Living The Red Life - From Police Brutality to Youth Justice Disruptor

Episode Date: May 24, 2026

What does it take to turn trauma into power and build something that disrupts broken systems? In this episode Kendra Van de Water, a youth justice advocate and founder, reveals how authenticity, resilience, and fearless leadership became her edge in navigating racism, systemic injustice, and the realities of working with underserved communities. From early experiences that shaped her mission to building a nonprofit that challenges the legal system, she shares how bold decisions, energy, and conviction create real change. This conversation dives into youth empowerment, social work, and what it really takes to lead when the odds are stacked against you.Key TakeawaysAuthenticity builds trust, influence, and long-term successTurning trauma into purpose creates unstoppable driveReal leadership requires setting boundaries and protecting your energySystems don’t change without bold, disruptive actionYouth empowerment starts with access, tools, and accountabilityNotable Quotes“Being authentic has opened so many doors for myself.”“I’ve taken my story and built something that nobody else has.”“I often refer to myself as a storm that gets things done.”“This program ain’t going to work for you if you don’t work the program.”“People don’t need to be saved, they need tools and opportunities.”Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

So for me, being authentic has opened so many doors for myself. Even when, you know, people may not like who they think you are or they may not like things that you say, it does not matter because I can sleep well at night. I have values for myself. I have certain goals and standards for myself. And so authenticity is important. So I've lived through a whole lot of things. Even just being in this work, there's a lot of politics, there's a lot of racism. I deal with harmful systems.

being a woman, being a black woman, we deal with sexism, we deal with racism every single day, but also it has helped me become who I am today. So I've taken my story, I've taken the things that I've done, and I've built something that nobody else has. Sure, yeah, we're designed to fail, aren't we? Exactly. Yeah, so how does that feel to have that chip on your shoulder? Or like, are you leading with fire? What is your purpose? What's getting you out of bed every day? Oh, I absolutely lead with fire. If you don't know me, you know I am the... My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week.

If you're ready to start living the Red Life, ditch the Blue Pill, take the Red Pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life Edition. Today, I am joined by Kendra Vandewater. Did I pronounce that correctly? Vandewater. No, I've got to go with Vandewater. Close enough.

Close enough. No, I'm going to do that right. Kendra Vandewater. Van DeG Van DeWater I'm sorry I always give it the The Latin twist Van de Water

Van de Water I'm glad we're all laughing at me at my expense Did I I know Van de Water No I'm going for Kendra van dewater I'm just giving you a count

A whole name of giving you four different names Kendra my apologies I'm Terobud podcasting Welcome Thank you for having me How do you feel filming your episode today with a professional off camera, not me at all. How do you feel? I feel great. It was a lot of fun. I feel empowered. I feel empowered like we have filmed. And it was just a good time. Kendra, welcome. Again, we clearly have a lot of fun here.

What are we going to learn about you in your episode? We are going to learn about how I took something terrible that happened to me and turned it into, something big. We're going to learn about how authenticity is really important and how being yourself and being transparent helps you walk in your purpose. So let's talk about authenticity. A lot of folks, especially now on social media or on devices, are not being authentic or they think they are and they're somehow hustling and monetizing it. That doesn't seem always to be the correct path, huh? No. Educate me. So for me, being authentic is, has opened so many doors for myself, even when, you know, people may not like who they think you are or they may not like things that you say.

It does not matter because I can sleep well at night, right? Like, I have values for myself. I have certain goals and standards for myself. And so authenticity is important. If you don't follow something, you'll follow anything. Exactly. I completely butcher that quote. It's a great movie, though.

But yeah, you got to have conviction. You got to have the grit. And, you know, I always say I'm Latino Cuban. You know, the pain starts around the corner. But everyone has their own story. Everyone has their own level of pain. I'm no different. We're all in this together.

But that's something that's not taught. You've got to have to live that. Talk about your experiences of what you've lived through and how you've made that into your new North Star. So I've lived through a whole lot of things. Even just being in this work, there's a lot of politics. There's a lot of racism. I deal with harmful systems.

Being a woman, being a black. woman, we deal with sexism, we deal with racism every single day, but also it has helped me become who I am today. So I've taken my story, I've taken the things that I've done, and I've built something that nobody else has. Sure. Yeah, we're designed to fail, aren't we? Exactly. Yeah, so how does that feel to have that chip on your shoulder? Or like, are you leading with fire? What is your purpose? What's getting you out of bed every day? Oh, I absolutely lead with fire. If you don't know me, you know I am the fire, right? Like, I often refer to myself. as a storm. I'm a storm that you're not going to be able to get away from. I'm a storm that does

not leave quietly and I'm a storm that gets things done. So having a chip on my shoulder feels great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, right on. It's just like a lot of folks don't quite uncomprehend what that means. So you guys must be bullies. You must be pick on your, no, no, no, we empower, we enforce. We, we have, at least in my philosophy in the culture that I've established it with Insight Success, It's like we take pride in how we conduct ourselves, not just in the professionalism, but the studio, the space, the energy, you can feel it. Talk about the foo-foo stuff that folks don't really quite understand that it's under that it's in the frequency of the energy in the room that really matters. Energy is very important. I say that all the time.

If you come with the wrong energy, I'm going to know. I'm going to know whether I like you in about 30 seconds of speaking with you. But it's important. How you show up is important. I often refer to myself as a fierce advocate. That's not being a bully. That's doing your job, right? Like that's telling people things that's advocating for people who are not able to do the same for ourselves, for themselves.

So I show up in a room that I know that I'm supposed to be there. I know that I bring light with me. I know that I oftentimes intimidate people and I'm okay with that. I love it. We got the giggles behind the camera here. Intimination are all these, I would say, tactics that we use. It's really just our armor. Like we've been through hell and back. We've been through hell. We've grabbed their flock and pulled ourselves back. And now we're here in a very tribal way, trying to save as many souls as we can. Being entrepreneurs, being messengers, where does your download come from? Where do you think your source comes from?

My source, I think it comes from growing up and having this innate ability in me that has been encouraged and has been brought out of me, right? So this is not something that you're just born with and you just do, you know, out of nowhere. This is something that requires discipline. It requires growth. It requires taking feedback. It requires critical thinking. So this has been instilled in me since a young age, but also I pull on my ancestors. I pull on the people who have done things to help me get here that no longer live here.

And then I think about my family, my mother, my grandfather, they have instilled things in me to keep going. They're like, you're going to go through things and shit that's going to be really hard. But you are wonderful. You are beautiful. And you're going to get through whatever you go through. Yeah, to quote the famous Mufasa. Simba, remember who you are. Never forget.

Never forget. which is also quite spiritual because it's coming from Darth Vader. So it's a whole cathartic artistry. Talk about seeing the messages, seeing the signs. Maybe you're a neurologist. Maybe you're a poet. Maybe you follow the Bible. But the messages and the signs are clearly all around us.

We just have to be attuned to recognize them. How do you see the code? I see different things. So sometimes you can be feeling a certain way. There are times I wake up and then I'm like, I'm tired as hell. I don't feel like this today. people are getting all my nerves and then I wake up and I'm pissed I'm like why am I angry I'm having I'm angry about meetings that haven't happened yet they're playing in my head because

those meetings should have been emails oh yes that's why I can relate to that I'm like stop emailing me stupid stuff oh Ray sitting on the floor he's clearly not taking this call very seriously but then something else happens and you're like oh I've been doing all of this shit and then something good happens or something big happens but it keeps you going right? Like you still have your own goals. You still have things you want to do within the work, but every day is not going to be an amazing day. And that's all right. I love how it's 20, and this stuff has been being preached for decades. And it comes from, for my experience, it comes from music. When you get signed to like an RCA or an epic and you talk to the,

to the jaw 90s of music and you're in the rooms and the right rooms, they kind of tell you all of this. It's finally come down. It's almost like the internet. Like, thanks Al Gore. It's finally come down to the rest of us where it's like, so here's, here's. Here's how you're, there's an entrepreneur and then there's a fucking entrepreneur. Like, when you're in the music industry, especially when it comes to hip hop or metal, and like you're signed to a tribe, there's a code. There's a way this works. And like to be in on the secret, it takes quite the responsibility.

Because once you know, and once you see them, oh boy, do they see you? And when they start to see you, you got to wear your heaviest armor and fight for the tiny voices that don't recognize that. Speaking out loud and changing the way you speak will attract different kinds of energy. Absolutely. Talk about the youth that you're empowering and almost in saving and just teaching them how to fish. Well, I will say, I am not in the business of saving people. I don't believe that people need to be saved, but I believe that people need tools and opportunities to do what they want to do or need to do.

Sure. So the young people who come to, yeah, Philly for service, they've been arrested at least for, four times already. A lot of them have been selling drugs since they were 10 with their families. They've got guns in the house. They've got 10, 8 brothers and sisters. They've got a dad who's incarcerated. So they have things that at a very young age, they should not be dealing with.

So then they come to us and they don't have anything. We help them get their state IDs and driver's licenses, birth certificates. We go to their court dates and help them advocate. for not going to jail or prison because you're a kid and I don't believe that kids should be in jail or prison. They come to us for a whole bunch of different things. A lot of them are young parents. A lot of them need housing. A lot of them don't have hot water in their house. They don't have bedroom furniture. So we are the organization that we just don't provide those things because a lot of organizations don't buy that type of shit for people that they need. But then we're saying, all right, now it's time. to level up. How are we going to help you make better decisions? How are we going to get you out of the situations you're in? How are we going to help you make some money? How are we going to help you get a career? So it's like they come to us. We help them get stable into all their basic

needs that they need. And then we help them level up to the point of what decisions and what things are you going to do differently to change your life. What's the resistance like? I'm sure a lot of folks in the youth are just like, I don't believe it. How can I buy it? I've been out of jail four times. Like I used to work for art institutes. And our main clientele was the last chance kids. Like they've been through back and board. They won't even get their GEDs. They just need an adult to believe in them.

So they can sit in front of a computer and go, this is how you designed. Here's how you do this. They just need a shot. Talk about some of the resistance, though, because a lot of these kids come from trauma. Shit, I come from trauma. It took me quite a while to build trust with any adult. There's all types of resistance.

I often tell young people, this program ain't going to work for you if you don't work the program. Like it's, we're offering you opportunities, but we can't do the work for you. So the resistance often is, you know, oh, I make enough money selling drugs and I don't care.

The girls love me, this, that. But inside, they're not happy. They're unhappy. So getting to the root of, why do you need this validation? Why do you need people to care that you're really poor, but you have on $700 sneakers? Why do you need that?

So getting to the root of that and also showing them, I think, is like the biggest thing. So they'll be like, oh, I'm not doing any of that. Then they start seeing their peers in the organization get a passport. We took a group of people to Mexico who graduated high school and they're like, oh shit, I want to go too. Like they start seeing the improvements of their peers. So there's resistance at first because you think that being poor or like being in the

streets is cool. But then you start to see the changes that people go through and you want to. want that too. Oh yeah. I'm I'm not an orphan but my grandmother adopted me but it wasn't it was the teachers in the school system that recognized my deficiencies but also recognize my gifts and kind of also understood what my grandmother was doing for me. You know she wanted to make sure that this little boy that she put in suits and ties was with waltzing care of and but she can only do so much. She had broken English immigrant from Cuba you know and she got her paperwork. I know folks are kicking down the doors and stuff quite literally but

My grandma homegirl, she did all the tests, all the quizzes. Go ahead, grandma. Yeah, yeah. My father was on Peter Pan, like, raised by nuns for a year. So the trauma in the DNA is quite still in me. But I have, but that again puts that chip on my shoulder. And gosh, I wish I had someone like you in my life that goes, this is how you do your taxes. Here's how you do this. Here's why your bill should be on time. Here's what a credit score is like.

And I'm just like, I'm just an artist and I'm, you know, designing websites at 12. I don't know any of that shit. I just wake up and I'm just like, colors. And it's a lot. And it's hard. It's hard. They realize too.

Like the young people are like, I'm grown. I'm grown as man. Says so on TikTok. And right. And then I'm like, do you pay bills at your house? No.

No, then you're not grown. Yeah, but I've got a million TikTok followers. No. That's not, that's not grown. So even helping them,

I think one of the biggest things is like the car stuff. Oh, for sure. They think that driving is like GTA. They're like, I don't need a license. They'll steal a car and drive it. So we're like, just get a license and buy a fucking car. We can help you get a car.

But then, so they get to that point. They're like, yeah, I got a car. I got a license because nobody in their family told them it was important to have a driver's license, which is insane to me. But also, they get so stressed out about a car registration, about the insurance as high as hell. They're like, I've got to pay all this money. then you got to get it inspected. You have to take care of the car. Some of the girls are like, wait, I need oil changes.

I need brakes. What does that mean? I thought I was just driving. So it's like those types of things you want, but you also don't understand what comes with having a car and growing up. So those are the hard lessons that they learn, but we got to do it. Yeah, I learned that all the hard way because grandma was always in the hospital and I basically put myself through high school.

So I was 14 and 15, like figuring it out. Oh, yeah. I would get into. for fun. I'm like, oh, I guess I won't do that anymore. And then my grandma would be in the hospital. Grandma, I need a couple hundred bucks because I need to live. And it was literally the day she got back. And the school department was like, yo, we hear that you're being raised by herself.

Like, oh, no, grandma's here. She's here. So yeah. Kind of. She's trying. Well, she was right there with me to the very, very end. But I understand what it was like to be raised by someone that doesn't quite understand the United States government, IDs, this and that because she's just trying to be

Cuban and thrive. And that's different, right? Like that makes sense. And it's hard and it's not fair. And I think about all the people here that we deal with. It's like no one ever wakes you up to go to school. You've been out of school for four years and you're 17. How does that even work?

Right? Like we don't, I don't imagine things like that because I did not grow up like that. But I know it's very common in Philadelphia. Wow. In Philly, yeah. It's like you hear Philly. Miami here Detroit, you hear these iconic cities and it always starts from pain.

It's always grit. Oh, yeah. It doesn't start like... Philly's always the underdog. Yeah, it's always the underdog. Let's talk about the underdog spirit and why that is so important more than ever today. It's important because Philly is a getting it from the mud

type of city. Anybody who has come out of that city, any celebrity, they had to get it from the mud. They had to persevere. They had to overcome huge obstacles. But I appreciate Philly because And I think I went to Temple University, but I think about people who graduated from Temple, like Temple is about Temple tough.

And, you know, you're determined, you're creating your own lane, your temple made. That's a real thing. And that's a Philly thing. And so people I know who come from Philadelphia, they're all in their own lane doing shit that nobody else is doing because that's how we were taught. Be creative. Be different. Be a trailblazer.

Create your own path. That's just how this type of city we are Be an art, be pain, feel it Be it, just go do it Just be the color Like people need to understand Like this is very much the red life Like Rudy is like my baby brother

We just treat reality like a big toy store We are allowed to do that Even if we come from trauma Like at the very end Whatever you believe in whatever source You're allowed to have fun in your life Absolutely what? Why do you want to live a life without fun? Yeah, yeah

Talk about your journey how folks can find you Like, what's the easiest way people can contact you? The easiest way to contact me. Shoot, I don't know. My website isn't out yet. But Kendra Vandawater.com. I know. K-E-N-D-R-A-V-A-N-D-E-W-A-T-R.com.

I have a course that is already launched, but I didn't, I'm putting it out in December. This is a course for licensed social workers who they need to learn how to challenge injustice. So we're talking about a course around how do we use the social work code of ethics to challenge injustice in your work? You can find my course, Kendra Vanderwanderwater.com. I have a book coming out called Do It Scared about making decisions when you're afraid and getting a life that's on the other side of fear. So you can always contact me. You can also find me on the Year Filly page.

My Instagram as well. But at Year Filly, Y-E-A-H-F-Lyley, I have to relaunch. my Instagram as well, but it's coming this week. Hell yeah. It's like, do it fearfully. Yes. Do it totally. Just do it.

Just get the shit done. We're not perfect and you shouldn't be because real life is not perfect. I warned you this would happen. Gosh, I love the energy. I am petrified and I love it. Thank you, Kendra, for completely changing my perspective on fear. With that, that concludes another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Red Life Edition. That's Kendra.

I'm Ray. And this is Inside Success. Thank you for having me.