Latest news with #Savana
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Huntington Beach nonprofit Robyne's Nest, which helps at-risk teenagers, readies for new chapter
The late Fred Rogers, of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' television fame, was given some advice by his mother for tough or scary times. 'Look for the helpers,' Rogers once recalled. 'You will always find people who are helping.' Robyne Wood of Huntington Beach is a helper. That will remain true regardless of Wood's status at Robyne's Nest, the nonprofit she started in 2015 to help at-risk and homeless high school students who are drug- and alcohol-free. But after a decade in charge, she's stepping away. Wood announced last month that she will be resigning as Robyne's Nest executive director in January. She said she feels the timing is right for her. Her husband, Kirby, turns 65 next year and will also be retiring. Her daughter Savana is getting married next year, while her son Parker just graduated from high school. So Wood is stepping away for a new chapter and some well deserved time off. 'I never saw myself being here more than 10 years, I don't know why.' she said. 'Robyne's Nest is doing really well financially. In our schools and in our programs, it's really sound. What better time to hand something off to somebody else to continue it than when it's doing great?' It can be considered a full-circle moment, as Robyne's Nest was born out of Wood's volunteer help when Savana was a student at Dwyer Middle School. Morgan Smith, the director of certified human resources for the Huntington Beach Union High School District, was principal at Dwyer back then. 'In an area of Huntington Beach where there's so much affluence, there's also extreme poverty,' Smith said. 'A lot of families were stacked in apartments three or four families deep. We had kids that went to Dwyer that were sleeping in vans at night. There wasn't a system in place for schools to really have the kind of consistent outreach.' Wood created a food pantry, but as the need became greater, more resources were needed. Smith suggested that she start a nonprofit, so she dove in. 'I had heard about a student who got kicked out of his house when he turned 18, and I was beside myself,' she said. 'There were a couple of other nonprofits that supported that age group, 18-24, but most of them, their idea was to put him in a sober living home, give him a motel voucher for a couple of days, an EBT card and a minimum wage job. I was just like, 'What kind of start in life is that?' It wasn't good enough for me.' Robyne's Nest has worked over the years with the Huntington Beach Union High School District and Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Newport-Mesa trustee Carol Crane has seen Wood become a familiar face at Back Bay High, an alternative school. 'She doesn't do it to be seen, she does it because she wants to,' Crane said. 'It's more to be there and support. Some people do things for their different purposes. For her, it's just very real.' Robyne's Nest held a 10-year anniversary celebration in April. The office on Talbert Avenue, which Robyne's Nest moved into in 2018, has expanded over the years. In the back is a food pantry, and upstairs is space for an in-house mental health and wellness program, as well as a therapy room. Next door is a thrift shop opened in 2022 that's open to the public and helps support the cause. Another key step was opening Robyne's Landing, a shared transitional living house in Huntington Beach for abandoned and severely neglected students. Wood said she lived there herself for three months after a house manager had a family emergency, which should surprise no one who knows her well. 'She is a dynamo,' said Tom Williamson, a past president of the Robyne's Nest Board of Trustees who owns Marina Auto Body. 'I've never met anybody like Robyne. I know that probably sounds like it's buttered up, but let me tell you. If you spend some time with her, 'no' is not in her vocabulary, she gets it done. I wish I had a whole bunch of employees like her. I've got a few, but my God.' Linda Temple, who just retired as a psychologist at Edison High School, said that she started working with Wood when she was providing snacks for high school students. Now Wood has a team of about 50 core volunteers, plus many more who help at the holiday season. 'It's such a transitional time, and it's so critical for students to have support and know they're not alone,' Temple said. 'Even on a good day, they're struggling. You have so many who have issues with parents at home, or they live with grandparents. The mental health issue is huge.' Wood said she herself would have been a Robyne's Nest kid. Growing up on the East Coast, she left home when she was 17 and moved to Maryland. 'I finished my senior year on my own, I worked, I rode the bus,' she said. 'I learned a lot of lessons. I know what these kids go through and try to share that with them.' Wood and her family moved to Huntington Beach in 2008. She has two noticeable tattoos on her left wrist. One is a cross and the other is her favorite Bible passage, Jeremiah 29:11. 'Everything I've done has come so easily,' she said. 'I put something out that I need this, I need that, and it comes. Good karma in the world, God's will, whatever you want to call it. But I think too, people just have trust in us. We're here, we're helping take care of the kids, we're pretty transparent about everything. We're not trying to Band-Aid everything, we're really trying to make lives better with all of the tools that we have.' The person who takes over as executive director at Robyne's Nest will undoubtedly have big shoes to fill. Smith, who has also been principal at Fountain Valley and Marina high schools, knows the nonprofit will continue doing important work, providing a support structure for hundreds of teenagers and young adults over the years. 'The place that they're at now, I don't know if she ever dreamed it would be there, but Robyne is just nonstop,' he said. 'You can't tell her no; she will find a way. We are all just in her gravitational field. She's like a shooting star passing through, and we all just kind of slowly get pulled in with her gravity and become part of it. It's exciting, and it's a lot of fun, but she is that center of the universe and it is all-consuming.'
Time of India
11-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: From Urbanic to Savana: Rahul Dayama's playbook for D2C Growth
Addressing the spotlight session at the ETBrandEquity's Brand World Summit 2025 , Rahul Dayama , founding partner at Urbanic , shared invaluable, impromptu insights into building and scaling D2C brands in today's dynamic digital landscape. With Urbanic and the newer Savana under his belt, Dayama's expertise comes from navigating the intricate relationship between brands, platforms and consumers. The shifting sands of social media control Dayama opened with a fundamental question: Who truly controls social media – influencers, platforms, or consumers? His initial instinct as a brand founder leaned towards platforms, given the advertising spend. However, a deeper reflection revealed a more nuanced reality. "There is no control with anyone," he concluded, emphasising the symbiotic relationship where platforms rely entirely on consumers and content creators, and brands, in turn, depend on platforms to reach those consumers. This intricate dance necessitates a thorough understanding of a platform's "product psychology" to build an effective strategy. Dayama offered a practical example: he invests more on YouTube because its search-based nature allows content to remain relevant for a year, unlike Instagram's fleeting 48-hour window. Instagram, for him, is more of a "discovery-led platform than conversion," influencing his spending and engagement tactics. Strategic tech investment The second crucial pillar for D2C success, according to Dayama, is technology – but with a caveat. Many companies, when adopting tech, attempt to solve every problem at once. Dayama advocates for a focused approach. At Urbanic, a strict policy dictates: "If the GMB [Gross Merchandise Value] is not affecting at least by five per cent by the particular thing, then we will not invest anything on tech till then." He highlighted the significant role of influencer marketing for Urbanic, with over 35,000 influencers across both brands and millions of pieces of content generated (more than four million for Urbanic and more than a million for Savana). This experience underscores the importance of prioritising tech investments to tackle the most impactful problems first. "My biggest takeaway from that is prioritising tech and then building on it," he summarised. The first step Dayama frequently fields questions about the initial steps of launching a brand. His advice is deceptively simple but profoundly effective: "First, just figure out your niche or the channel, where your audience is." He stressed that understanding your audience goes beyond demographics; it's about observing their behavior. He recounted a personal epiphany while his tech team was meticulously defining Urbanic's target audience based on age and city. That same night, he observed a party promoter creating a guest list filled with women who "pull the crowd" and noted that Urbanic's party collection perfectly suited them. This led to a guerrilla marketing tactic: distributing free clothes to these influential club-goers. This provided immediate access to content and a highly receptive "100 per cent conversion rate" audience that might have been missed by conventional ad targeting. "I think the first step is to figure out who your audience is, understand them, find the first channel and then you can go aggressive on it," he advised. Building community for amplified growth Once the initial channel is mastered, the focus shifts to building a community. Dayama pointed to Savana's growth as a testament to this. While Urbanic garnered two million mentions in six years, Savana achieved a million mentions in a much shorter span, largely by leveraging Urbanic's established community infrastructure. He cited a campaign for Savana where they utilised a community of at least 1,000 known-performing influencers. This allowed them to execute a "one to one impact" campaign that propelled the brand above Facebook and Instagram in just three days, completing the entire initiative within a week. Their preparedness, including robust customer service (CST) for consumer feedback, further amplified the success. In conclusion, Dayama's framework for D2C success boils down to: using social media wisely by understanding platform psychology, prioritising tech investments for maximum impact and starting by identifying your niche and truly understanding your audience's behavior to build a strong community.
New Indian Express
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Dusting off the blues
From supersized shapes to soft hues, the classic and timeless denim seems to have gotten a refreshing update. Even celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jennifer Lopez and Rashmika Mandanna have been spotted in different versions of late—from barrel shape to skinny styles. Moreover, the newly crafted denims with clever details make it all the more utilitarian. For instance, Onitsuka Tiger's recent denim series focuses on high-quality, Japanese-made denim crafted by a unique dyeing process. The denim pieces in the brand's iconic yellow colour are created by carefully bleaching the base indigo blue fabric and then over-dyeing it with yellow dye. This process allows for a distinctive colour that highlights the yellow while retaining the depth of the indigo blue. Also worth mentioning is Savana's Dare to Denim line which is all about flexibility, breathability, and unrestricted motion. Yogesh Agarwal, Country Partner of the brand shares, 'The process of recontextualising denim for activewear was about rethinking structure—introducing lighter weaves, stretch infusions, and ergonomic cuts that allow movement without compromising on style.' Flexibility and Freedom There's a shift towards denim that moves with you, rather than holds you back. Styles like stretch-infused joggers, wide-leg denims with flexible waistbands, and relaxed cargo fits are making denim more adaptable for an active lifestyle. It's about comfort meeting style. 'Denim isn't just about the look anymore; it's about how it feels and functions in everyday movement,' Agarwal adds. Oppressive summer heat calls for textile which is soft and breathable as opposed to something thick and nubby. Anita Soundar, Founder and Designer of Disobedience notes that the brand's denims are cotton based and most importantly biodegradable. 'Our denim shoes are made from post-consumer textile and hand woven on looms,' she shares. The label has crafted a series of calf boots in denims and they are lined with 100 per cent cotton which provides comfort and breathability during summer. 'We also make a range of flats made with handwoven recycled denims and these are apt for a day out in summer,' she adds.
