Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 241. Meet the Mission: KidLinks - Noelle Tuominen

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241. Meet the Mission: KidLinks - Noelle Tuominen · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: Hey, I'm John.
• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the we are for good podcast.
• 0:06
  Becky Endicott: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Hey, Becky, you're beaming
• 0:38
  Becky Endicott: on. I am beaming. We have somebody from our community on the podcast today. And I just have to tell this Genesis story, because I think it's a really interesting one. But we got the most beautiful review that like dropped into our mailbox several months ago. And it was so heartfelt and gorgeous. And, and we reached out we were like, Who is this person. And as always, when stories come in, and we're curious about missions, we go down the rabbit trail of learning about the mission. And we came to know Noel, we ended up getting on the phone with her fell in love with her story. And if you are someone who's deeply passionate about creating the thing that does not exist in this world, because you needed it, you are a favorite person.
• 1:23
  Becky Endicott: So Noel literally did that. She has an incredible story of resilience that she's going to share today about what happened with her family, and how that literally drew her into the nonprofit space. And she's doing incredible work with Kid Lynx now, which is just an incredible organization that provides music and hope and healing for kids in the hospital. And so Noel had this happen to her not once but with two children. And so I don't want to steal the thunder of that story. But the reason we're uplifting her is because one, she is such a go getter.
• 1:57
  Becky Endicott: She took initiative, she is uplifting her favorite charity.
• 2:01
  Becky Endicott: And instead of being a volunteer, she has transitioned from volunteer to nonprofit employee, and she is doing an amazing job. And we want you to know all about this incredible mission. So Noel, welcome to the podcast. We're so excited.
• 2:16
  Noelle Tuominen: You're here. It is so nice to be here. Oh my gosh, you guys, I just need this every morning. This is how to start my day.
• 2:24
  Becky Endicott: I love your story so much. And it comes from being what I call an angry mom, when moms get upset, because their kids don't get the best of what's offered. You can either get mad or you can get active and you got active. And I love that. So tell us a little bit about your story. And what led you up to be a part of this nonprofit?
• 2:43
  Noelle Tuominen: Yeah, absolutely. Um, my journey to like compassionate advocacy started, when my daughter was a year old, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And I remember being in just like a PICU chair, I was six weeks pregnant. And I was just terrified. I just do um, scrolling, just like, what her life expectancy was going to be like, what her day to day was going to be like how to manage injections, just everything. And I was able to just kind of take that part to it. And realize I needed to just do something just be a part of something. So I joined a lot of insulin advocacy groups that were just fighting for affordable insulin accessible insulin, and just kind of wanted to be a part of that for my children to show them. You kind of got delta roughing and but we're gonna do everything we can not only to support you, but to support the type one community. And I did that and I kind of thought that was enough. And then the pandemic happened. And I had had a heart lung bypass, my daughter has type one diabetes. And so we kind of just shut down completely. Once that happened.
• 3:51
  Noelle Tuominen: There were no ins and outs. We didn't go to the grocery store for a year, we were just like completely locked down 100%. And we created a beautiful bubble.
• 4:01
  Noelle Tuominen: We really did. I mean, there was just the four of us, we became best friends because that's all we had. And we managed to just make the best of it. But I kind of realized I needed to do a little bit more. Eventually, one day they are going to go out into the world. I just feel like there wasn't doing enough outside of that. So I joined Katchafire, which I just think is an incredible organization.
• 4:21
  Noelle Tuominen: They do. You're donating your time, and your skills to organizations that are looking for social media audits, marketing, strategies, leadership, just anything that they need, and you can just kind of plug in and just do a little bit of matchmaking. And to me that was like the perfect pandemic activity while I kind of figured out my new normal so I did email funnels for nutrition advocacy groups and cleanups and social media audits for different diabetes organizations, but exam KidLinks and it kind of just fell in love. They bring a lot of music and healing to hospitals and to just kids that need it. And so I did the social media audit, and then the CEO and I kind of looked at each other and we're like, we're not done. We're not done. So I went from volunteer to consultant to employ. And I've just loved every minute of it.
• 5:12
  Jonathan McCoy: What a story. I mean, and what expertise and gift that you had that was just seen and recognized. So kudos to the executive director that saw that and brought you in, because you can't pay for passion like, but to primary passion with such expertise. Like I love. I love your story so much. I've been to the kid links Website, I love just goodness, the feeling you get as you start to immerse into this mission. But tell us, you know, functionally, what do y'all do? Can I paint a picture for what kid lynx does and what it looks like day to day.
• 5:42
  Noelle Tuominen: So we have a lot of programs that we're working towards, we provide music therapy for children in need. We also do music performances, when we are able to in hospitals, we provide low cost treatment programs for kids. And 40 years ago, our founder went into a hospital and sang to a terminally ill child.
• 6:00
  Noelle Tuominen: And he just created therapeutic music entertainment, which is just creating a compassionate and just magical musical moment with children. We have served 400,000 Kids since then. So in 2006, we added board certified music therapist, and we kind of created those programs as well.
• 6:22
  Noelle Tuominen: And then in 2016, we developed the website, which now has an entire music library, which I love that's accessible to children and parents that's free. And they can just geek out on all of the things that we bring to the world.
• 6:36
  Becky Endicott: I am the daughter of a music teacher. And so music has been such a part of my life. I love the arts. But you know, John and I in Julie, we spent time in this health care in healthcare philanthropy for years, and being a child in the hospital is so scary. And especially if you don't know what's coming next, or if there's not certainty and a diagnosis, or those kinds of things. And these are the little program offerings that bring the micro moments in the joy, the little burst of joy into the day, I want you to personalize it for us if you would go back and tell us about your children and the experience and talk about what music has meant.
• 7:18
  Becky Endicott: Specifically, I think it was to your son, the second one, and what the experience was like, and I just think you'll have a personal way to pull this back of why it's so wonderful for your family.
• 7:28
  Noelle Tuominen: Absolutely. Um, so when my daughter was first diagnosed, she was a year old and kind of, they just gave us movies like that was the solution when you know, because we were staying there for a week. She's doing injections and blood draws and just everything.
• 7:42
  Noelle Tuominen: And it was just like, here's movies like that first day, that just wasn't what was working and Child Life recommended, kind of doctor's kit to get her used to shots and just providing just that little bit of comfort that she could do herself. And I realized that we sometimes forget that we need to just bring it down to a child's level. We can create all these grand things, we can throw movies, but what is that helping the child that we're specifically serving? So my son was diagnosed the week that I went from volunteer to employ.
• 8:18
  Noelle Tuominen: So for me, it was let me create what I wish I had in that moment. What do I need to just have three minutes as a parent to say, okay, just take some time and you'll be a kid, let's just allow that magic to happen.
• 8:36
  Noelle Tuominen: Let's just allow you to be a kid because that's what you deserve to be in a hospital at home, when you're cranky, when whatever you're going through, let's just let you be a kid. So we developed this really cool thing that's called KidLinks crate, which is what I have sent to us. I have a physical version, but it's 10 out of 70 songs, there's 10 household items that will create any activity out of those 70 songs.
• 9:00
  Noelle Tuominen: And it's just such an easy way to just let kids interact with the music. There's conversation starters, there's descriptions of what's happening in the songs. There's just different ways to dive in deeper and different activities for each kid, one of my children can paint for four hours, one of my children will put scissors and the other ones hair in 10 minutes, if that's what I'm thinking, right, it's good to be able to do so just creating content and creating activities and just an experience for children that goes beyond.
• 9:30
  Noelle Tuominen: You're sitting in a hospital, I can give you balloons, I can tell you, everything's gonna be better. But let's dive deeper.
• 9:35
  Noelle Tuominen: Let's just help them create that childhood magic from the start.
• 9:40
  Becky Endicott: Well, the thing I love the most about that is it's almost becomes even a form of therapy. And for anyone that's been a parent, like it's especially like when I notice when my kids are drawing or doing something, they talk more, they're just kind of expressing that stream of consciousness that's in their head. And so I love this form of therapy. I want to make sure that everybody He knows what a child life practitioner is because it's one of the most amazing jobs. I think in this world. These are people who are literally trained, almost like therapists, nurses that go in and make the the hospital experience less scary for children. And so they have tons of games and props and toys and ways that they take the scary out of needles and procedures, they are just like little angels on the pediatric floor. So thank you for sharing that story. And John, I saw you're gonna jump in. So I'll stop.
• 11:05
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, being somebody that has the lived experience that can pour into a mission, it's just different, you know, and that's why I think it comes up with people we talk to all the time that proximity matters. And you're able to design these programs around the pain points. And I think there's so much to learn for every organization, the fact that y'all curate household items that can apply to this, it's like, parents are already overwhelmed. They can't have like this crazy list, especially the male pandemic of how to make it practical for at home, but even the small things like that, posting the songs on your website, giving it away, because you don't have this scarcity mindset. Yeah, but it's liabilities. Wonderful, yeah, just look at the layers of just like how this is such an evolved. But yet so simple mission and what it delivers, but it's so evolved in how you're showing up in the world.
• 11:53
  Jonathan McCoy: And there's a lot of lessons that just pour into what we're seeing that everybody needs to lean into, you know, how can you spread the value? And how can you, you know, move away from a scarcity mindset to this abundance? I mean, you're trying to live out your mission and all these different facets. So just really love and lean into this, would you kind of talk about the transformation that this creates? You know, I mean, we love seeing just kind of the uplift that happens from mission, what do you see, when parents and kids connect through these programs?
• 12:20
  Noelle Tuominen: I mean, I have kind of tested these out on my own children, having them have the ability to talk through something that I wouldn't be able to talk to them about, like we have some really deep songs about cancer, about navigating bullying, about things that I couldn't say, How do you feel when someone talks to you like that, versus let's throw a song on? Let's spend three minutes just listening to it. I'm not going to ask you any questions.
• 12:45
  Noelle Tuominen: We're just going to kind of go how you want to go. And we're allowing children to create their own journey through it.
• 12:51
  Noelle Tuominen: And so I've loved watching them say, you know, this kind of stinks. And like, let's, let's talk about it, let's move through that. And allowing just that journey, in their terms has been an incredible thing as a parent, as a marketer has been just a joy to watch someone start to finish their own version of what we create is magical.
• 13:18
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, we've got to pause the podcast for a minute, and we have some really exciting news to share.
• 13:23
  Becky Endicott: Yeah, we're partnering up with our friends at virtuous to co host this year's free responsive nonprofit summit on April 20, and 21st.
• 13:28
  Becky Endicott: And we want to see you there.
• 13:31
  Jonathan McCoy: So come and join 1000s of like minded forward thinking nonprofit leaders for two days of fresh insights, helpful workshops, and genuine conversations as we gather virtually from wherever you find yourself.
• 13:43
  Becky Endicott: We're curating some amazing panels to help you build better systems and strategies to help you grow your impact. You may even recognize some of our past podcast guests and favorite thought leaders to
• 13:53
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, so can we count you in to join us at the responsive nonprofit Summit? Is it virtuous.org/good and registered for free? Hey, friends, after meeting some of the most visionary leaders and world changers in the nonprofit sector today, we realize they all have one thing in common, they invest in themselves and their teams so they can stay relevant to what's working now to succeed and scale their missions. You know, us we believe education is for all and that's when we created we're for good pro Pro is reimagining nonprofit professional development, giving you access to incredible live coaching events with some of the best thought leaders like kushana Palmer and Lynn Wester and more.
• 14:30
  Jonathan McCoy: Imagine being able to work through your challenges in real time. That's the power of pro.
• 14:32
  Jonathan McCoy: Every week, we host a new workshop, giving you the playbook and tools to take immediate action, build your confidence and grow your impact.
• 14:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Be the Pro and get started today with a 14 day free trial head over to we're for good pro.com/free. Okay, let's get back to this amazing conversation.
• 14:53
  Becky Endicott: It's wonderful.
• 14:53
  Becky Endicott: And I think the thing that keeps coming back to me and what you're saying is that you do such a great job with this organization of listening. And I think that there's really something too we just talked about this with Pam Divinsky on the podcast, narrative research and narrative storytelling, if you will just let the person in front of you share what they're thinking, I don't care if they're two, or if they're 82.
• 15:16
  Becky Endicott: If you can give somebody space to kind of talk they'll tell you what the problem is. They'll tell you what you're thinking.
• 15:24
  Becky Endicott: And I do think just we talked about listening all the time that it's kind of the Forgotten skill of fundraising is that we need to be better listeners because the people who have the answers are the ones that are experiencing the problem. And so I love that you've lifted that out. I think it's just such a great lesson for anybody that's trying to build something that's truly human. And something grassroots from the ground up.
• 15:46
  Becky Endicott: But I also want to give you some space to talk a little bit just about your lived experience, talk about what it's like to have high risk children, and a pandemic, like what does that even look like? For those of us who haven't experienced that?
• 16:01
  Noelle Tuominen: I think there's actually two parts to it, I think it's important to acknowledge both because there is a high level of grief, you know, when you had children, you expected their childhood to be one way. And after diagnosis, it's completely different. And then add a pandemic on top of it. You know, they don't, they didn't have birthday parties, I haven't taken them to a library storytime, I mean, these are just basic childhood moments that you just kind of need to allow yourself the space to say, this stinks, I'm allowed to have the feelings of just this isn't what I asked for. But this is what I've got. But the other side to it is incredible, because the amount of community that you can create, I look back on the community that I built, February 2020, it looks so small, and so fragile compared to what you're able to do, I wouldn't have even thought like, let's find a zoom art class for you, let's find you a pen pal.
• 17:02
  Noelle Tuominen: Like those just weren't even on my radar. And now I have children that like can talk to other type one diabetics, we do not have one in our neighborhood, but they talk to someone in Australia, they write, you know, a pen pal letter to a kid in Oregon, they do diabetes art classes, where they can all talk to each other.
• 17:21
  Noelle Tuominen: I mean, there is just the beauty of looking beyond the community that I think I viewed in 2020.
• 17:27
  Noelle Tuominen: Versus now it's just incredible.
• 17:32
  Noelle Tuominen: I think there's space to say, I'm sad. And there's also space to say, we still have the power to create a community.
• 17:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Wow. I mean, what incredible testament, I mean, just to your own personal story, and I picture you, you know, being in the PICU. And I've been in that place, my wife and I both been in the NICU holding our little ones and just longing for people to just that you could share, you know, and just emote and be frustrated and kind of live out all those emotions. But it's hard, you know, especially in I'm with you than the way that we used to think about community that it had to be right here at the elbow. And that's great if you've got that. But this idea of digital community that you could have your kids can have friends in Australia, and pen pal in Oregon. I mean, it's like, of course, like, that's the beauty of this moment. And we talk about building digital community all the time, because, you know, it goes back to not having scarcity. We believe that there's enough people that care about whatever it is that you're facing. And I love that you have lived this out. And I can talk about how you built this community? Would you walk us through what are some of those things that have really galvanized community for you all,
• 18:42
  Noelle Tuominen: I remember sitting in PICU. And I remember being alone, I remember feeling like, I don't have anyone else.
• 18:51
  Noelle Tuominen: And I would join groups. And they would be like, Oh, my 18 year old is joining football.
• 18:56
  Noelle Tuominen: And I'm like, okay, but my one year old has six injections to do today. And their little body is vastly different than your 18 year old. And so I created a community just for toddler parents, I wrote a blog called type one kid type a mom, I just wanted to find other parents that could navigate toddler life and then kind of walk through how we're going to make this a magical childhood, how we're going to make injections a little less scary how we're going to decorate medical devices every three days and have been swarm and just create this beauty. And so I wanted to bring that ticket links, I wanted to bring just that idea of, we can still make lives magical, we can still make our community, despite whatever you're going through magical we can give you the tools to just allow your children to have the moment of peace allow you as a parent to have just hears music you feel comfortable with your kids listening to here's YouTube, I can turn on for 20 minutes and not worry about where you're going down. And just kind of say, Here, let's just create a space where you can have just kind of that social emotional time for you.
• 20:12
  Noelle Tuominen: And let's support the parents and say, let's walk you through this. Let's give you every tool in your toolkit to let your children survive, but also just thrive. And I think that's such an important part of this community.
• 20:28
  Becky Endicott: Well, everybody knows our final core value of our company is that community is everything and I love that you went out and built the thing that didn't exist. I mean, that is literally how we are for good came to be, as John and I wanting to build something we didn't see existed. And I think when you chase community and you get in spaces with like minded people who want to do good, like the potential is limitless. And I see the way that your faces when you talk about this community and what it's meant to you. And I would like to know, I know we need to get into story.
• 21:05
  Becky Endicott: But I'm just very curious, like, what has been the moment in this pandemic, where you have felt the most hope, where you felt joy in lift, or that you that was something that you had built really made a difference for you or for your child or somebody else, I wonder if there's a moment like that,
• 21:25
  Noelle Tuominen: there are two one is this year, we transferred to virtual concerts for our music. So we created these Facebook Lives, and watching my children interact with that watching the comments from other people from all over just appreciating our music was incredible. The other one would be I do a lot of advocacy calls.
• 21:43
  Noelle Tuominen: And I tell my kids, okay, like I've got to go, I've got to go be on a call. And my daughter says, say hi to my pod friends for me. And so her medical device is an omni pot. And she thinks all everyone that we interact with is her friend. And even with just the four of us, she has not had a play date in two years. But just the ability to say like, Oh, those are your friends. Those are my friends, that friends are everywhere. And whatever your kid, whoever you're connecting with, those are your friends. And I think if we could all view life through a four year old lens of we're all friends, I think this pandemic might get a little bit easier.
• 22:25
  Jonathan McCoy: Well, I just think this, you know, roll has also given you the opportunity to just be witness to the power of philanthropy, how it powers mission, we obviously see the transformative effect of it everyday on this podcast, would you share a story that's either been personal or through the mission work that philanthropy is really just moved you in a deep way?
• 22:44
  Noelle Tuominen: Yes, we have one of our kiddos has a very special relationship with one of his music therapists, they are best friends. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at three months old. And our music therapist found out he has perfect pitch. And he's been doing he's been in percussion for six years. And he has just he lights up when he talks about music, and his relationship with his music therapist. And just the ability to give a child just that self confidence, that joy, that awareness of being able to accomplish something is just what just drives me to just say, we can all do this, we can all be a part of something incredible. He inspires me every day.
• 23:29
  Becky Endicott: I love that God bless you music therapist, and people who work with children in the hospital. And in these really tenuous areas of life.
• 23:34
  Becky Endicott: You guys are the real heroes.
• 23:38
  Becky Endicott: Well, you know, we end all of our discussions with a one good thing, what would be your one good thing you'd offer to the community today,
• 23:46
  Noelle Tuominen: I read a poem and I immediately thought of you guys. Oh, it's a poem from Morgan Harper Nichols. And it's called empathy. And it says, Let me hold the door for you. I may have never walked in your shoes, but I can see your soles are worn. Your strength is torn under the weight of a story I have never lived before. Let me hold the door for you. After all you've walked through, it's the least I can do.
• 24:12
  Becky Endicott: I know I you can just see like, I just want to like sit here in love on the community for a second. Like Noel is one of so many people in our community who is out there doing such important impactful work. And I just want everybody to know we see your passion, we see your hustle, we see your struggle. And we are here to encircle you in those moments of struggle and here to give you ideas because it's hard work out there. And there are a lot of obstacles in front of us. But I love this thread of hope that we have in this conversation that there is always ways that we can connect and that is going to be the uplift that we're looking for. So I want to thank you for reaching out leaving this beautiful review for us which gave us just an open door to come in and learn about kid links. I think this is just such a fantastic program. So tell everybody how they can get to know like connect with Kid links. Where are you on socials and how can they get involved especially access to all this free music you have in your library?
• 25:17
  Noelle Tuominen: Yes, we are just doing a full website relaunch so all the activities will be there all the songs will be there. It's a kid links.org And you can always email us at info at kid like start work. And I am obviously type one kid type a mom.
• 25:31
  Jonathan McCoy: Oh my goodness.
• 25:31
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean Thank you like everything that Becky just demoed it. I feel so deeply that you are doing the hard work on the frontlines. Thank you for pouring into this community and you have lifted us and Veritas beyond what you can imagine. So thank you for this time.
• 25:46
  Becky Endicott: Thank you for fighting on behalf of your children and moms and parents and caregivers everywhere. It's a beautiful thing. Keep going.
• 25:54
  Noelle Tuominen: Thank you.
• 25:54
  Noelle Tuominen: Thank you.
• 25:57
  Jonathan McCoy: Thanks for joining us. Today's episode was brought to you by our good friends at auth zero. Without zero your nonprofit can do more with a login box. Greet prospects and rabid fans of your mission with authenticity simply make it easier for your team to manage data. There's so much at AUC zero login experience can do is it off zero.org For more info
• 26:16
  Becky Endicott: if you enjoyed this episode, we know you'll love being part of the we are for good community. It's like our own social network where you can find like minded friends ask questions, share resources and find inspiration anytime. Sign up today at we are for good.com backslash hello
• 26:32
  Jonathan McCoy: thanks friends