The Empowerment Plan

Veronika’s vision for The Empowerment Plan started when she was a 20-year-old product design student at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and was given a class assignment to design a product to fill an actual need. Upon her December 2011 graduation and after spending countless hours at local shelters, she had created an organization that began around a single idea: to design a self-heated, waterproof coat that transforms into a sleeping bag specifically for the homeless. Her idea has now transformed into a system of empowerment in which homeless women are paid to learn how to produce coats for people living on the streets, giving them an opportunity to earn money, find a place to live, and gain back their independence for themselves and their family.

Veronika is the youngest recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award from the JFK Library Foundation and Harvard University. She has received an IDEA Gold Award from the Industrial Design Society of America and has an honorary PhD of Humane Letters from Johnson State College. Veronika has been named one of CNN’s Ten Visionary Women in the World, the winner of the 2014 DVF People’s Voice Award, listed as one of Forbes “30 Under 30”, as well as the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “40 Under 40”. The Empowerment Plan story has been told across the world and shared at events such as the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit with Oprah, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.