QC Forum - 4-7-24

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Quad City Forum, aweekly community service program produced by iHeartMedia to
look at the issues and opportunities thatexist in our community. Now here's your
hosts for a Quad City Forum,Pot Luke and Denny Linhowe. We are
getting a chance to talk to JoshuaGraves, director of marketing, development and

(00:21):
Humility Homes and Services. And that'slocated their main office located right off of
Fillmore in Davenport. Humilityhomes dot orgif you want to find out more.
And of course that little website willcome in handy for a big event.
That's a unique fund rais that they'vegot coming up, and we'll talk about
that a little bit. But Josh, good morning. And like we always

(00:43):
start off with our interviews with you, not everybody knows Humility Homes and Services
what you guys are all about.So one more time again, tell us
what you're all about. Thank youfor having me. Yeah. So,
at Humility Homes and Services, ourmission is to end homelessness in the Quad
Cities area and we do that throughhousing opportunities and supportive services. We help

(01:06):
a variety of different people that areeither experiencing homelessness or transitioning to a new
home from being homeless, and sothat is what our mission is, and
we put housing first as our philosophy. So we believe that in order for
recovery or any transitions and challenges tobe overcome, the housing is one of

(01:27):
the most important pariorities for that recoveryto happen. And so we serve both
the Quad Cities area. We haveone hundred and fifty seven units that we
provide with the meat the fair marketrate and offer affordable and stable housing in

(01:48):
the Quad Cities. Well, andit's always interesting when we talk about the
Quad Cities, which is a greatway to have a handle on it,
but it's more than just four cities, and it really does branch out misnomer
to call it just the Quad Cities. But that just shows the amount of
work that you guys are doing twentyfour to seven to take care of everybody.
Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, it's really an important mission hand

(02:10):
the Quad Cities. You know,we're a little over six thousand units short
of affordable housing in the Quad Citiesand so that really affects a lot of
people in our community. Well,and we just saw this week. This
last week the eighteen unit apartment buildingthat was closed down or condemned because they

(02:35):
were worried about that. So thatdisplaced a bunch of people too. So
yeah, we're seeing a lot ofpeople who may or may not have known
they were going to need the servicesperhaps of Humility Homes and Services. So
it's it's awesome that you guys reachout to those people. And if those
people people who are like, oh, you know what, this all of

(02:55):
a sudden came up, I knowit's only going to be short term,
or even if it's long how canthey reach out to Humility for some help.
Yeah, so if you go toour website at www dot humilityhomes dot
org, we have a get helpportion of our website, so you can
do slash get that help, andthere's a ton of resources there. There's

(03:20):
also an opportunity to fill out aform or someone will reach out to you
for support, and that way wecan be able to reach out to you
and offer you gets you in theprocess of either finding immediate support or trying
to get back into some of ourhousing programs. If you're just tuning in,
we're talking to Joshua Gray's director ofmarketing Development at Humility Homes and Services.

(03:42):
Again you can find out more juston an overview humility homes dot org.
But getting back to with the residentsthat were displaced with the apartments earlier,
just a few days ago in Davenport, what happens with your interaction with
other organizations, because I would thinkAmerican Red Cross is in there and some

(04:04):
of these things, there is therea fighting over hey, I got there
first, I'm going to help them, or how do you guys kind of
work that out so that everybody isinteracting properly to help out area residents.
So a lot of what we dois work through referrals. So each individual
organization in the Quad Cities has Idon't, for lack of a better word,

(04:27):
just a niche in the needs ofour community, right, and so
each of us will refer each otherto the services within the Quad Cities that
really need that specific portion of it. And so we have an there's a
federal mandated Coordinated Entry List, whichis kind of like the beginning process of

(04:48):
getting assistance in the Quad Cities andreally nationwide. But a lot of our
organizations locally use that as a wayto pull people based on need prioritize based
on need into these housing programs acrossall the different organizations in the quand cities.
And so we use that in additionto outreach navigators who will find people

(05:11):
out in the streets that are literallyon the you know, literally on the
streets, are unhoused right there onthe front line. Huh yeah, right,
and they will refer individuals, youknow, whether it be mental health
challenges or whatever the case is,they will refer people to the specific organizations
that they need and really help themalong the way to getting house. Now,

(05:31):
all of this is fantastic the jobthat you do and have been doing
for a while, but this stillcosts money. And so one unique fundraiser,
it's always great to see the nontraditional fundraisers and the first time I've
ever seen this happen is involving pickleball. Yay pickleball, and this is going
to be a great thing going on. So tell us how people listening this

(05:55):
morning can be a part of thisAsis for the Change pickleball tournament. Yeah,
so our pickleball tournament will be onMay seventeenth, and registration have just
opened I think a week ago ormaybe two weeks and so if you were
doing mixed doubles, which means whereyou know, you have two people and

(06:15):
so we'll be doing twenty minute matches. But registration is open on our website
at www. Humility homes dot orgslash Aces for Change and yeah, so
you go through the process. Ticketsare one hundred and twenty five for two
teams or we have a VIP packagefor two hundred and I think that we
are one of the first pickleball tournamentsin the Quad Cities from a nonprofit.

(06:42):
So we're really excited about this inauguralone and we expect great things and hopefully
we'll be able to do this forcoming years as well. Well. What
I love is pickleballs really become hotand so hot. I know that some
like some stars are actually doing pickleball. They had this whole Star pickleball tournament
on TV. So if people everwatch that, it's so much fun.

(07:04):
It's competitive, if lack of abetter word, but yeah, and it's
really for all ages because it's funout. But your tournament, it's I
mean, you're you're looking for adultsprobably, yeah, adults, yep,
definitely, And this is you know, really any level. But you know,

(07:26):
we want people to be comfortable inthe competition, So it's not super
highly competitive. It's not intended foryou know, people that are superstars,
but it is open to the generalpublic that, you know, if they
have a passion for pickleball and theyregularly play it with a you know,
a partner, this is a greatopportunity to get into the game and fundraise
with us and support our mission.And even if people don't maybe don't want

(07:51):
to do pickleball, can there beI'm not saying it's a ghost pickleball person,
but if they just want to makedonations, they can probably we go
to that same website too and findout more, right, Yeah, yeah,
we also have donation opportunities available.We have also our sponsorships for organizations
are businesses are still open. Wehave several levels of sponsorship available for this

(08:13):
event. So this gives companies theopportunity to be the first that are involved
in this event and really get theopportunity to market themselves and support of this
organization and the event. Yeah,it's going to be fun, Josh,
Yeah, we're really excited. Nowdo you have do you have your team?

(08:35):
Do you have your team? Imean, if you're gonna gonna be
the one that's organized, and you'vegot to have a team out there.
Come on, No, that isnot That is all my coworkers maybe,
but not me. No, I'ma I'm more of the marketing guy,
you know. So you put mebehind a camera and that's what gotcha,
gotcha? That's the Yeah, Wellwe love that one. We didn't mean.
Do you notice how his enthusiasm drainedaway completely from the phone call?

(09:00):
Yeah, well, we love it. We think it's going to be a
really fantastic time once again. Wherewill people be able to find the pickleball
tournament? I guess that's another thingtoo, you know, I'd love to
come out and just watch. Yeah, so it'll actually be at the Quad
City Tennis Tennis Club in Mollen,at the Yeah in Moline. And what

(09:22):
I really recently realized is that there'sover five hundred members in a Quad Cities
Tennis I mean at Quad Cities PickleballClub. Here in the Quad Cities,
there's over five hundred members that youknow, routinely get together and they do
their own tournament, step support organizations, and so they've been super crucial in
helping us put us together and reallyhave been supporting us as well, so

(09:43):
we want to give them a shoutout well. And I'm thinking too that
there'll be curiosity seekers too. They'llcome out and maybe they wonder what this
is all about. Maybe then theyget involved in their pickleball fans forever and
it'll all start by helping out HumilityHomes. Yes, and we also have
a after event, music and drinksand things like that be after the tournament

(10:05):
of the hour after, so it'sfrom eight am to three pm. It
will be a fun day, afun day, and of course you're helping
a great cause. Joshua Graves fromHumility Homes and Services the website. If
people want to help out or bea part of the pickleball tournament, what's
the Humility Homes and Services website.Yeah, people can visit www dot humilityhomes

(10:28):
dot org slash aces for change.Registration is open right now and so we
look forward to seeing you guys onthe court. If you or your organization
would like to be featured on QuadCity Forum, please visit the contact page
and our station website. Now backto Pat Luke and Danny Linnow getting a

(10:52):
chance to talk to Kate Mage withthe quad City Botanical Center of Kate.
I know that your expertise is sometimesit's all in the labeling, and I
think of, well, you're goingto be able to take care of all
the plants that my wife Diana andI have almost ruined. You can come
along and bring them back to life. So whatever you're as long as it's

(11:13):
not too far gone, you canhelp in that way, shape or form.
And that's the beauty of the plantsale that's going on with the Botanical
Center. But before we get intothat, and again I won't bore you
with all the plants that Diana andI have messed up. For people that
maybe haven't been to the Botanical Centerin a while, maybe this is a
great opportunity because it's not just justlooking at all of these fantastic plants and

(11:41):
the train garden and all the otherthings. It's something new being added every
day. It seems like with theBotanical Center, Yeah, we are really
trying to improve our gardens one littlespace at a time. We've got a
brand new, trending garden area thatcan help you dream about what your backyard,
what you want your backyard to looklike. We have a new children's

(12:01):
garden area that's going to be openingthis spring called the Storybook Garden, and
that's looking awesome. Have a fewother beds that were in the middle of
reworking, So come on down ifyou haven't seen this in a month,
there's something new will be going on. I would say, if haven't been
down there in five minutes, there'sprobably a couple of things that have added
on. But Qcgardens dot Com againto find out more on that all of

(12:22):
that the great stuff that Kate youdo and everybody else that's involved, because
there's probably a lot of volunteer workthat goes into this that never never really
being advertised. As much as allthat work that's going on, it does
take money, and there's different fundraisersthat are going on, and certainly one

(12:43):
of them right now that they cantake advantage of before it's too late is
the Big Plant Sale. Yeah,this is my favorite fundraiser of the year
for sure. Got perennials and annualsand we've curated some comboats so we've created
like a look that you can takehome, but your pots if you're not
sure what you think would look good, we've got a bunch of those it's
just nice to bring color and joyto your yard, and we've got some

(13:07):
great examples of that. Is therea way to kind of look some of
this stuff over or is it probablybetter just to go to the botanical center
and look at it? Well.Our plant sale is a pre order plant
sales. Okay, go to ourwebsite, look over the beautiful pictures of
the plants that we have found,pick what you want, and then you'll

(13:28):
you'll pre order before April fifteenth,that's the last day. Will take that
the rest of that time to pullall of the orders and get eracing ready
and you can pick them up onSaturday, April twenty seventh. And then
if you get there in person andrealize you forgot something, we will have
a few extras left over from theordering process that will be available that day.

(13:50):
But if you wait too long,you might miss something. So if
you snooze, you are going tolose on this one. So yeah,
don't get your sleep and maybe firstoff, go to the website Qcgardens dot
com or is there any other placethat they have to go to to look
over some of the plants. Thereis a link. You can find the
link right on the front page assoon as you pull up our main page,

(14:11):
and that will take you to ourbuying page. Okay, so Qcgardens
dot Com really kind of starts theball rolling, and I would imagine being
the fantastic place that you have alwaysbeen since really almost the first brick was
laid a long long time ago withthe Botanical Center. Advice for some of
us novices that don't know exactly whatto do. We don't know the difference

(14:33):
between too much water and not enoughwater. Can you help well? Outside
is a little bit easier. MotherNature helps you take care of it.
If you look at the plant andthe leaves are starting to well, give
it a really good drink, Giveit a whole watering can worth of water.
Okay, you want to probably dothat at least once a week,

(14:56):
unless it's ranked the whole watering canonce a week, and you'll that first
year, you'll be great. Andit does look like in these last couple
of days we've started to see alittle bit more activity with nature being able
to take care of us with somewatering stuff just in time for the big
time growing season. But again tostart everything up for those of you that
are just tuning in talking to CapeMapes with the Quad City Botanacal Center with

(15:20):
the plant sale, I think thishas been a couple of three years where
it's been more pre order other thananything else. Maybe some people are still
thinking I'll stop in and look itover. Pre order is the way to
go. But again, how canthey look at what kind of plants they
want and how can they order theplants here? Between now and April fifteenth,

(15:43):
Go to our website Qcgardens dot com. Follow the link on that page.
You'll take you right to some gorgeousfull color pictures and each and then
each plant has a description of allof the details so that you know if
that plant is right for you.Mm hmm oh, this is perit.
Qcgardens dot com. Kate, happygrowing season, enjoy this fantastic fundraiser and

(16:06):
hopefully you break a lot of recordsto help out the botanical Center. Well,
thank you and I appreciate you givingus a time to talk about the
plant sale. If you or yourorganization would like to be featured on Quad
City Forum, please visit the contactpage in our station website. Now back
to bat Luke and Danny Linnewe aswe continue with Quad City Forum today with

(16:30):
me is Betty Joe versus Louise andBetty Joe is with Junior League and she's
heading up the big charge. She'sthe in charge, large and in charge
gal that's making this happen with thehygiene drive that's going on. And first
before we get in depth to thehygiene drive, because this is a very
important thing that Junior League does.Betty Joe, can you just talk about

(16:53):
real briefly what is Junior League becausein my mind I have all sorts of
things that I'm not sure is actuallypertinent to what Junior League really is.
Yeah. Sure, Junior League ofthe Quad City is about women of all
ages helping other women, businesses orjust in the community in general. So

(17:18):
you could be an older lady,you can be high school, you can
be college. The Junior League isabout helping women of the Quad City.
Yeah, it's kind of like empowerment, is I guess what I feel.
And there are so many great ladiesdoing so many great things in the Quad
Cities. It's kind of nice toget an opportunity to bond together and I

(17:42):
feel like it it improves us exponentially. Yeah, one hundred percent. There
is a lot of empowerment women's businessesin the Quad City and when I joined
Junior League, I became known ofeven more. And the women are absolutely
amazing, very welcoming into the JuniorLeague Quad City chapter. Yeah, and

(18:04):
if anybody is listening, oh,you know, I'd love to be a
part of that. Junior League hasa website, we have a Facebook page,
and we would love for you tofind out more. I think if
people google it, they should beable to find it too. In Facebook
especially definitely it's Facebook for sure,okay, and Instagram. So we get
together just briefly about every couple months, and there's there's a lot of good

(18:29):
things that come out of it.So if you're interested, we'd love to
have you a part of it.This is really really important drive that is
going on right now that Junior Leagueis behind getting it started and making sure
that well women all over the communityactually have the hygiene needs that they may
not be able to afford. Sothe hygiene drive that's going on. And
since you're in charge of this,Betty Joe kind of talked to me a

(18:52):
little bit about first off, howlong do people have to still take part
in this? You have until Aprilfifteenth to continue to take in a hydriene
drive. And the hydriene drive isvery important because we are learning that one
out of ten women slash girls can'tafford the basic products that we need as

(19:15):
women every day. So with that, we decided to do a hygiene drive
and we have different locations throughout theQuad Cities that you can make a donation.
We have an Amazon wish list,or if you don't have time to
go shopping, we have a PayPalthat you can donate to. But it's

(19:38):
campon pads, shampoo, feminine whitedeodorant, and we're really looking for the
little fifty bags like or little cosmeticbags and to make little hygiene package so
the girls can take with them asthey need to. Hey, that's a
really good idea. Didn't even thinkof that. Sometimes it can be embarrassing

(20:00):
to carry that kind of stuff aroundand the more you can kind of disguise
it, make it, you know, Okay, I think it helps girls
especially be prepared in all situations.Yeah, and we didn't realize how bad
the bags were important until we hadsome young girls talking to us about how

(20:22):
the privacy and discreete of pads andstuff are important. We forget that not
everybody is comfortable with feminine hygiene productsbeing out. We're talking about the hygiene
drive with the Junior League and againit runs through next week, so we
want you to definitely get out thereand grab some stuff if you can.

(20:45):
Where can people go to drop offthese items if they're out on a shopping
trip, you know, the restof this weekend and they're picking things up.
We have one Tree Hot Yoga anddab and Ford R five Nail and
Spa in Davenport is a drop offlocation. And then Saint Paul's Lutheran Church

(21:07):
in Orion, Illinois is a donationsite. And then we have Bank Orient
Quad city locations. So we havethe Bettendorf, Iowa locations, the Molling
on John Der Expressway locations, theMollen Bank on Route six location, and
then the Orient Bank in Orion.Wow, I feel like that really covers

(21:30):
a lot of the quad cities.I think anybody who has something to drop
off would be close to one ofthose locations, So that's awesome. Those
locations are your drop off. Butone more time, if like maybe I'm
at home and I'm like, I'mnot going to get out, but I
would like to help. How canI maybe do it from home? Just
find the Junior League Facebook page andwe have an Amazon wish list that you

(21:52):
can click on, or the JuniorLeague Quad City pay Pal that you can
click on and make a donation.These are all really great ideas, Betty
Joe, Thank you so much fortalking about it. We sometimes forget how
important these things are and how expensivethey can be. You are so welcome.
Thank you to everybody who is supportingthis or it's very much appreciated.

(22:14):
You don't know how much it isappreciated. If you want to find out
more, JLQC dot org for JuniorLeague of the Quad Cities. If you
or your organization would like to befeatured on Quad City Forum, please visit
the contact page and our station website. Now back to Pat Luke and Danny
Linnhowe on our Quad City Forum.This morning, we are talking to Mona

(22:40):
Piper, executive officer, Quad CityBuilders and Remodelers Association, just trying to
get younger people involved in the tradesand Mona this is something that when I
was younger, didn't have to worryabout it. It's a serious situation.
How to get younger people involved inthe trades, and we don't know why
they don't want to be a partof it. You can make a lot
of money, Yeah, good ina short period of time. You're absolutely

(23:03):
right. It is a struggle rightnow. The average construction worker homebuilder is
fifty eight years old, so weneed to get the next generation going to
continue these wonderful homes and remodeled projectsand all the new technology that's out there.
We need these kids to learn allthose things so we can keep moving
ahead. We saw something in theTimes a couple of days ago about an

(23:26):
event that you had with some ofthe junior high kids. How did that
turn out? That is an awesomeevent. We've been doing it now for
gosh, probably going on eight years. It's called our Hands on Trades Expo.
So we invite local and surrounding eighthgrade students to join us. We
have two sessions, and we havea two hour session in the morning and
a two hour session in the afternoonto accommodate all the kids. Where we

(23:49):
had two hundred and twenty signed upand it's awesome. We have eight different
stations. They learned a little bitabout drywall and framing and electrical and plumbing
and HVAC and different types of foundationand roofing, and they actually get their
hands on there. They've got youknow, they're they're working the drills there,
they're hooking up electrical outlets, they'reactually getting their hands in the putty

(24:11):
and doing the drywall, and youknow, it's amazing to watch their eye
fight up because there's things that they'venever even touched or even thought of before.
When we talk about you talk aboutpeople that work in a garden and
how that energizes themselves when they workon the mother Earth. I would think
just the feeling so empowered working onsomething as simple as a putting a doorknob

(24:36):
on. And that's what I wastelling the time too. It's like,
well, if they don't end upgetting in the trade, how did these
events help them? Well, itwould have helped me in adult life if
I would have known how to drywall something and spackle something, or switch
my outlet out or you know,fix my toilet or anything like that.
You know, instead of you know, you pay the trades to come out
and do it, and they domake good money, and you know you'll

(24:57):
get charged for that. So ifthese kids get into this profession. It
is a profession that can take themwherever they want. If they're an electrician,
they're an electrician everywhere. They don'thave to stay in the quad Cities.
They can go to California, theycan go to Colorado, they can
go wherever. That is. Thatis pride and that's a profession and that's
who they are and no one cantake that away from them. And it

(25:18):
works for the guys and the gals, and it's no longer just a guy's
thing, that's right. And Ilove to see women, girls so empowered
by getting their hands into whatever isinteresting to them and actually getting interest from
getting their hands on things right.And I tell you a few years ago,
we had our photographer out there,and I remember I had to make

(25:41):
a point where I said, makesure you get a picture with some girls
in this year. Absolutely no problem. There were girls in every picture,
which was great to see. Well, we certainly know that a few of
these events could pop up between ourconversation now in just a few weeks down
the road. But are there otherevents that are coming up here soon that

(26:02):
maybe should people should kind of mentalnote if they want to be a part
of it. We'll have this eighthgrade event again next year and then we
will be hosting you know, thisis our eighth grade event hands on,
and next year we will be hostinga hands on event for ninth through twelfth
graders. So this is going tobe the event we just have on steroids.
And I really believe in that becausehigh school kids, you know what,

(26:26):
they're picking their classes, they're tryingto decide what they want to do
with their future. The twelfth graders, you know, they're going to be
looking for jobs. You've got workersthere that are ready to hire and train
people as well. So I thinkit's really important to get the eighth graders
because they're going to be starting highschool and they can pick what classes they
want. But I think it's veryimportant to grab the kids that are already

(26:47):
in high school too because they're gettingcloser to their you know, their path,
and I just think that's that's huge. And we are talking to Mona
Piper, executive Officer, Quad CityBuilders and Remodelers Association. Now Mona even
with some of these events now they'rejust you know, they're not coming up
immediately. But is there a waylike a Facebook or social media page that

(27:07):
maybe if some younger people have somequestions, and even if even if somebody's
in their thirties and not necessarily sureof their life right now, this certainly
could work out too. But howcan they find out a little bit more
if they just want to call youafter they hear this interview on our Quad
City Forum. Yeah, absolutely,I will tell you. There is an

(27:27):
event called Build My Future and it'sgoing to be in Des Moines and that
is April seventeen, So that's kindof like I was talking about with the
high school students' hands on. Therewill also be one in Cedar Rapids on
April thirtieth for high school kids andyou know those the attendance for those all
comes through the schools and the counselors. But if you are in your twenties

(27:49):
your thirties, you're out of schooland you are you know, looking to
get into the trades, you don'tknow who to start with, what businesses
there are. That is how theQCBR can help you. The Q City
Builders and Remodelers Association, because weare kind of like the Chamber of Commerce
through the building and remodeling industry,so we know who is hiring. We
know what they're hiring for, whoneeds jobs, who needs interns, all

(28:12):
of those things, and it's QCBRdot org or five six three four four
one, five six nine two.We can definitely help you out because,
believe me, they are hiring.Oh, Mona, we're so excited to
be able to talk shine. Iwant to get out here, start doing
this. She has me fired up. QCB are a great resource. Mona

(28:33):
Piper, thank you for talking tous, and thank you for being concerned
and promoting the trades. It's soimportant, it really is. And I
think we really need to get theparents on board because I think sometimes parents
are you know, my kid's goingto go to college because I went to
college, or they're going to goto college because I didn't go to college.
And college is great, and wehelp kids, you know, we

(28:56):
have a scholarship fund helped kids.If they need laptops to go to school,
we help them with that. Ifthey need work boots tools, we
help them with that. So anypath they choose, you know, is
great. We just want to makesure they're not limited to one path.
You've been listening to Quad City Forum, a weekly community service program produced by
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(29:19):
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