We Tried to Quit Our Nonprofit

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, well, I'm going to find someone that will.

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[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't that I'm going to do it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to find someone out there that will.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And then I met Chris.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And he didn't take it off my lap.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't want to get it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she tried to pawn it off on me.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I was really mad at him.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, when he said new.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, hey friends, welcome to packed with purpose, a care packaging bound podcast, care package inbound is a company that exists to deliver hope to the foster care system.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And on today's episode, we're going to be talking about our origin stories.

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[SPEAKER_01]: How do we get started some of the early struggles, some of the triumphs, and what's the future look like?

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[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Chris, I'm joined with the one and only.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Jessica Selvi.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And we are just so excited to jump into today's episode, you know, just so many times, I'm like at the beginning of this conversation, I'm reminded of how many times we have tried to quit care package and bound like completely like give it up, we're done with this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's been quite the journey up to this point.

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[SPEAKER_03]: agree and it's crazy because and it sounds bad actually and we say that we've tried to quit but it sounds like we're like bad smokers yeah so we quit every morning we but actually like what that looks like is is we like individually were really feeling led to

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[SPEAKER_03]: doing what we do and we'll go into more what that looks like.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But at several points along the way, we would get burnt out or tired or something like that happen.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I did notice it the other day that in times where I was really burnt out, you were rejuvenated and you were able to like take on a lot of the heavy lifting.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And then when you had to step back Emily, who's our

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[SPEAKER_03]: really stepped in and then I stepped in and it was like this really good commutative effort.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And with that paired with, you know, our faith, I think it really was something.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But additionally, there was times that we're like, we just don't have enough money to do what we need to do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And we're just not going to do it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And then like a check would show up.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And we're like, well, we have to be responsible with this check.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So we'd continue on.

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[SPEAKER_03]: or we feel like we're not making impact and we're like we don't we don't know if what we're doing really helps because we don't work directly with the families and the children that we serve.

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[SPEAKER_03]: We just give them to social workers, police and support.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so because we don't actually give the bags over to the kids it's hard to see that direct impact.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And all of a sudden we would get these stories back that we're just groundbreaking and it just gets to the point that

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[SPEAKER_03]: you just start making bags and you start continuing on and faith and you start thinking like if this helps one person, if this helps one kid and now we've gotten to the point where we get stories back on a regular basis and it's helping more than kids, it's helping people that we're previously in foster care, it's helping so many different things and it's really exciting.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then hopefully that's really an encouragement, right as we kick things off is if you've got a passion and a vision to start something, just know that there are going to be seasons where it's really, really tough.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to talk a little bit about that today, but if you're truly called to something, you're passionate about something, don't give up.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And listen for those cues where it's drawing you in and keeps kind of the doors keep opening

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[SPEAKER_01]: All right, cool.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It looks like I'm just going to keep going.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And so I hope that today's episode not only is educational, but it's encouraging an inspirational and I think that that's a good place to start is is really what inspired us to and let us to this place of starting care package in front and what is care package in bound.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, what is it that we're actually doing?

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[SPEAKER_01]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_03]: What we're doing.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And that started for me when I was running my daycare.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And actually, it's actually really hard to put one origin point because I feel like I was getting called over and over and over again.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I'm really hard headed.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So it had to be reinforced so many different times.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I found out quickly when I met you how hard had it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: She's like, I really want to do this.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, great.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We can actually like make this happen.

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[SPEAKER_03]: That's like now.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I just kept reminding you, okay.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Is that hardheadedness?

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[SPEAKER_03]: I also insecurity comes from that.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So like, I think, and this is something that you face a lot and a lot of the people that

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[SPEAKER_03]: We'll walk alongside us on this journey is something that I found about myself and something that I think a lot more people will probably find about themselves if they start off on a journey of you know, following where they think they're being called.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Is the feeling of I'm not enough for that and I think that that continues on through your whole life.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But I actually found that is a good thing because it first started off as I'm not enough and like.

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[SPEAKER_03]: based on my schooling background, my spiritual background, all of these different things.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, obviously, I love God.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But I also have a junior high education.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I was homeschooled.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I've worked my whole life, but never like high up corporate or anything like that.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so whenever I looked at someone that

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[SPEAKER_03]: was doing a nonprofit or we're in the ministry or anything like that.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I saw these like spiritual mental corporate giants, you know, and I just measured myself up to these people that have been working on it for years and years, right?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, I am not enough.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And what really got me changed in my perspective of that is I did a deep dive of the people that were called in the Bible.

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[SPEAKER_03]: and who they were and what their positioning was.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I found that not all positions, not every single person in the Bible, but I'd say like 90% of the people that God likes to use in the Bible, were like your bottom of the barrel, like who we wouldn't pick, you know?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, oh man!

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[SPEAKER_03]: That's me.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Why is that me?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that a lot of times God will choose someone that their education might not be enough.

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[SPEAKER_03]: They might not be a giant in any way.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But if they're faithful, if they continue to turn to God every day and follow faithfully with what he's calling you to do, then it's him that gets that glory, not your education.

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[SPEAKER_03]: not you're upbringing, not how much money you have and it's really beautiful.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And what's really cool about that for me is I can now go I'm not enough and that's okay.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, because I was never actually meant to be enough.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's like this really cool spiritual like feeling, you know what I mean?

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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

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[SPEAKER_01]: It takes a lot of the weight off of your shoulders when you're able to just kind of lay something down like release it and just say, you know, hey, it's not just me, but you've got a support system where you've got a calling and I think that that's something I really want to dive into a little bit more and what does that actually look like for you?

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[SPEAKER_01]: But before we get there, we've talked a little bit about care packaging about we've used that phrase quite a bit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So I just want to explain for our audience just just really briefly and we're going to have

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're able to really dive into exactly what we do, the impact and the stories, but just briefly being our first episode, I want to make you aware of what we actually do.

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[SPEAKER_03]: We should probably tell you.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a little bit.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So we are a non-profit company organization that was started to create 48-hour emergency backpacks.

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[SPEAKER_01]: So what does that look like?

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[SPEAKER_01]: That looks like clothing and toilet trees and blankets and sometimes stuffed animals and coloring books and basically all of the essentials plus some comfort items.

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[SPEAKER_01]: for youth, so children, we're actually working on potentially infant backpacks all the way up to teens and every size that are entering or transitioning from home to home within the foster care system.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And this is something that other organizations definitely do, but we take a pretty unique and very researched approach to it.

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[SPEAKER_01]: We're not jumping into the in-depth on that today, but I wanted to at least establish a little bit of a background on what we're actually talking about and now I want to jump into like how do we get started with that what let us do that so you've kind of talked about some of the insecurities you've talked a little bit about feeling like under qualified but still called and you've answered that call and you've stepped into it now talk kind of through like what was that

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[SPEAKER_01]: early stages leading up to you and I'm meeting.

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[SPEAKER_01]: What were some of the things that were going on in the background that led you to even think through, let's create some backpacks to be able to give to those in the foster community.

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[SPEAKER_03]: My daughter, when she was born, my husband and I were both working full-time.

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[SPEAKER_03]: She was an unexpected baby.

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[SPEAKER_03]: We'd only been married for like four, not even four years yet.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so we weren't even ready financially to even start having a family, but haven't anyways.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so what do you do?

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[SPEAKER_03]: Couldn't afford trial care.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I decided to look into it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I'd been a nanny in the past.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I'd always really loved kids.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I started my own trial care.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I wanted a childcare that was affordable for people, but at the same time was really, really good quality.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, if I wouldn't let my kid go there, I'm not going to create that environment.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So we started off with like that.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I had that going for a couple of years.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And

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[SPEAKER_03]: I met a woman one time off chance at a grocery store and what happened is I had heard this baby screaming in the grocery store for a good amount of time actually and I had been doing childcare for long enough at this point that you kind of get this gauge on the different types of screams and I remember I was like okay it's not your business and I'm nosy I think that that should be established.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I am curious.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Curious.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Curious.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_03]: No.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I waited and I waited and this baby kept screaming and normally, like, with my baby, if they're really, really fussy and you're in a store, you just leave your stuff, you go back to the car, you look home, whatever it needs that you need to do, especially if it's been over 30 minutes, right?

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But after 30 minutes, this baby was still screaming high pitch and I'm like, I need to find out what's going on.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I had my grocery cart full of like daycare stuff and I end up finding a woman and her three kids sitting on the underwear aisle.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And they were on the floor.

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[SPEAKER_03]: The two older ones were desperately trying to console this baby.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Mom was trying to console this baby.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, OK, I'm going to be that person.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I walk up on my cake and I sit with you.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And there's like this shock thing that happens when you when you see a baby and your stranger, they go, who?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And that's kind of what happened and I ended up sitting with them and I found out that they were actually at a shelter and they weren't able to stay there all day long and it was a really really hot summer's day and so they didn't have any worlds to go and I just happened to have two openings in my daycare.

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[SPEAKER_03]: There was three kids but their oldest was actually old enough to go to school alongside my daughter.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so what we talked to the school, we got him signed up to go to school with my daughter, and she would drop off all three during the day, and then my daughter and the oldest would go to school, and then the two youngest would stay with me.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And in doing so, obviously she couldn't afford child care.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I was like, hey, I'll take care of them, but I need to do she will apply for state funding.

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[SPEAKER_03]: and what I didn't know with state funding is I was getting put on a very short list of child cares that will accept state funding and I also got inundated by children that were in shelters, children that were in foster care so on and so forth because I could, you know, and then it got to the point where I even had these stories getting inundated with these kids, you don't just get the kids 50 hours a week.

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[SPEAKER_03]: you also get the bio families, you get the bio families that still have their kids, you get the social workers, you get the foster parents, you get adoptive parents, you get this full perspective that I was really blessed with.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And something about being a day care worker that's unique is everybody talks to you.

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[SPEAKER_03]: It's like being a weird therapist.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I got a really crazy perspective too.

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[SPEAKER_03]: It was really enlightening for me, and we'll have to go into it more on a different episode, I think.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But one thing that happened is some of my kids would get dropped off.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I always had a spot open for drop-in care.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And they would get dropped off.

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[SPEAKER_03]: They'd just gotten there the night before, and it was whatever that foster parent could put together.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I ended up having parents drop off clothes that their kids had grown out of.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I created like a little mini closet and my basement, so I was able to give them a little bit more.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I was so forth, and it was like,

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[SPEAKER_03]: there needs to be an organization that creates like gobacks for these kids that have all of this in it because I keep hearing stories about how they were dropped off with nothing or how they the stuff they had had fleas or lights or roaches in it or holes or whatever it is or smelled very strongly of some whatever scent and that was unusable and I'm like so there's got to be something because it's super obvious right yeah there's a need.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I started researching it on Google.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I researched, I think, like, pages like 27.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I hadn't found anything that I was looking for, which was a bag intentionally packed with these items.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Right?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I got frustrated.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, just because I can't find it on Google, I just suck at Google.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so I ended up going.

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[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't even chat.

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[SPEAKER_01]: GPT was a thing at the time.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that would have been helpful.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Google was actually like, it wasn't new.

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[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, Google came out when I was like 12.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Let's be honest.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Anyways, but so I'm not, I'm just not that good at it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Give me a library, give me a library.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I decided I was just going to go to the sources.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So I went to the places that I figured,

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[SPEAKER_03]: would need these bags would use them.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So the place is that the social workers come from and I was like, hey, do you have these bags donated to you from an organization?

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[SPEAKER_03]: If so, please let me know.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going to go work for them.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I just like, I wasn't looking to reinvent a wheel.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't looking to do anything.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be part of it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I just wanted to be part of it.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And I saw this incredibly pointed need.

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[SPEAKER_03]: I talked to them and they were like, hey, no, we actually don't have anything like that.

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[SPEAKER_03]: The closest they ever got is if a school or a church decided that they saw that need.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And then they would say,

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[SPEAKER_03]: Hey you, I want Cindy or whatever, sorry if I call you out Cindy, Cindy, or something like that to go out and you're going to pack a bag for a seven year old little girl for her first night in a new placement, right?

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And Cindy's going to go out and she's going to go to Walmart and she's going to pack a freaking amazing bag and she's going to spend like $150 making this bag, right?

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[SPEAKER_03]: And it's going to be packed and then they're going to take it and they're going to drop it off at whatever organization they decided to and it's going to sit in a warehouse.

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[SPEAKER_03]: And so a social worker who's already overworked has enough time to completely take everything out of it, get rid of all of the things that they can't have for whatever reasons that they can't have it, either safety or when it comes to race or someone who's so forth and then they're going to put all of those other items that they are keeping in their separate bins and it's never used for that intended purpose.

15:27.455 --> 15:27.535
[UNKNOWN]: Yep.

15:27.515 --> 15:36.146
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, hey, why is that and they're like, well, we have to go through these bags because we can't trust that these people know what they're doing because like it's individuals.

15:36.407 --> 15:40.713
[SPEAKER_03]: And so like things that we they didn't accept are like monkeys because of racial problems.

15:40.853 --> 15:46.040
[SPEAKER_03]: Things that we don't put in our bags like we don't put leggings because a lot of our children have been.

15:46.200 --> 15:47.582
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, just two form fitting.

15:47.702 --> 15:47.802
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

15:47.782 --> 15:54.493
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we can't put things that could cause self harm or harm to others and these are all intentionally thought of.

15:54.994 --> 16:01.926
[SPEAKER_03]: So we had to create not just a backpack but a standardization of these backpack and then clearly label them with a removable label.

16:02.367 --> 16:02.447
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.

16:02.467 --> 16:08.878
[SPEAKER_03]: And all of these things, they seem so little and so small but are really intentional pieces to a greater puzzle.

16:08.858 --> 16:15.753
[SPEAKER_03]: So not only are kids getting intentionally packed backpacks at, but that make them feel complete and loved and cared for.

16:15.813 --> 16:23.310
[SPEAKER_03]: But our social workers are also getting bags that they can trust and our police and our hospital staff and so on and so forth.

16:23.430 --> 16:25.635
[SPEAKER_03]: They can trust that they don't have to go through every one.

16:25.615 --> 16:27.879
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's not just a one point.

16:27.919 --> 16:28.800
[SPEAKER_03]: This is where it helps.

16:28.820 --> 16:31.003
[SPEAKER_03]: It actually helps them so many different points down the road.

16:31.544 --> 16:31.644
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

16:31.664 --> 16:34.068
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're like, you're seen in need, right?

16:34.088 --> 16:35.470
[SPEAKER_01]: You're researching this need.

16:35.490 --> 16:43.803
[SPEAKER_01]: You're trying to figure out there's got to be a company that I can join and be part of and you're not trying to reinvent the wheel, but you're not finding it.

16:44.064 --> 16:45.686
[SPEAKER_01]: You're jumping ahead just a little bit.

16:45.826 --> 16:51.195
[SPEAKER_01]: But I remember coming through when I first met you and seeing these ziplock like a gallon.

16:51.255 --> 16:51.675
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.

16:51.715 --> 16:52.917
[SPEAKER_03]: That's ziplock.

16:52.937 --> 16:54.019
[SPEAKER_01]: And per garage.

16:53.999 --> 16:55.961
[SPEAKER_03]: Free, that was research phase one.

16:56.102 --> 16:56.502
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

16:56.963 --> 16:58.244
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a bunch of items in it.

16:58.284 --> 17:00.327
[SPEAKER_03]: It was not ever actually used either.

17:00.347 --> 17:03.891
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like me going through and going, okay, this is what I would pack for my kid.

17:04.372 --> 17:08.157
[SPEAKER_03]: But I was like, maybe I just wanted to go bags and I just grabbed some like ziplocks.

17:08.397 --> 17:20.172
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, to finish the other story though, I did ask the other places where we were gonna drop off to it was like, what if someone created all of this with so much intention that's clearly marked and so on and so forth and they're like, yeah, but nobody does that.

17:20.192 --> 17:21.053
[SPEAKER_01]: But nobody does that.

17:21.033 --> 17:23.477
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, well, I'm going to find someone that will.

17:23.918 --> 17:25.060
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't that I'm going to do it.

17:25.080 --> 17:26.703
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to find someone out there that will.

17:26.723 --> 17:28.567
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I met Chris.

17:29.268 --> 17:31.312
[SPEAKER_03]: And he didn't take it off my lap.

17:31.672 --> 17:32.594
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't want to get it.

17:32.614 --> 17:34.357
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she tried to pawn it off on me.

17:34.477 --> 17:35.419
[SPEAKER_03]: I was really mad at him.

17:35.499 --> 17:39.687
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, when he said new, but he said he was going to walk alongside.

17:39.727 --> 17:45.437
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're going to do this together, which we wouldn't have gotten where we are without the people that walked along us in this journey.

17:45.417 --> 17:50.865
[SPEAKER_01]: So you shared a lot of the passion, what led you to that, obviously.

17:50.905 --> 17:54.150
[SPEAKER_01]: So you had a passion for those in foster care.

17:54.570 --> 17:55.952
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw a need.

17:56.333 --> 18:03.423
[SPEAKER_01]: You were not fostering at that time and actually you weren't able to foster at that time because of the day care that you had.

18:03.503 --> 18:03.704
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

18:03.744 --> 18:06.007
[SPEAKER_03]: So in Kansas, there's something called a double license law.

18:06.027 --> 18:09.332
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can't become a foster parent while you own a day care out of your home.

18:09.312 --> 18:11.254
[SPEAKER_03]: Which at first I was like, oh, that's stupid.

18:11.314 --> 18:12.655
[SPEAKER_03]: But it actually has good reasons.

18:12.856 --> 18:15.518
[SPEAKER_03]: I was able to become a respite parent, though.

18:15.698 --> 18:16.019
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

18:16.039 --> 18:17.600
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I did that quite a bit.

18:17.740 --> 18:20.383
[SPEAKER_01]: And for those who might not be familiar, do you want to explain what that is?

18:20.423 --> 18:25.468
[SPEAKER_03]: So a respite parent is someone that can take on a child that's not permanent.

18:25.909 --> 18:28.331
[SPEAKER_03]: So like say that child already has a placement.

18:29.092 --> 18:32.255
[SPEAKER_03]: And like the family has to go out of state, but the child has to stay within state.

18:32.575 --> 18:39.302
[SPEAKER_03]: They would stay with a temporary placement when that other person's gone and then they go back to that original family or original foster family when they get back.

18:39.282 --> 18:42.867
[SPEAKER_03]: or for whatever reason, it's just a short holding period.

18:43.107 --> 18:46.652
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we're not long-term, we don't have court visits or anything like that.

18:46.773 --> 18:52.280
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just for usually for anywhere from like two days to a week, it's usually the longest you really have a kid for.

18:52.300 --> 18:58.489
[SPEAKER_03]: I was specifically a respite for the kids that I took care of during my day care.

18:58.469 --> 19:03.656
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I would have those kids, and I already knew them, I already knew there were teens, they already knew how to sleep at my house.

19:03.677 --> 19:04.638
[SPEAKER_03]: It was this whole thing.

19:05.139 --> 19:06.721
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I specifically did it for them.

19:06.881 --> 19:11.468
[SPEAKER_03]: But at the time, actually, when I was in the highlight of my respite time, was during COVID.

19:12.009 --> 19:16.275
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was really an interesting time period for any kind of social work.

19:16.555 --> 19:19.279
[SPEAKER_03]: Highly encourage you, actually, just kind of...

19:19.259 --> 19:20.080
[SPEAKER_03]: get off a little bit.

19:20.100 --> 19:24.384
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're looking for a place to start helping, respite care is beautiful.

19:25.065 --> 19:29.269
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's something that a lot of people can do that can't do like long-term placement.

19:30.070 --> 19:49.030
[SPEAKER_03]: And the way that I would do it, if I was going to do it again, is a foster family that I knew that I really loved, I would get on their list of respite people, and you would have to like work through the system, get on their list for that specific family,

19:49.010 --> 19:49.611
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

19:49.631 --> 19:51.874
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really fulfilling highly recommended.

19:52.115 --> 19:53.216
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah.

19:53.236 --> 19:58.564
[SPEAKER_03]: So that was one thing that we did, but I got my kids for 50 hours a week, you know, and you hear things.

19:58.704 --> 19:59.746
[SPEAKER_03]: Kids talk.

19:59.766 --> 20:00.107
[SPEAKER_01]: They do.

20:00.247 --> 20:00.547
[SPEAKER_01]: You know?

20:00.647 --> 20:01.008
[SPEAKER_01]: You share.

20:01.368 --> 20:11.203
[SPEAKER_03]: And something that is different now and something that I like you probably hear me say all the time is when I talk about the people that we serve, I say my kids.

20:11.470 --> 20:25.492
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm not talking about my two biological kids that I have at home, I love them to death, but I'm talking about my kids, which is all of the Kansas City foster care children, children that are in police protective custody because when I pack these bags, they're mine.

20:26.294 --> 20:26.374
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.

20:26.394 --> 20:27.235
[SPEAKER_03]: Every single one of them.

20:27.215 --> 20:32.140
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we do, we do pack each bag with purpose.

20:32.400 --> 20:38.406
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I think that that would make a pretty good podcast name somewhere, something should probably do that.

20:38.426 --> 20:40.648
[SPEAKER_03]: That is actually how we got this name.

20:40.768 --> 20:51.318
[SPEAKER_03]: Because we would go to these packing events and we'd be like, hey, instead of like, we'll go into packing events later, but basically we'll have people come and we'll instruct them on how to pack a bag and we'll have the items out there.

20:52.019 --> 20:56.783
[SPEAKER_03]: But when we're doing it, it's so easy for people to be like,

20:56.763 --> 20:58.825
[SPEAKER_03]: crank through it and we had to actually stop.

20:59.446 --> 21:03.590
[SPEAKER_03]: And so now whenever we start with any of our packing events we're like we need to just slow down.

21:04.110 --> 21:07.273
[SPEAKER_03]: We need you to understand that you are packing these bags with purpose.

21:08.094 --> 21:17.443
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's very much so this is an individual child and you are going to be if you do it well, the last person to touch these items before this child opens it up.

21:18.184 --> 21:22.568
[SPEAKER_03]: And so you're not just throwing

21:22.548 --> 21:28.073
[SPEAKER_03]: your intentions into this bag for the shop and I swear to you, they feel it.

21:28.333 --> 21:29.274
[SPEAKER_01]: They do, they do.

21:30.255 --> 21:30.956
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you for sharing.

21:30.976 --> 21:32.317
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that that's a lot.

21:32.337 --> 21:35.240
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.

21:35.300 --> 21:38.463
[SPEAKER_01]: So my background leading up to you and I meeting.

21:38.663 --> 21:45.930
[SPEAKER_01]: So my wife and I wanted to have kids, unfortunately, we experienced a lot of miscarriages, miscarriage after miscarriage.

21:45.950 --> 21:48.893
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they're kind of uncomfortable at this point.

21:48.873 --> 21:55.905
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we had a lot of medical professionals basically just say, look, I think you guys should just like give up.

21:56.166 --> 21:57.228
[SPEAKER_01]: Just kind of stop that.

21:57.628 --> 22:03.138
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would encourage you to look into adopting or foster care later on.

22:03.198 --> 22:08.468
[SPEAKER_01]: It became like maybe a surrogate, something like along those lines or a donor and it was tough.

22:09.029 --> 22:13.817
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, it also opened our eyes to the possibility of

22:13.797 --> 22:19.448
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can make a difference in another kid's life and just really be a blessing to them.

22:19.508 --> 22:32.413
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we seriously thought about it and still absolutely love the idea of being able to foster fast forward a little bit through the story as we were blessed with three boys.

22:32.393 --> 22:41.185
[SPEAKER_01]: So we ended up, we had a quite a few miscarriages before our first, we had quite a few miscarriages between our first and our second and then between our second and our third child.

22:41.285 --> 22:54.604
[SPEAKER_01]: There's kind of a history there, but once we had biological kids, one of the things that we felt that we needed to do is really focus on those children, to make sure that they were priority, to be able to

22:54.584 --> 23:16.025
[SPEAKER_01]: bring them up and inviting foster care into your home changes the dynamic completely and we had spoken to foster parents and biological kids and heard stories where they just kind of felt like they were the background and never really cared for because any foster child that came into the home needed all of the attention because they do need a lot of attention.

23:16.065 --> 23:16.305
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

23:16.285 --> 23:34.531
[SPEAKER_01]: And so our heart was like, man, we really want to explore that, but we also want our children to be at a place where they can partner with us in that and be part of that and actually speak to and encourage and uplift this child that's coming into our home.

23:34.812 --> 23:40.740
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we haven't taken that step yet, but that is something that we've definitely explored and will continue to explore and think about.

23:40.720 --> 23:51.170
[SPEAKER_01]: So our mind shift kind of changed a little bit to if we're not going to foster right now, but we have a heart for the community, can we still make an impact?

23:51.711 --> 23:53.632
[SPEAKER_01]: And the answer to that was 100% yes.

23:53.873 --> 23:59.578
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say that there's been challenges along the way in this organization being met with, well, wait a second.

23:59.858 --> 24:03.262
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're not a foster parent, like, why do you have a voice in this space?

24:03.282 --> 24:03.922
[SPEAKER_03]: Why do you care?

24:03.962 --> 24:08.787
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I feel like we get that a lot.

24:08.767 --> 24:15.715
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a very interesting perspective where we'll have people who, well, I can't become a foster parent, so I'm just, don't know what to do so I'm not going to do anything.

24:16.375 --> 24:18.778
[SPEAKER_03]: And that just brings in the community aspect.

24:18.838 --> 24:23.103
[SPEAKER_03]: So like in the idea of in community, there is a spot for everybody.

24:23.143 --> 24:27.328
[SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like we could honestly talk about that on a whole Nether episode.

24:27.448 --> 24:30.391
[SPEAKER_03]: But the thing is, is like, yeah, we can spend a whole lot of time on that.

24:30.831 --> 24:33.154
[SPEAKER_03]: But the thing is, is you,

24:33.134 --> 24:33.856
[SPEAKER_03]: have a place.

24:34.437 --> 24:34.898
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

24:34.918 --> 24:50.232
[SPEAKER_03]: And even if you are 97 years old and you can only sit down and crochet something or I don't know, write cards or something like that, you can find a place in the foster system loving a kid.

24:50.212 --> 24:53.075
[SPEAKER_03]: that just desperately need someone to listen.

24:53.315 --> 24:58.900
[SPEAKER_03]: You can find a place if you're an auntie, if you are a college kid, if you, it doesn't matter.

24:58.940 --> 25:03.024
[SPEAKER_03]: You do not have to be a foster parent to make a difference in the lives of these kids.

25:03.444 --> 25:04.946
[SPEAKER_03]: And the lives of the families that support them.

25:05.426 --> 25:12.753
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that that, like again, we can have, and we will have multiple, multiple episodes on the different ways that you can do that.

25:14.074 --> 25:16.877
[SPEAKER_03]: But just be encouraged that you can definitely do it.

25:16.857 --> 25:22.167
[SPEAKER_01]: You hear the phrase, it takes a village and I think that that, you know, to raise a child.

25:22.588 --> 25:36.115
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's something that's really important to remember is you can play a part and maybe not directly housing, but if you are curious and you are passionate, step into that.

25:36.095 --> 25:41.461
[SPEAKER_01]: I would encourage you, and that's not just even the foster care community, per se.

25:41.521 --> 26:00.062
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if I can take a moment to just encourage you and inspire you, if you have a passion for something, but maybe aren't able to jump into it in our example, like maybe not actively fostering, I would still encourage you press into that passion, like take some steps towards that.

26:00.443 --> 26:04.127
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that you have an ability to make an impact.

26:04.107 --> 26:06.730
[SPEAKER_01]: that maybe you're not giving enough credit to.

26:07.130 --> 26:11.415
[SPEAKER_01]: And so don't be afraid to start exploring and still jump into something.

26:12.176 --> 26:16.001
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's exactly the approach that we took is we can still do something.

26:16.321 --> 26:17.803
[SPEAKER_01]: So fast forwarding, right?

26:17.843 --> 26:24.410
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've got that and then we have this brand new baby and we're trying to find child care and we can't find child care.

26:24.871 --> 26:26.773
[SPEAKER_01]: And we find it, it's super tough.

26:26.753 --> 26:45.420
[SPEAKER_01]: and it is very expensive and actually that's the other part is being more accurate is we did find openings at places but it was way beyond our budget and so finally on a message board they're like hey have you ever heard of new else playhouse and we're like no you should talk about

26:45.400 --> 26:55.281
[SPEAKER_01]: to Jessica, about maybe a safe she has an opening and so my wife reached out and you're like, yeah, come over and see the place and instantly we felt like, yeah, I think this is the right spot.

26:55.421 --> 27:00.672
[SPEAKER_01]: And so eventually our newborn child came in and was staying with you.

27:00.712 --> 27:06.244
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you and I got a lot of FaceTime because I would usually be the one to drop off and pick up and work just, you know,

27:06.224 --> 27:08.448
[SPEAKER_03]: And his job did plus, let's be honest.

27:08.468 --> 27:11.214
[SPEAKER_03]: So Jacob, your youngest, I have to put this in.

27:11.695 --> 27:17.145
[SPEAKER_03]: The only six week old in my life that was, I've seen that smiles that much.

27:17.386 --> 27:18.247
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's never stopped.

27:18.328 --> 27:19.009
[SPEAKER_03]: Like how old is he now?

27:19.049 --> 27:19.871
[SPEAKER_00]: He's six.

27:20.091 --> 27:20.933
[SPEAKER_03]: He's six years old now.

27:21.193 --> 27:23.237
[SPEAKER_03]: And he came in six weeks old and he's like,

27:23.217 --> 27:26.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, oh, that's not her mom.

27:26.283 --> 27:27.165
[SPEAKER_01]: You're very gasped.

27:27.185 --> 27:30.611
[SPEAKER_03]: He was very, like, those facial expressions aren't normal.

27:30.651 --> 27:30.972
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

27:31.032 --> 27:32.615
[SPEAKER_03]: And he was just always happy.

27:32.695 --> 27:35.140
[SPEAKER_03]: He's, he's just a happiest kid.

27:35.160 --> 27:36.343
[SPEAKER_03]: He like straight up tackles me.

27:36.803 --> 27:38.427
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not allowed to call him baby anymore.

27:38.567 --> 27:38.807
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.

27:39.128 --> 27:40.691
[SPEAKER_03]: I, I, I will make that mistake.

27:40.711 --> 27:43.757
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll go to my baby and he goes, I'm not a baby.

27:45.914 --> 27:47.757
[SPEAKER_03]: So I adore him, but yeah.

27:47.777 --> 27:50.563
[SPEAKER_03]: So Jacob was a really good meeting point for us.

27:51.224 --> 27:53.989
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think after that, we started talking more.

27:54.009 --> 27:54.209
[SPEAKER_01]: We did.

27:54.450 --> 28:01.062
[SPEAKER_03]: And we started talking about our backgrounds and beliefs and like, calling and so on and so forth.

28:01.122 --> 28:04.228
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and just vision and then you, and then I had asked.

28:04.248 --> 28:05.931
[SPEAKER_01]: So bringing back in the Ziploc bags.

28:05.911 --> 28:08.394
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had walked through the garage and I'm like just you got it.

28:08.775 --> 28:32.205
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to understand like what are these lip lock bags that are packed with like random items like what is that about and you explained it like you just did and then I said, well, well, why aren't you like starting this then like why aren't you doing this and you're kind of like, well, you know somebody should do it and I was like, yeah, that somebody is you like, no somebody else no, and I was like, well,

28:32.354 --> 28:35.619
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got the ability to like build the website.

28:35.739 --> 28:38.483
[SPEAKER_01]: I can get you off the ground and running.

28:38.503 --> 28:42.469
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it just kind of organically turned into more of a partnership.

28:42.650 --> 28:46.355
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were just to both very passionate about launching this.

28:46.616 --> 28:53.186
[SPEAKER_01]: But it did take a lot of encouragement to get you to own it in a sense.

28:53.226 --> 28:54.388
[SPEAKER_01]: You've done an awesome job.

28:54.528 --> 28:59.155
[SPEAKER_03]: And the example is like, I actually technically got this idea in 2017.

28:59.135 --> 29:02.527
[SPEAKER_03]: And we didn't become a 501c3 until August of 2019.

29:02.547 --> 29:03.591
[SPEAKER_01]: 19.

29:03.671 --> 29:03.872
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

29:04.313 --> 29:08.588
[SPEAKER_03]: And then from 17, like to 18, I think, is when you were like,

29:08.872 --> 29:09.473
[SPEAKER_03]: get in there.

29:09.673 --> 29:14.001
[SPEAKER_03]: And then finally, um, that's when like we really took our research seriously.

29:14.241 --> 29:17.106
[SPEAKER_03]: So just to make this clear, the zip lock bags never went out.

29:18.067 --> 29:23.637
[SPEAKER_03]: I want, I want, I really want to emphasize that we use actual really good backpacks.

29:23.717 --> 29:24.839
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, that is a really good thing.

29:24.879 --> 29:29.306
[SPEAKER_03]: So everything that we put in our bags, including the bags themselves, are really high quality.

29:29.446 --> 29:31.930
[SPEAKER_03]: And like again, like we keep saying, we're going to go into it.

29:31.950 --> 29:33.433
[SPEAKER_03]: We just really don't want to get sidetracked.

29:33.473 --> 29:34.795
[SPEAKER_03]: And I get sidetracked really easily.

29:34.775 --> 29:37.060
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, Ziploc, thanks, never went out.

29:37.080 --> 29:37.581
[SPEAKER_01]: Never went out.

29:37.601 --> 29:38.603
[SPEAKER_03]: Please understand that.

29:38.744 --> 29:40.447
[SPEAKER_03]: They were first initial phase.

29:41.410 --> 29:43.815
[SPEAKER_01]: The research phase, and now we're into the backpacks.

29:43.855 --> 29:44.216
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

29:44.276 --> 29:44.516
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

29:44.797 --> 29:50.269
[SPEAKER_01]: So with the little bit of time that we have left, I want to kind of talk through some of the ebps and flows of just...

29:50.249 --> 29:55.739
[SPEAKER_01]: The launch, the startup, some of the struggles that we had to actually get this organization off of the ground.

29:55.879 --> 29:57.181
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk through some of the wins.

29:57.221 --> 30:06.638
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I just kind of want to hear and share with you guys like where are we planning to go like what's our vision and how can you partner with us and come alongside care package in bound.

30:06.618 --> 30:08.460
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many exciting things happening.

30:08.620 --> 30:10.182
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna try my best.

30:10.202 --> 30:11.463
[SPEAKER_01]: Just not, jump in ahead.

30:11.524 --> 30:13.105
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

30:13.125 --> 30:27.121
[SPEAKER_01]: So some of the struggles early beginning is when you find two very passionate people that want to be able to launch something and you see a need, especially in the foster community, there are so many needs.

30:27.221 --> 30:30.245
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what ends up happening is you see, okay, well, here's a need.

30:30.545 --> 30:31.926
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's another need, here's another need.

30:31.946 --> 30:36.051
[SPEAKER_01]: And then all of a sudden you have 15 different directions that you can take a company.

30:36.031 --> 30:45.641
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is really where we kind of started is we had like 15 different directions that we were running So we knew we wanted to create backpacks at the time.

30:45.882 --> 31:02.680
[SPEAKER_01]: We are front and center, but yeah, but we didn't know that they were going to be 48-hour emergency backpacks at the time So that's going to be one of the things that ended up changing, but then we also saw that there was Hey, there's a bunch of families that need a place to go for clothing.

31:02.660 --> 31:24.668
[SPEAKER_01]: And so let's start a clothing closet and then oh, well, we need some education like what does it mean to be an adult and so we kind of tried to launch a team program and then there is a aging out and that's actually a big issue and so how can we see a lot of growth in Kansas City because here's the thing we'll get into this we pulled back and I tell you what.

31:24.648 --> 31:27.191
[SPEAKER_03]: There are people out there, things are happening, guys.

31:27.651 --> 31:30.594
[SPEAKER_03]: There are people out there that are filling those gaps and it's still fun to see.

31:30.614 --> 31:33.678
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're not the only ones that are doing something like this.

31:33.778 --> 31:42.127
[SPEAKER_01]: But just knowing that there are so many needs, we kind of spiderwebbed out and tried to meet all of the needs right away.

31:42.287 --> 31:45.430
[SPEAKER_01]: And we had so much momentum and it was so exciting.

31:45.530 --> 31:49.454
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I remember being overwhelmed but excited all at the same time.

31:49.494 --> 31:50.516
[SPEAKER_03]: And super overwhelming.

31:50.596 --> 31:52.798
[SPEAKER_03]: But like, yeah.

31:52.778 --> 32:17.436
[SPEAKER_01]: There was something happening here, and so some of the challenges there were just how quickly we were growing and how many pots we had our fingers in or cookie jars or whatever you want to use there for an analogy, and we had to make the hard decision to kind of shut down certain avenues and know that if the opportunity came back up,

32:17.416 --> 32:21.303
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe we took some of those on, but let's shut them down.

32:21.864 --> 32:35.107
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's refocus reorganize actually because we had a great support system that ended up a lot of people ended up moving away or just feeling like it wasn't the right time to continue and so we got to have to reorganize.

32:35.367 --> 32:39.795
[SPEAKER_01]: We made the decision to focus in on one thing and do one thing really, really well.

32:39.775 --> 32:40.055
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

32:40.236 --> 32:45.683
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's really important because there's a lot of amazing organizations out there.

32:45.923 --> 32:51.150
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think the best thing that we definitely could have done at the time was to focus on what we do.

32:51.711 --> 33:01.664
[SPEAKER_03]: Because now when we take our bags to the hospitals that we take into or the social workers or the police or whatever it is, we hear back over and over again.

33:01.724 --> 33:04.568
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't have to change a thing because we know you do it well.

33:04.548 --> 33:06.471
[SPEAKER_01]: But that came through a lot of trial and error.

33:06.491 --> 33:13.962
[SPEAKER_03]: It came through so much trial and error and listening and feedback and talking to people and copious amounts of late night research.

33:14.083 --> 33:17.668
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's our thing is like we tell people like this is the one thing that we do.

33:18.469 --> 33:20.733
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's really what we should have been doing.

33:20.793 --> 33:24.258
[SPEAKER_03]: So it should have been like now we're finally getting to the point now.

33:24.318 --> 33:26.241
[SPEAKER_03]: We're like, okay, we do this really well.

33:26.301 --> 33:29.526
[SPEAKER_03]: We're expanding our bag line now to do more.

33:29.793 --> 33:31.556
[SPEAKER_03]: ages really, really well.

33:32.157 --> 33:34.460
[SPEAKER_03]: But we had to establish that trust.

33:34.500 --> 33:37.225
[SPEAKER_03]: We had to get that really good research done.

33:37.285 --> 33:38.106
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm really glad we did.

33:38.407 --> 33:38.807
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

33:38.907 --> 33:42.293
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that come, there's a lot of wins though.

33:43.014 --> 33:53.370
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's, man, I just love to share a couple stories to inspire just those that are listening here with some of the impact and give you a preview for

33:53.350 --> 34:11.680
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of where we're going with this and just I know that you you've been able to work a lot closer with a lot of the social workers My focus has been a lot on kind of the the back end stuff and so I just love to hear from you some of the stories of the impact that we've seen over the past

34:11.660 --> 34:26.057
[SPEAKER_01]: six almost seven-ish years of our existence and just some of the things like that have been written about or there's a newsletter recently written about an experience of a teen getting or backpack.

34:26.077 --> 34:31.784
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think it was even a teen teen teen teen year old, it's a new terminology, yeah.

34:31.864 --> 34:34.427
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was, I think it was anywhere from like

34:35.167 --> 34:36.169
[SPEAKER_03]: It's been too long.

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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

34:36.369 --> 34:37.090
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

34:37.110 --> 34:41.378
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyways, yes, probably a younger kid, but I can't guarantee it.

34:41.698 --> 34:41.798
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

34:42.480 --> 34:47.729
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, what happened is a social worker like this trial came in, again, they didn't have anything.

34:47.809 --> 34:50.053
[SPEAKER_03]: And so many people go, why didn't the foster parent give it to them?

34:50.153 --> 34:51.856
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't have a whole lot of time anyways.

34:52.337 --> 34:52.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.

34:52.457 --> 34:53.639
[SPEAKER_03]: So this trial comes in.

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[SPEAKER_03]: They're sitting in an office for who knows how long they have to sit in an office.

34:57.085 --> 35:00.010
[SPEAKER_03]: Social worker comes out and is like, here's a back.

34:59.990 --> 35:06.960
[SPEAKER_03]: And it has, you know, like, the bags we provide, are they also have like, notebook, sometimes so they can write fidget toys, stuff like that.

35:07.221 --> 35:11.106
[SPEAKER_03]: Things to keep them entertained in the office as well, because sometimes there's a bit of a waiting period.

35:11.247 --> 35:21.762
[SPEAKER_03]: They said that that child just took it and they went, this is for me, and they're like, yeah, and they're like, and I get to keep it, and they're like, yeah.

35:22.720 --> 35:26.828
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was the sense of ownership that the child got to have.

35:27.329 --> 35:34.983
[SPEAKER_03]: The sense of I have more than nothing now, which is a really big deal when you've had nothing before.

35:36.005 --> 35:37.628
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's just the latest story.

35:37.648 --> 35:42.737
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the very first story that we got back was about a little boy who was five.

35:43.460 --> 35:43.821
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

35:44.281 --> 35:54.157
[SPEAKER_03]: And he had gotten picked up from home, and we don't have too much, we can't share too much information about what happened, but it was very traumatic.

35:55.278 --> 36:01.107
[SPEAKER_03]: And I guess it was traumatic enough that he actually paid himself in the back of the transport vehicle.

36:02.129 --> 36:08.539
[SPEAKER_03]: And so when he came into the office, the transport officer came in and he's like, hey, do you have any pants?

36:08.519 --> 36:12.263
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're like, actually, yes, so they went to the back and they got one of our bags.

36:12.343 --> 36:13.685
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, again, size appropriate.

36:14.285 --> 36:18.130
[SPEAKER_03]: And they went up to this little boy in the hand of the pants and the underwear and they were like, okay, do you need help?

36:18.190 --> 36:20.412
[SPEAKER_03]: And these children are usually really, really independent.

36:20.472 --> 36:20.993
[SPEAKER_03]: He's like, nope.

36:21.734 --> 36:25.077
[SPEAKER_03]: And I guess when he came in, he was visibly just shaking.

36:26.579 --> 36:29.122
[SPEAKER_03]: And they gave this little boy his stuff.

36:29.162 --> 36:31.064
[SPEAKER_03]: He went into the back, changed his pants.

36:31.144 --> 36:31.945
[SPEAKER_03]: He came back out.

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[SPEAKER_03]: He wasn't shaking anymore.

36:35.080 --> 36:43.428
[SPEAKER_03]: He went over to the bag, pulled out the stuffed animal, pulled out the blanket, hugged the stuffed animal, wrapped the blanket around himself, went to a chair of falsely.

36:45.429 --> 36:51.895
[SPEAKER_03]: And it doesn't seem like people think that, like, oh, man, maybe that's not like this crazy big change.

36:52.576 --> 36:58.982
[SPEAKER_03]: But it went from a moment of scared and security to a moment of dry comfort.

37:00.583 --> 37:03.906
[SPEAKER_03]: And the idea of that little boy maybe sitting,

37:04.443 --> 37:10.891
[SPEAKER_03]: in a chair for six hours in wet pants, just to grades them so much.

37:11.352 --> 37:20.503
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what we're doing is more than just necessities, it's giving them back that sense of that they're valuable because they are.

37:20.523 --> 37:27.852
[SPEAKER_03]: And if there's one thing that I can emphasize this entire time is that every single one of these kids matter.

37:29.030 --> 37:36.164
[SPEAKER_03]: And the more you meet them, each individual one that you meet, you will see it, and they matter so much.

37:37.066 --> 37:40.372
[SPEAKER_03]: And their stories matter, and their individual perspectives matter.

37:41.134 --> 37:50.532
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's why it matters how carefully we do what we do and why it's important that we tell people about them, because they're not getting the attention they deserve.

37:53.347 --> 37:54.389
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, I get deep.

37:55.110 --> 37:59.157
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's, I mean, it's just such a beautiful heartbreaking story.

37:59.398 --> 38:03.725
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, it just goes to show, I mean, so many things.

38:03.765 --> 38:09.595
[SPEAKER_01]: One, there is a true need here that we're meeting.

38:09.936 --> 38:13.903
[SPEAKER_01]: Man, yeah, there's, there's a true impact that, um,

38:13.883 --> 38:23.738
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so cool to be a part of and heartbreaking at the same time and yeah, we don't know the stories of exactly what led to it, but here's what we know.

38:23.938 --> 38:29.947
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that a lot of times it's traumatic that kids are picked up from school.

38:30.167 --> 38:34.634
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times sometimes they don't have a chance to even go home and actually get belongings.

38:34.774 --> 38:37.418
[SPEAKER_01]: If they are at home, they're given a certain amount of time.

38:38.059 --> 38:43.587
[SPEAKER_01]: Pack whatever they can and sometimes, unfortunately, especially in the past, it was just into trash bag.

38:43.567 --> 38:51.555
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so they couldn't grab anything and so if they showed up with anything at all, it wasn't all of the essential items that they need.

38:52.175 --> 38:54.578
[SPEAKER_01]: And that first 48 hours is really important.

38:54.838 --> 39:00.803
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and sometimes those items, so they get, I can't tell you how many foster parents I've talked to that they actually have to leave those items outside.

39:01.364 --> 39:12.915
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I mean, if 80% of the kids that are going into the system are in one of the reasons that they're in, it's usually a pie chart of reasons is due to neglect.

39:12.895 --> 39:23.107
[SPEAKER_03]: they come with bugs or they come and like, and it's so hard because it's not like the boss doesn't care where it's just grab that and wash it because all of the sudden their smell goes away.

39:23.127 --> 39:24.669
[SPEAKER_03]: They're familiar already goes away.

39:25.049 --> 39:27.011
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that and itself is traumatizing.

39:27.071 --> 39:29.234
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like they're washing away their entire identity.

39:29.314 --> 39:37.063
[SPEAKER_03]: So instead of taking that away, they're able to keep it, but also give them something new and clean.

39:37.567 --> 39:41.532
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's, in itself, important in that aspect.

39:41.752 --> 39:42.333
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

39:42.353 --> 39:48.541
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and so even if these kids do get to get their things from home, again, they don't always know what they need.

39:48.841 --> 39:58.293
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the reality, it's a harsh reality, but it's an interesting experiment is if a social worker usually law enforcement to show up at a home.

39:58.313 --> 40:00.456
[SPEAKER_01]: So if this is pretty traumatic, right?

40:00.476 --> 40:06.223
[SPEAKER_01]: You have strangers in your home telling you you're leaving and I need you to go pack your stuff.

40:06.203 --> 40:11.071
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and that alone makes their brain just like fuzz out like you like they might just do for heaven's sake.

40:11.111 --> 40:18.824
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so not having that and just me saying, hey, to my kids, I was like, hey, you've got five minutes.

40:18.844 --> 40:26.136
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to go pack everything that you think you need for like a week and bring it back down to the living room.

40:26.116 --> 40:38.276
[SPEAKER_01]: and so they ran and they grabbed everything and I'm like timing it and they bring it back down and point young guest has his iPad and a blanket and I was like, you are set bro for a week like you're good to go.

40:38.456 --> 40:40.539
[SPEAKER_03]: Who needs new album?

40:40.560 --> 40:42.943
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need it's toothbrush or toothpaste or anything.

40:42.963 --> 40:47.010
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously it was entertaining at the moment and we can laugh about it but the

40:46.990 --> 41:02.554
[SPEAKER_01]: It did bring the perspective just full head on, man, if it is a traumatic experience and there are law enforcement and social worker both in my house saying you only have this amount of time to go pack.

41:02.835 --> 41:07.041
[SPEAKER_01]: My kids didn't have that and they only packed an iPad in a blanket.

41:07.021 --> 41:07.362
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

41:07.382 --> 41:16.877
[SPEAKER_01]: So now I'm showing up with nothing that I need or maybe just a comfort item and none of the toiletries, all of the other stuff that they're going to forget about.

41:17.538 --> 41:33.703
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it was quite interesting to be able to see like what happens in a non-traumatic environment and then to think through if this was traumatic, would they have even been able to pack that or would they have just froze and not grabbed anything and not really known what to grab and now they're just out the door.

41:33.683 --> 41:35.205
[SPEAKER_03]: And this affects more than just the child.

41:35.305 --> 41:37.388
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, it affects the child greatly.

41:37.889 --> 41:44.539
[SPEAKER_03]: But it also affects the social worker and the foster parent as well, because the social worker, I mean, they take on so many kids.

41:44.659 --> 41:46.822
[SPEAKER_03]: I can't tell you, there's been quite a few social workers.

41:46.842 --> 41:54.373
[SPEAKER_03]: They keep toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other items in the trunk of their car, because they know so many don't come with those items.

41:54.834 --> 42:01.243
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the foster parents, they get like 30 minutes before the kid gets dropped off, and they're like, hey, by the way, you're getting a five year old,

42:01.223 --> 42:03.829
[SPEAKER_03]: There's one time I heard a talk to a foster parent.

42:04.090 --> 42:12.229
[SPEAKER_03]: You've got a call and they're like, hey, can you take an eight-month-old and they're like, yeah, and they're like, okay, we'll call you back and then they just showed up at their door.

42:12.550 --> 42:13.833
[SPEAKER_03]: They actually never confirmed it.

42:14.415 --> 42:17.562
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, and like, no hate on the social worker either.

42:17.542 --> 42:30.145
[SPEAKER_03]: believe me they're swamped but the things like that happen and then instead of moments of let's just continue to like bond with this child and make them feel safe and so on and so forth it's a moment of panic and trying to get everything together.

42:30.266 --> 42:35.415
[SPEAKER_03]: So what we found and this is I think something are less when that we should talk about.

42:35.395 --> 42:54.260
[SPEAKER_03]: is that when we provide these items, not only are we creating a calmer environment for that child, in the sense of belonging and safety, but then the social worker is also calmer, the foster parent is calmer, and we've actually gotten information back saying that this is creating better long-term placement data, which is really cool.

42:54.460 --> 42:56.843
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's something that we actually didn't set out to change.

42:56.903 --> 42:57.804
[SPEAKER_03]: It just happened.

42:58.045 --> 42:58.365
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

42:58.345 --> 43:05.864
[SPEAKER_03]: I would really like to encourage people where this is our first episode, obviously, and we're planning on doing a lot more benches.

43:06.445 --> 43:07.387
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be so fun.

43:09.112 --> 43:14.565
[SPEAKER_03]: It was going to be some entertainment, but we're also going to talk about some really serious things that I think need to be talked about.

43:14.596 --> 43:17.762
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that's a good place to kind of pause here on our first one.

43:17.782 --> 43:20.006
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to thank you guys so much for joining us today.

43:20.066 --> 43:22.590
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that you are inspired.

43:22.791 --> 43:25.135
[SPEAKER_01]: If there's something that you want to go start.

43:25.876 --> 43:30.484
[SPEAKER_01]: Just know, hey, unqualified people started this and we're seeing an impact.

43:30.504 --> 43:32.588
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that you can do the same.

43:32.568 --> 43:34.130
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I want to encourage you in that.

43:34.431 --> 43:38.917
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, um, we've got a lot for the future and we're going to share more about that.

43:39.017 --> 43:44.204
[SPEAKER_01]: And so do not miss our next episode where we're going to break down what's in the backpack.

43:44.224 --> 43:45.706
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to share some statistics.

43:46.387 --> 43:51.935
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and we're just going to again, hopefully inspire you guys to go see change that you want to see in the world.

43:52.135 --> 43:55.099
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you guys next time.