🎙️ Resilient Faith Podcast Miniseries: Built on the Rock EPISODE 3, PART 1: “Parenting Through Grace, Not Projection” Hosted by Carrie Davis | Featuring Michael D. Davis-Thomas Produced by MDDTSpeaks Ministries Description Parenting is sacred—but it’s also sanctifying. It exposes our deepest wounds, mirrors our unhealed places, and confronts us with the uncomfortable truth: we may be projecting our own pain onto the very people we’re called to protect. In Episode 3, Part 1 of Built on the Rock, Carrie Davis and Michael D. Davis-Thomas open a necessary, raw, and revelatory conversation on what it means to parent through grace—not projection. This episode pulls back the curtain on generational trauma, survival-mode parenting, control disguised as discipline, and the emotional scars left when parents operate from unprocessed pain. Carrie vulnerably shares her own journey as a mother navigating triggers, blended family dynamics, and emotional fatigue, while Michael offers lived experience, biblical insight, and a powerful reminder: “Your child shouldn’t have to heal from the version of you they met when you weren’t healed yet.” Together, they wrestle with the tough questions: - What do we say to the child inside us who never received grace? - How do we disciple our children without dominating them? - What if we’re co-parenting in chaos, but still trying to walk in Christ? From spiritual insight to practical truth, this episode is not about perfect parenting—it’s about surrendered parenting. It’s a call to lay down ego, learn how God parents us, and begin again, even if we weren’t shown how. Key Themes & Segment Highlights 🔹 Opening Reflection — “What Broke You?” Michael and Carrie explore how survival, trauma, and past dysfunction often influence how we show up as parents. They ask listeners to examine: Are you parenting from wisdom… or woundedness? 🔹 Discipline Without Damage Together with a surprise guest, the hosts unpack the difference between healthy correction and toxic control. They challenge listeners to reject culturally normalized harshness and return to parenting led by grace, not fear. 🔹 Co-Parenting in Chaos When the family dynamic is fractured, the call to Christlike parenting doesn’t disappear—it deepens. Michael reminds us, “You’re not God—your job is to model Him.” From setting boundaries to releasing bitterness, this section equips those navigating complex co-parenting realities. Key Scriptures & Reflections - 📖 Proverbs 22:6 — Align your child to their God-given purpose, not your unresolved expectations. - 📖 Deuteronomy 6:6–7 — Are you impressing faith… or fear? - 📖 Colossians 3:21 — Don’t break your child’s spirit in the name of correction. Spiritual & Practical Takeaways  📝 Journaling Prompts - What parts of my parenting are shaped by my trauma—not my faith? - When I discipline, am I correcting… or controlling? - What would it look like to parent more like God parents me? 🙏🏽 Prayer Focus - Lord, help me unlearn what no longer honors You. - Heal the wounded places in me that keep trying to parent from pain. - Teach me how to love my child as Yours—not my possession. 🪞 Reflection Challenge - Watch your tone more than your child’s behavior this week. - Write a letter (you’ll never send) to the person you're co-parenting with—just to release what’s been weighing you down. Real Talk Quote of the Episode “Your child shouldn’t have to heal from the version of you they met when you weren’t healed yet.” About the Hosts  🗣️ Carrie Davis brings wisdom, warmth, and realness as she opens up about the struggle and beauty of parenting in a blended, high-responsibility world. 🗣️ Michael D. Davis-Thomas, Founder of MDDTSpeaks and Host of Resilient Faith, brings years of experience working with youth, deep biblical study, and raw reflections from his own journey through trauma, healing, and redemption. Listen Now on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts. 🎧 Don’t forget to rate, share, and leave a review to support the mission of this Spirit-led miniseries.

🎙️ Episode 52 — “She Believed She Could, So She Did” Guest: Faith M. Keen | DHHS Intern • FSM Contractor • LEx Policy Advocate • TLE Member • BSW  Candidate • Future MSW Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3 Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas Episode Description: In this powerful and soul-baring conversation, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas is joined by rising advocate, policy shaper, and lived experience leader Faith M. Keen, for an episode that feels more like a mirror than a mic. Titled “She Believed She Could, So She Did,” this dialogue is a tender, tenacious, and truth-filled journey through the harsh realities of childhood adversity—and the radical self-determination it takes to rise from it. Faith doesn't just speak her truth—she lives it. From a chaotic upbringing marked by instability, addiction, and displacement, to finding belonging through advocacy, higher education, and a fierce belief in the power of lived experience, Faith’s journey is a living testimony of what resilience looks like when nurtured in community and courage.  Together, Michael and Faith dive into: - The emotional toll of caring for others when no one cared for you - Reframing trauma as purpose without glamorizing the pain - The role of policy advocacy in restoring dignity to foster youth - The nuance of self-care in a space that demands our pain for progress - Navigating healing while still showing up as “the strong one” - The balance between being a voice for the voiceless and being heard yourself As she shares deeply personal stories—from driving her mother while under the influence to being adopted by extended family who didn’t always understand her worth—Faith unpacks the layers of survival and silence, of grief and grit, that so many foster youth carry but rarely have safe space to process. She and Michael explore how systems often force youth to perform wellness while still bleeding, and how real change must include not just policies—but peace. Faith’s work with Fostering Success Michigan, Michigan’s Team with Lived Expertise (TLE), and her continued advocacy through public speaking and youth engagement is helping reshape how the state and nation see system-impacted youth—not as broken, but as brilliant. Her upcoming pursuit of an MSW at the University of Michigan is yet another step in becoming the change she needed as a child.  This episode isn’t about triumphalism. It’s about truth. It’s about community. And it’s about choosing healing—even when no one taught you how.  📣 Because believing in yourself isn’t cliché when you’ve survived systems designed to make you forget how.  🔗 Connect with Faith M. Keen 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/keen.faith.210 📘 Facebook / 🔗 LinkedIn: Faith Keen 🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.  📢 Support the Podcast Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks | CashApp: $MDDTSpeaksInc | PayPal: MDDT1 Email: for sponsorships, collaborations, and donor inquiries.

🎙️ Episode 51 — “Still Waters Run Deep” Guest: Sylvia Monica Parrott | National Foster Care Advocate, Public Speaker, Lived Experience Leader Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3 Episode Description: Still waters don’t mean still souls. In this soul-stirring episode of Resilient Voices & Beyond, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with the quiet force that is Sylvia Monica Parrott—a woman whose strength is not in how loudly she speaks, but in how deeply she feels, how faithfully she leads, and how consistently she shows up for a system she survived. "Still Waters Run Deep" isn’t just the title of this conversation—it’s a prophetic description of the life Sylvia has lived and the legacy she’s building. From entering Rhode Island’s foster care system at the age of five to navigating abusive placements, isolation, and reentry at 17, Sylvia’s story is anything but surface-level. She shares with unwavering clarity the silent storms of trauma, abandonment, sexual violence, and mental health struggles—alongside the quiet rebellions of mentorship, faith, advocacy, and healing that helped her rise. This episode is not a tale of pity or performative triumph; it is a sacred reckoning with the reality that not every survivor roars—but every survivor matters. Together, Michael and Sylvia explore: - The emotional toll of being system-impacted from early childhood - The invisibility of introverted advocates in noisy advocacy spaces - The crisis of mental health in group homes and transitional housing - The trauma of institutionalization and the weight of being “too strong for too long” - The spiritual grounding and self-forgiveness it takes to lead from a wounded place - How Sylvia is quietly, persistently, disrupting the status quo without needing to shout From testifying before legislators to co-authoring op-eds, from guiding youth at Foster Forward’s Drop-In Center to speaking on national stages, Sylvia is redefining what leadership looks like for foster alumni. Her work is not driven by ego—but by empathy. Not polished performance—but prophetic presence. Michael, moved by Sylvia’s radical vulnerability, speaks candidly about the podcast’s journey, the cost of advocacy, and the urgent need for community-funded sustainability. As they close the episode, Sylvia offers words of truth to anyone feeling broken, burned out, or silenced in their struggle: “Don’t doubt yourself. You have so much to offer the world.” This episode is a mirror for those who’ve learned to lead while still healing—and a mandate to make space for the still waters among us. 🕊️ Listen deeply. Share widely. Honor the stillness that runs deep. 🔗 Connect with Sylvia Monica Parrott Instagram: https://instagram.com/sylviamonica_ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sylvia-parrott 🎧 Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major platforms. 📣 Support the Podcast Your donations help keep the mic on for truth-tellers like Sylvia. Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks | CashApp: $MDDTSpeaksInc | PayPal: MDDT1 Email: for sponsorship and partnership inquiries.

Coffee & Conversation with Resilient Voices & Beyond is not your typical event. It is a community centered, lived experience driven space intentionally built to challenge systems, restore dignity, and...

🎙️ Episode 50 — “Your Story Is the Message. Your Story Is Your Legacy” Featuring: Tamara L. Dillard | Author, Clinical Social Worker, Therapist, Foster Care Advocate, Foster Alumni Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3  Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas In this milestone 50th episode and the Season 3 of the Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down once more with powerhouse advocate and returning guest, Tamara L. Dillard, to discuss her emotionally searing and transformative debut memoir, “Letters to the Village.” This isn’t just a conversation—it’s a reckoning. With honesty that cuts and compassion that heals, Tamara invites us into the sacred corridors of her lived experience in Kentucky’s foster care system—where pain and policy intersect, where community was both absent and found, and where healing arrived not as a gift but as a decision. Her memoir, structured as a series of unfiltered letters to the helpers, hurters, and bystanders in her life, challenges us to consider: What kind of villager have you been? What kind will you choose to become? Together, Tamara and Michael explore what it means to write from wounds, not for pity but for purpose. They unpack the emotional labor of storytelling while managing PTSD, and they speak to the burden—and blessing—of advocacy as foster care survivors. Michael reflects on the bystander effect within systems and communities, while Tamara calls for intentional, systemic, and personal accountability. It’s a bold, layered conversation about trauma, memory, forgiveness, authorship, and the audacity of telling your truth when silence would be easier. Tamara’s voice is prophetic, measured, and fierce. Her writing process wasn’t linear—it was sacred warfare. She shares how “Letters to the Village” nearly broke her but ultimately rebuilt her—chapter by chapter, truth by truth. In closing, Michael reflects on the growth of Resilient Voices & Beyond through its third season, emphasizing the continued need for listener support, community sponsorship, and sustainability as he carries this labor of love forward. This Episode isn’t the  ending—it’s an altar call for justice, truth-telling, and restorative storytelling. Because your story is the message. And your story—yes, yours—is your legacy. 📚 Read “Letters to the Village” — Available now. 📢 Support this podcast through donations, sharing, and ongoing engagement. Ways to Support • Venmo: @MDDTSpeaks • Cash App: $MDDTSpeaks • PayPal: MDDT • Book: Resilient Faith (available on Amazon) • Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond (available on all platforms) 🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms. 🔗 Connect with Tamara Dillard: 📘 Facebook: Tamara LeeAnn Dillard 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missdillardsroom 🎵 TikTok: @missdillardsroom 💼 LinkedIn: Tamara (Vest) Dillard

🎙️ Episode 49 – Season 3 Title: "Broken Systems, Funded Silence: Deconstructing the Nonprofit-Gov Pipeline” (Part 2) Guests: Bobbi Taylor (Founder & CEO, Proximate Solution) & Tamara Dillard, MSW, CSW (Clinical Social Worker, Advocate, Foster Care Alumni) Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas | Founder & CEO, MDDTSpeaks 💥 Episode Description:  In Part 2 of our ground-shifting series "Broken Systems, Funded Silence," we continue the courageous conversation that most platforms avoid—dissecting the dangerous comfort between nonprofits and government systems. This episode isn’t just a discussion. It’s an exposé.  Host and systems reformer Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with two national powerhouses: Bobbi Taylor, a cross-sector systems leader and Founder/CEO of Proximate Solution, and Tamara Dillard, a licensed clinical social worker, policy influencer, and fierce advocate. Together, they deconstruct the nonprofit-industrial complex—unpacking how funding stipulations, performance-based contracts, and “collaborative” partnerships often dilute community-centered missions into digestible, data-driven deliverables for the very systems they’re supposed to challenge.  From the trauma of tokenization to the manipulation of “lived experience,” this episode brings the raw truth: nonprofits cannot claim proximity to community while dancing to the tune of governmental preservation.  We ask hard questions: - What happens when organizations built to fight systems start protecting them instead? - Can you really center community if you're still begging for permission to speak? - What does ethical inclusion look like when your invitation comes with a muzzle? Michael, Bobbi, and Tamara also reflect on deeply personal stakes—sharing their own sacrifices, burnout, and battles with survival in a world that capitalizes on their pain but rarely funds their power. They address the emotional tax of being the bridge, the weight of being “brought in but not brought under,” and the exhausting cycle of being visible yet voiceless. Tamara reminds us: being showcased is not the same as being centered. Bobbi adds: transparency without accountability is just theater. And Michael? He gives voice to the silent screams of so many: we are tired of being sold as data and discarded as people. This episode is both an indictment and an invitation—to reimagine, rebuild, and reclaim nonprofit work as sacred, not systemic.  🔊 Listen in as we honor truth, challenge power, and amplify the unapologetic voices of those who have not only survived the system—but are actively rewriting it.  🎧 Now streaming everywhere podcasts are available. 🧾 Support the podcast, share this episode, and let the world hear what funded silence can no longer bury. 📚 Featured Book: Letters to the Village by Tamara Dillard – Available now on Amazon. 📌 Take Action: - Support this work through donations, reviews, and reposts. - Book these guests for your next training, panel, or consulting engagement. - Demand better from the nonprofits in your region—follow the funding, follow the harm.