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It was the Sunday of my first ever visit to Los Angeles when I discovered a local food festival on Alameda Street. On my way there, I passed a street with the most devastating and greatest concentration of homelessness I had ever seen in the United States. I had heard LA struggled with homelessness, but there was nothing that could have prepared me for what I saw. I wondered if there was anyone out there addressing this issue and making a change.

The following day, I took a bike tour in the Arts District where I found a jewelry store called The Giving Keys; what I found within was remarkable.

CEO and Founder, Caitlin Crosby, utilized her platform as a singer/songwriter in Hollywood to start a jewelry shop; empowering others through kind words while supporting the homeless by employing them in her company, The Giving Keys.

Entity shares a photo of The Giving Keys merchandise.
Via Instagram / @TheGivingKeys

About Caitlin Crosby

Entity shares a photo of Caitlin Crosby, CEO of The Giving Key.
Via Instagram / @caitlincrosby

Caitlin Crosby was born in Hollywood, California and naturally dove into the world of performance through acting in high school and expanding into the singing/songwriting industry later on. However, she wanted to do more than sing and act in Hollywood. Eager to make a positive impact on the world, she founded the LoveYourFlawz campaign in 2009 with award-winning actress Brie Larson. The campaign was launched in conjunction with her debut album, “Flawz.” This was their mission:

“We all have insecurities about our imperfections, but we wanted to shift our perspectives from hating our “flawz,” to owning and loving them. This body is the only one you’re going to have here on earth, so we may as well learn to embrace it…honor it…treat it with kindness and care…Love Your Flawz exists to remind you that you’re not alone in this struggle. But with laughter and grace, we will overcome this together.”

With this background, it is no surprise Caitlin was not finished yet. After the release of “Flawz,” she went on tour and started The Giving Keys.

Inspired Beginnings

Entity shares a photo of the first giving keys made by Caitlin Crosby.
Via Youtube / @TEDxBEND

On tour, Caitlin wore an old hotel key around her neck and was inspired by her campaign to engrave “Love Your Flawz” on the key. Upon engraving it, she saw other old keys laying behind the locksmith’s counter and asked him if he could engrave other inspiring words on those ones as well. She then began making key necklaces with odd tools like her cuticle clippers on plane rides and promoted them between sets as follows:

“You might feel old, used, discarded, like these keys…I want you to wear it and embrace that word on there until you meet somebody that needs the message on there more than you, and I want you you to pay it forward to them. And then come back and write me the story of why you gave it away.”

As stories began flooding in, the keys sold out more than her CD’s did; she knew she had to take this a step further. That is when Caitlin discovered a homeless couple, named Rob and Sarah, as she was walking down Hollywood Boulevard outside her church. They were holding a sign that read: “Ugly, Broke, & Hungry.” Longing to hear their story, she immediately invited them to dinner where she discovered that Sarah made jewelry on the street. At that moment, Caitlin knew exactly what she had to do.

It Gets Even Better

Entity shares photos of Caitlin Crosby's star employees at The Giving Keys.
Via Youtube / @TEDxBEND

As keys made by Sarah and Rob were selling out, she needed more workers and wanted to hire from The Projects and Skid Row. She eventually found an organization, called PATH, to help people transition out of homelessness. Five of the 10 employees she hired from PATH were able to permanently leave the streets into the safety of an apartment by engraving keys.

As this was happening, Rob and Sarah started saving up and were eventually able to get a motel, then an apartment, and Rob even got the chance to take the GED, on which he made an almost perfect score. Caitlin said “it was so interesting that there was literal gold inside these people and sometimes they just needed a little umph.” Other employees of The Giving Keys included Jeff and Norma, who met engraving keys for Caitlin, fell in love, and got off the street and engaged, starting a new, happy life.

A Continued Effort

Entity shares a photo of Caitlin Crosby's employees at the EmpowerHER awards.
Via Instagram / @TheGivingKeys

“It’s our responsibility as humans to take care of each other,” says Caitlin. Today, The Giving Keys has over 50 employees and products are sold in Nordstrom, Anthropologie, Fred Segal, and 2,000 other retail stores worldwide. The company has lifted 22 people out of homelessness and thousands of “pay it forward” stories continue to be collected by Caitlin.

Caitlin Crosby is clearly a #womanthatdoes. She inspires people to love themselves while simultaneously addressing a local issue that is clearly prevalent, as I saw during my first days in Los Angeles. Not to mention that while being the Founder and CEO of The Giving Keys, Caitlin still appears in dozens of TV shows, commercials, presentations, and movies.

Support The Giving Keys

You can support The Giving Keys by purchasing her jewelry here: https://www.thegivingkeys.com/, “pay it forward,” and share your story of how you were able to unlock someone else’s freedom.

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