May 19, 2025 • 28 mins
In this episode of Risky Benefits, the team welcomes Denise Wilson, a dedicated board member at Independence Landing, a non-profit organization providing safe, affordable, and supportive housing for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Denise shares her personal journey, motivation for her involvement, and the impactful work being done at Independence Landing. Listeners will learn about the community's focus on fostering independence, supporting residents through service coordination, and upcoming projects like Phase Two aimed at more supported living. The discussion also covers how community members can contribute and support initiatives, including volunteer opportunities and funding needs. For more information or to make a donation, listeners are encouraged to visit the Independence Landing website.
To listen in and subscribe to more episodes, visit our website: fbmc.com/podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
denise-wilson_1_04-15-2025_ (00:17):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits and welcome to this
week's episode.
Today we will be diving into aninspiring conversation with
someone who's making asignificant difference in the
lives of individuals withintellectual and development
disabilities.
Our guest is Denise Wilson, adedicated board member at
(00:37):
Independence Landing.
And for those of you who may notknow, independence Landing is a
not-for-profit organizationthat's focused on providing
safe, affordable, and supportivehousing for individuals with
developmental disabilities.
Their mission is to createopportunities for these
individuals to lead independent,fulfilling lives.
(00:59):
So thank you for coming on.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah.
One of my favorite topics.
Yeah.
We're looking forward to it,Denise.
One of the ways we'd like tostart is just to maybe have you
tell our audience a little bitabout yourself.
Where are you from family, howyou got to Tallahassee?
All the good stuff.
All right.
I grew up in Huntsville,Alabama.
Okay.
And I moved here in 99.
(01:20):
My husband and I dated for eightyears.
Long distance.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
And we decided that if we weregonna get married, we should
probably live in the same city.
So I moved to Tallahassee.
And I have loved being inTallahassee.
I'm a mom of two.
My son Brady has intellectualand developmental disabilities.
And my son Walker is 24 and Iwork for Capital City Bank and
have the best job in thecompany.
(01:40):
That's awesome.
Now you and your husband met.
And then you did long distance.
Was that in school that you metor how did you guys meet?
No, we actually met in theparking lot of a bar in Panama
City Beach.
Okay.
I love it.
On vacation.
Very nice.
No, I lived there and he livedhere.
Oh, at the time.
Oh, okay.
Alright.
Oh, that's funny.
That is cool.
What a small world.
I know, right?
(02:02):
Very cool.
Again, Denise, thanks for comingon.
Go ahead Kyle.
I know you had a question.
So can you tell us a little bitabout your role on the board and
what motivated you to getinvolved?
All right.
I am the current chair.
I just became the chair thismonth and I've been on the board
for seven and a half years.
We started this vision in 2017.
(02:23):
And the reason I got involved, Idon't know if any of Allison
Tant Richards, she is our staterepresentative here.
She and I served on a number ofdifferent boards together
throughout the years forchildren with disabilities, and
she is a force to be reckonedwith.
And we were all.
Talking and saying, we wouldlove to have a place for our
kids to live when they grow up.
(02:44):
We wanna be empty nesters too,and we want them to have that
supported environment to livein.
So she got the right people inthe room and we got the land
donated from the city ofTallahassee while we pay a
dollar a year.
The land was donated.
We found a community and westarted raising money.
We raised money for many yearsand then we also.
(03:04):
Got some affordable housingdollars through the through the
legislature and which allowed usto build Independence Landing.
So we've been open about a yearand a half now.
That's awesome.
So Denny, sorry, where, so whereis the actual where's this
actually located again?
It is on Schoolhouse Road.
We're right across the streetfrom Florida State University
School.
Okay.
And we're next door to a citypark and that's.
(03:28):
An interesting part of the storyfor me is we had tried to go to
two other different locationsand those community members did
not want.
Our young adults in theirneighborhood.
Okay.
And Southwood welcomed us withopen arms.
Okay.
And they've, our residents haveintegrated into Southwood.
(03:50):
We have a great relationshipwith Florida State University
School and they're just a partof the community now.
So it's been good.
That's awesome.
That's wonderful.
And are we talking, is it kindalike town homes?
What does it look like?
It's duplexes.
Duplexes, okay.
Is what it looks like.
They're almost all one bedroom.
Okay.
And we do have a few, twobedroom.
Units.
That's awesome.
It's funny how I live in thiscommunity and the things that
(04:11):
you're not aware of.
I'm sure like for people evenlistening that live in
Tallahassee, they'll probably belike, that's super cool.
I didn't even know that wasthere.
That's fantastic.
You've obviously done a good jobintegrating it in to look like
any other place because weprobably drive by it all the
time and didn't even realize it.
But that goes back to kinda mynext question, which is on just
being self, self-sufficiency andindependence being core parts of
(04:34):
independent independencelandings mission.
Maybe can you tell us more aboutthe impact that safe and
Supportive Housing has on theseindividuals?
How does this really impacttheir lives?
Gosh, I could talk for an houron just that.
I think for me as a mom, it goesto that safety.
I, my son doesn't live there.
(04:54):
He's not quite independentenough yet, and I'll tell y'all
a little bit more about that.
But they have that support thathelps'em, so they're independent
in their own apartments.
They can cook for themselves,they can clean for themselves,
and this is.
I'm gonna answer your questionby going backwards.
Yeah, sure.
If that's okay.
So in order to live inIndependence Landing, each of
our residents has to go throughan assessment, and it's an
(05:18):
independent living assessment.
And that assessment.
Makes the determination ofwhether or not they'll be
successful because we want allof our residents to be
successful at IndependenceLanding.
So once you have that assessmentand then you get into your
apartment, you have a servicecoordinator and that service
coordinator helps you continue.
(05:38):
To live independently and togrow your independent living
skills.
So we have we have a young manthat works at a movie theater.
We have a young lady that worksfor a PD, so a lot of our
residents have jobs and just thefeeling when you're talking to
them and they're, they wannashow you their apartment, come
from Yeah.
See mine.
(05:59):
Yeah.
Come see my apartment and theircommunity that they've created
together.
We've got.
The clubhouse to beat allclubhouses.
We've got a pool, we have amovie theater, we have a workout
room, we have a commercialkitchen.
We've got what else?
We've got an art studio.
So all sorts of things.
So there are planned activities,very regular, that makes the
(06:21):
residents want to come in andspend time with one another.
So not only can they go and havejobs, but they also have that
sense of community.
That's really cool.
I, my wife's favorite show rightnow is Love on a Spectrum, so I,
unless I, as I don't necessarilyunderstand the challenges
(06:42):
associated with having this deepdesire for your child to, to
take on this independence Ithink.
That, that show opened my eyesto it.
Okay.
Because you start to see howthese parents are just, they
start, they break into tearswhen they even think about them
being able to finally date.
Much less live in their ownhouse.
And in that last episode Iwatched, the son was just so
(07:04):
excited'cause they were planningon building a house behind their
house where he could live.
And he's just like out of thisworld, excited about it.
So I can only imagine that foryou guys to create a community.
Takes that to the nth degreebecause now it's not like I have
my space, it's I have thiscommunity that I can be a part
of.
Okay.
Which is just a beautiful thing.
I'm curious, if you don't mindme asking, I hadn't written it
(07:25):
down, but.
Is anyone else doing this?
Is this happening outside ofTallahassee?
It is.
It's a new phenomenon.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
We, there are several in thestate.
Okay.
But part of the reason thatthese have even come to be most
of'em were started with parents.
Okay.
That, that see the need becauseMakes sense.
This is the first generationthat our medical advances are
(07:49):
allowing.
These children, they're adultsnow, but these folks with
developmental disabilities tooutlive their parents.
Prior to this, I was talkingwith a friend who had a child
with significant disabilities,and he told me that his prayer
was for his child to die beforehim.
Because he wanted to know thathis child was safe.
And that just it gives mechills.
(08:11):
As parents.
Thinking about they're, they mayout live me by 10 or 20 years,
and are they gonna be safe?
Are they gonna be happy and arethey gonna thrive?
Not just be in an institutionbut thrive and have a great
life.
Absolutely.
That's pretty cool.
That is.
That's amazing.
You think as a parent, like you.
Would never think that would beyour wish.
(08:32):
But I can't imagine that, tohave to worry about outside of
just, the normal safety, but howcan they actually get involved
in the community and live ontheir own.
That's incredible.
And I know we hit on the nextquestion, but you mentioned the
support of the neighborhood andthe staff and everything.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how.
They get involved with.
And I think you said that whenwe talked prior that it, the
(08:55):
cooking and everything.
Yes.
The commercial kitchen that theycan actually volunteer or work
in the kitchen and get involvedin some of that.
Can you tell us about that?
Yeah.
So the commercial kitchen weactually bake a lot of the baked
goods that are sold at Red EyeCoffee.
Okay.
Independence Landing owns RedEye Coffee and our vision was to
have our residents work there.
We're not there yet, but ourresidents are.
(09:18):
Employed in our bakery.
So they're being paid, they'renot just in there.
Bacon for fun.
They're getting paid to do this.
And then they also, those whoare employed by the bakery also
cook the meals.
So there's an optional mealevery night in the clubhouse
that are residents can pay for.
And it is actually cooked bypeople who are.
(09:39):
Live at Independence Landing andare employed there.
And we've had you ask aboutcommunity.
We have had a number ofcommunity members come in and do
things with our residents.
We've had the Tallahassee GardenClub come in and do some
horticulture type of activities.
We've had folks come in and do,do art activities.
(10:01):
We had a young lady come teachline dancing.
So it's just lots and lots ofdifferent people in the
community just coming in andbeing a part of it.
And we might ask this later, butwhile we're on the topic, if you
were in the community and wantedto do something, wanted to teach
a class wanted, how would youget involved with that?
You could go to independencelanding.org.
(10:21):
That's our website.
And there's, there's, oh wait, Idon't think it's independence
landing.org.
I'll have to look it up.
Okay.
We'll put a little plug on thisone.
Yeah.
But our website has a way tocontact our executive director
and find out ways that you canhelp.
People could probably GoogleIndependence Landing Tallahassee
and find it right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So that's a reasonable way tofind it.
(10:42):
I think we, yeah.
Yeah.
We're all used to that.
And I didn't answer yourquestion fully before about are
there others of these yeah, goahead.
So the, it's a new, it's a newerpheno phenomenon.
They're all a little bitdifferent.
Okay.
So before we built ourindependence landing, we went to
Lakeland.
We went to Jacksonville, and wewent to Miami.
Okay.
Because they had somecommunities that were already
(11:04):
established and we learned fromthem what worked for them and
then what didn't work.
So we wouldn't make any of thesame mistakes that they had
made, but we're getting closer.
We've now had, it's an honor.
We've now had other.
Hopeful communities come to usand ask us how did you do it?
What are you doing, et cetera.
So hopefully this can bereplicated so we can have more.
(11:27):
Yeah.
I it makes me think of, I have afriend who is a part of an
Indian tribe, and within theIndian tribes, they're always,
they were looking for ways togenerate income or for the
tribe, they built a casino andthey figured out what the
funding, how do you get fundingfor this?
What are all the things you haveto do?
They created a template and shecreated a consulting firm, and
(11:49):
now she goes from tribe to tribeand helps'em do it.
And that was what I was thinkingof as I was listening to you
talk.
I'm like, man, I wonder ifsomebody could just become a
consultant that builds theblueprint.
And then goes to communities andsays, let me help you build
these, because I've gotta thinkthat there are so many parents
that just would absolutely lovethis.
'cause the next question I wasgonna ask is can people move to
Tallahassee for their kids to bea part of it?
(12:11):
Yes.
We've got at least two residentsfrom out of state.
One is from Colorado and I'm notsure where the other one is
from.
We have a wait list right now.
Okay.
I imagine so.
Yeah.
And but yeah, we don'tdiscriminate.
You don't have to live inTallahassee.
It's just a matter of getting onthe wait list availability and
being independent enough to livethere.
(12:31):
And, that goes to the.
Question of replicating it.
Yeah.
Because we don't have an agelimit.
You have to be 18 to move in,you have to be an adult.
Okay.
But we don't make you move outwhen you turn 50.
Okay.
It's, so some of these residentsmay live here for the rest of
their lives so we have not had alot of turnover.
Okay.
Okay.
That makes a lot of sense.
(12:52):
It sounds like a thoughtfulapproach to addressing some of
the key challenges that people.
With disabilities face movingforward, what are some of the
projects or initiativeshappening at Independence
Landing that you're particularlyexcited about?
Phase two.
Okay.
We have not started yet.
I'm equally thrilled, excited,and petrified about phase two,
(13:14):
all the things.
Yes, because it's a lot becausegetting it built in the first
place, you have to apply for thefunding and Right.
There are a lot of politicalhoops to go through.
That's phase one.
Yeah.
Phase one we did that, but we'llhave to do a lot of the same
hoops for phase two.
Okay.
And phase two, right now, ourhope is to have it be a little
(13:36):
bit more supported living.
So someone like my son Brady,might be able to live there.
He needs someone to help himshower.
He needs, he wears a pull-up atnight.
So he needs a little bit moresupport, but he doesn't need 24
7 somebody's.
Eyes on it.
So our hope is, and we haven'tseen this model yet, our hope is
(13:56):
to have just a step.
Step up of care in phase two,but we're still really early.
So we haven't gotten there quiteyet.
It's interesting it's making methink of when my mom and dad's
parents got to a certain age,right?
It was like they lived in St.
Cloud, Florida, but they neededwhat you're describing at the
age that they were at.
(14:17):
They needed this kind of stepup, let's call it step up here.
Yeah.
Which would be a great name fora company, for anyone who's
listening.
But.
You think about that step likethis concept of step up care and
it's okay, there's twograndparents, right?
And if you were to put both ofthem, just as an example, in a
nursing home that's 30 grand perperson.
That's six.
That's easily 60 grand.
It's probably more than that.
(14:37):
But at the time, and this wasyears back, right?
So it's probably call it ahundred grand, right?
And then you think about, orokay, I could pay somebody a
salary of 70.
Grand or 80 grand and they couldjust come live with them and
take care of both of them intheir own space and still
maintain that independence.
So that's like where my brainwent when I heard you say that.
(14:59):
'cause it's almost as if to sayreally what you're looking for
are like a few good people whoare willing to invest themselves
in the lives of these people.
And be almost a live-in lifecoach helper.
Steward of their lives incertain ways, whether it be from
(15:19):
a healthcare perspective or justbasic stuff.
Yeah.
A friend, really.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our support coordinators are soinvested in our residents.
I shake my head because I don'tthink there is a time that I've
gone out to independents landingthat the support coordinators
weren't there.
Like early in the morning, latein the afternoon.
I'm like, do you ever go home?
(15:40):
And they.
They just enjoy.
I bet they become very invested.
Yeah.
Being with the residents it's afamily and, you mentioned the
the nursing home and whatnot,and it is.
A good analogy, right?
Because Independence landing asit is right now, is very much
like someone who's going into ohgosh, I'm gonna forget the name
(16:01):
of it.
The Villages is what I thoughtof.
Yeah.
It's more like a, it's more likea place for a category of people
Exactly.
Where they can have a communityand have things that are
necessary.
For that community.
And having that person come andlive in your home.
I learned first firsthand thatisn't necessarily the best thing
(16:21):
to do.
For a couple of reasons.
One, you have to really trustthat person.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of issues come up.
Yeah.
And when my parents moved fromtheir home into an independent
living, older person'scommunity.
I'm gonna call it the wrongthing.
Yeah, that's okay.
They blossomed.
It was like my dad was like thebiggest introvert and he loved
going down to dinner.
(16:42):
And they made these greatfriends that if they had lived
at home they wouldn't have.
And that's what our residentshave.
And there are, so it's assistedliving?
Is that what we is it assisted,is that what it's called?
I'm not sure, honestly.
Okay.
Thank you.
Proper terminology, assistedliving.
I don't know all the steps butthat's what it is for our
residents, is they have thatsense of community.
They have those people aroundthem.
(17:03):
That's so cool.
It's a very similar concept.
Different demographic.
Yes.
Yeah.
Very neat.
And how many people live thereright now?
58.
Okay.
And that's the max.
Yes.
You're on the wait list rightnow?
It's the max.
Okay.
Yeah, we struggled, we had oneapartment for someone to be
there 24 7.
(17:23):
And now we're gonna have to havetwo apartments and it's oh, that
means one list residence.
So we wanna build more.
That's what I was, yeah, I waswondering about that.
Now, how much additional space,if you wanted to build more, do
you actually have, or are youmaxed out?
We, once we do phase two, we'llbe maxed out on the land that
we're on right now.
Okay.
And phase two will be smallerthan phase one.
Okay.
I should know how many acres wehave, but I don't, that's fine.
(17:45):
But we have land in the sameproperty.
Okay.
Okay.
That we're on We farming yet.
Okay.
Got agriculture.
It's funny that you say that wehave some board members who are
wanting to do some of that.
We just have to make sure.
When we do those kinds ofthings, that we have enough
residents interested in it.
Oh yeah.
Because we've learned from someof the other communities that
(18:07):
have actually put in some likeraised beds and things.
Unless the residents are reallyinterested in it, the staff
winds up having to keep them up.
Okay?
So we're pretty particularThat's good about what we do.
Yeah.
So we make sure it'ssustainable.
These are the, all the thingsthat you guys have thought of
because you lived it versus likepeople on the outside looking
in, it's this sounds cool andyou guys here's how that plays
(18:27):
out.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And those are sometimes toughconversations to have because
people wanna do a good thing forus.
And it's my wife tells me thatall the time.
Like I think that's areasonable, I get it.
I get it.
That's so nice.
But how is that Makes sense.
(18:49):
This next one we touched on, butit's about if people wanna get
involved, how to get involved.
And I know I mentioned that, ifthey wanted to teach a class or
come, but is there anything elsethat, our listeners might be
interested to hear on ways tohelp support?
Yeah, absolutely.
One of, they love.
A good pizza night with Bingo.
Are you serious?
Pizza night?
Yeah.
Pizza night And bingo is That'sawesome.
(19:09):
Is a great thing.
Our board, we host a game nightwith pizza and Bingo and other
games.
Once a year and par the parentshost something.
So if any like community groupwanted to come and host a Friday
night.
Get together.
Okay.
We would love that.
They love to eat just likeeverybody else.
I, you have to like, bring somepizza.
(19:30):
So I have a solo stove.
It's not big right?
But it's for pizza.
It's a pizza maker.
Yeah.
Anyway, you put wood in theback.
Yeah.
You get the the little stoneshot and you make your own
pizzas.
Oh, fine.
And like with the kids, it's abig thing.
'cause you can go to Publix buypre-made.
There's a couple different waysyou can do this.
Now, I don't know if you knowthis, but at Publix they have
(19:50):
little dough balls.
I uhhuh.
You can do that Uhhuh, butthere's an easier way.
If you go to fresh market, theyhave this, it looks like a
yogurt.
Pack that our kids eat.
You know the long ones?
Yeah.
Like a yogurt.
Yeah.
You pull the, you pull a tab onthe side and then it's literally
a a pizza dough roll that youjust unfold.
Oh.
And you just set it on thestuff, put your tomato sauce and
(20:12):
whatever, and stick it in thatthing.
And it is done in three minutes.
That's one of the reasons I'venever done the dough balls.
I know.
'cause I didn't think I couldroll that out.
It's hard out.
Yeah.
Listen, if you go to freshmarket check in the fridge
section, Uhhuh, they've got'em.
You just unroll it.
Like you would, like one ofthose Auntie Anne things.
Yeah it is.
And they taste great.
So let me ask you this.
When you talk about the pizzanight.
I was just picturing likedominoes, but, and that's what
(20:36):
we usually do, but easier.
But actually having an activitythough, that might be fun like a
way.
So would that be something thatsomebody could do?
Absolutely.
As a matter of fact, when Bradywas still in school, he was in
the extended program and hishomework one night was to make
pizza for the family and we didfrench bread pizza.
(20:57):
So that was, even easier.
You just cut up the French.
Bread, but he was so excited.
I love it.
To have cooked that for us.
Yeah.
It was just, that's like ourkids.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I and know when we have friendsover, our friends are always
what you do is everybody gets tomake their own kind of pizza.
Yeah.
And so it's funny, we've got acouple friends that are more
bougie than some of the otherones, right?
(21:17):
So they're like, they bringthese really fancy Wagyu steaks
and they make these little.
Slim cuts and they put it on andit's like, all right, you get
that and or the fig and pr.
Yeah, exactly.
You can get super creative withit.
This is, this conversation makesme feel good.
I, look, there's so much.
Negativity all over the world,just on the news, everywhere.
(21:39):
And what's unfortunate is likestories like this, you don't
hear about it.
Yeah.
And this actually makes you feelgood.
You're like, wow, people areactually doing pretty cool
things.
Yep.
Denise, this is awesome.
I, I.
I, we always save an extraquestion.
It's for you really.
It's, it is.
Is there anything else you'dlike the listeners to know?
Oh gosh.
For you guys, I'm gonna send youthe video that we had made Okay.
(22:00):
For our for our fundraiserrecently.
Okay.
Yeah.
Which is, it's really short.
But it just captures theindependence and what people are
doing with their lives atIndependence Landing.
I feel like we've said it all.
That's fine.
Just I have a question.
It's great place.
I'm just, I have so manyquestions.
Sorry, I have, this isfascinating to me.
(22:22):
Funding, talk to us aboutfunding.
What do you need?
How does this work?
Do, do people donate?
What does this look like for youguys?
Funding is complicated.
Okay.
We our, the apartmentsthemselves we have a partner and
they're called ram.
Okay.
And they handle the leases, theyhandle the rent, they handle all
of that.
And we are a low income housingprovider.
(22:44):
Okay.
There are expenses though, thatgo beyond that.
For example, I mentioned to youthat we do the dinners.
Okay.
They pay a fee for the dinners,but that's subsidized.
We pay for a good bit of that.
Okay.
The service providers are paidfor through two different
things.
We've got an activity fee andthen we also, a lot of our
(23:06):
residents are.
Have a PD funding.
I think it's Association ofPersons with Disabilities, so
they get some money throughthat, and that helps with the
service provider.
So in that sense, each familythat's living on location, and
when I say family, theindividual, but I'm assuming
they're backed by their lovedones.
Hopefully, they're gettingfunding from the government and
(23:26):
they take that and use that topay rent, so to speak.
Yes.
And so that's one aspect of it.
Then the other aspect of it issome form of grant or something
that the, I'm assuming it's anot-for-profit.
It is a not for not-for-profit.
We fund raise for our staff.
Okay.
Like our executive director.
Okay.
And our so's like partiallyfunded.
Yes.
(23:46):
Yeah.
And then you have to go get therest.
Exactly.
Alright.
Exactly.
And there was something else Iwas gonna tell y'all.
Brain freeze.
Oh.
I think that a lot of peoplethink that because some of the
folks are on a PD or have thatfunding, that independence
landing doesn't need additionalmoney.
We can't do all of the extrathings Sure.
That we do.
(24:07):
Sure.
If we didn't have it, there wassomething else.
And it was important.
And I'm looking at you because Iwas looking at you when I
thought of it on the fundingpiece.
Yeah.
It's about the funding.
I know we start, go ahead.
Sorry.
So when we did our budget beforewe built in Independence
Landing, we looked at the otherproperties and how they did
(24:29):
theirs, and we budgeted with acertain percentage of our
residents being private pay anda certain percentage of our
residents on the a PD waiver.
Okay.
Who would get get the funding?
The revenue that Independencelanding gets from private pay is
slightly more.
Than the a PD.
And that's how we did ourbudget.
(24:51):
Our our support coordinators didthe right thing to do is they
see an adult with disabilitieswho is not getting funded
through a.
A PD that should Okay.
They help them through thatprocess To get the funding.
To get the funding so what itlooks like today is many more of
our residents have the fundingthan we anticipated.
(25:13):
So that gives us a biggershortfall in our operating
revenue.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because now you're making lessper ed.
Yes.
So to speak.
Yeah.
That's, that's what I wanted toknow, but they did the right
thing.
Now they did the right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, not one person on the boardsaid anything negative.
Everyone was like, no, that'sthe right thing to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Companies contribute.
(25:35):
Hundreds of millions of dollarsto campaigns and this and that.
You'd think that programs likethis could get funding from
those same financialinstitutions?
I think part of it's justletting people know that it's
there.
Because I, I don't assume I,people like to do good things.
Like I don't assume that peopledon't want to fund stuff like
this.
I just think.
Maybe we just need to help getthe word out.
(25:55):
Get the word out.
Yeah.
Get the word out.
Our fundraiser was two weeksago.
It's, we have it every year.
And I'll invite you guys nextyear.
It's the B three Bash and we hada very successful fundraiser.
We always wanna raise moremoney.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we'll have, we're gonna haveanother fundraiser this year.
We're not sure what it is yet.
But the B three Bash was a lotof fun.
And we raised some good money.
Good.
So now Denise, are you on the,is this yours or are you on the
(26:18):
board?
What is, what's the I'm on theboard.
Okay.
Yes.
I'm on the board.
I'm our fourth board chair.
Okay.
Allison Tant was our first boardchair, but then when she ran for
public office, she could nolonger serve on the board.
So we still consider her hourseven though she's not officially
on the board.
And then Gil Zipper was thechair after her, Bryce Barnes,
(26:38):
and now I'm the awesome, thefourth board chair.
But we have a number.
We have at least five or sixpeople on our board today who
were on the board from the very,very beginning.
Okay.
Oh, good.
And we're, I'm really excited.
I've been meeting with potentialboard members lately, so we're
looking for, now that we'rebuilt and we've gone through
that process, like we had a landuse attorney on our board.
(27:01):
We had, people who specialize inFlorida housing tax credits and
how that works.
And now we're adding some peoplewho are grant writers and who
are fundraising experts and alsolobbyists and just, just people
who care and people that have askillset that can help us do
what we want.
I love it.
Absolutely.
(27:21):
This is awesome.
Denise, thank you so much forcoming.
Thank you to the listeners outthere listening if you have any
questions.
Please contact us or look forinformation on our
homepage@www.fbmc.com.
Remember you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app and
just one final plug here.
Obviously Denise and theindividuals at Independence
(27:43):
Landing could definitely utilizesome funding.
So if you guys are looking todonate and or contribute and, or
it's just a personal tie orwhatever it is maybe look in
this direction.
Let's just remind you, just goback and Google Tallahassee
Independence Landing.
You'll find the webpage and canthey, the, and there's a big
donate button right there.
Big donate.
(28:05):
And so yeah, there it is.
Listeners, thank you so much.
As I said, you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app.
Thank you, Denise, and thank youeveryone.
Have a great day.
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
denise-wilson_1_04-15-2025_ (00:17):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits and welcome to this
week's episode.
Today we will be diving into aninspiring conversation with
someone who's making asignificant difference in the
lives of individuals withintellectual and development
disabilities.
Our guest is Denise Wilson, adedicated board member at
(00:37):
Independence Landing.
And for those of you who may notknow, independence Landing is a
not-for-profit organizationthat's focused on providing
safe, affordable, and supportivehousing for individuals with
developmental disabilities.
Their mission is to createopportunities for these
individuals to lead independent,fulfilling lives.
(00:59):
So thank you for coming on.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah.
One of my favorite topics.
Yeah.
We're looking forward to it,Denise.
One of the ways we'd like tostart is just to maybe have you
tell our audience a little bitabout yourself.
Where are you from family, howyou got to Tallahassee?
All the good stuff.
All right.
I grew up in Huntsville,Alabama.
Okay.
And I moved here in 99.
(01:20):
My husband and I dated for eightyears.
Long distance.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
And we decided that if we weregonna get married, we should
probably live in the same city.
So I moved to Tallahassee.
And I have loved being inTallahassee.
I'm a mom of two.
My son Brady has intellectualand developmental disabilities.
And my son Walker is 24 and Iwork for Capital City Bank and
have the best job in thecompany.
(01:40):
That's awesome.
Now you and your husband met.
And then you did long distance.
Was that in school that you metor how did you guys meet?
No, we actually met in theparking lot of a bar in Panama
City Beach.
Okay.
I love it.
On vacation.
Very nice.
No, I lived there and he livedhere.
Oh, at the time.
Oh, okay.
Alright.
Oh, that's funny.
That is cool.
What a small world.
I know, right?
(02:02):
Very cool.
Again, Denise, thanks for comingon.
Go ahead Kyle.
I know you had a question.
So can you tell us a little bitabout your role on the board and
what motivated you to getinvolved?
All right.
I am the current chair.
I just became the chair thismonth and I've been on the board
for seven and a half years.
We started this vision in 2017.
(02:23):
And the reason I got involved, Idon't know if any of Allison
Tant Richards, she is our staterepresentative here.
She and I served on a number ofdifferent boards together
throughout the years forchildren with disabilities, and
she is a force to be reckonedwith.
And we were all.
Talking and saying, we wouldlove to have a place for our
kids to live when they grow up.
(02:44):
We wanna be empty nesters too,and we want them to have that
supported environment to livein.
So she got the right people inthe room and we got the land
donated from the city ofTallahassee while we pay a
dollar a year.
The land was donated.
We found a community and westarted raising money.
We raised money for many yearsand then we also.
(03:04):
Got some affordable housingdollars through the through the
legislature and which allowed usto build Independence Landing.
So we've been open about a yearand a half now.
That's awesome.
So Denny, sorry, where, so whereis the actual where's this
actually located again?
It is on Schoolhouse Road.
We're right across the streetfrom Florida State University
School.
Okay.
And we're next door to a citypark and that's.
(03:28):
An interesting part of the storyfor me is we had tried to go to
two other different locationsand those community members did
not want.
Our young adults in theirneighborhood.
Okay.
And Southwood welcomed us withopen arms.
Okay.
And they've, our residents haveintegrated into Southwood.
(03:50):
We have a great relationshipwith Florida State University
School and they're just a partof the community now.
So it's been good.
That's awesome.
That's wonderful.
And are we talking, is it kindalike town homes?
What does it look like?
It's duplexes.
Duplexes, okay.
Is what it looks like.
They're almost all one bedroom.
Okay.
And we do have a few, twobedroom.
Units.
That's awesome.
It's funny how I live in thiscommunity and the things that
(04:11):
you're not aware of.
I'm sure like for people evenlistening that live in
Tallahassee, they'll probably belike, that's super cool.
I didn't even know that wasthere.
That's fantastic.
You've obviously done a good jobintegrating it in to look like
any other place because weprobably drive by it all the
time and didn't even realize it.
But that goes back to kinda mynext question, which is on just
being self, self-sufficiency andindependence being core parts of
(04:34):
independent independencelandings mission.
Maybe can you tell us more aboutthe impact that safe and
Supportive Housing has on theseindividuals?
How does this really impacttheir lives?
Gosh, I could talk for an houron just that.
I think for me as a mom, it goesto that safety.
I, my son doesn't live there.
(04:54):
He's not quite independentenough yet, and I'll tell y'all
a little bit more about that.
But they have that support thathelps'em, so they're independent
in their own apartments.
They can cook for themselves,they can clean for themselves,
and this is.
I'm gonna answer your questionby going backwards.
Yeah, sure.
If that's okay.
So in order to live inIndependence Landing, each of
our residents has to go throughan assessment, and it's an
(05:18):
independent living assessment.
And that assessment.
Makes the determination ofwhether or not they'll be
successful because we want allof our residents to be
successful at IndependenceLanding.
So once you have that assessmentand then you get into your
apartment, you have a servicecoordinator and that service
coordinator helps you continue.
(05:38):
To live independently and togrow your independent living
skills.
So we have we have a young manthat works at a movie theater.
We have a young lady that worksfor a PD, so a lot of our
residents have jobs and just thefeeling when you're talking to
them and they're, they wannashow you their apartment, come
from Yeah.
See mine.
(05:59):
Yeah.
Come see my apartment and theircommunity that they've created
together.
We've got.
The clubhouse to beat allclubhouses.
We've got a pool, we have amovie theater, we have a workout
room, we have a commercialkitchen.
We've got what else?
We've got an art studio.
So all sorts of things.
So there are planned activities,very regular, that makes the
(06:21):
residents want to come in andspend time with one another.
So not only can they go and havejobs, but they also have that
sense of community.
That's really cool.
I, my wife's favorite show rightnow is Love on a Spectrum, so I,
unless I, as I don't necessarilyunderstand the challenges
(06:42):
associated with having this deepdesire for your child to, to
take on this independence Ithink.
That, that show opened my eyesto it.
Okay.
Because you start to see howthese parents are just, they
start, they break into tearswhen they even think about them
being able to finally date.
Much less live in their ownhouse.
And in that last episode Iwatched, the son was just so
(07:04):
excited'cause they were planningon building a house behind their
house where he could live.
And he's just like out of thisworld, excited about it.
So I can only imagine that foryou guys to create a community.
Takes that to the nth degreebecause now it's not like I have
my space, it's I have thiscommunity that I can be a part
of.
Okay.
Which is just a beautiful thing.
I'm curious, if you don't mindme asking, I hadn't written it
(07:25):
down, but.
Is anyone else doing this?
Is this happening outside ofTallahassee?
It is.
It's a new phenomenon.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
We, there are several in thestate.
Okay.
But part of the reason thatthese have even come to be most
of'em were started with parents.
Okay.
That, that see the need becauseMakes sense.
This is the first generationthat our medical advances are
(07:49):
allowing.
These children, they're adultsnow, but these folks with
developmental disabilities tooutlive their parents.
Prior to this, I was talkingwith a friend who had a child
with significant disabilities,and he told me that his prayer
was for his child to die beforehim.
Because he wanted to know thathis child was safe.
And that just it gives mechills.
(08:11):
As parents.
Thinking about they're, they mayout live me by 10 or 20 years,
and are they gonna be safe?
Are they gonna be happy and arethey gonna thrive?
Not just be in an institutionbut thrive and have a great
life.
Absolutely.
That's pretty cool.
That is.
That's amazing.
You think as a parent, like you.
Would never think that would beyour wish.
(08:32):
But I can't imagine that, tohave to worry about outside of
just, the normal safety, but howcan they actually get involved
in the community and live ontheir own.
That's incredible.
And I know we hit on the nextquestion, but you mentioned the
support of the neighborhood andthe staff and everything.
Can you tell us a little bitabout how.
They get involved with.
And I think you said that whenwe talked prior that it, the
(08:55):
cooking and everything.
Yes.
The commercial kitchen that theycan actually volunteer or work
in the kitchen and get involvedin some of that.
Can you tell us about that?
Yeah.
So the commercial kitchen weactually bake a lot of the baked
goods that are sold at Red EyeCoffee.
Okay.
Independence Landing owns RedEye Coffee and our vision was to
have our residents work there.
We're not there yet, but ourresidents are.
(09:18):
Employed in our bakery.
So they're being paid, they'renot just in there.
Bacon for fun.
They're getting paid to do this.
And then they also, those whoare employed by the bakery also
cook the meals.
So there's an optional mealevery night in the clubhouse
that are residents can pay for.
And it is actually cooked bypeople who are.
(09:39):
Live at Independence Landing andare employed there.
And we've had you ask aboutcommunity.
We have had a number ofcommunity members come in and do
things with our residents.
We've had the Tallahassee GardenClub come in and do some
horticulture type of activities.
We've had folks come in and do,do art activities.
(10:01):
We had a young lady come teachline dancing.
So it's just lots and lots ofdifferent people in the
community just coming in andbeing a part of it.
And we might ask this later, butwhile we're on the topic, if you
were in the community and wantedto do something, wanted to teach
a class wanted, how would youget involved with that?
You could go to independencelanding.org.
(10:21):
That's our website.
And there's, there's, oh wait, Idon't think it's independence
landing.org.
I'll have to look it up.
Okay.
We'll put a little plug on thisone.
Yeah.
But our website has a way tocontact our executive director
and find out ways that you canhelp.
People could probably GoogleIndependence Landing Tallahassee
and find it right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So that's a reasonable way tofind it.
(10:42):
I think we, yeah.
Yeah.
We're all used to that.
And I didn't answer yourquestion fully before about are
there others of these yeah, goahead.
So the, it's a new, it's a newerpheno phenomenon.
They're all a little bitdifferent.
Okay.
So before we built ourindependence landing, we went to
Lakeland.
We went to Jacksonville, and wewent to Miami.
Okay.
Because they had somecommunities that were already
(11:04):
established and we learned fromthem what worked for them and
then what didn't work.
So we wouldn't make any of thesame mistakes that they had
made, but we're getting closer.
We've now had, it's an honor.
We've now had other.
Hopeful communities come to usand ask us how did you do it?
What are you doing, et cetera.
So hopefully this can bereplicated so we can have more.
(11:27):
Yeah.
I it makes me think of, I have afriend who is a part of an
Indian tribe, and within theIndian tribes, they're always,
they were looking for ways togenerate income or for the
tribe, they built a casino andthey figured out what the
funding, how do you get fundingfor this?
What are all the things you haveto do?
They created a template and shecreated a consulting firm, and
(11:49):
now she goes from tribe to tribeand helps'em do it.
And that was what I was thinkingof as I was listening to you
talk.
I'm like, man, I wonder ifsomebody could just become a
consultant that builds theblueprint.
And then goes to communities andsays, let me help you build
these, because I've gotta thinkthat there are so many parents
that just would absolutely lovethis.
'cause the next question I wasgonna ask is can people move to
Tallahassee for their kids to bea part of it?
(12:11):
Yes.
We've got at least two residentsfrom out of state.
One is from Colorado and I'm notsure where the other one is
from.
We have a wait list right now.
Okay.
I imagine so.
Yeah.
And but yeah, we don'tdiscriminate.
You don't have to live inTallahassee.
It's just a matter of getting onthe wait list availability and
being independent enough to livethere.
(12:31):
And, that goes to the.
Question of replicating it.
Yeah.
Because we don't have an agelimit.
You have to be 18 to move in,you have to be an adult.
Okay.
But we don't make you move outwhen you turn 50.
Okay.
It's, so some of these residentsmay live here for the rest of
their lives so we have not had alot of turnover.
Okay.
Okay.
That makes a lot of sense.
(12:52):
It sounds like a thoughtfulapproach to addressing some of
the key challenges that people.
With disabilities face movingforward, what are some of the
projects or initiativeshappening at Independence
Landing that you're particularlyexcited about?
Phase two.
Okay.
We have not started yet.
I'm equally thrilled, excited,and petrified about phase two,
(13:14):
all the things.
Yes, because it's a lot becausegetting it built in the first
place, you have to apply for thefunding and Right.
There are a lot of politicalhoops to go through.
That's phase one.
Yeah.
Phase one we did that, but we'llhave to do a lot of the same
hoops for phase two.
Okay.
And phase two, right now, ourhope is to have it be a little
(13:36):
bit more supported living.
So someone like my son Brady,might be able to live there.
He needs someone to help himshower.
He needs, he wears a pull-up atnight.
So he needs a little bit moresupport, but he doesn't need 24
7 somebody's.
Eyes on it.
So our hope is, and we haven'tseen this model yet, our hope is
(13:56):
to have just a step.
Step up of care in phase two,but we're still really early.
So we haven't gotten there quiteyet.
It's interesting it's making methink of when my mom and dad's
parents got to a certain age,right?
It was like they lived in St.
Cloud, Florida, but they neededwhat you're describing at the
age that they were at.
(14:17):
They needed this kind of stepup, let's call it step up here.
Yeah.
Which would be a great name fora company, for anyone who's
listening.
But.
You think about that step likethis concept of step up care and
it's okay, there's twograndparents, right?
And if you were to put both ofthem, just as an example, in a
nursing home that's 30 grand perperson.
That's six.
That's easily 60 grand.
It's probably more than that.
(14:37):
But at the time, and this wasyears back, right?
So it's probably call it ahundred grand, right?
And then you think about, orokay, I could pay somebody a
salary of 70.
Grand or 80 grand and they couldjust come live with them and
take care of both of them intheir own space and still
maintain that independence.
So that's like where my brainwent when I heard you say that.
(14:59):
'cause it's almost as if to sayreally what you're looking for
are like a few good people whoare willing to invest themselves
in the lives of these people.
And be almost a live-in lifecoach helper.
Steward of their lives incertain ways, whether it be from
(15:19):
a healthcare perspective or justbasic stuff.
Yeah.
A friend, really.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Our support coordinators are soinvested in our residents.
I shake my head because I don'tthink there is a time that I've
gone out to independents landingthat the support coordinators
weren't there.
Like early in the morning, latein the afternoon.
I'm like, do you ever go home?
(15:40):
And they.
They just enjoy.
I bet they become very invested.
Yeah.
Being with the residents it's afamily and, you mentioned the
the nursing home and whatnot,and it is.
A good analogy, right?
Because Independence landing asit is right now, is very much
like someone who's going into ohgosh, I'm gonna forget the name
(16:01):
of it.
The Villages is what I thoughtof.
Yeah.
It's more like a, it's more likea place for a category of people
Exactly.
Where they can have a communityand have things that are
necessary.
For that community.
And having that person come andlive in your home.
I learned first firsthand thatisn't necessarily the best thing
(16:21):
to do.
For a couple of reasons.
One, you have to really trustthat person.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of issues come up.
Yeah.
And when my parents moved fromtheir home into an independent
living, older person'scommunity.
I'm gonna call it the wrongthing.
Yeah, that's okay.
They blossomed.
It was like my dad was like thebiggest introvert and he loved
going down to dinner.
(16:42):
And they made these greatfriends that if they had lived
at home they wouldn't have.
And that's what our residentshave.
And there are, so it's assistedliving?
Is that what we is it assisted,is that what it's called?
I'm not sure, honestly.
Okay.
Thank you.
Proper terminology, assistedliving.
I don't know all the steps butthat's what it is for our
residents, is they have thatsense of community.
They have those people aroundthem.
(17:03):
That's so cool.
It's a very similar concept.
Different demographic.
Yes.
Yeah.
Very neat.
And how many people live thereright now?
58.
Okay.
And that's the max.
Yes.
You're on the wait list rightnow?
It's the max.
Okay.
Yeah, we struggled, we had oneapartment for someone to be
there 24 7.
(17:23):
And now we're gonna have to havetwo apartments and it's oh, that
means one list residence.
So we wanna build more.
That's what I was, yeah, I waswondering about that.
Now, how much additional space,if you wanted to build more, do
you actually have, or are youmaxed out?
We, once we do phase two, we'llbe maxed out on the land that
we're on right now.
Okay.
And phase two will be smallerthan phase one.
Okay.
I should know how many acres wehave, but I don't, that's fine.
(17:45):
But we have land in the sameproperty.
Okay.
Okay.
That we're on We farming yet.
Okay.
Got agriculture.
It's funny that you say that wehave some board members who are
wanting to do some of that.
We just have to make sure.
When we do those kinds ofthings, that we have enough
residents interested in it.
Oh yeah.
Because we've learned from someof the other communities that
(18:07):
have actually put in some likeraised beds and things.
Unless the residents are reallyinterested in it, the staff
winds up having to keep them up.
Okay?
So we're pretty particularThat's good about what we do.
Yeah.
So we make sure it'ssustainable.
These are the, all the thingsthat you guys have thought of
because you lived it versus likepeople on the outside looking
in, it's this sounds cool andyou guys here's how that plays
(18:27):
out.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And those are sometimes toughconversations to have because
people wanna do a good thing forus.
And it's my wife tells me thatall the time.
Like I think that's areasonable, I get it.
I get it.
That's so nice.
But how is that Makes sense.
(18:49):
This next one we touched on, butit's about if people wanna get
involved, how to get involved.
And I know I mentioned that, ifthey wanted to teach a class or
come, but is there anything elsethat, our listeners might be
interested to hear on ways tohelp support?
Yeah, absolutely.
One of, they love.
A good pizza night with Bingo.
Are you serious?
Pizza night?
Yeah.
Pizza night And bingo is That'sawesome.
(19:09):
Is a great thing.
Our board, we host a game nightwith pizza and Bingo and other
games.
Once a year and par the parentshost something.
So if any like community groupwanted to come and host a Friday
night.
Get together.
Okay.
We would love that.
They love to eat just likeeverybody else.
I, you have to like, bring somepizza.
(19:30):
So I have a solo stove.
It's not big right?
But it's for pizza.
It's a pizza maker.
Yeah.
Anyway, you put wood in theback.
Yeah.
You get the the little stoneshot and you make your own
pizzas.
Oh, fine.
And like with the kids, it's abig thing.
'cause you can go to Publix buypre-made.
There's a couple different waysyou can do this.
Now, I don't know if you knowthis, but at Publix they have
(19:50):
little dough balls.
I uhhuh.
You can do that Uhhuh, butthere's an easier way.
If you go to fresh market, theyhave this, it looks like a
yogurt.
Pack that our kids eat.
You know the long ones?
Yeah.
Like a yogurt.
Yeah.
You pull the, you pull a tab onthe side and then it's literally
a a pizza dough roll that youjust unfold.
Oh.
And you just set it on thestuff, put your tomato sauce and
(20:12):
whatever, and stick it in thatthing.
And it is done in three minutes.
That's one of the reasons I'venever done the dough balls.
I know.
'cause I didn't think I couldroll that out.
It's hard out.
Yeah.
Listen, if you go to freshmarket check in the fridge
section, Uhhuh, they've got'em.
You just unroll it.
Like you would, like one ofthose Auntie Anne things.
Yeah it is.
And they taste great.
So let me ask you this.
When you talk about the pizzanight.
I was just picturing likedominoes, but, and that's what
(20:36):
we usually do, but easier.
But actually having an activitythough, that might be fun like a
way.
So would that be something thatsomebody could do?
Absolutely.
As a matter of fact, when Bradywas still in school, he was in
the extended program and hishomework one night was to make
pizza for the family and we didfrench bread pizza.
(20:57):
So that was, even easier.
You just cut up the French.
Bread, but he was so excited.
I love it.
To have cooked that for us.
Yeah.
It was just, that's like ourkids.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I and know when we have friendsover, our friends are always
what you do is everybody gets tomake their own kind of pizza.
Yeah.
And so it's funny, we've got acouple friends that are more
bougie than some of the otherones, right?
(21:17):
So they're like, they bringthese really fancy Wagyu steaks
and they make these little.
Slim cuts and they put it on andit's like, all right, you get
that and or the fig and pr.
Yeah, exactly.
You can get super creative withit.
This is, this conversation makesme feel good.
I, look, there's so much.
Negativity all over the world,just on the news, everywhere.
(21:39):
And what's unfortunate is likestories like this, you don't
hear about it.
Yeah.
And this actually makes you feelgood.
You're like, wow, people areactually doing pretty cool
things.
Yep.
Denise, this is awesome.
I, I.
I, we always save an extraquestion.
It's for you really.
It's, it is.
Is there anything else you'dlike the listeners to know?
Oh gosh.
For you guys, I'm gonna send youthe video that we had made Okay.
(22:00):
For our for our fundraiserrecently.
Okay.
Yeah.
Which is, it's really short.
But it just captures theindependence and what people are
doing with their lives atIndependence Landing.
I feel like we've said it all.
That's fine.
Just I have a question.
It's great place.
I'm just, I have so manyquestions.
Sorry, I have, this isfascinating to me.
(22:22):
Funding, talk to us aboutfunding.
What do you need?
How does this work?
Do, do people donate?
What does this look like for youguys?
Funding is complicated.
Okay.
We our, the apartmentsthemselves we have a partner and
they're called ram.
Okay.
And they handle the leases, theyhandle the rent, they handle all
of that.
And we are a low income housingprovider.
(22:44):
Okay.
There are expenses though, thatgo beyond that.
For example, I mentioned to youthat we do the dinners.
Okay.
They pay a fee for the dinners,but that's subsidized.
We pay for a good bit of that.
Okay.
The service providers are paidfor through two different
things.
We've got an activity fee andthen we also, a lot of our
(23:06):
residents are.
Have a PD funding.
I think it's Association ofPersons with Disabilities, so
they get some money throughthat, and that helps with the
service provider.
So in that sense, each familythat's living on location, and
when I say family, theindividual, but I'm assuming
they're backed by their lovedones.
Hopefully, they're gettingfunding from the government and
(23:26):
they take that and use that topay rent, so to speak.
Yes.
And so that's one aspect of it.
Then the other aspect of it issome form of grant or something
that the, I'm assuming it's anot-for-profit.
It is a not for not-for-profit.
We fund raise for our staff.
Okay.
Like our executive director.
Okay.
And our so's like partiallyfunded.
Yes.
(23:46):
Yeah.
And then you have to go get therest.
Exactly.
Alright.
Exactly.
And there was something else Iwas gonna tell y'all.
Brain freeze.
Oh.
I think that a lot of peoplethink that because some of the
folks are on a PD or have thatfunding, that independence
landing doesn't need additionalmoney.
We can't do all of the extrathings Sure.
That we do.
(24:07):
Sure.
If we didn't have it, there wassomething else.
And it was important.
And I'm looking at you because Iwas looking at you when I
thought of it on the fundingpiece.
Yeah.
It's about the funding.
I know we start, go ahead.
Sorry.
So when we did our budget beforewe built in Independence
Landing, we looked at the otherproperties and how they did
(24:29):
theirs, and we budgeted with acertain percentage of our
residents being private pay anda certain percentage of our
residents on the a PD waiver.
Okay.
Who would get get the funding?
The revenue that Independencelanding gets from private pay is
slightly more.
Than the a PD.
And that's how we did ourbudget.
(24:51):
Our our support coordinators didthe right thing to do is they
see an adult with disabilitieswho is not getting funded
through a.
A PD that should Okay.
They help them through thatprocess To get the funding.
To get the funding so what itlooks like today is many more of
our residents have the fundingthan we anticipated.
(25:13):
So that gives us a biggershortfall in our operating
revenue.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because now you're making lessper ed.
Yes.
So to speak.
Yeah.
That's, that's what I wanted toknow, but they did the right
thing.
Now they did the right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, not one person on the boardsaid anything negative.
Everyone was like, no, that'sthe right thing to do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Companies contribute.
(25:35):
Hundreds of millions of dollarsto campaigns and this and that.
You'd think that programs likethis could get funding from
those same financialinstitutions?
I think part of it's justletting people know that it's
there.
Because I, I don't assume I,people like to do good things.
Like I don't assume that peopledon't want to fund stuff like
this.
I just think.
Maybe we just need to help getthe word out.
(25:55):
Get the word out.
Yeah.
Get the word out.
Our fundraiser was two weeksago.
It's, we have it every year.
And I'll invite you guys nextyear.
It's the B three Bash and we hada very successful fundraiser.
We always wanna raise moremoney.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we'll have, we're gonna haveanother fundraiser this year.
We're not sure what it is yet.
But the B three Bash was a lotof fun.
And we raised some good money.
Good.
So now Denise, are you on the,is this yours or are you on the
(26:18):
board?
What is, what's the I'm on theboard.
Okay.
Yes.
I'm on the board.
I'm our fourth board chair.
Okay.
Allison Tant was our first boardchair, but then when she ran for
public office, she could nolonger serve on the board.
So we still consider her hourseven though she's not officially
on the board.
And then Gil Zipper was thechair after her, Bryce Barnes,
(26:38):
and now I'm the awesome, thefourth board chair.
But we have a number.
We have at least five or sixpeople on our board today who
were on the board from the very,very beginning.
Okay.
Oh, good.
And we're, I'm really excited.
I've been meeting with potentialboard members lately, so we're
looking for, now that we'rebuilt and we've gone through
that process, like we had a landuse attorney on our board.
(27:01):
We had, people who specialize inFlorida housing tax credits and
how that works.
And now we're adding some peoplewho are grant writers and who
are fundraising experts and alsolobbyists and just, just people
who care and people that have askillset that can help us do
what we want.
I love it.
Absolutely.
(27:21):
This is awesome.
Denise, thank you so much forcoming.
Thank you to the listeners outthere listening if you have any
questions.
Please contact us or look forinformation on our
homepage@www.fbmc.com.
Remember you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app and
just one final plug here.
Obviously Denise and theindividuals at Independence
(27:43):
Landing could definitely utilizesome funding.
So if you guys are looking todonate and or contribute and, or
it's just a personal tie orwhatever it is maybe look in
this direction.
Let's just remind you, just goback and Google Tallahassee
Independence Landing.
You'll find the webpage and canthey, the, and there's a big
donate button right there.
Big donate.
(28:05):
And so yeah, there it is.
Listeners, thank you so much.
As I said, you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app.
Thank you, Denise, and thank youeveryone.
Have a great day.
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