Episode Transcript:

00;00;01;14 - 00;00;05;15

Announcer

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.

00;00;05;18 - 00;00;27;21

Cary Hall

Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. I'm your host, Cary Hall. My producer, Mr. Darren Wilhite behind the cameras, Dave Thiessen. Thank you for joining us today and making us one of the most listened to talk shows throughout the United States. Want to give a little shout out to our affiliates up in Washington State KONA in 610 AM in Pasco, Washington.

00;00;27;24 - 00;00;49;00

Cary Hall

My daughter happens to live there. Also KGTK 920 AM and 101 FM in Seattle, Tacoma. We are grateful for all of you out there in the audience in Washington state listening to us. And as we continue to grow this broadcast, our latest affiliate was in Largo, Florida. So we're coast to coast, as I said. Also, you know, we're now on 14 podcast platforms that Mr. Thiessen does.

00;00;49;00 - 00;01;08;18

Cary Hall

He puts us up there every week. All the shows are on the podcast platforms. And here's what here are the ones we're on Spotify, SoundCloud, RSS podcast, Overcast, Rumble, Stitcher, TuneIn, Pandora, Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Amazon, Google Audacy and on YouTube. And you know, it's doing pretty well.

00;01;08;19 - 00;01;39;12

Cary Hall

We have 225,145 views on YouTube so far this year, and we've had about 8000 to 9000 of you a month downloading the podcast. So we appreciate all of you out there that are going to the podcast platforms, YouTube platforms and all of you that listen live on the radio every week so you can learn more about us. By the way, the Facebook page is America's Healthcare Advocate dot com. Also on X (Twitter), if you want to comment if you have a question the website America’s Healthcare Advocate dot com.

00;01;39;15 - 00;01;53;20

Cary Hall

Send me an email if you've got a question, I'll be happy to answer it. I get a lot of them so I don't get to every one of them the same day, but I do answer each and every one of them. So if we can help you, we're happy to do it. All right. So this is kind of a special show for me because in studio with me is Kelly Welch.

00;01;53;20 - 00;02;13;02

Cary Hall

She is the CEO of Sheffield Place. Now, you've heard me talk in this show on a number of my open line shows, my open topic shows about the homeless crisis in this country. I don't care if you're in San Francisco, Kansas City, San Diego, Portland, Oregon, Saint Louis, Missouri. It doesn't really matter where you are in the country.

00;02;13;02 - 00;02;30;22

Cary Hall

We have an epidemic of this going on in this country and the way the municipalities and government are addressing it isn't working. Okay? You can't just throw money at this or come up with spur of the moment programs like Mr. Benioff did in San Francisco, where he was going to build houses for homeless people. There's a lot more to it than that.

00;02;30;22 - 00;02;44;20

Cary Hall

And I've talked about this and I've talked about how it's not working the way it's being addressed. Well, here's a program that does work, and I know it works because I was on the board of directors here, and I have a very clear understanding of how Sheffield Place works. So we're going to do a show today with Kelly Welch.

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Cary Hall

She's the president and CEO of Sheffield Place. Thank you for coming. We haven't done this for a while.

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Kelly Welch

It's been a minute.

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Cary Hall

Yeah, Yeah, that's right. It's been a minute. That's what they young people say. So we're saying it now. Okay, It's been a minute. Yeah. So we're going to talk about what Sheffield plays to us and how they do it. We're also going to talk about an event they have coming up here on October 14th. But the purpose of the show today is to kind of have a discussion about the problem we've got and the solutions for it.

00;03;11;27 - 00;03;38;29

Cary Hall

Okay, because there are solutions and the solutions revolve around groups like this that are taking the initiative and doing something that works and works very well. A little bit about Sheffield Place in 2022, they served 143 families, 111 in residential and 32 in aftercare, an outpatient, 184 children and 327 individuals. It's pretty impressive what they do. Like I said, we'll get into that a little bit about Kelly.

00;03;38;29 - 00;04;03;16

Cary Hall

She is the CEO and president. She has led this agency for more than a dozen years. In time, the agency has grown from serving 20 families now to serving 150 families every year. Also under her leadership, Sheffield Place's implemented an intensive program of services to empower the homeless mothers and children. And that's really key here. They don't just take in homeless people, they take in mothers and children.

00;04;03;21 - 00;04;20;22

Cary Hall

So let's just start with that. I remember when I came on the board, I remember the thing that probably when I started talking to you guys, it blew me away, was that you didn't just take the mothers, you took the kids right? So it was the mothers and the kids coming off the street, literally. Let's talk a little bit about that.

00;04;20;24 - 00;04;39;15

Kelly Welch

Well, you know, you talk about homelessness, so not a huge epidemic. It is across the country. And a lot of that is generational, too, right? If you grow up homeless, if you grow up with addiction, if you grow up with poverty and unemployed and all those things, it's hard, right? You don't have you don't have anything going for you.

00;04;39;20 - 00;05;09;11

Kelly Welch

It's really hard to fight for yourself to move forward and be able to accomplish what you need to accomplish. So you kind of have to start with the kids, start with the mom, but the kids have to be there. You kind of have to break those cycles of addiction, violence, poverty, homelessness. So we think it's important. We also think it's really important because it used to be years ago that Sheffield Place didn't take kids that were older and you could only bring in two kids.

00;05;09;11 - 00;05;28;05

Kelly Welch

There were all these parameters around it. If you're a mom and you are trying to get clean and sober so that you can improve your life, so you can address your homelessness, you can do all that. And if you have kids with you, if there's nowhere for you to go to get that treatment with your kids, it's very difficult.

00;05;28;07 - 00;05;30;27

Kelly Welch

It may be impossible to get clean and sober.

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Cary Hall

Or they may not do it. They're not going to leave their kids.

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Kelly Welch

Right? Right. Because you don't just leave your or you don't want to leave some of your kids. Right. Right. You can only bring two kids. Or if your kids have to be under 12, you know, I don't know about you, but when my kids were teenagers, they needed more supervision, not less. So I think that, you know, over the years, we've expanded where you can bring a teenager up to 18 with you in our program, you can bring up to six kids.

00;05;58;25 - 00;06;05;07

Kelly Welch

We've had actually six or seven kids in a family, including teenagers. You can come in still using.

00;06;05;14 - 00;06;23;14

Cary Hall

Yeah, that's a big deal. So i’m going to stop right there, Okay. Because that that really is that's one of the things that's very different about this program. So a lot of the requirements to get into the programs, you had to be clean to get in. Well, how, how, how if you don't have the resources to get clean, how do you how do you how do you how do you get clean to get it?

00;06;23;14 - 00;06;36;01

Cary Hall

It's kind of like the, you know, the small business owner that wants to get a loan from the bank, the bankers or what's your collateral? He goes, Well, I don't have a lot of collateral. Well, we can't make you a loan. They can make you a loan. You don't need the loan, but they can't make you a loan when you do need the loan because they want certain parameters.

00;06;36;08 - 00;06;45;09

Cary Hall

This is the same thing, you know? Okay, if you're clean, you can come in. Well, how do they get clean? So let's talk about why you do it differently and what that means.

00;06;45;11 - 00;07;10;04

Kelly Welch

So like a lot of things that's changed in the last ten or 12 years, there used to be some detox beds. There used to be some beds for moms with kids. But as funding has changed or dried up or whatever happened to it, those beds went away. So made it even more critical that there's somewhere that you can go if you're still dropping dirty, but you can go in and get services.

00;07;10;04 - 00;07;30;09

Kelly Welch

Because to your point, where else are you going to do that? You haven't been able to do it anywhere else. You know, you need the structure, you need the safety, you need services to be able to do that. And so for us, it's worked really well. I think when we initially talked about it, some of this has been years ago, some of the staff wasn't too sure about that because they hadn't.

00;07;30;12 - 00;07;50;11

Kelly Welch

That's not how it was done. Right. But, you know, okay, so the first night we had several people asleep in the lobby because they were coming down, but they were they made it. They got clean, they got sober, they got jobs. And so you just what we've really found and, you know, old dog, new tricks thing, I'm finally really embracing that.

00;07;50;11 - 00;07;58;25

Kelly Welch

You really have to meet them where they are. And sometimes that makes it a little bit more of a challenge. But it's worked really well for a lot of our moms.

00;07;58;28 - 00;08;18;15

Cary Hall

Yeah. And it and I know it's weird because I remember, you know, oftentimes in the board meetings we would have a mom come in and tell her story. And I mean, a lot of times, you know, we had eight or nine people in that board room and there was a dry in place. I remember distinctly one young mom had two kids and she had been sexually abused.

00;08;18;15 - 00;08;25;22

Cary Hall

She was had been on drugs the whole nine yards. And she had gotten her class C forklift operator license. You were talking about.

00;08;25;25 - 00;08;26;18

Kelly Welch

You know, she.

00;08;26;18 - 00;08;44;28

Cary Hall

Came in and told the story. She had she had gotten a job where she's making like 15 or $16 an hour. Her kids were in school and they had and their lives had been turned around. And I'll never forget that story as long as I live, because here was this young boy. She's like 25, 26 years old, and she'd had a hell of a bad life.

00;08;45;01 - 00;08;54;15

Cary Hall

Yet she was able to come in and get sober, get in a program. We're going to talk about all this bring back from the break what what's the program, how it's structured. But the point is it turned her life around.

00;08;54;22 - 00;08;55;09

Kelly Welch

Yeah.

00;08;55;12 - 00;09;15;21

Cary Hall

And that's really what you do. And that's the part I think that is so very unusual about how Sheffield does this and unfortunately how a lot of other organizations do it. And I think the proof in the pudding is how many people get through this program and come out of it on the other end. Successful? Great. And for you, that's a big number.

00;09;15;21 - 00;09;20;13

Cary Hall

What are we looking at? About 80% somewhere around there. If they stay in the program all the way through it.

00;09;20;15 - 00;09;25;11

Kelly Welch

Yeah, depending on I mean, you measure all different ways, but yeah, it's particularly getting clean and sober.

00;09;25;12 - 00;09;42;29

Cary Hall

That's, that's the key. Yes, it's a clean and sober and they can start if you want to learn more about them you can call 816 483 9927. That is their phone number. They'll be happy to chat with you. The website Sheffield Place dot org. They have an event coming up. It's called Off the Wall. It's October 14th here in Kansas City Municipal Auditorium.

00;09;43;00 - 00;09;59;23

Cary Hall

It's a lot of fun, great food, open bar, a good time. Okay. But they do a lot of good with that. A lot of money gets raised and there are some great artwork there that you have a chance to go and bid on, auction on whatever the case may be. Again, the website Sheffield Place dot org. We'll be right back after the break.

00;10;00;00 - 00;10;09;23

Cary Hall

You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA radio network Coast to coast across the USA. Don't go anywhere. We've got more.

00;10;09;25 - 00;10;43;01

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00;10;43;03 - 00;11;10;27

Steve Kuker

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00;11;11;00 - 00;11;29;19

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's health care. Have a good show. Broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. My producer today, Mr. Darren Wilhite. I'm your host, Cary Hall. Thank you for joining us. In studio with me, Kelly Welch, CEO and president of Sheffield Place. They are a shelter for women and children. They take them in off the street.

00;11;29;19 - 00;11;46;09

Cary Hall

If the women are struggling with addiction, they come in, they get clean and they go on to this program. We're going to talk a little bit about how they do that now, What are the elements of the program? And it's extremely successful. I can tell you from being on this board of directors, it's remarkable the success rate they have with what they do.

00;11;46;09 - 00;12;00;25

Cary Hall

It's the way they structure it. And this is what I mean when I talked about this and other shows about the problem with all these programs cities and everybody is throwing out there is they don't have a step by step process to get these people on their feet, get them sober and get them back out in the community.

00;12;00;25 - 00;12;19;29

Cary Hall

That's why we're doing this today. The website for these folks, Sheffield Place dot org, Sheffield Place, dot org. If you want to learn more about them. They've also got an event coming up October 14th at the Municipal Auditorium. If you want to come to the event, it's called Off the Wall. It is a dinner function and it's an art if you want to buy art.

00;12;19;29 - 00;12;38;16

Cary Hall

They have all kinds of wonderful art there that is on display in for sale in their auction. Once again, the website Sheffield Place dot org. So let's just switch a little bit and talk about the structure this they come in I remember when I first sat down with you guys and we you kind of walk me through how it all worked and I said what's the most difficult decision you have to make?

00;12;38;19 - 00;12;55;02

Cary Hall

And you say, Well, put them back out on the street. Okay. So they come in dirty, as you say, okay? And they they get into a program where they or they get cleaned up. But it's not like you can just keep repeating and doing this over and over again. So talk about the structure and what happens when they come in dirty.

00;12;55;02 - 00;12;58;03

Cary Hall

How much time do they have to get squared away and how do you do that?

00;12;58;09 - 00;13;30;21

Kelly Welch

Yeah. So one of the hardest things about addiction and I think everybody has some experience with addiction, right? Family, friends, themselves, whatever is and it's taken me a really long time to learn this. But if they're not ready to change, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you offer, what you throw out, and it just doesn't matter. And so when the moms come in with their kids, they can come in still using, as we discussed with the agreement, that they would stop and they would start having clean drug tests.

00;13;30;24 - 00;13;52;08

Kelly Welch

We work with them. So especially when they first come in, we say to them, okay, you can you can't go anywhere for 30 days set for, you know, court, doctor's appointments, but everything else you stay in. VISE Yes, because you're right. And because a lot of them have used their entire adult lives, many of them start using when they're 11 and 12.

00;13;52;10 - 00;13;52;21

Cary Hall

That.

00;13;52;21 - 00;14;16;09

Kelly Welch

Young. Yeah, sometimes younger. And a lot of times when they start using that young, they start using with their parents so they don't have a clean, safe place to be. So 30 days you stay in, you get case management, an hour a week, therapy. Once a week you get 24 hours of group. You go to N.A. meetings, you see a substance abuse counselor.

00;14;16;17 - 00;14;21;08

Kelly Welch

So you're looking at about 30 hours of services a week.

00;14;21;14 - 00;14;40;28

Cary Hall

But the thing this is the part, that idea of this, I don't think people in general understand it's that structure that leads to a successful program. You can't just throw money at this, okay, or build a tent city or whatever the case. But there's got to be a structure to it. And that and and they've got to understand the structure.

00;14;40;28 - 00;14;58;28

Cary Hall

And you made a very interesting statement. You can't make somebody do this. They have to want to do it. They have to want a chance to get sober. And I remember distinctly a lot of the times when the woman would come and talk to us. What was the one thing that motivated you to come and do this? I didn't want my kids growing up like this.

00;14;59;00 - 00;14;59;23

Cary Hall

Yeah, right.

00;15;00;02 - 00;15;21;18

Kelly Welch

Yeah, you are right. And I was just going to say, for moms with children, that's usually what pushes them in for treatment, even if they are not too sure that they're ready. They want to be there for their kids. Exactly. And so they come in, they have to stay 30 days. They have tours assigned to them, they have curfew, they have quiet time.

00;15;21;18 - 00;15;49;15

Kelly Welch

It's very structured program, as you pointed out. And after 30 days, then they have a little bit more freedom and then they start when they reach a certain level. Level two for us, they start looking for a job, they start looking for childcare. And we have case managers that help them do all that. When they get to that point, then they can also their eligible to move down the street to our step down and building.

00;15;49;17 - 00;15;53;24

Cary Hall

This is one of the coolest things is that there's ten houses in 10 hours or more.

00;15;53;24 - 00;15;54;10

Kelly Welch

Ten units.

00;15;54;10 - 00;16;16;24

Cary Hall

In houses. This is in an area of Kansas City that, you know, certainly isn't, you know, one of the suburbs. Okay. It's where the old Sheffield Steel plant, right up the road to Sheffield Steel plant. And these were homes that these steelworkers lived in, that the plant provided there rundown bad shape a lot. And then the folks at Sheffield go in and refurbish the home and then the mom and I been in those homes with those mothers.

00;16;16;26 - 00;16;22;27

Cary Hall

They refurbish those homes, they go. And a lot of them this the first time they've ever lived in a home where they had a place, it was theirs.

00;16;22;28 - 00;16;44;18

Kelly Welch

Right. That they lived in, that they've lived alone. Absolutely. And in between there, from the residential facility to a house, we have this newer building that is a stepdown unit. So you have a little bit more autonomy. There's not staff there, but you still come to groups, but you go to your job and you get to practice a little bit more independence before you move on to housing.

00;16;44;25 - 00;17;04;23

Kelly Welch

Housing might be section eight, it might be public housing, it might be market value wherever you go. There's a group of our moms that they're really not there's really not very possible for them. Maybe they have lots of felonies, maybe they owe lots of evictions, maybe they owe utility money. So getting in one of those.

00;17;04;29 - 00;17;05;14

Cary Hall

Hard to get.

00;17;05;14 - 00;17;07;00

Kelly Welch

Into. Yeah, would be hard anyway.

00;17;07;00 - 00;17;12;28

Cary Hall

Yeah. There's you know, you've got these government programs like Section eight, Larisa, but if they can't qualify, where are they? They're back on the street.

00;17;12;28 - 00;17;28;08

Kelly Welch

Again, Right? So that's who we put in our houses, right? Yeah. And so they can live in our houses. Those ten units that you talked about, it's considered permanent housing. There's still rules though. You still have to be clean and sober. You can't have other people live in.

00;17;28;08 - 00;17;30;09

Cary Hall

The party time and. Brian Yeah.

00;17;30;10 - 00;17;50;11

Kelly Welch

Right. And one of the things you asked me or mentioned is when people can't stay and our average length of stay is about four months, we've I think the new record is we had a woman that stayed an hour. She didn't she didn't quite get to the intake.

00;17;50;11 - 00;17;53;01

Cary Hall

Wasn't quite ready yet right. Yeah.

00;17;53;06 - 00;18;03;26

Kelly Welch

She didn't get through the intake process. So we have moms that stay, you know, an hour or moms that stay, you know, a year if they have a lot going on, you know, it takes longer run.

00;18;03;27 - 00;18;12;27

Cary Hall

Over a number of them. I remember they had been there that we're living in the houses that still involved in therapy and all the programs. But they were a year into the process of trying to get on their feet.

00;18;13;00 - 00;18;38;15

Kelly Welch

Right. Because if you've been and I tried, I tried to get them to see this. If you've used your entire adult life like you've missed a lot, you missed a lot of school, you missed a lot of stuff developmentally that the rest of us practiced or went through. And so if you've done that, you're two thirds of your life, then it's going to take more than four months to get clean and sober and stable and all those things.

00;18;38;22 - 00;19;08;16

Kelly Welch

So they have to give themselves a little grace and be a little bit patient with, okay, it's taken me this long to get where I am. It's going to take me a little longer to get there. We also do after care and outpatient services for people that don't live in any of our housing but still want services, whether they leave the program successfully or not, which is a change they can come back for case management, therapy groups, whatever they want to do for as long as they want, and there's no charge to that.

00;19;08;18 - 00;19;28;13

Cary Hall

And so we have a lifeline. And that's really what this amounts to. If you want more information on what they do, it's Sheffield Place, dot org, Sheffield Place, dot org. The phone number is 816 483 9927. You know, maybe it's something your company might want to get involved in. Maybe it's something your church wants to get involved in. You know, whatever the case may be, go up on their website is pretty amazing.

00;19;28;17 - 00;19;43;02

Cary Hall

We come back from the break. I'll talk a little bit about what a little more about what they do and also talk about, you know, how transparent they are. There are 503 3C, obviously. But you know, where does the money go and how does that all work? That's kind of important. So we'll chat about that as well. Stay tuned.

00;19;43;09 - 00;19;54;20

Cary Hall

You're listing to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcast broadcasting on the HIA radio network coast to coast across the USA. Don't go anywhere.

00;19;54;22 - 00;20;07;13

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across fruited plain here on the HIA radio network. My producer, the always perfect Mr. Darren Willhite, followed by Mr. Dave Thiessen, who's also always perfect.

00;20;07;20 - 00;20;29;15

Cary Hall

He's the man behind the camera that puts all this together, gets set up on all 14 of those podcast platforms and on YouTube. So they do a great job and we're very fortunate to be able to do it because we've really expanded this audience as a result of these podcasts and YouTube and we keep adding radio stations. Our latest one was in Largo, Florida, so we're just thrilled that we continue to grow this broadcast across the country.

00;20;29;17 - 00;20;44;25

Cary Hall

No, this isn't about health care. Yes, it is about care. The care of people that are homeless, the care of those people, those people you see on the street. We're going to talk a little bit about that here in a minute. And, you know, is it is it smart to keep handing money to these people when you see them on the street corner?

00;20;45;01 - 00;21;00;24

Cary Hall

We're going to I'm going to ask that question. Let her answer it. But if you want to know more about what they do, you want to get involved. Maybe your church, you know, you've got a group, maybe you've got a men's group or some of the group. Our men's group is actually getting involved with them. We're going to go down and do some service work on a couple of their houses here this month.

00;21;00;24 - 00;21;20;26

Cary Hall

So if you want to get involved, go to the website Sheffield Place dot org. They're happy to accept money. I'm sure they're happy to accept volunteers. There's a lot that you can do if you want to get involved with them. Sheffield Place dot org. We've got an amazing program, one of the few that does what they do taking in mothers who are addicted with their children.

00;21;20;26 - 00;21;41;03

Cary Hall

There aren't many shelters that'll do that and there certainly aren't many shelters that take these women. And when they're addicted, as I said earlier in the other segment, you can have a shelter and say that you have to be clean and sober. But how do they get there if you're living on the street, okay, and you're turning tricks or whatever you're doing to try to raise money to pay for your addiction, feed your kids, whatever it is, how are you supposed to get there?

00;21;41;06 - 00;22;04;26

Cary Hall

Well, that's the point about what they do here and why it's so different and why I wanted to do this show today. So once again, the website Sheffield Place dot org. So let's just kind of start with you have one. So this is interesting. Since 2017, Sheffield Place has attracted national attention and receipt of the Charity Navigator 4 Star Award rating for consecutive years, 2017 to 2023.

00;22;05;03 - 00;22;08;04

Cary Hall

That's no small achievement. Talk about what does that mean?

00;22;08;05 - 00;22;31;13

Kelly Welch

Well, thank you. So Charity Navigator looks at charities across the I think across the nation for sure, but maybe internationally now and looks at different components of our business. So accountability, governance, how much of your money you spend that you bring in on programing, all those kinds of things that are important to be a well-run business, not for profit specifically.

00;22;31;16 - 00;22;55;27

Kelly Welch

And right. You have to be I think your budget has to be $1,000,000 for them to review you. So our first year was 17 and we were fortunate that we received that four star. And we have since then and just we just got our new rating last week and we scored 100% with Amazing, which is I think that's our third or fourth time we've had a 100%.

00;22;55;27 - 00;23;25;20

Kelly Welch

So we write. We are very fortunate. We have lots of support from the community, people like you, board members, advisory council members, and we're very, very community based kind of agency. So for example, having we have lots of people that make in-kind donations. They do, you know, sheet and towel drives or paper towel and toilet paper and cleaning drives because we have 24 families at any one time times.

00;23;25;20 - 00;23;48;14

Kelly Welch

Everything you use in your own household. So just those in-kind donations save, you know, make us way more efficient because people are donating that so that we can use cash to provide services. So we feel like that our Charity Navigator rating is very much a reflection of the support that we have from the community.

00;23;48;17 - 00;23;57;24

Cary Hall

Yeah, So let's go back to that, the in-kind, because that's something I spend all time on. So if a church wants to put together, drive to gather diapers, diapers are a big deal.

00;23;57;26 - 00;24;01;07

Kelly Welch

Diapers? Yep. Underwear, socks, all that kind of stuff. Okay.

00;24;01;10 - 00;24;04;09

Cary Hall

Paper towels, toilet paper. What do you.

00;24;04;09 - 00;24;13;07

Kelly Welch

Need? Some guys. And so most of our moms have get state help with food. We do keep some food on site for emergencies.

00;24;13;08 - 00;24;14;03

Cary Hall

When they first come in.

00;24;14;05 - 00;24;40;20

Kelly Welch

Mm hmm. We also do things like at the beginning of the school year, we do backpack events and holiday things so that, you know, it's expensive to send it back to school. Yeah. And so we fill a backpack for any all of our residential kids and any of our aftercare kids that want to participate. I think this year we gave out 50 or 60 backpacks.

00;24;40;22 - 00;24;55;14

Kelly Welch

So, you know, anything like that that we can do to help the moms be more economic with their money. We do a lot of budgeting. I think you and I have talked about this in the past. We do 24 hours a group a week. So a lot of those are life skills.

00;24;55;14 - 00;24;59;22

Cary Hall

They've never learned how to do this. They've never had a checkbook. They've never had a bank account.

00;24;59;23 - 00;25;03;00

Kelly Welch

Okay, Now you're showing your age because you said checkbook.

00;25;03;02 - 00;25;06;08

Cary Hall

You're right. 74 to see checkbook. I actually still have one.

00;25;06;09 - 00;25;24;09

Kelly Welch

So I want to point that out. But yeah, no, but you're right. And, you know, we say to people, oh, you should budget. You should budget. But let's be honest, if you don't have any money, if you don't have any money to budget, if you barely are making it, it's tough, right? Yeah. So we do budgeting classes, we do employment skills.

00;25;24;12 - 00;25;38;26

Kelly Welch

Some corporations come in and we'll do mock interviews. You know, sometimes they'll come and help people fill out applications. Just all that kind of stuff that, you know, is hard, especially if you've never had anybody show you how to do it.

00;25;38;26 - 00;26;02;07

Cary Hall

Yeah, if they don't know how to fill out job application, how they're going to get a job, okay, If they don't know how to do an interview, how are they going to get an interview? Yeah, you know, and those are life skills. We take a lot of that for granted. Absolutely. Those folks have never had that opportunity. And yeah, let's remember, you know, not everybody that comes in here is going to go get a Class C license and become a forklift operator making 20 bucks, 15 bucks an hour.

00;26;02;09 - 00;26;08;15

Cary Hall

I remember there was a there's a Hampton Inn on the Country Club Plaza. Yeah. They still work with.

00;26;08;15 - 00;26;09;11

Kelly Welch

You know have it.

00;26;09;16 - 00;26;27;10

Cary Hall

Where we were able to take ladies had come in that had basically no skills but they were able to go into the housekeeping department and they started a job there and that's how they got started. They had a job, they got paid, they had health insurance through the Hampton Inn and they got a check and they went to work every day at the Hampton Inn.

00;26;27;10 - 00;26;28;01

Cary Hall

Cleaning rooms.

00;26;28;02 - 00;26;46;00

Kelly Welch

Yeah. Fabulous, partner. I've been doing it for years. Yeah. And we've had several women that have moved up promotion and the Hampton's very understanding and supportive. So if you have caught or if you have to take a kid to the doctor or whatever it is, they work with you. So yeah, that's been a great partnership.

00;26;46;00 - 00;27;02;28

Cary Hall

So if you are a company and you may have some of these entry level type positions, you'd be happy to chat with them. Absolutely, Yeah. And because it's important to get these, these folks to a place where they have a job and they can be self-sufficient, which is really at the end of the day, what we're trying to do here.

00;27;02;29 - 00;27;06;18

Kelly Welch

Right. And that in a nutshell, as our mission statement is to help them be self-sufficient.

00;27;06;21 - 00;27;25;05

Cary Hall

Right. And back and back in society, you know, functioning the way that they'd like to function and giving their kids a chance to do what they need to do. So let's talk a little bit about the kids, because I remember, you know, downstairs is is like the is the playroom and the where all the kids are. I remember going down there a lot of times with those kids and just interacting.

00;27;25;05 - 00;27;39;20

Cary Hall

It was pretty amazing feeling just to be around those kids and see how happy they were in the environment they were in versus what they came out of. So we'll talk about why that's important as such as the moms. We're focused on the kids, too. And there's therapy for the kids as.

00;27;39;20 - 00;28;06;11

Kelly Welch

Well, right? There's therapy for the kids. There's a case manager just for the kids. So to help them with school and daycare and if they have special needs that haven't been met or if they need to get a special education plan, we have a case manager to help with all that. A lot of these kids have been separated from their mom either because mom was high or they were with a relative or they were in foster care or mom was in prison.

00;28;06;12 - 00;28;21;25

Kelly Welch

There's a lot of times there's been separation. So they have to kind of get to know each other again and kind of work on that relationship. A lot of the older kids that come in have kind of been the caregivers, right? They've taken care of everybody because my cook.

00;28;21;25 - 00;28;32;09

Cary Hall

To me, you hear these kids, they cook the meals, they did this. They did this because mom was on drugs or mom wasn't capable or whatever mom was doing. Yeah. So the roles change a little bit, right?

00;28;32;09 - 00;28;48;10

Kelly Welch

So one of the hard things about coming in is we'll say to those older kids, you can't carry the little ones, you can't babysit, you can't cook. That's Mom's job. Like your job is to be 12. And so that's a that's kind of a struggle for a lot of them, too, because they've never done that.

00;28;48;16 - 00;29;14;10

Cary Hall

Yeah, it's is very interesting. You again, these are things that people typically don't think about because you have you haven't seen this. So you've been up close with this and you haven't seen it. You don't know that this this is why it's so difficult for these people turn around and get on their feet and and start living a productive life and be able to continue along that way with their children and move back into society.

00;29;14;10 - 00;29;14;20

Cary Hall

Right.

00;29;14;20 - 00;29;33;03

Kelly Welch

Right. A lot of them really never had a chance. So it's really amazing when you look at what they do, how strong and how resilient our moms are and how the kids are. It's you know, it's really the kind of progress they make and the kinds of things that they do and the changes they make, I think are amazing.

00;29;33;06 - 00;29;57;15

Cary Hall

They are. And, you know, I think what's really it's a testament to the human spirit in people when, you know, those people don't want to get they don't they're not really trying. You know, if you haven't seen that environment where they grew up in a home with addiction, sexual abuse, I remember that was pervasive in a lot of the women that we talked to.

00;29;57;18 - 00;30;07;26

Cary Hall

How are they supposed to where how do they have a chance when they grew up in those kind of situations? And that this is, as you said in the very beginning, breaking the cycle, which is what this is about?

00;30;07;27 - 00;30;08;23

Kelly Welch

Yes.

00;30;08;26 - 00;30;24;27

Cary Hall

If you want to learn more, the website is Sheffield Place, dot org, Sheffield Place, dot org. They do some pretty amazing stuff. Okay. You know, if you want to do in kind of maybe your church, you know, do it, do a drive, you know, diapers, paper towels, toilet paper, you know, they need all kinds of things like that.

00;30;25;03 - 00;30;42;10

Cary Hall

Anything. It's daily needs that you use your home they need. Okay, So there's an opportunity you want to do. You want to do fundraisers? You want to help them with fundraisers. They'd love to have you. Okay. The website is Sheffield Place dot org. We come back to break and the last thing we're going to talk about, some new things that are going on.

00;30;42;13 - 00;31;00;16

Cary Hall

Pretty exciting. This program continues to expand and continues to do exceptionally well here in Kansas City. And by the way, you know, you're listening to this around the country because I'm running this nationally. Start looking for someplace like Sheffield Place, okay. And see if you can't do something to change how homeless people are being treated in this country.

00;31;00;20 - 00;31;13;04

Cary Hall

We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA radio network. Coast to coast across USA.

00;31;13;06 - 00;31;25;15

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Health Advocate show. Broadcasting coast to coast across USA. Here on the HIA radio network, you can find out more about us by going to the website America's Healthcare Advocate dot com.

00;31;25;15 - 00;31;45;01

Cary Hall

You got a question? Comment? Send it to me. I'll be happy to chat with you or get back to you on whatever it may be. You want to chat about. My producer, Mr. Darren Willhite, he is the man on the board doing all the audio. Dave, theses the man behind the cameras. We're happy to have them both here today, putting these shows together and getting up on all of our podcast YouTube platforms and across our network of AM/FM stations.

00;31;45;01 - 00;32;04;28

Cary Hall

In studio with me, Kelly Welch. She's the CEO of Sheffield Place. This is a show about a about a program that helps homeless women and children get back on their feet. It really works. Okay. You want a blueprint for how something how this can work? This is how it can work. This is how it works. And it works very successfully.

00;32;05;03 - 00;32;25;07

Cary Hall

As you heard, it's structured. You know, they have to meet certain criteria, but they're getting a chance. They're getting a chance to turn their life around. And that's really important. And that's why this program works the way that it does. The website Sheffield Place dot org. If you want to get involved, Sheffield Place dot org. They're happy to have donations are happy to have you participate.

00;32;25;14 - 00;32;50;13

Cary Hall

Our men's group at Legacy Christian Church is going over to work on some of the homes, clean up the landscaping, etc. They can use all the help they can get. So the website Sheffield Place dot org. The phone number 816 483 9927. So let's just talk a little bit about that. The last part of this, you know, you're servicing 12 to 15% of people that are reaching out to you for help.

00;32;50;13 - 00;32;51;19

Cary Hall

What happens to the rest of them?

00;32;51;19 - 00;33;16;10

Kelly Welch

Kelly We try to make, you know, some referrals and some of them don't fit, you know, what what we're trying to do or we don't fit what they're looking for. But other times we just we don't have space problems. Yeah, Second quarter this year, one of the facilities was full 98% of the time. The other 197. And those two or 3% really does represent a day of somebody moving out and somebody else moving in.

00;33;16;13 - 00;33;21;22

Kelly Welch

So, yeah, we've been full pretty much all the time. This in 23, So.

00;33;21;22 - 00;33;24;23

Cary Hall

The demand seriously outstrips the supply.

00;33;24;26 - 00;33;25;13

Kelly Welch

Definitely.

00;33;25;16 - 00;33;47;00

Cary Hall

Yeah. And that and that that, that that just has emphasis to why this kind of a program is so important and why its ability to continue is so important in terms of the needs that it serves in the community. So talk a little. I remember when I was on the board, we had one building, the old YMCA. YWCA Was it YW or YM?

00;33;47;00 - 00;33;47;06

Kelly Welch

Okay, it.

00;33;47;06 - 00;34;00;29

Cary Hall

Was a YMCA, which then which basically had like dorm rooms on these floors, etc. and that's where that was the intake facility. And then we had the houses, but now there's a second facility. Let's talk about that. And there's the third one planned.

00;34;01;01 - 00;34;22;28

Kelly Welch

Yeah. So the second one is the step down. So they get there, they have a little bit more freedom, a little bit more autonomy. They're working. They still come for groups, they still come for services. They they get the opportunity to have a little bit more independence with us not being right there. But they still have a lot of accountability.

00;34;23;00 - 00;34;49;18

Kelly Welch

And we are now looking at expanding into services similar to that facility. But it will probably also have space for a group room where we can do more aftercare caring outpatient because as you mentioned earlier, those folks that still need services but aren't in any of our housing are really probably the most needy because they're out there trying to work, you know, have their own space.

00;34;49;20 - 00;35;05;29

Kelly Welch

And it's, you know, dealing with stuff every day, whether it's, you know, your kids at school or your kids get to be teenagers. I mean, there's always stuff to deal with where you need some support. And so by having this space, we can do more specific to them and to what they're dealing with.

00;35;06;05 - 00;35;23;04

Cary Hall

Yeah. So one of the things that I always thought was so impressive about the program was that they have a lifeline. It's not like, Oh, you're out now. Good. Okay. No, there's a connection back to Sheffield where they can always come back. They can always get help. There's no cost to these people to use any of this. So mom gets stressed out, something happens.

00;35;23;04 - 00;35;36;24

Cary Hall

Maybe she loses her job, Whatever the case may be, they're able to come back to you and they're able to get help so they can stay on the path. Being clean and sober, providing a home for their children and living a life. That's what they want to live. Right?

00;35;36;24 - 00;35;59;17

Kelly Welch

Right. So. So after care and outpatient, there's no time limit and there's no cost. If you live in our housing, if you have an income, you pay 30%. We've talked about this a lot in the past. Carry that a lot of times when you don't grow up knowing that every month your family pays rent or every month your family pays a mortgage, then you don't.

00;35;59;23 - 00;36;13;21

Kelly Welch

That's just foreign to you, right? Yeah. And so what we say to people is you have to pay your rent first. I don't care if it's, you know, a hundred bucks or I don't care if you get 100 bucks. And so you pay us 30, the amount doesn't matter. It's the point.

00;36;13;23 - 00;36;32;23

Cary Hall

Of learning how to do that. That that's that's that that goes hand in glove with teaching the life skills. You know how to keep a checkbook. Yes. I said, okay, you know, pay the rent every month. You know, that's the first thing you do. So you have a roof over your head to place your children to live. Right?

00;36;32;23 - 00;36;55;16

Kelly Welch

Right. Because you can be clean and sober and have your mental health needs met and all that. But if you don't have somewhere to live, you're right back where you started. Yeah. So that's that is that's one of the things that I think that people that support us, I think that's what they like about that self sufficiency model is that we have those expectations and that it sets them up hopefully to be successful in their own lives.

00;36;55;20 - 00;37;11;25

Cary Hall

Yeah, and it's a continuing process. It's not a one and done type of thing. And the fact, you know, again, you know, just some of the challenges some of these women have got criminal record, some of them have been evicted, that they they don't have a credit score, folks, that, you know, is going to be out and get a car loan today.

00;37;12;02 - 00;37;26;12

Cary Hall

I mean, so what you're doing is you're giving a bridge to get to that point. So they are at a point and they can be successful in their lives and move on. And that's really what you're trying to accomplish here. Absolutely. A little bit about the fundraiser coming up on October 15th fitness slot for you.

00;37;26;16 - 00;37;37;24

Kelly Welch

It's our gala, but it's it's very low key. It's an art auction kind of event with dinner and a deejay and dancing. And it's always really fun. It is.

00;37;37;24 - 00;37;38;18

Cary Hall

Fun. It's a blast.

00;37;38;20 - 00;37;45;27

Kelly Welch

It is. Yeah. It's very fun. I hope that, you know, people will want to come or people want more information. It's all on the website.

00;37;46;00 - 00;38;00;20

Cary Hall

And if you want to donate art or you want to donate anything else, hey, they're happy to have it. Okay, Maybe you've got, you know, some some art around the house, whatever the case may be. Maybe mom and dad love you. Some stuff you're not using. They'd be happy to get it and take it to their to their fundraiser.

00;38;00;21 - 00;38;06;21

Cary Hall

Do something with it. The website is Sheffield Place dot org. Thank you very much.

00;38;06;25 - 00;38;07;18

Kelly Welch

Thanks for having me.

00;38;07;21 - 00;38;26;03

Cary Hall

It was great having you up here again. It's great to reconnect and we'll do some more of these. Okay. You know, again, folks, I've talked about this at a number of the shows. This is an example of how it can work. Okay. You know, you've got you get behind an organization like this in Kansas City. We're very fortunate to have these folks here to dedicate their lives to doing this.

00;38;26;10 - 00;38;41;18

Cary Hall

They make a difference. And believe me, because I've seen it, it is amazing when you see what they can do with the resources that they have. The website is Sheffield Place, dot org, Sheffield Place dot org. Get involved and help out. You'll be glad you did.

00;38;41;25 - 00;38;45;19

Cary Hall

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with this thought from Dr. Martin Luther King.

00;38;45;21 - 00;39;01;04

Cary Hall

Americans must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will surely perish together as fools. Truer words were never spoken. Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. Goodbye, America.