Meet Sarah Anderson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Anderson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

My optimism comes from the unity on the Vic James Center team. We are a very diverse team in all definitions of the word, by design, and our differences have been leveraged to bring out the best in each of us. We have the best people in the right positions. Lauryn Hill teaches art workshops and coaches individuals who feel stuck and need help on a new business or want to make a career move and are seeking more clarity, direction and confidence to make money doing work they enjoy. Justin Broome personally trains many young athletes and adults as they try to obtain their various personal goals. He is motivated in giving back to the community and helping mentor the youth in the same ways he was helped. Dyuti Trivedi has been volunteering since she was a teenager in various non-profits in different capacities. She has helped with teaching, art, street plays & fundraising for various causes including equal rights, healthcare and the integration of all within society. Garrett Shaw is an advocate for human rights and a respected leader in his community. He volunteers his time and resources to helping those who are less fortunate and has built a reputation as a compassionate and caring individual that will always stand up for what is right. Rick Egusquiza has been an active member in the LGBTQ sober community since 2004. He became West Coast Bureau Chief of In Touch Weekly, Life & Style Weekly and Closer Weekly in 2014. Andrew Gomez has decades of service in the community. His focus is helping at risk youth with mentoring, programs and scholarships. He is very active in recovery (addiction) and has over 32 years clean. Janisha Mickens-Ingram has spent over 18 years in the mental health field. She specializes in assisting those who suffer from lack of self-esteem, co-dependency, anxiety, depression, and all-around fear of success. Her main goal is to break generational patterns by igniting resiliency. Tristen Marler’s proudest accomplishment was organizing several food drives, vaccination clinics, and various other resource drives to help constituents in need at Oakwood and Mar Vista Gardens. They are all recognized experts in their fields and bring a depth of knowledge combined with their passion to help others that makes us UNSTOPPABLE.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am the Founder and CEO of the Vic James Center (VJC). The VJC was founded in 2021 in honor of my brother, Victor, who died at the age of 23 of opioid poisoning in 2015. Our mission is to promote healing through a focus on innovation, access to care, and community support. We are a non-profit organization that offers innovative evidence-based substance use disorder prevention, intervention, and recovery programs. We specialize in activity-based programming for youth ages 16-25. We focus on people as a whole in terms of mental health and wellness.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. The first quality is asking questions. There is a lot to learn about starting a business and no way to know what you don’t know without asking the right questions. With that, you have to have good people around to ask. You need people who want you to win and will go hard for the mission. 2. Agility and Adaptability are critical. As a new organization, things change and shift so fast. We learned where our strengths were compared to other organizations in the industry. We learned who the key players are, who is open to new ideas, who isn’t, and where to focus our time and energy to get the best possible outcome for the community. We are still on our own path our own journey. We started out on literally an epic adventure that is nowhere near finished. We have big dreams. The Vic James Center is a moonshot. We want to end youth substance use disorder.
3. Discipline is the third. The VJC is a personal passion, but even with that inherent motivation I still need to have the discipline to make my aspirations a reality. I can talk all day about how I want to do something or how great it is, but if I don’t have the discipline to make a plan, ask for help, and do the work to achieve my goals my motivation will burn out. My ideas, the team’s ideas, will be just that…ideas. We work together to hold each other accountable to do the work that is needed so not one kid, young adult, parent, brother, sister anyone ever has to experience the heartache and pain that addiction causes.

Do not be afraid to fail. Period.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

We have been experiencing a high demand for our services and expertise, but we are not seeing the financial support match the increasing demand. We continue to pitch the importance of this work, the devastating human and economical impacts of addiction and we tie it all together as a request for more funding. We need talented people to get lasting results. How things are currently being done isn’t working. We need to be open to new ideas across the board – including paying people to do this work. We’re losing families to this disease; this is the economy, this is the future and we have to commit to that financially.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vicjamescenter.org
• Instagram: @vicjamescenter