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Transcript

CAR TALK with Niemiah House · One on One With a Professional

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, welcome, welcome, welcome me
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to you a time now for car talk, and it's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: being brought to you by the Dutchees Family of Autos
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and that would be Dune's Toyota.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Brad, how are you doing. It's a beautiful day for
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: a test drive, and Tom, it sure is what a difference, huh.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Indeed, now we're talking, it's a beautiful morning out at
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: the dealership and it is getting warmer by the minute.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We've been really busy.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: We've got a bunch of Toyotas on the way in
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: this month, lots of you know, I think I counted
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: them on the Toyota side, forty eight vehicles. Most of
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: them will be here this month. And so that's a
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: lot to arrive in one month, almost I think fifteen tacomas,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: which is is just remarkable to me.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. But we'll get to that in a little bit.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: We've got I have my guest here today is Mike Sorenson,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: who's the program director at Nehemiah Community Development.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, welcome, Mike, thank you, thank you.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: It's nice to be here.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Glad to have you here.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I want to find out more about me and Maya
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: and what you guys do, how.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: You serve our community.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I know that you impact people's lives in a very
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: special way and it's a passion of you and everybody
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: that works down there. I know it's really uh impactful,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: and so we want to hear about that.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, we're getting the muck
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: in the mire a lot with people. Our goal has
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: been to build a holistic program. It helps people transition
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: into independent living. And so we're dealing with all kinds
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: of different stuff. Mainly we're dealing with a population that
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: is coming out of rehab. They're coming out of jail,
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: they're coming out of various things that have set back
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: their life, and they're trying to rebuild their life. And
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: so we want to walk alongside them. And you can
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: enter into one any one area. You can say, like
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: we help with housing. We have some affordable housing like
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: the cottages on Sixth Street. We have some other transitional
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: housing that we have for sober living, houses for.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Men and women.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: And when you enter into that, you can say you
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: can start with housing, but you're going to end up
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: in dealing with mental health, You're gonna end up with
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: drug abuse. Recovery situations. You're going to deal with people
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: coming out.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Of abusive relationships.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: You're going to get, you know, into all kinds of
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: different things that we dive into.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: And so what we'll do is build we have six pillers.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: For independent living that we we're trying to build into people.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: So we're trying to help them get a job, get
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: a bank account, we're trying to help them have transportation.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: We wanted to build their recovery, their spiritual development. We're
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: a Christian program. We're trying to wear in that and
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: then finally building into housing so that if they have
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: those things in place, that they're ready for independent living.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: And so that's been our.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Whole stable life going forward. Yeah, chaos they may have
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: come from or.
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly right, they come out of somebody comes
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: out of rehab. And even if they had a great
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: reab experience and they've gotten clean for a couple of
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: months and they're feeling really good about life, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: but it's like you don't have a job, a place
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: to stay, you don't have a bank account, Like you're
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: not going to last very long in your recovery.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: And sometimes those are skills and things you really need
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: to learn and build up the habits of saving and
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: having a budget and having yeah work, getting a job,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I mean even the process of getting a job, and
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that's sometimes that's not easy when you're coming out of
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: one of these situations.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: Exactly right. I think people we can take for granted.
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: You know, I grew up with parents who taught me
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: how to do those things. So when I was trying
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: to get my first job in high school, you know,
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: my parents were helping me figure that out.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: But we are a lot of people they have no idea.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: No one's ever told them how to handle themselves in
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: a job interview or.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: What they should wear, or.
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: You know, when they get into a job, you know
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: how important it is to show up on time, or
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: how you talk to your boss. You know, things like
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: that that we can take for granted. And so we
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: step in to that whole process and we're helping people
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: learn how to do the.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Those things so that the next time when they go
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: in they know what to say.
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: Well, we'll grill and we do fake job interviews with people,
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: and we'll sit down.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: With them and we'll pepper them with weird questions and.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: I'm like, your job interview is going to be much
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: easier than this process because we're gonna We're going to
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: ask you some tough questions and put you on the
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: spot and see how do you respond to it so
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: that you say, oh, okay, and we can give you
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: feedback and say, hey, if you respond that way, you
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: say that, I'm not going to want to hire you.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Hey, you got to put your best foot forwards.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: But people need that, they need some coaching, and so
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: that's kind of our job is to step into them
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: and we're as part of what work.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: How long is Ne andm I have been in Boroughsville.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Since twenty ten, and I has been here.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: It was initially a growth out of some people from
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: Greater First Baptist Church in town that just saw in
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: need of some guys. They met some guys that were
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: coming out of jail that had no idea what to
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: do with their lives, and they just jumped in and
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: tried to help these guys. And so over the years
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: we've built some of the housing, different stuff, and you
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: know Cotjes on Sixth Street a few years ago. Uh,
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: And I think my kind of entry into this I've
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: probably been I'm guessing seven years or so probably since
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: I started helping. I used to work at Grace Community
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: Church in town uh huh, and it was one of
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: my little side projects. I would come over on Wednesdays
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: and teach a relationship class because.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: I have a background in counseling, and I just really
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: loved and.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: I loved the people that I was meeting there, and
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: so I for several years would go over every Wednesday
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: morning do relationship class and and come through. And then
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: a little over a year ago, I transitioned over to
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: EMI a full time.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: I felt like, this.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: Is I just I love getting into the mess with
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: the people and and seeing them change.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: Uh that's so we'll kind of build a kind stains.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: But that's great, I mean, and it seems like there's
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: there's a real need for that in our community, I think,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: and how we how we provide people that support when
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: they're you know, in certain situations.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of you know, different organizations
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: that do different things.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: We all know about the Lighthouse and be the Light
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: and their roles with the homeless. And you guys don't
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: necessarily deal with that so much, I guess because you've
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: probably run into it.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a.
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: Little bit of a we overap a little bit. We
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: I'd say we're a little different. We're not not a
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: homeless shelter in the sense that we're we would say
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: we're not doing the emergency housing that right, We're not
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: a shelter open for just people coming off the street
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: because it's a more detailed program we're trying to lead
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: people through when they come live in our things.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: But we do deal with homelessness.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: There's a larger number I think than people were sometimes
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: aware of that are. They may not be homeless like
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: we would traditionally think of like that. You if you
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: found a homeless camp of people living intense that people picture,
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: but we found living under the poverty line. There's roughly
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: six thousand people in Bartlesville that are living under the
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: poverty line, and they're down at that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Level twenty percent of the people who live here.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah and too.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: And those people are making you know, all of those
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: people are making one thousand dollars a month, you know,
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: in disability payments.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Or something and that.
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: So they may be CouchSurfing somewhere. They may not get
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: picked up as being homeless, but there's a lot of
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: them because they're living in addiction or because of a disability,
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: or different things that are struggling. There's a huge need
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: way beyond I think what you know we can do
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: or other people.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Is well that seems obvious, I think can help out.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: It's that that whole need has become a little more
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: visible in the last few years as people see it
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: on the need and we've you know, we've supported Lighthouse
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: for years and you know they have one of their
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: lunch and learns today. We sponsored one of those last
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: year and.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: It was great.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: ID love to help them. Yeah, it's a great. It's
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: a neat thing because you can go and sit out
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and eat lunch with the guests and there and their
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: facility and kind of really realize you're.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Dealing with real peace people and people.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: That you know, they come from these you know, people
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: are in these situations not by a plan.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Or something that they you know that this is just
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: what they want to do. This is something that that
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: in certain ways happened.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: And you know, and they got we got to give
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: them a hand way to a process to get out
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: out of that and build build a future.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think we find there's there's some people that
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: maybe they're not ready to change.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And that's the case, Okay, we don't need to work
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: with you right now.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: But there are a lot of people who they just
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: don't know how to get out of the situation they're in.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: They don't have the skill set, they don't have the connections.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: You know, there's lots of things we help them.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: With that purpose, that motivation that get kicks that off.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: That's something I mean, as an employer, we deal with
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: that all the time, trying to keep people motivated and
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: engaged in the work, because just clocking in and out,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: you know, really.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Doesn't get it done.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, we need people who are part of the team,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: part of the overall effort to take care of our customers.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: And I know you guys deal with that and try
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: to teach people to fit.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Into an organization like that, and yeah, that's really we're
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: passionate about that. My grandfather got in the car business
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: through a process like that where his his father, who
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: was a Methodist minister in Blackwell, had passed away and
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: they moved to Tonkawa and my great grandmother took a
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: job as a librarian in town. And this was in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: the late about nineteen twenty and they eventually three of
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: the boys got a job at the Ford Dealership in Tonkawah,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: And you know, after two of them, after they went
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: to college and graduated him in nineteen twenty nine, the
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: dealer there gave him the opportunity to buy the dealership
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: from him, and that was the first Dungeons dealership.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: And you know, so it you.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Know, there's that opportunity to get the job, to learn
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: how you know, you know, put one foot in front
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: of the other and take jobs. And I remember following
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: my grandfather around at the dealership in downtown.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Bartlesville in the in the.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Sixties and seventies and him telling me these stories and
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: teaching me those things.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: And you're so, you know, you're right.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: People, some people were lucky and may take it for
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: granted that they've got, you know, somebody being a role
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: model and helping them learn that and so that you
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: guys have that great niche in the history of being successful.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: With it too.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we worked with a lot of people over the years,
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: and I think that that element of like jobs and purpose,
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: I think that's been it's kind of our focus this
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: year as we're heading into twenty twenty six.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: Has been the job development component.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: It has become a big focus of ours and ramping
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: up what we do to train people because really people
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: finding meaningful work, work they can support themselves with right
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: helps with all these.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Other aspects that we do.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: Right So when they have a if they have a
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: stable job, then they can afford to save to buy
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: a car, they can save for their housing deposits and
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: things like that, then they can start to learn how
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: to live on their own. But without that job, the
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: rest of it doesn't fall into place very well. So
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: we want to help them and have a bigger have
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: a bigger vision for what they could do, have a
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: sense of purpose and the work that they do. So
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: we're working on we're doing some training right now with
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: a group that does this work all in a nation.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: That's going to help us build a process out for people.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: So we're going to be offering that the community coming
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: up later as soon as we test that out with
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: some of our people in house, and then we're going
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: to offer that for the community and also trying to
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: build some what we refer to a social enterprises, but
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: kind of businesses that put our people to work as
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: well that we can create jobs for people. So we're
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: working on a junk removal business and and things like
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: that that we're trying to put our people to work
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: here that are good for the community but also give
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: our people jobs and generate you know that are just
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: absumed under our nonprofit. So those are all kind of
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: things kind of in the works in the coming months
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: that we we're building up right now because we feel
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: like that that meaningful work component is such a key
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: key element to people's recovery.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Well, well, we look forward to hearing more about that
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: and would love to help you with that. I think
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: it's something that we can do and you know, that's
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: what that and you know we've we've done that.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Through the years.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: Like I said, that's about kind of how we got
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: in the business and given the people that sparked that
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: that first step, and you never know, well it'll lead.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: That's one of the cool things about the car businesses
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: is you don't you don't need a degree necessarily.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Of course, we have lots of people with degrees.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: But some people who didn't finish, you know, in high
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: school and they can be just as successful. There's a
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: lot of great learning opportunities and and you know, there's
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: a you know, you kind of cool.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: You know, we have five.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Or six different profit centers, so there's lots of different things.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Going on and rolls, whether you're more of a warehouse
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: person and.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: You know, working in the parts department or fixing cars,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: cleaning cars, you know, taking care of working with customers
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: and sales or service or the body shop accounting roles.
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You know, so you know, people often kind of don't
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: see it behind the scenes.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: How of our forty or so people, how varied they are,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: and you know, so there's a place forever just about everybody.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: And we've got you've got a big event coming.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Up, a fundraiser.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I mean has this Have you guys done big fundraisers
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: before or is this kind of a first.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: We've done a couple of things before. We've done a rummy.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: We did a rubb and sale this past fall. You know,
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: that was that was a big deal for us, and
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: it was really successful. But we've got a kind of
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: a new thing. We had some people connected to our
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: board that really love pickleball, and so they they were determind.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: They wanted to run a pickleball tournament here in town.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: And I said, I don't.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Know anything about this.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: I am not a pickle ball player more particularly athletically.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: It's quite a deal right now. And I don't think
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: you have to be all that athletic necessarily.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: It's not as as difficult as tennis, for instance, where
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: you're really run.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: But yeah, but it's a lot.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: I think that we as people that that were really
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: into it so that they wanted to do this as
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: a fundraiser for us.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: So that's March twenty eighth, We've.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: Got we're going to have a pickleball tournament at Hillcrest
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: Country Club. Uh and so we're sign ups to there now.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: If you can go to our website. Paddle for a Purpose.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Is the title for it.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: So if you go to our website in the m
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: I s c DC dot com, you can you can
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: see the sign up is on there.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: It's it's it's live now.
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: We just start up in January here for sign ups
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: are open for people. They're still room for that and
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: for sponsors as well. I know you know you guys
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: have offered to be a sponsor. There's still openings for
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: that as well. We've got a busy process for them
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: building out them and they've been working hard some people
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: who are that are very big in the pickleball world
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: that love go to these tournaments and all that.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: I'm trusting them, like you know how these things.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: Are supposed to run, so they know all the connections
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: in that world.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: They've been spreading the word and so I'm excited. It'll
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: be a lot of it.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: I mean there's going to be winners.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, there's there's the I don't know what kind of
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: trophies they're playing for or any of that, but I
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: know there's they talked about a podium and and you
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: know tournaments.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: I think you know mixed.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Spirit now is the Winter Olympics get ready.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: To I know, so that's where people will be in
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: that competitive spirit. So we're we're open. Yeah, they have
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: a lot of fun. I think it'll be it'll be
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: great to get out there and just see everybody play.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I know, I've known a number of people who really
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: love pickleball.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: So it's gonna it'll be a fun way for us
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: to raise some yeah, support for what we do, but
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: also just to you know, the engage the community where
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: people of it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: I mean that's one of the things. I think you
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: know that well, it's been around now for almost sixteen years,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: going on sixteen years. You know, I think it's you
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: guys have kind of really been under the radar, if
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I'm being honestly. Yeah, and you know, and it's such
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: an important service you provide the community, so it's good
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: for you to grow that awareness and make sure people
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: understand what's available.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I know one of my good rotary friends is.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: On your board and that's she met with insisted that
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: we talk and that's what brought us together.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: And yeah, no, thank you Caroline for that. And yeah,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: but that's how Bartlesville works.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: There's so many you know, that's a well, we're a
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: small community in some ways, I mean super small, but
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: we're not a large city by any means, but we do.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: We do have this great network of nonprofits and community
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: organization support for you know, and just about everything you
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: can imagine here in Bartlesville. And that's you guys are
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: part of that. And it's really great to get to
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: hear more about your program. And I did I mentioned
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: a little bit about what's going on in the dealership
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: with all the Toyotas we have coming in.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: We have a.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: It's February, so it's love your Toyota month. That's our
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: theme for Valentine's Day.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Very good.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: You know, Toyota folks who do love their Toyotas, the
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Toyotas because of their great.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Resale value and the reliability of the vehicles.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Just this week, Consumer Reports came out with their car
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: reviews for the year, and two of the top ten
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: were Toyotas, the Cameray once again and the Grand Highlander,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: which are great vehicles. And we've got our brand new
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: RAB four that we just we should get our first
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: one today.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know this one.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: It actually was reserved until a couple of days ago
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: and that person decided to let it go. So I
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: think this one is actually available coupball last time news,
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: So we'll see how that goes.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: We've got, you know this world. I mean, you you
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: deal with it, but we you know, think costs are.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Up, and you know, I think we're seeing a huge
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: demand for used cars, for quality vehicles. So if you've
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: got a vehicle to that you don't need, this is
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: a time where we're looking for used cars. We're out
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: there trying to buy as many as possible to meet demand,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: to help people out. We definitely are you know, in
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: the service business, and we want to take care of people.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: We are noncommissioned sales team and how they work to
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: uh take care of our customers as.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Part of our values and we really want to want to.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: Serve you you as a customer, and support the community
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: things like me am I and help help the community
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: take a step forward. The car business is constantly changing.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: There's so much technology involved and competition. But being a
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: small family owned business and a community like Bartlesville focused
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: on our community and our employees and serving our customers
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: and giving back to the community is really important to
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: us and and I know to all our employees.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: So anyway, we're grad happy to sponsor your your event
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: and and.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Help get the word out on your organization and what's
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: what's going on out there. You know, there's how you mentioned,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: I mentioned you have a board and what else? I mean,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: are there volunteer opportunities, what do you what do you need?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously resources and money is always important, but
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sure that there's other things that people can do and.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Vibe that help the cause.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and always you know, donations obviously are always helpful
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: for us. The financial piece and that's easy just on
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: our website but I think the yeah, the volunteer piece,
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: I think that's going to be a growing things as
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: we're working on this, Uh, we're setting up a course
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: for to help people through learning how to get a
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: job and keep a job.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: And so as we build out this work.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: Curriculum and we get ready to launch it, we're going
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: to need a lot of volunteers to help with that
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: because you want to give a lot of personal attention.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: And so when we're bringing a lot more people out
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: of the community, when you say, hey, we can help
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: you find a job.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Right, we're going to need help from the community.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: And doing that, we need some volunteers that will come
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: in and be willing to sit down and kind of
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: be a mentor to somebody.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: You know, It's like if you've held.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: A job, you've whether you've been a boss and hired
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: people or you just hey, I worked a job for
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: a lot of years at Kinical Phillips.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: You know how things work.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: You can be a big help to somebody who's trying
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: to figure that out. So we will We're definitely going
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: to need some volunteers as that ramps up. People that
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: just that just care want to get in and also
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: businesses as well, like here's I think the matter we
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: know have connection in the community to businesses, say hey,
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: I would love to give somebody a second chance at employment,
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: right that you know, the fact that they have a
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: record or some bad stuff in their past, we're going
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: to have a chance. We're going to tell them, like
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: the class we're going through, this is part of your
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: job interview, because if we're going to vouch for you,
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: I want to see that you mean it right. If
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: you're coming in you're blowing it off and you're rolling
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: your eyes, you know that I'm not going to be
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: pushing you to any of the businesses that I know.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: But if you come in and I see, hey, this
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: person may have a rough pass, but man, he's working hard.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: You know he's coming in here, he's here early, he's
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: ready to go, he's soaking it all in. This guy's
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: got a good attitude.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: He wants to change. I want those people.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: About the people that come through your program from just
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: word of mouth, and that some of the people would
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: address that person and that they do and that they're great,
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: they are good employees.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: So yeah, and that's what we hope is we have
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: a chance to vet them and find out.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: But then when we're able, when we know people that
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: are saying, hey, we would love to give someone a
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: second chance employment for a good solid job. Like any
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: of those people that want that, please let us know
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: because we love those relationships and that way we know
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: them and we can say, hey, this guy, this is
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: what we know about him, what we've seen in six
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: weeks of being around him in this class that hey,
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: I think this guy's going and he's got skills in
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: certain areas.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: He could be really good at this or that. So
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: we would love to have some employment opportunities connections for
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: that stuff.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Praise is another question your class. You mentioned six weeks
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: or something like that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well figuring out a little of that, okay.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: So that's in the works.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: But I mean, what is the typical process if somebody
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: how did someone get to Nehemiah?
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Is it a referral system or they'd raise their hand.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: Or yeah, and what happens after that?
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: So in the housing process, like kind of how we
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: have right now in an we have the men and
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: women's houses. Those people are usually referred by their agencies.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: They might be involved in mental health court or drug
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: court or something like that in town or they're coming
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: out of jail and they're needing to find someplace to go.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: They're coming out of rehab, they need to find a
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: transitional place. So we have connections in those kind of
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: areas and people will find us and need some kind
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: of transitional housing's that's a typical way. They usually don't
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: just come off the street and walk up to the door.
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: We're usually getting referrals from that, but there's lots of
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: need in that. We're always getting calls and people and
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: then we will.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Do an interview. What we do as a table interview.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: We bring the people in our houses to be part
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: of that, and so they come to the table after
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: we've screened to make sure it's a fit for our program.
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: They come and sit at the table and they get
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: peppered with questions from everybody in.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: The house and we buy the people.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but the people that live there, we want them
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: to have a voice in what we're doing, and so
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: we come in, we do an interview, We ask them
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: anything and everything.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Are their requirements or any kind of.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: That's well, yeah, I mean certain things. Sobriety is a
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: key one. We're drug testing them and things like that.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: Some some basic things but one of it, we're kind
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: of just testing your attitude. Are you ready for this,
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: because we're going to be working you Some people they
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: want to sob a living house, they just want a
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: place to stay. We're like, well, it's not just housing.
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: Like you're going to be in groups and classes and stuff.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: You know, We're I just did a relationship class this
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: morning right before I came in here. So we're going
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: and stuff like that. We're going to be talking about
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: your trauma. We're gonna be doing some group counseling kind
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: of things. We're trying to dig into stuff. So we
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: want people who are ready to work on themselves.
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: And so.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: In addition to trying to.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Find a job and doing you know, they're going to
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: be working with a person on our staff to help
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: put some of those pieces together that they need as well.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: And so they're every day they're going through classes and
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff, and then in the afternoons
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: a lot of them are that's that they get once
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: they get a job, they are often working in the
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: afternoon evenings, and we're trying to gradually integrate all that stuff. Yeah,
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: we'll have a budget class helping them figuring out how
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: to how to do a budget now that they're working
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: right and things like that both practical and then you
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: know my backgrounds and counseling. I'm a licensed counselor by trade,
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: and so I like helping deal with some of the
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: mental health aspects. And we're figuring out what are the
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: barriers that are keeping this person from doing it if
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: they have a bunch of trauma in their background, or
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: we're going to try to help coordinate those things too.
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: And then often they have court requirements if they're in
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: mental health court, they have stuff they have to go
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: to for that too, regular drug.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: Tests or groups or whatever. So they're they're busy when
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: they're in our career.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: What a story, Mike, thank you for what you do
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: in our community. And it seems like you were called
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: to this and early stepped up.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: And I know that's Orlando and and there's the director.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: He's also like that, and it's so passionate about the
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: program and is so and I could tell from Caroline
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: your board is the same way. So congratulations, congratulations, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: your fundraiser Paddle for a purpose once again, folks, if
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: you're interested in a little.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Way to help this organization.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: March twenty eighth, you can come out and play some
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: pickleball and at the Hillcrest Country Club and it's a
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: great opportunity to support the folks going through the program,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: you know, looking for safe housing, life skill training, workforce
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: skills and employment assistance, counseling, rebuilding people's lives.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what we do, all of it.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, thank you for your time today and coming
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: in and join us on Car Talk and dell everyone
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: that's listening. We do appreciate that every week and if
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: we can help, come on out and see us at
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: the dealership and we'll be happy to help you with
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: one of those forty eight toyotas we have on the
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: ground or are coming in, including the new RAB four
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: and those fifteen to comas and great use cars too.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Always trying to it's hard to these days to keep
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: the inventory on the ground, which I always say, it's
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: not a that's not a problem. It's a good thing
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: that there's more more demand than supply I think in general,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: but that's good business and we're happy to help.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: And so reach out to the team and we'll find
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: that perfect vehicle for you.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Where can we find you in this lot of oya well,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: I we're at nineteen eleven Southeast Washington Boulevard on the
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: with the big Toyota monolith.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: And where can we find you dune just Toyota dot
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Com you deal there, Yeah, and information on Facebook.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: If you are going to go to the Bowsport and
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Travel show, still haven't gone.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I still have some tickets left for that.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Just come into the dealership William or one of the
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: other managers that should have the tickets, or Lynn marketing
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: man jor Lynn.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: We'll have him. So just come see us and we
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: can get you into the show for free. Nice ry
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: it go.
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: All right, folks, you've been watching and listening to our
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: car talk program right here on K one, the one
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: you trust. Now stay tuned. We've got the news and
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: weather coming up in just a moment right here on
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: K one.