of greater new york, troop 6000. >> not all of our girls no that they're living in a shelter, some of them do not know that so we do not want them to feel like you have a label on you and we have to go out there and know that you're wearing the label, we also don't want to put them in that situation and when you have your older girls and were able to speak to them and mentor them and we have social work that takes time out to speak with older girls and let them express how they're feeling and they take that opportunity and we have a group there that we want to go out and advocate for the groups and if you want to inform other girls that are in troop 6000 and what it means to be that important in girls that

don't want to let people know that there is troop 6000, but there enjoying the community and that's pretty much it, for the most part these girls are not any different than any traditional troop and you want them to fill out to. >> kind of a connected question, how do girls stay connected to troop 6000 once they leave the shelter, can you retain the girls or get them into new troops. >> we have a transition coordinator who works at troop 6000 and her job is to keep in contact with families who have worked out of shelter, what we've done is create a message when girls are joining the program the setting up to keep in touch with me forms and once they leave or move out, we are notified by leaders and then we send them a beautiful walk up to your new home package were

things for the house are essential and activities are things for the girls to decorate their rooms and we keep in contact, what we can do research to object, depending on where they're coming from for very few and they will continue to meet their and they are comfortable with that group already and we have to play seven traditional troops and depending on the borough where they moved to as well. we deafly keep in contact and we also have a traditional group, they will meet next week in each group that has moved out of troop 6000 to join on that meeting with the coordinator, she will host that during this time. >> lindsay asks, what would karina's message be to kids experiencing homelessness now and what would giselle's device be.

>> i don't think it's something we should be ashamed of, don't what anyone put a label on you and pity you if you like to be pitied, i don't think you should listen to and what everybody says, you know who you are and you know what you're going through and there's a reason behind it, don't let people assume that your reason is something bad. >> i think my advice is i continuously tell my children and all the girls in troop 6000, homelessness is not defined them, it does not say who you are, where you come from and then being in the shelter, making sure it is scary, i was scared and you have to be strong and brave for your children but i've never been to the situation where he did not know what to expect in your children or ask any questions you do don't know what answers to give them, be mindful of how you're expecting it and tell your kids this has been an adventure, and this is

just a season in our life in little change in little past and keep reminding your kids and children of their worth and how important they are and even though they're in a rough situation, be grateful that they have each other and family to lean on and others and they should be able to support each other and treat others with the kindness and the love that you would want in return. >> amazing. here is one more for nikita, what area did you find in your research as a reporter, do you feel households of women to strengthen against homelessness which is financial literacy, budgeting, et cetera. >> we always talk about financial literacy and budgeti budgeting, if you don't have any money to budget with, that is hard, i think we have to start

with demanding more from, people should demand higher wages and it starts there with people making a living wage and when you make, now it's $15 an hour and your rent, average rent -- i guess the city gives you a voucher for 1300 something dollars that can go a little higher but i would ask any of the renters who are on here in new york city if they can find more than a studio apartment for some of the prices were where you know, it is impossible, when we talk about our main

households led by single mothers or single fathers, we have to start with talking about paying people what they're worth. >> makes sense, i want to close out with asking both of you what is next for you, can you talk about your goals and ambitions for troop 6000 in yourself and nikita can you talk about what you're working on next or now. >> my goal for troop 6000 is to be able to reach all girls who are living in the shelter system and that is my biggest goal in my dreams and i'm determined to help in any way that i can to ensure that is something that happened and were able to support these girls, i dream big sometimes, a lot of people tell me that but why not and making sure that the team is able to

expand, there's a lot of girls to serve in donations go a long way, to build a stronger team, were able to support the programs for the girls and for myself, as much as i would love to be a part of girl scouts that are part of my life, i will always be a leader but i am planning -- i'm running for city council in my district and that is my next goal for myself and am working on that now. >> that is so great. >> i cannot stop running for city council, i'm not running for city council, were going to tell a story that you will hopefully see soon, one looking at the food lines that have been stretched around the city that so many people who never thought they would be a food line, they are in them now, i'm also

working on a story about what is happening with child welfare and the pandemic and what's happening with peers who are trying to get their children back who were removed from their. for the pandemic and how children, some children are experiencing abuse at this time and they don't have teachers and coaches that would usually have an eye on them seeing what's happening to them. , that's pretty heavy into read about this. >> thank you both so much for the amazing work that you do in your fields and i'm so glad you got to know each other so we could get this book out of this, troop 6000, you can get anywhere you can find books to support the work of the troops and her wonderful reporting, think you also much again.

>> thank you. >> have a great evening. >> you are watching book tv on c-span2, every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors, c-span2, created to americans television company by a public service and brought to you by your television provider. >> are live coverage of the democratic national convention continues tonight with former secretary of state hillary clinton, democratic vice president on nominee, the harrison former president barack obama, watch live coverage of the democratic national convention tonight at nine eastern on c-span, live streaming and on-demand as c-span.org/dmc and listen with a free c-span radio app. your unfiltered view of