Veronika Scott is a study in paradoxes. Seated in her dimly lit office, surrounded by the thriving organization she built from scratch over a decade ago, the art school graduate turned CEO recalls spending a “good chunk” of her childhood battling homelessness and bouncing between case managers with her mother – challenges that may have hindered others.
Instead, those early experiences navigating what Scott calls a “scattered, broken system” formed the foundation of what would later become Empowerment Plan – the buzzy Detroit-based nonprofit she started, unofficially, in 2010 as a student at the College for Creative Studies.
“For me, this is deeply personal. I’m creating something I wish my own family had been given,” Scott says.
How Empowerment Plan Started
The organization, which formally launched in 2012 and employs 20 staff at its 20,000-square-foot facility on Kercheval Avenue, began as a college assignment. Through a series of strategic partnerships and serendipitous events, Scott’s design – the weather-resistant EMPWR Coat, which doubles as a sleeping bag – now offers warmth to unsheltered people in 23 countries, including the U.S.
“The first coat took 80 hours to make with my mother. I had to learn how to sew from my mom,” Scott says, adding that she spent three evenings per week at a homeless shelter researching and testing prototypes.
Over time, Empowerment Plan evolved into a full-fledged program dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty. The nonprofit currently employs 34 “fellows,” who were hired from local shelters. These “fellows” are paid stitchers trained to manufacture coats for global distribution. They are then connected to services like housing, transportation, childcare, education and more.
An Empowerment Plan Success Story
For over two years, Amber Hinton was one of those apparel producers. After her mother’s death in 2013, Hinton became homeless. She stayed at hotels and relatives’ homes while studying on the pre-med track at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In 2018, she and her 8-year-old brother found shelter at COTS Detroit. It was there where she learned about Empowerment Plan through a roommate.
After interviewing for a seamstress position, Hinton trained to manufacture EMPWR coats. By 2019, she’d secured housing and was promoted to trainer and floor manager. Empowerment Plan staff also helped Hinton access childcare, career coaching and transportation — support that enabled her to land a hospital job in 2021. Today, as a certified clinical hemodialysis technician, Hinton dreams of becoming a doctor.
“What I respect and love the most about (Empowerment Plan) is the fact that when you come in, they see you as a whole person,” says Hinton, who joined the organization’s board of directors in July 2025.
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Empowerment Plan’s Challenges & How You Can Help
Although Empowerment Plan says 90% of fellows maintain stable housing within a year of completing the program, poverty remains a stubborn problem beyond its walls. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, an estimated 9,739 people in Michigan were homeless that year. Of those, 17% were unsheltered. Nationally, homelessness reached record highs in 2024.
Alongside increasing demand for coats, economic uncertainty and precarious funding have created additional challenges for the nonprofit recently. This has prompted a shift in focus toward addressing budget gaps, rather than growth.
“We’d love to be able to scale our employment model within Michigan. We want to be able to produce more coats and come up with a new line. These are all things that we have on the docket that we’re very passionate about. We’ve just got to make sure we can get there,” Scott says.
For more information about Empowerment Plan, including how you can donate towards the creation of EMPWR Coats, visit EmpowermentPlan.org.
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