An Army of Normal Folks - Jane Borochoff: Special Olympics for Jobs (Pt 2)

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

After marrying her husband whose son Bradley has an intellectual & developmental disability (IDD), Jane heroically gave up her own job to try to help train him for one. In our broken culture where 66% of adults like Bradley are not employed, Jane’s nonprofit called The H.E.A.R.T. Program has broken the mold and helped more than 1,000 adults with IDDs operate 90 vending machines, concession stands at Rockets and Texans games, and achieve their full potential. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal Folks and we continue now with part two of our conversation with Jane Borkov right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey everyone, it's Sophia Bush, host of podcast work in progress. I am thrilled to tell you that work in progress is back for a third season. My friends, it has never been more important than right now for us to have all of these big conversations. Together we are going to get educated, a little bit enlightened, and we will definitely be

entertained. I started work in progress because I'm a curious person and I realized there are so many people I get to speak to that are fascinating and rare. And so I thought, why not take these conversations out into the world? I'm going to be having deep chats with thought leaders, news makers, celebrities, entertainers, authors, elected officials, and more. You can join us and listen to work in progress on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The celebrity memoir holds up a mirror to society, don't you think? Oh, I couldn't agree more. It's why we started our podcast, Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. What's the name of the podcast? I want to write it down my notes up. It's called Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. It's the podcast where we read celebrity memoirs. Total guilty pleasures.

And then synthesize probing cultural and social analyses from the text. From the season, I'm sorry to you, Lizzie's us-grand. From Jessica Simpson to historical figures like Helen Keller. Isn't that just a delicious mix of high-brow and low? But don't take our word for it. A little magazine called The New Yorker. Everhood of it. Call celebrity book club, Gidey or Bane delectable Patter. If the pattern isn't delectable, honey, it isn't pattern.

The New York Times. Excuse me? Says it's like Eve's dropping on two best friends as they share a bottle of wine. Why drink wine when you can listen to it? Listen to celebrity book club with Stephen and Lily on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Sarah Jigs Roberts, host of Woman Evolve podcast. You may also know me as a pastor, author, wife, mother, business woman, and leader. Women are shattering glass ceilings that once limited their ability to dream, grow, and change the world. Well as the definition of womanhood continues to advance, so does the woman's need to connect and assess where she fits in this ever-changing world around her? No longer do women have to choose between family or career since you can have it all. You're already superwoman on your own, but imagine how transformative things could be if you allowed yourself the opportunity to embrace

Sisterhood. Well over here, we encourage each other. We hold each other accountable. We teach each other and we cast out the spirit of shame. Through honest conversations, sermons, and interviews with other dynamic women, my goal is to empower women around the world to elevate to the best versions of themselves. So girl, get up and listen to the Woman Evolved Podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. I heart radio at Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. So, you create an acronym?

Yeah, and when you talked about the heart in that story, it's really, we made it an acronym, but we called it hard because we were starting it from our hearts. And... Yeah, the metaphor was not lost on me. I don't think, yeah, get it, for sure. It turned out to be a terrible name for a business, because I will tell you, we opened the doors on a program February 1 of 2006, right?

And we had a, probably 1,500 square foot facility that we were renting. It was myself. I had hired a program manager. I hired a special education certified teacher. I hired an aide at the time. What you hired them with? So we had gotten a grant from the city of Houston to create this program.

It was $300,000 for startup funds. We had been working on the grant since 2005. The idea was at that time, when we started, that we were gonna be a continuing education program. One because high schools over like we talked about. So a vote pack. A vote pack where people with special needs almost trying to teach some type of job skills.

Right. And remember that yeah, job skills became two, but one at that time was the twins were in college. Bradley's the big brother. And at that time, everything he's saying to us every day is, when do I get to go to college? I'm the big brother, right? So this was nice. When do I get to go? When do I get to go? And there was nothing out there. So we said, we'll have a teacher. And here's the other thing though. How do they continue to learn? Right? We are lifelong learners. I'm a lifelong learner. My mom was a lifelong learner.

We talked about that. We can take a lifelong learner. We talked about that We can take continuing education classes. We can watch the history channel instead of E.T. If we want to learn something, right? We can pick up a book and like any human when you quit learning the option then is the option the If you're not learning you're atch-fing is the option, if you're not learning your atch thing. Right. And why? And that literally happens with people's special needs. And why?

Why do we assume that they're going to stop learning just because they've aged out of high school and they're 22? I shouldn't. There's no other time in our, the way our world is configured, right? That they can continue to get education. And so if no one's teaching them how are they going to learn, Bradley can't just read the back of the cereal box when he's eating breakfast and learn something new. If we're not taking that time to teach him, but he wants to learn, he wants to learn more words

that he can read, he wants to be able to write his name better even today. So that was the first idea of heart was that it would be a place where these individuals could continue to learn even after they were out of high school, that they'd have a place where they could go and there'd be a teacher there, even though it's not a school, right? They don't get teacher retirement, they're just working for this teeny tiny nonprofit organization in Houston, but we have always since that day had someone certified in special education, actually teaching individuals in our program. And then the second thing was what you're alluding to,

which is the jobs, Bradley wanted to have a job. And I couldn't figure out anyone that would ever hire him to paint pottery and do those kinds of things. And so we were trying to think about what were some jobs, some vocations, some things that we could involve them in or teach them that could lead to them becoming employed. And as I mentioned, our family grew up in working in the restaurants. Bob worked in the restaurants, the twins worked in the restaurants.

Bradley was always there. I was eating in the restaurants. I never worked in the restaurants. I was the I was the taster I don't forget you found love because of homemade mushrooms. Well, right so But Bradley would do things in the restaurant. He would roll silverware or he would You know help out with different things and I said to Bob one time, you know, could probably be hired to do this. And he says, well, it doesn't really make financial sense, right? Because the waiters who are late to work, they have to roll the silverware. And for everybody listening, that's called side work. And if you're a waiter and you're

late or you do something wrong, the manager will put extra side work on you, but they're not going to pay anybody to do it. Exactly. It doesn't make sense. It's really part of the job description. Side work. Exactly. You know, Bradley can fold a pizza box. But if I call in to order a pizza and I want it to be half gluten free and half extra cheese and anchovies on this side, but not that side. Bradley, make him a pizza. How's he get, right? And so, but a pizza place has, you know, probably three people on the staff, right? The one that's doing the order,

the one that's cooking the food, and the one that's delivering everything. And so where does Bradley fit in there if he's not able to drive, if he can't take the order, and the order's too complicated for him to cook? One time Ben stole his sister's car. No, no. What one night do you not want a person with

special needs driving around a car? Halloween. That would be the night. Oh no. Found them two and a half hours later for counties northwest of here. So he's a good driver. Well, he didn't kill anybody that night, so he's an adequate driver. Wow. Yeah. Um, he wanted to go for a ride. Yeah. So anyway, I agree, Ben does not need to deliver pizzas because he could only take rights. And look, there are lots of people with disabilities and developmental disabilities who do drive, um, Bradley, because of his seizures, you know, even if he could learn to drive because sometimes he drives golf carts and things like that. Obviously, we're not going to put it behind the wheel. But then did teach me one thing, because he can only, literally,

he could only take rights, and he could only take rights. It sounds like when I learned how to drive. Well, the point is, I'd go all around the neighborhoods of Brunham, Texas to make sure I never had to turn turn. Well, if he wanted to go left, he would figure out how to take three rights. It's kind of how he did the math. Three rights is a left. Exactly. And this guy figured out if he wanted to go over there, he'd go up to go right to right to right and then go cross. Anyway, we all almost had a heart attack. And we found him in the

Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office and the sheriff's were nice enough to buy him a big Mac. He was sitting on the hallway, eating a big Mac. He left the convenience store and by the time he'd hit the street from the convenience store parking lot, he was doing about 40 and a cop thought he'd just rob the convenience store because he was driving so fast out and the car hit the curb and bounced up in the air. And the sheriff pulled him over and he said he was lost. And of course by then there was an APB out for him

because yeah, and so they knew exactly who was. And when we got up there, literally he was sitting in the hallway, grinning near your ear, happy as a pig and slop with a big Mac with a sheriff on him. There are a thousand Ben stories, but needless say, we're trying to figure out what these kids can do and what you can train them in heart, and it's not going to be delivered to pieces. Right. And so one of our teachers had this idea of doing vending machines, And I know it sounds interesting.

Originally, we didn't think this would be any type of a job. She had the idea because what she found when we started the program is great. We know it's great that we're going to continue to teach them. And they're going to get continuing education. Guess what? They're 22, 23 year old grown people that are kind of tired of school. You know, I've been in school since I was three years old and I don't want to count bunnies on a sheet of paper anymore, right? And so she figured out that if she told them we're going to learn

how to work, they would perk up. And if she could teach them how to count lace potato chips or snickers instead of bunnies on a page, right? Or if she could teach them what a great teacher. How many exactly. And so if you're filling a vending machine, let's say it's a drink machine and let's say you've got bottles of water in there and you need to figure out how many bottles of water they drank, right, or empty, so that you know how many because you don't want to go to the van and unload three cases of water and do all that work, and you really only need half a case, right? And so they have to do math and they have to they have to learn how to do that. And so for some of the people that were in the heart program, it was as simple as they couldn't read Sprite,

but they knew it was a green can. Okay, so green cans go here, orange cans go there. For others, they were learning how to calculate cases. We had some that could actually take dollar bills and count them up to 100 and help get a bank deposit ready. Because you know, you put products in the machines, you take cash money out of the machines, ask go to the bank. And we ended up as part of the 501c3 nonprofit heart, getting a DBA for heart vending. And-

And- And- And we had a couple of members of our board of directors and parents who said their company would take a vending machine Coca-Cola gave us six machines to start out with Rent-free is what they called it and we ended up getting a dozen the first year They were rent-free leases so we didn't have to come out any money They put the machines there and you kept them stock and collect them and we'd yeah, and we would do that. And, and so that was also the entrepreneurship piece of it because they

were involved with every aspect of the business, whether it was, you know, going to Sam's or Costco and, and buying the products and then bring it back. And he has a bunch of those things. Yeah. And he also owns some car washes. He tells me they're actually really profitable. I mean, I bet y'all made decent money doing it for the kids in the program. That was the shocking thing. Now back then, you're talking 2007. We were selling coaks for 50 cents a can

and we were still making money. I couldn't actually believe it because we were doing it as a teaching thing. He really wasn't No revenue source. We put these machines out there because now we had people that were trained to do it and they wanted to do it. And we had one little machine in our facility, but they wanted to go and do it. Yeah, they want to screw it that one.

Let's go out and do it. And guess what? We were paying them all the federal minimum wage, which at the time was 5, 15 and out. You could afford to pay everybody minimum wage. For the hours they were working, right? No kidding. Yeah, so we just started doing that, paying them the minimum wage, which at the time was 515 an hour. You could afford to pay everybody minimum wage. For the hours they were working, right? No kidding. Yeah, so we just started doing that paying them the minimum wage. And so you would drive them and then they would handle machines.

Exactly. And we'd go with them and supervise them, make sure if they had a seizure, you know, we knew the protocol and everything. And we'd get them into the lobby or the break room. And I could tell you all kinds of funny stories. Well, I want to hear a story about how a kid with, again, cerebral palsy or something that their dexterity with their hands aren't exactly right. How, how do they fill a vending machine? Yeah. So I'll tell you a story about, about one young man in particular, and we'll just call

him LA. That's his nickname. And he's, he's exactly as you describe. He's a person who uses a wheelchair. He can't talk very much, which is what we refer to sometimes as being non-verbal. He can only use his left hand, right? His wheels, his feet are basically just there right over the wheels of the wheelchair and his right hand. He's not really able to use. And we thought that, you know, how, how are we gonna teach him this? And what we did was we developed teams. So everywhere we went, we would have a team. So if you open up, let's say again, a drink machine, you open it up, if you've never seen

the inside of a drink machine, right? It's just columns columns and every column has a different product in it probably. So like, if you're a customer to the button, you push the button. And so in that column, you've got cans or bottles that are kind of stacked up in there. So that they'll, you know, gradually go down. And so when you go to refill the machine, some of them are going to be really low if it's sold out. If it's a product no one liked or it was stuck or something like that.

Yeah, so the root peers way up here because nobody likes it. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Right. So we would build teams. Which makes a question why we can just fill the whole machine with dot code. That's for another go ahead. Oh, I could tell you so many things about that. Well, I... um, so we'd have a team. So we'd have somebody that was really tall and maybe somebody that was not

so tall, we'd have somebody that could maybe write and help fill out the paperwork and maybe somebody that reading and writing wasn't their gym, right? We put together a team. Now, that's not how you or I would start a vending machine company. No, we do it by ourselves. We'd load up a truck, we put all the stuff, we'd hit 10 sites in a day, right? And we'd make money. That's not the way heart was doing it, right? We were taking three people, plus a teacher who was also the driver, right?

And chauffeur them to the site and assist them with doing the job. Watching people with special needs, feel fulfilled. But when we figured out after, you know, a year of doing this that, yeah, we paid them all minimum wage, they, we could pay to repair the machines when they broke. We still had money at the end of the year to buy more machines and buy snack. You were saying something about LA. So LA on the team, we took him out on the team,

and I'll never forget this because it was the first time that a local TV station came out to cover what we were doing. Oh boy. And he really wanted to go. That could be good or bad. We had a competition at heart to see who was going to get to go because we're only going to take three people on the team. And so we had a competition and we had winning machine Olympics.

And so they had to move the dolly around the little obstacle course that we made. We did races to see how fast that they could put, you know, cans and our chips or whatever it was. So we had all these, you know, events in the winning machine Olympics and then the people that came out on top, those were the three that got to go. And LA was one of them. I mean, he worked really hard. He wanted to go.

He wanted it to be him. And so I went out there personally because we're going to be on TV and everything. And I was thinking to myself, how is this going to work? And the way we had trained them was that LA would fill on the lower sides. His wheelchair could could rise. It had the pneumatics and so it could rise. And so he would start out filling what he could fill. So somebody on the team hands him the can to his hand that he's using.

And then he puts it in the machine and then they hand it to him and he puts, so someone else is bending over and doing the handing and then he's loading the machine and they're working as a team. And then when it gets to the part that he can't reach anymore after putting his seat all the way up. And the next person comes in and does the rest, right? And we had we'd been doing that a lot of time. So we get there and everything's going great.

Everything's going exactly as we've practiced, the cameras are rolling, and he gets to that can where that's the highest he can reach, and he's really kind of struggling to get it in. And so we say, okay, great. Now it's this other guy's turn, right? And he won't let go of the can. He won't let go of it. It's like clenched and he won't let go of it.

And he keeps saying, doing like this, you know, he's making motions like he wants to go higher. And we're sending, they're going, you know, we're checking his wheelchair to see if it'll go any higher, it won't go any higher. And he's refusing to move, he's refusing to let go of this can, he's refusing to let the other person do it. And so he keeps saying, you know, he wants to go higher. And so finally, two of us get around his chair and we lift him up. And this is a really heavy motorized wheelchair. We get it barely off the ground, but just enough that he could get that cannon. And then he was fine. He wanted to finish the job.

He wanted to do the very best he could do. He didn't want. If that story doesn't speak to the innate humanity of the folks we're talking about, that people so easily gloss right over and just assume doesn't exist inside that body. There's, there's, and I think about that. There's such a lack of awareness of the ability and what's going on cognitively in these folks minds and heads and hearts and psyches. And what is achievement and what is doing your best, You know, and I think about that a lot when we all have those moments where we feel like

we're out of energy, there's nothing more we can do, we've done everything we can do, we can't go to work that day or can't face whatever is ahead of us. And I think about LA and everything that he had to go through just to be there and everything he had to overcome and just him wanting to do one more. And I think to myself, yeah, I can do. I can do a little bit more. That's the way our own. It's gotta be worth the effort. Yeah. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. The celebrity memoir holds up a mirror to society, don't you think?

Oh, I couldn't agree more. It's why we started our podcast, Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. What's the name of the podcast? I want to write it down in my notes app. It's called Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. It's the podcast where we read celebrity memoirs. Total guilty pleasures. And then synthesize probing cultural and social analyses from the text.

From Azizan Sorry to Lissi's Us Grand. From Jessica Simpson to historical figures like Helen Keller. Isn't that just a delicious mix of high-brown love? But don't take our word for it. A little magazine called The New Yorker. Everhood of it. Call celebrity book club, Gidey or Bane delectable pattern. If the pattern is intellectual, honey, it isn't pattern. The New Yorker, called Celebrity Book Club, Gidey or Bane delectable Patter.

If the pattern isn't delectable, honey, it isn't pattern. The New York Times. Excuse me? It says it's like Eve's dropping on two best friends as they share a bottle of wine. Why drink wine when you can listen to it? Listen to Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Sarah Jakes Roberts, host of Woman Evolve Podcast.

You may also know me as a pastor, author, wife, mother, business woman, and leader. Women are shattering glass ceilings that once limited their ability to dream, grow, and change the world. Well, as the definition of womanhood continues to advance, so does the woman's need to connect and assess where she fits in this ever-changing world around her. No longer do women have to choose between family or career, since you can have it all. You're already superwoman on your own, but imagine how transformative things could be if you allowed yourself the opportunity to embrace sisterhood. Well, over here, we encourage each other.

We hold each other accountable. We teach each other and we cast out the spirit of shame. Through honest conversations, sermons, and interviews with other dynamic women, my goal is to empower women around the world to elevate to the best versions of themselves. So girl, get up and listen to the Woman Evolved podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network. I heart radio at Apple Podcasts

or wherever you get your podcast. Hey everyone, it's Sophialush host of podcast work in progress. I am thrilled to tell you that work in progress is back for a third season. My friends it has never been more important than right now for us to have all of these big conversations. Together we are going to get educated, a little bit enlightened, and we will definitely be entertained. I started work in progress because I'm a curious person, and I realized there are so many people I get to speak to that are fascinating and rare. And so I thought, why not take these conversations out into the world?

I'm gonna be having deep chats with thought leaders, news makers, celebrities, entertainers, authors, elected officials, and more. You can join us and listen to work in progress on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. So, you graduate from Vendingending machines to something else? Right.

So after we realized we could make money off of these vending machines, not a lot of money, but a light bulb went off where I realized, okay, so people who have vending machine companies are doing this for a profit. And what we're basically doing is we're getting a profit too, but we're spending that profit on all of our additional costs, the cost of driving them around, the cost of having the supervisor. And so I thought, well, what if we could look at other businesses? You know, think about a restaurant business, for example.

And if we could find a business that had, you know, enough of a profit, if you will, that if it was run right, we could use that profit to pay for the special education teacher and so on. At the same time, our teachers were saying that they wanted to do more customer service, because even though the vending machine training was great, the human interaction was missing. Right. What vending machine company was really going to hire them at the completion of this training. That's a good point. And so we knew customer service was really going to hire them at the completion of this training. That's a good point. And so we knew customer service was really good.

Which was back to the genesis of this, the 46 year old parent going, what am I going to do of any machine company, it's not going to harm because they can't drop the delivery truck and all those things. Yeah. So it's a cool thing that heart was doing. And if you like the idea that Bradley and Ben could work there, get a gold watch and retire. Right. But are they going to get a job outside of heart, which was what we were also working towards. And so we started out just taking the same products that we would take in a vending machine.

And again, I have to credit the teacher for thinking of this. So we would take a snickers bar and a granola bar and, you know, soda pop and a bottle of water. And we'd set up a table outside of a grocery store and just teach them how to, you know, sell the dishes. Like girls go cookies. Like girls go cookies. Everything's a dollar back then. So someone gives you five dollars.

How do you make change? How do you interact? You know, how do you do all those things? And we had a member of our board who saw that we were doing this and said, you know, I'm a big golfer and I'm involved out of the PGA tour in Houston, the at the time was sponsored by Shell, so it was the Shell Houston Open. And they have charities at all the holes during the tournament. You know, it's the boosters and the Knights of Columbus and everybody and they're out there.

I wonder if they would let heart go out there. But instead of it being the boosters and the money going back to the organization, if you could do it as an employment type of program, and that could be their job. So they set up the meeting. We talked to them. Liability came up. All these things, it's outdoors. It's uneven terrain.

It's on a golf course. It could rain, it's Houston, it could be windy, it could be cold, it could be hot, you know, all these things. And finally, we came up with the parameters of how we would do it, they said you have to follow all the health inspection rules and everything we said we will, we're gloves and hats and hair nets and the whole thing. And we'll be in there too, you know, we'll be making sure this works. it's the whole thing. And we'll be in there too. You know, we'll be making sure this works.

We had the highest sales of any group out there for the entire tournament in the history of the tournament. So much so that the guy that owned the concession company personally came out to watch what we were doing because he couldn't figure out how we were making so much money out of a 10 by 10. And the next day, he kicked whoever was on the 18th and moved us to the 18th.

That's where we've been ever since. Is on the 18th, the highest volume one. That is hilarious. Because we would say, you would walk up, what happens when you go buy some mannequin session? You say, oh, you know what, I want a hot dog. Oh, a hot dog and dot coke and wears a mustard. And they say, 952, they throw it at you and take your money

and the person behind you. Right and the volunteers has to go get the hot dog and then go get the soda and all this kind of stuff and then you're going to say oh I'm throwing a bag of chips. So what did we do? We had a whole army of people in there right an army of normal people with disabilities. Nice plug. Well done. Just there to focus on this activity. And so you come up and say, I want a hot dog. And we've got a guy in charge of hot dog. He hears hot dog. Boom.

There's a hot dog. You know what? The hot dog. Right. I want chips. It's on. It's on. Right.

And not only that, but the hot dog team, they were actually preparing the hot dogs. So the hot dogs come in. They put it in the bun. They wrap it in foil, right? They're icing down, they're icing down, the drinks, you know, beer soda, whatever's in the booth. We even had a guy that wanted to put Snickers in the refrigerator. And let me tell you, when it gets hot and Houston, that turned out to be a big hit. We were selling out of our cold Snickers for two dollars each. But you come up to the booth and you say, you know what, I want a hot dog. Boom, it's there. Give me a couple beers. Boom, they're there.

And Bradley sitting there clicking the tops off of them. And we were moving customers through so fast. And even though we almost never had a line and all these other ones had lines, we were just doing more volume. And then word got out and people were coming to our booth because it was faster. You don't want to have to wait in line. Go to the 18th. Yeah, it was faster. A heartbeat. Exactly. And not only that, but our stuff was actually better quality.

Because when you sell the hot dogs, they have to bring you some more from the commissary. So they're fresh. And when you go through the beer, it gets cold because you just put it on ice. Is anybody getting irony that the special needs people were out working all of the quote, normal folks. It opened so many doors because after that we got inside the Toyota Center which is the NBA basketball arena. Where the Houston Rockets play. Where the Houston Rockets play. And you way to get a

concession stand in there. We did. And from there we got one at the NRG stadium which is where the NFL team and the Houston Life Suck Show in rodeo happens, and all of a sudden we had a thriving concessions, and we changed our DBA to heart vending and concessions. I'll be damned. And we were able to employ hundreds of people through those enterprises, and many of them have now gone on to be hired by Papa John's Pizza, by Starbucks, by the venues themselves. So ultimately, it worked. It is working. It's a challenge every day,

and I will say the thing that works the most that I've learned in these years is really not the skill acquisition. So what I mean by that is people think, I don't know if I could hire Bradley because I don't know if he could hire Bradley because I don't know if he could learn how to do the hot dog or make the pizza or do this or that. But the real reason that they're not hiring him is actually just because they don't know

anything about him and it's a big unknown. It's a big unfamiliarity and they just don't know how they would teach their life. Some things are great, the stairs at Walmart. Right. So by having them in these venues working side by side with the cooks at the Toyota Center or the Papa John's employees, they prove themselves. They see them and they see, guess what, they're there all the time. They never miss. When Papa John's, we did a partnership with Papa John's franchise locally during the Super Bowl.

They sponsored the Houston Super Bowl and the exclusive pizza that was sold at the stadium during the Super Bowl was Papa John's. The owner of that franchise called me and said, Jane, how many heart people can you give me? I thought we weren't going to get to send anyone because everybody wants to work at the Super Bowl, you know. How many can you send me? Yeah, and I said, well, how many booths can we have? You said you can have all of them. I would rather have what was all of them. How many?

So there were probably over 10 booths in the stadium that were selling. And each needed four or five. Well, now, okay. If you and I were working there, the two of us could run a booth. Heart takes five people, right? 50 people. Because we've got one person folding the boxes, one person that's just on pepperoni, right?

One person that's working the oven, right? One person doing cheese and the supervisor, right? That's kind of making sure they're all doing their jobs. And he said, I'd rather have heart than any of my other workers. And I said, why? And he said, I know you're gonna be on of my other workers. And I said, why? And he said, I know you're going to be on time. I know they're going to have the right uniforms.

He said, this is a marketing deal for me. I want those pizzas to look good. For what I'm paying to be at the Super Bowl, I'm probably not going to make any money on selling it $8 pizza. But if Chrissy Teigen snaps a picture of the pizza and puts it on Instagram, and that pizza doesn't look according to my brand standards, right? That's not good. And the heart employees, he said, I know they're going to make a perfect pizza. If they're like Ben, if you say Ben, I want a pepperoni every two and a half inches around and you can only put four, but they have to be in this area.

Ben will stare at that thing and make sure those pepperonis or whatever are exactly where they're supposed to be. He is like, and he will absolutely just, I could see him do it right now. How he would just imagine that's how it is. And they've gotten such positive reinforcement. Now, how he would just, I imagine that's how your goals are. And they've gotten such positive reinforcement. So after they work event after event, game after game, and they've mastered the skill, and then they see people come in and go,

wow, that's a good looking pizza or good job. They don't hear that the rest of their lives. I can tell you, I go places with Bradley, goes everywhere I go, nobody goes up to him and says, great job. What a good looking shirt. Nice shoes. But they go to work and they're really doing a good job. They get real positive like actual reinforcement. Not just from us, right?

But from the Papa John's employees, but the other people that are working there are telling them, wow, good job. That's really great. You know, you're working so hard. Do you look really sharp today? The same things you would wow, good job. That's really great. You're working so hard. Do you look really sharp today? The same things you would tell any good employee. And they hear that and then it makes them want to do better.

So I will tell you, there have been games where I'll go to work. And I'll be one of the supervisors in the booth. And maybe we fall behind on the pizza production. And I'll jump in and I'll just try to like, catch us up. And the heart employees will look at me and say, Miss Jane, that's not correct. Cause I'll just be slapping the pepperonis on it trying to get them in the oven.

Our pizza and they they will insist, you know, that that quality control happens that the pepperoni have to go exactly where the pepper to go. And it bothers them if they're not there. And so trying to catch up isn't that going to work? We have to do it the right way. And they enforce those standards. And to the point that the head of the franchise says, I trust my brand to the people that work at heart at the Super Bowl, one of the biggest events in the world. I trust my brand to you guys more than any of my other employees. And I think that just speaks volumes. It says everything, really.

I can, I have to also imagine that the fulfillment that the heart employees, our people with special needs, heart employees, the fulfillment they get from feeling like they're doing something that contributes is significant and improving their lives. They get such pride when they put on that Papa John shirt or they put on, you know, they're not wearing heart branded, you know, uniforms. Right. They're wearing the uniform of wherever it is that they're working. If they're working at Starbucks, it's, you know, it's the Starbucks get up. If they're working at Starbucks, it's just, you know, the Starbucks get up if they're working at Papa Johns. It's the

shirt and the hat. And when they can go to people and say, I, you know, what do you do? Well, I work at Papa Johns because what do we do in this country when we meet somebody? What do you do? What do you do? Right. Bradley never had an answer to that. Now he does. And now he does. And so does everyone that participates in the program. And some of these other employment programs that I've seen while I think they're great, they're different from what we do, but they're not bad. But they're not sort of jobs that are commonly known. They're not household brands. They're not internationally known companies. And so, if someone has to say, well, my job is putting the foam on the coat hanger at the

dry cleaners. You know, you start explaining what your job is at your family barbecue or picnic. You don't have to explain how work at Papa Johns. Right. But when you're at your family barbecue or picnic and someone says, so what have you been doing? And you say, oh, I work at Papa Johns. And they light up and go, oh, you work at Papa Johns.

Which is even more positive. And they feed off of that, that, that acknowledgement of, oh, you work at Papa John's, which is even more positive and they feed off of that that acknowledgement of oh you do that or they watch TV and they see the and I'm and I'm just Just staying with the Papa John's right but just to stay with that example But yeah, they'll see it on TV and they and they identified that's where I work and whoever's watching TV with them is oh you work there and It's something that that is real. It's life changing. And it makes them feel just included. It really is life change for their psyche, for their, for their self-value.

And not all of the, all of the top of the pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this reaches that for people who otherwise would never feel that. And all this time we've been talking about all of the wonderful benefits to these individuals of having these opportunities and what if we not talked about they get paid. They get money. They give money. And it's significant. So in this country, it's still legal to pay people with disabilities below the federal minimum wage. What? Yes. How did I not know that? Well, I'm glad you don't know that. And I hope a lot of other business owners don't know that, but it is a law on the books. There is some movement. Well, let me hold it. I'm, I'm, I'm, let me digest what you just said.

I do believe there's a lot of stupid stuff that goes on in our country and it comes from both sides of the aisle. I do also believe the genesis of the vast majority of it is typically well-intentioned. So let me be, and this is first blush, so maybe don't shoot me here, but I really didn't know that and I'm just thinking out loud Maybe that's it. That was a well intention thing and

order that people with special needs could get a job that they might set up some businesses where their job is to do a some businesses where their job is to do a job that you wouldn't pay a full-time employee to do, but you might pay two or three special needs people to do. And if you could pay them less than minimum wage, it allows you as a business owner to support that. I think you're right about the intention of it. I think so. So speak to the fallacy of it. Right. So in the years that have followed and what we see in the

employment data is that that's not how it's being utilized. Right. So private companies that are employing individuals, there've been a number of high profile, you know, exposés of basically exploitation, right? And what you end up with is all these nonprofit organizations and really large ones, like Goodwill used to do this, for example, using these to create work for people, but it wasn't ever work that would ever really pay the minimum wage. So you're not creating a job that is actually a real job. You're

creating kind of, you know, like we're in a busy work and they're getting the slower wage. And so you have people that spend all day shredding paper or shredding money and getting, you know, pennies per day. There was one step. What is the difference? Do you know? So what you have to do if you're going to follow the difference in, the difference in the wage and the... And what the individual gets. It varies. So what you have to do is what's called a time study, and you have to file it with the Department of Labor, and kind of how it works is if we say minimum wage right now where

I live is 725 an hour, right? So if we do a time study, and so I fill up a vending machine, and I can do a whole vending machine in an hour. Okay. So one vending machine is equal to 725. And then you've never done it before, but you're just way faster than me and you could do it in half an hour. Right. So you can pay him 387. And then you get another person and it takes them, you know, let's say two hours to do it. another person and it takes them, you know, let's say two hours to do it. So you average it together and you say, okay, the average person, right, can do X amount per hour. So then if it takes a person with a disability a week to get it done, that can literally

pay him like 50 cents an hour. They could sometimes they were getting 8 cents an hour, 11 cents an hour. Oh, see, now forget what I said about well intention. That is now abuse. It really just depended on what the task was and how the time study was done and then how the people with disabilities were managed, right? If you put them in front of a TV and just say, Shared as much as you can, how much are they really, you know, if they're just putting one sheet in at a time, kind of thing. And so, and so that's how it's been used. And look, there's other examples where I think people would tell you and parents would tell you that it does still create a place where they're willing to go.

It creates a place for folks to go that have no other options. Right. And it has something meaningful that's not daycare and it's not like a retirement place. Right. They're doing something and they're probably learning a skill. The cool thing about heart, though, being kind of a disruptor and being kind of like the new kid on the block

is that we just never did that. We just never even applied for the DOI. We just started out paying minimum wage and we never stopped. A minimum wage kept going up and we just kept going up and it just worked and now we don't even have anyone making minimum wage that are all paid higher than that. That is for now. I mean, the lowest person right now is probably making 8 an hour minimum wage is 725, but we have people making 15, 16, 17.

See Alex, if this gig doesn't work out, maybe Hardle hired you because you make 8 bucks an hour. I mean, it's better than Wage, Alex. We're not getting paid right now. That's good. That's good. That's really good. Better what we're making.

Well, you can always come to Hard. It's an open invitation. We'll be right back. The celebrity memoir holds up a mirror to society, don't you think? Oh, I couldn't agree more. It's why we started our podcast, Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. What's the name of the podcast? I want to write it down in my notes app. It's called Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily.

It's the podcast where we read celebrity memoirs. Total guilty pleasures. And then synthesize probing cultural and social analyses from the text. From Azizan Sorry to Lissi's Us Grand. From Jessica Simpson to historical figures like Helen Keller. Isn't that just a delicious mix of high-brown low? But don't take our word for it.

A little magazine called The New Yorker. Everhood of it. Call celebrity book club Gidey or Bane Delectable Pattern. If the pattern isn't electable, honey, it isn't pattern. The New York Times. Excuse me? Says it's like Eve's dropping on two best friends

as they share a bottle of wine. Why drink wine when you can listen to it? Listen to Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Sophia Bush, host of Podcast Work in Progress. I am thrilled to tell you that Work in Progress is back for a third season. My friends, it has never been more important than right now for us to have

all of these big conversations. Together we are going to get educated, a little bit enlightened, and we will definitely be entertained. I started work in progress because I'm a curious person, and I realized there are so many people I get to speak to that are fascinating and rare. And so I thought, why not take these conversations out into the world? I'm going to be having deep chats with thought leaders, newsmakers, celebrities, entertainers, authors, elected officials, and more. You can join us and listen to work in progress on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi, I'm Sarah Jakes Roberts, host of Woman Evolve podcast. You may also know me as a pastor, author, wife, mother, business woman, and leader. Women are shattering glass ceilings that once limited their ability to dream, grow and change the world. Well, as the definition of womanhood continues to advance, so does the woman's need to connect and assess where she fits in this ever-changing world around her.

No longer do women have to choose between family or career since you can have it all. You're already super woman on your own, but imagine how transformative things could be if you allowed yourself the opportunity to embrace sisterhood. Well over here, we encourage each other. We hold each other accountable.

We teach each other and we cast out the spirit of shame. Through honest conversations, sermons, and interviews with other dynamic women, my goal is to empower women around the world to elevate to the best versions of themselves. So girl, get up and listen to the Woman Evolve podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network. I heart radio at Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I cannot imagine that there is not a parent that has a child that is a person with special needs in the entire Houston area that does not want their kid into this organization and there has got to be a limit on what your organization is able to do. Is there waiting list? I mean, tell

me what that looks like. Sure. So as it's grown, we haven't been able to grow and keep up with the pace. The waiting list just in Houston, not even Harris County right now. The last time I looked was over 11,000 people. Waiting to get in. Which when you think about it, these are people who are adults, who are not in school, right? And they probably don't have any program at all.

And so. And it's a matter of having enough volunteers and teachers. Right, exactly. And. So called arms Houston. I mean How many times have I heard I would love to help? I don't know where to help. Well A heart could use you. There's 11,000 people in need waiting Exactly, and if you can be a volunteer and just give some time you know We have volunteers that come and help out,

for example, the rocket's game. It's five hours shift. The rockets play sometimes on Monday night, sometimes Wednesday, sometimes Friday, sometimes the weekend. If they play three nights, well, let's say an NBA team plays, I think 42 home games a year, right?

You can look at that calendar. You can talk about 200 hours a year. Or just pick one. Pick one and get your family or friends or people in your place of worship, get a group together or four or five people, and come and adopt the booth for one game. And by doing that,

by doing that, you can make sure that five hard employees have a job that night. Because if we can staff that booth, right, with the people doing the jobs that the hard employees can't do, right, maybe they can't handle all the credit card transactions fast enough at half time, maybe they can't work the friar, you know, we have some who can and some who can't. So we build a team and it's people with disabilities working right alongside people without disabilities.

I need a few volunteers? Yeah, exactly. We've also recently started kind of a quiet campaign. I don't know how quiet it will be after this podcast, but to raise some money to grow our facility. So we've acquired a one acre piece of property if you're familiar with using it's in the Garden Oaks area. How many can you accommodate? How many, I guess we'd call them students, right? We usually call them trainees. Okay. And we think we'll be able to triple. Well, how many can you

accommodate right now? Right now. So at the facility, well, so let me just say, before the pandemic, I think we were working with, you know, almost 200 every year, over, you know, a thousand people in the history of the organization, which is a young organization. And we think we'll be able to triple that in the new facility. 600 a year. We think so. And part of that is community partnerships. And part of that is getting people employed. So if people are at the rockets game, they don't have to be at the facility. Right. But they have to be at the facility for some point in time to get the training, to get to the game. And then once they're working side by side,

people, someone's gonna hire them, because they're gonna see what a great worker is, how they're on time, how they're reliable. And I'll tell you a partnership that we just started, and this is why we think we're gonna be able to triple. And that is in Texas, the heart program is now the first and only site for a CVS mock store. And what this is is it's an actual CVS store that CVS is coming in.

What you're about the pharmacy, CVS. Yeah, exactly CVS health of pharmacy. They are building this in our facility, our new facility. No cost to us, they're coming in, they're putting up its shelves, its carpet, same as what would be in a store, it's all the products, all the products. To be a training site. To be a training site, and it's the only one in the first one in Texas. Now, they have 44 of these around the country. But there's never been one in Texas and were the first and only. And it's for heart. It's for heart. So around the country, they build these mock stores partnering with nonprofits But it could be for anyone right it could be for at-risk youth It could be for people you know coming out of jails. It could be for people

The first one specifically for people special right they have some where some of the people with disabilities Also are on the autism spectrum for example, but this is dedicated, right, to developmental disabilities. And we're looking at expanding it so that when heart isn't using it, we might be able to open it up, you know, and have a high school come in and utilize it or have a church come in and utilize it. And then have them interact with our heart employees

and trainees as well. So, wouldn't it be an interesting training exercise to mock up, working there, and then have students come and be mock guests and have that and teach the interaction? So, it's funny you say that because that's exactly what we've been doing in the short time that we've had it sort of operational. We have a group, a cohort we call them, that are in this CVS training program. And then the other individuals that are in heart, we open up the store, right, they come in and they're customers. So they might buy a magazine or, you know, some toilet paper, whatever it is that they want. And the other cohort is ringing them up and so they're getting

that real world practice. But what's really cool is that CBS has pledged to give every single person that puts through that mock store training program an internship at one of their retail stores. Nope. And at the end of that internship, CBS gets the first ride of refusal if they want to hire the person, but they're not required to work there. So Bradley could get hired by CBS and say, no, thanks. I'd rather work at Target or Walgreens or Wal-Mart or somewhere else, right?

But they still get that amazing training opportunity. And we started this program on a smaller scale and now that we have the new facility, we're really taking it to the next level. And when we had our first group of interns placed at CBS stores, we're really taking it to the next level. And when we had our first group of interns placed at CBS stores, we had, which is an unusual and he's in a hurricane, right? Power goes out for over a day. You know, streets are flooded, everything's closed. I had a manager of one of the CBS stores call me and say, if it hadn't been for the heart employee, he wouldn't have been able to open open people wouldn't have gotten their medicine and their essential goods because the only employee

Other than him that showed up to work the next day was the heart employee Unbelievable and this is somebody that doesn't drive Right had to figure out a way so while all the other employees were saying you know All the other employees are figuring out reasons they couldn't come, these folks were going to great links to figure out how to be there. And that person was helping them throw out all of the, you know, things that got damaged in the hurricane

or had or were spoiled because of loss of power and basically cleaned up the entire store and got them ready to open. and basically cleaned up the entire store and got them ready to open. Do you, have you taken the time to stop back and realize what you've done? I don't know because there's so much more to do. I get that. It's never ending, you know, I get that.

But who donated those first rent the vending machine or co-cola? It was, yep, it was Coca-Cola. And how many did they? They ended up giving us 12 rent free when we got started. And then, which is pretty cool. I especially when you were like, Glown4 and really weren't doing anything. Oh, I'm telling you, it was great, but we had to figure out how to get the snack machines. And I ended up buying the first snack machine off of green sheet, which is like newspaper.

I paid $750. We bought a used one somewhere from? Oh yeah, I wrote a personal check and bought a used one off of somebody and that thing almost never worked and it was terrible. I mean, they really cost upwards of $1,000 each. Yeah, there's been some, all right. So we're just going to say from 12 free drink machines

that are now you're leasing and one crappy broke down snack machine to the height of the food service that is heart, vending and concessions. Sure. How many vending machines, how many concession stands, what is the scope of this thing at this point? Yeah, so we grew to where we were servicing almost a hundred different vending machines.

So it was a good size, small to medium-sized business. We have Anisar Bush brewery as a customer, yellow cab, as a customer at all their sites. We have hospitals, we have the Houston food bank, believe it or not, has our vending machines for their employees and schools and other customers. And on the concession side, I think the last time we looked, we were doing well over 150 events per year, when you think about 365 days in the year, right? Pretty much every other day, we're somewhere, somewhere, right? Whether it's a monster jam or Disney on ice or a PGA tournament or

rockets or a Texans or we're going to be at the Taylor Swift concert, all nights with final four and Houston will be there so that's Unbelievable from 12 ending machines to that Mm-hmm and growing and that doesn't include our partnerships with CVS health and getting folks in internships That doesn't include a Vocational program we're doing now with the Houston food bank We have a partnership with the University of Houston downtown where we're getting folks in that college setting. We have a partnership with Houston ISD where we're trying to get kids who are still in high school this training before they

turn 22 and graduate, hoping that they'll be on a faster track to then one day get a job and maybe not even need heart, right? If they can go straight from high school into a job by us intervening with some of our training strategies while they're still in high school. So it's definitely grown much larger than I ever thought it would in 2002 when we just filled out the paperwork and sent it to the house.

Jayna, I think I can speak for everyone when I wish you'd get screwing around. I know we have so much more to do. That's the thing. There's so much more to do. The need is so great. The opportunity is really great. And here's the thing right now is such a huge opportunity because businesses are

hurting for employees. They're hurting for employees. And I've got potential employees that are desperate for these jobs. These these jobs for them as a dream come true. For me, it would be that first rung on the ladder. That's a stepping stone for most. And this is a, it's a difference in a stepping stone in a destination. Right. So if we can just connect that dot, if we can connect this potential workforce to these businesses that are desperate for the workers, all it takes is training. That's really

all it takes. And that's what heart does. So we're trying to wrap up, we're trying to do more, we're trying to get it done. We'll be right back. The celebrity memoir holds up a mirror to society, don't you think? Oh, I couldn't agree more. It's why we started our podcast, Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. What's the name of the podcast? I want to write it down in my notes app. It's called Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily. It's the podcast where we read celebrity memoirs. Total guilty pleasures.

And then synthesize probing cultural and social analyses from the text. From a season on Sorry, to you to Lissi's Us Grand. From Jessica Simpson to historical figures like Helen Keller. Isn't that just a delicious mix of high-brown low? But don't take our word for it. A little magazine called The New York Girl. Everhood of it. Call celebrity book club, Gidey or Bane delectable Patter.

If the pattern isn't delectable, honey, it isn't pattern. The New York Times. Excuse me? It says it's like Eve's dropping on two best friends as they share a bottle of wine. Why drink wine when you can listen to it? Listen to Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever

you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Sarah Jakes Roberts, host of Woman Evolved Podcast. You may also know me as a pastor, author, wife, mother, business woman, and leader. Women are shattering glass ceilings that once limited their ability to dream, grow, and change the world. Well as the definition of womanhood continues to advance, so does the woman's need to connect and assess where she fits in this ever changing world around her. No longer do women have to choose between family or career since you can have it all.

You're already super woman on your own, but imagine how transformative things could be if you allowed yourself the opportunity to embrace sisterhood. Well over here, we encourage each other. We hold each other accountable. We teach each other and we cast out the spirit of shame. Through honest conversations, sermons, and interviews with other dynamic women, my goal is to empower women around the world to elevate to the best versions of themselves. So girl, get up and listen to the Woman Evolve podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect

podcast network. I heart radio at Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Sophia Bush, host of Podcast Work in Progress. I am thrilled to tell you that Work in Progress is back for a third season. My friends, it has never been more important than right now for us to have all of these big conversations. Together, we are gonna get educated, a little bit enlightened,

and we will definitely be entertained. I started work in progress because I'm a curious person, and I realized there are so many people I get to speak to that are fascinating and rare. And so I thought why not take these conversations out into the world. I'm going to be having deep chats with thought leaders, news makers, celebrities, entertainers, authors, elected officials, and more. You can join us and listen to work in progress on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. An army of normal folks is about normal people seeing an Eden felonet, but I think you've surpassed just quote felonet.

It is phenomenal what you've done. We're only in Houston at this point, right? That's right. But it's scalable to any city. Yes, I think so, because every city has people with intellectual disabilities and every city has a stadium or has, you know, a pharmacy or has, you know, a pizza place. Everybody's got a pop of drugs. Or needs a vending machine. So to me, it does seem like it should be scalable and that should be something that, you

know, maybe someone listening to this will have an idea of how we could do that, you know. And for good at sex, if you're listening to this and you an idea of how we could do that. And forget to say, if you're listening to this in Houston and you're asking yourself, when do we're able to help out? Oh, hard. Exactly. We'd love to have you. We've got social media, Facebook, and Instagram, and Twitter, and a website, which is just www.heartprogram.org. I'm sorry, I think I spoke over it. Say it one more time. So, the website is www.heartprogram, which is just spelled H-E-A-R-T program.org. I'm sorry. I think I spoke over it. Say it one more time. So it's the website is www.heartprogramme, which is just spelled H-E-A-R-T program.org.org.org.

And you can get connected to our YouTube, our Facebook, our Instagram. What's your handle? So it's different on different ones. So at Facebook, it's at heartprogramme.htl.g. Twitter is the heartprogramme. so with a THE in front, and I think Instagram might have dots like h.e.a. dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot-t dot- Alex goes out his, all of our guests, we want to tell stories. We want to explore the difficulties of all of the work that our guests do, plus the redemptive stories of what they've achieved. But we also want to inspire and encourage people to get involved either in your organization

or an organization or something in their communities. And we want to say we're available if you have questions. And I just would you mind sharing your email address? So if anybody here in this is interested in either getting involved in Houston or starting this in another city, and want to get Jane Pointers, how do they reach you? I would love Pointers. My email address is my first initial of my first

name and then my last name at heartprogrammed.org. So it's j boracoff at heartprogrammed.org. So it's j-b-o-r-o-c-h-o-f-f-at-h-e-a-r-t-programmed.org. And if that's too complicated, you could also email contact at heartprogram.org and it'll get to me too. Perfect. And we also have folks listening who may be inspired by what you're doing but not being inspired to get involved and any organization like yours if anybody wants to give to it, they reach out to you on the website again. Absolutely. You can email me. There's links to donate on our website and any donation is impactful.

So right now with our campaign, with our facility, we're looking for very large gifts. What, how much do you need to raise? We probably need to raise almost $10 million to do the whole construction, the whole renovation. Well, we have 10 million lists or so far by buy gives a dollar. Well, there you go. Right. But where they kind of organization where, you know, if you can donate $7.25, you've underwritten an hour of pay, right? So.

For somebody with an intellectual disability. So any donation really makes a huge impact. We highlight a lot of amazing stories and a lot of amazing organizations and none more deserving than heart. So I hope you guys will have a heart and reach out if you're inspired or at least give a little if you think the work that Jane students worth while which obviously is. I want to ask you a question my family talks about. my family talks about. What are your fears for Bradley? Because you're not twenty-three anymore. Right. It's really a toss-up between being terrified of what

will happen to him if I'm no longer here and Bob's no longer here or if we somehow you know getting a car crash on the way home or something together and being terrified that will outlive him. I don't think any parent wants to think about that. Although, unfortunately, for people like Bradley and Ben, that's more than likely just statistically a reality. And like your family, where you guys stepped up and your kids will step up, and I think the same is true in my family. I think the twins will step up. I think, you know, my brother will step up and others in our family would step up. But we don't want to burden us and no reassurances are

enough. But we always say it is not a burden, it's a privilege. I'm guessing they did everything they could possibly think of to make sure that your wife could achieve anything she wanted to achieve. In spite of, despite of her brother, and it's the same thing that we try to do with the twins, is kind of shield them in a way from what we're doing for Bradley, so that they can experience their life, have their lives and go to college and marry who they want to marry and have kids and live wherever they want to live and not have this hanging over their heads. But the things we're talking about are what thousands of family across this country are forced to talk about.

And then go out into public and often have to deal with shameful responses to their existence. And if anybody listening to us has ever had those inclinations, I hope you hear we see. We see. In our faith, we say, God doesn't make mistakes. And they're here for a reason. And we don't know what that reason is, but they have a purpose. And to your point, they haven't made any mistakes. They haven't made any wrong choices that led them to where they are. Right? That's how they came. They haven't made any wrong choices that led them to where they are, right?

That's how they came and We are called to serve the most disadvantaged among us and what greater calling could there be To me, I think this is one that we should all be able to rally behind You know people may disagree about how to help people who are unhoused or facing homeless or You know what to do about people facing a jik addiction or people who've gotten in and out of jail There's lots of different arguments you can have about, you know, the right ways But why are we why are we not all? You know unified and saying that these people are deserving of our support. Yeah, I think we need to have a heart Now that was a good plug. Thank you very much.

Jane, I want to tell you something. I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together and I told you offline before the audience was listening in that I was really looking forward to this conversation. But I had not yet revealed to you that my family and your family are not that dissimilar. And it is for that reason that I couldn't wait to meet you after reading your story. And I say it with really all the admiration and the world for you, It is phenomenal what you have done for countless families and countless human beings in Houston and the work that you guys continue to do and I pray people in Houston are listening and you get 40 phone calls tomorrow for

volunteers and folks, middle income girl who in her own words grew up on literally on the other side of the tracks with a with a mom who's a PhD but going to school and a father who ran an upholstery business and two siblings and a normal household to a girl who graduated college, just trying to make it through life, fell in love, saw a need for her husband, son, and filled it in the process, has changed lives. And that is the start, story of an army of normal folks. And you are certainly a member of that, my friend. And I just can't thank you enough for joining me.

Thank you for having me. And thank you for joining us this week. If Jane Borcoff or another guest has inspired you in general or better yet, to take action by volunteering or donating with the heart program by starting something like it in your own community or something else entirely. Please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. Guys, you can write me anytime at billatnormalfokes.us and I promise you, I will respond.

And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and on social, subscribe to the podcast. Please subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it, become a premium member at normalfoces.us. All these things that will help grow in army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney and I'll see you next week. Hey, this is Justin Richmond, host of the Broken Record Podcast. Join me along with co-hostly arose as we sit down with the artists you love to get unparalleled

creative insight. You'll hear revealing interviews with some of the most legendary figures in music, like Paul Simon, Usher, Pete Townsend, Damon Albarn of the Grillets, and Missie Elliott. And you'll hear from up-and-comers, like jazz artist Levy, who told me about her fast rise to fame during the pandemic. Listen a broken record on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey there, I'm Maya Shankar, and I'm a scientist who studies human behavior. Many of us have experienced a moment in our lives that changes everything, a moment that instantly divides our life

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