We had the good fortune of connecting with Victoriah Bech and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Victoriah, is there a quote or affirmation that’s meaningful to you?
Every time we serve our community we always start by saying, “everybody is someone’s somebody”. Because everybody who is in line is either someone’s father, mother, cousin, brother. Everyone in line is loved by someone else. The reason why – my dad spent a majority of his life in skid row we could be serving my dad. its so important to remember that no one grows up thinking they’re going to be in skid row; we really value showing everyone compassion and extra grace for the people that a we serve.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I grew up in the entertainment industry, had my own tv show, was singing and dancing professionally my whole life. I moved to Los Angeles right after high school by myself from Denmark to continue my career in the entertainment industry. In 2016 I had a near death experience where I was very very sick and hospitalized for weeks. I ended up having emergency facial surgery and I found myself in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. I was kicked out of my bank, lost my offices in Beverly Hills, and even had an at home nurse. in that part of my life I fired my whole team. in the face of losing everything I came across a shelter where I started my first pre-school in skid row. Up until then I had struggled paying my bills, paying for basic essentials. I turned down a high paying nanny job to start my pre-school in skid row. Those were the first steps into me starting our nonprofit “Starts with One Today”. Ever since I started, all I had to give was my time. ever since I started giving my time my money problems resolved. dedicated my entire life to giving back. While I was sick I realized I was living a glamorous life, I remember happy times but never being truly content. I knew I had to change the course of my life. My accident caused me to see that I always had big dreams but God had a much bigger purpose for my life. Today with our nonprofit “Starts with One Today”, we feed and clothe 400-500 people every Sunday and we now have two transitional homes called “Find a Purpose” where he have housed over 3oo men who are struggling with homeless, incarceration, addiction, and or aging out of the foster care system. We have also done several school events for the youth in South Central Los Angeles.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First thing on the itinerary would be to go to “Sundays in Skidrow” to serve the community. Since I have been vegan for 6 years I would definitely take them to some of my favorite vegan restaurants. Such as Sugar Taco, for my favorite nachos. Next would be Crossroads, and I would definitely have to do a stop at Nic’s on Beverly too. My favorite thing about LA is there are so many vegan options everywhere you go. And for sure we would have to go pick up a few donations, because my life basically consists of picking up donations 24/7.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think my biggest shoutout would go to my fiancé Jonathan who always encourages me and has been such a huge support system and is always pushing me to strive to the next level. Together we started our “Sundays in Skidrow” food and clothing drive with only two volunteers and we managed to serve almost 500 people by ourselves that day. I also want to shoutout my mom for always installing and raising me to have a compassionate and empathetic heart.

Website: https://startswithonetoday.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startswithonetoday/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@startswithonetoday

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