An Army of Normal Folks - Charmaine Solomon: HIPsters — Hugely Important People (Pt 2)

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Charmaine is the founder of My Possibilities, which serves who they call HIPsters (hugely important people), otherwise known as adults with disabilities, with a real college experience that they wouldn’t otherwise get. They started with 10 students and now have 675 students!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 Charmaine Solomon right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Snakes, zombies, sharks, heights, speaking in public, the list of fears is endless. But while you're clutching your blanket in the dark, wondering if that sound in the hall was actually a footstep, the real danger is in your hand, when you're behind the wheel. And while you might think a great white shark is scary, what's really terrifying and even deadly is distracted driving.

Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm Bob Pipman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart Media. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math & Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some interesting folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use.

I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Dharang Amin. The way I approach risk is constantly try things and actually make it okay to fail. I'm sitting down with legendary singer-songwriter and philanthropist, Jules. I wanted a way to do something that I loved for the rest of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times, like Stéphane Boncel, CEO of Moderna. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world.

Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins, exactly. Oh man, this is fun.

I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Dressing, dressing. French dressing. Exactly. Ha ha ha, oh that's good. dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly!

Oh, that's good. Now, you can get your Daily Puzzle Nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Grand Finale.

I'm a big fan of your podcast, and I'm excited to see you on the show. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer. I'm a big fan of your podcast, and I'm excited to see you on the show. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer. I'm a big fan of your podcast, and I'm excited to see you on the show. Awful. And I should have seen it coming. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. ["The Last Supper"] It was, I think I read it was you and two other moms. Correct. And what were y'all going to do? Well that's what we needed to do. We needed to raise $250,000.

We had very different skill sets. One woman was going to do the finances. The other one was going to do the human resources. Based on my therapeutic experience, I was going to do all the intakes and all of the Science that goes behind that so we had very clear rules about what we were going to do all in volunteer capacities And of course raise money and then how do women raise money bake sales? Selling other people's trash out of their cars, you know that kind of stuff to raise $250,000, but I still don't at this point You're getting a building and you're getting a building and

you're getting a space but this continuing education and job placement thing how was that gonna work? Well that was what we that was our dream so the one mother and I you know when you first think about what you're going to do what do mothers do they call other mothers like hey what are you doing with your child and she was like I don't know what are you first think about what you're going to do, what do mothers do? They call other mothers like, Hey, what are you doing with your child? And she was like, I don't know. What are you doing with yours? Our children were in the same school, approximately the same age. And we met for Starbucks at the coffee.

If it had been later, it would have been wine, but it was coffee because it was in the morning because we needed alcohol by this point. Anyway, on the back, you know, I was so prepared for this meeting. I didn't even have paper with me. And on the back of the Starbucks napkin, we decided that that's exactly what we were going to do. We wanted continuing education, we wanted no babysitting, we wanted professionals who would come and work with our individuals.

And that, of course, we had no money and we wanted no babysitting. And on that thing, we had three, I put three circles. One was the day program. The second one was the work center. And the third one was residential. And this was in 2007. It was just a first round meeting. Residential.

And all you have is a building with wires hanging down. And not even at that point, we never even had that building. That was in the very beginning. That was just the dream we had. So did Larry tell you you were crazy? He did. He was like, you're nuts, but I understand it. I understand it. You are nuts, but I'm with you. I'm with you. And you know, I must say, you know, like I said, Carl is not Larry's son, but my gosh, that man has stood in those shoes. Hannah's done a beautiful job to raise this young man

as his own, even though he's not his own, and to accept responsibility for the challenges. So maybe he's nuts. I think so. Maybe he got more than he bargained for. So you got this thing fixed up and So you got this thing fixed up and you started with 10 students? Correct. Tell me about that. What did that look like? So 2007 and 2008 we had to raise $250,000 which we achieved. And you did it through bank sales and car cleaning.

And popcorn sales and hard work. I mean, that's what we did. How long did that take? A year. It took us a year. That's phenomenal that you raised $250,000 in a year with bake sales and stuff. And all kinds of trash and all kinds of stuff.

We raised $250,000. So in June 2007, we designed the whole thing. We opened in June 2008. And Carl was the first young man that actually graduated from high school. That joy was one of the 10 at my possibilities. And so we were able to start with 10 students because we didn't, we were still all volunteers.

We had no money to hire anybody. And we started in the summer with a summer program with this continuing education idea. And then. What was the education? Just basic stuff, functional math, reading. We had a book club. We had health and wellness.

We wanted health and wellness all, from the very beginning, exercise. And we had a lot of functional things like how to take care of yourself. We even had a little apartment in the back so you could learn how to make a bed and how to vacuum and you could do all of those things. So we had some of the continuing education

and then we had some of the sort of job training skills. Well that's also life skills. Yes, exactly. Okay, so guess, when did this curriculum that I have in my hands develop in when we went to the so we started working on it right from the very beginning but only when we went to our second building our second location did we actually go into leave that location we had to keep it and no we had to we had to leave it yeah good

well good about your three how many exactly we were I mean we just we couldn't do anymore We were how many people did you have I think we had about? 350 people in that building holy crap within a year and that's why I said we've always had a waitlist So within the first year we were at 350 and I think we were only we had 400 was max in that building So we had that building for four years and then we bought another derelict building. If nothing else speaks to the need and the beauty of what you're doing, you went in one year from 10 to 300,

Exactly. 300. 10 to 300 in a year. In a light. That means parents and people were begging or something. Yeah and we couldn't do the need because we couldn't supply it. There was just too much need and that continues. I was just talking earlier to Alex when I said this year is the first time that we have not had a wait list.

We've had a wait list ever since we began. And the reason being is that people wanted more for their adults. They wanted the continuing education. They had something to compare with. They wanted, they could see that something was different with what we were doing. These adults were cognitively engaged. They were being trained.

They were being given an opportunity to do meaningful things as opposed to just watching Barney or something on the television. People came in droves to come and be with us. Because 23 year olds love sitting around watching Barney. Exactly. And not just Barney, I mean just sitting around all day doing nothing. And so we were able to do that. Dr. Pepper gave us our first bus so that we could take them out into the community. Larry did that. Larry Larry hit up the home folks didn't he? Yes.

Larry Young, who was the CEO of Dr. Pepp at the time, was an amazing human being. We were at a Butler conference and he was sitting opposite me on the bus. I was talking to him about the concept of my possibilities and the challenges with Carl and he knew Carl. He just said to me, Sh Shaman, you get that building. The people will come. And I was like, gosh. And I had to remind him just recently, I was like, Larry, we've had that problem since the very beginning.

We've had buildings and the people come all the time, but we're not able to serve them. And so he was, he helped me with that inspiration that we could do this. You're right. Because, I mean, we were parents. I was a mother, I was working in a different field and I was like, wow, can we do this? Yeah, we could, but it was hard. It was hard. There were times where we didn't know where the next check was coming from.

I mean, it was hard to keep the opening the doors was one thing, but then keeping the doors open was another story because it's a continual fundraising. It's a continual cycle that you have to do. It's not just the one and done. And I think that's what people don't think about when you start a business. It's not just the opening of the doors. And now we've given these adults hope, right? And we've given them something beautiful and we give them something different.

We can't say, sorry, close the doors tomorrow. We just, there's just no option for that. So from the meager beginnings in this building that you did bake sales and raised 250,000 and people coming in to paint and do everything and you're 10 people to in one year 300, your campus is now 50 acres? 20 acres. 20 acres. Yes, 20 acres. And it's beautiful. It looks like a university campus.

It doesn't have wires hanging down. It's a place of dignity. And you know what we wanted, and it's very centrally located. What we wanted with the campus is when you drive up and you look at that space, immediately you have respect because that is the place that you would imagine that other college students are going to and immediately the elevation and expectation is set we're in your neighborhood we want a place of dignity and we wanted a place of respect you do vocational training in retail culinary arts facilities administrative sport administrative support and hospitality. Correct. Tell me, I mean, are these people who are destined for a really ugly 1970s recliner in front of a TV at 23 years old, are they actually employed? Yes, that's what we do. We train them and then we have a job placement team. And not just like, um, we're not talking about charity jobs anymore.

We talking about dignified work. For example, we have a, uh, JP Chase Morgan. JP Chase have, have hired 20 of our adults in their back office banking system. And these are properly paid. They have benefits. They are amazing. And they have benefits. They are amazing. And they have all kinds of data entry, collation of documents, just depending on what it is,

keeping all rooms tidied and organized, organizing meetings, doing all the prep work for a meeting. So if you're having a meeting, you've got everything set out for you. It's just they were amazing. Bank of America does the same thing. JP Chase Morgan does the same thing to Yota. We, we have very big companies that employ our guys and properly employ them. You know, the other thing is this charity job.

I'll never forget this young man. He was working at LeMadeleine's and he's rolling silverware and he's a very high functioning adult and he's musical. He can play the drums. He can play the guitar, he's got a beautiful singing voice and they tell me he's got a bad attitude. I think I would have a bad attitude if I'm given rolling silverware but I'm capable. Go get him a job in a music store, go get him something where he would be stimulated on.

But that idea that these guys have cognitive abilities, they have wants, needs, and desires just like you and I do, and we would match that up for a job, that is just a unique thing. And that's part of your intake. Exactly. You find out what their disabilities are, what their function level are, but also what their interests are.

Exactly, and then that's how we find them jobs. Shocker, that's how we all find jobs. I mean, you find a commonality of interest, and then you go work, you go and explore that, right? That's how we do it. Why would it be any different for our intellectual disabilities? And this campus, on the new campus when we moved there, these adults could sign up for their classes.

The first time that we have a portfolio of classes that are probably about 80 to 85 every 14 weeks, different content which we write by the way, and they can sign up for these classes and they can choose their subjects. I mean that's another thing, right? That independence of choice. When you go to college, you can choose your subjects, not at my possibilities. I'm holding the master course. Okay. I can't read it. I really

wish I could read it all, but I'm just going to pick a couple. You know, you've got leadership 101, which is completely the antithesis of what you would think about teaching folks with disabilities. But you've got basics of tech, healthy choices, cooking, community independence, adaptive. You've got costuming. You've got martial arts, music, yoga, performance dance, cheerleading, vocational foundations, individual discoveries. This thing is what is it 75 or 80 different classes?

Exactly. Per for every 14 weeks. You've got a happy class exploring the true meaning of being happy sports talk, men's hour, girl power, Spanish, cleaning clue, outdoor skills, baking 101, Bible study. It goes on and on and the very thought of people, special needs folks, going to a secondary education with a curriculum, choosing their classes, learning them, matching their interests with their abilities and finding vocational training so that they get a real job with real pay and real benefits.

There are people that would say, you can't do that. We can. We can. And we do it with pride. And I'll tell you, when you walk our building and you see these adults going about their business, and you see them, how they care for each other, how they are learning and how excited they are to come to MyPossibilities, you will understand it's a magical place to be able to do that.

We'll be right back. Snakes, zombies, sharks, heights, speaking in public, the list of fears is endless. But while you're clutching your blanket in the dark, wondering if that sound in the hall was actually a footstep, the real danger is in your hand, when you're behind the wheel. And while you might think a great white shark is scary, what's really terrifying and even deadly is distracted driving. Eyes Forward, Don't Drive Distracted, brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm Bob Pitman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart Media. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast,

Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some interesting folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Thereng Amin.

The way I approach risk is constantly try things and actually make it okay to fail. I'm sitting down with legendary singer-songwriter and philanthropist, Jewel. I wanted a way to do something that I loved for the rest of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times, like Stephane Bancel, CEO of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times,

like Stéphane Boncel, CEO of Moderna. He becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcast. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins, exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing.

Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen,

Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains or often somewhere in between. Listen to The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Tell me what a hipster is. So you know, not the traditional definition. No, no, no, no, not that one. So you know, our industry is so cold. We call our, they call them clients or they call them patients or they call, and we were like, okay, no, stop that. These are not patients and they're not clients.

These are human beings. Let's think of something that could be much more warming and engaging. And so we started with VIP and we were like, okay, that doesn't work. And then hipster came on, hugely important person because that's what they are. And that's why we do whatever we do at MyPossibilities. And our hipster came on, hugely important person, because that's what they are. And that's why we do whatever we do at My Possibilities.

And our hipsters love it. They wear their t-shirts loud and proud that they are hipsters. And they will tell you that they're hipsters. We have hipsters on the board. Part of that leadership class is that you can be a board member, we've got a board member. We've got, they come to the board and they report

about the programs downstairs. They come and report to the board about things that they want changed. So we we encourage all of that at every level of our organization. Five pillars of education for these hipsters. My place in the world, social skills and communication development, aspiring for independence, community at home, transportation, money, management, safety awareness, self advocate. That's interesting. Responsibility. Vocabulate. What's that word? Vocabilities? I think it's vocabilities.

Vocabilities. Thank you. Vocabilities said by a true, properly trained South African. By the way, your English is so much better than mine and it sounds so much better. I love to hear you talk. Employment opportunities, teamwork, sound body, sound mind, sound body, personal care, healthy lifestyles, fitness, and inspiring something to be. Visual arts, pathway, culinary arts, performance based classes, communication, social. You are educating these folks and not only job skills, but life skills, self care. Correct.

Things that people would say folks like these can't achieve. Oh my gosh, that is so wrong. Such a wrong philosophy or thought. Again, it's an old fashioned way of thinking about people with an intellectual disability. These guys are super capable. Our job is they've never been exposed to these things. So they don't even know what they're good at.

Our job is to expose them to as many opportunities as possible. Now that's really interesting. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but that what you just said to me is profound. This is going to go up on our what's it called Alex, our what's our thing, quotes from army people or normal folks wisdom, normal folks wisdom. Please say what you just said again. I forgot what I said. You said that because

they've never been exposed, they don't even know what they've been going to add, which speaks to the fact that coming up through the system, their key hold as disabled and therefore aren't even allowed to explore on how to achieve. But you said, say it again, you said. I said, they don't even know what they good at or what they like, because they have never been exposed to it, whether that was at school or whatever that looks like. And so they don't know what they good at.

They haven't even been given the opportunity. They haven't. I'll give you an example. We have a very talented artist. Her name is Abby. Abby is phenomenal artist. In fact, her work was on display in Japan. What is her disability? Put a face talented artist. Her name is Abby. Abby is a phenomenal artist. In fact, her work was on display in Japan. What is her disability?

Put a face on Abby. Abby is on the spectrum. She has autism. She is verbal, but only a little bit. And she is social, but very, very basic, right? So if you meet Abby, you would never connect Abby to her artwork. So Abby's a talented artist.

She comes to visit My Possibilities, or comes in the summer while we were in the beginning before she came to join us. And we had an art teacher that exposed Abby to art. Abby's art is fantastic. We go back to the school and say, this girl is talented. Please put her in art classes.

She's got the potential. They could never put her in the art class. Abby's work was on display just recently in Japan. She won an award for the metamorphosis of a butterfly, four paintings that she did, the most beautiful detailed paintings. She's an amazing artist, but she was never given that exposure. She only learned that at My Possibilities. And through private coaching from our staff, she's learned how to do this. But that goes for everything. There's a young woman that is an incredible baker at My Possibilities.

We call her the cookie queen. She never baked in her life. She didn't know how to measure anything. We taught her that. They don't know because it's like a vacuum. They've never been exposed to these things and the more we expose them to different things, we're like, they are talented in this. They need to go do this. This is a career for them. Let's explore that to be able to

do that. So we do a lot of that to say, what is it that they gifted at? What are they talented at? And let's explore that. That could become a job. Let's give them more of those classes. It's amazing. We have this whole therapeutic team behind them as well that helps with communication and behaviors to get that all under control. And then you said, in our boardroom, we have a hipster's version of the Mona Lisa.

And that was my first experience. A hipster's version of the Mona Lisa. What is that? It's a painting and she did the Mona Lisa in her version of it. It is the most beautiful painting but that was my first experience to say, wow, these kids are talented.

Tiny little Asian girl, very behaviorally challenged until you put a paintbrush in her hand. Very behaviorally challenged? Yes. Why? Just she's hardly, she can hardly communicate until you put a paintbrush in her hand. Unbelievable. She created this, this is the first time that she'd ever learned to paint and she created

this Mona Lisa painting. It is the most beautiful thing and we actually have it up in our conference room because that is a reminder of all the untapped potential that these adults have and it's our job to find it. And had it not been for my possibilities ironically enough, nobody would have even known the possibilities of her talent. No because what we did is we had an exhibition where we had these artists come and we had the parents come in and her mother came to me because she had her name, Gina had written her name at the bottom of the painting and her mom came to me because she had her name, Gina had written her name at the bottom of

the painting and her mom came to me and said, is that Gina? And I was like yeah you're Gina and she goes, my Gina? Well she needs art classes. I'm like, she's 35, you should have given her five art lessons when she was five right? But to start out the gates and be able to paint something like a Mona Lisa, I couldn't do that. There's no way I could do that. But that's what I'm saying, all this latent talent is there. It's our job to find it and nurture it and grow it and see what they can do. That's phenomenal.

So meaningful. It makes me wanna know what Ben can do. Yes. And what they would do if they were exposed to this when they were young, like five, right? Most of us get exposed to good things. I mean, I watched your documentary and I was just thinking about,

gosh, when we're young and we're exposed to things, it advances us so much, right? Because we're exposed to something and you can see at a young age perhaps that someone's talented. And then what do you do? You steer them in that direction, right? But when you're 35 and you're like, wow, okay, you quite missed the boat by G. Those formative years. What would what what would it have been like if it was earlier?

So How many people on this campus now? 675 as I've yes my gosh 675 how I be yesterday. Oh my gosh. 675 people. How many staff? Over 100. How do you pay for this?

We have to fundraise. And we have to fundraise. And we have to do events. And we have wonderful relationships with donors and foundations. And that's how we have to do it. Are you pinching yourself? You know, sometimes I walk that campus and I think to myself, wow, I had an idea, but

not like this. It's way beyond my thinking. I mean, we had thought about a campus, but not like this, where so many adults come and they just love being there. It's amazing. Um, Larry, you still think you're nuts. This quote, without my possibilities, our family would not have been able to find a way to give each other,

give each of our children an opportunity to grow. Patricia M. I want to go back to that one in a minute. Um, second coming to my possibilities is the best thing that ever happened to me. I enjoy coming here so much because I can come and learn something. James S. It's really important that our listeners understand that this is life-changing not only for the folks who are in the program but the families so much loss and despair and anxiety over what to do is replaced with hope. Yes and growth and opportunities right because this is a world where there are no growth and opportunities.

And so our parents, that's why our parents love what we do at MyPossibilities and why, you know, when we were looking at when we are looking at residential options, they're like, whatever you do, we don't want to leave the campus. We need to be close to the campus. We need our adults to live and come to the campus because that whole MyPossibilities program is done and the trust that they know that their adults are taken, they are safe, they're well taken care of and they're challenged. That trust that those parents have with us is amazing and but it's a blessing and a curse because it's a big delivery, it's a big responsibility to do that all the time is to make sure

that these adults are safe, they are challenged every day and our parents just love that and I love that. I mean the other day, Carl's caseworker came to the house and wanted to see him at home before he went to My Possibilities. Her name was Jennifer. He goes, Hi Jennifer, I'm late. He wanted to go back to My Possibilities. You're in my way.

Yeah, I'm late. He doesn't want to miss anything, right? He's home with us for a week and then he wants to go back because he's had enough of us. He wants to be with his friends. When I pick him up, he's got a big smile on his face, but that's what happens in that building. And if you walk in that building, people say, hi, how are you? I love it here. I love my math. I love this. Welcome. Come and see our place. They're so proud of their place, right? Because it's their place.

And they're so proud of that. We'll be right back. Snakes, zombies, sharks, heights. Speaking in public, the list of fears is endless. But while you're clutching your blanket in the dark, wondering if that sound in the hall was actually a footstep, the real danger is in your hand, when you're behind the wheel.

And while you might think a great white shark is scary, what's really terrifying and even deadly is distracted driving. Eyes Forward, Don't Drive Distracted, brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm Bob Pitman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart Media. I'm excited to introduce a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. I'm having conversations with some interesting folks across a wide range of industries to hear how they reach the top of their fields

and the lessons they learned along the way that everyone can use. I'll be joined by innovative leaders like Chairman and CEO of Elf Beauty, Thereng Amin. The way I approach risk is constantly try things and actually make it okay to fail. I'm sitting down with legendary singer-songwriter and philanthropist, Jewell. I wanted a way to do something that I loved for the rest of my life. We're also hearing how leaders brought their businesses out of unprecedented times, like Stéphane Boncel, CEO of Moderna. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to

do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the front the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins.

Exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing.

Exactly. Ha ha ha! Oh, that's good. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird.

This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful, and I should have seen it coming. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told.

Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you ever start a football team, let me know. I'll take you up on that. I think they know they call it Charmaine's Whip. They call it Charmaine's Whip.

You have to be very careful what you promise. So you alluded to it, but I won't let you just kind of go with it. You don't strike me as a person that grass grows readily under their feet. What's next? Residential, you know, my size. On campus? Just off the campus. So close by. Unfortunately, we're not zoned where we are off on the campus for residential. We do have plans for dormitories on there where you can learn how

to live individually. Because that's another thing we talked about it earlier. My son doesn't have an experience of sleeping out at a friend's house. He has no experience of that. He All he knows is sleeping in his own room with his mom and dad, right? He just has no experience about sleeping out or what it feels like to live independently. And also because he's lived with me so long, I probably have developed the most bad habits with helping him where he's more capable of doing that. So that training where they'll learn how to live independently will be on the campus. Wow that's interesting is as they learn parents have to be able

to get out of the way and let him go yes mom's gonna need therapy when he moves into residential. Are you gonna do it in a mirror because you're a therapist? Exactly I think so. Okay so residential what's that gonna look like? So we originally had 180 acres. And does that not scare you? What? Residential is wrought with opportunities for pitfalls and issues. Yes, yes, and abuse, yes. That's what I mean.

Scares the living day. Abuse of all kinds. If somebody's being loud and obnoxious and you've had it, just beat them and put them back in the bed. Or if you're a predator, that is easy fishing grounds. Exactly. And that's why my son still lives at home with me. The current group home model, that's not gonna happen.

I don't trust it. It's a he said, she said, I've seen. But you're about to start that. Yes, but differently. That's what I wanna hear. So we're gonna do it a little differently because it'll be our staff. Our staff will be trained.

It'll be different. We'll have much more eyes on. And also what we're planning to do, we had 180 acres of a golf course that we were gonna build a residential community. A what? You had what? We had 180 acres, an old golf club,

but unfortunately due to the costs post COVID, there's no way we can build that community. Somebody gave you a golf club? Yes, this gentleman, one of our donors. Oh my gosh. Yes, one of our fantastic donors bought this property for us. And, but unfortunately with the costs rising post COVID

and being a golf course trying to even out the property for our population, it didn't work. The map didn't work. The houses would be too expensive for our families to explore. So we've moved closer now. There's a mall that is being redeveloped in our neighborhood and it's got housing on it and it's five minutes away from the My Possibilities campus. We are aiming to buy six four-bedroom units in that block and start a pilot there. And then there are some apartments that are at the back. So for those individuals who are able to live independently in an apartment that need oversight and supervision,

we can provide that and then this pilot program in the homes. And so that's what we're working on currently. It's around and it'll be different. It's in the most beautiful buildings, four bedrooms, each person has their own bathroom and bedroom and they'll be able to stay there with supervision and it'll be our staff, our trained staff. And the beauty of being six together, it's not one isolated house with one staff member. It is a community of people where there'll be lots of eyes

on these adults. So there'll be not just one person's version, there'll be lots of people around. And so it will be safer for us. And so Kyle will eventually go there when they are ready. It's going to be, it's going to take a lot for me to let him go, but I want him to go While I can still be around to help him with that transition while I can still help him

He can come home for weekends and he can do what he needs to do while I'm alive I don't want him to go to a facility if something happens to me and I'm not around I want him to be there I want him to help I want to help him make that transition And the beautiful part about that is you happen to run a school that can teach him the tools on how to live. And he's already got a big part of his life during the day on the campus. So they'll see him on the campus. He'll go home. So we've got a lot more eyes on these adults to make sure that they're well-fed, they're well-treated. We'll be able to see all of that kind of stuff as opposed to an isolated little group home somewhere.

I gotta ask you, what is the budget, annual budget for this thing? Well, that's the thing that we're working on right now. We have to raise $4 million in order to be able to put the down payments on these homes. And that's what we're working on. Annually? No, what's the annual budget for the whole shoot and match? Are you talking about my possibilities? We're at $10 million.

A year? Does anybody pay for any of these classes? Some of them pay. So for example, if they have a Medicaid waiver program, they use that money, but it's tiny. It's like anywhere between $19 and $24 a day, we'll take that. And then if you have private pay options, we will charge you. But everybody in that building, we raise money for. There's a big difference between the fee that is paid and what it costs us to run that. And that's where our fundraising gap comes from. Our fundraising team this year raised $4.2 million

just for operating, just to close that gap. And the more people we have, the bigger that number gets. Is that a point of stress for you? Oh, all the time. Yes, it is a point of stress for you? Oh, all the time. Yes, it is a point of stress because like I said, we've created Nirvana and Nirvana has to continue and to build that, making sure that that legacy

never goes away. These adults count on us every day. This is their life. I can go get another job, right? I can move somewhere else, but this is their lives. And that puts a lot of pressure on us to make sure that those doors are open and functioning every day and well functioning. On the one hand, I hear that number and it's astounding.

On the other hand, in and around Dallas, there are people to whom for me in dollars is jump change. So it is there. It's there, but it's not necessarily there for our population. It's, uh, people are very philanthropic in Dallas, right? They're very philanthropically minded, but typically it's for children. It's cancer. It's all of those things, but these are adults. Um, and not as much. We really,

there are lots of places that turn us down because it's not the population that they serve or the population that they're caring. So yes, we've got lots of philanthropic dollars, but it doesn't all come to people with intellectual disabilities. I bet if you can ever get somebody on campus to look and see and touch and feel that they fall in love.

They do, and we do that all the time. We set up tours all the time because we know that somewhere, someone going to engage you on that campus and they're gonna touch your heart. Charmaine, you're a mom with a kid that was aging out a system and had no idea what to do and here you are some 15 years later with 700 people on a 20 acre campus with a four or $5 million budget. You are nuts.

My husband thinks so. I mean, the other two moms, these three moms that started this, are they still with you? No, unfortunately in the beginning, no, these three moms that started this, are they still with you? No, unfortunately in the beginning, no, the two dropped out very quickly. But yes, and also I was very much the third mother that came in to do the intakes because I had another, I was working and earning my income.

So I was very much a third mother and then ended up running it for years to be able to do that. But I must tell you that there is an incredible bunch of team at Atmar Possibilities. The staff, the fundraising people are all very passionate about what we do and they work so hard to be able to do that. So this is a village, right? I mean, having an idea and then executing on an idea, it doesn't help if you don't have a village of people who care and want to do that. When you step back and take stock of all of this, we'll go through your head.

You know, I just look at this and I go, gosh, how did we do this and how did it get this momentum and whatever? And I think to myself, wow, these guys have a purpose and they have a passion. And every time I go there, they just want to hug on you and just love on you. And I'll tell you, you just think to yourself, wow, I'm so blessed by the idea that I can see that these guys are growing and, you know, it might be for my son, but it's really for our people. I mean, they deserve that, right? They deserve a chance. They deserve something

different. And we've become, we've set the trend. We can't go back now. Everybody wants to do better. And sometimes they copy what we do and be like, okay, that's fine. Because if they copy what we do, they're making it better for whatever their adults are. So we don't mind, we'll share that with you. We'll share whatever you wanna come and see and do because we want it better for other people. Because if we don't do it, who's going to do it, right? If we don't do it, who's gonna do it?

Tell me one more story. Okay. One more uplifting story of a hipster that showed up to you in your own words, not even knowing what they could do or what their interests were or having never been exposed to it that is now doing something that we would be like, wow. I'll use Aaron as an example. We used to call him the chief. He was the chief. Yeah. He was always bossy, is bossing everybody around. So Aaron had been with us for a couple of years and really, um, I think he,

his father died and it was just his mom. And he was really just full of nonsense, behaviorally. He was just, you know, chief bossing around. Don't tell me what to do. And eventually Aaron kind of got with the program. We got him some behavioral support and Erin got a job and he got a job at JP Chase Morgan. And he came for a day of impact with his team. He brought his team to come and work and do a service project at My Possibilities.

And he was leading that service project with his work team. And he was so proud. He came in and he was introducing his work team to me and to his teachers and to whatever. But he was now an employee of this company and he was so proud of what he'd done at My Possibilities. And now he was coming to share that with his team. That was an amazing, I mean, just to see this kid go

from behaviorally challenged to settling down, to share that with his team. That was an amazing, I mean, just to see this kid go from behaviorally challenged to settling down, doing the work that he needed to do to learn how to do this. We placed him in this job and then he brings his whole team around and they loved him. They called him the chief too. So he was still the chief. He was still the chief. And so, and he was so, but he was so proud of himself. I mean, you you could if these little shirt and his heart could have you know burst open it could have because he was so proud to come and show them where he'd come from and how hard he'd worked and that he look what he was doing now with his team it was amazing and they were fantastic with him too when I sit here and compare

that story against the balance of the likelihood that without my possibilities, the chief would be sitting in front of a TV somewhere. Yes. Medicated. Yes. And he wouldn't- Especially if it was a behavioral challenge, medicated. Medicated.

And also, where would his team be? He wouldn't have a team of typically developed people that are working alongside him and encouraging him at work. He wouldn't have a team. Are you allowing yourself to understand that you probably saved his life? I don't think about it that way. I think.

But it is. I think we see those stories all the time. We're just so blessed to be able to witness that, that you see something like that. You know, most of us, we touch someone's life, but you don't see what you do in that person's life. We get to see it. And that is such a blessing to see how we,

Erin's one story of many at My Possibilities, that we see, we touch it, we see it, we feel, the letters that we get from our parents about how these kids are doing at home, it's such a blessing to see that. I'm still having a hard time getting over 100 acre, 180 acre golf course thing. I'd certainly get the build out,

would be just an extraordinary amount of money love that you're doing the the the off-campus housing thing but I gotta ask I mean why can't this happen in other parts of the country and be exported? And is there any plans or thoughts of that? Or has anybody reached out to you? We see a lot of people from different states that come to us and want to mark possibilities in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, we haven't addressed the need in our own local community, but we are willing to share what we do. What we do isn't a secret, and we want to share that because it will improve the lives of everybody else but you know and i think one of the reasons that doesn't exist it's a lot of hard work and you have to have a community.

Of people that will support you and you gotta have a band of people who are willing to work together to do it and really get that momentum to be able to do it because that's what we did. We rode this sort of crest of the wave Engaging the community and not every community is as supportive as our community is and I think that makes what that's what makes it different But it's out there. Yes, you will teach them you will show them you will lay out the ground Yes, you'll give them all of your yes They can come spend a day with us see what we do learn what we do. We open our doors all the time We don't you know, we want everybody to do what we do. We want it to be better The possibilities that's right. Yes, and that's where the name came from, you know, when we were looking at names We were like my possibilities. My son needs to have possibilities and And that's how we came up with the name of my possibilities.

I love it. If somebody wants to look up my possibilities or reach out to you because maybe they say this needs to happen in Topeka. Where do they go? Easy. Charmaine at mptx.org. My possibilities, Texas.org mptx.org. MyPossibilitiesTexas.org. M-P-T-X. C-H-A-R-M-A-I-N-E at mptx.org. That's it. And I guess MyPossibilities has a website? Oh yes. What is that?

Just MyPossibilities.org. I love it. You're phenomenal. Thank you. It's, hey, I'm a mom first, and I will tell you that my son is brave and he's an amazing young man and he deserves nothing but the best. Charmaine, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you for having me here today. It's been my distinct pleasure. Thank you. And thank you for joining us this week. If Charmaine Solomon has inspired you in general, or better yet, take action by donating to my possibilities, sharing it with adults with disabilities who could be interested in going there, starting something like it in your community or something else entirely, please let me know.

I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at billatnormalfolks.us and I promise you, I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, guys, share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it. Join the army at normalfolks.us. Consider becoming a premium member there.

Any and all of these things that will help us grow an army of normalfolks. I'm Bill Courtney, until next time, do what you can. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers, and more.

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