August 7, 2024 • 21 mins
Josh is the Chief Executive Officer of the Boulder Crest Foundation since, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring first responders, combat veterans, and their family members live great lives in the midst of struggle, stress, and trauma.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs. You should know Howard
by iHeartMedia. Let's meet Josh Goldberg.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He is the CEO for the Bouldercress Foundation, a home
of post traumatic growth or PTG. They offer life changing
programs for you've charged to members of the military, veterans
at first responder communities and their families. Before we talk
more about Josh's foundation and the great things are accomplishing,
I first asked him and talk a little bit about himself,
where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, and I went to
college up in Boston at Tufts University, started international relations
into the sideline and social responsibility.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How did it go from a kid from Texas going
up in Boston? Low culture shock.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
A little bit of culture shock, and a lot of
patriot stuff that got hard. But I did fall for
the lovable Red Sox and Pedro Martinez. So that was
a wonderful part of the introduction to Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, listen, we are going to talk a lot about
the Bouldercress Foundation. Before we do that, I like to
get people a little bit of context of why they
do things. You went to a grade school, you can
tell people what you studied, if you want to throw
that out there, But when you finished up at toughs,
what did you want to do?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
When I graduated college, I only had a mild amount
of understanding of what I wanted to do with my life.
And the one thing that was interesting to me that
I spent some time focused on was the intersection of
business and philanthropy, of doing good and doing well naturally.
With that in my back pocket and in my mind,
I went to work at a tobacco company and then
an oil and gas company, doing social responsibility, which many
(01:28):
people find ironic. And at the time I also got married,
and I had this whole life that I guess I
thought was what it meant to be successful. But what
they say is that a crisis in your life is
when you get to the top of a ladder and
it's against the wrong building. And I came to the
sort of frightening conclusion that my life wasn't my life.
My life felt like it was for somebody else to live,
and went through a very difficult process to go back
(01:50):
and try to answer that question, which is kind of
what do I want to be when I grow up?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
All Right, we're going to talk a lot about Bouldercress,
as we mentioned, but I always like to get the
origin story of that too. In the epipot about you know,
co founding any kind of nonprofit and what you're doing
with you and your partners, your team is absolutely incredible,
and we're going to talk a lot about that and
get into the weeds. But when it comes to that
epiphany about starting a foundation specifically for what you do
(02:15):
of post traumatic growth, the PTG, tell me about the
idea of coming up with this, because there were a
lot of foundations out there. There's a lot of people
that deal with mental health, especially when it comes to
our veterans. God bless all of the men and women
out there. But tell us about the idea of starting
the foundation and why you did it.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Our chairman and founder, Ken Falk and his wife Julia
km was in the Navy for twenty one years and
during the early parts of the war, a significant number
of members of the bomb disposal community that comes a
part of were severely injured and Ken spend a lot
of time, as did Julia, with them at the hospital
and at their house and getting to see that and
seeing the value of time and nature led Ken and
Julia to donate thirty seven acres of their land and
(02:53):
build the first privately funded wellness center of the country
for combat veterans and their families. And as we started
to host people, what struck us was that a lot
of the physically injured people, primarily because of the support
they received, were actually doing well in terms of recovery,
in terms of the next step of their lives.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But a lot of people who didn't have.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Any physical injuries seem to be struggling a great deal.
And so we started on a journey to understand what
was happening, why was it happening, only to learn that
our mental health system was not working for most of
these men and women most of the time. And really
a shift or a growth in Bouldercrest's focus from hosting
families to really starting to work to change our nation's
(03:31):
approach to mental health, especially for the members of the military,
veteran and first responder communities.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
What's the mission statement of Bouldercrest.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
The mission of Boldercrest is to develop, deliver, study, and
scale post traumatic growth based programs for times of struggle,
with a particular focus on the military, veteran of first
responder communities.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Josh, one of the things I want you to address
is mental health. And bear with me, please, I have
a twenty two year old daughter, so obviously I've heard
about mental health when it comes to her and her
peer group with young people, social media women. In today's climate,
I could go on about that. But when I actually
first heard about mental health, and you're hearing this from
a kid who grew up in the seventies where we
(04:09):
just scrape, threw some dirt on it and kept on going,
mental health wasn't in our vocabulary.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It is now.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
As almost a sixty year old military I think brought
to the forefront about mental health and after doing combat
and coming back to civilian life and all the struggles.
And I've talked to enough nonprofits out there of the
difficulties of coming back wounded or not, how traumatic it
can me to insert yourself back into civilian life. So
with all that said, I'm so happy that this is
(04:36):
being addressed by you, your other founder, and the team
of people and the peer group that works with everybody
out there that go through PTG, that mental health and
those words aren't dirty anymore, and the people are talking
about that, that there are real things when it comes
to our mind and our body when we're coming out
of combat, that people have to address so they can
get some kind of sense of normalcy. That's probably never
(04:58):
going to be normal again. Can you expect on that
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And in our nation, and like you spoke about with
your daughter, nations in the midst of a massive mental
health crisis and suicide rates the highest have spent since
we started tracking in nineteen forty one. Active duty to
military suicide rates the high since nineteen thirty eight. We
lose more first responders to suicide and the line of duty,
So we see it in every part of our society.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
And what I would argue.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Is that on the one hand, it's been a good
thing that we've increased awareness and our willingness to talk
about mental health, and you certainly see that with the
younger generation. I would balance that against what I think
is a really bad thing, which is essentially we've pathologized
or labeled or diagnosed all kinds of life struggles that
aren't actually diagnosable mental health conditions. And what those labels
and diagnoses do have the effect of is they sat
(05:42):
people of hope and the belief that life can never
be good again. And so for us working with these
communities where suicide is so prevalent, the military community, the
veteran first responding communities, is what we have to do
is help shift people's perspective, is to help them realize
that while we recognize you're struggling, is that doesn't have
to be where you reside. There is a path, a
well tried path from struggle to strength and post traumatic growth.
(06:04):
And for the listeners, this is the first time you've
ever heard of post traumatic growth. I think that says
everything that we need to say when it comes to
the imbalance of a conversation where there's so much language
for the negative and so little for the possibility that
good things can follow bad things. And at the core
of Bodercrest is how do we proliferate this idea of
post traumatic growth and balance this conversation so that people
(06:27):
can figure out how do I take this time of
deep struggle in my life and transform it into strength
and growth in a way that not only benefits me,
but benefits the people I love and care about.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Josh, But before we talk about all the great programs
that you offer up, and we'll also go into your approach,
research and resources, and especially how to get involved. I
do want to start once again, and you touch in
this a little bit. If you were to give a
thirty thousand foot view to somebody who's never heard about
bouldercrests Fandoshian, what would you tell people that you exactly do.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Wtercrest is the home of post traumatic growth. And what
we do is we train people in the practice and
principles of pt G so they can transform struggling in
their lives into strength and growth. And we own and
operate three retreat centers as of this morning, one in Virginia,
one in Arizona, one in Texas, and we have partners
around the country to expand this work and transform lives.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
All Right, you've got some great programs out there. I'll
go through some of them and you can hit on
some of the ones. I'm sure they're all important, but
ones you'd like to put a spotlight on. There's Warrior
Path Southwest of the sw Experience, the Family R and
R Military Team, which really kind of intrigued me since
I have not a teenager but a young person PTG
in practice, and you also have struggle well in PTG certification.
(07:34):
Can you talk a little bit about those.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So, all of Watocraft's programs are based on post traumatic growth,
and our intensive programs that are in residence where people
stay overnight are our Warrior Path program, which is score
combat veterans as well as first responders who are struggling,
and that's a ninety day program that starts with seven
days on the ground. We do it at our facilities
in Arizona, Virginia, and Texas, and we have partners around
the country who also are delivering Warrior Path. In addition,
(07:58):
we host combat veterans in their family this for two
to seven nights. All of our programs provided free of
costs to participants through film, thropic resources and other donations.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And the other piece is we've created.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
A program called Struggle Well to bring Post amount of
Growth into the world, primarily of first responders, but we
also have an online course Post Amount of Growth and
Practice that you can find on our website, and that's
really for anybody, anybody who's going through struggling in their
life or who's seeking to support somebody who's struggling.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
One of the things that intrigued me when we were
in our green room before we started rolling and recording today,
you talked about peer groups and working one on one
with each other and the reason why that got my
attention and our audience knows this about me since I
was twenty one, I've had rheumatoid arthritis. Now one time
I thought I was the only person that had it
on the planet. Medication, doctors, no internet, no social media.
(08:48):
I really felt alone and isolated. And with that it
made a lot of sense when I started to meet
somebody else who had what I had. As humans, we
just want to have simple acknowledgement, but be able to relate.
And I think ida peers talking to one another about
mental health and all the things that ex military or
military are going through after combat or just being in
a war zone made a lot of sense to me.
(09:10):
And it spoke to me that you do that. Glad
that you do that. Can you tell me the thinking
behind that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know, when you look at mental health statistics, about
fifty percent of people who might benefit will never go
to a mental health provider, and of the fifty percent
who do go, you have a very high drop out rate,
primarily because people don't feel like they're connecting to the
person trying to help them, and so for us, the
question was how do you address that? And the best
way to address it in these communities of people who've
been through shared experience is a peer based program. So
(09:36):
when we first started our Warrior Path program at twenty fourteen,
we used peers in order to deliver it, and what
we saw is echoed in the words of one of
our psychologists who advises us.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He said that it would.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Take me twelve months to do what you did in
two days in terms of the level of connectedness and
the willingness to talk about things that they've never talked about.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I know that everybody doesn't get a dose of I
feel better, I'm on the right path, But can you
tell me a about feedback that you get not only
from the people that you work with, the peers and
all your team, because the only way we can get
better is getting feedback. We're going to make mistakes along
the way, but I imagine that feedback, especially what you
and your team do, is alter important.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Here.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
We're super committed to researching and evaluating everything that we do,
and we have really dating back to our origins, and
when I think about the impact of our programs, and
of course we hear amazing testimonials about life saved and
life's transformed. Is the ones that stand out to me
are our two gentlemen in particular, who one had turned
over to every picture of him and his how smiling
(10:33):
because he hadn't smiled in seven years, and the other
who hadn't laughed in twelve years, and they laughed during
the program, and they said to me, this is the
first time I've experienced joy in almost a decade or
over a decade. And so that to me, when we
talk about the idea that the opposite of suicide is
a life worth living. A life that is worth living
has joy in it, has laughed, or in it has
some moments of uplift, and so getting to see that
(10:55):
and seeing it on the face of somebody who hasn't
experienced in so long is one of the greatest blessings
of my life and a privilege.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
One of the things I also talk to of people
that do what you do, sometimes what's left out is
the family. And what I mean by that is while
they're not getting the exact experience and maybe that that
military person or that ex military person is getting, the
family has their own issues, whether it's a partner, some children,
those kind of things. Is that addressed when it comes
(11:24):
to what you do.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
One hundred percent or I should say one thousand percent,
because there's no question that struggle is contagious in a family.
If a combat veteran is struggling, that's going to be
experienced by everybody in that household. And the challenge is
the resources go to that combat veteran, which only furthers
levels of resentment that the rest of the family feels about, Hey,
we've been affected by this, but there's no help. And
(11:47):
so dating back to our beginnings, and Julia Falker is
our co founder, is saying, we have got to make
sure that we are bringing families into the fold. Our
initial motto was healing heroes, one family at a time.
And so for us, our family rest of reconnection program,
our Couple's path program are so important because they allow
for that family to grow together and to address a
(12:07):
lot of the impacts of like I said, that contagious
struggle effects. And so turning that around and getting to
see spouses come up and say, you know, a thank
you for my husband or wife back. But more importantly,
your programs have changed our entire family and our family's
outlook on life and what's possible is an incredible, incredible testimonial.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, Josh, that is a good segue.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
In just a moment, I would like you to share
maybe a story that you're found of where something made
such a dramatic change that really touched everybody's heart there,
And I'm sure you have handfuls of great stories. But
I also tell people then, when you're running foundations and
nonprofit it's not always unicorns and rainbows all the time,
and it's hard, hard work. Well, that said, you and
the team, what kind of challenges are you facing right now?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
The main challenges we would face is one is a
challenge of success, which is an incredible amount of demand
for our training programs and especially our Warrior Path program,
and that's grown ten x over the last six years
and will continue to grow, and just keeping up with
the fact that there's so much struggle occurring in these worlds.
And the second is the challenge for a nonprofit that
we rely primarily on private donations and philanthropy and just
(13:10):
raising money year after year, especially as we get further
away from the wars, is challenging, and so making sure
that we can continue to grow to meet the scale
of the challenge remains sort of top of mind for me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I realize it's not fair to share one story that
either touched you your team's hard because there are probably
so many don't have to mention any names. But was
there an instance in your time there at the Foundation
that you said, you know what, this is why we
get up every day. That was pretty special that we
touch that person's life and they're getting help.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I read a testimonial for a family that came through
our Family Rest and Reconnection program last week, and it
brought me to tears. And it was the story of
a couple who both were in the military and the
wife had finally realized that she was struggling and went
through a Warrior Path program and came back a change
woman and told her husband your next and he went
through our Warrior Path program soon after, and the family
(13:58):
all came back for a rest story Connections stay, and
what he said was you save my wife, you save
my life, you save my family.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And to me, it was everything that.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
We were created to do, which is to have these
ripple effects, some of which we know, some which will
never know, to know that those kids can grow up
in a healthy household with loving parents who are connected
themselves in each other. It really does. It never ceases
to amaze me. And it's very very common, which is
the beautiful part about it. It's not an exception.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That's a wonderful story. You know, this is a very
subjective question, so take it for what it is. But
I realized that all the military people that I've met
over my lifetime, especially if they're older, that whole tough
person exterior, and it's a very structured life.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
As you know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well that said, asking for somebody's help in general, when
you're a human being is hard to do, whether it's
to go with the doctor if you're not feeling well
or getting trying to get some mental health and stepping
over that barrier of a very uncomfortable thing that maybe
you weren't brought up to do. How do you extend
that branch and let people know that you're there that
don't necessarily they want to get involved in something that
(15:01):
you do, even though they probably know in the nda
really could help them in their family.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I think everything we've done at Budapest has been to
try to address the reasons why members of the communities
we serve that, like you said, are hardy and stubborn,
are willing to come here. And that's why it's a
training program. That's why it's peer based. And I think
those components make it a lot more attractive to somebody
who is not disposed to wanting to share all of
(15:25):
their struggle and empty their rucksack in front of people
who don't understand.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
And so I think it's the DNA.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of our organization that is of for and by members
of the military and versus upon communities, that we are
from these communities and we know what works.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And we know what people need, and we know what people.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Have experienced, and that they're not going to sit around
the fire and see kumbay and tell war stories.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Is they're here because.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
They want to figure out how to get some direction
and momentum in their life and to live a great life.
And so at the core of what we exist for
is to be able to be a program that people
are willing to accept. And it doesn't mean you don't
hear all the time, don't want to take a seat
that somebody else needs more than me, because in addition
to the unwillingness to often ask for help, is a
desire to always help everybody else, and at some point
(16:09):
you realize that you've got to take care of yourself
in order to take care of the people you care about.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's well said, Josh. You know, I'm curious. I'm sure
a lot of people are asking this. This sounds great.
What's the criteria when you're working with somebody? What's the
criteria for somebody getting some help from the Bouldercress Foundation.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
The criteria, primarily for our Warrior Path program, is that
you're a combat veteran or a first responder and you're
struggling and how life is isn't how you want it
to go. There's no clinical diagnosis required. We have partners.
Whereas for some folks who struggle with substance abuse significantly,
where they may have to go to substance abuse first,
they may need a level of care that we can't provide.
But by and large, I'd say about eighty percent of
(16:47):
our applicants are people who are good fits for the
program and are seeking to make meaningful change in their life.
For our family programs, it's that you are a combat veteran.
Then you served, and we don't need you know, combat
action remons and things like that. Combat veterans are eligible
for our family program as well, And as I said,
no cost to participants.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
That's wonderful. That's really good to hear, and I'm sure
that everybody's ears perked up on that one. So as
we kind of wrap up everything's one of the big things,
I know. And when it comes to donating and giving,
there's many ways to support with donations, volunteering. There's a
stock gift so that I could go on and on,
but I want you to talk about that. And there's
also a big fat red donate button and the right
hand corner on the top, and we'll give the website
(17:26):
in just a minute. But how can people give back?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
This year will serve probably about twenty five thousand members
and the military veteran first responder communities and transform tens
of thousands of lives. And in order to do that,
we need to be able to continue to have support
and to us that comes in three ways.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
One is fundraising.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
One is people's willingness to provide funds and resources in
some form of fashions, small, big, monthly donations. Whatever you
can offer is meaningful. The second is fundraising is you
know you may not have the resources to get but
you may have a network of people who have never
heard of Boulder Cress that you can share. We have
wonderful videos on our website that speak to that. And
then the third ist to volunteer is people's time that
(18:04):
they're able to come out to our places in Virginia.
And we're out in Bluemont. It's beautiful. One of the
favorite hobbies of people has to come out and shovel
poop from the horses. Apparently it's very cathartic. But to
be willing to do those things to help make what
I think is a jewel of the Washington d C.
Metro area and the DMV area that really is a
nonprofits that's fundamentally changing mental health and transforming and saving
(18:26):
lives every single day.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
And Josh, I imagine we got the attention listening to
this wonderful interview of some small, medium, and large business owners.
If they'd like to partner with you, I imagine you welcome
that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
We would love any kind of partnerships on the corporate
and business side. We do corporate volunteer days and a
range of other activities. We have events that need sponsorships
and so I think, you know, people look into it,
they'll see an organization that is doing great work, that
dedicates to the pass majory of our resources to helping people,
and that really runs a solid operation, and one that's
grown in the time I've been here in the last
(18:57):
nine years by ten times in terms of the pack
we're having and also in terms of the resources we need.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
All right, Josh, let's do this. I want to give
the floor to you to some final thoughts recapping everything
in this wonderful conversation about the Bouldercrest Foundation, to some
final thoughts from you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Please.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
We live in a world that is dominated when it
comes to mental health by discussions of diagnosis and disminished.
We live in a world when it comes to mental
health that's dominated by a conversation around diminishment, dysfunction and diagnosis,
and that world traps a lot of people feeling broken
and defective and life can never be good again. And
so what I would say for anybody who's struggling is
(19:32):
to look into the idea of post traumatic growth. We
have books, we have online courses, we have programs. Whether
you're in the military, veteran for responding communities, whether You're
not is you deserve to live a great life and
be wary of believing the limitations and labels that other
people put on you, because I know for personal experience
that they can be very damaging, and I also know
how joyous and meaningful life can be. And with that,
just my gratitude to this community that's an amazingly generous
(19:56):
and philanthropic community, the DMV area that's been so good
to us, and I hope it'll continue for many many years.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Could agree more with you, Josh.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Let's give a website to everybody in any other way
that people can contact you to at least start the
ball rolling here with the Bouldercrests Foundation.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Our website Boldercrests dot org douldercrest dot org, and you
can also find us on LinkedIn. You can hit me
up personally and Josh Goldberg on LinkedIn or Bouldercrests Foundation
on LinkedIn, on Facebook and on x as well. I'd
love to hear from you. Love to be able to
be a part of your.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Journey, Josh.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I don't need to tell you this, but I'm going
to almost a decade in the making of you working
for this foundation. Incredible with the other co founders of
the company and the team and the sea of people
that you work with. It's a really important thing, and
especially today's climate. So I am just a privileged to
talk to you and to please give my best to
your team, and thank you so much for joining us
on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You should know, we really do appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs, you
should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive,
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank presents CEOs. You should know Howard
by iHeartMedia. Let's meet Josh Goldberg.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
He is the CEO for the Bouldercress Foundation, a home
of post traumatic growth or PTG. They offer life changing
programs for you've charged to members of the military, veterans
at first responder communities and their families. Before we talk
more about Josh's foundation and the great things are accomplishing,
I first asked him and talk a little bit about himself,
where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, and I went to
college up in Boston at Tufts University, started international relations
into the sideline and social responsibility.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How did it go from a kid from Texas going
up in Boston? Low culture shock.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
A little bit of culture shock, and a lot of
patriot stuff that got hard. But I did fall for
the lovable Red Sox and Pedro Martinez. So that was
a wonderful part of the introduction to Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, listen, we are going to talk a lot about
the Bouldercress Foundation. Before we do that, I like to
get people a little bit of context of why they
do things. You went to a grade school, you can
tell people what you studied, if you want to throw
that out there, But when you finished up at toughs,
what did you want to do?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
When I graduated college, I only had a mild amount
of understanding of what I wanted to do with my life.
And the one thing that was interesting to me that
I spent some time focused on was the intersection of
business and philanthropy, of doing good and doing well naturally.
With that in my back pocket and in my mind,
I went to work at a tobacco company and then
an oil and gas company, doing social responsibility, which many
(01:28):
people find ironic. And at the time I also got married,
and I had this whole life that I guess I
thought was what it meant to be successful. But what
they say is that a crisis in your life is
when you get to the top of a ladder and
it's against the wrong building. And I came to the
sort of frightening conclusion that my life wasn't my life.
My life felt like it was for somebody else to live,
and went through a very difficult process to go back
(01:50):
and try to answer that question, which is kind of
what do I want to be when I grow up?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
All Right, we're going to talk a lot about Bouldercress,
as we mentioned, but I always like to get the
origin story of that too. In the epipot about you know,
co founding any kind of nonprofit and what you're doing
with you and your partners, your team is absolutely incredible,
and we're going to talk a lot about that and
get into the weeds. But when it comes to that
epiphany about starting a foundation specifically for what you do
(02:15):
of post traumatic growth, the PTG, tell me about the
idea of coming up with this, because there were a
lot of foundations out there. There's a lot of people
that deal with mental health, especially when it comes to
our veterans. God bless all of the men and women
out there. But tell us about the idea of starting
the foundation and why you did it.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Our chairman and founder, Ken Falk and his wife Julia
km was in the Navy for twenty one years and
during the early parts of the war, a significant number
of members of the bomb disposal community that comes a
part of were severely injured and Ken spend a lot
of time, as did Julia, with them at the hospital
and at their house and getting to see that and
seeing the value of time and nature led Ken and
Julia to donate thirty seven acres of their land and
(02:53):
build the first privately funded wellness center of the country
for combat veterans and their families. And as we started
to host people, what struck us was that a lot
of the physically injured people, primarily because of the support
they received, were actually doing well in terms of recovery,
in terms of the next step of their lives.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
But a lot of people who didn't have.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Any physical injuries seem to be struggling a great deal.
And so we started on a journey to understand what
was happening, why was it happening, only to learn that
our mental health system was not working for most of
these men and women most of the time. And really
a shift or a growth in Bouldercrest's focus from hosting
families to really starting to work to change our nation's
(03:31):
approach to mental health, especially for the members of the military,
veteran and first responder communities.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
What's the mission statement of Bouldercrest.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
The mission of Boldercrest is to develop, deliver, study, and
scale post traumatic growth based programs for times of struggle,
with a particular focus on the military, veteran of first
responder communities.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Josh, one of the things I want you to address
is mental health. And bear with me, please, I have
a twenty two year old daughter, so obviously I've heard
about mental health when it comes to her and her
peer group with young people, social media women. In today's climate,
I could go on about that. But when I actually
first heard about mental health, and you're hearing this from
a kid who grew up in the seventies where we
(04:09):
just scrape, threw some dirt on it and kept on going,
mental health wasn't in our vocabulary.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
It is now.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
As almost a sixty year old military I think brought
to the forefront about mental health and after doing combat
and coming back to civilian life and all the struggles.
And I've talked to enough nonprofits out there of the
difficulties of coming back wounded or not, how traumatic it
can me to insert yourself back into civilian life. So
with all that said, I'm so happy that this is
(04:36):
being addressed by you, your other founder, and the team
of people and the peer group that works with everybody
out there that go through PTG, that mental health and
those words aren't dirty anymore, and the people are talking
about that, that there are real things when it comes
to our mind and our body when we're coming out
of combat, that people have to address so they can
get some kind of sense of normalcy. That's probably never
(04:58):
going to be normal again. Can you expect on that
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And in our nation, and like you spoke about with
your daughter, nations in the midst of a massive mental
health crisis and suicide rates the highest have spent since
we started tracking in nineteen forty one. Active duty to
military suicide rates the high since nineteen thirty eight. We
lose more first responders to suicide and the line of duty,
So we see it in every part of our society.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
And what I would argue.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Is that on the one hand, it's been a good
thing that we've increased awareness and our willingness to talk
about mental health, and you certainly see that with the
younger generation. I would balance that against what I think
is a really bad thing, which is essentially we've pathologized
or labeled or diagnosed all kinds of life struggles that
aren't actually diagnosable mental health conditions. And what those labels
and diagnoses do have the effect of is they sat
(05:42):
people of hope and the belief that life can never
be good again. And so for us working with these
communities where suicide is so prevalent, the military community, the
veteran first responding communities, is what we have to do
is help shift people's perspective, is to help them realize
that while we recognize you're struggling, is that doesn't have
to be where you reside. There is a path, a
well tried path from struggle to strength and post traumatic growth.
(06:04):
And for the listeners, this is the first time you've
ever heard of post traumatic growth. I think that says
everything that we need to say when it comes to
the imbalance of a conversation where there's so much language
for the negative and so little for the possibility that
good things can follow bad things. And at the core
of Bodercrest is how do we proliferate this idea of
post traumatic growth and balance this conversation so that people
(06:27):
can figure out how do I take this time of
deep struggle in my life and transform it into strength
and growth in a way that not only benefits me,
but benefits the people I love and care about.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Josh, But before we talk about all the great programs
that you offer up, and we'll also go into your approach,
research and resources, and especially how to get involved. I
do want to start once again, and you touch in
this a little bit. If you were to give a
thirty thousand foot view to somebody who's never heard about
bouldercrests Fandoshian, what would you tell people that you exactly do.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Wtercrest is the home of post traumatic growth. And what
we do is we train people in the practice and
principles of pt G so they can transform struggling in
their lives into strength and growth. And we own and
operate three retreat centers as of this morning, one in Virginia,
one in Arizona, one in Texas, and we have partners
around the country to expand this work and transform lives.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
All Right, you've got some great programs out there. I'll
go through some of them and you can hit on
some of the ones. I'm sure they're all important, but
ones you'd like to put a spotlight on. There's Warrior
Path Southwest of the sw Experience, the Family R and
R Military Team, which really kind of intrigued me since
I have not a teenager but a young person PTG
in practice, and you also have struggle well in PTG certification.
(07:34):
Can you talk a little bit about those.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So, all of Watocraft's programs are based on post traumatic growth,
and our intensive programs that are in residence where people
stay overnight are our Warrior Path program, which is score
combat veterans as well as first responders who are struggling,
and that's a ninety day program that starts with seven
days on the ground. We do it at our facilities
in Arizona, Virginia, and Texas, and we have partners around
the country who also are delivering Warrior Path. In addition,
(07:58):
we host combat veterans in their family this for two
to seven nights. All of our programs provided free of
costs to participants through film, thropic resources and other donations.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And the other piece is we've created.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
A program called Struggle Well to bring Post amount of
Growth into the world, primarily of first responders, but we
also have an online course Post Amount of Growth and
Practice that you can find on our website, and that's
really for anybody, anybody who's going through struggling in their
life or who's seeking to support somebody who's struggling.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
One of the things that intrigued me when we were
in our green room before we started rolling and recording today,
you talked about peer groups and working one on one
with each other and the reason why that got my
attention and our audience knows this about me since I
was twenty one, I've had rheumatoid arthritis. Now one time
I thought I was the only person that had it
on the planet. Medication, doctors, no internet, no social media.
(08:48):
I really felt alone and isolated. And with that it
made a lot of sense when I started to meet
somebody else who had what I had. As humans, we
just want to have simple acknowledgement, but be able to relate.
And I think ida peers talking to one another about
mental health and all the things that ex military or
military are going through after combat or just being in
a war zone made a lot of sense to me.
(09:10):
And it spoke to me that you do that. Glad
that you do that. Can you tell me the thinking
behind that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know, when you look at mental health statistics, about
fifty percent of people who might benefit will never go
to a mental health provider, and of the fifty percent
who do go, you have a very high drop out rate,
primarily because people don't feel like they're connecting to the
person trying to help them, and so for us, the
question was how do you address that? And the best
way to address it in these communities of people who've
been through shared experience is a peer based program. So
(09:36):
when we first started our Warrior Path program at twenty fourteen,
we used peers in order to deliver it, and what
we saw is echoed in the words of one of
our psychologists who advises us.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He said that it would.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Take me twelve months to do what you did in
two days in terms of the level of connectedness and
the willingness to talk about things that they've never talked about.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I know that everybody doesn't get a dose of I
feel better, I'm on the right path, But can you
tell me a about feedback that you get not only
from the people that you work with, the peers and
all your team, because the only way we can get
better is getting feedback. We're going to make mistakes along
the way, but I imagine that feedback, especially what you
and your team do, is alter important.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Here.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
We're super committed to researching and evaluating everything that we do,
and we have really dating back to our origins, and
when I think about the impact of our programs, and
of course we hear amazing testimonials about life saved and
life's transformed. Is the ones that stand out to me
are our two gentlemen in particular, who one had turned
over to every picture of him and his how smiling
(10:33):
because he hadn't smiled in seven years, and the other
who hadn't laughed in twelve years, and they laughed during
the program, and they said to me, this is the
first time I've experienced joy in almost a decade or
over a decade. And so that to me, when we
talk about the idea that the opposite of suicide is
a life worth living. A life that is worth living
has joy in it, has laughed, or in it has
some moments of uplift, and so getting to see that
(10:55):
and seeing it on the face of somebody who hasn't
experienced in so long is one of the greatest blessings
of my life and a privilege.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
One of the things I also talk to of people
that do what you do, sometimes what's left out is
the family. And what I mean by that is while
they're not getting the exact experience and maybe that that
military person or that ex military person is getting, the
family has their own issues, whether it's a partner, some children,
those kind of things. Is that addressed when it comes
(11:24):
to what you do.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
One hundred percent or I should say one thousand percent,
because there's no question that struggle is contagious in a family.
If a combat veteran is struggling, that's going to be
experienced by everybody in that household. And the challenge is
the resources go to that combat veteran, which only furthers
levels of resentment that the rest of the family feels about, Hey,
we've been affected by this, but there's no help. And
(11:47):
so dating back to our beginnings, and Julia Falker is
our co founder, is saying, we have got to make
sure that we are bringing families into the fold. Our
initial motto was healing heroes, one family at a time.
And so for us, our family rest of reconnection program,
our Couple's path program are so important because they allow
for that family to grow together and to address a
(12:07):
lot of the impacts of like I said, that contagious
struggle effects. And so turning that around and getting to
see spouses come up and say, you know, a thank
you for my husband or wife back. But more importantly,
your programs have changed our entire family and our family's
outlook on life and what's possible is an incredible, incredible testimonial.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, Josh, that is a good segue.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
In just a moment, I would like you to share
maybe a story that you're found of where something made
such a dramatic change that really touched everybody's heart there,
And I'm sure you have handfuls of great stories. But
I also tell people then, when you're running foundations and
nonprofit it's not always unicorns and rainbows all the time,
and it's hard, hard work. Well, that said, you and
the team, what kind of challenges are you facing right now?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
The main challenges we would face is one is a
challenge of success, which is an incredible amount of demand
for our training programs and especially our Warrior Path program,
and that's grown ten x over the last six years
and will continue to grow, and just keeping up with
the fact that there's so much struggle occurring in these worlds.
And the second is the challenge for a nonprofit that
we rely primarily on private donations and philanthropy and just
(13:10):
raising money year after year, especially as we get further
away from the wars, is challenging, and so making sure
that we can continue to grow to meet the scale
of the challenge remains sort of top of mind for me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I realize it's not fair to share one story that
either touched you your team's hard because there are probably
so many don't have to mention any names. But was
there an instance in your time there at the Foundation
that you said, you know what, this is why we
get up every day. That was pretty special that we
touch that person's life and they're getting help.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I read a testimonial for a family that came through
our Family Rest and Reconnection program last week, and it
brought me to tears. And it was the story of
a couple who both were in the military and the
wife had finally realized that she was struggling and went
through a Warrior Path program and came back a change
woman and told her husband your next and he went
through our Warrior Path program soon after, and the family
(13:58):
all came back for a rest story Connections stay, and
what he said was you save my wife, you save
my life, you save my family.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
And to me, it was everything that.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
We were created to do, which is to have these
ripple effects, some of which we know, some which will
never know, to know that those kids can grow up
in a healthy household with loving parents who are connected
themselves in each other. It really does. It never ceases
to amaze me. And it's very very common, which is
the beautiful part about it. It's not an exception.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That's a wonderful story. You know, this is a very
subjective question, so take it for what it is. But
I realized that all the military people that I've met
over my lifetime, especially if they're older, that whole tough
person exterior, and it's a very structured life.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
As you know.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Well that said, asking for somebody's help in general, when
you're a human being is hard to do, whether it's
to go with the doctor if you're not feeling well
or getting trying to get some mental health and stepping
over that barrier of a very uncomfortable thing that maybe
you weren't brought up to do. How do you extend
that branch and let people know that you're there that
don't necessarily they want to get involved in something that
(15:01):
you do, even though they probably know in the nda
really could help them in their family.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I think everything we've done at Budapest has been to
try to address the reasons why members of the communities
we serve that, like you said, are hardy and stubborn,
are willing to come here. And that's why it's a
training program. That's why it's peer based. And I think
those components make it a lot more attractive to somebody
who is not disposed to wanting to share all of
(15:25):
their struggle and empty their rucksack in front of people
who don't understand.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
And so I think it's the DNA.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of our organization that is of for and by members
of the military and versus upon communities, that we are
from these communities and we know what works.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
And we know what people need, and we know what people.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Have experienced, and that they're not going to sit around
the fire and see kumbay and tell war stories.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Is they're here because.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
They want to figure out how to get some direction
and momentum in their life and to live a great life.
And so at the core of what we exist for
is to be able to be a program that people
are willing to accept. And it doesn't mean you don't
hear all the time, don't want to take a seat
that somebody else needs more than me, because in addition
to the unwillingness to often ask for help, is a
desire to always help everybody else, and at some point
(16:09):
you realize that you've got to take care of yourself
in order to take care of the people you care about.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
That's well said, Josh. You know, I'm curious. I'm sure
a lot of people are asking this. This sounds great.
What's the criteria when you're working with somebody? What's the
criteria for somebody getting some help from the Bouldercress Foundation.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
The criteria, primarily for our Warrior Path program, is that
you're a combat veteran or a first responder and you're
struggling and how life is isn't how you want it
to go. There's no clinical diagnosis required. We have partners.
Whereas for some folks who struggle with substance abuse significantly,
where they may have to go to substance abuse first,
they may need a level of care that we can't provide.
But by and large, I'd say about eighty percent of
(16:47):
our applicants are people who are good fits for the
program and are seeking to make meaningful change in their life.
For our family programs, it's that you are a combat veteran.
Then you served, and we don't need you know, combat
action remons and things like that. Combat veterans are eligible
for our family program as well, And as I said,
no cost to participants.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
That's wonderful. That's really good to hear, and I'm sure
that everybody's ears perked up on that one. So as
we kind of wrap up everything's one of the big things,
I know. And when it comes to donating and giving,
there's many ways to support with donations, volunteering. There's a
stock gift so that I could go on and on,
but I want you to talk about that. And there's
also a big fat red donate button and the right
hand corner on the top, and we'll give the website
(17:26):
in just a minute. But how can people give back?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
This year will serve probably about twenty five thousand members
and the military veteran first responder communities and transform tens
of thousands of lives. And in order to do that,
we need to be able to continue to have support
and to us that comes in three ways.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
One is fundraising.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
One is people's willingness to provide funds and resources in
some form of fashions, small, big, monthly donations. Whatever you
can offer is meaningful. The second is fundraising is you
know you may not have the resources to get but
you may have a network of people who have never
heard of Boulder Cress that you can share. We have
wonderful videos on our website that speak to that. And
then the third ist to volunteer is people's time that
(18:04):
they're able to come out to our places in Virginia.
And we're out in Bluemont. It's beautiful. One of the
favorite hobbies of people has to come out and shovel
poop from the horses. Apparently it's very cathartic. But to
be willing to do those things to help make what
I think is a jewel of the Washington d C.
Metro area and the DMV area that really is a
nonprofits that's fundamentally changing mental health and transforming and saving
(18:26):
lives every single day.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
And Josh, I imagine we got the attention listening to
this wonderful interview of some small, medium, and large business owners.
If they'd like to partner with you, I imagine you welcome
that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
We would love any kind of partnerships on the corporate
and business side. We do corporate volunteer days and a
range of other activities. We have events that need sponsorships
and so I think, you know, people look into it,
they'll see an organization that is doing great work, that
dedicates to the pass majory of our resources to helping people,
and that really runs a solid operation, and one that's
grown in the time I've been here in the last
(18:57):
nine years by ten times in terms of the pack
we're having and also in terms of the resources we need.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
All right, Josh, let's do this. I want to give
the floor to you to some final thoughts recapping everything
in this wonderful conversation about the Bouldercrest Foundation, to some
final thoughts from you.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Please.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
We live in a world that is dominated when it
comes to mental health by discussions of diagnosis and disminished.
We live in a world when it comes to mental
health that's dominated by a conversation around diminishment, dysfunction and diagnosis,
and that world traps a lot of people feeling broken
and defective and life can never be good again. And
so what I would say for anybody who's struggling is
(19:32):
to look into the idea of post traumatic growth. We
have books, we have online courses, we have programs. Whether
you're in the military, veteran for responding communities, whether You're
not is you deserve to live a great life and
be wary of believing the limitations and labels that other
people put on you, because I know for personal experience
that they can be very damaging, and I also know
how joyous and meaningful life can be. And with that,
just my gratitude to this community that's an amazingly generous
(19:56):
and philanthropic community, the DMV area that's been so good
to us, and I hope it'll continue for many many years.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Could agree more with you, Josh.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Let's give a website to everybody in any other way
that people can contact you to at least start the
ball rolling here with the Bouldercrests Foundation.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Our website Boldercrests dot org douldercrest dot org, and you
can also find us on LinkedIn. You can hit me
up personally and Josh Goldberg on LinkedIn or Bouldercrests Foundation
on LinkedIn, on Facebook and on x as well. I'd
love to hear from you. Love to be able to
be a part of your.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Journey, Josh.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I don't need to tell you this, but I'm going
to almost a decade in the making of you working
for this foundation. Incredible with the other co founders of
the company and the team and the sea of people
that you work with. It's a really important thing, and
especially today's climate. So I am just a privileged to
talk to you and to please give my best to
your team, and thank you so much for joining us
on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You should know, we really do appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs, you
should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive,
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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