Place of Hope w/ Charles L. Bender III

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There are few things that make people successful.

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Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some

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time to get there.

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How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?

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Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.

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Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.

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Now here is Chris Meek.

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Hello.

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Welcome to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek.

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As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us.

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Next Steps Forward is committed to helping others achieve more than ever while experiencing

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greater personal empowerment and wellbeing.

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Our guest today is Charles Bender III.

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Charles is the founding CEO and a board member of Place of Hope, which is a Palm Beach Gardens,

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Florida, faith-based, and state-licensed family-style residential child-caring agency

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for abused and neglected children.

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Charles had many years of work with various housing, social, and human services organizations

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throughout Palm Beach County before launching Place of Hope in 1999.

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The majority of Charles' work has involved low-income individuals and families, homeless

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and substance-abusing populations, and at-risk dependent children and youth.

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Charles Bender, welcome to Next Steps Forward.

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Thanks so much.

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Thanks for having me.

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It's exciting.

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I appreciate your time and certainly appreciate the work that you're doing.

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So, Charles, let's start off.

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What inspired you to dedicate your career to helping vulnerable children and families?

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Well, you know, there was a longer story, but when I really, when I came to Place of

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Hope, well, I guess in college before Place of Hope, I really felt like I wanted to be

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in the, lack of a better term, the people-helping business.

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I wanted to do something with purpose.

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I wanted to do something to help people out, but I'm not really much of a social worker.

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I'm more of a social entrepreneur, and so I did a few things out there that were never

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great, and I really enjoyed it and learned a lot, learned what I didn't like as well.

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But when I had the opportunity to kind of co-launch Place of Hope, for me, that became

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really a spiritual calling for me.

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So it was a large church in the area of Christ Fellowship that actually had the idea and

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the launching, and then they selected me to be their lead guy on a committee for a lot

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of years to just kind of shape it, and then one day the board was formed, and they hired

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me, and here I am 25 years later.

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Be careful what you wish for, right?

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Right.

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We all benefit from mentors and role models.

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Tell us about the people who influenced your thinking or mentored you along the journey

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to helping others.

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I'd say, you know, so much of it goes back to my parents, and it has to do with the way

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I like to help people.

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Like I said, I'm not a great social worker.

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I'm probably not the most patient guy on the planet.

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I have a certain set of values that I go by, and I feel like, you know, there's ways to

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get ahead and certain principles to live by, and so my approach was oftentimes different

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than, you know, what's typically out there in the human services world, but I would say

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I think my parents had a lot to do with it.

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They were both small business entrepreneurs, and I just learned a lot about work ethic

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and launching things and sticking with it, working outside the nine to five, you know,

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all those kinds of things, and that's what it took to get this thing off the ground.

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Not just me.

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There were other great people as well, but yeah, I'd say, and there's been great mentors

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ever since, board members, donors who are involved, people who just help take it to

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the next level, a lot of them even to this day, so there's quite a few.

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You worked for many years with various organizations dedicated to helping others.

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What inspired you to start Place of Hope instead of continuing to do what you were doing?

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Yeah, I was working when the opportunity came to help the church, and it was volunteer-based,

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so I actually did that for a little over four years while it was just a planning cycle before

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the church spun us off separately as a non-profit.

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We bought land and then kind of envisioned where we were going, how we were going to

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do it, getting state licensure, raising money, all of it.

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So I would say, you know, it was the folks that really had the original vision that really

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encouraged me, and then just seeing how people, and I see this to this day, and it's actually

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one of my favorite things about what we do, and that is that people step up and go way

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beyond themselves to help in so many ways.

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It could be little kids with a lemonade stand, or it could be somebody who can pay to build

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a building.

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You know, it really doesn't matter.

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It's just that we see such greatness out of people, and it just completely keeps me pumped

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up for what we do.

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Well, you talked about, you know, volunteering for the church before you were spun off.

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Was there a specific moment or an experience that prompted you to say, I'm going to do

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this?

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So the board was formed, and they came to me and said, we want you to run this after

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these years.

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And I thought, you know what?

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I have a career going in something else.

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I thought I had a great opportunity, and I thought, yeah, I don't really want to do that

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because I ran homeless shelters before, and I've had some really crazy stories.

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And I thought, eh, 24-7 care of having people in your residential care is a lot.

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So I said, look, they're like, we need an answer out of you in a week, and I said, well,

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I can't give that to you in a week.

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I need to go home.

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I need to pray about it.

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I need to talk to my wife, and I just need to really think this through.

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And there was actually a day about 30 days later, and one of the board members called

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kind of impatient, like, hey, we need an answer.

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And I said, well, I'm just not there yet.

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And it was literally like a day later.

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My wife came to me, and we had both that day separately felt like God was telling us, go

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do it.

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So that's why I say, you know, the spiritual thing, and then the timing of that was just

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amazing.

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And to be honest with you, there's been some tough days, but man, I can't envision doing

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something else with my life all these years.

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Yeah.

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There's an old saying, do what you love and call it work.

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Exactly.

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No, it's true.

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That's fantastic.

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So let's take a step back, so we have a better understanding of your community and the people

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who live there.

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Now, I'm sure when some people hear Palm Beach Gardens, they largely Beach and the super

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rich people live in them.

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Describe Palm Beach Gardens and why there's even a need for housing, social and human

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services organizations.

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Well, interestingly, we're regional now.

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We have a campus in Boca Raton, so I'm sure you've heard the same things about Boca Raton.

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We have one in West Palm Beach directly off of the island of Palm Beach, and we have two

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in Palm Beach Gardens and now one in Martin County, one county north of here, which everything

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you just described is true about all those communities.

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There's so much wealth here.

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There is so much prosperity.

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There's so many people doing great things.

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It's getting more by the day down here, as you know.

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But we also have a huge divide in this community in terms of not that all socioeconomic things

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drive abuse of children because they don't, because we see stories coming out of every

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neighborhood you can imagine.

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But there is a tremendous amount of poverty here, and it's really hard to make it.

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And when you factor those things into lifestyle and stress and the other things, oftentimes

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these poor kids are in the way.

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And so I don't think people really realize, like you just described, what just a community

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just minutes from here or 30 miles west of here, what it looks like and how people are

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living and the things that are taking place to kids that should never take place.

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You launched Place of Hope in 1999.

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When did you have your very first vision of Place of Hope, and what did it take for you

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to get started?

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I can't take credit for that.

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That was Christ Fellowship Church.

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The pastor and his wife, they had come back from a trip to Romania.

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They were there during war-torn Romania when they had stopped US families from being able

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to adopt.

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They were warehousing these kids in these horrific hospital-type scenarios.

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These kids were not growing in their developmental steps, etc.

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But while they were there, they saw another group from the States in a much smaller home-like,

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faith-based, family-friendly environment where the kids really were a focus, and they felt

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that God put it on their hearts to come back to the States, figure out what the heck's

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going on down here, because it was bad at the time here.

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That piece, like you said, that was probably, that was 94, 5, 6, 7, 8.

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We hit the road saying, what are we going to do?

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How are we going to do it?

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We're going to do it with excellence, or we're just not going to do it at all.

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I remember them saying that to me.

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I caught the vision as a result of the vision they had, and then they needed a front guy

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to go do it.

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I built an amazing team since that day.

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My key people have been with me over 20 years.

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What did Place of Hope look like at the end of its first year?

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We had a couple of homes on one of, we now have five campus locations.

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We also do statewide programmings.

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We do a lot of different things.

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From the residential perspective, it was one 10-acre campus here in Palm Beach Gardens,

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a beautiful place, but we had to grow slow because we needed to learn what the heck we

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were doing, honestly.

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These are kids that come from the worst scenarios, by far.

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I always say in today's day and age, they wouldn't like this if I said it out loud to

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them, but it's the truth.

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The Department of Children and Families in any state does not want to remove kids.

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They will go out of their way to redefine things and what's an acceptable level of what

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takes place in these poor kids' lives.

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By the time we get them, it's a mess.

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It's really, really, really tough.

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We started seeing these kids heal up fast, really find a trajectory for their lives and

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find hope.

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By the way, it wasn't rocket science.

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It was really just a traditional, organic family model with all the kind of accoutrements

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that go with it, a nice place to live, chores, going places on weekends, playing after-school

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sports, all that stuff and having it in a family milieu.

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It just works fantastically.

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That's amazing.

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What were some of your biggest challenges early on in growing Place of Hope?

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It always comes down to finances, but in some ways, you look back and you're like, okay,

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maybe it's good that we did grow a little slower in some ways.

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I've had people that have left town and come back and been like, whoa, I can't believe

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how big this thing is now.

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That actually just happened this past weekend.

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The hardest really is finding the right people with the right mindset to really, really care

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for these kids.

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It's not just a charity scene scenario where people show up at an event and they give.

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That's fine, too.

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I get that because daily caring for these kids is not everybody's thing.

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Just to have a better understanding of what these kids, these human trafficking survivors

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that are in our care, to know why it just doesn't change like this overnight, getting

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the community to understand how tough it really is on these kids and how much trauma has affected

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their lives.

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That's still probably one of the hardest things to this day.

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What was it like going through COVID?

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That was tough.

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I still feel like there's little things that survive as a result of COVID.

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There's little things I see and I'm like, oh, I remember when that happened during COVID.

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We went through the 08 downturn because I've been here so long.

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That was a tough scenario.

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Even COVID was just crazy.

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It's like you didn't really know what was true or right.

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These kids, not everything we do, but the kids that are under 18 in our care, they're

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in state custody.

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You had the federal government and the state government setting down their edicts as to

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what's okay, what's not.

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Then you've got the school districts and then you've got just everybody else not knowing

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what was going on.

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It was a tough time for sure and then financially that was burdensome because everybody was

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scared.

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You're not going to give away a bunch of money if you don't know what's happening to your

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own finances.

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It was a slower time, but I really feel like we survived that God provided for us.

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I feel like we could weather just about anything when it comes to that.

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How do kids find their way to Places of Hope?

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The ones that are under 18 for the foster care side of what we do, they all come de

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facto through the state of Florida.

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The states involved locally through this judicial circuit with Department of Children and Families,

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the court system, lawyers, they'll remove for eminent danger, oftentimes with the police.

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Then what they'll do is the local agency that spearheads placement, they'll call us and

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they say, and typically they know because we report back.

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We have two open beds in this home or whatever.

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We have one.

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They just refer.

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They refer from other counties as well, not just from here.

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You said you have five campuses now?

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We do.

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How many kids do you house?

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Our residential capacity is about 180, so it's quite a bit from a 24-7 perspective,

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but we're also in a massive campaign right now to raise enough money over the next few

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years to actually build out our campuses.

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We always knew what we had, but we didn't actually have a concrete plan to get there

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and get done.

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We only build debt-free.

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We have no debt as an organization, so we have to keep that in mind when we're trying

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to do what we're doing.

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Now we have this plan, and it's absolutely amazing because we're going to have hundreds

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more beds by the time we're done because we have the land.

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Unlike most charities, we own land that's buildable and we're building.

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Perfect segue.

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You're under a big fundraising campaign right now.

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Where can people find you?

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Placehope.com, and it's called God's Children, Our Future.

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It's a comprehensive plan on the side of an annual fund because obviously we have to pay

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our bills every month.

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That's why we do events and so forth and people give.

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The next is to build out the physical campuses, debt-free, so there's opportunities.

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People want to do that in multiple locations.

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The third is to build an endowment for the future because we're all going to be gone

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one day and we're trying to build something super strong.

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This isn't just about us doing something nice for a little bit of time.

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We want this thing to last.

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My whole board is like that, all of our founders.

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I'm like that.

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My team's like that.

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We want to build an endowment too so that it's maybe a little bit of an easier sell

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one day when we all move out of the way to get somebody in here with the right mindset

256
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to run a very healthy organization, which is what we have.

257
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What were some of the pivotal moments that shaped Place of Hope's direction for growth?

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00:13:04,900 --> 00:13:09,020
Yeah, you know, it's interesting when we first opened and we had this one campus where I'm

259
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located now, the first one, there was a lot of fervor for let's just build it all now.

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Let's raise the money and do it.

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I had to temper the board even back then just with my experience in homeless shelters and

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so forth that this isn't something you grow fast.

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You have to really know what you're doing and then you take it to the next level and

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the next level.

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I think we've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, all of us, with the eye toward let's

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keep doing more but not like overnight.

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Let's just do it as we feel it's appropriate.

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We can find the great people because it's one thing to build housing.

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It's a whole nother to make sure we have the right staff because for the over 18ers, we

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don't just provide affordable housing.

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It's transitional affordable housing when we have a lot of rules and a lot of programmatic

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pieces that you have to be a part of in order to have that housing.

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We have to have people that are in their business and making sure that they're moving along.

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Place of Hope provides a range of services from intervention and maternity care for young

275
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single mothers to safety, recovery and restoration for human trafficking victims and survivors.

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Would you walk us through each of your various programs, how they came and how they've evolved

277
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over time?

278
00:14:16,340 --> 00:14:17,340
Yes.

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The enrichment and education side falls over everything that we do.

280
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I always call it the non-organic family good stuff.

281
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The families do that, but just making sure that we have the outside resources to show

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the kids what's possible in their lives.

283
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It could be job mentoring.

284
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It could be playing sports.

285
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We have the police that'll come in here and bring their dogs and their horses and show

286
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the kids that we'll bring in therapy animals.

287
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Whatever it is, that all falls under that.

288
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The affordable housing side really started transitional when we realized we had kids

289
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that were in foster care that were going to start aging out of foster care.

290
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What do you do?

291
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All the stats show these kids don't make it.

292
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They end up incarcerated.

293
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The females are pregnant right away, and it's just a big mess.

294
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Jails are full of kids that used to be in foster care, or close to the system at least.

295
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We just said, we've got to do it differently, and we have to have a place for them when

296
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they leave here.

297
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Again, with rules, it's the next level.

298
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It's a bridge.

299
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By the way, we have our sixth youth right now who is becoming a habitat for a humanity

300
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homeowner.

301
00:15:18,860 --> 00:15:23,060
That's the next layer after we've stabilized, maybe brought out of foster care, put them

302
00:15:23,740 --> 00:15:26,740
into transitional housing, and now all of a sudden they're owning a home.

303
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That's the ultimate.

304
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I love it.

305
00:15:28,740 --> 00:15:29,740
I want to do more and more of that.

306
00:15:29,740 --> 00:15:33,980
The human trafficking survivors, we've actually been doing that for over 20 years, taking

307
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care of them.

308
00:15:36,180 --> 00:15:40,380
Before people started talking about human trafficking and all the scourge that belongs

309
00:15:40,380 --> 00:15:46,140
to all that and what people do to people for control and money, we just didn't know what

310
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we were dealing with.

311
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We were dealing with abused children that had really horrible things done to them.

312
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Once the country and other people woke up to this is human trafficking, they just recodified

313
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everything.

314
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We've got stories from 20-something years ago of just really bad stories of young people,

315
00:16:01,900 --> 00:16:06,420
but now what we've done is we've actually put some wraparound services and very specific

316
00:16:06,420 --> 00:16:11,460
therapy and targeted case management for those survivors, stuff they need because they've

317
00:16:11,460 --> 00:16:15,060
seen so much trauma in their lives, and all of it.

318
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We have a maternity home for pregnant teenagers.

319
00:16:17,940 --> 00:16:22,220
We've seen 10 and 12-year-olds pregnant, rape victims, you name it, and they need a place

320
00:16:22,220 --> 00:16:23,220
to go.

321
00:16:23,220 --> 00:16:25,180
Most are in state custody.

322
00:16:25,180 --> 00:16:29,700
Some have just been referred to us over the years by families.

323
00:16:29,700 --> 00:16:33,580
What we've done over the years is we've really just responded to needs as they pop up.

324
00:16:33,580 --> 00:16:36,960
Being entrepreneurial, this is one of the things I love the most that my board is in

325
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:41,420
agreement with, and that is just because you do something today in any business doesn't

326
00:16:41,420 --> 00:16:43,260
mean you're going to be in it forever.

327
00:16:43,260 --> 00:16:45,300
Charities have a real problem with getting out of their own way.

328
00:16:45,300 --> 00:16:49,580
They don't look from the business perspective a lot, and so I'm always looking at our numbers.

329
00:16:49,580 --> 00:16:52,820
I'm always looking at what's going on, but I'm also looking at how effective is something

330
00:16:52,820 --> 00:16:55,020
because people in the community are giving me their money.

331
00:16:55,020 --> 00:17:01,380
Yeah, they trust me, but we have to keep transparent on are we having that big impact.

332
00:17:01,380 --> 00:17:03,900
Sometimes we'll close out of things and go in a different direction just based on the

333
00:17:03,900 --> 00:17:09,300
community's need, but thankfully we've been able to respond and just do more, not less.

334
00:17:09,300 --> 00:17:12,620
Human trafficking has been an issue that was never on my radar until I started doing this

335
00:17:12,620 --> 00:17:16,500
podcast, and so now it's one of the biggest things that I focus on.

336
00:17:16,500 --> 00:17:20,020
We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of a sting operation called March Sadness

337
00:17:20,020 --> 00:17:28,700
in South Florida where 33 people were arrested, and it was teachers, clergy, sports coaches,

338
00:17:28,700 --> 00:17:31,660
everyone who you trust your kid with.

339
00:17:31,660 --> 00:17:36,060
Can you share some of the biggest misconceptions the public has about human trafficking?

340
00:17:36,060 --> 00:17:40,980
For us, what I'd say that most people can't even imagine this is that most of the human

341
00:17:40,980 --> 00:17:45,300
trafficking that we see by definition is familial human trafficking.

342
00:17:45,300 --> 00:17:50,620
You got a mom who is down on her luck financially, might have drug addiction or whatever, has

343
00:17:50,620 --> 00:17:54,860
deadbeat boyfriend in the house, and basically he's paying some of the bills and having sex

344
00:17:54,860 --> 00:17:59,540
with the daughter, and she feels like things are taken care of.

345
00:17:59,540 --> 00:18:04,380
Well, that's disgusting, one, and two, it's highly illegal at the same time.

346
00:18:04,380 --> 00:18:05,380
We see a lot of that.

347
00:18:05,380 --> 00:18:09,780
Now, we do see, especially in the last couple of years, a lot of border-crossing situations.

348
00:18:10,180 --> 00:18:14,740
We have a lot of non-English-speaking kids that come in, but they end up in the actual

349
00:18:14,740 --> 00:18:16,940
system, so they end up in foster care.

350
00:18:16,940 --> 00:18:20,460
They might have come here with an adult or not, but they ended up in the system.

351
00:18:20,460 --> 00:18:25,940
We just see more that's on the family end than gang stuff.

352
00:18:25,940 --> 00:18:29,700
We have seen the gang stuff, and we've actually had some very high-profile placements here

353
00:18:29,700 --> 00:18:30,700
over the years.

354
00:18:30,700 --> 00:18:34,860
I've had DCF secretaries themselves call me and say, we need you to give us a shot here

355
00:18:34,860 --> 00:18:38,420
because this girl's been in 50 foster placements.

356
00:18:38,420 --> 00:18:39,420
Can you try it?

357
00:18:40,060 --> 00:18:42,060
We've had that as well.

358
00:18:42,060 --> 00:18:47,860
It's really a sad scenario when you see what people do to children, what they do to other

359
00:18:47,860 --> 00:18:50,020
adults too, by the way.

360
00:18:50,020 --> 00:18:53,740
When people have trauma in their lives, I always say, I doubt there's anybody that walks

361
00:18:53,740 --> 00:18:57,820
the streets as a prostitute who wants to be a prostitute.

362
00:18:57,820 --> 00:19:01,080
Something happened in their lives, and there's trauma involved.

363
00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:02,740
Imagine these kids who've had this trauma.

364
00:19:02,740 --> 00:19:04,420
Sometimes it's not even ever brought forward.

365
00:19:04,420 --> 00:19:05,420
Nobody even knows about it.

366
00:19:05,420 --> 00:19:07,340
We've had plenty of kids placed here.

367
00:19:07,340 --> 00:19:09,580
HT is not codified in their file.

368
00:19:09,580 --> 00:19:13,900
It's supposed to be if they know, a human trafficking victim or survivor.

369
00:19:13,900 --> 00:19:17,300
We get them in here, and then we find it out a year later, and it all comes out because

370
00:19:17,300 --> 00:19:18,300
they're stabilized.

371
00:19:18,300 --> 00:19:20,340
They feel safe, and they feel like they can open up.

372
00:19:20,340 --> 00:19:25,340
But it's very, very common, and we see mainly in the familial side.

373
00:19:25,340 --> 00:19:29,780
One thing I like to highlight to our viewers and listeners is that people typically say,

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00:19:29,780 --> 00:19:31,180
not in my neighborhood, not in my backyard.

375
00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:35,300
At the beginning of the show about the affluent communities that you're serving right now,

376
00:19:35,300 --> 00:19:38,540
I had a guest on about two, two and a half years ago.

377
00:19:38,540 --> 00:19:42,020
She was trafficked by her best friend's dad throughout West Palm Beach.

378
00:19:42,020 --> 00:19:44,380
So you talk about the familiar thing.

379
00:19:44,380 --> 00:19:48,420
Here's a 17, 18-year-old girl in high school who all the dads in the neighborhood in West

380
00:19:48,420 --> 00:19:53,540
Palm, and so it's disgusting, and that's why I appreciate folks like you and the work that

381
00:19:53,540 --> 00:19:57,300
you do, and that's why I stand on the top of the mountain and scream from my lungs.

382
00:19:57,300 --> 00:20:00,740
People need to open their eyes to this because you mentioned the border crossing.

383
00:20:00,740 --> 00:20:05,780
The cartels in Mexico and Latin America are sending them over, and that's it.

384
00:20:05,780 --> 00:20:08,780
We got missing kids all over this country, and we do end up with some of them in care

385
00:20:08,780 --> 00:20:12,300
because when they do surface, the state takes them in and so forth.

386
00:20:12,300 --> 00:20:16,820
Thankfully, Florida's kind of ahead of the curve on that kind of thing legislatively.

387
00:20:16,820 --> 00:20:20,160
Some Florida laws, which is a good thing, it kind of identifies them a little bit differently

388
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,060
and at least pulls them into the system.

389
00:20:22,060 --> 00:20:26,460
So we've gotten them where there's pimps involved, and then all of a sudden, because they're

390
00:20:26,460 --> 00:20:29,360
now legally in the system, the pimp disappears.

391
00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:30,460
So that's been good.

392
00:20:30,460 --> 00:20:34,780
But we've had families, gun runners and drug runners and all kinds of stuff, and then there's

393
00:20:34,780 --> 00:20:38,300
usually human trafficking tied to that as well.

394
00:20:38,300 --> 00:20:43,740
But unfortunately, we see the long-term effects, and it is not an easy scenario to get these

395
00:20:43,740 --> 00:20:47,460
kids toward healing, but it is possible.

396
00:20:47,460 --> 00:20:50,100
You work in so many challenging areas of human needs.

397
00:20:50,100 --> 00:20:54,420
Which one is the most challenging, or are they all from the category of most challenging?

398
00:20:54,420 --> 00:21:00,100
I mean, it's all challenging because you just don't really know who's coming into your residential

399
00:21:00,260 --> 00:21:01,260
life until they do, right?

400
00:21:01,260 --> 00:21:05,900
But I'm also a big believer that even if through an outreach program where we might just be

401
00:21:05,900 --> 00:21:11,300
providing someone with diapers and clothing, there's a part of me that really wants people

402
00:21:11,300 --> 00:21:18,620
to understand that you have to show some gratitude in life, and we're surrounded by people who

403
00:21:18,620 --> 00:21:20,660
just think they deserve everything.

404
00:21:20,660 --> 00:21:21,660
It's not true.

405
00:21:21,660 --> 00:21:23,300
Nobody should walk through life like that.

406
00:21:23,300 --> 00:21:26,860
I'm not trying to say that I know what they've walked through, but at the same time, we try

407
00:21:26,860 --> 00:21:30,260
to do a lot of teaching in our model that, hey, these are people that don't even know

408
00:21:30,260 --> 00:21:35,620
you that have given because they understand your plight, and they want to make life better

409
00:21:35,620 --> 00:21:36,620
for you.

410
00:21:36,620 --> 00:21:39,980
So I make that a part of it because I feel like otherwise, we're just handing stuff out.

411
00:21:39,980 --> 00:21:45,460
But yeah, it is, yeah, there's a lot to that, but.

412
00:21:45,460 --> 00:21:48,260
How do you measure the long-term success of your programs?

413
00:21:48,260 --> 00:21:53,780
Honestly, the number one thing, because I'm thankfully being mainly private funded, I've

414
00:21:53,780 --> 00:21:58,180
never felt like we had to get into all these consultants coming in and building this, that,

415
00:21:58,180 --> 00:21:59,180
and the other.

416
00:21:59,180 --> 00:22:03,140
And my thing is, we have a lot of kids who come back after they turn 18.

417
00:22:03,140 --> 00:22:04,140
They might move away.

418
00:22:04,140 --> 00:22:05,140
They might move into our housing.

419
00:22:05,140 --> 00:22:06,140
They might go somewhere else.

420
00:22:06,140 --> 00:22:07,140
They might get married.

421
00:22:07,140 --> 00:22:08,140
They might have their own children.

422
00:22:08,140 --> 00:22:09,140
They come back.

423
00:22:09,140 --> 00:22:10,140
So a lot of them will tell their story.

424
00:22:10,140 --> 00:22:11,140
They'll speak at our events.

425
00:22:11,140 --> 00:22:13,420
You can't make people do that.

426
00:22:13,420 --> 00:22:16,100
That's because they want to do that, and they really feel like they've been impacted.

427
00:22:16,100 --> 00:22:20,760
We have a young lady right now who's going out in our quarterly or our annual direct

428
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:22,980
mail piece that she was here years ago.

429
00:22:22,980 --> 00:22:24,760
And she kind of resurfaced and she's around.

430
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:25,760
She's doing great.

431
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:26,760
A lot of trauma.

432
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:29,420
It's a bad situation, very bad.

433
00:22:29,420 --> 00:22:31,320
But she stepped up and said, I want to do this.

434
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:32,560
I want to be a part of this.

435
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:37,680
And what she wrote out for our donors to hear is just, it's just spectacular.

436
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:38,680
It's unbelievable.

437
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:41,280
So that's kind of one of those things that really keeps you going, knowing that they

438
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:45,800
do have that resilience and they can heal up and she's doing great.

439
00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,760
Well, and to your point, it's those personal stories that really put a spotlight on in

440
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,160
terms of what we're doing does work and your donors make a difference.

441
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:55,160
Yeah.

442
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:58,120
And so if I can tell those stories or they can tell their stories, for me, that's enough.

443
00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:00,240
You know, obviously we look at other stats as well.

444
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:03,120
We have funders that want to know certain things, but I mean, we look at their grades.

445
00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:06,080
We definitely look at how are they doing in school, how are they doing in their social

446
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:07,080
relationships?

447
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:08,080
How are they doing?

448
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:10,640
You know, we get kids in here that have never once been to a dentist and they might be 15

449
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:11,640
years old.

450
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,760
So you got to look at the simplest of things.

451
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,520
We have kids that have come in here.

452
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:17,520
I'm not exaggerating.

453
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:22,400
These kids have gone off and been star college athletes, but they never even picked up a

454
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:23,960
ball before they got here.

455
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,360
So just to show you that they've got these skills and they're resilient and you just

456
00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:28,360
got to tap into it.

457
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:29,360
You know?

458
00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:34,360
And so to me, that's some of the ways we measure it, you know, through the simplest of ways.

459
00:23:34,360 --> 00:23:37,480
And what distinguishes Place of Hope from other social services organizations in your

460
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:38,480
part of Florida?

461
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:43,360
I definitely, like I said, I like to remain entrepreneurial.

462
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:48,000
First, I'd be bored out of my skull if I was just always running the same thing.

463
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,440
And so it's not even just about expansion.

464
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:54,520
It's really just being about critically looking at everything that you're in and you're doing

465
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:59,560
and what's the impact and can you do it less expensively and serve more people and still

466
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:01,280
have the greatest impact?

467
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,400
I just like all those pieces, organizational structure, bringing in the right people.

468
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,160
And honestly, I love to be in the realm of fundraising, not for the purpose of raising

469
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:13,640
money, but more for the purpose of meeting great people who have a kindred spirit in

470
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,720
the sense that they want to be a part of something, they want to co-own it.

471
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:17,720
That's my favorite thing by far.

472
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:18,920
I love seeing the kids.

473
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:19,920
I love hanging out with them.

474
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,400
But I love that part as well because we're just surrounded by great people and you're

475
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:24,400
doing this for us today.

476
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:28,680
I mean, I love that because you're helping us tell a story and you have an audience that

477
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:32,000
gets to hear what's going on, especially for those that don't understand it.

478
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,840
Are there any specific stories you'd like to share about a child or a family?

479
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:37,840
There's a ton.

480
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,640
Even the young lady I just mentioned to you that's coming back now and she's living in

481
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:42,720
our affordable housing.

482
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:47,880
But all the kids that have gone on to get college degrees or get tech degrees in air

483
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,160
conditioning or electrical, there's a lot of them.

484
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:55,800
But we have a young man that was at our Hope Bash big dinner this weekend at Trump Jupiter.

485
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,400
Hundreds of people in the room and his family, we presented them an award and they adopted

486
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,240
him after he turned 18.

487
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:05,520
So they wanted that just to show him that he's forever part of that family.

488
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,780
And that kid was there with a big smile on his face.

489
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:13,180
Now we have we have several young people that work for us and we've had a lot over the years.

490
00:25:13,180 --> 00:25:16,580
You know, again, just just seeing them with their resilience, even when there's high levels

491
00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:18,780
of trauma, just seeing them make it.

492
00:25:18,780 --> 00:25:22,460
And look, I've always said, you know, people say, well, how do you spell success?

493
00:25:22,460 --> 00:25:25,820
I mean, honestly, with with the kids we're dealing with and the stats that surround them

494
00:25:25,820 --> 00:25:29,980
in their lives, you know, honestly, if some of these kids, if we can keep them from hurting

495
00:25:29,980 --> 00:25:33,220
or killing somebody based on what they've been through, we all win.

496
00:25:33,220 --> 00:25:36,580
So it's not all, hey, I got a degree at University of Florida or whatever.

497
00:25:36,580 --> 00:25:38,140
It's it's it's all of it.

498
00:25:38,140 --> 00:25:41,740
But some of it's just getting these kids to kind of take a deep look inside and try to

499
00:25:41,740 --> 00:25:45,060
move toward healing, you know, and know that they're loved because we do.

500
00:25:45,060 --> 00:25:47,140
We really do love them.

501
00:25:47,140 --> 00:25:48,540
You mentioned that you're mostly privately funded.

502
00:25:48,540 --> 00:25:53,060
You know, we don't talk much about politics on here for various reasons, from obvious

503
00:25:53,060 --> 00:25:55,220
reasons, I should say.

504
00:25:55,220 --> 00:25:58,660
But given the current administration and what Elon Musk is doing, you know, is there any

505
00:25:58,660 --> 00:26:01,540
concern from a federal budget perspective?

506
00:26:02,540 --> 00:26:09,700
No, I'm not concerned because a lot of what comes down from federal HHS that goes to I

507
00:26:09,700 --> 00:26:14,820
guess it's kind of block granted to states, it's based on some formula of need, which

508
00:26:14,820 --> 00:26:18,980
changes all the time. But they usually the legislatures have to match it at least at

509
00:26:18,980 --> 00:26:24,580
50 percent. What could happen is you could because you can't not you cannot not take

510
00:26:24,580 --> 00:26:26,380
kids in if they need to have safety.

511
00:26:26,380 --> 00:26:28,340
Right. If they're in imminent danger, they have to be removed.

512
00:26:28,340 --> 00:26:31,460
Now, I have seen them where they move the bar of what's acceptable.

513
00:26:31,460 --> 00:26:32,980
I've seen it over 20 something years.

514
00:26:32,980 --> 00:26:36,420
It's terrible. But like I'll look and say, well, two years ago they would have removed

515
00:26:36,420 --> 00:26:39,700
that kid and now they haven't. And look what's happened, you know, so they will play

516
00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:45,340
around a little bit. But overall, I think, you know, they're going to have to fund at

517
00:26:45,340 --> 00:26:46,940
least partially what the need is.

518
00:26:46,940 --> 00:26:48,500
What I like is we've built an organization.

519
00:26:48,500 --> 00:26:52,460
There are a lot of groups like us out there that are, you know, they could be 80, 85

520
00:26:52,460 --> 00:26:53,740
percent government finance.

521
00:26:53,740 --> 00:26:57,580
You should never have that in any kind of charity, if you ask me, because all it takes

522
00:26:57,580 --> 00:26:59,780
is one switch and you're closing your doors.

523
00:26:59,780 --> 00:27:03,860
And so we were somewhere down at like 32 percent right now, you know, with government

524
00:27:03,860 --> 00:27:06,300
funds. And so I like it that way.

525
00:27:06,740 --> 00:27:08,660
And that's not going to that's not going to impact us.

526
00:27:08,660 --> 00:27:10,820
And we just have generous donors.

527
00:27:10,820 --> 00:27:13,460
And like I said, we're trying to build an endowment to hedge against some of those

528
00:27:13,460 --> 00:27:16,020
things as well, because, you know, that day may come in this.

529
00:27:16,020 --> 00:27:18,180
And this I mean, I guess it could have an impact.

530
00:27:18,180 --> 00:27:19,780
I just don't think it's going to hit us real hard.

531
00:27:20,900 --> 00:27:24,500
And from your perspective, what would be the long term consequences of reducing social

532
00:27:24,500 --> 00:27:27,740
programs and low income housing initiatives on communities like those of Places of

533
00:27:27,740 --> 00:27:29,900
Hope? Tell me that one more time.

534
00:27:30,380 --> 00:27:34,060
You know, what do you think the long term consequences of reducing social programs and

535
00:27:34,060 --> 00:27:36,780
low income housing initiatives, how would that would affect you?

536
00:27:37,180 --> 00:27:39,900
Well, it's definitely not happening in Florida right now.

537
00:27:39,900 --> 00:27:44,100
Every well, South Florida, everybody's talking about affordable housing and the crisis

538
00:27:44,100 --> 00:27:48,060
and the need. Now, when we talk about it, we always say that it's affordable

539
00:27:48,060 --> 00:27:51,300
transitional because what we don't need is a lineup of people saying, I want affordable

540
00:27:51,300 --> 00:27:52,900
housing because ours is a program.

541
00:27:53,620 --> 00:27:57,660
But if you think about it, ours is of the greatest need because we have the young people

542
00:27:57,660 --> 00:28:00,300
who are slipping through the cracks otherwise that have been through these traumatic life

543
00:28:00,300 --> 00:28:05,500
experiences. I would say there's more of a need for what we do, but there's also just a

544
00:28:05,500 --> 00:28:08,020
need for truly affordable housing.

545
00:28:08,020 --> 00:28:10,340
I mean, people are being squashed out of here.

546
00:28:10,340 --> 00:28:14,540
I mean, my own children are having one one owns and two are trying to own homes.

547
00:28:14,540 --> 00:28:15,820
And it's tough right now.

548
00:28:15,820 --> 00:28:19,980
I mean, in the same areas that were almost affordable not that long ago.

549
00:28:20,020 --> 00:28:21,740
So that affects everybody.

550
00:28:21,740 --> 00:28:25,820
But I think it really affects young people who have been through the system and

551
00:28:25,820 --> 00:28:28,140
traumatized and or homeless and those kinds of things.

552
00:28:28,140 --> 00:28:32,020
And so we're kind of addressing as much as we can at that at that level.

553
00:28:32,020 --> 00:28:35,340
But just the general workforce population needs needs some help.

554
00:28:35,340 --> 00:28:38,300
So I hope to see it keep going in a good direction.

555
00:28:39,500 --> 00:28:42,660
The work that you do exacts such a heavy emotional and physical toll.

556
00:28:43,100 --> 00:28:45,620
You've had a time when you were ready to just throw your hands up in the air and walk

557
00:28:45,620 --> 00:28:48,180
away. I have such a great team.

558
00:28:48,180 --> 00:28:51,500
And, you know, I have a clinical director and a CEO that they've both been with me

559
00:28:51,500 --> 00:28:55,220
over 20 years. And, you know, they're on the front line of dealing with a lot of

560
00:28:55,220 --> 00:28:57,660
that stuff. And I'm aware of everything that's going on.

561
00:28:58,220 --> 00:29:00,940
And it is tough on the team from time to time, especially our foster families.

562
00:29:00,940 --> 00:29:02,500
I mean, they are on the front line.

563
00:29:03,460 --> 00:29:06,620
And then even with those that help run our transitional housing, you know, not not

564
00:29:06,620 --> 00:29:10,580
every young person is showing a lot of gratitude for what they're having handed to

565
00:29:10,580 --> 00:29:13,220
them and so forth. And so the team struggles with that at times.

566
00:29:13,420 --> 00:29:17,740
But at times, you know, I've never, never once felt like I wanted to throw up my

567
00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:21,900
hands. I've had some tough days and there were, you know, probably a couple of times

568
00:29:21,900 --> 00:29:25,580
over the years that I've looked at opportunities that have come my way to do

569
00:29:25,580 --> 00:29:29,540
something different. And each of those times I walked away from it feeling like I'm

570
00:29:29,540 --> 00:29:30,660
right where I'm supposed to be.

571
00:29:31,180 --> 00:29:32,980
Like I said, it's tough, but I love it at the same time.

572
00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:36,060
Well, I guess to that point, what's the most rewarding part of your job?

573
00:29:36,380 --> 00:29:41,700
I think it's two things. I think it really is seeing these young kids that have gone

574
00:29:41,700 --> 00:29:47,220
through so much be resilient, learn to show gratitude, learn to actually become

575
00:29:47,500 --> 00:29:48,740
self-sustaining.

576
00:29:49,100 --> 00:29:53,260
And then the flip side over here is bringing in those people that can afford to help us

577
00:29:53,260 --> 00:29:57,260
do those things, you know, like they're giving their time, whatever, whatever they

578
00:29:57,260 --> 00:30:01,500
give and just and they could be doing, you know, diaper drives for us or they could be

579
00:30:01,500 --> 00:30:06,380
giving money that they did, kids raising money through a lemonade stand.

580
00:30:06,540 --> 00:30:07,460
It could be all that.

581
00:30:07,740 --> 00:30:11,180
That's probably my second favorite part, where I just love to see the community get

582
00:30:11,180 --> 00:30:13,300
together and want to make something great happen.

583
00:30:13,660 --> 00:30:15,220
So it's probably those two things.

584
00:30:15,860 --> 00:30:17,980
How do you stay motivated and avoid burning out?

585
00:30:17,980 --> 00:30:21,580
I mean, you see such traumatic life experiences.

586
00:30:21,620 --> 00:30:23,220
I mean, that's going to take its toll on you.

587
00:30:23,780 --> 00:30:26,900
I get woken up a lot in the middle of the night, so I spend a lot of time in prayer.

588
00:30:27,860 --> 00:30:30,700
I really do, because I think that's the number one thing.

589
00:30:30,700 --> 00:30:32,540
I mean, I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be.

590
00:30:32,540 --> 00:30:35,980
And I also feel like if God's called us to something, we're going to he's going to

591
00:30:35,980 --> 00:30:39,660
provide for it. And I really I know that might sound overly simplistic, but it's the

592
00:30:39,660 --> 00:30:44,900
truth. And thankfully, also, you know, I've had the team that I have around me for so

593
00:30:44,900 --> 00:30:48,860
long, even my board members that have just been so long term and all in.

594
00:30:48,860 --> 00:30:50,220
And we're super transparent.

595
00:30:50,220 --> 00:30:53,260
You know, we've taken over two charities that failed.

596
00:30:53,540 --> 00:30:56,380
And in both circumstances, there were problems with the board of directors and the

597
00:30:56,380 --> 00:30:58,060
leadership and they're fighting with each other.

598
00:30:58,380 --> 00:31:01,820
We don't have that. We don't do that because we're open with each other about

599
00:31:01,820 --> 00:31:03,340
everything, the good, the bad, the ugly.

600
00:31:03,340 --> 00:31:04,380
I tell the board everything.

601
00:31:04,380 --> 00:31:05,660
They get involved where they need to.

602
00:31:06,140 --> 00:31:11,380
And so because of those strong characters around us on the team, as well as the board

603
00:31:11,380 --> 00:31:13,420
and the volunteers, just keeps me motivated.

604
00:31:14,260 --> 00:31:16,660
I do like to go to the Keys every once in a while and veg out.

605
00:31:19,180 --> 00:31:20,540
I'm a little jealous of that.

606
00:31:20,540 --> 00:31:24,820
So you're hearing that you've mentioned the word resilient a few times in our

607
00:31:24,820 --> 00:31:28,580
conversation. What's the most important lesson you've learned about resilience

608
00:31:28,580 --> 00:31:29,380
through your years of work?

609
00:31:30,980 --> 00:31:36,020
I mean, honestly, seeing some of these kids that there's just so many stories I can

610
00:31:36,020 --> 00:31:41,780
describe to you, but some of the ones that I guess sort of bother me the most is when

611
00:31:41,780 --> 00:31:47,220
you've seen like a lot of bullying with kids who maybe are in foster care and maybe

612
00:31:47,220 --> 00:31:50,060
they don't look quite like the kids around them in certain circumstances.

613
00:31:50,060 --> 00:31:54,380
And to see those kids get bullied, boy, there's a part of me that wants to just come

614
00:31:54,380 --> 00:31:57,260
out of my skin on that. But obviously, I'm an adult, I can't do that.

615
00:31:57,260 --> 00:32:00,140
But that's hard to watch at times.

616
00:32:00,140 --> 00:32:04,780
And then sometimes, you know, looking back at like, you know, you have families who

617
00:32:04,780 --> 00:32:09,860
probably were healthy enough to do something in their case to get their child back and

618
00:32:09,860 --> 00:32:13,220
just decided to put themselves first and not do it.

619
00:32:13,220 --> 00:32:19,220
And to see what a kid goes through in that is really hard to ever, ever get used to.

620
00:32:19,220 --> 00:32:23,940
You know, it's one thing if you know mom's completely drugged out and you haven't seen

621
00:32:23,940 --> 00:32:27,940
her and she doesn't show up for her case, you know, for reviews or her visitations,

622
00:32:27,940 --> 00:32:31,900
any of that. But when you know one is kind of there and then just decides, I'd rather

623
00:32:31,900 --> 00:32:35,740
go smoke some weed or crack or whatever, and then doesn't show up and you see this

624
00:32:35,740 --> 00:32:38,180
kid just melt, that's hard.

625
00:32:38,220 --> 00:32:41,660
You know, and I just, I don't know if I answered your question correctly, but it's just those

626
00:32:41,660 --> 00:32:43,500
kinds of things that you never get used to.

627
00:32:43,540 --> 00:32:44,980
No, I totally understand.

628
00:32:44,980 --> 00:32:46,780
And that's just awful to think about as a parent.

629
00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:47,540
It is.

630
00:32:48,100 --> 00:32:51,620
You know, Place of Hope and other organizations are performing triage and people are already

631
00:32:51,620 --> 00:32:55,620
injured. I mean, investing time, money and other resources prevent the people you serve

632
00:32:55,620 --> 00:32:56,820
from being injured in the first place.

633
00:32:57,860 --> 00:32:59,540
Yeah, no, that's a great point.

634
00:33:00,020 --> 00:33:08,180
We're not, as an organization, in the super front side of the system where there's shaky

635
00:33:08,180 --> 00:33:11,340
family situations and we've been asked to come in with services.

636
00:33:11,980 --> 00:33:13,220
We just haven't been asked to do that.

637
00:33:13,220 --> 00:33:18,100
We are on the next level where in the United States, a lot of kids that are removed for

638
00:33:18,100 --> 00:33:22,140
imminent danger, instead of going into licensed foster homes, they go with relatives.

639
00:33:22,140 --> 00:33:23,820
They call it relative, non-relative caregiving.

640
00:33:24,100 --> 00:33:27,940
There's a lot of that. And so it's somewhat formal, but not as much.

641
00:33:28,580 --> 00:33:31,660
But a lot of those families don't have the resources that they need as well.

642
00:33:31,660 --> 00:33:32,820
It's just somebody doing a good thing.

643
00:33:32,820 --> 00:33:35,620
It's grandma, like, I'm not going to let my kids and my grandkids go into foster care.

644
00:33:35,860 --> 00:33:40,300
So they step up. So one of the things we've done about that to kind of address that and

645
00:33:40,300 --> 00:33:47,180
do something big is help those folks, is to step up with diapers and car seats and

646
00:33:47,620 --> 00:33:51,380
cribs and everything they would need to receive that child that they really want to

647
00:33:51,380 --> 00:33:57,380
receive. That's one of the things we've launched into that we're really grateful to be a

648
00:33:57,380 --> 00:33:59,620
part of that. And we're serving thousands to this.

649
00:33:59,660 --> 00:34:01,020
This happens to a lot of people.

650
00:34:01,060 --> 00:34:05,460
So and they just need some help to make it happen and make it work and keep those kids

651
00:34:05,460 --> 00:34:09,940
safe. It's no secret that the foster care system has its shortcomings.

652
00:34:10,620 --> 00:34:13,860
What systemic changes would you like to see in the system to support children?

653
00:34:15,660 --> 00:34:17,860
Yeah, I think that it's like everything else.

654
00:34:17,860 --> 00:34:19,620
Things get political from time to time.

655
00:34:19,620 --> 00:34:23,020
So you got this group that thinks, oh, hey, you know, residential care is bad.

656
00:34:23,020 --> 00:34:25,980
Or you have these people that say, well, traditional foster care is bad.

657
00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:27,940
And by the way, nothing's perfect.

658
00:34:27,940 --> 00:34:29,620
Right. So bad things happen.

659
00:34:29,820 --> 00:34:34,300
You know, one of the things we see is that the insurance industry that we have no choice

660
00:34:34,300 --> 00:34:38,580
but to have a lot of insurance doesn't line up with the priorities of the child welfare

661
00:34:38,580 --> 00:34:41,620
system and the child welfare system is not watching what the insurance industry is doing.

662
00:34:41,620 --> 00:34:45,180
So we're caught in this vortex in between of like, no, no, we have to do it this way.

663
00:34:45,180 --> 00:34:46,980
But you guys don't want to insure it or vice versa.

664
00:34:47,780 --> 00:34:50,620
You know, I'd love to see some of that stuff straightened out.

665
00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:55,100
I'd also love to see some of the politics of how the system, you know, there's a lot of

666
00:34:55,100 --> 00:34:56,900
people that don't believe you should ever remove a child.

667
00:34:57,220 --> 00:34:58,780
I totally disagree with that.

668
00:34:58,940 --> 00:35:00,380
I get what they're trying to say.

669
00:35:00,380 --> 00:35:04,020
I get that there's a tremendous upside to keep families together if you can.

670
00:35:04,700 --> 00:35:08,460
But there's been a lot of bad stories where that hasn't worked out and it's the child

671
00:35:08,460 --> 00:35:10,220
that gets hurt the worst or worse.

672
00:35:10,660 --> 00:35:12,900
And so I'd love to see the politics get out of that.

673
00:35:12,900 --> 00:35:16,780
And I'd also love to see some things where people just agree, whether it's legislatively

674
00:35:16,780 --> 00:35:20,420
or whatever, there's something happening in Florida right now with a possible bill in

675
00:35:20,420 --> 00:35:22,860
rural communities to do a certain level of care.

676
00:35:22,860 --> 00:35:23,980
It's very similar to ours.

677
00:35:24,540 --> 00:35:27,100
And I may go up and speak to this issue with the Senate.

678
00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:31,340
And that is that, you know, put the politics aside.

679
00:35:31,340 --> 00:35:34,740
If a model works and it's good for these kids, let's just try it.

680
00:35:34,740 --> 00:35:37,300
Let's do it. Let's get the private sector involved.

681
00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:39,500
So also more encouraging in the private sector.

682
00:35:39,500 --> 00:35:40,900
I'm a big believer in that.

683
00:35:41,420 --> 00:35:44,380
When you sit down with the policymakers that you're talking about, you know, what's your

684
00:35:44,380 --> 00:35:46,940
message to them? Yeah, I mean, results.

685
00:35:46,940 --> 00:35:50,060
I want them to oftentimes I'll bring kids along or they'll already know them.

686
00:35:50,060 --> 00:35:53,060
A lot of the folks that are elected down here know us and know us well.

687
00:35:53,060 --> 00:35:57,340
And also, you know, we, you know, I've got some guys that are tremendous marketers in

688
00:35:57,340 --> 00:35:58,380
their past careers and so forth.

689
00:35:58,380 --> 00:36:01,500
And they remind you, you always tell that the really good business parts, like we have

690
00:36:01,500 --> 00:36:06,020
the highest ratings from Charity Navigator and Candid, you know, so and when we go and

691
00:36:06,020 --> 00:36:08,420
ask for something, we typically match it dollar for dollar.

692
00:36:08,420 --> 00:36:09,820
So we're not just going, oh, we need money.

693
00:36:09,820 --> 00:36:13,540
We will say if you if you will give us this, we will go to these folks to give us this

694
00:36:13,540 --> 00:36:18,580
or vice versa. So we look at everything more like a partnership as opposed to give, give,

695
00:36:18,980 --> 00:36:23,660
and I think legislators and just people in decision making sides of things have a real

696
00:36:23,660 --> 00:36:26,180
hard time just constantly just forking it over.

697
00:36:26,180 --> 00:36:29,980
You know, you got to you got to do your part, you know, and so I'm a big believer if a if

698
00:36:29,980 --> 00:36:32,940
a foundation wants to give you money, but they've got a couple strings attached to it

699
00:36:32,940 --> 00:36:35,100
like, hey, we want you over here in our golf tournament.

700
00:36:35,100 --> 00:36:37,900
OK, then I'm going to go find some guys to play golf in your tournament.

701
00:36:37,900 --> 00:36:41,780
You know, just simple stuff like that that I think shows that it's it's not just us going

702
00:36:41,780 --> 00:36:43,660
like this, but it's all of us in this thing together.

703
00:36:43,660 --> 00:36:48,740
So if you're unlimited resources or even better yet, if you're a king for a day, what

704
00:36:48,740 --> 00:36:52,580
changes would you make in government policy laws and investments on the way to where the

705
00:36:52,580 --> 00:36:53,500
way society operates?

706
00:36:54,740 --> 00:36:58,700
Wow. Yeah, I do believe in in like what you talked about.

707
00:36:58,700 --> 00:37:01,700
I mean, when you look at the amount of waste in our country, especially at the federal

708
00:37:01,700 --> 00:37:04,740
government level, and now I know there's a lot of states starting to look at themselves

709
00:37:04,740 --> 00:37:08,180
even a little bit differently now because of what you mentioned has happened at the

710
00:37:08,180 --> 00:37:13,460
federal level. I think, you know, if we can send gazillions of dollars overseas like it's

711
00:37:13,460 --> 00:37:17,900
nothing, I think we could do a little bit more investing in in the side of the system

712
00:37:17,900 --> 00:37:22,020
that you just mentioned, like when when families are really starting to have some rough

713
00:37:22,020 --> 00:37:25,460
times, they shouldn't have to pay two hundred fifty dollars for therapy.

714
00:37:26,300 --> 00:37:30,020
And by the way, they don't they just don't go, you know, or, you know, the system comes

715
00:37:30,020 --> 00:37:34,180
around and create some substandard subpar system to provide this kind of stuff for them.

716
00:37:34,180 --> 00:37:35,980
And there's no there's no healing in that.

717
00:37:35,980 --> 00:37:39,260
It's not good enough. So why don't we just scrap that whole thing and say, and I don't

718
00:37:39,300 --> 00:37:44,580
mean forever, you know, hand up, not a handout, this idea that you you you wrap around

719
00:37:44,580 --> 00:37:48,660
these folks when things are starting to get shaky and just try to keep the family

720
00:37:48,660 --> 00:37:51,780
together, you know, because, look, I'd like to see no kids in foster care, too, but for

721
00:37:51,780 --> 00:37:53,180
the right reasons in the right way.

722
00:37:54,100 --> 00:37:57,820
Now, when you're talking a few minutes ago about like the grandmother taking in the

723
00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:01,900
grandchild and you would give them cribs and diapers, that exact phrase was in my head

724
00:38:01,900 --> 00:38:03,420
is give them a hand up, not a handout.

725
00:38:03,460 --> 00:38:04,620
Yeah, absolutely.

726
00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:07,260
And that's, you know, words to live by.

727
00:38:07,460 --> 00:38:10,340
Because they're already stepping up to do a very tough thing.

728
00:38:10,340 --> 00:38:11,940
Imagine getting that call at midnight.

729
00:38:11,980 --> 00:38:14,260
Oh, we got your grandkids and they're, you know, will you take them?

730
00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:16,740
Yeah, of course. You know, but it's going to be tough.

731
00:38:17,100 --> 00:38:20,340
It's going to change my life overnight, you know, and and a lot of the people just they

732
00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:21,700
just need the help financially, too.

733
00:38:22,460 --> 00:38:25,860
And, you know, you somewhat answer this, but how do you inspire others, whether it's

734
00:38:25,860 --> 00:38:29,820
colleagues, donors or volunteers, for folks to get involved and stay involved?

735
00:38:30,620 --> 00:38:34,020
That's a great question. On the donor side, we definitely pride ourselves in the fact

736
00:38:34,020 --> 00:38:35,740
that we have a lot of long term donors.

737
00:38:35,740 --> 00:38:37,260
We have a lot of people that have been with us years.

738
00:38:37,300 --> 00:38:41,140
I mean, my board chair alone has been with me over as board chair for more than 20

739
00:38:41,140 --> 00:38:44,740
years. I've got board members, others that have been since the founding.

740
00:38:45,940 --> 00:38:50,420
So even with donors, you know, again, like I said, speaking to them about things that

741
00:38:50,420 --> 00:38:54,300
matter in everyday business, like we're debt free, you know, we're not going to go

742
00:38:54,300 --> 00:38:55,980
crashing down after you make an investment here.

743
00:38:56,300 --> 00:38:58,860
We've done something like forty five capital campaigns already.

744
00:38:58,860 --> 00:39:01,580
So, you know, in a lot of charities, they mess up in capital campaigns.

745
00:39:01,580 --> 00:39:04,500
They raise money and they don't get the job done and all that money gets squandered, you

746
00:39:04,540 --> 00:39:05,940
know, and people are weary about that.

747
00:39:06,260 --> 00:39:07,900
Well, I can take them all around and say, no, no, no.

748
00:39:08,020 --> 00:39:09,260
Here's what we did. Here's what we did.

749
00:39:09,300 --> 00:39:10,700
By the way, we've done like forty five of them.

750
00:39:10,860 --> 00:39:14,740
We would never do that. In fact, we won't even start typically building until we're

751
00:39:15,260 --> 00:39:17,060
80 to 85 percent funded.

752
00:39:17,860 --> 00:39:21,580
So maybe we could be in a position to have to short term borrow something, but it's a

753
00:39:21,580 --> 00:39:22,620
good, healthy borrow.

754
00:39:23,260 --> 00:39:25,060
But we can point to those things for people.

755
00:39:25,100 --> 00:39:28,780
And so that's that's one of the ways we definitely encourage and just letting them

756
00:39:28,780 --> 00:39:32,180
know the results, too, when they see the young people around and they see the the

757
00:39:32,180 --> 00:39:34,460
pictures in our collaterals, they know it's real deal.

758
00:39:34,500 --> 00:39:37,020
And it's local to an extra place of hope.

759
00:39:38,260 --> 00:39:41,740
So this campaign we're in is really to build out our current footprint.

760
00:39:42,460 --> 00:39:46,860
We're doing a lot more in the human, anti-human trafficking space on the educational

761
00:39:46,860 --> 00:39:51,740
side as well, and also doing some some some big believer

762
00:39:51,740 --> 00:39:53,580
in the right kind of collaborations.

763
00:39:55,300 --> 00:39:58,700
So, for instance, we're dealing with a company right now that's building an app and

764
00:39:59,180 --> 00:40:03,940
it's going to be a way to teach parents about what their kids are looking at on their

765
00:40:03,940 --> 00:40:07,620
cell phones, on these these, you know, egregious apps that are out there and these

766
00:40:07,620 --> 00:40:09,580
things that are, you know, working against their children.

767
00:40:10,340 --> 00:40:14,580
A lot of kids are falling into sextortion where they're convinced, as you know, to send

768
00:40:14,580 --> 00:40:17,740
pictures of themselves. And then all of a sudden you find out that these are gangs from

769
00:40:17,740 --> 00:40:19,700
like Nigeria and stuff that do this stuff.

770
00:40:20,100 --> 00:40:21,860
But people get scared and freaked out.

771
00:40:21,860 --> 00:40:24,180
They send more. And all of a sudden you're in a firestorm.

772
00:40:24,340 --> 00:40:29,220
Well, if kids better understood what they're about to enter into and older, you know,

773
00:40:29,220 --> 00:40:31,500
their parents as well. That's one level.

774
00:40:31,540 --> 00:40:35,820
We're doing another thing with a statewide Florida fund where we're working with the

775
00:40:35,820 --> 00:40:39,500
Florida Sheriff's Association all over on some of these busts, like the one you

776
00:40:39,500 --> 00:40:42,740
mentioned earlier. We have a lot of them in the center of the state, too, in Polk County

777
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:47,860
and Orange County. And what we're doing is we're saying to them, if there's if there's

778
00:40:47,860 --> 00:40:52,300
a bust where this fund that we're a part of as well, we'll actually give some of that

779
00:40:52,300 --> 00:40:56,540
reimburse some of the police organizations for the money they put out in order to stage

780
00:40:56,540 --> 00:40:59,180
a sting, because otherwise sometimes they won't stage the sting because they don't have

781
00:40:59,180 --> 00:41:03,660
the money. Or if they get people, the survivors in, they don't have the money to put

782
00:41:03,660 --> 00:41:05,460
them in in the places that they need to be.

783
00:41:05,660 --> 00:41:07,100
And so we're part of that as well.

784
00:41:07,100 --> 00:41:10,580
And then we're part of Crimestoppers throughout Florida right now where we have our

785
00:41:10,580 --> 00:41:14,820
group. One of my board members in particular has provided some of the money to up the

786
00:41:14,820 --> 00:41:20,100
amount of reward for tips, bonafide tips, but specific to human trafficking, which was

787
00:41:20,100 --> 00:41:23,300
all new. We just we started that with them about a year and a half ago.

788
00:41:23,860 --> 00:41:25,340
So just doing a lot more that way.

789
00:41:25,620 --> 00:41:28,780
But on the residential, just building out the footprint we have from Martin down to

790
00:41:28,780 --> 00:41:33,460
Boca. You just mentioned sextortion and that some folks also don't think about or don't

791
00:41:33,460 --> 00:41:37,300
know about. And literally just yesterday I was reading an article about that, and I

792
00:41:37,300 --> 00:41:40,820
think there were 17 kids that they highlighted committed suicide because of that.

793
00:41:40,820 --> 00:41:45,220
And so that's a big deal that parents need to just to be aware of to your point about

794
00:41:45,220 --> 00:41:46,500
seeing what's on their phone and what's happening.

795
00:41:46,740 --> 00:41:50,660
And this collective app that we're a part of with this group, really brilliant people

796
00:41:50,660 --> 00:41:52,700
that put this thing together here in West Palm.

797
00:41:53,500 --> 00:41:57,980
It's just it's it's a way to just give tools to these families.

798
00:41:57,980 --> 00:42:00,620
And it's actually a collection of people who can communicate with each other.

799
00:42:00,820 --> 00:42:02,500
Hey, my son got this strange text.

800
00:42:02,500 --> 00:42:06,860
Anybody know about this? Or I found this app on my son's phone or this is happening.

801
00:42:06,860 --> 00:42:10,260
What do I do now? And so it's they're learning from each other.

802
00:42:10,260 --> 00:42:13,540
But then they also have the professionals that have created the app to provide insight.

803
00:42:13,540 --> 00:42:15,380
And it's really kind of a neat thing.

804
00:42:15,380 --> 00:42:19,020
But yeah, the more we can I don't want to just say it's all about just educating people

805
00:42:19,020 --> 00:42:21,100
that this happens because there's a lot of groups out there doing that.

806
00:42:21,300 --> 00:42:23,420
And we do some of that as well in schools and so forth.

807
00:42:23,420 --> 00:42:26,820
But really getting down into the nitty gritty about here's what it really looks like.

808
00:42:27,020 --> 00:42:30,100
It's not always the white van that pulls up and snatches your kid.

809
00:42:30,460 --> 00:42:32,340
It's the white van that happened to come up.

810
00:42:32,340 --> 00:42:36,260
But he's been talking to your kid on the Internet for six weeks or whatever.

811
00:42:36,260 --> 00:42:38,300
So kind of scary stuff.

812
00:42:38,300 --> 00:42:40,420
And I think the more people know, the more vigilant they'll be.

813
00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:42,980
Charles, we've got about 90 seconds left.

814
00:42:43,180 --> 00:42:44,540
Any parting words of wisdom?

815
00:42:45,060 --> 00:42:48,740
Well, thank you for highlighting what we do and for your people that follow you.

816
00:42:48,740 --> 00:42:49,820
Appreciate that very much.

817
00:42:49,820 --> 00:42:54,020
Like I said earlier on, a lot of people just don't know the depth of it, especially when it comes to trafficking.

818
00:42:54,020 --> 00:43:03,340
And again, just the results of trauma and trafficking and getting people to understand that there is a way to get these kids and young people toward healing.

819
00:43:03,340 --> 00:43:07,580
But if we don't stop these cycles, we're going to have the same problems forever.

820
00:43:07,580 --> 00:43:09,980
I think the Bible says there's always going to be people in poverty.

821
00:43:09,980 --> 00:43:13,860
We get that. But some of this other stuff we could cut out.

822
00:43:13,860 --> 00:43:14,900
I really think we could.

823
00:43:14,900 --> 00:43:17,580
But it's all about you got to raise the funds to do it.

824
00:43:17,580 --> 00:43:18,660
You got to put something good together.

825
00:43:18,660 --> 00:43:22,660
And then you got to you got to get people to listen, you know, and I think people are starting to listen.

826
00:43:22,660 --> 00:43:24,260
I think people are scared of what's out there.

827
00:43:25,060 --> 00:43:26,980
We see some crazy stuff, that's for sure.

828
00:43:27,380 --> 00:43:28,540
And you're at the front lines.

829
00:43:28,540 --> 00:43:29,900
And so thank you for the work that you do.

830
00:43:30,180 --> 00:43:30,980
Well, thank you as well.

831
00:43:30,980 --> 00:43:32,340
Appreciate you. It's great to meet you.

832
00:43:32,500 --> 00:43:35,180
Likewise, Charles Bender, founding CEO of Place of Hope.

833
00:43:35,460 --> 00:43:36,980
Again, thank you so much for being here.

834
00:43:37,420 --> 00:43:38,940
I'm Chris Meek. We're out of time.

835
00:43:38,940 --> 00:43:40,780
We'll see you next week. Same time, same place.

836
00:43:40,860 --> 00:43:44,140
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.

837
00:43:48,860 --> 00:43:51,700
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward.

838
00:43:51,820 --> 00:43:56,220
Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

839
00:43:56,220 --> 00:43:58,020
Pacific Time and 1 p.m.

840
00:43:58,020 --> 00:44:01,540
Eastern Time on The Voice America Empowerment Channel.

841
00:44:01,820 --> 00:44:04,980
This week, make things happen in your life.

842
00:44:18,660 --> 00:44:19,660
Next Steps Forward.