Meet Judy Radachy | Executive Director, Oasis of Hollywood, Author, Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Judy Radachy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Judy, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I’m from Texas, but have lived in CA since 1979. My background and upbringing definitely impacted who I am today. First of all, my mother abandoned me and my two siblings when I was 14 years old. This caused a lot of hardship for me since I was the oldest, I became the “mom”—cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, all while going to school and hoping for a scholarship for college. My dad lived with us but he had 2 jobs so we didn’t see him very often.

These hardships taught me good work ethics, good stewardship of the little money we had, and gave me empathy for others who struggled in their lives, especially children.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
July 31, 1982, my first husband passed away after only 4 months of fighting cancer. I was left with 2 small children and a ministry that we had started in Hollywood, reaching out to broken and runaway teens. In those years there were over 4,000 runaways on the streets of Hollywood (a police statistic). We met ladies who were being sex trafficked. So we opened a home called House of Magdalene so that they would have a safe place to start a new life.

I started to realize we needed to reach children before they grew up and got into drugs, gangs, and prostitution. So we began a Kidz Klub after school program where we created a space for fun and learn about the love of Jesus. After a number of years those kids became teenagers and they still hung out at the Oasis center. One night when I was climbing up the stairs to get to my office I was having to step over about 25 teens sitting in the stairwell. I said, “Don’t you have anything better to do than to hang out here on the stairs?” One fourteen year old popped off, “What do you want us to do? Hang out here or hang out on the streets?”

That was an epiphany moment for me when I realized these kids live in tiny apartments with sometimes 13 or more people living there. They didn’t have money to go to movies, bowling, or out to eat. So we started a teen club on Friday nights for teens to have a safe place to hang out with friends, have food, play games, music and dancing, free transportation, and an inspirational message in the middle of the night. The next step was a Tuesday night youth service with worship music and where they experienced small groups for more leadership training.

Along with the weekly programs, we held many annual outdoor street concerts, back to school events, Thanksgiving food deliveries, and Christmas parties.

I’ve had the joy of seeing kids rescued from a life of dysfunction, poverty, and bad choices to a productive, fulfilled life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Most of our friends want to go to the Santa Monica beach or to the mountains. We love to eat at a beautiful little town called Montrose.

However, we have had over 8000 people through the past 25 years come into town to do a “mission trip” with us. It is a week long event and we always take them to Hollywood Blvd., Skid Row, Venice Beach, and Santa Monica. They also participate in our Kidz Klub and Oasis Teen night.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I think I had teachers and a church family who were encouraging to me. I especially was grateful for the Harris family who showed me what a loving family was like when I was a teenager. But most importantly, my relationship with my best friend, Jesus, has helped me to walk through many trials and not become bitter, but to use those challenges to help encourage others.

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