Meet the Mission: No One Left Behind - Jeff Phaneuf

4:54AM Feb 27, 2023

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Jeff Phaneuf

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Hey, I'm John. And I'm Becky.

And this is the We Are For Good podcast.

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Becky, what's happening? Well, my

dimples are out. Because I'm so excited to talk to our guests today. I hope everyone who's tuning in is just getting comfortable in your seat because we're about to hear an incredible story about an organization that is going in and doing such hard work that is so needed. And I'm also grinning because the way that we got to our guests today, I mean, it started with like a LinkedIn DM out of the blue, back when We Are For Good was like this little baby pandemic company. And we get this message from Taylor hibel over with our dear friends over at Hope for Haiti. And Taylor has shown up once again to pass the baton to another incredible mission driven organization. And so we're delighted today to talk to Jeff fan us. He's the Director of Advocacy at No One Left Behind. And here's the thing, guys, Jeff is this individual whose feet on the ground doing hard work in the areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. No One Left Behind is the longest standing nonprofit dedicated to all our local allies from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I can't wait for you to hear Jeff's story about how he got connected to this. But let me give you a little bit of background about his incredible pedigree. He also served as the campaign manager and Interim Chief of Staff for Congressman Seth Moulton. And he spent eight years as an active duty and reserve Marine Corps infantry officer in deployed out in the fight against ISIS in Iraq in 2016. Thank you, Jeff, so much for your service, we'd so appreciate it. But beyond that, he has his MBA from Princeton University. He has these incredible awards, not only as a leader, but as a player coach on the rugby team. He also has an a BA in history and literature from Harvard. But the thing is, is he takes all of that passion, all that energy, this service and this dedication that he has poured into protecting our country. And he's going into war torn areas. And he's going in and he's connecting with the humans. And he's finding ways that we can keep our promise to us interpreters and employees in Iraq and Afghanistan, through the Special Immigrant Visa Program. And you are on the ground, doing the hard work, being a great human and getting people to see that there is hope after war. So Jeff, we're so excited to hear from you. Welcome to the We Are For Good podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a thrill to be here.

Well, yours is very much a winding journey. And so I want you to kind of start at the beginning like talk to us a little bit about where you grew up, and then we're gonna get into what happens you know, as you hit the capitol in airport and as a graduate students to start at the beginning and tell us about you growing up.

Sure. Absolutely. I grew up in North Andover, Massachusetts, just about an hour Half an hour north of Boston. And, you know, fairly typical childhood playing Little League baseball and football and things like that. So when I was in college, a couple of things happen that set me really on a path to service I, first I had a roommate who had transferred out of West Point. And that gave me a little bit of perspective on sort of the military experience, and more importantly, the sort of life of purpose that the folks that he had known at West Point in, in the military, were living, you know, we went down to what would have been his graduation where his squad mates, the US Military Academy, when they were graduating, and I saw these fellow young folks who were embarking on a path to lead and serve in a very direct and visceral way. And, you know, I was a college kid trying to figure out my, you know, my passion and purpose in life, and that for whatever reason really spoke to me. Around the same time, I met my good friend and mentor, Seth Moulton. He was in business school in grad school at the same time when I was in undergrad. And, you know, I saw him speaking about his experiences as a Marine Corps infantry officer, walked up to him after the presentation and said, Hey, I've been thinking about this, my friends and family think it's a terrible idea. But it really, you know, inspire some passion in me, would you be willing to grab lunch and talk about it? And so, a couple days later, we sat down in the dining hall and, you know, had a conversation. And that's one of the first things that set me off towards my path into the Marine Corps, and some of the other sort of service oriented decisions I've made in life.

I mean, okay, like, keep going, because I feel like that's kind of like what led you into this, but take us into your journey? Because I feel like you're really close with the work you're doing now. So if you can take us back to your service?

Sure. Absolutely. I didn't join the Marines right out of college, I was a high school teacher for a couple of years, I taught high school history to ninth 10th and 11th graders, that a couple of different kinds of bless you. Yeah, it was, it was great preparation for the Marine Corps. I got to teach and I got to coach and it was, you know, a really good experience. But I've still felt that drive to serve it at that capacity. And so, in 2013, I quit my job as a teacher and went to officer candidate school down in Quantico. And you spend about three months sort of running through the woods and carrying logs and marching with a heavy backpack to get qualified to be commissioned as an officer in the Marines. From there you go on to school called the basic school, which is six more months of overall officer training, a lot of time out in the field in the woods of Quantico, digging holes, and going on long ruck marches. And, you know, learning to do the basic work of leadership as an officer in the military. And then from there, you go to your specialty School, where I went to the infantry officer course, which is at least you know, I like to consider it the most challenging entry level course that the military offers, at least for, you know, basic entry level officer training, where you know, that you go through three more months of very arduous mostly out in the woods, training, you learn all of the different sort of tactics and tools that you use everything from radios, to rocket launchers, and then you get qualified as an infantry officer. But in that moment, I found out that, you know, my entire class from Officer Candidate School was being sent out to the reserves at the time, we were facing sequestration and the drawdown. And so I had done all of this training to do this job of leading a marine platoon, and then was told out, you're actually going to only be doing this one weekend, a month, and so went out to the reserves for a time. And that's when I had the chance to work with Congressman Moulton. So at the time, he was a brand new candidate running for office in my home district in Massachusetts. And because he was a friend and a mentor, I said, Hey, I need a job while I figure out what I'm doing with the Marines and whether I can get to active duty or whether I need to figure something else out. So I was his body man and driver for about four or five months and worked. Yeah, so we had a, you know, a little campaign car that we you know, drive them to different events, you know, make sure he got where he needed to be make sure we kept on the schedule.

He's picturing you. I know, saying

we were such an upstart campaign, we didn't have the money for your piece. So we're just really building this from from the ground up. And my job was very low level on the campaign, effectively the campaign errand runner, but about, you know, after four or five months working there, you know, the candidate and the campaign manager that was in place had sort of a falling out. And overnight, I was promoted from the errand runner on the campaign to campaign manager, which was very unexpected. And I have to say, of the leadership challenges I've faced in my life going from being the guy who asked for copy paper to being the boss overnight is not something I wish on anyone. So that was that experience. And you know, part of the falling out that occurred that led to my promotion there was because we were 54 points behind in the polls name recognition was near zero. And you know, that's the when your pollster calls and tells you that it's the political equivalent of someone saying like, Look, nobody likes you or even knows who you are to the candidate. But said, Hey, I'm I'm not going to drop out. I Think this is important. I'm going to continue to fight this through. And, you know, we have an incredible team. Seth Moulton has an incredible story, I highly recommend you look him up, you know, both what he's done in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer in war, but also what he's done since coming to Congress to try to promote, you know, really the elevation of what's best for the country above politics. But it we ended up winning the campaign really in a surprising victory at the very last minute, which was really exciting. We unseated an 18 year incumbent and successfully put Seth in office. And he asked me to come down and work in Washington with him. But at the same time, the Marine Corps also offered me an opportunity to go back to active duty because we had just come back into Iraq, I had friends who were on the frontlines already of the fight against ISIS in late 2014, early 2015. And for me, I could hardly take a high powered job in Washington, when my friends were out there doing the job we'd all signed up for and trained to do. And so to assess disappointment, I had to tell them no, and went back to active duty and deployed to Iraq in 2016.

Okay, I think we just learned a little bit about the type of human that Jeff is, right here and that story, because that's an incredible story. I'm just thinking about a 20, something year old, dropped in the middle of Iraq, looking around, take us take us to that place, like what did it feel like? What did you see and talk about how that experience informed and just change the trajectory of your life,

the experience of being a Marine officer is an incredible amount of responsibility for someone in their early mid 20s, when a lot of my friends were, you know, doing their entry level jobs just out of college or just out of grad school, I was responsible for about 40, Young 18 to 22 year old infantry Marines, you know, and on top of that, I also, you know, you're the young officers, or you're in charge, but you've got a senior enlisted Marine who's there with you, and mine was staff sergeant Gary Garza, who had, you know, 13 years of experience multiple combat deployments, valor awards, and, you know, technically, I'm in charge of him. But the reality is, it's a much more nuanced relationship where I learned more from Staff Sergeant Garza than than I ever would have known otherwise, and certainly more than I could ever have taught him. But when we got to Iraq, it was in part of the fight against ISIS, where ISIS had overtaken the Euphrates River Valley and in particular, the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. And we were dropped right in between those two at a place called alta qaddoum. airbase right outside Hollandia. It's a rough neighborhood, if you've heard of Ramadi, and Fallujah and sort of the story of battles that we fought there over the years of war in Iraq. And we were really doing the cleanup for mistakes that had been made before. I mean, when we left Iraq, that created a vacuum that allowed ISIS to sweep back in. And so being there in 2016, you know, long after we had thought the Iraq war would be overwhelming, unexpected thing. And a lot of what we did was advise and assist the Iraqi army in pushing ISIS out of the Euphrates River Valley. And so, you know, I land at night because where we were was so close to the ISIS frontlines that we couldn't fly during the day, you get off the C 130, in darkness with your night vision on as we've run into the base, and to get established. So when I woke up the next morning, and the sun came up over the Iraqi desert, I woke up to the sound of airstrikes off in the distance. And it became very clear to me in that moment that this was not just another training exercise or not a camping trip to the desert. But we were very close to the the ISIS frontlines. And, you know, we spent about seven months there, helping the Iraqi army advising and assisting them, especially in the preclear of the city of collusion, no, collusion is a storied location and Marine Corps history because of the battles that were fought there in 2004. You know, and to have seen ISIS retake that city, and to be part of the operation that in which the Iraqi army required it was was really critical and really important. You know, and the things we saw on that deployment, it became very, very clear to me that the enemy we were fighting that ISIS was about as evil and despicable as you can get. I mean, I think there's over the history of the US war in Iraq, there's a lot of a lot of debate to be had about the merits of why we even went there in the first place. But for us, the fight against ISIS in 2016, it was crystal clear what our purpose and mission there was. And I think, you know, beyond aiding the Iraqi army in in fighting ISIS, one of the important things we did was to care for their casualties. We had a surgical team with us. Our Marines at the front gate would sort of triage and assess the casualties, make sure that, you know, they were clear and safe to bring into the base. Our Navy Corpsman who are the Marine Corps version of a medic would provide initial care, and then we bring them in, and we saved over 200 lives over the course of that deployment. I think when people think about combat deployments, they think about the fighting but for us, what was the thing I took away as most purposeful was the ability for us to be there and save lives and not just Iraqi soldiers, but civilians who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time in the fight. I mean, these are populated cities that people live And, you know, we would come across folks that have gone back to their home and tripped in ISIS, booby trap and things like that. And so I was really thankful that we were there to be able to provide that medical care, to to help these folks who might not have otherwise had that level of trauma care that they needed.

I mean, we're trying to wrap our heads around like your experience, but certainly just overwhelming gratitude to get to sit here and privilege and know that you and your troop and everybody around you are they're taking care of people. And I think that this transition to your role now is really interesting for me, you know, as Director of Advocacy for an organization like No One Left Behind, I feel like you have it in your blood and in your bones, to be able to live this out at a different degree than any one else in the room for sure could do. And I want if you set some tone for that for us, because if people are not familiar listening today, with no one left behind, like, catch us up, but that founding story, to kind of start to connect the dots to what you're doing today.

No One Left Behind was founded in 2014, by an army officer and the Afghan interpreter who saved his life in combat, as well as the lives of four other US servicemembers. And it was founded because we realized that, or I should say that they realized when, when Janice, the interpreter got to the US that there was very little support for our Afghan and Iraqi allies, who eventually are able to make it here after working alongside us often in combat. And so the, the founder had raised a bunch of money for his interpreter for Janice, and Janice said, Hey, I'm able to get up on my feet pretty effectively, why don't we take this money and help others. And so the $35,000 or so that they had raised to help, Janice ended up becoming a nonprofit that supports all of the Iraqis and Afghans who fought alongside us for the last 20 years of war. Initially, our main focus was to help them with things like household goods, or finding a place to rent or starting a career in a new homeland. But our mission had to evolve a lot, especially after August of 2021. Because with the fall of Afghanistan, to the Taliban, those folks who had worked for us and had chosen to stay in Afghanistan and to continue the fight, or to set up their careers and, you know, build out their lives there. All of a sudden, we're under incredible and immense threat, you know, having paperwork that said you worked for the Americans was, you know, was effectively a death threat. And so many folks, as we saw when the US withdrew, really had to had to grab what they could and try to get out. And so many of them were left behind. I mean, right now, we're looking at somewhere between 160,200 1000 People who are eligible for the Special Immigrant Visa, who are still there and still trying to find a way out. And that's been one of our main efforts now, beyond the resettlement work that we continue to do for those who are here is trying to do evacuation work or relocation work to help them get out. And you know, my job dovetails with that because at the end of the day, we need the government to step up and really effectively finish this mission, because we can't do it completely ourselves at the nonprofit level. So that's why we also engage in advocacy at the federal government level to try and help continue to bring these folks to safety.

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I mean, it's such a heavy thing, Jeff. And some may be asking like, why are we talking about war on this podcast and, for instance, because we believe in peace. But I think what I what I want people to hear is one, this awareness is massively important. It's important to tell the stories Of War of the innocent. In two, I think it's important to figure out if this light you up how you plug in and there are going to be ways to plug in. You mentioned over 100? And did you say 160,000? Or 200,000?

It's somewhere between the two. Wow,

I mean, that's a that's a way higher number than I thought you were gonna say. And I, I want you to talk about these allies that are left behind, like, how is your mission plugging in, like, share a story with us about what people need to know, give us a story and illustrate and give us a picture of what it's like and how No One Left Behind is coming in and filling in that gap.

One of the individuals that I got in touch with during the evacuation in August of 21, was an interpreter for an army airborne unit, where his commander received the Silver Star in combat with this interpreter by his side. Now, he fought for the US and then had a very successful construction company afterwards in Afghanistan was off to a great start in his career. And then, when Afghanistan fell, he realized he had to get out. The problem was that he had handed in his passports to the US Embassy in Kabul to get his visa finalized, he had gone through all of the paperwork, all of the steps, and just handed in his passports to get the visa finalized. But when the embassy pulled out, they had to burn all the paperwork, including a key and his family's passports. Now, he's still in Pakistan trying to get this fixed, because he needed to get new passports. And then he had to get to Pakistan report to the embassy there, redo his visa interview and his medical checks. And we hear stories like this all the time of people who served valorous leave alongside US troops, who did incredible things to keep people like me and my friends alive. And and now they're caught in this bureaucracy that is leaving them in absolute danger. You know, we've done surveys of the population we seek to serve who are still in Afghanistan, 85% of them have been threatened by the Taliban in the last six months, less than 6% of them are able to feed their families on a recurring basis, because there's, you know, such a economic and humanitarian disaster happening there. And for the folks who are Special Immigrant Visa eligible, you know, they've they've bought and paid for their ticket to the US, and in fact, through their service. And unfortunately, we've left them behind without a comprehensive plan to get them out. And that's where nonprofits like No One Left Behind, and many other, you know, veteran and volunteer organizations who have stepped up to do this, have stepped in to try and help these folks navigate their way through the visa process, find a way to safety and make it to the US.

I mean, man, like it's hard to hear this, because I mean, all of us are listening or feeling like how do we get active around this. And it's not something that's just easily fixed. But something that we have been lifting, even as a trend this year is like locking arms. You know, when you've got your values centered, it doesn't matter if you're a nonprofit, a corporation government, like we have to lock arms around the things that really matter, they can unite us. And I just wonder how y'all are doing that? You know, obviously, you're doing work in Washington. As part of this, you're also doing work, probably with anybody who will lean in? How are you galvanizing people? And can you start to lead us into like, what are steps we can take someone listening today,

I think first just paying attention to what's going on is is really critical. Because a lot of the work we do is outside of the public eye for the security of the people that we're trying to help but but we need the support of so many. And I think, first just check out the work that we do at no one left.org and get a sense of what we're working on. And you'll see we're doing things like our save a life campaign right now, where we're fundraising in order to move 64 families, from Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and eventually to the US. We've already got our first six families here in America, which is really, really exciting. And as long as we're able to continue to fundraise, we're going to keep this going and continue to move people, which has been, you know, sort of our current most effective way outside of relying on the government to get get flight. So what is

life look like? For those six families? I mean, what are how are they getting kind of acclimated and supported and plugging into community and stuff.

When people get to the US, they get assigned to a resettlement agency that helps them choose a city or a place to go where they land. And when they when they get there, they get three months of support from a government supported resettlement agency that helps them with things like finding your first apartment, with perhaps finding your first job getting your kids into schools. But it's hard because these folks are coming to a new country, a new culture for many a new language, especially if they didn't serve as interpreters and so they're learning English as they go. And, you know, there's an incredible need to support them there. A lot of what we do is to fill the gap after that resettlement assistance ends here in the US with things like no interest car loans, with rental assistance with help for household goods and furniture and helping them get up on their feet so that you know, they can live independently and really pursue the American dream. And I'll say that for so many of these people, even the ones who have been really churned by the bureaucracy and been forced to wait and forced to reapply and you know, gone through absolute struggles just trying to get their visa. They still believe Leave and are the embodiment of the American dream. I mean, they see this opportunity to come to America as this incredible win, despite the fact that America in many ways left him in some really awful circumstances. And that's where we try to step in and help from. And so that's where our resettlement work really, really functions. But I think beyond that, for folks who want to get involved, and you know, want to do something to take action on this, you know, we need your help convincing Congress to do better with the Special Immigrant Visa Program and the programs that allow the people who worked alongside us to make it to the US. Right now we're working on legislation to take the program that has to be reauthorized every year that has, on average, twice the processing time as is legally mandated, because it's required by the by the law, that these visas are issued within nine months. And that's how long the process should take. But on average, right now, we're seeing processing times that something on the order of 589 days, twice the nine month requirement. And so we need to fix that. And we're working with our partners in Congress, both in the House and in the Senate, and really, in both parties to try and fix this program. And and that's our big effort for the upcoming Congress.

I mean, I'm still not over the fact of how many are still waiting. And the fact that there is all of this bureaucracy slowing down someone's safety, their ability to live their their children's ability to grow and be safe. I just, it just doesn't sit right with me. So what would be the next best step for this community? Because we're an activating community? Should they call their congressman, do you have scripts or their petitions to sign like, just activate us and let us know how we can be a light to this program and this act of movement?

First, check out our work at no one left that org, and you'll see the details of what we're working on, especially legislatively and with our relocation and evacuation programs. But if you really want to take action, call your member of Congress Call your senator and say, you know, as an American, we can't stand for what has happened to these folks. And we need to do something to help them. And I think you'd be surprised how much a call to a congressional office can actually get done. Because they have staff who, who count these things and briefed a member of Congress, you know, on a weekly basis of, hey, we got X number of calls about this topic. And then those members of Congress take that into account when they make their decisions. And for a group of people that have been largely forgotten, making sure that the decision makers in Washington, remember them is the first step to helping us really finish this mission and get these people to safety.

I mean, I'm just sitting here listening to your story, Jeff, and war is hard, guys. War is so difficult, and it's ugly. And and and what it does, I mean, you can get sucked into that hole of just the hopelessness and I feel like you've done the opposite here. I feel like you're this nonprofit continues to be this beacon that keeps shining. And and this is something I think it's important that we continue to talk about, because the majority of us are sitting at a place of privilege, whether it's with our safety, whether it's with our proximity to finances or security or good jobs, or what good health whatever it is. And I just think that everyone has a role to play in the fight for those that are suffering and those that are completely not a part of this political dynamic. And so I'm reflecting back and I appreciate everybody on this podcast, who's ever listened to, you know, our conversation with James Central on when we talked about the Afghani, you know, immigrant crisis and trying to extract all of those individuals out and talking to UNICEF with Casey Rotter talking about what they're doing on the frontlines of Ukraine. And so I think I'm reflecting that back to you, Jeff, and I want to say is you look back is you kind of look in the rearview mirror, you've been this high school teacher, you've been a congressional campaign manager, you've been this marine, and you've just been chasing service this whole time. What advice would you share with our listeners, you know, many of which are growing up are showing up every day, and incredible and mighty nonprofit organizations? What have you learned about how to take what you know, and activate it for good?

Well, I guess, Becky, I would start with how I got involved with this in the first place, because it was not my intent to or my plan to end up working full time on helping evacuate Afghan refugees and special immigrant visa applicants. I was finishing up my public policy master's, and then you know, in an attempt to stay in grad school for the rest of my life, heading to Stanford to do an MBA, when I got a call August of 2021, from a friend who was on the ground. And you know, he said to me, Jeff, the situation is far worse than anything you could possibly expect. If you have people who need to get out or you have friends who have their former interpreters who need to get out. I need these six pieces of information and I'll do what I can, but just understand that there are 5000 people outside the gate all trying to get in. There was gunfire in the background. It was absolute chaos. And, you know I did for me, what I would hope any anyone would do in that situation is that I recognize that having a line to the person at the gate to that Marine Company commander who was there put me in a unique position to help. And so I certainly couldn't just, you know, go back to my day to day life in that moment and say, Hey, good luck over there. So I dropped everything, I was in the middle of prepping for a cross country move, but dropped everything and sort of got the word out to people that I knew. So when I woke up the next morning, and the sun came up over the Iraqi desert, I woke up to the sound of airstrikes off in the distance. And it became very clear to me in that moment that this was not just another training exercise or not a camping trip to the desert. But we were very close to the the ISIS frontlines. And, you know, we spent about seven months there, helping the Iraqi army advising and assisting them, especially in the preclear of the city of collusion, no, collusion is a storied location in Marine Corps history, because of the battles that were fought there in 2004. You know, and to have seen ISIS retake that city, and to be part of the operation that in which the Iraqi army really cleared it was was really critical and really important. You know, and the things we saw on that deployment, it became very, very clear to me, that the enemy we were fighting that ISIS was about as evil and despicable as you can get. I mean, I think there's over the history of the US war in Iraq, there's a lot of a lot of debate to be had about the merits of why we even went there in the first place. But for us, the fight against ISIS in 2016, it was crystal clear what our purpose and mission there was, I think, you know, beyond ating, the Iraqi army and fighting ISIS, one of the important things we did was to care for their casualties, we had a surgical team with us, our Marines at the front gate would sort of triage and assess the casualties, make sure that, you know, they were clear and safe to bring into the base. Our Navy Corpsman who are the Marine Corps version of a medic, would provide initial care, and then we'd bring them in, and we saved over 200 lives over the course of that deployment. I think when people think about combat deployments, they think about the fighting, but for us, what was the thing I took away as most purposeful was the ability for us to be there and save lives. And not just Iraqi soldiers, but civilians who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time in the fight. I mean, these are populated cities that people live in. And, you know, we would come across folks that gone back to their home and tripped in ISIS, booby trap, and things like that. And so I was really thankful that we were there to be able to provide that medical care, to help these folks who might not have otherwise had that level of trauma care that they needed.

You know, we hang our hat around philanthropy at this table. And that's usually we celebrate the power of philanthropy in our lives. And I just every time you're telling these stories, I'm just like, that is philanthropy. It's the love of humankind, it's loving people that you don't know their story, but you're fighting for them. And, and so centering for you to kind of bring it up in this way. And so I just think as we round out today, I want to give you space to give us your one good thing and so that we ask all of our guests, but what's a mantra, what's a thing within you that you come back to that you can leave us at the end of this,

I guess my one good thing is, quote from Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, where he writes, The world is a fine place, and worth the fighting for. And I think in this work, which can be really mentally trying, and really tremendously difficult and sometimes frustrating, it's still worth fighting for. And that's really critical to us.

And the fact that you haven't lost your optimism, and your drive. And honestly, your belief, I think, is the thing that stirs me the most. And I just thank you for this service. That's really about one human being helping out another human being who is helpless, if you have something to give, share it friends. So Jeff, tell us how people can connect with no one left behind. Give us all your connections. And then I would love for you to just kind of take a moment. And tell us what you need the most right now. And if if it's one to hit us with both of it, because if you're somebody who felt moved by the story, if this is really touching you today and moving within you to do something, we want to make sure that you're activated and can get leaned in.

To learn more about what we do at No One Left Behind. Please check us out at no one left.org Or feel free to find me on LinkedIn. We're also across all social media platforms. So you can find us there as well.

Absolutely. Let's spread the good word. Let's get more hands involved in this and let's take that number from 200,000 down to zero because we want healthy, thriving families communities in a world so you keep going with the good fight on your end. Just keep going here. rootin for you.

Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here. Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics. Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community It's free. And you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at we are for good.com backslash Hello. One more thing If you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find our community. Thanks, friends. I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is Sunray by Remy Borsboom.

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