When Nikki Gane-Butler finally made it to Seattle in 2008 after a nearly weeklong trip from Atlanta, practically wearing out her favorite Madonna CD on the way, she had no job, no place to call home and very little money.
Still, she says, she was free of an abusive relationship.
“You never decide, ‘Hey, I’m going to be homeless,’ ” she tells PEOPLE now. “And the problem is you don’t plan. You find a window of freedom and you dive through.”
Gane-Butler, 52, had known it wouldn’t be easy, and it wasn’t: In those early months once she was back in her childhood home of Seattle, having had to leave her two dogs behind, she worked three jobs before she was able to secure a place to live — and then decided to make sure other women in similar situations didn’t face the same obstacles.
That drive turned into Dignity for Divas, a nonprofit that Gane-Butler launched in August 2012 with the goal of helping “vulnerable women rebuild their lives.”
The group offers housing assistance, support with self-care and, at the nearly-7,000-square-foot Diva Dream Academy, a variety of workshops, counseling and vocational trainings as part of the Keep the Key Initiative to ensure continued housing.
Every woman that works with Dignity for Divas is referred to as a “diva,” a title they’re proud to claim and a collective identity that helps remind them that they aren’t alone. Gane-Butler herself often sports an “I Am a Diva” T-shirt. She also says the other half of her organization’s name is just as important: dignity.
For example, the toiletry and supply kits that the group distributes to women without homes feature high-quality goods — an important detail, not just a luxury.
“It’s not just about giving someone soap,” Gane-Butler explains. “It’s about the good soap. It’s of the quality that maybe just tied her back into herself a little bit … it’s that dignity to make someone start to see themselves again.”
Dignity for Divas has gotten local and national attention. None of which surprises an old friend of Gane-Butler’s: Sir Mix-a-Lot.
Nikki Gane-Butler (left) and Sir Mix-a-Lot in an undated photo.
Dignity For Divas
The two go way back, long before Gane-Butler’s days as a nonprofit director, to when she worked as a backup dancer for the multiplatinum artist behind “Baby Got Back.” All these years later and the two remain good friends.
He remembers hearing about Dignity for Divas before it even had a name and asking her if she needed any help with it.
“But of course like Nikki, she didn’t ask for anything,” he tells PEOPLE. “She just wanted to do it herself. And my God has she made a difference. I’ve seen her on TV a couple of times and although we’re not related, I find myself [saying] like, ‘That’s my baby sister right there.’ Really proud of her.”
Gane-Butler first met Sir Mix-a-Lot (whose real name is Anthony Ray) in 1991, when he was recruiting performers to go on tour with him, and he has observed her incredible growth in the subsequent decades.
He compares her to his “fiercely independent” mother, who was a domestic survivor, too.
“Nikki reminds me of that,” he says. “She’d rather walk alone than walk with an abuser.”
Nikki Gane-Butler and the Diva bus.
Dignity For Divas
Gane-Butler still vividly remembers an incident that helped inspire Dignity for Divas, not long after she returned to Seattle.
She was out buying shoes one day in the winter of 2011 when she spotted a woman standing alone outside the store, she says. To anyone else, it might have been an unremarkable sight. But as a survivor herself, Gane-Butler recognized the woman was in need of a hand.
“It was like I saw myself,” she says now. “I knew exactly what she needed, and I ran into the little drugstore and I grabbed all these little toiletries and I brought it out to her.”
The woman took the toiletries and raced into a nearby McDonald’s, Gane-Butler says. She stood dumbfounded until the woman returned minutes later, nearly unrecognizable, having been eager to clean herself up.
The woman thanked her and Gane-Butler suddenly knew what she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing. Not long after, she celebrated her 40th birthday.
“I remember I sat at the edge of my bed and I said, ‘Okay, God, I had the first 40,’ ” Gane-Butler says. “‘You get the next.’ ”
Taryn Stallworth.
Dignity For Divas
Some 12 years later, her organization says it has helped more than 15,000 women — women like Taryn Stallworth and Victoria Glenn — and 72% of them have remained housed for more than two years.
“I didn’t know where to begin,” Stallworth, a mother of five, tells PEOPLE. “And when I got connected with them, Nikki had so many resources and was very welcoming. And I felt like she was like an auntie or a big sister that’s just going to take care of me, look after me and my babies.”
When Stallworth, 42, arrived in Seattle from Georgia along with her kids, they only were able to bring one suitcase each, she says. But after she was able to secure stable housing for her family, Stallworth says, Dignity for Divas made it so she didn’t need to worry about pots and pans or other small things that most people need to take care of when moving into a new place.
Stallworth is now working full-time as an assistant teacher and is back in school herself.
“It’s been a community in my life that I’m very proud to be a part of,” she says of Dignity for Divas — a message echoed by Glenn.
Victoria Glenn, left, and Nikki Gane-Butler.
Dignity For Divas
A 40-year-old mother of two, Glenn remembers a rush of emotions the first time she met Gane-Butler: breaking into sobs but feeling immediately comfortable. She calls the Dignity for Divas director a “godsend.”
“She just gives me that confidence to be great, just do what I need to do,” Glenn says.
She is now in a stable housing situation and is working as an intern for Dignity for Divas, a job she loves. She recently took her daughter to a cooking class offered at the center, and the girl had a blast.
“The situation that I was in was at the time really, it wasn’t the best,” Glenn says of her life before meeting Gane-Butler. “But thank God through counseling and prayer and all that, things have gotten a lot better for my children’s sake. But I definitely feel safe.”
Gane-Butler’s work has not gone unnoticed. Dignity for Divas has partnered with local giants like Amazon, Starbucks and Microsoft, who have provided donations and participated in the organization’s workshops. (Dignity for Divas has held trainings in Microsoft stores, for example.)
The group was recently recognized on a national scale as well, receiving a $25,000 grant as part of the Elevate Prize GET LOUD Award from the Elevate Prize Foundation, which spotlights positive social impact.
The plan is to keep on expanding Dignity for Divas beyond the Pacific Northwest, Gane-Butler says, and she hopes the success shown with the Keep the Key Initiative will help it get implemented in other states.
Some of the women who have participated in Dignity for Divas are now nurses, business owners or, like Stallworth, teachers, among other professions.
“When I see the divas winning, I’m just like, ‘Oh yeah, this is good stuff,’ ” Gane-Butler says. “And it does heal a part of me. Every diva that walks in the door is a broken part of me that I get to mend. Because it’s helping that part of me that I wasn’t able to help at the time.”
