August 13, 2023 • 25 mins
Shadow Shine supports families with special needs childres by providing siblings in the shadows a chance to feel loved and special. Through our Scout and Sidekick Program, these children are partnered with young adults (high school students) who have lived through similar family situations.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Welcome back to Advocacy in Motion.I'm your host, Tommy Finn, and
we are here every week to givea vision and a voice to nonprofit organizations
and individuals making an impact in ourcommunity. And before I introduce our guest
today, I want to say thankyou to our presenting sponsor, Niagara Conservation.
Niagara is the leading manufacturer and distributorof water saving money saving plumbing products,
(00:34):
and we are especially proud of theirwork with nonprofit affordable housing projects,
including the New Volunteers of America Oaksproject in this oak Cliffe district of Dallas.
But the good news is these moneysaving products are now available to every
homeowner. And here's my partner,Trisha Colwaukee, to tell you all the
good news about Niagara. Thanks Tommy, and thanks Niagara for your continuing support
(00:58):
of nonprofit organization. If you wantto get the ultimate experience and cleaning us
and comfort without breaking the bank,and transform your bathrooms, Niagara from toilets
to today's Niagara has the perfect solutionfor any bathroom project. Niagara's award winning
products not only outperform competitors, butthey also out design them thanks to innovations
(01:19):
like stealth technology, Niagara's products canuse half as much water as the competitors,
providing you with the solution that willhelp the environment and save you money.
Shop now on Amazon or home deepotdot com. Welcome back, and
I want to introduce our guest today, Michael Blevin and Anna Granberry with Shadowshine.
Thanks for coming and I'm so gladhave you here. Than start off,
(01:42):
tell us about Shadowshine, tell uswhat your mission is and what you're
doing and how you get started.Yeah. We our mission is really to
service a catalyst for the siblings ofkids with special healthcare needs and really play
on words, you know, withthe Shadow of Shine. We feel like
those those siblings live in the shadowof their of their their affected you know,
(02:09):
family members, and the goal isto make them feel special and bring
them out to the light. Ithink that's a terrific that you thought of
that, and I know it camefrom a personal experience of yours. Uh
And how'd you get involved? AndYeah, So I'm a mental health therapist
primarily working with children and adolescents andkind of knew the Bovins a little bit
(02:30):
through family friends. We both playtennis, and so they reached out to
me to kind of talk about howcan we best support these kids that do
have these challenges at home, justbecause we feel like that's something that we
owe those kids. And then fromthere we kind of sat down and talked
a little bit, and then Ijoined their team and in helping make this
happen. I know we talked alittle bit earlier that you're all volunteers,
(02:53):
uh that you are there more volunteersin the group, or how are you
how are you structured to help thesethese families and these children. We're board
of five right now, and andit's it's really you know, we're I
would say we're still in our infancyof the organization itself. We really just
launched technically launched to the public backand its March, wasn't it in March
(03:15):
of this year. We've had ourfive three since October of twenty one,
but really all of it was behindthe scenes. And so that is our
team right now. As we startto form and put together the pairings is
really where we'll start meeting more morevolunteers, and we are actually actively seeking,
(03:38):
we love to hire an executive directorright now to really own it on
a day to day basis. Weall have jobs that we're working in,
careers that we're in a day today basis, you know, but we
really want someone who can focus anddrill down and think about Shadowshine, you
know, all day every day.As a new organization, you're a skin
(03:59):
start and getting up and running.What are some of the challenges that you
feel you have to overcome to reallyget the same off the ground and going
good. Yeah, for sure.Kind of piggybacking off of what Michael said
looking for that executive director position.All five of us on the board have
full time jobs, and so there'sjust kind of a thin margin of time
that we have available. And withthat being said, also, I mean
(04:20):
I'm the only one on the boardthat's not a parent, and so everyone
is running very busy schedules and soit can be hard to find times where
we want to do things. ButI will say with that being said,
our board makes such a strong effort. Everyone is so committed to making this
happen, despite the difficulties with schedulingand that everybody does have jobs and families
(04:41):
on top of it. Okay,tell us about the programs, Now about
your scouts and your sidekicks. Tellus how it's structured and how that works
now, I'll jump in you feelin detail. So the scouts are going
to be a high school age kid, typically ninth through twelfth grade somewhere that
(05:04):
age range, and our sidekicks aregoing to be typically elementary maybe moving to
junior high a little bit age children, so maybe third grade. We haven't,
we haven't fully, we don't wantto limit it, but call it
third grade to seventh or eight andboth of those children. Kind of what's
(05:27):
unique about shadow Shine is in orderto qualify to be a part of the
program, you're the volunteers, theshadow, the scout or the sidekick has
to have a sibling with special healthcareneeds, and that gives them really unique
perspective on their ability to interact withsomeone else with that same same scenario.
(05:49):
Doesn't have to be the same healthcareneed, behy any means, but the
thought process is that they can walka journey together and understand each other and
really just be an informal way ofjust having a kind of a buddy system,
if you will, so, letme make sure we're clear and may
have passed over just a little tooquickly, that the program is set up
(06:12):
to support the siblings in a familywho have a special needs child, there
who gets all the attention? Yeah, yeah, And that's point. And
the scout is the volunteer correct thatthe older gives that helps the family with
child attention. I think that's that'sa terrific for sure shift. And I
think that when a child is understress, you know, especially at young
(06:34):
age, they don't really always havethe language skills to communicate that to your
parents. Also a little bit oflike feeling guilt, right, Like they
don't want to tell their parents like, oh, hey, you're not giving
me enough attention in that situation,and so a lot of the time they'll
either mask their feelings or maybe theywithdraw, maybe it presents his behavior issues
just because you know, their needsaren't being met, they don't really have
(06:56):
the communication skills to communicate that totheir parents, and so it's shadowshine.
The goal is to really close thatgap between how a child is feeling like
no one can relate to them andmaking them realize, Okay, you know
what, there are the people thatcan relate to me. Right, what
are some of the projects that howdo the scouts in the so ikicks can
(07:17):
we can what do they do theevents they do or the activities. How
does that work? What's what's therelationship between the two? Sure? Well,
to back up, I mean theapplication process, they work through that,
and then we work to we workto pair people together that we think
will be a good fit. Rightand and what's they're they're paired. The
(07:40):
plan is for the families to gettogether, you know, for an initial
kind of meet and greet that Shadowshineprovides, you know, whether it's to
send them to dinner or whatever.It ends up being to where the families
can can meet and really get toknow each other, but on a on
a kind of an active basis.The goal is for the scout and the
(08:01):
side kick together probably two to threetimes per month, maybe more. It's
it's as often as they really canmake it happen. But we also are
very you know, cognizantive schedules andand what all of these kids are involved
in and in the logistics of gettingthem together. But it's to give them
someone like a mentor mente relationship toto to walk you know, life together
(08:24):
for at least a timeframe. Ourtimeframe on those relationships is typically like two
years. That's a limitation of thatjust to create kind of a natural break
for them, whether that high schoolstudent is going off to college or otherwise.
It gives them them a good timetogether and they can continue to interact
(08:48):
informally after that. But that's theformal timeframe of that relationship. Okay,
So generally you're yours scouts are highschool age and then the sidekicks are probably
younger, correct members. Yeah,in regard to the activities, I think
that we have a lot of differentkind of ideas for what that might look
like. I think as an organization, we really want to get to know
(09:09):
each pair and hear what they're interestedin. You know, So if there's
a pair and they love baseball,then you know, we want to we
hope to get a donation maybe forbaseball tickets. So we want to really
get to know each pair and kindof be able to provide them with activities
they're passionate about. They enjoy them, but just to kind of scratch the
service, we've talked about things likemany golf, movies, ice cream dinner,
(09:30):
and you know, maybe some parentsand guardians feel more comfortable with like
an activity in their home, andso in that case, we've talked about
doing like game night, arts andcrafts. So it's it's pretty flexible,
just the activities that a parent wouldnormally be doing with a child, but
their attention has taken otherwise at sometime, to the to the child with a
special needs and just basic attention tothe child. Exactly, yeah, exactly,
(09:54):
And I don't know if they'd behelpful. I mean, it may
help. Where this whole idea stemfrom, I don't know if that's it
may be already in the question somewhere, but I mean this where this came
from originally, is I'm you know, I have two daughters, my wife
Katie, she's on the board aswell, with two daughters, and Charlotte's
the older daughter, she's twelve now. And then we had Evie, and
(10:18):
Evie was born with a lot ofa lot of special healthcare needs. I
mean, we spent a lot oftime in the hospital, I mean overwhelming
amount of time. And when thattheir age difference, it's about five years.
And so when Charlotte, like anI mentioned earlier, you know,
Charlotte didn't really know how to verballysay, hey, I feel like I'm
(10:39):
being left out. I feel likeI'm not being paid attention to it came
in the form of anger and otherissues and just by circumstance and happen.
The stance of what happened, weas we started going into you know,
if we had to go to thehospital or something along those lines, we
(11:00):
would. We had some girls inthe neighborhood, the Friends family that would
babysit Charlotte. And they're older,right, so you know their their daughter,
Faith was in high school and Katewas in middle school at this time.
But all of a sudden, westarted noticing over natural interactions with those
girls that Charlotte's you know, heranxiety and all these other issues started to
(11:24):
dial back because she was being seenby by people. And it wasn't so
much that Katie and I weren't payingattention to her and giving her time,
but indirectly we had to adjust ourday, like if there's an emergency that
popped up, whatever Charlotte wanted wasoverlooked because we had to go handle something
for Evy. And so it justthat the idea of form from just this
(11:46):
this just happy stance that occurred,and it has really grown to where it
is today. Yeah, So Ithink the intent is that a child realizes
they have someone else in their lifethat they can relate to and their struggles
are important, and they have aplace to be in the spotlight and have
this special relationship without worrying about amI being selfish or feeling guilt? And
(12:07):
so it's kind of their own place. Yeah. Is there any special training
for the scouts that you go throughor the criteria for finding them? Yeah,
So we've developed a curriculum training forour scouts. I think that first
and foremost, the most important thingis safety, and so we've talked a
lot about you know, safety protocols, and we have an emergency procedure that
(12:30):
we're going to definitely train our scoutson. But after that, we want
to make sure that our sidekicks needsare being met. So we've talked about
how do we best support them,you know, how do we navigate sticky
situations, how do we just buildrapport right some of these you know kids
might might be a little bit hesitantto open up and things like that.
So those are all things we'll talkabout during scout training. We also want
(12:52):
the scouts to have a community,and so we're going to train them in
like a cohort kind of like system. So they also have, you know,
people that they can call on ifthey're struggling after a meet up maybe,
And you mentioned that they get totalk together as often as they really
want to something like that. AndI assume this is a big family grouping.
I mean the families are all involvedand get involved with this. How
(13:15):
often does that happen you? Didyou do a family group or training or
something like that. Yeah, ourgoal is to i mean communications key right
with with any of this, especiallywhen we're dealing with kids, and so
it's very vital to us to makesure everyone is on board, everyone knows
what's happening. There's there's a lotof feedback being communicated, you know,
(13:35):
one way or another. I thinkthat the group outings are are definitely a
piece of it, you know,Like she mentioned baseball, Like our thought
is, hey we get you know, we get everyone in the program together
and let's go to a baseball gameor whatever, have some sort of large
picnic. But those are less frequentthan the the the single interaction between the
(14:01):
scout and the sidekick themselves. It'sthe families of each family if they form
a bond in relationship and they wantto get together fantastic. I think that's
just kind of an offshoot, ifyou will. Our focus is definitely on
the kids though more than anything.Yeah, and I think it can be
done on nine case by case basistoo. So we're not really setting up
requirement you know, you have todo X Y Z. It's more of
(14:24):
a situation where if you know there'sa parent and they're more comfortable with well,
I want to be more involved.Then they have that you know they
can do that altitude. You tellus how to get in touch. Now
we'll come back to this many times, but tell us how to get in
touch with you your website. Iknow you have a wonderful website with a
great video on there that just reallywalks you through the health program. I
think you gotta be so proud ofthat. In the story you tell on
(14:46):
your website, what is your websiteand how can people get in touch?
Yeah, it's Shattershine dot org andjust no space or dash or anything showshine
dot org and that'll give you theability to you can go in there and
apply whether you want to be ascout or sidekick. You can donate through
there. You can just put ina request to learn you want to volunteer,
(15:11):
you want to help. I meanthere's there's action items, you know,
just like a lot of other websitesthat have but there's a lot of
ways to get in touch for uswith us that way, and we can
get you plugged in however someone's lookingto to help. Okay, welcome back,
just man. I want to takea little break and talk about one
of our other sponsors here, butwe'll come back talk about how people can
(15:31):
really help and how to get involvedwith you guys. But again, I
want to thank Prana Haven Energy,Wellness and Gifts for the Soul in downtown
Richardson. There's wonderful little gifts outthere. They've been a sponsor for ours
since the beginning and do so muchin the community. We've mentioned the many
gifts or the soul that you'll findthere, but wellness is important to everyone,
(15:52):
and you can take charge of yourhelp by committing to the practice of
relaxation and rejuvenation that Prana Haven Healingssessions provide. Healing energy can improve stress
and anxiety levels, reduce physical andemotional pain, and improve quality of sleep.
Check out pranahn dot com for allthe gifts and psychic readings you'll find
there and contact Terry at pranihn dotcom to book your healing sessions t e
(16:18):
ri I at pranihaan dot com.And speaking of that, it's a profit
to mention that Terry and the peopleat Prnhaven introduced us to you. We
reach out through our social media andthrough our our show. If you know
someone in the community that's giving back, that's doing some good work, let
us know. I got a callthey said, maybe a customer came in
(16:40):
and talked about you guys. Theycalled me, they said, hey,
talk to these people, see ifyou can get them on the show.
They're doing some really good work outthere. So so we appreciate that.
And that's how the system works.And and again, if there's anybody listening
or watching that knows somebody that wecould reach out to, please let us
know. I'm Thomas at t JAdvocacy dot com and uh and we'll do
it. And this is how itworks. So I think that is that's
(17:02):
great. Every nonprofit has to finda balance between your mission and fundraising.
It just has to happen. Yetell us a little bit about how people
can get involved and some of thethings they can do to help. Yeah,
So in regards to donations, that'shuge for us because that's how we're
able to let these kids do activitiesand provide meals for them. And also
(17:25):
just in terms of spreading awareness,you know, like the video, that's
how they found us, and RichardSanding connected us with you guys, and
so that's been huge, terrific.Any other ways that people can help,
how you looking for volunteers, you'relooking for a director to the website and
do that. Any other tips onhow to best support siblings and children with
(17:51):
special needs that you've learned through thisthat parents can do and work within the
system. Yeah, I mean whenI when we were when this idea was
getting off the ground, another oneof the board members, Chad Ray and
I were literally just having lunch andhe knew about Evie. He knew about
her medical history, so he's askingme about her, and it was just
(18:12):
happened to be during a time framewhere Evie was healthy, She's at home,
we're in a good spot, butCharlotte was displaying her her struggles,
right, you know, from anemotion standpoint, and so so he and
I were just visiting and talking aboutit. And he's like, I'd even
I've never even thought to ask aboutCharlotte and how it affects it. And
(18:37):
so I at that lunch is wherethe spark kind of came into play.
I was like, you're right,that doesn't exist. And so I started
looking and researching, and really everythingthat I found was very focused on.
Obviously the child with with the healthspecial health care need, right that that's
what the focus was on. Andthere's some there's some credible organizations that work
(19:00):
on that, but there's nothing reallyout there to work with the sibling.
And just through research talking to Ijust got connected to some other people around
Dallas that we're either trying to runprograms or whatnot. I just found there's
a lot of siblings are like Iwish I'd had this as a child myself.
I'm a sibling of someone with specialhealthcare needs and now and they're in
(19:22):
their thirties supporties, right, andthey're like, we never I never really
knew how much I built up internallyuntil I got into as an adult.
And so, you know, aswe discuss and just with Anna's background,
like the thought process of attacking this, attacking is not probably the best word
but going after this earlier and havingthese kids have a have a safe space
(19:44):
where they can communicate with with apeer, whether it be older or younger
dealing with the same issues just seemedlike a natural fit and needs to be
needs to be addressed for sure,and I think just for some tips on
how to best of worth those kiddosfor everyone, I think making an effort
to check in on those kids.I think that as humans we care so
(20:06):
much, and so it's our naturalinstinct when we see a kid and you
know their sibling has a special healthcare needs to say like how is so
and so doing, and with allthe good intent in the world, you
know, sometimes we don't realize thatcan make them, you know, not
feel a scene, and so it'sdefinitely okay to ask that, but also
to check in on them like howare you, how's school and kind of
just showing that care there. Ithink also respecting boundaries goes a long way.
(20:30):
So recognizing if a kid it doeshave a wall up, you know,
maybe they don't want to talk abouttheir sibling today and that's okay,
we can talk about something else,or you know, maybe they do,
and just listening and validating their feelings, And I think using words carefully because
you know, you don't know whattheir parents have communicated to them about their
siblings special health care need or evenif you think they're going to be okay,
(20:51):
that might not be. You know, there might be more to the
story. So I think just usinglanguage carefully can also be helpful. Yep,
we've talked about a lot of things, and when we talked earlier that
this is your time to tell uswhat you want are honest? No,
what have I missed? What havewe miss is there's something you want to
add Annah that just that we haven'ttalked about that you want people to know
about. I think that for us, something that's just been so incredibly special
(21:15):
is Michael touched on this earlier,but tapping into this population that has really
never been explored before. And youknow, kind of like Michael is saying,
when you do research, every book, every website, it talks about
the child with the special healthcare needs. And that's kind of a good parallel
for how those kids feel that oursiblings, everything goes back to their sibling.
And so I think for us,just being able to raise awareness and
(21:38):
be your resource is such an honorand I also think, you know that
thinking about a lot of resources thatare out there, I love that Shadowshine
is one that is accessible in thesense that there's no financial commitment, so
you know, if you are geographicallylocated for it, you can participate,
(21:59):
right, what is your geographic location? Here's Yeah. So I think a
lot of it is kind of caseby case, just depending the applications we
get. But yeah, right nowwe're starting and Dallas Richardson kind of a
pplex area, but we definitely havehopes of branching out. We really like
to nurture it right off the batin the DFW original area. And they
(22:22):
obviously the thought process is like theyou don't want to scout driving from from
Frisco down to you know, thirtyminutes away somewhere, right, they need
to be in the same community asour feeling. But we also we also
see as this organization grows, asit takes off, I mean you literally
could lift up the idea of it, placed it in Sacramento or something and
(22:47):
have it worked just as well asit does. But it's it's really going
to be I think community driven inthe neighborhoods that these these kids live in,
well you kind of touch them.My next question about what's the go
for the future. So I gota little bit now you're that's great,
you're you're a little bit ahead ofme. So growth, I suppose sure
(23:10):
involved growth on the leadership board,growth in the program, just with you
know, spreading word growth. Ithink we want to really build relationships with
physicians and schools and therapists, justyou know, to build a network and
so that we can be that referralresource for them as well. Okay,
that's driving once again, website.How can people help, how can they
(23:33):
donate? Let's make sure we knowthat. Yeah, yeah, shadowshine dot
org. You can also email Joylike joy at shadowshine dot Oh gosh,
is it dot com? Shadow shinedot I think it's joy shadowshine dot com.
I'm that's great, we can.Let's yeah, make sure we get
(23:56):
it right, because that's the wholehope point of being here is not to
be uh, you know, sopolished, but just to have the conversation
and let people know what you wanton for sure. And I think if
you can't donate, just spreading theword and letting people know, like even
you know, that's how we foundyou, just through through word of mouth.
Really, it goes a long way. I think that's that's diffrectly.
(24:18):
Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story and hopefully people
can get in touch and help.No, I'll thank UH sponsors Niagara for
allowing us to do this, andfor Parana Haven Downtown Richardson, which is
in your neighborhood. And if anybodystops into Prana Haven, thank them for
putting us in touch with Shuttle Shine. And if you see Alex in there,
tell her dad said hello. Thisis a family business. So thank
(24:41):
you so much for being here.Thank you appreciate that, all right,
Welcome back to Advocacy in Motion.I'm your host, Tommy Finn, and
we are here every week to givea vision and a voice to nonprofit organizations
and individuals making an impact in ourcommunity. And before I introduce our guest
today, I want to say thankyou to our presenting sponsor, Niagara Conservation.
Niagara is the leading manufacturer and distributorof water saving money saving plumbing products,
(00:34):
and we are especially proud of theirwork with nonprofit affordable housing projects,
including the New Volunteers of America Oaksproject in this oak Cliffe district of Dallas.
But the good news is these moneysaving products are now available to every
homeowner. And here's my partner,Trisha Colwaukee, to tell you all the
good news about Niagara. Thanks Tommy, and thanks Niagara for your continuing support
(00:58):
of nonprofit organization. If you wantto get the ultimate experience and cleaning us
and comfort without breaking the bank,and transform your bathrooms, Niagara from toilets
to today's Niagara has the perfect solutionfor any bathroom project. Niagara's award winning
products not only outperform competitors, butthey also out design them thanks to innovations
(01:19):
like stealth technology, Niagara's products canuse half as much water as the competitors,
providing you with the solution that willhelp the environment and save you money.
Shop now on Amazon or home deepotdot com. Welcome back, and
I want to introduce our guest today, Michael Blevin and Anna Granberry with Shadowshine.
Thanks for coming and I'm so gladhave you here. Than start off,
(01:42):
tell us about Shadowshine, tell uswhat your mission is and what you're
doing and how you get started.Yeah. We our mission is really to
service a catalyst for the siblings ofkids with special healthcare needs and really play
on words, you know, withthe Shadow of Shine. We feel like
those those siblings live in the shadowof their of their their affected you know,
(02:09):
family members, and the goal isto make them feel special and bring
them out to the light. Ithink that's a terrific that you thought of
that, and I know it camefrom a personal experience of yours. Uh
And how'd you get involved? AndYeah, So I'm a mental health therapist
primarily working with children and adolescents andkind of knew the Bovins a little bit
(02:30):
through family friends. We both playtennis, and so they reached out to
me to kind of talk about howcan we best support these kids that do
have these challenges at home, justbecause we feel like that's something that we
owe those kids. And then fromthere we kind of sat down and talked
a little bit, and then Ijoined their team and in helping make this
happen. I know we talked alittle bit earlier that you're all volunteers,
(02:53):
uh that you are there more volunteersin the group, or how are you
how are you structured to help thesethese families and these children. We're board
of five right now, and andit's it's really you know, we're I
would say we're still in our infancyof the organization itself. We really just
launched technically launched to the public backand its March, wasn't it in March
(03:15):
of this year. We've had ourfive three since October of twenty one,
but really all of it was behindthe scenes. And so that is our
team right now. As we startto form and put together the pairings is
really where we'll start meeting more morevolunteers, and we are actually actively seeking,
(03:38):
we love to hire an executive directorright now to really own it on
a day to day basis. Weall have jobs that we're working in,
careers that we're in a day today basis, you know, but we
really want someone who can focus anddrill down and think about Shadowshine, you
know, all day every day.As a new organization, you're a skin
(03:59):
start and getting up and running.What are some of the challenges that you
feel you have to overcome to reallyget the same off the ground and going
good. Yeah, for sure.Kind of piggybacking off of what Michael said
looking for that executive director position.All five of us on the board have
full time jobs, and so there'sjust kind of a thin margin of time
that we have available. And withthat being said, also, I mean
(04:20):
I'm the only one on the boardthat's not a parent, and so everyone
is running very busy schedules and soit can be hard to find times where
we want to do things. ButI will say with that being said,
our board makes such a strong effort. Everyone is so committed to making this
happen, despite the difficulties with schedulingand that everybody does have jobs and families
(04:41):
on top of it. Okay,tell us about the programs, Now about
your scouts and your sidekicks. Tellus how it's structured and how that works
now, I'll jump in you feelin detail. So the scouts are going
to be a high school age kid, typically ninth through twelfth grade somewhere that
(05:04):
age range, and our sidekicks aregoing to be typically elementary maybe moving to
junior high a little bit age children, so maybe third grade. We haven't,
we haven't fully, we don't wantto limit it, but call it
third grade to seventh or eight andboth of those children. Kind of what's
(05:27):
unique about shadow Shine is in orderto qualify to be a part of the
program, you're the volunteers, theshadow, the scout or the sidekick has
to have a sibling with special healthcareneeds, and that gives them really unique
perspective on their ability to interact withsomeone else with that same same scenario.
(05:49):
Doesn't have to be the same healthcareneed, behy any means, but the
thought process is that they can walka journey together and understand each other and
really just be an informal way ofjust having a kind of a buddy system,
if you will, so, letme make sure we're clear and may
have passed over just a little tooquickly, that the program is set up
(06:12):
to support the siblings in a familywho have a special needs child, there
who gets all the attention? Yeah, yeah, And that's point. And
the scout is the volunteer correct thatthe older gives that helps the family with
child attention. I think that's that'sa terrific for sure shift. And I
think that when a child is understress, you know, especially at young
(06:34):
age, they don't really always havethe language skills to communicate that to your
parents. Also a little bit oflike feeling guilt, right, Like they
don't want to tell their parents like, oh, hey, you're not giving
me enough attention in that situation,and so a lot of the time they'll
either mask their feelings or maybe theywithdraw, maybe it presents his behavior issues
just because you know, their needsaren't being met, they don't really have
(06:56):
the communication skills to communicate that totheir parents, and so it's shadowshine.
The goal is to really close thatgap between how a child is feeling like
no one can relate to them andmaking them realize, Okay, you know
what, there are the people thatcan relate to me. Right, what
are some of the projects that howdo the scouts in the so ikicks can
(07:17):
we can what do they do theevents they do or the activities. How
does that work? What's what's therelationship between the two? Sure? Well,
to back up, I mean theapplication process, they work through that,
and then we work to we workto pair people together that we think
will be a good fit. Rightand and what's they're they're paired. The
(07:40):
plan is for the families to gettogether, you know, for an initial
kind of meet and greet that Shadowshineprovides, you know, whether it's to
send them to dinner or whatever.It ends up being to where the families
can can meet and really get toknow each other, but on a on
a kind of an active basis.The goal is for the scout and the
(08:01):
side kick together probably two to threetimes per month, maybe more. It's
it's as often as they really canmake it happen. But we also are
very you know, cognizantive schedules andand what all of these kids are involved
in and in the logistics of gettingthem together. But it's to give them
someone like a mentor mente relationship toto to walk you know, life together
(08:24):
for at least a timeframe. Ourtimeframe on those relationships is typically like two
years. That's a limitation of thatjust to create kind of a natural break
for them, whether that high schoolstudent is going off to college or otherwise.
It gives them them a good timetogether and they can continue to interact
(08:48):
informally after that. But that's theformal timeframe of that relationship. Okay,
So generally you're yours scouts are highschool age and then the sidekicks are probably
younger, correct members. Yeah,in regard to the activities, I think
that we have a lot of differentkind of ideas for what that might look
like. I think as an organization, we really want to get to know
(09:09):
each pair and hear what they're interestedin. You know, So if there's
a pair and they love baseball,then you know, we want to we
hope to get a donation maybe forbaseball tickets. So we want to really
get to know each pair and kindof be able to provide them with activities
they're passionate about. They enjoy them, but just to kind of scratch the
service, we've talked about things likemany golf, movies, ice cream dinner,
(09:30):
and you know, maybe some parentsand guardians feel more comfortable with like
an activity in their home, andso in that case, we've talked about
doing like game night, arts andcrafts. So it's it's pretty flexible,
just the activities that a parent wouldnormally be doing with a child, but
their attention has taken otherwise at sometime, to the to the child with a
special needs and just basic attention tothe child. Exactly, yeah, exactly,
(09:54):
And I don't know if they'd behelpful. I mean, it may
help. Where this whole idea stemfrom, I don't know if that's it
may be already in the question somewhere, but I mean this where this came
from originally, is I'm you know, I have two daughters, my wife
Katie, she's on the board aswell, with two daughters, and Charlotte's
the older daughter, she's twelve now. And then we had Evie, and
(10:18):
Evie was born with a lot ofa lot of special healthcare needs. I
mean, we spent a lot oftime in the hospital, I mean overwhelming
amount of time. And when thattheir age difference, it's about five years.
And so when Charlotte, like anI mentioned earlier, you know,
Charlotte didn't really know how to verballysay, hey, I feel like I'm
(10:39):
being left out. I feel likeI'm not being paid attention to it came
in the form of anger and otherissues and just by circumstance and happen.
The stance of what happened, weas we started going into you know,
if we had to go to thehospital or something along those lines, we
(11:00):
would. We had some girls inthe neighborhood, the Friends family that would
babysit Charlotte. And they're older,right, so you know their their daughter,
Faith was in high school and Katewas in middle school at this time.
But all of a sudden, westarted noticing over natural interactions with those
girls that Charlotte's you know, heranxiety and all these other issues started to
(11:24):
dial back because she was being seenby by people. And it wasn't so
much that Katie and I weren't payingattention to her and giving her time,
but indirectly we had to adjust ourday, like if there's an emergency that
popped up, whatever Charlotte wanted wasoverlooked because we had to go handle something
for Evy. And so it justthat the idea of form from just this
(11:46):
this just happy stance that occurred,and it has really grown to where it
is today. Yeah, So Ithink the intent is that a child realizes
they have someone else in their lifethat they can relate to and their struggles
are important, and they have aplace to be in the spotlight and have
this special relationship without worrying about amI being selfish or feeling guilt? And
(12:07):
so it's kind of their own place. Yeah. Is there any special training
for the scouts that you go throughor the criteria for finding them? Yeah,
So we've developed a curriculum training forour scouts. I think that first
and foremost, the most important thingis safety, and so we've talked a
lot about you know, safety protocols, and we have an emergency procedure that
(12:30):
we're going to definitely train our scoutson. But after that, we want
to make sure that our sidekicks needsare being met. So we've talked about
how do we best support them,you know, how do we navigate sticky
situations, how do we just buildrapport right some of these you know kids
might might be a little bit hesitantto open up and things like that.
So those are all things we'll talkabout during scout training. We also want
(12:52):
the scouts to have a community,and so we're going to train them in
like a cohort kind of like system. So they also have, you know,
people that they can call on ifthey're struggling after a meet up maybe,
And you mentioned that they get totalk together as often as they really
want to something like that. AndI assume this is a big family grouping.
I mean the families are all involvedand get involved with this. How
(13:15):
often does that happen you? Didyou do a family group or training or
something like that. Yeah, ourgoal is to i mean communications key right
with with any of this, especiallywhen we're dealing with kids, and so
it's very vital to us to makesure everyone is on board, everyone knows
what's happening. There's there's a lotof feedback being communicated, you know,
(13:35):
one way or another. I thinkthat the group outings are are definitely a
piece of it, you know,Like she mentioned baseball, Like our thought
is, hey we get you know, we get everyone in the program together
and let's go to a baseball gameor whatever, have some sort of large
picnic. But those are less frequentthan the the the single interaction between the
(14:01):
scout and the sidekick themselves. It'sthe families of each family if they form
a bond in relationship and they wantto get together fantastic. I think that's
just kind of an offshoot, ifyou will. Our focus is definitely on
the kids though more than anything.Yeah, and I think it can be
done on nine case by case basistoo. So we're not really setting up
requirement you know, you have todo X Y Z. It's more of
(14:24):
a situation where if you know there'sa parent and they're more comfortable with well,
I want to be more involved.Then they have that you know they
can do that altitude. You tellus how to get in touch. Now
we'll come back to this many times, but tell us how to get in
touch with you your website. Iknow you have a wonderful website with a
great video on there that just reallywalks you through the health program. I
think you gotta be so proud ofthat. In the story you tell on
(14:46):
your website, what is your websiteand how can people get in touch?
Yeah, it's Shattershine dot org andjust no space or dash or anything showshine
dot org and that'll give you theability to you can go in there and
apply whether you want to be ascout or sidekick. You can donate through
there. You can just put ina request to learn you want to volunteer,
(15:11):
you want to help. I meanthere's there's action items, you know,
just like a lot of other websitesthat have but there's a lot of
ways to get in touch for uswith us that way, and we can
get you plugged in however someone's lookingto to help. Okay, welcome back,
just man. I want to takea little break and talk about one
of our other sponsors here, butwe'll come back talk about how people can
(15:31):
really help and how to get involvedwith you guys. But again, I
want to thank Prana Haven Energy,Wellness and Gifts for the Soul in downtown
Richardson. There's wonderful little gifts outthere. They've been a sponsor for ours
since the beginning and do so muchin the community. We've mentioned the many
gifts or the soul that you'll findthere, but wellness is important to everyone,
(15:52):
and you can take charge of yourhelp by committing to the practice of
relaxation and rejuvenation that Prana Haven Healingssessions provide. Healing energy can improve stress
and anxiety levels, reduce physical andemotional pain, and improve quality of sleep.
Check out pranahn dot com for allthe gifts and psychic readings you'll find
there and contact Terry at pranihn dotcom to book your healing sessions t e
(16:18):
ri I at pranihaan dot com.And speaking of that, it's a profit
to mention that Terry and the peopleat Prnhaven introduced us to you. We
reach out through our social media andthrough our our show. If you know
someone in the community that's giving back, that's doing some good work, let
us know. I got a callthey said, maybe a customer came in
(16:40):
and talked about you guys. Theycalled me, they said, hey,
talk to these people, see ifyou can get them on the show.
They're doing some really good work outthere. So so we appreciate that.
And that's how the system works.And and again, if there's anybody listening
or watching that knows somebody that wecould reach out to, please let us
know. I'm Thomas at t JAdvocacy dot com and uh and we'll do
it. And this is how itworks. So I think that is that's
(17:02):
great. Every nonprofit has to finda balance between your mission and fundraising.
It just has to happen. Yetell us a little bit about how people
can get involved and some of thethings they can do to help. Yeah,
So in regards to donations, that'shuge for us because that's how we're
able to let these kids do activitiesand provide meals for them. And also
(17:25):
just in terms of spreading awareness,you know, like the video, that's
how they found us, and RichardSanding connected us with you guys, and
so that's been huge, terrific.Any other ways that people can help,
how you looking for volunteers, you'relooking for a director to the website and
do that. Any other tips onhow to best support siblings and children with
(17:51):
special needs that you've learned through thisthat parents can do and work within the
system. Yeah, I mean whenI when we were when this idea was
getting off the ground, another oneof the board members, Chad Ray and
I were literally just having lunch andhe knew about Evie. He knew about
her medical history, so he's askingme about her, and it was just
(18:12):
happened to be during a time framewhere Evie was healthy, She's at home,
we're in a good spot, butCharlotte was displaying her her struggles,
right, you know, from anemotion standpoint, and so so he and
I were just visiting and talking aboutit. And he's like, I'd even
I've never even thought to ask aboutCharlotte and how it affects it. And
(18:37):
so I at that lunch is wherethe spark kind of came into play.
I was like, you're right,that doesn't exist. And so I started
looking and researching, and really everythingthat I found was very focused on.
Obviously the child with with the healthspecial health care need, right that that's
what the focus was on. Andthere's some there's some credible organizations that work
(19:00):
on that, but there's nothing reallyout there to work with the sibling.
And just through research talking to Ijust got connected to some other people around
Dallas that we're either trying to runprograms or whatnot. I just found there's
a lot of siblings are like Iwish I'd had this as a child myself.
I'm a sibling of someone with specialhealthcare needs and now and they're in
(19:22):
their thirties supporties, right, andthey're like, we never I never really
knew how much I built up internallyuntil I got into as an adult.
And so, you know, aswe discuss and just with Anna's background,
like the thought process of attacking this, attacking is not probably the best word
but going after this earlier and havingthese kids have a have a safe space
(19:44):
where they can communicate with with apeer, whether it be older or younger
dealing with the same issues just seemedlike a natural fit and needs to be
needs to be addressed for sure,and I think just for some tips on
how to best of worth those kiddosfor everyone, I think making an effort
to check in on those kids.I think that as humans we care so
(20:06):
much, and so it's our naturalinstinct when we see a kid and you
know their sibling has a special healthcare needs to say like how is so
and so doing, and with allthe good intent in the world, you
know, sometimes we don't realize thatcan make them, you know, not
feel a scene, and so it'sdefinitely okay to ask that, but also
to check in on them like howare you, how's school and kind of
just showing that care there. Ithink also respecting boundaries goes a long way.
(20:30):
So recognizing if a kid it doeshave a wall up, you know,
maybe they don't want to talk abouttheir sibling today and that's okay,
we can talk about something else,or you know, maybe they do,
and just listening and validating their feelings, And I think using words carefully because
you know, you don't know whattheir parents have communicated to them about their
siblings special health care need or evenif you think they're going to be okay,
(20:51):
that might not be. You know, there might be more to the
story. So I think just usinglanguage carefully can also be helpful. Yep,
we've talked about a lot of things, and when we talked earlier that
this is your time to tell uswhat you want are honest? No,
what have I missed? What havewe miss is there's something you want to
add Annah that just that we haven'ttalked about that you want people to know
about. I think that for us, something that's just been so incredibly special
(21:15):
is Michael touched on this earlier,but tapping into this population that has really
never been explored before. And youknow, kind of like Michael is saying,
when you do research, every book, every website, it talks about
the child with the special healthcare needs. And that's kind of a good parallel
for how those kids feel that oursiblings, everything goes back to their sibling.
And so I think for us,just being able to raise awareness and
(21:38):
be your resource is such an honorand I also think, you know that
thinking about a lot of resources thatare out there, I love that Shadowshine
is one that is accessible in thesense that there's no financial commitment, so
you know, if you are geographicallylocated for it, you can participate,
(21:59):
right, what is your geographic location? Here's Yeah. So I think a
lot of it is kind of caseby case, just depending the applications we
get. But yeah, right nowwe're starting and Dallas Richardson kind of a
pplex area, but we definitely havehopes of branching out. We really like
to nurture it right off the batin the DFW original area. And they
(22:22):
obviously the thought process is like theyou don't want to scout driving from from
Frisco down to you know, thirtyminutes away somewhere, right, they need
to be in the same community asour feeling. But we also we also
see as this organization grows, asit takes off, I mean you literally
could lift up the idea of it, placed it in Sacramento or something and
(22:47):
have it worked just as well asit does. But it's it's really going
to be I think community driven inthe neighborhoods that these these kids live in,
well you kind of touch them.My next question about what's the go
for the future. So I gota little bit now you're that's great,
you're you're a little bit ahead ofme. So growth, I suppose sure
(23:10):
involved growth on the leadership board,growth in the program, just with you
know, spreading word growth. Ithink we want to really build relationships with
physicians and schools and therapists, justyou know, to build a network and
so that we can be that referralresource for them as well. Okay,
that's driving once again, website.How can people help, how can they
(23:33):
donate? Let's make sure we knowthat. Yeah, yeah, shadowshine dot
org. You can also email Joylike joy at shadowshine dot Oh gosh,
is it dot com? Shadow shinedot I think it's joy shadowshine dot com.
I'm that's great, we can.Let's yeah, make sure we get
(23:56):
it right, because that's the wholehope point of being here is not to
be uh, you know, sopolished, but just to have the conversation
and let people know what you wanton for sure. And I think if
you can't donate, just spreading theword and letting people know, like even
you know, that's how we foundyou, just through through word of mouth.
Really, it goes a long way. I think that's that's diffrectly.
(24:18):
Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story and hopefully people
can get in touch and help.No, I'll thank UH sponsors Niagara for
allowing us to do this, andfor Parana Haven Downtown Richardson, which is
in your neighborhood. And if anybodystops into Prana Haven, thank them for
putting us in touch with Shuttle Shine. And if you see Alex in there,
tell her dad said hello. Thisis a family business. So thank
(24:41):
you so much for being here.Thank you appreciate that, all right,
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