Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Compassion Without Limits: Transforming Lives Through Evidence-Based Care with Emmett Highbaugh Jr.

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Compassion Without Limits: Transforming Lives Through Evidence-Based Care with Emmett Highbaugh Jr. · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:15
adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspodi,
0:17
and today's guest is Emmett Highball Junior.
0:20
He is the Chief Program Officer at NCIA, an organization founded
0:25
in 1977 to empower individuals facing life challenges.
0:31
NCIA offers vocational training, special education, residential
0:37
support and employment services focusing on people with
0:41
disabilities and those re entering society now.
0:45
Emmett has held executive roles in social services, guiding
0:49
program development, compliance, and operational management in
0:53
areas like mental Health and Human services.
0:56
He served as an Executive Director and Compliance Officer
1:00
before joining NCIA and has been recognized for his commitment to
1:04
community service, including a Community Achievement Citation
1:09
from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
1:12
He also holds CPI and CPR and First Aid certifications,
1:17
demonstrating his dedication to creating safe and supportive
1:20
environments. With his leadership, NCIA
1:24
remains at the forefront of inclusive programs that uplift
1:29
underserved communities. Now before we get into all that
1:32
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Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:05
today, the Chief Program Officer of NCIAA Baltimore, Emmett
2:09
Highball Junior. Thank you for making the time to
2:11
Share your story today. Oh, thank you.
2:13
Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate it.
2:16
OK, so Emmett, you've had a long history in leading and improving
2:21
major social service programs. What first got you started on
2:25
this path? So I, you know, I have a sister.
2:30
She's 13 years younger than me. My sister is, has autism.
2:37
I was young at the time. I really didn't, you know, I
2:39
really didn't think too much about it.
2:42
But as I got older, I, I, I have two sons, I have three children,
2:45
I have AI have a daughter and I have two sons and my two sons
2:49
also have autism, so they're on the spectrum as well.
2:51
So my initial journey was just to learn to learn.
2:56
So I could, you know, provide, you know, provide them, you
3:00
know, with great care at home before they, you know, enter
3:04
the, enter the, the school system or even a residential
3:07
program or day program. So I just, I think really I, I,
3:11
I just really wanted to learn about autism.
3:14
And so it was specifically just sort of learning and growth
3:17
process for you to learn more about autism that took you kind
3:21
of into this space of helping others.
3:23
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
3:26
And as you look back at your career before NCIAA, think about
3:31
the different stops along the way.
3:34
Pick one of those that was maybe sort of the most formidable for
3:38
you and talk about the impact that it had kind of on your your
3:42
career and your personal development.
3:45
So I think the most impactful place I worked at, I worked at a
3:48
place called Eden Autism Services.
3:49
It's pretty well known in regards to autism services on
3:53
the, on the northern EI mean on the, you know, East Coast.
3:57
I got there, I really didn't know anything.
4:01
I went through a bunch of trainings, learned, you know,
4:05
different levels of autism, how individuals, you know, the, the
4:09
thought process, how you know how they think, how they view
4:13
things, how they communicate. But then besides the, besides
4:17
the education in regards to autism and the spectrum, the
4:21
ability to, to lead, to take care of it, other individuals, I
4:27
got the opportunity to, to learn more in regards to the, the
4:30
administrative side of those things.
4:32
Like I, I, I was given a couple group homes to oversee.
4:35
Then from there I was promoted and I got to see oversee a bunch
4:40
of other group homes in the day program.
4:42
So I was given the opportunity to learn.
4:45
They saw the passion that I had in regards to taking care of
4:48
those guys and those young girls and those young guys and those
4:51
young ladies. And I was given an out the door
4:54
was open for me. And I felt like once I got that
4:57
opportunity, I felt like, oh, I could keep going and keep
5:01
enhancing my skill set and, and one day I could sit in the
5:04
C-Suite chair and I can really lead an organization.
5:07
So that's kind of that organization I think really kind
5:10
of started me on my on my on my journey in regards to sitting in
5:15
the seat that I sit in now. It kind of opened your eyes to
5:21
maybe the role that you could hold in more of a leadership
5:24
capacity. Yeah, absolutely.
5:27
Absolutely. And so how did the opportunity
5:32
to join NCIA first come about? So as you mentioned before, I
5:38
was an executive director, I was, I ran a basically a state
5:42
for an organization that was called Broad Step.
5:47
They were a national organization.
5:49
They were in I think 9 states at the time.
5:52
It was owned by private equity. It was backed by private equity.
5:54
So it wasn't a non profit. It was a for profit agency.
5:59
I was basically asked to come in and basically kind of fix, fix
6:03
the problems that were there, some staffing, staffing
6:06
shortage. It was right kind of the tail
6:08
end of COVID. So we were, you know, need to
6:11
rehire, I'm sorry, need to hire new staff, fill vacant beds,
6:16
reduce over time. Some of those, you know, those
6:18
kind of things that you know, non profit social agencies, you
6:21
know, look to, you know, those are their KPIs that they're kind
6:24
of focused on. So once I did that, I thought I
6:29
was pretty successful in that they were, they actually took
6:33
the organization to market and they sold it.
6:36
Now during that time, I had met our my current CEO, Carol Argo.
6:43
I met her through a mutual friend.
6:48
Carol and I exchanged emails. I came down to Baltimore from
6:53
New Jersey a couple times, checked, I checked out the NCIA,
6:57
and the programming was very similar to what I was doing.
7:02
And then that mutual friend also told me that Carol was a new CEO
7:08
and that she was looking to do some restructuring and that she
7:11
was looking for a chief program officer and would I be
7:13
interested. So I was like, yeah, absolutely.
7:17
So of course, you know, I went through the, you know, I went
7:19
through the process, sent her my resume.
7:21
I interviewed with Carol, I interviewed with our CFOI,
7:25
interviewed with the leadership team here, and the rest is
7:28
history. Kind of got the job.
7:34
So before we dive into what it means to be a Chief Program
7:38
Officer, I want to understand in more detail what it is that you
7:41
guys do at NCIA. OK.
7:47
So we are a DDA provider, division of disability
7:51
association provider. We, we have, we have about 40
7:56
residential group homes. We have a day programs licensed
8:01
for 100 individuals. We do employment services, which
8:04
means we get those individuals jobs.
8:07
We also have a non public school and we we work with youth who
8:12
are on the autism spectrum. We also work with youth who have
8:14
behavioral challenges. And then we also have a
8:19
vocational training program which is in, it's also in
8:22
Baltimore and Wells and Charlotte.
8:23
And we have developed and created our own behavioral
8:26
services program. So the behavioral services
8:28
program was kind of like my baby.
8:30
It's kind of what I kind of brought here.
8:32
We write, we create and manage and write our own behavioral
8:37
plans, which we used to outsource to another
8:40
organization. And now we do that in house.
8:43
So that's kind of all the all the services that we provide
8:45
here. Say more about the component of
8:48
helping sort of those folks that are re entering society.
8:51
What does that look like? Oh yeah.
8:52
So our vocational training program, so the vocational
8:56
training program, you know, those individuals that are that
8:59
are coming back, those returning citizens that are coming back
9:02
home, we are able to support them and get them skills,
9:07
automotive, HVAC, CDL, where they can provide themselves an
9:12
excellent living, give back to the community that their jobs,
9:16
the jobs that they get based off our training, they are able to
9:19
pour that back into their community and, and be and be
9:22
more self sustainable. They don't have to go back to,
9:26
you know, whatever they did to, you know, to, you know, to be
9:29
incarcerated. I hate to say that.
9:32
Yeah, kind of, I don't know, break it down from a percentage
9:35
standpoint, like how much is helping folks who are formerly
9:39
incarcerated, How much is helping folks with, you know,
9:41
some behavioral developmental issues?
9:44
So, so our, our behavioral DD, our developmental disabilities
9:51
areas, that's probably about, I'll, I'll say that's about 80%.
9:57
That's, that's our largest kind of you want to say like bread
10:00
and butter, that's our largest program.
10:03
As I mentioned before, I had 40 homes throughout, throughout the
10:05
Baltimore PG County area. Do we have our day program and
10:10
then we do the employment services.
10:12
Our VTCI mean it's not a small program by any means.
10:18
We graduate probably about 3 to 400 individuals a year, but it's
10:24
still smaller compared to our DBA programming.
10:29
And so where does the the funding for all these services
10:32
come from? You guys able to generate
10:34
revenue internally or is there is there some donations or state
10:37
support? So the DDA, the DDA programs are
10:40
funded by, you know, the state and Medicaid, Medicaid dollars.
10:44
Our VTC is, is is funded by grants and donations,
10:49
philanthropic donations, yeah, some, some SNAP benefits, some,
10:55
some, some, some federal funds, but mostly, mostly grants.
11:00
You guys do any fundraisers? Yes, we have started doing
11:03
fundraisers. We, we do a yearly golf event.
11:07
We've also started doing, you know, we'll do like we'll
11:11
donate, like buy, buy, buy a tool kit or something like that
11:16
for, for the students. We've recently started doing
11:19
that. We started to expand our
11:20
fundraising because we usually only, we've only, I've only been
11:23
here for two years. We've only really done our golf
11:25
event, but we're starting to. We're looking to expand on
11:27
those, on our fundraising. So if folks were to go to your
11:29
website, whichisncianet.org, ncianet.org, would they see
11:36
opportunities to give or participate in any of these
11:39
fundraisers? Yes, and that we just updated
11:42
our website. So there is a there is an
11:44
ability to donate, click on and donate.
11:47
And of course all donations are tax deductible.
11:49
No, I I still want to get to what a chief program officer
11:54
does. And I have a feeling you wear a
11:56
lot of hats. I'm already getting that sense,
11:58
but I want to understand a bit more about what you guys do at
12:02
NCIA that separates you from other folks who may be providing
12:06
similar services. Well, I think for me, I think
12:11
one of the things I think differentiates us from other
12:13
providers is that we have this really, we have this, this
12:18
attitude that we can help anyone with with.
12:22
And I know that maybe like a cliche, I think a lot of
12:25
providers probably say that, but I've seen that, you know, first
12:28
hand, like my first week here, we took someone that no one
12:32
would take and we were actually able to be extremely successful
12:36
with that young lady. And I, and I think that was the
12:38
eye opener for me. I sat in this meeting, I looked
12:42
at this young lady on paper and I was like, Oh no, there's no
12:45
way we should be providing service for this young lady.
12:48
And my CEO was like, no, that's not what we do here.
12:51
We help everyone, you know, supports without measure.
12:55
This is what we do. And we were able to do that.
12:59
And I think for me, that's really what separates us from
13:02
other providers. We take individuals that usually
13:05
other providers won't take or they kind of steer away from.
13:09
And we are successful with those individuals, whether it's it,
13:12
whether it's them being in the community, whether it's them
13:15
getting a job, whether it's them getting training, we are
13:19
successful and I and I think that is what separates us from
13:22
other providers. Without giving away any
13:25
personally identifiable information, can you say more
13:27
about this woman's situation? Why?
13:30
You know, most people wouldn't want to to have worked with her.
13:33
Yeah, so this young lady, you know, she, she not only was she,
13:37
you know, Idd she had mental health challenges.
13:41
She had Pika, she she would had elopement, she would run away.
13:46
She had self injurious behavior. She was, if you, you know,
13:51
looked up someone like no, you don't want that person your
13:53
program. She kind of checked all those
13:55
boxes. She had a significant mental
13:59
health diagnosis and we were able to, we actually got her in
14:05
our crisis, our crisis program, we stabilized her.
14:09
She lost weight, was going back to school.
14:14
She was, she was doing a lot of things that a lot of people told
14:19
us that she wouldn't be able to do.
14:21
And I, and I think that was a testament to our team, like the
14:24
team pulled together and we were able to, you know, we were just
14:28
able to foster her. And I think the other thing that
14:30
we did that she, I remember she told me this and no one ever
14:34
asked her. We asked her like, what does she
14:36
want to do? What what, what's your
14:38
definition of being successful? What's your definition of
14:41
normalcy? And she gave us a definition and
14:44
we use that. We use that as the road map to
14:46
help her. What was her definition?
14:48
Do you remember? Yeah, she did.
14:50
She wanted to be able to go out in the community, go on a date,
14:53
go back to school. So we were able, we were able to
14:56
provide that for her. We helped we, you know, we, we
14:59
helped her. The date thing we didn't really
15:01
that we didn't get all the way there, but the school and and
15:04
and and and signing up for classes, we did that.
15:08
Can you walk me through a little bit more about what those sort
15:11
of in between steps were like what you got her into the, you
15:13
know, your crisis management service And like, like, how do
15:17
you help somebody that is sort of that dysfunctional kind of
15:21
get to the the place where they want to be where they can kind
15:24
of be a a bit more of a part of society?
15:27
So what we, I mean, we, we know we get, we get them, we get them
15:30
from, from the state. Obviously they come in and
15:33
there's we look at their history and we get them in if they need
15:38
some Med management or some Med, you know, Med adjusting to, for
15:42
them to be OK, we take them to, we take them to a psychiatrist
15:45
or a therapist, get them where their meds are at a therapeutic
15:50
level first. And then what we do is then we,
15:53
we meet with them if it's them alone or if it's them with their
15:56
family, we meet with the whole team.
15:59
And then we asked them, you know what, like I said before, the
16:02
young lady, what do you want to do?
16:04
What, what do you think your problem is?
16:07
Or what do you think this is or that or whatever.
16:10
And then we create a plan, an evidence based plan that we can
16:14
track the data, show, show growth, show areas of challenge.
16:20
And then we implement that plan and we, we use that plan to help
16:24
guide and shape that individual. I think the evidence based part,
16:28
I think is very, very, it's very helpful because it shows that
16:33
you can track everything. So it shows the pitfalls, it
16:36
shows the successes. A lot of times, you know, a lot
16:39
of places you use, oh, you just weren't, you're not doing well
16:41
in this area, but you're also, but here in NCIA, you're doing
16:46
well in all these areas. So let's focus on these areas
16:49
and we can maybe come back and maybe course correct what's
16:52
going on in this area, You know, obviously with, with the team
16:55
and your input. So I think those are, you know,
16:57
those are, those are kind of how we how we do it.
16:59
And then of course with, with unconditional support.
17:03
My behavioral services team, those young ladies that you
17:07
know, they care and, and, and they care a lot and they, they,
17:10
they talk to the individuals, they work with, the families,
17:13
they do everything that you can do to make someone successful.
17:17
I would say you guys really emphasize this idea of
17:19
compassion without limits, right?
17:22
As I understand, it's one of the core values.
17:24
There, yes, absolutely. Yeah.
17:26
How does that kind of show up in daily operations?
17:29
So it shows up like in, in everything that we do.
17:32
And, and we are, we're going through like a culture shaping
17:36
kind of exercise, our executive team.
17:39
And one of the things that we talked about was, you know,
17:42
hiring people that fit in our culture.
17:44
Like, yeah, you can, I mean, I can, I mean, anyone, we can hire
17:47
you and teach you how to do the job.
17:49
But if your, if your culture mindset doesn't match up with
17:52
us, you're not going to be successful here.
17:55
So we, we hire, we have started hiring people who fit into our
17:59
culture. So that way, yes, we talk about
18:02
it, we introduce it to you, but if it's ingrained in you, if
18:05
that's who you are as a person, then we really don't have to
18:08
beat you over the head with it for you to understand.
18:10
You know what it is like helping people.
18:13
Is is is really what we do here with, with, without measure,
18:16
without limits? Have you found an effective way
18:19
to help sort of identify those those folks during kind of that
18:23
interview or onboarding process? Yeah, we, we, you know, The
18:28
thing is we go through like a couple, you know, you go through
18:30
a screening process. So we have like an initial
18:33
Screener, the HR person, they screen the person and then we
18:37
have formulated some questions to kind of see and we ask people
18:41
if they have their own personal challenges, etcetera, etcetera.
18:44
So we try to get people, we really try to get you to share
18:48
in the interview. So then that way we know, we
18:51
know if this is a good fit. Like if like if I interviewed
18:54
you and you said, yeah, I'm just really here to work this job.
19:00
OK, this really might not be, you know, a fit for you.
19:04
But if if I you came to my office and said, hey, you know
19:07
what I have AI was AI was a Tai was a teacher's assistant.
19:11
And I realized that they weren't really teaching, but I felt like
19:14
I could do it better. And I went back to school and I
19:16
did this and I did that. And now I want to leave the
19:19
school and I want to do this. I would do that.
19:21
OK, OK, maybe you're not going to leave the school, but I do
19:24
like your passion and you know, you, you sound like you might be
19:28
a, a good culture fit. Now, am I saying it's 100%
19:31
accurate? No, but it it, it, it has.
19:34
It has worked for us. Everything's part art, part
19:37
science. Right, you just.
19:38
You try to get as good at that filtering process as you can so
19:42
that you know you're not having to go and replace that person,
19:45
you know, a few weeks or a couple months down the road
19:47
because it it wasn't a good culture.
19:49
Fit. Yeah, Absolutely.
19:50
Yeah. So, OK, so now I want to
19:53
understand what a chief program officer is.
19:56
Emmett, what is it that you do? So I oversee all, all those
20:00
programs that I, that I, that I listed for you earlier, each
20:04
program does have a director. Some of those programs have
20:06
executive directors. I oversee, you know, I oversee
20:10
those programs, I provide them with administrative support.
20:14
And, and realistically, I mean, I think that's really what it is
20:17
best to describe it. I mean, obviously I'm, I'm
20:19
ultimately responsible for the programs.
20:21
I report directly to the CEO, the CEO, but it, it really is
20:25
about providing my leadership team with the support they need
20:30
to, you know, get the job done to make sure they're doing the
20:33
job and doing it at a very high level.
20:37
So I'm going to talk about an award that you got, community
20:41
achievement citation by the Pennsylvania House of
20:45
Representatives. How did that come about?
20:49
What? What is this recognition for?
20:52
So when I worked, I worked in Philadelphia for eight years.
20:55
Philadelphia at that time was there was a movement, it's
21:00
called Healthy Minds Philly. It basically was to reduce
21:06
mental health stigma for people to, if they had mental health
21:11
challenges, you could get a free screening and then that
21:13
screening could lead to you maybe choosing whether or not
21:17
to, you know, to get mental health outpatient services or
21:21
mental health services. So the organization I worked
21:25
for, I kind of, I kind of stumbled, I went to a meeting, I
21:28
kind of stumbled onto it and I was like, Oh yeah, we could
21:32
really do this. So what I did was I gathered a
21:36
couple of my clinicians around, I spoke to the governing body at
21:40
the time and we started going to fairs, not just health fairs,
21:45
like any type of community fair, any type of community activity,
21:49
we would go to it and I would, we would set up our tent and
21:53
we'd have all our information, but we also had the screening
21:56
tools. So we, we, we screened, we
22:00
screened a lot of people in my, in my time there and I got
22:04
nominated and I, I received that reward for all that community
22:08
work that I did because we travelled all over Philly.
22:11
We were based in West Philly, but I would be in the Northeast.
22:14
That would be the South. I would go the east.
22:16
We would go anywhere there was a fair available because we really
22:19
wanted to reduce the, you know, the stigma around, around mental
22:23
illness. And, you know, I really wanted
22:26
to, you know, in, in the African American community, a lot of
22:30
times mental illness isn't talked about openly.
22:32
It's, you know, it's more hidden.
22:34
So we wanted to kind of, you know, reduce that stigma and get
22:37
people to know that, hey, it's OK, this is a safe space.
22:41
So I did, I, I did it for a bunch of years.
22:43
And then I got, I did get recognized for that.
22:47
It was. I felt like it was a really
22:49
great honor because I didn't really know if anyone was really
22:51
paying attention. But not only were they paying
22:55
attention, but you got an award for.
22:57
It, yeah, they, they, they actually really were.
22:59
So it was, it was, it was, it was good to be recognized.
23:03
So the work that you were doing at the fairs was to raise
23:07
awareness of mental health issues.
23:10
And so the people attending the fairs are who just the general
23:13
public or? Yeah, it was just the general
23:15
public. So one of the things I learned
23:17
like kind of marketing one O 1 is that we would, we would
23:20
always have, you know, we would have like swag or grab bags and
23:24
things. And a lot of times what happens
23:26
is that when you go to these fairs and even I was speaking to
23:30
people, maybe they weren't currently dealing with anything
23:33
mental health wise, but they would take the sticker and stick
23:36
it on the refrigerator or the magnet and stick it on the
23:38
refrigerator. And then when something did
23:41
happen, they were like, Hey, remember that big guy?
23:43
Because I'm not, I'm not a small guy.
23:45
I'm, I'm so I know I'm sitting down.
23:47
So I'm like 6-8. So I'm pretty, pretty tall guy.
23:50
So they would be like, remember that guy with the yay, let's
23:54
call this number. And I said, it's a number.
23:56
It's a website. You can go on the website and
23:59
tell there's a whole bunch of like information on there.
24:03
There's there's a screening tools on there.
24:06
There's like, there's like checklists and one pager.
24:09
So there's like a slew of information that even if you
24:12
don't feel comfortable. And, and now I went on there the
24:15
other day just to kind of look, you know, now the 988 is on
24:19
there that, you know, the, the, the mobile crisis number.
24:21
So you could call that. So there's a lot of, there's a
24:24
lot of resources on that on, on that.
24:27
So we were just, we were just talking to anyone.
24:29
Like there would be, you know, there would be kids there, there
24:32
would be adults there, there would be older adults, there'd
24:35
be city officials, just regular people like, so they're like
24:39
everyday fairs, like health fairs or like farmers markets.
24:42
And we were just talking to people trying to get people to
24:45
understand, you know, the importance of, you know, of, of
24:48
mental health and getting your, and getting a check up.
24:50
That's what we called it. Like hey, come get your mental
24:53
health check up. And so they could come into the
24:57
program that you're working with at the time and they could get
24:59
evaluated and. Yeah.
25:01
So really what was interesting about it is they they gave us
25:03
these iPads. Initially it was like a check
25:07
off, but then they they got fancy and it became iPads.
25:09
So you could come actually we would have an area set up the
25:13
privacy. So you go over speak to a
25:15
clinician in private and the clinician would ask you these
25:18
questions and then you would based on your answer, it would
25:21
say, hey, I think maybe you might want to maybe look into
25:25
maybe getting some counseling, maybe getting some out, you
25:27
know, maybe some outpatient counseling.
25:29
Maybe you want to do this, maybe you want to do that.
25:31
And then we could also, then we could also then direct you, Hey,
25:34
where do you live? Oh, I live here.
25:36
OK, well, you can go to this clinic.
25:38
They have a walk in day on this day.
25:40
Or if they lived in like my, my organization was in West
25:43
Philadelphia. So like, oh, if you live in West
25:45
Philadelphia, you might want to come here.
25:47
So we're accessible by, you know, public transportation,
25:49
etcetera. So it was basically really just
25:52
like an outsource to, you know, help people, you know, to reduce
25:55
that mental, you know, mental health stigma.
25:58
And you touched on something there that that's interesting to
26:01
me because we've talked about mental health on this show
26:04
before and the the sort of the general stigma that has and in
26:09
many cases still exist with it. People who are suffering from it
26:13
think they're the only ones sometimes, you know, because,
26:17
you know, other folks who have gone or are going through
26:19
something don't give voice to it enough.
26:22
And so I'm always grateful when one of my guests who has gone
26:25
something, going through something, you know, shares
26:27
about their stories. But you're touching on something
26:30
interesting here that I don't think we've explored before,
26:33
which is the idea that there's an even greater stigma within
26:37
the African American community around mental health.
26:40
Tell me more about that. Yeah.
26:42
So I mean, I think that, I mean, even when I was a kid, when I
26:46
was going through, when I was going through some of my own
26:48
challenges at that particular point in time, you know, you,
26:52
you just don't talk about those things.
26:54
Like you don't talk about them. You know, you keep that in the
26:58
family. And those are just, those are
27:00
just our family problems. So you don't really get an
27:03
opportunity to express those things.
27:05
And you know, honestly, for me, I wasn't able to express, you
27:08
know, some of my challenges until I got older.
27:10
And when I mean older, I'm talking like 30s or 40s older,
27:14
not like in my 20s. And I think it's just something
27:18
that, you know, you don't talk about.
27:20
And I know I'll, I'll give an example.
27:23
This is, this is, it's funny. It was funny, but it's really
27:26
not funny. So I, when I was, I was talking
27:30
to my grandmother, she has had long passed and my grandmother
27:34
was talking to me about my uncle.
27:35
And she was like, oh, you know, your uncle was, was, was touched
27:38
by an Angel. You know, he was, he was a
27:40
little different. He was touched by an Angel.
27:43
And I was like, oh, OK. I, you know, I didn't really,
27:45
you know, understand that. But now that I'm older, no, my
27:47
uncle had autism. And that was my grandmother's
27:52
way of saying that, you know, he, you know, he, he had autism.
27:56
So she, she described it as him being touched by an Angel.
27:59
And the interesting part about it is they never, he never went
28:03
to a special school or anything like that.
28:05
It was all in house in the family, you know, but he had
28:10
autism. So that was my my grandmother's
28:13
way of, of, of, of telling me. I know your uncle is different.
28:17
Yeah. Yeah, he is.
28:18
OK. Back then they, I don't know how
28:22
many people knew the word ought to.
28:23
Exactly. Absolutely.
28:25
You're absolutely. A way to be evaluated.
28:27
Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. You know, you, we've talked
28:31
about, you kind of mentioned the importance of the, you know,
28:33
unconditional support and you know, now we're talking about
28:37
marginalized communities. You know it.
28:40
Can you describe maybe a time where you encountered
28:45
significant barriers when trying to provide this kind of support
28:49
to folks and maybe how you or your team overcome that?
28:53
I think we actually encounter it every day.
28:55
I think that that's the one thing I think that there's,
28:58
there are challenges, you know, but I think what we do, you
29:03
know, we, we just find a way. I think there's challenges every
29:08
day. You know, there's challenges in
29:09
regards to, you know, sometimes the, the families aren't really
29:13
on board with, with what needs to happen.
29:15
We, you know, we say, hey, this is really what we're, we're
29:18
doing to provide the best level of care.
29:22
You know, sometimes, you know, I just, I feel like honestly,
29:26
there's just, there are challenges every day and I
29:28
really can't even put a specific like, Oh, this is one of the
29:33
things that we face every day. I think that dealing dealing
29:37
with dealing with people, which is the most precious commodity
29:41
in my opinion. We're faced with challenges
29:43
every day. We have, you know, matter of
29:47
fact, I'll use this one as the biggest one denial.
29:50
They'll be they'll they're you have parents who and I'll use
29:54
this. I'll use another example of our
29:56
our respite home. You have parents who think that,
29:59
Oh, you know, not my son, not my daughter, etcetera, etcetera.
30:04
And then, you know, unfortunately, ma'am, yes, your
30:08
son or daughter, we have, we have to work.
30:10
We'll work with them, we'll help them, we'll fix them.
30:12
But I, they, the family won't accept the fact that their loved
30:17
one has a diagnosis or, you know, needs special care.
30:20
So a lot of times when we remove them from the family, like when
30:25
they come to our crisis home and they're in our crisis unit, a
30:28
lot of those behaviors that they are exhibiting at home, we don't
30:31
see them in the crisis unit because on our crisis house,
30:35
because we've, we, we're trained and we're, you know, we're able
30:39
to stabilize that. So those things, those things
30:42
that were making the situation more difficult at home, we don't
30:45
see them there. And I think a lot of times for
30:47
me, when we have to talk to the families, that's the biggest
30:51
challenge because there's that, like I said before, there's that
30:54
underlying, first of all, there's underlying guilt.
30:57
They think that they've done something.
30:58
That's why their son or daughter has a challenge.
31:01
And then the fact is, oh, I don't, no, no, no, actually not.
31:06
It can't, it can't be anything that I'm doing.
31:08
It can't be this or that. And I'm like, you know, we and,
31:12
and we are, I think we are. I think my team is very good at,
31:16
at letting people know, No, you know, don't, please don't take
31:19
it personal. We've seen this before.
31:22
This is just, you know how it is, but we're going to work with
31:24
you and your, your, your child to make sure that they have the,
31:28
they have the best life. And is there is there also an
31:30
element in it of, you know, as a parent like we think it reflects
31:35
like poorly upon us or our gene pool?
31:38
Or absolutely. How, How could my son or
31:41
daughter, my son or daughter have this concern, this issue,
31:47
this? Absolutely.
31:47
So I'll, I'll use myself as an example.
31:52
My, my children's, my 2, my son's mother was tremendous
31:58
guilt like we, my son, my oldest son, she was in such denial.
32:05
We didn't even get him evaluated.
32:08
We got him evaluated late. And I think, I mean, he's doing
32:11
great now, but you know, Herb, the guilt and also I, I had my
32:16
own guilt. I'm not going to lie.
32:17
I had, I thought, you know, hey, you know, my sister had autism
32:20
Now I had, I have the gene. And you know, I'm just thinking,
32:24
you know, you don't even all the things I was thinking of in my
32:26
head. And yeah, so there, there,
32:29
there's, there's a lot of self guilt, a lot of self blame, you
32:33
know, and it, and it can delay, it can delay them getting help.
32:37
And it can also, you know, it, it can hinder, hinder them
32:40
getting help. So you have to, and it's
32:42
interesting. When my second son was born and
32:45
he was kind of showing delays, we were quick.
32:49
We were quick this time around. Oh, no, no early intervention
32:52
for him. Boom, boom.
32:53
When we got him in, in early intervention right away.
32:56
And it and it it, it reaped, it reaped some great benefits for
33:00
him. Yeah.
33:01
Yeah. So I think, you know, that was
33:02
the opportunity. You know, I'm not, you know, I
33:04
don't most, I don't know if most people have back-to-back autism
33:08
children, but I think in, in that situation for me, you know,
33:12
it was a definitely a learning. It was a learning process.
33:14
And then I was able to remove the self blame because, you
33:18
know, my son went to a neurologist.
33:20
The neurologist talked to us. He was like, oh, you don't blame
33:23
yourself. This.
33:23
He gave us all that, you know, all that, you know, the, you
33:26
know, he gave us all the definitions and all the things
33:28
we could do. And he really did, he really did
33:31
help us. And I, I think from there I was
33:33
able to like, almost kind of like snap out of it in a sense
33:36
and be like, oh, listen, we're ready to go, Let's move forward.
33:39
And I think that a lot of times some parents do have that, that
33:42
difficulty, like you said, not my child.
33:44
Oh my, there's something wrong with my genes.
33:47
Do I have something's going on, something's wrong with me,
33:50
etcetera, etcetera. And you know, it's unfortunately
33:53
they don't, they don't know why it is.
33:55
So, you know, you can't really put it, put a blame on it.
33:58
You know, as I think about the vocational training, the
34:02
educational alternatives that you guys offer, and then are
34:07
there any like innovative techniques or ideas that you
34:11
guys have implemented to help, you know, distribute these
34:16
programs and make them effective?
34:18
Yeah. I think what we're doing now is
34:20
that we are really involved in our grant management.
34:23
And I think before we kind of, I hate to say it, we, I'm not
34:28
going to say we're relaxing days ago, but we kind of, I will say
34:31
that we're a little lackadaisical in our grant
34:34
management. I think what we've done now is
34:36
that we've created a tracking system, we've brought in a grant
34:39
accountant to manage our grants. I mean we are, we are really
34:44
specifically focused on any and everything we can do to manage
34:50
these grants better and effectively.
34:52
We don't want to leave any, any funding on the table and then we
34:56
want to be successful in our data collection to send out to
35:00
the to the grantors so that we can, so we can ask for more
35:04
money. You guys have grown, now you're
35:11
in multiple locations. What?
35:12
What are all the geographies that you're serving now?
35:14
So we do, we do. We do Baltimore County,
35:17
Baltimore City, PG County. We also do Charlotte.
35:23
Yeah. That's it.
35:23
That's that's. OK.
35:26
Any thoughts of expanding into other geographies or any
35:29
thoughts about adding more services?
35:32
Yeah. So we, so since I've been here,
35:34
we've added the behavioral, we've added the behavioral
35:37
services division. We didn't have that before.
35:40
So we added that. That is a growing, that is a
35:43
growing division. We are looking, my CEO wants to
35:47
buy additional homes to provide residential, residential care.
35:54
Our day program is, is really expanding.
35:58
When I got here, I think we only had like 50 or 60 individuals.
36:02
Now we're almost at 80. So we're growing that day
36:05
program. Our employment services is
36:07
growing. We're looking to get more
36:10
individuals employed in the community.
36:13
And our, and our VTC, our VTC is growing.
36:16
We, we, we do graduate, like I said, we graduate 300 students a
36:20
year. We would like to do more than
36:22
that. Our school, our school houses 60
36:25
students. We, we have trailers in the back
36:31
because we, we are growing. So we are looking.
36:33
Our CFO said it the other day. He's like, oh, I would love to
36:35
buy another building that to, to, to, to, to have an
36:39
additional, to have an additional school.
36:41
So I was like, Oh yeah, that would be great.
36:43
Where does the funding come from for something like that?
36:45
So from, you know, from, you know, from for the school,
36:49
that's just, you know, that would that would be us managing
36:52
our funds better. But those, those, those students
36:54
are paid for by, you know, Maryland Board of Education.
36:58
Gotcha. You mentioned wanting to buy
37:01
more homes. What goes on inside the homes?
37:04
So basically it's like, it's basically the way I would
37:08
describe it is it's community living, it's normalcy.
37:13
So they live, they live in those homes, the home, it's their
37:16
house. There's a lot of life skills
37:19
stuff that goes on. Some individuals cook their own
37:23
meals, do their own laundry, you know, take care of themselves,
37:26
go to work. They just live in our homes.
37:29
And other individuals need a little bit more hands on care.
37:32
But there's learning, there's life skills, learning that goes
37:34
on, you know, teach individual, teach individuals how to cook,
37:38
teach individuals how to do their own laundry.
37:41
There's a lot of community and community engagement that goes
37:44
on that I can get them out in the community.
37:46
Obviously we just had an Easter egg hunt.
37:48
You know, Easter was, you know, last Sunday we had an Easter egg
37:50
hunt. The guys, the guys and girls
37:52
created Easter at Easter baskets and, and actually donated them
37:57
out to, to the rest of the community, which I, which I
37:59
thought was great. But if I could, the way I would
38:02
describe it is, it is normalcy. Normal living is what goes on in
38:07
our group homes. You know, those individuals, it,
38:11
it, it, we know, we, we say it, it's their home, it's their
38:14
home. They live there, we are just
38:16
here to make sure you're OK. Where would the funding for
38:21
those additional homes come from?
38:22
Is this grants or donations? Yeah, to buy the homes would be
38:26
grants our I will say our CEO and CFO are really, really good
38:31
with numbers. So we do have you know some
38:34
money that we could possibly buy an additional home if meet here
38:38
or there if need be. That's something that we always
38:40
talk about. We talk about expansion.
38:43
My CEO told me the other day I would love to buy more homes.
38:46
And I was like, yeah, that would be great too.
38:50
Yeah, be able to help more people.
38:52
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know, slightly
38:55
different. I'm kind of curious to take some
38:59
of your maybe expertise and things that have helped you
39:02
along the way and and help other folks.
39:04
Is there a particular book, a tool, a podcast, something that
39:11
has been helpful to you in your development that our listeners
39:16
might get benefit from? You know what?
39:18
That's I know what I don't this is going to sound really bad.
39:24
I read, I mean, I'm a I'm a self help book reader.
39:28
I I read a lot of I read a lot of just a lot of self help
39:31
books. But what I will say is this,
39:35
what has helped me the most is I've always been able to find a
39:39
mentor somewhere where I work and they poured into me because
39:43
I feel like everywhere you go, things are different.
39:46
I've worked in like 4 states now.
39:50
I've worked in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and now
39:54
Maryland. And I feel like everywhere you
39:56
go, there are some differences. But for me, I've always found,
40:01
I've found people. To pour into me, like when I was
40:05
in Philadelphia, my CEO there, we, we took, he took a liking to
40:10
me. He poured into me.
40:11
We got, I got a lot of information from him.
40:13
When I was in New Jersey, my CEO poured into me a lot of
40:18
information from there, a lot of fiscal information.
40:20
And even here in my C-Suite role, my CEO is always giving me
40:27
information. Now it's, it's a little bit of
40:29
a, it's a little bit of a different information because,
40:31
you know, obviously she's ACEO and it's that, it's that really
40:34
high level of information. But I think for me, I've always
40:39
been, I've always been lucky enough to have someone who has,
40:44
you know, liked me or poured into me.
40:47
So I, I think that if I could say that, I mean, I think that's
40:50
the best thing. I mean, I, you know, I'm
40:53
currently in school now, so I'm, I'm getting information from
40:56
school and my team, my classmates and things.
40:58
But I don't think nothing beats that real life application that
41:03
I'm getting from from from mentors.
41:06
Any advice for folks who are like, how do I find a mentor,
41:09
how do I find somebody that I don't know is willing to help
41:12
that can help me? Is kind of a good fit for that.
41:15
Yeah, ask So what I'll, I'll get, I'll get, I'll give a
41:20
interesting example. I worked for, I worked for an
41:22
organization in Pennsylvania. It was a for profit and they
41:26
were really, really good. Their CFO was really good with
41:29
their numbers and I wanted to learn.
41:33
And so one day we were in a budget meeting.
41:35
He was doing his, doing his numbers thing, his budget thing.
41:39
And I, I, after the meeting, I asked him, I said, hey, can you,
41:43
would you mind walking me through the budget process?
41:47
He was like, he was like shocked because I guess most people
41:50
don't really want to do numbers and social services.
41:54
So he was like, absolutely, I'm going to put something on your
41:57
calendar. You and I can meet for lunch and
42:00
we'll go through the process. And we did.
42:04
And then it's funny because I was, I was able to take that
42:07
knowledge and when I worked at an organization in Philly, I was
42:10
actually able to help them grow their fiscal department.
42:13
And then, you know, along the way, you know, being able to
42:16
know the budget process helps. There's your CFO doesn't have to
42:19
really explain everything to you like, oh, this is this, you're
42:23
able to know. And I think that was, I think
42:25
that was one of the things, but I asked if you find something
42:28
that's something that's interesting to you in the
42:31
workplace and there's someone that you feel is good at it, ask
42:35
them. I don't, I don't see anything,
42:36
anything wrong with that. The only thing they can say is
42:38
no. And then if they say no, you
42:40
look at them kind of funny. Like we're in social services,
42:43
we help, we help people. You're supposed to help me too.
42:47
Well, and maybe for people that you know, are outside of social
42:50
services, you know, it could just be like, hey, if they say
42:53
no, you're in the same position that you were before where you
42:56
know, you don't, you're not getting that, that mentorship.
42:59
But what I I like about what you just mentioned there, Emmett, is
43:02
that there was some specificity to the request.
43:04
Like you didn't just go and say, Hey, can I be your shadow?
43:07
Will you mentor me? It's like, hey, you're really
43:11
good with the budget stuff. Obviously that's your umbrella.
43:14
I am fat. I don't know this stuff, but I
43:16
would love to learn more. Would you be willing to teach
43:19
me? And I, and I'm glad that you
43:22
brought it up and, and you, you kind of added that layer of
43:24
specificity because I think people would be surprised by how
43:28
often people say yes, even outside of the social services.
43:31
Exactly. No, you're right.
43:32
You're like, oh wow, Like you're, you're going to that
43:34
person, you're kind of recognizing them for their
43:36
expertise, which feels good. And, and most people who aren't,
43:41
you know, psychopaths, A narcissist, they enjoy helping
43:44
other people. They're like, wow, yeah, I'd be
43:47
happy to, to help you. So yeah, that's, that's really
43:50
good. I mean, I'd like to hear about a
43:54
serious challenge that you've gone through in your life,
43:58
professional, personal, maybe a combination of the two.
44:02
What did you learn? How did you get through it?
44:05
So I, I, I'll, I'll, I'll use, I'll use my sons because I think
44:09
it was it, it, it was, it's really, really challenging.
44:12
Like I said, I, you know, my first son was born, you know,
44:17
he, you know, he was talking then he kind of like shut down
44:21
and kind of didn't know what was going on, you know, took him to
44:27
get evaluated. The school was like, oh, we
44:30
haven't, we have a neurologist take him here.
44:32
They'll evaluate him. They kind of said it was
44:35
interesting. I remember it like it was
44:37
yesterday because they were so nonchalant about it, like, oh,
44:40
just take them here. It's not that big of a deal.
44:42
It was taken here. So when we we took them, you
44:46
know, you know, the, the neurologist, like, oh, can you
44:49
guys step out to the room? I'm going to run, just do some
44:53
tests or whatever. You know, he came back very
44:57
quick. He was like, oh, yeah, your son,
44:58
he has autism. And I was just kind of like, I
45:05
just kind of like, I didn't, I didn't really know what to do.
45:08
Like I was, I was. That's big news to have.
45:10
Yeah, like it like really hit me.
45:12
And then like I'm going to, I'm really, I'm really going to
45:14
share with you. Like I play basketball at a high
45:17
level. And I was like, Oh yeah, my
45:19
son's going to play. And, and I'm, I'm thinking, I'm
45:24
thinking like the worst are the worst, like he's not going to
45:27
get married, he's not going to have kids, he's not going to
45:31
have a normal life. He's going to end up in an
45:33
institution. Because even though I had my
45:36
sister who has a normal, who has, who's living a normal life,
45:42
for some strange reason for me, all that went out the window.
45:47
So I, I was just thinking the worst doom and gloom.
45:50
I blame myself. I cried for like I used to, I
45:54
would cry. And then of course his mom not
45:59
going to be like she was doom and gloom as well.
46:03
So it really, really, you know, it really affected me for like
46:08
it affected me for like a long time.
46:10
And then the neurons like, OK, well, you know, I'm going to do
46:15
let's I'm going to set you up with another, another day, bring
46:18
them back. And then I'll I'll give you some
46:20
resources and things you can do and then, you know, we can move
46:24
forward from there. So that I feel like, and, and it
46:28
was, and when I think about it, it was only like 2 days later.
46:32
Like I think like we went to see him on a Monday and then he was
46:34
like bring him back in on Wednesday or something like
46:36
that. But I felt like it was like the
46:38
longest day those days. And they just dragged on.
46:42
And I would, I would, I remember I was sitting with, I was
46:45
sitting with my son in the living room and I would just
46:48
hold him and I would just cry and, and it was just, it was
46:51
like really, really emotional for me.
46:54
And when we went back to the doctor's office and he he was
47:01
like, OK, so we're going to do this.
47:02
We're going to do this. We're going to do this, we're
47:04
going to do this. And I was like, well, you know,
47:07
what is, is it, you know, And he was like, he's like, listen,
47:10
listen. He goes, listen, your son's
47:13
going to be OK. You need to do all these things
47:17
and you need to do these things. And you do them quickly.
47:21
And then you're going to see an instant turn around.
47:24
He goes, you know, I'm telling you, I'll never forget.
47:28
And we did. We started doing those things.
47:30
We called the school. Of course we had to do, you
47:32
know, Ieps and all those other things for the school.
47:35
But it, it worked. It, it, it reaped, it reaped, it
47:41
reaped very quick, you know, dividends.
47:43
He started speaking again. He started doing things again.
47:46
He was, it was, it was really, it was like almost like a light
47:49
switch. And it really, I mean, his, his
47:55
success helped me because like it helped me to snap out of what
48:01
I was going through. And it was, you know, it wasn't,
48:04
it was really an emotional time. And you know, at that particular
48:07
point in time, like I, I mentioned to you before, I never
48:10
thought like maybe I should go get some counselling or maybe I
48:13
should talk to somebody because I probably was I, you know, I'm
48:16
not going to lie, I probably was depressed from that period.
48:19
I mean, I'm, I'm kind of, I'm kind of shortening the time span
48:22
obviously for this, for this conversation.
48:24
But I can probably honestly say I probably was depressed at a,
48:27
at a particular point in my life.
48:29
And I just didn't, you know, I never, you know, I never knew to
48:32
go get, go to counsel, go to counsel or go, I mean, go to a
48:36
therapist or talk to somebody or etcetera, etcetera.
48:38
So I just dealt with that. So yeah.
48:42
Sounds like the person who delivered the news on a Monday
48:47
probably could have used a little bit of coaching on
48:50
delivering that message rather than putting you through that 48
48:54
hours of strife and thinking, you know, the absolute worst.
48:58
Obviously, you know, even after you had that meeting on a
49:01
Wednesday like that, like there was still a lot of work in front
49:05
of you and it wasn't like, you know, everything.
49:07
But you saw that there was a plan and you saw that there was
49:09
hope and you heard from the specialist, He's going to be
49:13
fine. He's going to be OK, which is a
49:15
big thing that you really needed to hear.
49:18
I'm super curious, what were some of the the things that that
49:21
were prescribed that they said, Hey, you're going to see a
49:24
pretty quick turn around here. So they, they, they, they really
49:27
did. So the, the school district that
49:29
we lived in at the time, they had a really good early
49:32
intervention program. So instead of like regular, like
49:36
regular, like preschool or kindergarten or whatever, he
49:40
went to like this early intervention program.
49:43
He had a case manager, they worked with him, they developed
49:47
a plan. They, he had a plan for school,
49:50
He had a plan for at home. So like, like, like really was,
49:55
and I think that's, this is going to sound pretty funny.
49:58
I am a planned person. Like I plan things like, so I
50:02
think that, you know, that worked for me.
50:04
So, oh, these are things that we're going to do at home.
50:06
These are things you're going to do at school.
50:08
They're they're going to reinforce one another and it
50:11
really, it really worked. It really worked like we would
50:15
do money. We would not money, but we would
50:17
like do the alphabet at the time.
50:19
And you know, he, he would, we worked on his fine motor skills
50:23
with writing and things like that.
50:24
So it was really the plan really, really helped.
50:29
And it, you know, and I think the other thing that was good
50:32
about it was the, the, the neurologist that I know he was,
50:35
I know he was just, he was just a doctor in the bedside manner
50:39
sometimes is lacking. But I think that the case
50:42
manager at the school and the IEP coordinator at the school,
50:46
they were very, very like, very compassionate.
50:51
They were like, oh, don't worry, we're, he's in good hands.
50:55
Don't worry about it. You can come visit us anytime.
50:57
If you have any questions, you could call me.
50:59
You could do this, you could do that.
51:01
And it was interesting because his case manager at the time was
51:07
a young gentleman. And we end up later on working
51:10
together, like he end up leaving.
51:11
My son had graduated and went on to a different school.
51:14
And then he end up the case manager that I worked with that
51:17
worked with my son. We end up working together at
51:19
another, at another social service agency and down the
51:22
road. So he would always talk about my
51:24
son and like he would see my son, my son come to the office
51:26
and he was like, oh, I can't believe that's the same little
51:28
guy that I worked with now. I was like, no, he's, he's a
51:32
giant now. So yeah.
51:37
That's great. You know, and hearing this
51:38
story, which is very heartwarming by the way, Emmett,
51:41
it makes me want to hear maybe another story or two about some
51:46
of the folks that you guys have been able to help it.
51:48
NCIA. We did hear about the one woman
51:51
who, you know, nobody wanted to touch, you know, too, too
51:53
difficult of a case. Anybody else come to mind?
51:56
That would be a good example of, you know, kind of what you guys
51:59
do. Yeah, so we had a, we had a
52:01
gentleman here who who was in our, you know, he's, he's in
52:06
our, he's in our, he's in our residential program.
52:08
He's also in our, in our day program.
52:10
He had a one to one because he had really bad behaviors.
52:15
He would have behavioral outbursts at the day program.
52:21
He just, he would, you know, he was, he was a handful.
52:24
I'm going to say it. He was a handful to deal with.
52:27
But it was interesting because they asked him one time the,
52:30
the, you know, the, the, the thing that we talked about the
52:33
most, we asked them, what do you want to do?
52:36
He's like, oh, I want to have a job.
52:39
We're like, but you, you had a job.
52:41
You weren't, you weren't successful the job.
52:43
What's going to be different this time?
52:44
He's like, oh, if you give me a job, I will, I'll, you know,
52:49
I'll, I know I can do it this time.
52:51
So like, OK, so they worked with him.
52:54
Our, our job coaches worked with him.
52:58
He, he had his behavior improved.
53:00
He got, he didn't need a one to one anymore.
53:04
He got a job at Family Dollar and he can work, he works there
53:10
independently and he was recognized.
53:14
I don't, I don't, I don't want to mess the award up.
53:17
But he was recognized by he was recognized by the Baltimore
53:20
County Commission of Disability award.
53:23
He got the for outstanding employee and we had we had a
53:29
celebration at our day program. They came, they presented them
53:32
with the award. He was he was all dressed up.
53:34
He had a steep and tie on. I thought that that was probably
53:38
like the oh, and then also he now sits on one of our boards as
53:44
a individual representative. So I think that right there
53:48
shows, you know, the good work that we do.
53:49
Like he had a 1 to 1. He had a lot of behaviors.
53:54
He did not want to do anything productive.
53:58
He had gotten a job, he had got fired from the job.
54:01
But then they, we, they pulled him to the side, the team at the
54:03
day program and the employment services team, they pulled him
54:06
to the side and they asked him, what do you want to do?
54:09
And he was like, I want to work. And they're like, but you
54:12
haven't, you haven't been successful.
54:14
He goes, no, give me another opportunity and I will be
54:18
successful. And he was.
54:20
What was it about the second opportunity that you think sort?
54:23
Of clicked, I think, I think it was the team that worked with
54:26
him. We have a we have a young lady,
54:27
I can say her name, Michelle. She's fantastic.
54:32
She is, she's you know, she's a realist.
54:35
She tells him, hey, you know, if you don't do this, you're not,
54:38
you know, I think we we another thing that we do the natural
54:41
consequences of things like if you don't do this, you won't go
54:45
to work. If you don't do that, you're not
54:47
going to get a job. So you know, it's like, you
54:49
know, it's like, think up, think about it, think about your.
54:51
She's kind of helping him connect the dots on.
54:53
Exactly the consequences and, and I think that was, that was
54:57
awesome. And I one of the things that I,
54:59
one of the things I really, I enjoyed seeing him get the
55:02
award. But what I enjoy the most is
55:05
when he comes to our our corporate office and he'll say
55:08
to me, hey, Mr. Emmett, are we having our board meeting this
55:11
month? Absolutely.
55:12
We sure are. He's like, OK, I can't wait to
55:14
be there. And I think that is great.
55:17
Like you went from went from someone who couldn't hold a job,
55:20
who had a one to one for behaviors.
55:22
Now he this gentleman sits on our one of our boards as as as
55:26
an individual representative. I think that's great.
55:29
That's touching. I mean, if you and I reconnected
55:33
in a year and you're celebrating something, what would you hope
55:36
that is? I would hope that we were
55:40
celebrating that we've expanded that we've expanded more into
55:43
Maryland, some other areas or possibly maybe we expanded it
55:47
in, in, in North Carolina like maybe we're doing, maybe we're
55:51
doing our, our, our, our IDD work in North Carolina.
55:56
I think that I think that would be, I think that would be great
55:58
if we connected a year and you're like, what do you guys
56:00
do? Or we did all these wonderful
56:02
things. I think that would be, that
56:04
would be great for me because when I came here, like I said, I
56:08
came from an organization that was in nine States and they
56:10
were, they grew and I and that's one of the things that I really
56:13
talk about a lot is, is trying to expand the programming here.
56:16
Yeah, and be able to help as many people as you can.
56:18
Right. Absolutely.
56:19
Absolutely. How about some daily practices
56:22
or habits, Emmet, that help get you started, keep you on track,
56:25
keep you centered? Yeah, so every morning I wake
56:29
up, I go to the gym, I work out, I go to the gym, I run on the
56:33
treadmill, lift weights, I sit in the sauna, I come home and I
56:37
have two dogs. I walk my dogs, I give them, you
56:40
know, walk. And then I kind of, I, I, I say
56:44
the, I, I have like these four things I tell myself every day
56:49
before I, you know, usually while I'm walking, walking my
56:52
dogs. And then I, you know, obviously
56:55
take care of them, get in the shower and then I like, I start
57:00
my day. But yeah, that's kind of like,
57:01
that's kind of like my process. Every, it's, it's every day
57:05
except for, except for Sunday. So that's kind of my process.
57:08
I wake up, I go to the gym, I take, I come home, I take care
57:12
of the dogs. I do my daily affirmations and
57:17
then I start my day and I, I do it.
57:20
It's funny because I, I always had the, I always had the, you
57:24
know, the gym part and the dogs part.
57:26
But then I introduced the daily affirmations because I just felt
57:29
like I, I, you know, one of the things that I and I, I've kind
57:34
of changed my, in my, changed myself is that I really want to
57:37
be, I really want to be a positive person.
57:40
And I think at NCIA here, I think, like I said, when I came
57:44
here, you know, our CEO was like, Oh no, we help everyone.
57:48
And I'm like. Hey, we help everyone.
57:51
And I think like moving, like taking that mindset in, I think
57:57
it's helped. It helps helps me at work and it
58:00
helps me in my, in my personal life.
58:01
I, I really want to be, you know, a positive person.
58:05
I want to, I want to spread positivity in the community and
58:08
I want to be positive. Like, you know, I got that award
58:10
for the positive things I was doing in the community in
58:13
Philadelphia, and I want to continue to do that in my
58:16
career. Are you comfortable sharing what
58:19
those 4 affirmations are or is that too personal?
58:21
No, I can't. I can't.
58:23
I can't. I can't give you all of those.
58:25
Not not all the secrets. OK, I.
58:27
Can't. I can't.
58:28
I can't give you those. I mean, I would if I could.
58:30
I can't give. You that that's fair.
58:32
That's totally fair. I had to ask, but I respect.
58:35
I respect that. Emmett, what's one thing that
58:38
you wish more people knew about your industry?
58:44
That there are that there are more individuals that need
58:49
service than what people think. And the other part of it is, is
58:55
that I think that more people need to know that they are
59:00
entitled. Those individuals that we serve
59:02
are entitled to the same quality of life as you and I.
59:10
I'll tell a quick story is that we were, we were out in the
59:13
community and one of we were, I forgot where we were at, but
59:19
someone was like, oh, that's a group home there.
59:22
And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
59:23
And they were like, oh, they shouldn't be allowed to, they
59:25
shouldn't be allowed to live there.
59:27
And I was like, no, I was like, I was like, Sir, that's that's
59:32
not what we, that's not what we believe.
59:34
I said they, they deserve the same quality of life as you.
59:38
And I think, you know, we've got to respect that.
59:41
He was like, oh, well, you know, he was an older gentleman.
59:44
I'm not trying to, you know, be ageist or anything like that,
59:46
but when he said that to me, normally I would have just been
59:49
like, I just would have ignored it, but I was like, no that.
59:52
One struck a nerve. Yeah, I was like, absolutely
59:54
not. They deserve the same quality of
59:57
life as as, as you do, as you and I.
1:00:01
One of the things I learned, it's funny because it was it was
1:00:05
it was eye opening to me. I think I mentioned to you when
1:00:07
I went to, I work for the organization Eden, the founder,
1:00:11
Doctor David Holmes, he would be like if you go on vacation.
1:00:14
They should go on vacation. If you go to the movies, they
1:00:17
should be going to the movies. If you go swimming, they should
1:00:20
go swimming. Anything you do, they should do.
1:00:23
And he used to hammer that home. And you did not believe that you
1:00:27
didn't work there. And I and what's for me, that's
1:00:30
something that I carried along with me.
1:00:32
And then even for my own sons, I was like, oh, yeah, no, because
1:00:36
I, I remember I used to where my own son, like he had a schedule,
1:00:41
right? Because sometimes autism,
1:00:42
they're very regimented. I used to change my son's
1:00:45
schedule up so that when things were different, he wouldn't
1:00:50
like, be off kilter. He would just be like, oh, OK, I
1:00:53
guess I got to roll with this. Everything in life isn't planned
1:00:56
out. So we did start to do some other
1:00:59
things when I learned, as I went on in my career and learned some
1:01:02
certain things without my son, Like he's like, oh, yeah, we're
1:01:05
doing that. OK, cool you.
1:01:08
Helped you helped him be conditioned to the
1:01:10
unpredictability of natural life.
1:01:12
He was like, oh, you said we're going to play basketball.
1:01:14
Yeah, but we're going to do this now.
1:01:15
Oh, OK. Yeah, no problem.
1:01:16
All right, Let's get in the car, man.
1:01:19
I like it. And then I've just got one more
1:01:21
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
1:01:23
do 2 things. First of all, I want to invite
1:01:26
all the listeners to go ahead and hit the follow button on
1:01:28
your favorite podcast app. You want to continue to get more
1:01:31
great interviews like we've had today with Emmett Highball at
1:01:34
NCIA. Emmett, I also want to let
1:01:37
people know the best way to either get in touch with you or
1:01:41
NCIA or follow your story or that of the organization.
1:01:44
What would that be? So to follow NCIA, it's, you
1:01:49
know, NCINCIA, net.org, you can go on there.
1:01:55
We're we're all on there. I'm on there, my CE OS on there.
1:02:00
If you wanted to get in contact with us, you can just drop a
1:02:03
message. I'll I'll get it.
1:02:05
Or if you want to e-mail me directlyitsemmettemmett.highballhighbaugh@ncianet.org.
1:02:15
I'm also on LinkedIn. I don't know.
1:02:18
We'll include links to everything.
1:02:20
In the showroom, No problem. I appreciate that.
1:02:22
Yeah, mine. Take care of that.
1:02:24
Yeah, my career is on on LinkedIn.
1:02:26
But yeah, that's how if you want to get in contact with us,
1:02:29
that's the kind of the best way to do it.
1:02:32
Last question for you, Emma. As you look to the future over
1:02:35
the next, call it two to three years, what exciting changes do
1:02:38
you see coming to your industry? Well, what I would like to see
1:02:42
is more community partnerships. I would like to, I would like
1:02:46
for us and any other organization like like NCIA to
1:02:50
partner more with community, more community, more community
1:02:54
providers, more, more industry. I would like to see more, more
1:03:00
jobs for our individuals. I would like to see, you know, I
1:03:04
would just like to see more community partnerships.
1:03:06
If, if I could really say that like, you know, like industry,
1:03:10
like like we, like I mentioned before, like Family Dollar gave
1:03:13
our individual a job. I would like to see more
1:03:17
opportunity like that for our, for our individuals more, more
1:03:20
organizations getting involved in this area.
1:03:23
You know, not just a quick donation and then you leave, but
1:03:26
no actually being involved like let's, let's, let's get a
1:03:29
partnership and let's grow that. I think that's something that
1:03:32
would really, really like to see to happen in the future because
1:03:36
I think it would bring more awareness to the work that we
1:03:39
are doing. Emmett Highball, I want to be
1:03:42
the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your
1:03:44
story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:03:47
Oh, thank you, Anthony. It was a pleasure and and I'm
1:03:50
really honored that you reached out to me.
1:03:52
Thank you. My pleasure, Emmett.
1:03:55
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:03:58
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:04:00
today.