Step Up Ministries: Serving and Stabilizing our Community

In this episode Sophs speaks to Laura Martin, the chief outreach officer, for Step Up Ministries, an organization that helps individuals and families find housing, work, and overall stability! Step Up offers programs and classes to help prepare people for interviews and other professional meetings that can help provide for them and their family, and provide other help and stability even afterwards. Listen for more information on how Step Up is helping serve the community by stabilizing it!!

★ Support this podcast ★

Creators and Guests

Host

Sophs Magnanini

Public Affairs Director (2025-2026)

What is Oak City Move?

A radio program and podcast from WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 celebrating those who enact positive changes in the Raleigh community.

00:00
Sophs Magnanini
Oak City Move is a podcast on WKNC's 88.1 FM HD 1 Raleigh where we highlight people and organizations creating positive change in the Triangle and beyond. Oak City Move can be heard on air every Other Monday on 88.1 FM HD1 Raleigh or online at wknc.org Listen for episodes and more information, go to our blog at blog.wknc.org or follow us on SoundCloud at wknc88.1 hello 88.1 WKNC Raleigh the song you just heard with Sweaty linen by surf ninja3 I am Sophia Magnanini, your host and you're listening to Oak City Move. Today we are joined by a very special guest, Laura Martin, the Chief Outreach Officer for Step Up Ministries. First off, I just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to join me.

00:48
Sophs Magnanini
And for listeners who may not be familiar, if you wanted to start by kind of explaining what Step Up Ministry is and your role in it, sure.

00:57
Laura Martin
We are at Step Up Ministry. We are a free community based social impact organization and we help people find employment. Once people are employed, we help whole families vision and set goals and accomplish those goals. So we have been around for about 37 years and I have the role of being our Chief Outreach Officer, which means I get to do fun things like talk to you guys, go out to the community, meet people who want to volunteer, people who want to donate, people who might be partners or employers, or people who might want to participate in our programming.

01:27
Sophs Magnanini
That's awesome. You said you guys have been around for 37 years, right?

01:31
Laura Martin
Yeah.

01:31
Sophs Magnanini
Can you kind of talk about maybe the what inspired the creation or how the organization has kind of evolved in that 37 years of helping the community?

01:42
Laura Martin
Sure. We were founded by a church over on Oberlin Road called White Memorial Presbyterian Church and originally were a small group of grassroots people that were affiliated with few different faith groups who had some temporary transitional housing and so they didn't necessarily know everything about what they were doing, but they had some places for people to stay and that's where our roots are. Over time we've had an opportunity to grow to our own 501c3. We have 19 people on staff and we run a whole array of programming that helps people to sustain employment and to build stable futures for their families and to have access to living wage jobs with benefits. Really just learning over time from being in relationships with people that it's cool to have a place to stay, but there's so much more to sustaining an Income in a family.

02:36
Laura Martin
Especially in a city like Raleigh where, you know, we have a lot of affordability challenges right now. And you know, it can be, we have great jobs, but we don't always have easy access to those great jobs. So every time we've learned a lot about how to help people get living wage jobs and sustain those jobs for their families.

02:54
Sophs Magnanini
That's great. Especially hearing kind of started out as just people wanting to help those in their community and how it just evolved into bigger scale operation of that. And like you were saying, it is so important besides just getting jobs and housing, there's so much more that goes into that. And so it's really awesome that you guys are really helping keep these families stable like even after helping them. What type of programs or services does Step Up Ministry offer to people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity or like you were saying with job markets and all that stuff too.

03:28
Laura Martin
So for us, while we don't exclusively serve people who are homeless, lots of people who come to us are experiencing homelessness when they come to us. I think that's an important thing for people to understand is lots of people who are working, maybe working a couple of jobs, maybe really similar to you and I and just can't afford a place to stay or maybe in their cars or maybe from house to house. So, you know, just understanding that lots of different kinds of people who work in our community in lots of ways experience homelessness. Yeah. So our Employment Academy is open to everyone. So some people will be experiencing homelessness. Anybody can come. And that Employment Academy is available every Tuesday night.

04:10
Laura Martin
We have free dinner, we have free childcare, and we have support from everything from how to interview for a job, to getting help to get outfitted for your job, to practicing for your interviews, scheduling your transportation, making sure maybe if it's virtual, that you've got access to Internet, you've got a device you can do that on. And if you don't, we provide that for you. Just really looking at each individual, what the barriers are for them and trying to decrease those barriers as much as we possibly can. So our employment program is definitely something we're known for once people are employed. We have a program called Empower 48 and you can come and bring your kids to that program. It meets every Tuesday night. Also dinner and childcare.

04:47
Laura Martin
It's really important for people who are working and who have kids to have that whole family approach to give them time to focus on themselves. Because if you're busy and you're trying to keep your job together and you have children that can be challenging. So everything we do for adults, we also do for children. So kids are learning the same things that the adults are learning at age appropriate levels. Throughout our programming. And in that empower, 48 people are going to be really focused on some. There's lots of classes and lots of things they learn. But at its core, it's being confident, building up your self esteem, building up your sense that you can achieve. So confidence, communication, practicing communicating with different kinds of people, practicing communicating in public, growing your leadership skills through communication, community building. Right.

05:32
Laura Martin
So getting to know people across the community and consistency, showing up every week and just developing habits that are going to really benefit you and your family. So those are our core four and those are threaded throughout our programming. And we also offer some cool alumni programs for people that have graduated from those. And those include everything from art classes to homeownership classes, to entrepreneurial and parenting approaches. Whatever our alumni are really interested in, we work with partners in the community to bring together those classes and make them available.

06:00
Sophs Magnanini
It's different for every person. There's different needs and requirements for every person. And so the way that you guys have so many different programs and ways to help them is really great and inspiring. Especially with the kids. You were saying, because like you were saying these people, like, they could have jobs and then are right now experiencing homelessness and also like if they have children, daycares are so expensive and stuff they like, especially now. And so it's really hard to kind of balance that. And so it's really great that you guys are helping take that burden off.

06:34
Laura Martin
Yeah, it's really mutually beneficial too. So we have a lot of people who are on staff who serve as case managers. We have volunteers in the community who serve as instructors. We have volunteers who serve as co partners. We have volunteers who take care of the kiddos and, you know, getting to know one another better and kind of understanding what, why is it hard for people, you know, what is their situation and getting close to that. It's so good for us, those of us who come who want to help, to learn more about how to be helpful and to benefit from the beauty of some of those relationships. Because a lot of people are working so hard and they're so resilient and they're creative and they're just amazing. They just have different backgrounds than we have, you know, I can imagine.

07:16
Sophs Magnanini
Yeah, it's a lot of learning from one another. Even like you were saying the workers, the staff there, the volunteers, they are also learning so much from the people that they are helping. And so it's just a great big community that's really just helping each other, which is really nice. You mentioned earlier a little bit about how you guys kind of help to address the long term stability and independence of these people. If you wanted to go kind of more into that.

07:45
Laura Martin
Yeah. So one thing about Step up is we're trying to know people over several years. Right. And everything we do is built to have a next step. So if you get a job through us, awesome. You can also come and let's figure out what you want to do with that job. Let's put a plan together around what else you want to add. And you can do that when you graduate. You can come to alumni, you can do a Toastmasters club, you can do a parenting class. You could learn to buy your own home or start a business. If, if you're good with that, then you could be one of our ambassadors. We have a couple people every year that serve as ambassadors and they're trained to tell their stories and to public speak and they're amazing people.

08:23
Laura Martin
And they serve formally as ambassadors for a year. For us, after you've served as an ambassador, you might want to join our board. We always have a couple people who have come through our programming that serve on our board. And so there's always a next thing that you can do. And I think, you know, just believing that people are going to accomplish what they set out to accomplish and having something to move forward to as part of our culture, you know, always having a next step, just.

08:48
Sophs Magnanini
Having the support and that support system can really change how people feel and how they feel about themselves. So it really is awesome that you guys create these long form bonds to help keep them going.

09:04
Laura Martin
One thing that's really nice too is a lot of our alumni, the very first thing that they want to do once they've gotten themselves stable is to help other people. It's very common. And so I have the great pleasure of going out in the community to events like at Chavis park or downtown, and there'll be all these different nonprofits there. And I always see at least three or four alumni. And maybe they're working, I don't know, maybe they're working as recovery support at Southlight, or maybe they're a peer support specialist who's guiding some people out through the community. Maybe they're working in a children's organization. But I run into alumni just all over the community who have found ways to sustain that giving back.

09:42
Laura Martin
And so that always feels good as far as, like, the impact resonates beyond just that moment of help into all of the things that person goes on to do in the community. And we have some really accomplished alumni. I'm very proud of some of the people that I know who have. Who have. Who have been our alumni.

09:59
Sophs Magnanini
It's. It's really great because it's almost turns into this cycle of just helping one another and helping the community, Giving back to those that need the community and the family that you guys build. Can you kind of walk us through what a typical day might look like for someone that's participating in Step Ups ministry or like, the programs? I know you're saying how certain days they have Tuesdays come.

10:21
Laura Martin
Yeah, I think. I think I'll stick with. We have so many different types of people who come. I think I'll stick with, like, what a Tuesday is like for us. Tuesday is so much fun at Step up, and we would love to invite anybody listening to come out and join us on Tuesday nights for a tour. We always have people who are coming to visit us, but on Tuesday evenings, people begin to arrive on campus and we have dinner together. So there's, you know, there's a. Everyone's coming in and welcoming each other and catching up with friends and going through a dinner line and sitting down together. And we have a time where we share joys with one another. You know, we just share what's going on in our lives. It's joyful. It's a very welcoming and open community. We enjoy each other's company.

11:00
Laura Martin
And there's people from lots of walks of life. After dinner, people begin to head toward their classes. The kids are in the gym playing or in the nursery, learning how to sit together at the table and eating their goldfish and hanging out. But there is a strong family feel to that, you know, because the kids are always around. People make their way to their classes. They check in with their friends and with volunteers, and they get ready to start, settle into their topic for the night. Generally, there's. There's four classes going on, and one of those classes is going to be getting people introduced to Step Up. People are constantly starting for us. And so we run for, they. They say 48 weeks. And so during that time, some people are learning how to.

11:44
Laura Martin
How to use community resources and they're getting to know one another, and they're in the beginning phases of putting their plans together. And other people are doing budgets for the first time and they're getting into financial planning and goal setting. Other people have got their budgets down and they've started to work on their goals. And they are now talking about building boundaries and building supports and what kinds of. What kinds of things they want to keep in their life and what kinds of things they want to release. And then there's another group of people who are preparing to graduate and they are working on putting together career plans and thinking about next steps. Overall, you'd find that it's. It's a. It's a really chatty night. There's lots of conversation going on. There's lots of. The best kind of learning. Right. Those aha. Moments where.

12:28
Laura Martin
Where people kind of just confront what's going on in their lives and decide what they want to do about it. And that's always got. Always got some kids running around in the background in the gym and in the nursery.

12:39
Sophs Magnanini
That sounds so nice. Like people are constantly bouncing off one another because, like, you're saying how there's always new people and then the people in different steps of the program that can help, like, give them this confidence about how they might. What they need to get to the next steps. And it's also just really great, the family aspect that you're saying, how it just feels all like a big family and probably makes the newcomers way more comfortable and excited to start this new step in their life.

13:11
Laura Martin
Yeah, I think. I don't know. I don't know how it is right now. I'll just confess. I'm about. I'm 54. Right. So it's. I'm a different. I'm a different generation than you. But I find it so refreshing that there's a space where people come together and we are just agreeing to not judge each other. And it allows for a lot of room for people to be vulnerable and be authentic and not have to put on too much of a mask. And I just appreciate a lot being in a community where we. We agree at the beginning that we're not judging each other.

13:39
Sophs Magnanini
Because I feel like you probably give a lot of these people their dignity back, make them feel like they are actual people, because they've probably encountered a lot of people that make them feel lesser or that instead of helping them, they just judge them and. Which is just not helpful in any way. And so it's really great. Just. Yeah. Having a judgment free zone for everyone to open up and be who they can and who they want. To be. And that's really awesome that you allow space for that. Does step of ministry kind of collaborate with any other non profits or local businesses?

14:16
Laura Martin
We collaborate with so many people. So we have about 35 primary partners and those are different organizations in the community that help us with different resources and we have memory and understanding with them where we kind of know we're going to do this part and you're going to do this part. So for example, Green Chair project might help us get furniture for somebody that's got an apartment for the first time. People, women who are coming with people who identify as women who are coming through our employment program. They're outfitted by Dress for Success. And so that's a great partnership that we have that allows women to just look great and get great support for their job search. We have partnerships with Wheels for Hope so that people can have access to cars.

14:56
Laura Martin
We have partnerships with the diaper bank of North Carolina so that parents have diapers on site, note in the pocket so that par have access to clothing. And all that's just baked in to what we do. So those resources are just there and available. We also have a whole level of partners that help us with content, you know, who have expertise. Like maybe self help Credit union might come out and teach one of the homeownership classes because they're really expert at that. We collaborate with the city of Raleigh and you guys would be welcome anytime to join us. If you check out Community Cares Collaborative, we host a lunch every other month with the city of Raleigh where we invite out the community leaders, nonprofit leaders, and we have a topic that's of interest in a lunch that we host.

15:38
Laura Martin
And it's a free space and time to network and get to know what's going on in the community. That lets us stay kind of in touch with a big group of people who are doing this work so that we know each other well. We can help address gaps as we need to. When people are new to the sector, they don't have to waste a lot of time trying to figure out who does what. Right? So we do that every other month and it's called Community Cares Collaborative. And we work with the city to help staff some positions that they have. We work with the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program. We teach in the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program.

16:11
Laura Martin
I didn't mention this, but we have a freestanding program for people 16 to 21 that does all the same kinds of things, but focused on Young adults. And so we have a lot of resources that we're able to share there. Colleges invite us out for tours. Lots of partners come in and teach. There's no way we could do this without a whole ecosystem of other people and resources. And so that's one thing that we really help with. The people who participate in our program is helping guide them to the things that they need and having those relationships in place to make it easy.

16:43
Sophs Magnanini
That's so amazing because like you were saying earlier, it's just another step of helping make sure that they have stability and what they need. And that's really cool. I have also interviewed Note in the Pocket and Green Share beforehand, and they also had mentioned how they work with you guys, which is just really cool. Kind of the connections and the big community with all the nonprofits around the Raleigh area in North Carolina, it's really amazing to see everyone working together to make sure that the community is getting what they need.

17:15
Laura Martin
Yeah. We're so fortunate here in the Triangle area in that we have a lot of local organizations that help connect leaders and that help us stay close to each other and to support each other. Right. So it really is a collaborative environment, and that's so refreshing. Like, I can think of, you know, so many times in my own career, my own life, where reaching out to those partners has been important, not just to my work, but to me as a person. Right. In order to stay motivated and to stay focused. And, you know, you need. You need one another. And we've got. We've got leadership. Triangle helps do that. We've got community leaders drinking coffee that helps do that. I mean, there's just so many different places and ways that if you want to have the support of your peers, you can.

18:00
Sophs Magnanini
What are some kind of. This is kind of two questions that I'm going to put together. But what are some kind of common misconceptions people have about homelessness that your work helps challenge? And then what changes would you like to see at the local or systematic level to better address this homelessness?

18:18
Laura Martin
I think recognizing that people who are going through homelessness are people just like us, it's not some big difference. Anybody can go through homelessness. Anybody can experience homelessness and just radical compassion for that. Right. Thinking about that person that you pass by on the interstate, that's flying a sign, that's somebody's family member. Right. That's why that's. That's important to a lot of people. And really maintaining our own humanity is so important to us. Right. Really Thinking about each person as a person, I think people, too, there's a misconception that, again, that working people aren't homeless. I mean, you know, there's lots of people that we interact with every day who are working, who are also experiencing homelessness. And I think as a community, we just got to keep working on creative ways to leverage big organizations and government and community to produce affordable housing.

19:22
Laura Martin
We have to do that because we have to have places that people can afford to live. That takes land and that takes capital, and that takes lots of community willpower. I think all of us have to stay very focused on how can we use the resources that we have and encourage big organizations to use the resources that they have to help us produce more housing.

19:44
Sophs Magnanini
Because like you were saying, at the end of the day, it's just compassion and humanity for other human beings. Recognizing and having the empathy to recognize this is someone's child, this is someone's family member, this is someone who someone loves and cares about. Especially in this, the political state of the US It's. We're seeing a lot of just very. No empathy for these people. And. But they are just like you and me. And a lot of people are always like, when it comes to homelessness, they're like, well, they should just get a job or something. But like you were saying, a lot of times people that have jobs can experience homelessness.

20:24
Sophs Magnanini
And so it's just this kind of, like you're saying, humanity and wanting to help and wanting to care, being able and willing enough to have that empathy, which is really great that what you guys are doing.

20:40
Laura Martin
You're right about right now, though. We've got to. You have to get proximate to things you don't understand. Because it might be hard to understand why somebody doesn't have a job, but if you go and get to know them within 10 minutes, it will be really easy to see why it's hard for them. Right. How maybe they don't. If you have advantages, sometimes it's really hard to understand how many advantages you have. Right. And so I think part of these relationships is just kind of understanding. Understanding what the other person is going through. Because nine times out of 10, after about 10 minutes, it's real clear to understand why someone is having a hard time.

21:14
Sophs Magnanini
It is, yeah, like you were saying, almost recognizing your privilege and then using that privilege to help those who are under. And it's just something that I think the US and the world in general can really learn from.

21:30
Laura Martin
But, yeah, I feel. I feel. I feel so grateful Just have access to this community. Right. I think that's for me. It, it keeps me human. It keeps me human to be together with other people who have kind of agreed that, yeah, we're about.

21:44
Sophs Magnanini
All of us knowing that you're with people that care about each and every other person in the room. As we kind of come up towards the end of our chat, if you wanted to let us know about any upcoming events, fundraisers, programs, or how listeners can get involved in their own way or maybe volunteer support, anything of the sorts.

22:06
Laura Martin
The very best opportunity we have is an ongoing opportunity. So every Tuesday evening we host tours at Step up and my colleague Dana and I have a pleasure of meeting lots and lots of different kinds of people. It's an open invitation. All in the world you have to do is email us and say, hey, I'd like to take a tour. We'll give you all the details. It's every Tuesday evening, It starts at 6 o' clock and it runs until 7:15. And we eat a meal together. So, you know, it's a nice way to come together, be in community, eat a meal and see all the different things we do.

22:38
Laura Martin
And I say that because, you know, to come and see makes it so much easier for people to understand how they might want to get engaged and might want to be part of that community. So every Tuesday night tours are available. We do have, we do have a big Impact luncheon coming up June 1, which is one of the big ways that we fundraise. We have lots of opportunity for people to help us in a lot of different ways. So you could reach out to us and find out how you could get involved with helping with our Impact luncheon. We have volunteer opportunities, the Community Cares Collaborative that I mentioned. If you're not in class on a Friday, it's a great way to come out.

23:13
Laura Martin
You can volunteer, you can sign people in and be a friendly face and then you can eat lunch with us and you know, hang out and talk about the topic that we're talking about. It's a nice way to feel engaged in the community and see the bigger, larger efforts. So whether you want to come and take a tour and get involved one one, or whether you'd like to drop in and volunteer an event, I just would love to see people get engaged. You know, I think what we do is pretty cool and it's even better with, with new, different people.

23:41
Sophs Magnanini
That's awesome. Thank you so much again for coming and talking about this amazing topic. The work that you guys do for the community overall, it's just awesome.

23:51
Laura Martin
Oh, yeah. On behalf of all of us here, step up. I mean, thanks so much for inviting us and for taking time to think about your community and taking time to help us get the word out that we're here. If you. If people need help finding jobs.

24:01
Sophs Magnanini
As we come up on the end of our chat, I want to thank you all again for listening, as well as Laura for coming in and talking about her amazing organization that she's part of. It's. It's truly amazing. Just the humanity, the work that comes into it, the compassion, the community. They just deserve all the recognition. Thank you all for listening to Oak City Move. I'm your host, Sophia Magnanini, and if you're interested in listening to this episode again or to past episodes of the show, you can go to wknc.org podcast and make sure to tune into our show every other Monday on WKNC, 80 whip 88.1 FM, Raleigh. Have a great day, y'. All.
Transcribed by https://fireflies.ai/
StepUpFinal.mp3
Meeting created at: 3rd Feb, 2026 - 4:43 PM