Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. Nuccie Space vision is in the epidemic of
suicide and to inspire a culture free of the stigma
attached to brain illnesses, and it suffers by supporting a
community wide effort that focuses on education, prevention, and access
to appropriate treatment. Today, I'm talking with Bob Slippy, the
(00:33):
CEO of Nucci Space. Twenty fifth anniversary of NUSI Space.
Tell folks what Nuccie Space is.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So Nucci Space, our mission is to prevent suicide. We
are creating a memory of a young man named Nuccie
Phillips who died by suicide when he was twenty two
years old. His mom, Linda Phillips, was the one who
first envisioned this place and.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Wanted to specifically focus on musicians because that was Nucci's
community that he belonged to, and we felt like we
could make the biggest contribution that in that area.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Now, Linda has passed away in recent years.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes, she passed away in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, okay, And I recently read the book A Beautiful
Pier which is a book by her where she tells
the story of Nucci. It's a fascinating book. It really
is a fascinating book. You were in from the very beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, yeah, I was hired in December of nineteen ninety
nine and have been here ever since, so you have.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Seen everything happen. Now you have a space in Athens,
and talk about your space you have. I love the space.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh thanks. Yeah. We have a really great building right
on the edge of downtown, right next to the North
County River, and we I don't know. The thing that's
fascinating about the building is that it kind of serves
(02:27):
many many purposes. We have rehearsal spaces for bands. We
have a stage where bands can play and do shows.
But we also it's where people will come that's seeking
seeking professional counseling and therapy. They'll meet with our counseling advocates.
(02:55):
Students will do projects here. We also have a recording studio,
We do camp here. It's a very much a multifaceted facility.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You even have the tower outside that Ram used to
practice under. They practiced in the church there, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, there was a church that sat right behind us.
The church no longer exists, but they didn't knock down
the steeple and back. It's probably been ten years ago
we acquired the steeple and we've renovated it just to
(03:37):
make sure that it didn't fall down. But yeah, that's
where r EM at least two members of RIM lived
there for a little while. But that's also where kind
of the band got its start.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Now you have bands involved like the Drive by Truckers,
BPT two's R E. M and so forth and just
banned after band talk about some of the bands and
there invomit with this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, we've been very fortunate that since you know, almost
since the beginning, we've had the support of bands like
RAM and Be fifty two's and Draw By Truckers and
watch Her Panic and and those are you know, the
(04:25):
famous bands in town. We've we've had the support of
so many bands throughout the years, hundreds and hundreds of bands,
and you know, they've support us in many many different ways. Uh,
Draw By Truckers for instance, not only has the band
support us, but Patterson has been on our board of
(04:48):
directors before, his wife Rebecca has been the president of
our board before. And they do a like a three
day for actually four day now homecoming show every year,
and they their fans really have embraced Nuccie Space and
helped raise a significant amount of money for us. This
(05:10):
past year, their homecoming shows raised almost or just over
one hundred thousand dollars for us. And then we have
Wives for Panic who has they do what we call
rock and raffle. They give away ticke us different shows
and they've helped put together packages that we can raffle
(05:36):
off and they've helped us raise hundreds of thousands of
dollars over the year, over the years. And and B
fifty two's when they did their finalite tour, they played
a short video about Nuccie Space before all their shows,
so that occurred all throughout the country, so that was
(05:59):
really special. And yeah, we've been very fortunate of the
support we've gotten.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You know in the book that I read the book,
the book is there available there right at Nucci Space.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Too, yeah yeah, yeah, and on our website.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And on you and it's called a Beautiful Here. It
is a great book. It is one to get. It
is a great book. I read it in just a
few days. It's wonderful. Yeah, it really is. Uh. Linda
writes in there about how you know she couldn't. You can't.
I want to paraphrase this, I don't I want to
(06:36):
say it correctly, but you can't save the whole world.
But you start out just in the town like Athens.
You just go and you save who you can who
who comes to you in that little town. And that
just made that made a big impact on me. That
really that said it all right there, It really did. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah. One of the things that I really uh learned
and loved about Linda was that she was able to
take such a big problem and break it down to
to kind of bite sized pieces. And you know, what
we always focused on was like our four walls, we
(07:15):
knew what we could do within the space, and that's
what we focused on. And you know, the great thing
about you know, having all those bands and also having
being in a university town with the University of Georgia
(07:36):
and students that will come here for school then also
go out in the world, you know, we can have
some sort of influence on how they view the world.
So you know what starts out is this little you know,
pedble in the lake becomes this ripple that goes throughout
(07:56):
you know, different parts of the country, and that that's uh,
that's one of the things that I think we've been
really fortunate about.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I think news you when he was in his
last days, was he was waiting on a was he
waiting on an appointment with a doctor? But it's a
long time off. Is that how it was happening.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
He was.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
He got an appointment uh for uh just you know,
he was seeking help and the you know this is.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Thirty yeah something years and he was given an appointment
for thirty days away from when he was calling, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
And one of the things that we always talked about
in the early days is, you know, the that wouldn't
work if you know, if somebody was having chest paints
or something, if they if they called it a doctor
and said, hey, I have chest pains, they wouldn't say
come in, you know, thirty days from now. And and
(09:10):
so fortunately, I think it's one of the things that
has gotten better over the past few decades is that
it's taken a little bit more I don't know serious
is the right word, but it's taken with some greater concern.
Is when somebody's asking for help, you know, if they
(09:32):
need to be helped, and I like to think at
least in our little corner of the world. We've been
a piece of making that better for folks.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm sure you have now you you people come, people come,
They will come in and ask for help at your place,
but can you help them there? You send them off
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We send them off somewhere else. It's we kind of
did that by design because we in Athens, we were
on a fairly visible corner in town and we didn't
really want to have a kind of a clinical feel
(10:12):
to Nuccie Space. And you know, for instance, if somebody
was you know, parked their car here and they were
going to a counseling appointment, I didn't want or you know,
we didn't want somebody to you know, drive by that
they knew and we were like, oh, why is you know,
Bob had Nuccie Space, you know, is he having problems
(10:35):
or whatever. And so we liked the idea that you
could be here for band rearsal, you could be here
for a student project, you can be here for a
cup of coffee, you can be here for a wide
variety of things. And it really became a community center.
(10:55):
But when we you know, work with other per buyers
in the community. We get to know them in the
same way we get to know our musicians. So it's
not so much just a referral, but it's sort of like,
you know, here's this friend of mine. I'm going to
send you another friend that's going to do a really
(11:17):
good job right and work with you, and so we
it's not just a simple referral. It's also like building
a relationship with everybody involved to make sure that that
person gets connected to a provider and also they receive
the services that they need. So it's really about relationship building.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Who's your team there there in terms of your facility,
I know your team there that works there. Of course
I'll be talking about them in a minute. Who's your
team as far as psychologists, psychiatrists and so forth, who
you work depend.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
On we have of course, being a nonprofit, we have
a board of directors, so we have several different you know,
a psychiatrists on our board and some therapists and licensed counselors,
and then actually on our uh staff, we have what
(12:20):
we call counseling advocates. Now they are uh they are
not the ones that actually do the counseling, but they're
basically do the intakes for folks coming in and we
kind of do that by design because we don't want
we want to send people to you know, professionals and
(12:45):
the folks that can help them, and we want to
fill that role of being a support center. Uh So
we try not to you know, try to do put
on too many hats. What we try to do is
do that intake, build a relationship, and then send them
(13:07):
to the folks that can can actually help them. I
like to think of as as the conduit between the
person that needs help and the actual help.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, you know, somebody's got to tell you where to go.
And so you guys are it you know, thank you. Yeah, yeah,
somebody's got to do it. So you're the guy doing it.
That's great. How about your team inside Neuty Space, what
did they do well?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Like I said, for like a health and wellness folks,
we have our counseling advocates, and then we also have
folks that are focused on what we call QPR. It's
a national program that's a suicide prevention program and we
go in the community and teach people, you know, those
(14:00):
skill sets. We provide that free of charge, and we
also build a network. If you know, different providers also
support groups. And you know, if somebody calls a Nuccie
space and maybe they don't qualify our our subsized services,
(14:24):
it doesn't mean we won't help them. It just means
that we'll use our network to get them the services
they need. Then we have youth programs. We have several
different camps that we do during the summer but also
during after school and we've built a really great relationship
(14:47):
with the community as far as you know, kids just
getting started out and building those kind of coping skills
and communication skills. And we do it through use of
music and being in band and that sort of thing.
And then musician services is our kind of third program
area and that rovols around bands coming to rehearse here,
(15:14):
us being able to sell you know, reduced like used
equipment at a reduced price, also renting equipment out. We
have a recording studio, so we try to help help
musicians from an economic standpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That's great. What are you doing with the children in schools? Now?
I know that when I was there before night, when
I was there, I met the guy who has that
program up. What is he doing now with that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah? Well, we have we started what we call camp
amps back in two thousand and seven, and it was
a two week program. Kids will come here for basically
like seven or eight hours a day for those two weeks.
(16:03):
We put them into bands the right songs and it's
been incredibly successful. And as it's grown, we started doing
like after school programs, and one of the things we
found is that there was a lot of kids that
really didn't have access to instruments or have access to lessons.
(16:28):
So we started partnering with the Boys and Girls Club
and with some after school programs to where we actually
go into those facilities and bring instruments and teach them
how to play. So by the time they're able to
apply for our summer programs, they have the skill set
(16:53):
to be in a band and be able to write
songs and that sort of thing. So we're utilizing the
efforts of everybody else in the community to kind of
build that rapport with young people.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, you have musicians services too, you work with quite
a bit. I mean, you go in there, you can
tell that's a music place, that's a place for music,
and music is so vital to healing. I think, what
do you do as far as a musician wise.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well, we have our rehearse spaces. We also have a
recording space that we opened up a few years ago.
We have rentals for music equipment. We also sell secondhand
instruments at a reduced price, just to make it more affordable.
(17:49):
But probably more than anything, I think what we do
is we build a community center in a lot of
ways for the music community, and we kind of adapt
to whatever the needs are of the music community at
the time. You know, in some some ways we become
sort of a chamber of commerce. You know, if somebody
(18:11):
moves to town and they want to know the lay
of the land, like where should I go play? And
you know what, you know, what should I do to
get started? And then other times where it's just a
meeting place for people to you know, meet new musicians
and band members, and I think it's just becomes whatever
(18:38):
you need it to be. But it's we do like
to think of it as like a converging point for
the music music scene.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Do you still work I know Nucci before he passed away,
about a month before he played the forty White Club
and there's a picture of him there. Do you work
with the forty Water or any clubs like that to
with with the bands that the people, the musicians you
do you work.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
With, Oh, yeah, I mean a lot of bands in uh.
I mean most of the bands in town have been
incredibly supportive of us of us uh.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
The forty wide Georgia Theater, a lot of the venues,
like when we do shows or they have artists come through,
they're always really willing to help us. Uh. Like I
said before, we're we've been very fortunate with the community
support that we've received. And you know, we have flyers
(19:40):
about New Space in their back rooms, so when touring
musicians come through, they learn about us, and yeah, we've
we've been very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He was a pretty good musician, wasn't he He was.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, he was a fantastic musician. He was. He was
only twenty two years old, but he was a phenomenal
guitar player and incredibly intelligent musician. Yeah, he was really special.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Is his stuff available now? Can you buy it from?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah? You can. There's probably a couple of places you
can go. You can go to our website. I think
we still have some CDs that we sell, but also
we have a band camp page that people can go
listen to his stuff. And you can make like a
donation and get some of his songs downloaded.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, now, how can people help you? But we know
you've what you're doing takes a lot of money. How
can people help you? Now? How can they help by
giving and volunteering and buying merchandise? How can they help you?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, there's lots of different ways. One is you can
attend events. We have an event coming up in May
called Athens Business Rocks. We also do raffles which are
periodic throughout the year. We also have what we have
(21:16):
like a giving circle, I guess for our twenty fifth anniversary.
You know, people are giving twenty five dollars a month,
which all the links are also on our website. And
if you you know, have a business that matches donations
or have a work for a company that has a
grant making or foundation resources, we'd love to know about
(21:39):
them so we can apply. And also just volunteering. You know,
if you live in town and you want to come
by and you know, hang out with us, you know,
we're always looking for great volunteers. Or if you have
used instruments you know sitting around your attic and you
want to donate this those to us. You know that's
(22:03):
that's also incredibly helpful.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
What are you going to do for your twenty fifth anniversary?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Now, we are in the midst of planning a big
show in December of this year.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Okay, good, Can you tell us anything about it or
just want to keep it at that.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
We'll keep it at that because we're but we expect
it to be a big show. So well, we had
a great show last year at our twenty fourth and
I think twenty fifth we're going to try to make
it even better.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, now, are you still a musician? You were a
musician when you first met you first met Herbert. You
can continue to play.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I still play occasionally, but I've passed off the rains
to my daughter. Okay, she plays drums now and she's
in a couple of bands, and yeah, I let her
do most of the gigging and touring.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh and you were a drummer, right, I was a drummer. Yeah,
I should say you are a drummer.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, I guess yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, newc Space. It's a remarkable story, and I hope
people will get this book A beautiful here, and I
hope that anybody that needs help from you will go
to you and get the help they need. How can
they go to you and find the help they need
if there's somebody out there suffering.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, probably the easiest place to get the most information
is our website, which is www dot n uci dot org.
Or you can always just give us a call at
seven O six two two seven or send us an
(23:54):
email at space at nucci dot org. But all those places,
and we're on Facebook and Instagram and all those places,
so uh, you know, become our friend and we'll we'll
keep you, keep you in the know.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's right, that's right, you certainly will. Bob. I think
you do great work in Nuccio Space. Keep it up.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, I think you do great work.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And thank you for thank you for this opportunity. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Thank you. That's Bob Sleippie, CEO of Nucci Space. If
(24:49):
you'd like to learn more about Nucci Space, visit Nucci
dot org. You can also get a copy of Linda
Phillips A Beautiful Here, a book about the life of Nucci.
Nuccie's posthumously released album Only When the Right Side Close,
is available for download at Nucispace dot bandcamp dot com.
Need Help go to NUCCI dot org and click on
(25:12):
need Help or Now the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at
nine eight eight. That's nine eight eight. If you have
questions your comments about today's program, you can email me,
John Clark at Georgianewsnetwork dot com. Thank you for listening.
I'll talk to you next week right here on your
favorite local radio station on Georgia Focus
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. Nuccie Space vision is in the epidemic of
suicide and to inspire a culture free of the stigma
attached to brain illnesses, and it suffers by supporting a
community wide effort that focuses on education, prevention, and access
to appropriate treatment. Today, I'm talking with Bob Slippy, the
(00:33):
CEO of Nucci Space. Twenty fifth anniversary of NUSI Space.
Tell folks what Nuccie Space is.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So Nucci Space, our mission is to prevent suicide. We
are creating a memory of a young man named Nuccie
Phillips who died by suicide when he was twenty two
years old. His mom, Linda Phillips, was the one who
first envisioned this place and.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Wanted to specifically focus on musicians because that was Nucci's
community that he belonged to, and we felt like we
could make the biggest contribution that in that area.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Now, Linda has passed away in recent years.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes, she passed away in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, okay, And I recently read the book A Beautiful
Pier which is a book by her where she tells
the story of Nucci. It's a fascinating book. It really
is a fascinating book. You were in from the very beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, yeah, I was hired in December of nineteen ninety
nine and have been here ever since, so you have.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Seen everything happen. Now you have a space in Athens,
and talk about your space you have. I love the space.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh thanks. Yeah. We have a really great building right
on the edge of downtown, right next to the North
County River, and we I don't know. The thing that's
fascinating about the building is that it kind of serves
(02:27):
many many purposes. We have rehearsal spaces for bands. We
have a stage where bands can play and do shows.
But we also it's where people will come that's seeking
seeking professional counseling and therapy. They'll meet with our counseling advocates.
(02:55):
Students will do projects here. We also have a recording studio,
We do camp here. It's a very much a multifaceted facility.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You even have the tower outside that Ram used to
practice under. They practiced in the church there, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, there was a church that sat right behind us.
The church no longer exists, but they didn't knock down
the steeple and back. It's probably been ten years ago
we acquired the steeple and we've renovated it just to
(03:37):
make sure that it didn't fall down. But yeah, that's
where r EM at least two members of RIM lived
there for a little while. But that's also where kind
of the band got its start.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Now you have bands involved like the Drive by Truckers,
BPT two's R E. M and so forth and just
banned after band talk about some of the bands and
there invomit with this thing.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, we've been very fortunate that since you know, almost
since the beginning, we've had the support of bands like
RAM and Be fifty two's and Draw By Truckers and
watch Her Panic and and those are you know, the
(04:25):
famous bands in town. We've we've had the support of
so many bands throughout the years, hundreds and hundreds of bands,
and you know, they've support us in many many different ways. Uh,
Draw By Truckers for instance, not only has the band
support us, but Patterson has been on our board of
(04:48):
directors before, his wife Rebecca has been the president of
our board before. And they do a like a three
day for actually four day now homecoming show every year,
and they their fans really have embraced Nuccie Space and
helped raise a significant amount of money for us. This
(05:10):
past year, their homecoming shows raised almost or just over
one hundred thousand dollars for us. And then we have
Wives for Panic who has they do what we call
rock and raffle. They give away ticke us different shows
and they've helped put together packages that we can raffle
(05:36):
off and they've helped us raise hundreds of thousands of
dollars over the year, over the years. And and B
fifty two's when they did their finalite tour, they played
a short video about Nuccie Space before all their shows,
so that occurred all throughout the country, so that was
(05:59):
really special. And yeah, we've been very fortunate of the
support we've gotten.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You know in the book that I read the book,
the book is there available there right at Nucci Space.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Too, yeah yeah, yeah, and on our website.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And on you and it's called a Beautiful Here. It
is a great book. It is one to get. It
is a great book. I read it in just a
few days. It's wonderful. Yeah, it really is. Uh. Linda
writes in there about how you know she couldn't. You can't.
I want to paraphrase this, I don't I want to
(06:36):
say it correctly, but you can't save the whole world.
But you start out just in the town like Athens.
You just go and you save who you can who
who comes to you in that little town. And that
just made that made a big impact on me. That
really that said it all right there, It really did. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah. One of the things that I really uh learned
and loved about Linda was that she was able to
take such a big problem and break it down to
to kind of bite sized pieces. And you know, what
we always focused on was like our four walls, we
(07:15):
knew what we could do within the space, and that's
what we focused on. And you know, the great thing
about you know, having all those bands and also having
being in a university town with the University of Georgia
(07:36):
and students that will come here for school then also
go out in the world, you know, we can have
some sort of influence on how they view the world.
So you know what starts out is this little you know,
pedble in the lake becomes this ripple that goes throughout
(07:56):
you know, different parts of the country, and that that's uh,
that's one of the things that I think we've been
really fortunate about.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I think news you when he was in his
last days, was he was waiting on a was he
waiting on an appointment with a doctor? But it's a
long time off. Is that how it was happening.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
He was.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
He got an appointment uh for uh just you know,
he was seeking help and the you know this is.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Thirty yeah something years and he was given an appointment
for thirty days away from when he was calling, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
And one of the things that we always talked about
in the early days is, you know, the that wouldn't
work if you know, if somebody was having chest paints
or something, if they if they called it a doctor
and said, hey, I have chest pains, they wouldn't say
come in, you know, thirty days from now. And and
(09:10):
so fortunately, I think it's one of the things that
has gotten better over the past few decades is that
it's taken a little bit more I don't know serious
is the right word, but it's taken with some greater concern.
Is when somebody's asking for help, you know, if they
(09:32):
need to be helped, and I like to think at
least in our little corner of the world. We've been
a piece of making that better for folks.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I'm sure you have now you you people come, people come,
They will come in and ask for help at your place,
but can you help them there? You send them off
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We send them off somewhere else. It's we kind of
did that by design because we in Athens, we were
on a fairly visible corner in town and we didn't
really want to have a kind of a clinical feel
(10:12):
to Nuccie Space. And you know, for instance, if somebody
was you know, parked their car here and they were
going to a counseling appointment, I didn't want or you know,
we didn't want somebody to you know, drive by that
they knew and we were like, oh, why is you know,
Bob had Nuccie Space, you know, is he having problems
(10:35):
or whatever. And so we liked the idea that you
could be here for band rearsal, you could be here
for a student project, you can be here for a
cup of coffee, you can be here for a wide
variety of things. And it really became a community center.
(10:55):
But when we you know, work with other per buyers
in the community. We get to know them in the
same way we get to know our musicians. So it's
not so much just a referral, but it's sort of like,
you know, here's this friend of mine. I'm going to
send you another friend that's going to do a really
(11:17):
good job right and work with you, and so we
it's not just a simple referral. It's also like building
a relationship with everybody involved to make sure that that
person gets connected to a provider and also they receive
the services that they need. So it's really about relationship building.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Who's your team there there in terms of your facility,
I know your team there that works there. Of course
I'll be talking about them in a minute. Who's your
team as far as psychologists, psychiatrists and so forth, who
you work depend.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
On we have of course, being a nonprofit, we have
a board of directors, so we have several different you know,
a psychiatrists on our board and some therapists and licensed counselors,
and then actually on our uh staff, we have what
(12:20):
we call counseling advocates. Now they are uh they are
not the ones that actually do the counseling, but they're
basically do the intakes for folks coming in and we
kind of do that by design because we don't want
we want to send people to you know, professionals and
(12:45):
the folks that can help them, and we want to
fill that role of being a support center. Uh So
we try not to you know, try to do put
on too many hats. What we try to do is
do that intake, build a relationship, and then send them
(13:07):
to the folks that can can actually help them. I
like to think of as as the conduit between the
person that needs help and the actual help.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Well, you know, somebody's got to tell you where to go.
And so you guys are it you know, thank you. Yeah, yeah,
somebody's got to do it. So you're the guy doing it.
That's great. How about your team inside Neuty Space, what
did they do well?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Like I said, for like a health and wellness folks,
we have our counseling advocates, and then we also have
folks that are focused on what we call QPR. It's
a national program that's a suicide prevention program and we
go in the community and teach people, you know, those
(14:00):
skill sets. We provide that free of charge, and we
also build a network. If you know, different providers also
support groups. And you know, if somebody calls a Nuccie
space and maybe they don't qualify our our subsized services,
(14:24):
it doesn't mean we won't help them. It just means
that we'll use our network to get them the services
they need. Then we have youth programs. We have several
different camps that we do during the summer but also
during after school and we've built a really great relationship
(14:47):
with the community as far as you know, kids just
getting started out and building those kind of coping skills
and communication skills. And we do it through use of
music and being in band and that sort of thing.
And then musician services is our kind of third program
area and that rovols around bands coming to rehearse here,
(15:14):
us being able to sell you know, reduced like used
equipment at a reduced price, also renting equipment out. We
have a recording studio, so we try to help help
musicians from an economic standpoint as well.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That's great. What are you doing with the children in schools? Now?
I know that when I was there before night, when
I was there, I met the guy who has that
program up. What is he doing now with that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah? Well, we have we started what we call camp
amps back in two thousand and seven, and it was
a two week program. Kids will come here for basically
like seven or eight hours a day for those two weeks.
(16:03):
We put them into bands the right songs and it's
been incredibly successful. And as it's grown, we started doing
like after school programs, and one of the things we
found is that there was a lot of kids that
really didn't have access to instruments or have access to lessons.
(16:28):
So we started partnering with the Boys and Girls Club
and with some after school programs to where we actually
go into those facilities and bring instruments and teach them
how to play. So by the time they're able to
apply for our summer programs, they have the skill set
(16:53):
to be in a band and be able to write
songs and that sort of thing. So we're utilizing the
efforts of everybody else in the community to kind of
build that rapport with young people.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, you have musicians services too, you work with quite
a bit. I mean, you go in there, you can
tell that's a music place, that's a place for music,
and music is so vital to healing. I think, what
do you do as far as a musician wise.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Well, we have our rehearse spaces. We also have a
recording space that we opened up a few years ago.
We have rentals for music equipment. We also sell secondhand
instruments at a reduced price, just to make it more affordable.
(17:49):
But probably more than anything, I think what we do
is we build a community center in a lot of
ways for the music community, and we kind of adapt
to whatever the needs are of the music community at
the time. You know, in some some ways we become
sort of a chamber of commerce. You know, if somebody
(18:11):
moves to town and they want to know the lay
of the land, like where should I go play? And
you know what, you know, what should I do to
get started? And then other times where it's just a
meeting place for people to you know, meet new musicians
and band members, and I think it's just becomes whatever
(18:38):
you need it to be. But it's we do like
to think of it as like a converging point for
the music music scene.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Do you still work I know Nucci before he passed away,
about a month before he played the forty White Club
and there's a picture of him there. Do you work
with the forty Water or any clubs like that to
with with the bands that the people, the musicians you
do you work.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
With, Oh, yeah, I mean a lot of bands in uh.
I mean most of the bands in town have been
incredibly supportive of us of us uh.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
The forty wide Georgia Theater, a lot of the venues,
like when we do shows or they have artists come through,
they're always really willing to help us. Uh. Like I
said before, we're we've been very fortunate with the community
support that we've received. And you know, we have flyers
(19:40):
about New Space in their back rooms, so when touring
musicians come through, they learn about us, and yeah, we've
we've been very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He was a pretty good musician, wasn't he He was.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, he was a fantastic musician. He was. He was
only twenty two years old, but he was a phenomenal
guitar player and incredibly intelligent musician. Yeah, he was really special.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Is his stuff available now? Can you buy it from?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah? You can. There's probably a couple of places you
can go. You can go to our website. I think
we still have some CDs that we sell, but also
we have a band camp page that people can go
listen to his stuff. And you can make like a
donation and get some of his songs downloaded.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, now, how can people help you? But we know
you've what you're doing takes a lot of money. How
can people help you? Now? How can they help by
giving and volunteering and buying merchandise? How can they help you?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Well, there's lots of different ways. One is you can
attend events. We have an event coming up in May
called Athens Business Rocks. We also do raffles which are
periodic throughout the year. We also have what we have
(21:16):
like a giving circle, I guess for our twenty fifth anniversary.
You know, people are giving twenty five dollars a month,
which all the links are also on our website. And
if you you know, have a business that matches donations
or have a work for a company that has a
grant making or foundation resources, we'd love to know about
(21:39):
them so we can apply. And also just volunteering. You know,
if you live in town and you want to come
by and you know, hang out with us, you know,
we're always looking for great volunteers. Or if you have
used instruments you know sitting around your attic and you
want to donate this those to us. You know that's
(22:03):
that's also incredibly helpful.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
What are you going to do for your twenty fifth anniversary?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Now, we are in the midst of planning a big
show in December of this year.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Okay, good, Can you tell us anything about it or
just want to keep it at that.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
We'll keep it at that because we're but we expect
it to be a big show. So well, we had
a great show last year at our twenty fourth and
I think twenty fifth we're going to try to make
it even better.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, now, are you still a musician? You were a
musician when you first met you first met Herbert. You
can continue to play.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I still play occasionally, but I've passed off the rains
to my daughter. Okay, she plays drums now and she's
in a couple of bands, and yeah, I let her
do most of the gigging and touring.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh and you were a drummer, right, I was a drummer. Yeah,
I should say you are a drummer.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, I guess yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, newc Space. It's a remarkable story, and I hope
people will get this book A beautiful here, and I
hope that anybody that needs help from you will go
to you and get the help they need. How can
they go to you and find the help they need
if there's somebody out there suffering.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, probably the easiest place to get the most information
is our website, which is www dot n uci dot org.
Or you can always just give us a call at
seven O six two two seven or send us an
(23:54):
email at space at nucci dot org. But all those places,
and we're on Facebook and Instagram and all those places,
so uh, you know, become our friend and we'll we'll
keep you, keep you in the know.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's right, that's right, you certainly will. Bob. I think
you do great work in Nuccio Space. Keep it up.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, I think you do great work.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And thank you for thank you for this opportunity. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Thank you. That's Bob Sleippie, CEO of Nucci Space. If
(24:49):
you'd like to learn more about Nucci Space, visit Nucci
dot org. You can also get a copy of Linda
Phillips A Beautiful Here, a book about the life of Nucci.
Nuccie's posthumously released album Only When the Right Side Close,
is available for download at Nucispace dot bandcamp dot com.
Need Help go to NUCCI dot org and click on
(25:12):
need Help or Now the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at
nine eight eight. That's nine eight eight. If you have
questions your comments about today's program, you can email me,
John Clark at Georgianewsnetwork dot com. Thank you for listening.
I'll talk to you next week right here on your
favorite local radio station on Georgia Focus
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.