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Transcript

CAR TALK with Brad Doenges and Mike Sorenson from Nehemiah House · One on One With a Professional

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yet morning, morning, morning, Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time now
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for Car talking with the Dungeons to you what a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Brad Dungeons is in the studio with us in Brad
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you brought brands.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Tom, Yes I do.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: I've got Michael from Neo Maya here, Michael Sorenson.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Thank you for coming. It's good to be here.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: You're being on the show today. It is August twenty
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: twenty six. It's not quite as hot as it was
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: for a few days and in weeks if I think,
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: it's kind of all blends together at this point. Got
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: a little bit of that Northwest flow though, and that's
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: that's always good this time of year.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: It's a sign that fall will eventually come.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: And got back to school time and and getting ready
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: for high school football before too long. And we're sponsoring
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: the high school softball team this year too, so i'd
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: be great.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: You've been doing that, Yeah, they should be good.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: I got to talk to a few of the team
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: members and came into the dealership and they were very compelling,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: so decided to help them out too. We've got to
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: head a national sales event going on now through the
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: end of August with our finished summer strong theme and
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: lots of great stuff going on at the dealership and
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Neemiah always if you guys me Amiah Community Development Corporation.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: It's a one of the organization that's been around for
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: a few years now in Barlowsville. But kind of I think,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I mean my impression was it operated under the radar
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: a little bit for a while, and.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it started back.
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: I mean Atlanta Parker has started to start back in
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: twenty ten working with They just saw some guys him
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: and a couple people from mister Know, some guys out
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: playing basketball, watching their kids, and they're wondering why these
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: guys working.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: So they got to know them and they got out,
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: they've been in jail, they couldn't find.
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: A job, so they started just helping some of these
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: men that they saw needed help figuring out how to
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: get back into regular life, you know, because they had
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: a criminal history.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: So that was, yeah, that was very much under the
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: radar thing.
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: And I found they needed housing, so that we created
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: housing and then kind of gradually added to the program
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: just knowing the needs of people were having the last
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: few years here, especially last three four years is when
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: we've ramped up quite a bit because our women and
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: Children's house that we have now opened, and then we've
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: added staff. I've been here about almost two years, two
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: years now working for an MLAs, so we've been expanding
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: what we do, the services we offer. I'm a licensed counselor,
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: so i do counseling needs and mental health stuff and
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: recovery needs.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: I'm sure that's important in that process. So when you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: trying to get your footing after there's some trauma in life,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: whether it's jail or addiction.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's most of our people are coming out of
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: a dit in jail.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Most of them they're going through.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: Court process or mental health court or drug court, something
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: like that a lot of times, and so we're helping
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: they come out of an addiction. They may go to rehab,
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: but then they come out they still don't have a job,
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: they don't have a place to live, they don't have
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: their driver's license. A lot of times they've lost all
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: ability to function in society. And so it's great that
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: they got some recovery tools for a couple of months maybe,
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: but they need to be able to know how to
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: function and they've still a lot of times. Yeah, I
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: had trauma from abusive relationships or various things like that
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: that they're still dealing with and they need practical help.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: How do I get my driver's license back somehow it's
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: supposed to get my birth certificate for this or that.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: I need to find funding.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: I need to find a job, and no one wants
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: to hire me because I had a felony. And so
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: we're kind of just getting into the mess of all
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: that stuff. We call it a holistic program because you
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: have to just address all those things. They all affect
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: their ability to just stay sober and be a contributing
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: member of society. And we're seeing and that happened. We
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: could see amazing stories of that. You know, it's it's messy,
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: complicated work sometimes, but we get to see people do
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: amazing things with their lives and stories that just blow
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: your mind sometimes to see people come from and we
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: talked about.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Some of them in the past, and yeah, I've met
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: a few of the people and it's it is a
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: great story and I know it.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: You guys do have wonderful stuff for our community. And
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: you have event going on this weekend, Yeah, big rummage
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: sale and disunity for the community to help support me
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and Mina and.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Pick up some stuff.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: The deals.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we've been you know, we've had a
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: business that does junk removal and cleaning out houses and
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: doing some of the stuff.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: So we've been doing that throughout the year.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: So we have some stuff that we've collected from those
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: jobs that was still really good quality stuff. And then
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: we've taken donations for this past month a lot of
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: people and we've been blown away sometime stuff that people
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: have donated as.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: It looks new.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: You know, we've got a bunch of furniture, we've got
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: exercise equipment, you know, and all that in addition to
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: smaller like you know, housewares and.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: All that well weird. I mean, I s I don't
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: know how.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: Many couches we have out there, you know. It's just
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: a lot of that kind of stuff too. So we've
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: had a huge list of that, and so Friday and
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: Saturday we're going to be, uh, we'll be out there
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: all day. Are it's outside the it's the old Immigrant Hotel.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: It's on seventy five, just north of Frank Phillips.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: You'll see the big Rummy Sales sign with that.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: Whole parking lot is going to be full of stuff,
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: and so we're selling. This is our one of our
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: two big fundraisers we do throughout the year to raise
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: funds for just our operations, all.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: The work it takes to help people recover. So we'll
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: be we'll be out there in the heat.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: We got all our people are going to be out
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: there and we'll be I'm having to meet people and
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: tell stories as well. I mean, we'd love to just
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: get to know people too who want to know about
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: what we do and get a deal. Yeah, because you
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: can get a deal on you know, some really nice
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: stuff that's out there, and anything you're doing, you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: is contributing to people who are trying to rebuild their lives,
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: So it's a good deal.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: How many people are you servicing right now?
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: We're about what is it? I think we've got ten.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: We usually average, we fluctuate, usually average about twelve. I
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: think we've got a couple open spots in the men's
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: house at the moment at a time, and usually they
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: stay with us for a while. I'd say we average
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: about twenty people a year, which is a small number
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: of people. We're working on more expansion, getting grants to
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: expand new buildings that can expand the number of people,
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: but we go deep with most of them stay six
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: months or more, usually.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Actually lived there.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they live in our house as we have a
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: men's house and a women and children's house, and so
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: those are busy right now and.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it takes a while for them to work through.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Some of our women are.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Trying to get children back and who have been in
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: their in foster care or DHS custody or something like that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: There now that they're recovered, they're trying to get custody
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: their kids back.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: Well, that takes a process, so it doesn't happen overnight.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: So a lot of people are staying with us for
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: quite a while while they're working some of those things out.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: And but we go deep, and what we've seen is
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: the work that we do.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: We've started doing some research on numbers this year.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: And the people that come through our program because we
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: go deep in all of those in details, they don't
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: go back right and so we have a really strong
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: track record of people staying sober, staying out of jail
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: once they've been through our program.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: We in the last three and.
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: A half years since we've really kept good records, we
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: found it was seventy three percent of our people stayed out.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: They've they've stayed out of jail, they haven't gone back
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: to drugs, they're still sober, they're working, they're in stable housing.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: And to me, when you're working with people coming out
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: of addiction, that is, that's that astounded me.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: To see that number.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: Because you've been a counselor, they've been a counselor for
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: twenty years.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: That is, that's when you're working in addictions.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: They'll say on average, it takes somebody seven times going
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: through rehab before they stay sober.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: That's that's the typical number.
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: And so yeah, there's it's a high failure rate kind
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: of industry in mental health.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: And so to be able to see once you get
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: in there and.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: Deal with all these other issues that are related to
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: their recovery, we're finding people are sticking it out and
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: so that that to me is an astounding thing. So
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: when we when we do that, it's it's a huge impact.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: It takes longer, it takes more detailed work with people individuals,
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: but when you do the work.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: It does, I mean it's comprehensive. It's not just addiction recovery.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: It's like you mentioned, it's all the little things for
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: the driver's license, you know, getting a job, how do
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I get prepared to even.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Walk in and apply for a job, or you know
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: what is the what you know?
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: That's just Yeah, we just did an eleven session class
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: that we just we did our first run of it,
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: of our work life thing that helps people learn how
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: to handle a job, because there we have a lot
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: of people that they have not had a job in many,
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: many years, or they've got big gaps on their resume.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: How do I explain to a potential employer that there's
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: this three year gap because I was in jail, right.
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: They need help figuring out how do I manage that?
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: How do I find a job that's going to pay
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: enough for a living wage? And so that's been one
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: of our new processes. And what we've seen is like
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: that that when you can address all those other things.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, somebody comes.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: Out of out of rehab and they've had you know,
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: sixty days and they got all these tools and they're
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: in great shape, but.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: If they don't have a place to live, they don't
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: have any.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: Money, so they don't have anything to eat, they don't
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: have a driver's license like they will.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: Very very quickly be back a way to get to work.
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah right, Yeah, Like, so they don't have a way
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: to get to work, and they may have court requirements
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: like their mental health court, which is a great program
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: that we have in Washington County mental Health Court and
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Drug Court. It diverts them so that if their issue
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: was drugs, they can divert from their crime and go
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: through mental health Court and get those taken off. But
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: then they're going to have to go to counseling things,
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: they're going to have to go pay to get drug
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: tested multiple times a week, they're going to have all
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: these things. Well, they don't have transportation, they don't have
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: any money. They're going to start skipping those things and
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: they're not going to get through it. And if they
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: don't have any place to stay any of that, they
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: go back to the people who can give them a
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: place to stay. Who's going to give me some need, right,
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: it's going to be probably bad people.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: From their path.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: So we found like giving them that kind of on
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: ramp into a new life makes a huge difference. And
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: they have a supportive community too, Like a lot of
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: them don't have supportive friends. They don't a lot of
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: them have zero contact with any family members, and so
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: they don't have any supportive family. Maybe the only ones
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: they have our addicts themselves or abusive, and so you know,
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: they don't they don't have anybody to help them walk
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: through this. Who's going to even just encourage me on
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: a day when this is taking way too long and
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: I how to set back and no one wants to
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: hire me, or I'm the courts, you know, doing something
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: with custody and my child, and I don't want to
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: know when they have these bad days, like it's easy
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: to just be like, why am I trying to do
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: this and give up. So having kind of a family
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: atmosphere they can come back to and people.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: To say no, stick it out. It takes a while,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: but it is better. You can get there.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: They can see the stories of people in our program
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: that have done it that can say, yes, it took
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: me a while too, it was hard, but look where
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: I'm at now, Look what I'm doing now, Look the
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: relationship I have with my kids and that kind of stuff.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: It takes a while, but it's it's so gratifying to
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: see to see what people are capable of once they
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: have some coaching, they have some support, they have counseling,
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: they have some of these things met and they do
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: amazing things.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Well, it is a great story.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: And you guys, you know, for sixteen years now, I've
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: been doing this and you know, it's a small group,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: but it's a big impact I think on their lives,
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: that of the people you've touched through.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: All these years. And Orlando is you know, this is
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: kind of his vision.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's a great story to itself.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: And I know, uh, you know, there's so many organizations
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: in Bartlesville and you know, all over that that focus
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: on this need. But it's it's great how everything is
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: has its own little niche in Bartlesville.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: It seems like we do a great job with that
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: putting that puzzle together so that so that there is
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: a place, uh, you know, if somebody needs something, there's
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: a place if they you know, they may not all
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: access it or you know, but but there is a
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: place for you to find that that first step and
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: then the help that helps you get through the next
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: part of the process. So you had the concern on
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: last week, we got next next week, We've got the
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: goape mission, empty bowls, lunching and they all each one,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you know, does their own little thing, a niche where
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: they provide support.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we utilize those organizations.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet you do.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: We have people often they'll go over to a cop
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: any because they don't have any money for lunch, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: that that's a big, you know, big blessing to.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: Them when they can go over there. Or you have
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: people that were in.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: The Lighthouse for a little while, because we don't really
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: do the emergency housing piece.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Somebody's just coming off the street.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: They usually have to have gone through rehab or done
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: something that we're kind of transitioning them differently, so so
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: you know, they may have been in the Lighthouse for
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: a period of time. We've got those, you know, we
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: have we end up utilizing the crisis center over a
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: grand you know, because we have somebody that needs some
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: kind of medication treatment, you know. So there are a
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: lot of those scenes. It becomes really great to have
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: some of those because we know we have our niche
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: and we we try to be very holistic in what
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: we do with people and get in the weeds. But
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: at the same time, we can't do everything, and we
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: have to know when hey, there's somebody else in town
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: that does as well.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I mean a lot of people listening may not you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: they don't need.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: This necessarily, but they may not really be aware how
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: many people there are out there that are in that situation.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's a large part of our community.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of people that people live every day
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: in poverty and who don't have enough to eat, or
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: they don't have the resources they need, and it's really
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: easy to slip into things like addiction and con and
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: repeat unemployment. They may have not had you know, support
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: growing up that have taught them what it takes to
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: have a job and what the responsibilities that come with
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: with being a parent, and you know, that's that's the
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: kind of stuff that you guys work to try to
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: teach people and help them through the process of getting
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: that footing right.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that generational poverty thing.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: I think that's a lot of the work we do
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: ends up because you find out once people are in
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: there and you get to know them, you find out
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: some of those gaps they didn't have any parents. You
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: knew people that grew up in a household where it
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: was nothing but abuse and drugs and addiction and all
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: kinds of stuff. And they're like, you know, family to
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: them was people exploiting you or abusing you or using
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: drugs and disappearing and you're raising yourself from nine years old.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: You know, we hear those kind of stories. And well, yeah,
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: of course they never learned anything about how to hold
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: a job. They've never seen that. It's born to them.
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: So we're teaching them things like that. And yeah, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: for people who look I think when you talk about
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: people who are below the poverty line, which I mean
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: puts you at like you can't afford to live somewhere.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: If you're below the poverty line here, it's like sixteen
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: thousand a year or something like that. There's about six
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: thousand people in Washington County that are below that poverty
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: line that those adults like, they may not all be
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: out on the street or in intent what people think
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: of as homeless, but there's a lot of those people
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: that are CouchSurfing somewhere. They won't get counted in terms
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: of being homeless because they have a roof that they're under,
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: but they're sleeping. And we have one lay in our
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: program that was sleeping in her grandma shed for a
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: period of time for a couple of years, right, and
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: it's like that's not we wouldn't consider that person fully,
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: Like they're not independent, they're not you know, hanging out,
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: but they wouldn't get counted because they were sleeping somewhere, right,
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: but they can't afford to take to pay for their
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: own place. They become very vulnerable in that case, like
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: you become very vulnerable for people that could exploit you.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: People there, you know whatever.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: And so they end up in these places of addiction
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: and all kinds of trauma in their history that that
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: so we're helping them work through all that stuff too.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: That's the counseling side. That's where I step into that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: In a way for you, because I mean, what what
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: drew you do that kind of work?
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: I mean, I've just I've always been interested. I've been
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: a people watching my whole life. I love I'm always
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: curious about people. I love the I love learning about
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: how their mind works and all that stuff. But I
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: and I started doing private practice counseling. I got my
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: master's and counseling from from a seminary from Dallas Theological
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Seminary because I love this interaction as spirituality, as a
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: as a Christian, and I interacted with mental health and
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: all that and really wanted to meet with people and
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: help them. So I did private practice on the East
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: Coast in Philadelphia area for several years and was running
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: a practice there, but then got called I God called
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: me back to Bartlesville and that was partly on stafford
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: the church. I worked for Grace Community Church for nine
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: and a half years, so I had a pastoral kind
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: of rule there helping adults with small groups and that
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: kind of stuff and community.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: But I've always had my end in helping.
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: Do counseling with people as well, because I just I
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: love the transformation of seeing somebody change and do something
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: new with their life.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: And that started with Nehemiah. Several years ago.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: While I was at Grace, I started doing relationship classes
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: with them because that's an interest in mine. And I
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: realized how many of them had abuse of relationship paths
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: or trauma and their relationships, and I was like, the
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: need they need a class to just learn how to
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: do relationships well. So I would come on Wednesday mornings
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: and do the relationship class with them and it was
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: fun and.
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: That so I just fell in love with people because they're.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: So doing that and then it became a full time job. Yeah,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: working there a bit just out of that calling. You know.
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: That's yeah, because people just love. I love the brokenness
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: of the people that we see. They come in a
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: really broken place in their life, broken in a good way,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: like they're ready and they're just open receptive. You know,
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: there's not there's no denial. You know, they come in
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: just like, look, my life is a mess right now.
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: Just help me know what to do?
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: Where do I go next? And there's something.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: Really refreshing about getting in there.
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: There's no no games. I mean there are some games.
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: But sure, you know, always with people, but there's a
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: lot of just it's a refreshing honesty and just brokenness
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: of saying, hey, I'm ready to work, tell me what
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: to do.
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: I'm ready to get my life on track.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: And you see stories like we if people go to
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: our website or they find it on our Facebook. We
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: have a story from Melissa that we that she's on
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: staff now, graduated our program a couple weeks ago, and
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: she shared her testimonial and we just made that live
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: a few weeks ago and it is, Man, it blows
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: her mind.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Because she judge memorials are really moving. I looked at
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen this one, but it's new.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: And she was homeless in Tulsa for a long time.
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: She grew up in all kinds of abuse and she
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: talked about this turning point in her life when someone
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: offered her a place to stay, and she said it
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: was this lady offered a place to say, she realized,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: this lady's offering me to stay in her tent under
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: a bridge, like this is where she was being offered.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: And she said it was kind. This lady was giving
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: whatever she had. She's like realizing, I feel like God
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: has more from me than this. And so that was
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: a choice for her to say, I'm going to go
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: to rehab. And she she actually just kind of showed
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: up on our doorstep like she's We didn't have her
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: schedule and she just showed up nowhere to go and
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: just asked, you know. We interviewed her on the spot
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: and decided to put her in. But she has changed dramatically.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: It's amazing.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: How does that work? How do people find me? Am Iya?
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Typically and get into the program.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Usually it's a referral. So usually if.
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: They're coming out of rehab, we have connections with different
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: places and people, or if they're coming out of jail,
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: a lot of those people know us at Mental Health.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Court and Drug Corp.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: When they're bringing to those places, so we have connection
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: with a lot of those places.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: So usually people are referring.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: From there and then they're contacting us saying, hey, I'm
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: looking for somewhere to go when I get out of
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: rehab or various things like that. So usually we do
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: and we'll do kind of a phone interview usually with
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: somebody first, just to make sure they fit kind of
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: what we're trying to do. There's some reason they don't work,
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: you know that we have a whole list of questions
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: to ask there, and then they come in. We'll schedule
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: them for an interview, and usually we put all our
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: participants in there because they're going to be living with them,
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: and so they all ask questions and we have them
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: sit around the table and we just get to know
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: them and do an interview and then we vote and
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: say all right, are we going to vote them in
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: or not? You know, So it's really partly our participants
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: feedback too, because they know and they're doing the work,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: and give them a lot of things to ask about
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: and they're really good.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: So you know, once we vote them in, then they
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: move in and we get to work.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: And you mentioned you've got dreams of expansion and growing
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: the program.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: What does that look like? What's next?
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we've got uh, you know, we're building our work
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: work training program right now.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: That's that's one of the expansions. But you know, we're
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: working on you.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Know, we've got a potential building we're working on grant
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: process for that would expand.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: It would just give more place.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: It would would give us four.
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: More kind of apartments and a three bedroom house associated
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: with this program. So that's we're in grant process trying
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: to get the grants to rebuild that renovate that building.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: That would add extra extra living space for our people.
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: And we're still working on the hotel that we're building
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: that we're doing our run and sale app. We own
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: that building and we've our first round of the big
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: grant we were hoping for. It's about a five million
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: dollar wow check to rebuild that place. It's going to
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: be that is going to be a huge project and
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: it will be a it's got one hundred units in
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: it of roofs, so that'll be a huge expansion. So
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: we missed out on one of our big grants. That
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: kind of set us back, so we're having to restart
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: some of that process.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: It takes that process, and I know it does take
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: these big funders and great you mentioned going for the grants,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: it takes BOK foundations and yeah, that's what you're assume.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: You're applying to big foundations. So yeah, many people may
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: know around in Bartlesville and around the whole region.
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, so that that's a little longer term. Some of
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: those takes several months or years. So we're still in
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: the processes, but eventually we will pull together those funds.
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: We've done that plenty of times before, so we're familiar
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: with the finding grants. It's just a lot of them
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: we apply one time of year.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: So yeah, no, I I was a fundraiser long ago
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: and spend some time raising money for the Nature Conservancy
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Chapter here in Oklahoma, and I've been there.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's a great great to work and do
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: something that's important, you think is important, and that's why
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: it's really wonderful and try to apply that and our business.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: As funny as that sounds to say, but you know,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: that finding that the spark, the thing that.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Drives people.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: And you know, that's one thing about Dungeons is we're
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: focused on the community. Our employees at teaching a lot,
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I mean when it's needed, the same stuff you're talking about.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: We see a lot of people that don't know what
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: their path is going to be, what career they're on,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: and we try to help connect them to growth and
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: opportunities and where that can lead them.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And we've got a.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Fifty four year employee and many twenty and third year
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: employees at the dealership that have you know, just invested
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: their lives there. And that was how my family got
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: in the business with their father had passed away and.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: My grandfather's father was a Methodist minister.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: In Blackwell, and they had moved my great grandmother moved
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: them to Tonkawall. She got a job at the library
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: and the boys went to work at the local Ford
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: dealership and they were teenagers and he helped them immensely
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: and getting getting their footing. They played on a basketball
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: team with him that he sponsored, and went on to college,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: came back at nineteen twenty nine.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: He helped them buy the dealership.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: And right at the beginning of the Depression, and then
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: he moved to Bartlesville in nineteen forty one and my
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: grandfather first thing he did was so on the first
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: was to sponsor the American Legion baseball team to you know,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: kind of remembering how he got started in the in
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: the Ford dealer business. And and you know, that's that's
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: a story I often tell on the show. But it's
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: it's so important to that to realize, you know, it
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: doesn't just it's not given to you you do. There's
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: opportunities and it's a step by step processes through life.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: And and that's what you guys help people find that path.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: And we all need support getting there. Like so there's
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: there's people that builds you up.
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: I know, you know, I grew up in a stable
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: family situation, and I've had so much help from from
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: my parents, you know, in in tough moments, you know
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: where they helped me, you know, work through something I
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: needed to work through. But a lot of our people
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: haven't had that. So they need somebody that's going to
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: show them how to deal with government agencies or you know,
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: if I was struggling when I had to buy my
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: first car and I was trying to understand how to buy,
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: how the loans work, and all that stuff.
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: I had parents who have done money.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: We try to keep it's implant, but it's still a
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: complex math. And yeah, you still have to be able
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: to make those payments and you don't want to over
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: commit on something like that. You've got to you got
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: to do it in a containable way.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: So learning how to do that, Like I have parents,
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: I could go to and say, Okay, help me figure
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: this out.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: You know, what do I When do.
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: I budget for a car and all that, But I'm
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: not old. People haven't had that. So when they get
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: to that point, we can help them make a budget
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: and figure out here's how you make those kind of decisions, right,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: here's how this process works.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: When they've never done it before, they don't.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: We pride ourselves on doing that inside the car business too,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: that's not great. We really focus on whether people are
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: in have credit situations and how to rebuild that or
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: start that.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: And you know that's a you slow down and.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: You help them understand how to connect the dots in
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: that process. And it can be obviously in today in
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: our society and need transportation into around here, you can't.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: It's hard to.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, I suppose you can live in a contained
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: area and walk and bike or whatever, but it's sure easier.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: And when it's one hundred and five outside and it
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: makes a world of different.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: You got to go to the grocery store and get
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: the kids from school and do all that.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: You know, it all works together.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: You guys, And you guys did it for one of
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: our people not long ago. You helped her, Proud of
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: that Shelby in our office, guid into her new car.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Shit.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: I was waiting for the wheels to fall off of
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: every three hundred thousand miles or something that it had
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: on it that she'd been driving around, and it was
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: it was duct taped together in places, and I was like,
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: it's time.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: You know, she had somebody out and.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: That's a great thing.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Back to the Rummy Shale, We just have a minute
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: left or so. You've got big sale that starts tomorrow.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Hours and location again and.
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it'll be nine to five tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: We'll be out there from nine to five.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: If you're buying stuff, we'll probably stay around till it's sold,
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: but we'll be out there all day. You'll see the
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: big sign it's on the old m Run Hotel, So
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: it's on seventy five just just north of Prank Phillips, north.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Of Frank Phillips. I'll see us and.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: Go out there, check it out, get some good stuff,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: help Me and Maya. You can meet Michael and to
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: talk to some of the participants.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Probably you'll be out there and it'll.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Be a great autell you to learn more about the
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Me and Maya organization.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Where can we find about new and used cark.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: Well, we'll be out as dungeus Toyota is nineteen eleven
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: southeast Washington Boulevard and right there on with the Toyota sign.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: You'll see us there or on the line at Dungeustoyota
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: dot com.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: All right, very good folks. You've been watching and listening
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: to our car talk program right here on K one,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the one you trust. Stay tuned. We've got news and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: weather coming up. We're gonna tell you how hot it's
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: gonna get. Yeah, it's going to be another one like that,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: all right here on K one, followed by our local
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: news and then the Brian Killmead Show. We're right now
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: approaching the hour of ten am.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to one on one with a professional,
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: a paid presentation at fourteen hundred K one