Matt: [00:00:00] Disability versus other cultures. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s enough of a question, but I, I am curious, are there a lot of differences There are. Welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and I’m excited to have you join me as I interview community members and business leaders from the Communities in which I live, work, and serve through my business Kooler Garage Doors.
We’re gonna bring you highlights on characters in our communities. Why? Because community, And I want to know more about who is behind our business and leadership in order to understand and support the community fabric that our relationships make up. And collectively we can build stronger communities that support our lifestyles, our youth, and our health.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and today I am joined by Grant Jackson, president and CEO of [00:01:00] Strive, out of Grant Junction, Colorado. Grant, thanks so much for joining us.
Grant: Thanks for having me, Matt. Appreciate it.
Matt: Yeah. As we jump in here, um, I’d love to get an introduction from you on Strive.
Sure.
Grant: So Strive has been in, the Grand Valley, in Grand Junction, Colorado for over 50 years. We’re primarily an agency who, a nonprofit who helps people with developmental disabilities, essentially from, birth to end of life. So we work with families who may have a child that’s actually in the nicu, um, and help them navigate what’s gonna happen now once they go home, types of therapies, assistance, they’re gonna need resources.
And we do a lot of residential, programs for folks as well. So group. Host homes, which is kind of like a foster care type system, for adults. And we do a lot of day programming, employment programs and all sorts of stuff That’s really based on community inclusion. That’s [00:02:00] really what we, what we strive to do is get people a part of the community that’s incredibly important to us.
Gotcha. I’m in a nutshell. Awesome. High level.
Matt: Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a good nutshell. And already way more than what I had initially gleaned . That’s a lot.
Grant: pretty broad. There’s a lot. We do it. Thank you
Matt: too. Yeah. Awesome. All right. We’re gonna come back to that, but I want to know a little bit of your story.
Where did you grow up?
Grant: Sure. Uh, non Grande Junction. Um, I actually grew up in upstate New York, uh, closer to Canada than New York City, um, in a place called Queensbury. It’s kind of on the Vermont, uh, New York border. halfway up, essentially. Um, okay. Grew up there and, um, you know, real active lifestyle with my family.
You know, really, uh, spent a lot of time in the mountains, hiking, skiing, all that kind of good stuff. Um, so, [00:03:00] you know, translated well to Colorado. But, uh, yeah, um, I moved to Alaska after college. Um, had an internship in college up in Alaska, and uh, that’s really what kind of got me hooked into what I’m doing.
Um, gotcha. And, uh, I started working with a, an organization that PR that really did a lot of, a lot of what Strive did and, um, what Strive does. And it, uh, I guess maybe to back up a little bit, um, a friend of mine growing up, uh, her, his sister had, uh, developmental disability and it really kind of opened my eyes to the injustices that a lot of.
who had developmental disabilities, um, really experienced in their, in their life, you know, going through school and all that kind of stuff, bullying. Um, and it made me really feel like when I was growing up, I really wanted do something, um, that helped people as I got older. Um, so that was, uh, a kind of a driving force, uh, growing up in, um, and having that [00:04:00] experience.
Um, but yeah, uh, went from New York to Alaska. Um, been in Colorado now for, oh gosh, 12 years now. Right
Matt: on. Has it always been Grand Junction as far as your Colorado?
Grant: No, uh, bounced around, bounced around the state a little bit. Um, went to, uh, from Alaska, moved to, uh, golden, uh, lived there for a short period of time.
Did not like the, uh, the sprawl of the city and all that. So my wife and I moved, um, moved up to Eagle County for another short period of. And then we ended up in Grand Junction. Uh, that’s where her family lives and we live two blocks from Gotcha. Her folks. And, uh, it’s been a, it’s been a wonderful thing ever since.
That’s cool. Yeah.
Matt: What part of Alaska did you spend time in?
Grant: Um, I primarily, I was out in a place called Dillingham. It’s in Bristol Bay. It’s right above the, uh, Lucian Islands. on the west coast of Alaska. It’s a small little fishing, uh, village. Um, yeah. And, uh, I got to run, [00:05:00] uh, or I was the, uh, oh, what do they call me?
Community coordinator for an agency. Like, like strive up there. That’s where I had an internship in college. And then they hired me on after, uh, college and, uh, lived there for several years, uh, providing services and supports to folks. Uh, and gosh, it was like a 300 mile radius from where I was. So I get to fly from on these little planes, uh, to from village to village.
Um, yeah, helping families who had kiddos essentially with, uh, developmental disabilities. It was an amazing. Did you ever
Matt: get up to toque?
Grant: Uh, yes I did. Yeah. Yep. A couple times. That’s my, yeah,
Matt: I spent a summer up there. Um, we used to work with a bunch of youth, but we would take relatively privileged youth and do community based work with them.
So we had Nice, like a full month with maybe two dozen. , you know, kids out New York and mm-hmm. All over the country really. But we would live in the Athabascan community. Mm-hmm. like [00:06:00] centers and uh, and it was pretty cool. But that’s a tiny
Grant: spot up there, Alaska’s. It’s tiny. It is. It’s a beautiful area though.
It’s gorgeous up there. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. I would imagine that Lucian Island area is, is beautiful as well.
Grant: It was absolutely a wonderful place to really kind of get my, my feet under me. You know, as far as what I wanted to do in my career and, um, it really, it hooked me, um, you know, really Yeah. Seeing how, uh, folks with developmental disabilities were.
were, uh, treated in those communities, was incredible. Everybody was fully included in the communities. Um, lots of respect and admiration for those folks. And, uh, it was an amazing experience that I have kind of tried to, um, you know, bring wherever I’ve worked, um, since, you know, it’s one of the things that’s really near and dear to my heart is making sure that folks with developmental disabilities are included in their communities.
Um, so it’s been a wonderful journey. Yeah.
Matt: What a beautiful mission. Um, , what did [00:07:00] you study in
Grant: college? Anthropology. . Okay. . ,
Matt: yep. Interesting. It was a focus on,
Grant: I guess in some ways, yeah, it was a focus on disability across culture. Um, fair. Which is how I got my internship up in Alaska. Um, working with that, that organization up there, so, yeah.
Matt: Yeah. So I guess, you know, curiosity. , how different is our culture with disability versus other cultures? Mm-hmm. and, yeah, I don’t know if that’s enough of a question, but I I am curious. Are there a lot of
Grant: differences? There are. Um, I really found, um, you know, nothing against Grand Junction, uh, Mesa County area.
Um, I really have grown to love this place and really have a lot of respect for the, um, the folks that live here. But, and it’s not just here. I think as people in Alaska call, you know, down here is the lower 48. Um, we’re, I feel like [00:08:00] it’s, we’re quite behind the times in, um, how people with developmental disabilities are treated, um, and kind of viewed in society, um, up, uh, where I lived up in Alaska, like I was saying that it’s really like, Community inclusion’s.
Not really like a thing, it’s just something that’s inherently, you know, exists. Um, where I, and with the culture, and it was Yupik Eskimo is what they, uh, what the folks called themselves. Um, and it was, gosh, I think 98% people, um, who were native Alaskans and, you know, 2% outsiders where I lived. Um, So really the inclusion was just inherently part of the culture, which was an amazing thing to see because come growing up in New York, it definitely was not, and here in Grand Valley it’s definitely not, but it’s way better miles ahead from where, you know, when I grew up, um, and upstate New York, you know, uh, I’m 25 ish years ago after graduating, you know, high school and all that kind of good stuff.
Um, But I mean, that’s really what’s drive what drives me [00:09:00] is trying to change that culture locally. And it’s not just, you know, a mission of one person. It’s a, it’s really the mission of Strive and always has been. But it’s, uh, something that, um, you know, is really, we’ve started to really kick it into high gear.
Um, and one of the things I really appreciate about this c. and then I really saw when I first moved here several years ago, is how collaborative this place is. I mean, we’re, you know, I mean, just like yourself, you guys we’re, we’re all removed from the front range where everything happens. You know, a state funded agency.
You know, we’re, we kind of get imposed upon us sometimes things that work wonderfully in the front range, but maybe not so much out here. So the community has come together to really work together. Um, you know, whether it’s all the human service agencies, nonprofits, uh, county go. We work so well together and it’s outta necessity.
Um, and that’s something I really, really appreciate about here specifically. So it makes our mission of getting folks included in the community that we support way easier now [00:10:00] because of that, that, uh, collaborative efforts that goes on locally.
Matt: Yeah, I would imagine that’s just super significant. Um, you, you’re referencing, you know, the, the point of inclusion and culture together.
So what is it either in the culture that aids in the inclusion or takes away from that? What have you. I guess what I’m asking is like, what are some of the challenges and um, some of the unique opportunities that you see?
Grant: Yeah. Um, you know, I think, uh, you know, here, you know, locally in this, in the culture that we, that we all live in, you know, I think, uh, there’s a lot of fear that exists and, um, kind of the unknown of, um, you know, working and being around somebody with a developmental disability, a lot of.
You know, uh, especially folks, you know, my age and older, um, you know, we didn’t have the inclusive classrooms. We didn’t have a lot [00:11:00] of that, you know, to begin with. So, um, you don’t have, uh, the experience working with people are being around folks at dwell mental disabilities unless you’ve, you know, had a family member or a friend, things like that.
Um, and it’s not inherent that. You know, they, somebody with a developmental disability is a person just like everybody else. They deserve the same rights, you know, um, freedoms and, uh, you know, ability to live a full life just like everybody else does. Um, so I think it’s, uh, there’s some uncomfortableness I think that comes with it with some folks.
Um, if you haven’t been around somebody, because our, our society, you know, Really sheltered and institutionalized and all that kind of stuff, folks with developmental disabilities or severe mental illness for, you know, for, for a long, long time. You know, where, you know, the duration of our history, people were kind of shoved off into the corner.
Um, that’s true. And the fed federal government and the state government have done a ton to, um, you know, counteract that. getting rid of the large institutions. [00:12:00] Um, even, um, some of our group homes that are, um, you know, up have up to eight people, you know, in each house, you know, so lot, a lot of that is actually starting to go away.
And the more, you know, desired way for, uh, folks to have a residential services, these host homes, which is like foster care. It’s essentially a family welcoming somebody into their home and providing all their care for ’em, you know? , you’re not dependent on shift workers, you know, coming in to provide your care.
So you have a constantly revolving door of people coming in and outta your life. Um, you’ve got that stability. So, um, you know, that’s it. It’s changed a lot, but we still have a long ways to go. Specifically when it comes to like employment opportunities. That’s like, that’s our next big hurdle. Um, something that we’re really working heavily on.
Matt: I get it. I get it. Yeah. Um, I mean, part of it is, is just ignorance, right? And just not a, [00:13:00] not an, you know, any kind of bad term ignorance, but just in not knowing. Yeah, right. Absolutely. Not knowing how to interact, not knowing maybe the right questions and Sure. And maybe it’s more about, um, you know, a person’s.
internal discomfort versus Yeah. Any potential thing that plays in that interaction. Sure.
Grant: Yeah. Um, absolutely. You know, and when, uh, we see a ton of success, um, you know, right now working with businesses locally, that’s been one of our huge pushes now that we’re kind of getting out of the pandemic. We’ve been, we had to push pause for on all sorts of, you know, amazing initiatives over the past couple of years.
Um, yeah, because of the pandemic. , you know, as we’re coming out of it, we’re starting to work with some local businesses that as soon as you, you, you know, they take on, they’re, um, I guess to back up here, they’re, we’ve got some agreements with a couple local businesses where they’re, um, having some of our staff and crews of folks that we support, uh, go in and help them out in their business and do jobs that they need to [00:14:00] have done.
Um, mm-hmm. and, uh, Enstrom candies, uh, local. local business is one of them. Power Pro Fishing line, um, is another one. And they’ve all said, you know, as soon as our folks come in and start working alongside their, uh, current employees, the staff’s morale just boosts through the roof. You know, the, their preconceived notions of what a, what a person with developmental disabilities, uh, is, goes out the window, you know, immediately, and they see how wonderful these folks are, how motivated they are, because they so badly wanna be part of our community and an equal member.
uh, they see how, how hard they try, um, how productive they are, um mm-hmm and just how it really just boosts the joy of the, uh, of the business and, you know, hear that all the time and it’s an amazing thing to hear. Um, you know, loves it. Yeah.
Matt: It’s, yeah. What a great win-win, win win win scenario. . It is for
Grant: sure,
Matt: for those that that don’t know.
Being an employer maybe, [00:15:00] uh, or um, just community member in general. Like what are, what might be some specifics, um, you know, to either an individual’s disability, are there common disabilities? Is there anything that’s can be like real specific to it? I’m just trying to see like, sure. In those specifics, could there be some potential stigma that could be broken?
Yeah.
Grant: You know, um, I mean, uh, we have a, there is a never ending variety of ways. People are different. I mean, and that’s like what we really like to stress to everybody is, I mean, they’re people. I mean, and we hate to label folks, you know, even Dubai, you know, saying, you know, developmental disability and, um, Right.
Want people disabled. But, um, you know, we, uh, we worked a lot of, uh, younger folks nowadays with, um, who are on the autism spectrum, um mm-hmm. , you know, and, uh, there’s, you know, we provide different training for our staff. Uh, when we go work with businesses, we, um, , [00:16:00] you know, they know that our staff are very well versed in, um, um, if there’s somebody were to have a behavioral type of situation, you know, if someone’s getting overwhelmed, um, like anybody does on a job, especially when you’re brand new working someplace.
Um, yeah, you know, somebody, somebody who we support may have. You know, some extra challenges when it comes to that. And our staff are so skilled at being able to help them navigate so they are successful and essential. And eventually our staff can kind of just back off and, you know, they can, our folks can just, uh, you know, they just like everybody else, they can get into their routine, um, know what’s going on and, uh, and, and do their job.
Um, yeah. But, you know, I don’t really, I’m not really sure how to answer that question fully, I guess.
Matt: Yeah. And I hear you on. I mean, there’s the autism spectrum, but there’s just this spectrum of humanity. Yeah. And you know, when I was working with the Adapter sports center up here in Cressey Butte, we would work with cognitive, um, learning disabilities and physical [00:17:00] disabilities.
And it, our language was just, you know, the. people with different abilities. Yep. And it was our job as guides to facilitate whatever type of adaptation was needed. Exactly right. Yeah. So what I’m hearing is, especially for potential employers mm-hmm. , and I think this is a really cool, and, um, even community members, like it’s just having a different approach, a different ability, and maybe an adaptation.
so I’m confirming this with you, but if, um, an individual with a different ability was coming into a place of employment mm-hmm. , there would be that staff support Sure. Especially early on. Is that, is that how that Yeah.
Grant: Gets facilitated? Yeah. We do a lot of job coaching and, you know, and our, our hope really is to, you know, um, through working with all these businesses and we’ve worked with, um, we have two real, like.
Really like grounded, centered, um, you know, businesses that we’re working with a lot right now. [00:18:00] But we have a lot of conversations with other businesses, and the whole idea would be to get these folks, these businesses to the point where they don’t really even need our support. Maybe some job coaching upfront, but eventually they’re gonna, you know, when somebody comes in to apply, whether they, you know, they have a developmental disability.
They’re not gonna question, it’s not gonna be like, uh, I don’t know. It’s, you know, like this person’s probably got a lot of stuff that they can offer us as well. Um, so it kind of gets that stigma away and. You know, PE folks with developmental disabilities are seen just like everybody else because they, I mean, it’s, it’s really eye-opening for the, for bus, the businesses we work with.
As soon as they get these folks out in their factory floor or, um, into the, you know, the milieu with the rest of their employees, like, wow, you’re like, you know, totally underestimated their abilities. Um, and just for a little example, when we started working with Power Pro, we had about six guys going in with one staff member to tackle these couple of tasks that they had for us, our.
and, um, they, they assumed it was gonna take them, [00:19:00] uh, three or four months to do it all. They knocked it outta the park in three weeks and they were like, holy cow, uh, well we need to really kind of aim higher now. , now we know like exactly what you guys are capable of. And they were just blown away. Um, you know, and these are businesses who traditionally would be using temp agencies to help fill, um, you know, voids and vacancies in their employ.
Um, so they’re using us instead of using temp agencies because they know our guys are gonna come ready to work every day, super motivated, you know, very efficient, and, um, it just makes their business better. Yeah.
Matt: What’s, what’s in it that lights you up? Like, what wakes you up in the morning when you have one of those days and you’re just like in the flow, like, that’s it.
What is it? That juices. Yeah.
Grant: So I mean, kind of just what I, what I just explained really has been one of the more rewarding things, hearing, um, you know, Enstrom Candies, which has [00:20:00] been in this town forever. Um, a huge part of this community. And to hear them say, you know, that, you know, their staff morale, I mean, is just through the roof that, you know, they’re turning over more product, they’re able to get their job.
Um, and it’s all because of the folks we support and them just giving them a chance, you know? And, uh, yesterday I had one of those moments too. Um, I met with local community college here at W C C Western Colorado Community College. Um, yeah. And also the Food Bank of the Rockies. And, um, Their willingness, um, to sit down with us, to talk about different opportunities to be partners in our community, um, you know, organizations that in the past we never would’ve thought to reach out to.
Um, whether it’s volunteer opportunities, um, or employment opportunities or getting their students to come and work and intern here, um, to be part of our organization and gain some experience from us and the folks we support. Um, [00:21:00] having more and more of those opportunities actually like come. Has been, I mean, one of the reasons why I just love coming here because people really are like, it’s taken a while to get here.
But you know, it’s as one business talks to another business or you know, uh, an organization in the community says, Hey, you know, like you’ve got this issue going on. Go give, drive a call. You know, I betcha they could help you out. I betcha they could send a crew of their folks, or they’ve got some amazing people working for ’em.
They could probably help you out. I mean, those types of things are really meaningful. And they happen more and more. That’s incredible. Great.
Matt: That’s incredible. I mean, that’s a, that’s a big shout out to you and your team and you know, the 50 years of building, right? Yeah. So how big is strive? What’s, what does a team structure look like?
Grant: Oh boy. Um, so, oh gosh, we’re. , we’re probably around like two 50, uh, for employees, 250 for employees. Uh, and we do have a lot of, uh, folks that contract with us as [00:22:00] well, our host home providers. Mm-hmm. , um, I believe we have roughly 90 of them right now. Um, so we’re a, a large organization and we help hundreds of folks here in the community.
Um, . So it’s, uh, it’s, yeah, it’s a growing organization and it’s fluctuated a bit during the pandemic. Um, and kind of as we started to ease out of providing group home services into more of the, uh, um, community-based host home services that’s become, you know, way more popular. So, as group homes have become less popular.
Um, we’ve closed a few homes down over the last couple of years, um, that we’ve turned into host homes. Um, you know, we’ve rented ’em out to people in the community who wanna be host home providers, but it’s so hard to find housing in general right now, um, out here, and it’s so expensive. Um, that we’re able to rent to our, our group homes as at a reduced rate to folks who wanna be a host home provider.
So, um, yep. Yeah.
Matt: Unplanned question really, but I’m curious was mm-hmm. , um, did Covid [00:23:00] create a number of setbacks and or were there. Unique opportunities at the same time? Yeah, I
Grant: think both. Um, I mean, one of the biggest setback, and we’re still experiencing it is, you know, having enough employees, period. Um, we’re, and we’re not, I know we’re not alone, alone in that I talk to, you know, my colleagues around town and around the state really, you know, whether it’s in the developmental disability service field or you know, folks who, uh, run, you know, larger assisted livings for seniors and things like that.
Um, everybody is struggling to have enough people. Um, Not to go down too big of a rabbit hole. Um, but, uh, and a lot of it just comes to inflation, you know, and we don’t pay enough and we can’t because we’re fully funded by the state and federal government, and we can only pay as much as they allow. They give us to pay people, you know, we do fundraising and things like that, but it doesn’t even come close to, you know, filling that real gap where we want to pay sustainable, you know, livable wages for folks.
but the [00:24:00] caregiver field is so, is so far behind. You know, when we lose people to McDonald’s, who’s paying 18 bucks an hour, starting salary, you know, target 20 bucks an hour, excuse me, things like that. Um, we just can’t compete unfortunately. But the folks that do come to work for us, they’ve got a heart of gold and you know, they do amazing work.
And, um, but yeah, that’s been the, probably the biggest setback for us, um, is, you know, not having enough employees to do absolutely everything we want to do. Like we have so many different ways that we want to grow programmatically, um, but we’re kind of stifled right now by our level of staffing. We’ll get there, it just takes longer.
Um, But, uh, yeah, that’s probably the biggest setback. I think the, uh, some of the, there’s been a lot of like weird blessings in disguise, uh, that have come from the pandemic. I’m trying to, and I know like several occasions we’ve been like, oh my gosh, like the pandemic has absolutely horrible. I’ve done ravaged the [00:25:00] world, but like these little things here and there pop up every once in a while we’re like, man, like things that you never would’ve thought of or taken the time to sit back and think about.
Um, it’s given us some space to really. Do a lot of, I think of like self-reflecting on our organization and where we want to go with it. Um, you know, when I was hired on a few years ago, I think I, I’ve been here just over four years now in this role. Um, you know, I was hired on to kind of modernize what we, how we provide our services.
Um, had a ton of, you know, passion and, you know, eagerness to get into it and then boom, the pandemic hit. And, um, instead of just jumping in, Starting to change a bunch of things right away. It forced us, you know, myself specifically, to really sit back and be like, all right, we’ve got the time. We got nothing but time right now because, you know, especially during the lockdown phases, you know, having to close down our programs and, um, push pause on so many things, it did give us the space to really think about how we wanted to move forward as an agency.[00:26:00]
Hmm.
Matt: Yeah, there’s always the unique opportunities and challenges. Um, all right. So what are you excited about for the next five to 10 years? What, what hap what’s happening at Strive 10 years from now?
Grant: 10 years from now? Boy, I would like to see this community, uh, the businesses specifically, um, hiring folks that we support off the street with very little help from us.
Um, or, you know, minimal help and getting people up and running and going, um, and us providing. , you know, more modernized programs that are 100% inclu, community inclusion based, um, and just providing amazing services. I don’t know. I mean, we, one of the, we recently cash in the last two years we purchased a local fruit business, um, that had been around in Palisade, Colorado for, gosh, 40 years I think.
Um, the family sold the business to us, so we. , more opportunities like that [00:27:00] where we’re providing those hands-on learning experiences, real world experiences. Um, you know, in this situation, folks are making amazing Colorado fruit-based, uh, jams, jellies, salsas. Uh, we dip a lot of chocolate, uh, fruit and cho dried fruit, dried fruit in chocolates, um, and, uh, all sorts of cool stuff like that and sell a ton of it.
It is unbelievably popular here. Um, more opportunities like that. I’ve got a dream. Opening up like a fancy donut shop on Main Street, . That’s my awesome, that’s my dream. I don’t know if it’s gonna happen anytime soon, but maybe 10 years, or it’s selfish because I just want like a voodoo donut to come to town, you know?
But, um, you know, , so yeah, instead of waiting for, for them, maybe we’d open up one ourselves and create some opportunities. I think it’s a
Matt: brilliant idea. Brilliant. Um, grant, I knew you would have a heart of gold and, uh, I was excited to chat with you. I had no idea [00:28:00] how absolutely large strive is and, um, the influence that that has on a community is, is powerful.
So, um, you know, thank you for your dedication there and, you know, to your. , incredibly large staff. I’m just impressed. It’s awesome. Thanks. Yeah,
Grant: it’s a great place. Um, for,
Matt: yeah, for businesses and community members that want to get in touch, get involved. How do we do
Grant: that? Um, you can go to our website, strive Colorado dot or g um, that’s the best way to do it and it should have all sorts of good information for, uh, if you wanna get in touch with myself, my, uh, phone number and my email address should be on.
Along with a few of my staff members and my leadership team. Um, it’s got, we’re gonna be doing a pretty big overhaul on up here pretty soon. Um, but it’s gonna have even more updated information on, um, all of our programs and, um, what we really do. And we just bought a really awesome fancy video camera that are the folks that we support.
Nice. Our learning how to [00:29:00] use and, um, nice. Going to be making a lot of marketing videos, recruiting videos, and uh, showing the awesome things we do. So it’s gonna be super, super exciting. Wonderful.
Matt: Um, would you be able to highlight your top one to three needs?
Grant: Oh boy. Right now, uh, top need would be staff.
We, we need staff for sure. Um, you know, we’ve got, um, like I said, an amazing group of folks who that do work for us. And, uh, you know, they’re putting in a lot of extra time to make the cool things happen that we do, um, and provide all the amazing supports. But, um, staffing, we need some, you know, funding. If you ask a nonprofit and they don’t, yeah, like, what, what do you need?
And they don’t say funding. They’re gonna, that’s a. It’s a lot , you know? Um, no, I don’t know. I mean, and just, I mean, we need the community to be behind, um, not just strive, but there’s other agencies in our, in our area that do very similar things to us. We all kind of have our own niche, um, and we mm-hmm. , we support each other like crazy as well.
[00:30:00] Um, great, great support system here, um, that we really appreciate and. We just, you know, needing the community to get behind all of our efforts and, um, just be super accepting of the folks we support just like everybody else. Yeah.
Matt: Love it. Well, I appreciate our conversation and um, you know, we’ll certainly do our part to push this around and see what kind of awareness and support we can drum up.
And, um, again, you know, I’m super impressed. I’m glad that we were able to connect. I look forward to future conversations. Grant,
Grant: thank you so much. Thanks Matt for having me. Really appreciate it.