About Us

We are a diverse, global team rooted in resilience, healing, and the pursuit of justice. Our work centers the belief that people are not broken by job loss, funding cuts, or career disruptions — they are in transition, and they deserve support that sees the full human story. We create communities grounded in listening, trauma-informed care, and real human connection.

Unbroken is a project of Places to Thrive, a nonprofit dedicated to designing spaces of dignity, stability, and hope for people navigating displacement.

Why We Are Doing This

Overview

Hundreds of thousands of federal, corporate, higher education, and nonprofit workers are currently on leave, deferred resignation, laid off, or terminated. Wave after wave of cuts keep coming and community programs are absorbing the blow as funding disappears.

Beneath all these numbers lies a truth most career services ignore: losing a job or funding activates the same trauma response triggered by major life crises.

When your system is overwhelmed, your cognitive capacity — planning, decision-making, confidence — shuts down.

Traditional career guidance tries to teach “swimming techniques to people who are drowning,” and that gap leaves countless people stranded.

A Hidden Trauma Affecting Hundreds of Thousands

1

Ongoing layoffs and furloughs across government, private sector, higher education, and nonprofits.
Traditional career services market: $3,000–$15,000 per person.
Mental health apps: Growing, but no career guidance.
Gap: No one addresses the trauma AND the transition that career-seekers face.

Job Loss Triggers the Same Trauma Response as Major Life Stressors

2

In the brain, job loss activates the amygdala, elevates cortisol, and impairs prefrontal cortex function — the same neurobiological cascade as other major traumas.
When dysregulated, displaced workers struggle with:
- Brains are in "fight-or-flight" mode — extremely difficult to make career decisions.

The Market Fails to Address the Root Cause

3

Traditional career services "teach swimming techniques to people who are drowning".

4

Solution Gap

No one integrates psychological healing + strategic career guidance + real-time nervous system regulation.

Meet Our Team

Rob Grimmett
Mission-driven marketing operations leader who turns chaos into systems that work. 15+ years in digital strategy and demand generation. Proud dad and foster parent who geeks out over marketing data.
Bryson Kamanga
Bryson Kamanga is Zimbabwean-born sociology and social policy student at the Midlands State University passionate about social impact and transformation of lives despite an discrimination an individual faces.
Ethan Kiczek
Ethan Kiczek is a lifelong learner, always looking for ways to combine his interests in technology, music and activism, especially if he can help make people's lives better.
Nwagbo Sandra Kosarachi
Nwagbo Sandra Kosarachi is a remarkable queer activist, sign language interpreter, and the visionary founder behind Hands of Pride Initiative.
Benjamin Mageto
Benjamin Mageto is an 18-year-old aspiring activist contributing to Places to Thrive through his video work focused on breath and embodiment. In his current short-term role, he supports the organization’s human rights mission by producing visual content that highlights the power of breath as a tool for presence, resistance, and healing.
Lisa Lynelle Moore
Lisa Lynelle Moore has extensive teaching and administrative experience.
Brendah Wanjiku Ndung’u
Brendah Wanjiku Ndung’u is a passionate creative who harnesses the power of art for self-expression, healing, and advocacy. Deeply drawn to visual storytelling, design, and writing, she channels her creativity into impactful projects that inspire dialogue and promote emotional well-being.
Kim Paull
Kim Paull believes that we are not slices of data; we are whole human beings, raised in families, rooted in communities, bearing our history. And our data systems, culture, and context must honor that complexity.
Yeukai Pedzisa
Yeukai Pedzisa is a dedicated social worker pursuing a Master's in Social Work at the University of Pretoria South Africa. With a focus on child protection, safeguarding and the psychosocial well being of vulnerable and displaced populations.
Maclytte Tsakatsa
Maclytte Tsakatsa is a 27-year-old woman whose life experiences have shaped her into a powerful writer and composer. Growing up, she faced some harsh realities that pushed her to find solace in words when others might have had someone to lean on, she had only her pen and paper. That became her strength.