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Bob's House of Hope - Karen's recording: Otter Voice Meeting Notes

Bob's House of Hope - Karen's recording

Shelbie Hamilton59min

Speaker 1

00:00

Okay. And Veron, all right, okay. Andrea Jones, you're the director of business development, correct? Yes, okay, I know you've been talking a lot about moving. Do you want me to include an address or not? Like, is this place going away? Are you going to have two spots?

Speaker 2

00:23

This place is going to go away? Okay? So everything is going to be moved to that area. We will have another area that's further up where the safe house is now, that will be specifically dedicated to just counseling, okay, but everything else will be moved to the new facility.

Speaker 1

00:41

Okay, so for an address, what do you think I should include?

Unknown Speaker

00:46

You don't really give an address.

Unknown Speaker

00:48

That's what I thought. I thought you might not, but

Speaker 2

00:50

we do give the PO box in case, if somebody wanted to mail something, okay,

Speaker 1

00:54

we'll just skip that. I'm not gonna. I don't think I totally understand.

Unknown Speaker

00:57

So people were in Justin, okay,

Speaker 1

01:00

so we're moving to Justin from Argyle, okay, that sounds good enough. All right. And when I have your website, I know I do everything else should be right? All right, this is probably a big question, okay, remember that I don't have a lot of space, so answer as judiciously as you can, what is the difference between Bob's house of hope and ranch hands rescue.

Speaker 2

01:23

Okay, well, ranch hands rescue is pretty much like the umbrella of everything, okay, everything that we do, great. So to give you an idea, the ranch part is, is kind of focused more on the animals. Okay, so that's kind of that pill that we work with. And then the hand part is the counseling part, the touch, you know, the face to face communication, that type of thing, and dealing with people who really gone through some traumatic, you know, situations. And then the rescue part is kind of where Bob's House of Hope fits under, okay? So the is not really a difference. Is more of a cohesiveness of everything that's being incorporated under one umbrella, okay, but in under that umbrella, there are different things that are happening. Would you almost

Speaker 1

02:14

say that Bob's House of Hope is a program of ranch hands? Would that be a way to say it or not,

Speaker 2

02:23

I wouldn't say it's a program, as more probably a result of, Oh,

Unknown Speaker

02:29

gotcha Okay,

Speaker 2

02:29

as when Bob initially started this, it started as a rescue for animals, yes, because of the things that he had gone through and he found out through time. And I'm really giving this really 12 second spill that the animals for him helped him, and then he started getting digging more into how that was affecting people who had gone through traumatic stuff. And so eventually, one thing led to the mental health part. That eventually led to Bob's house of hope being established in 2021 Okay? From his studies and talking with a lot of people from the mental health communities, and then when he hired Landon, who's our Executive Director, I called him, don't write this. Okay? My joke. Yeah, I call him the alphabet man, because he has so many degrees, you know, behind him, right? And he's, he's, he's, he's just a plethora of information. And does help Bob to come up with this program of helping these kids, and so it just filtered, it just kind of, you know, segway into one thing into the next, as Bob started getting more into exactly how all of that worked. Eventually it became the equine one of the equine modalities, equine modalities, one of the things that they use here. And so the animals, they found that the animals helped the kids, and the kids helped the animals. Oh, they helped each other. Symbiotic. Yeah, exactly, okay, exactly.

Speaker 1

04:17

Okay, all right, so you've explained the difference and kind of how they came about. All right, are the two entities intertwined? How would you say they're intertwined? How would you say Bob's house, Bob's house of hope, is intertwined with ranch hands? Do the boys that stay are the men who stayed with at Bob's house. Did they work with the other they do. So tell me how that

Speaker 2

04:45

so they work hand in hand. They help to, you know, feed the animals, you know, helping with, you know, to do any type of exercises or things like that. They work with the ranch hands, okay? So they. They find they form an attachment with the animals, and the animals tend to gravitate to those kids. And it's almost like they they can sense you've kind of gone through some of some trauma like I have, okay. And so they tend to gravitate to those kids real quickly. Okay, so it works hand in hand the counseling program or section it. It encompass not just the boys, but anyone who's gone through some type of traumatic situation. So they help vets. We help vets, you know, anybody who's going through something like maybe domestic violence or things like that. We do have a national reach through our advocacy program, that we reach people from all over the country, help them to get the resources that they need where they are, to help them with whatever they're going through as well. Okay,

Speaker 1

05:56

yeah, all right, when, where and why? Was Bob's House of Hope founded. Yeah, but he told me that 2021 2021 was, was that Bob's house, or was that

Speaker 2

06:09

that was Bob's house of hope? So Bob's house was 2021 and what about ranch hands? Rescue came into existence. I think 22,009

Unknown Speaker

06:19

oh, okay, okay, all right,

Speaker 1

06:22

so let's just focus on Bob's house for now and talk about why. Why did Bob Williams start that? Okay,

Speaker 2

06:33

I can give you the gist of it. He's probably the one to give you more of the details, but basically, it was started because Bob himself had gone through a horrific rape as a teenager, and he realized over time of all of the things that he had to go through. And ultimately became homeless at 20, and went through a lot of things. And luckily, he had people in his life, throughout the course of his life, that really started gearing him towards the right thing, that he felt it was a calling. He initially worked at Motorola, and he became the top salesperson at Motorola, and with all of the travel and everything that he did, he had a close friend of his who passed away in another country, and he said he just didn't want that to happen to him. He had a stroke, and at that point, it kind of that was the turning point for him to say, You know what, I don't want to end up dying, being alone and dying in some hotel room, because I'm, you know, doing all of this. I want my life to matter. And so after he had his stroke, he decided to try to do something positive, which, by accident, he started saving animals. Okay? And so that's how the ranch part came into existence. Rain chance rescue with him doing that. And then over time, as he started seeing how the animals were helping him, and then talking to people in the mental health industry about, you know, can we help other people? How can this be used to help other people? And then the counseling program evolved from that, and then from that, Bob's House of Hope came out of that.

Speaker 1

08:25

Okay, so he saw a need based on what was coming to him, via the ranch hands,

Speaker 2

08:31

via the ranch hands, talking to people in the community, talking with law enforcement agencies. He is part of the governor's task force for human trafficking. And he's also on, I think it's the district attorney, so have to verify that the district attorney's office for human trafficking as well the task force for them too. So he it kind of grew organically, and as he learned more and started seeing where the needs were. That's when he started basically filling in the gap. So when he started talking to people, he realized that there were so many things out there for young girls and young women, but there was nothing out there to address the needs of boys. And as he started dealing with other agencies and law enforcement organizations realizing that a lot of the youth that were being taken were boys. Department of Justice, I think, said up to 36 or 38% that that has been reported that they know of of the youth being trafficked were boys, so you're looking at almost half, and they're thinking that it's probably even more than that, because boys tend to be under reported, you know? And so he decided to do something about that, because he was one of those boys. Right, and to not have something to address those needs. So he kind of filled in that gap. And Bob's House of Hope became, you know, reality in 2021 Okay,

Unknown Speaker

10:11

great, that makes sense.

Speaker 1

10:13

It is until he does, yes, and I believe that stat was, is on the website, the 36% I think so I'll just like whatever that number is. I'll just use that.

Speaker 2

10:20

Yeah. And in Texas, I went to find some some stats for you too, with Nick MC, which is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who that's also a collaborator with us. We have 28 I think, now, and I can verify that number, because sometimes that changes. But 28 partner agencies that we work with to help and we kind of help each other. But the National Center for Missing and explore the children in Texas, it was over 48,000 people missing in the state of Texas, but And out of that, 48,000 31,000 little over 31,000 were children out of the entire state of Texas. And unfortunately, Texas is the number one state for Amber Alerts. And because of how vast we are, and all of the main interstates that go through this state is just a haven for trafficking. Okay, you know, the same thing with California, and the same thing with Florida, those bigger states, of course, you know, right? Generates that, but, but for Amber Alerts and things like that, we're number one, unfortunately, no, yeah,

Speaker 1

11:33

do you know how Bob chose the nonprofit's name that

Unknown Speaker

11:38

I don't know? Okay, so

Unknown Speaker

11:39

maybe I'll okay,

Unknown Speaker

11:40

I can get that for you.

Speaker 1

11:41

Okay, okay. The next question was definitely for him too, which was, so we're just gonna move on to you. This question was, what does an average day look like for you? So why don't you tell

Speaker 2

11:53

me about that? Well, as a business developer, my average day is summed up in three words, okay, sales, sales and sales, what

Unknown Speaker

12:03

are you selling?

Speaker 2

12:04

So I am selling the or creating the awareness, okay, that and so I'm, I don't know if sales may be the better word for but creating the awareness of letting people know that, one, we do exist. Two, that there's a major problem in this country. It's an epidemic with human trafficking. And then three, how can you support us? Because we need your support. So the selling thing, I guess, is more of creating the awareness, letting people know that it's there. How can you help us? Great,

Unknown Speaker

12:39

we need

Speaker 2

12:39

your help. Okay, so that's the solicitation I definitely understand. Yeah, right, yeah. So that's pretty much what I do. I'm reaching out to organizations. I'm reaching out to churches, talking to any type of associations that we can go and have any type of awareness, you know, create awareness with to just let them know, Hey, we you know, we exist. I also help to bring in additional funds through event planning, through grants, through private donations, foundations, wherever we wherever I can see that there's a possibility that we can get support, whether it's financially, whether it's through in kind, or whether it's through volunteering. Great. That's, that's what I do. So my whole, my typical day is getting up and seeing who am I going to reach out to today, sending out information about us, seeing if we can establish some type of do we not this person? Yeah, that's our business, business development Hey, yeah, Business Development Manager, but, but that's kind of, you know what I do? I'm kind of, I'm the eyes, I'm the boots on the ground when it comes to trying to generate funding and promote, right, exactly, right. The organization letting people know what we do, okay,

Unknown Speaker

14:03

all right,

Speaker 1

14:05

describe the services, programs and therapy provided that Bob's house of hope,

Speaker 2

14:10

programs and services that would have to be a landing steel when from the mental health capacity that they do, because he can give you more details, so I can get that information for you. Okay, but they, they do. I can give you this the general gist of it. Okay, when the young boys come to us, or young men come to

Unknown Speaker

14:34

us, they have to be 18, right? 18? Yes, okay, right now. We

Speaker 2

14:37

are housed from 1818, to 24 okay, even though, biologically, their age is saying 18 to 24 mentally, some of them are not there. Some of them may be at a you know, 710, 12 years old, okay? Because they tend to revert back to the year where the infraction started happening to them. Wow, where the abuse started happening today. And so there's a series of things that. They have to take these young men through to get them mentally back to where their actual ages are, because that was a way for them to block out the pain of what they had gone through. Okay, so, but Landon, I can get that information for you from Landon, as far as the specifics that they do. But when they come in, the initial thing that we do is a lot of testing, medical, for sure, dental, and then they start with a lot of mental health testing. We want to know, Okay, is there bipolar,

Unknown Speaker

15:38

which you've never said,

Unknown Speaker

15:41

schizophrenia, is it? PSD, you

Unknown Speaker

15:44

know, Is that likely in

Unknown Speaker

15:46

a person who's been sex trafficking and sometimes,

Speaker 2

15:48

because, again, that's a way for them to cope. So if I'm somebody else with the reality of what's really happening, okay, so, but it's just extensive testing that goes on. And then from there they start working them through, start peeling those layers off. We don't have like a 3060, or 90 day program. They can be with us up to four years or five years, depending upon their progress. And once they kind of go through the initial thing, then the next step is take steps. Will be taking them from a point of not knowing to knowing how to take care of themselves. So life skills, how to cook, how to, you know, wash clothes, they have to be taught pretty much almost everything that you would teach your young kids, well, how to brush your teeth properly, how to change, you know, make your bed. You know, do things that we take for granted, that our parents taught us at 819, years old, pick up behind yourself. You know, learn how to vacuum those things they have to be taught, all of that. So that kind of incorporates those life type learning skills that they need. Then the educational part of it too, because we help them to get their GED. So then, you know, the case manager works with them. Okay, well, what do you want to do? What do you think that you want to do? So let's help you to get your GED. Do you want to go on to college? Do you want to get a train? Do you just want to work? You know, right? What can we do to help you to be more, you know, self sustainable, okay? And so at that point, they work with them, make sure that they get their GED, go through the life skills, everything that they need. Then from from the safe house, they move into the transitional homes. And there is where they're their own people. Now their own person. They have their own place.

Speaker 1

17:48

So is that something that ranch hand, I'm sorry, Bob's house of hope, provides the transitional homes.

Speaker 2

17:54

Yeah, yeah, all of that's on that new property. It's really beautiful area. So they go from the safe house to the transitional homes, and that helps to get them prepared to be on their own. And so in the transitional homes, they they're cooking for themselves, they're washing their own clothes. They're working or going to school or both, but they're putting themselves in a position where once you're comfortable, you know, and you're ready to be launched out. Then they go on their own from the transition homes, and the case managers walk them through every facet. And then once they have the conversations with the counselors and with Landon, who's our Executive Director, Bob, and they feel everybody comes together and they feel okay, you know what? He's he's ready to take that next step, to go out on his own. Then they help him to find, you know, we help him to find a place to stay, hopefully, help with transportation, if possible, and get them on their own. So even when they do leave, they're not like, Okay, we're gonna the next group is coming in, right? They still have family here, so they're always welcome to come back. They have, you know, Episode, or they just wanted to talk to somebody, because some things just, you know, what they didn't feel were right. Or just have conversation to come back and just see people, people they know, yeah. So it's still that really, that that family environment that we try to promote with with all of them, and there's times where they sit down in the rec room and they kind of hang out like families do, and watch movies, and they talk with counselors about things and how did they feel, and those type of situations, there's times where they prepare big meals, so they all sit at the table together, so it's that family time. And so some of them, you know, they never had that, right? So this is kind of instilling those things. Is that those boys,

Speaker 1

20:02

so can you give me, like, just a snapshot of what a typical day would look like for one of these boys, these young men, would they start? I mean, like, start. I have it in a meal that that someone else prepared for them, or perhaps they prepared for themselves, and then they spend X amount of time in counseling, and then they spend X amount of time working on the farm. I mean, have, yeah, can you guys give me? I can overview. I don't

Speaker 2

20:25

know the the time limit, but basically, when they get up, it's, you know, just like we do at home. Okay? It was chores, right? You know, clean your room, get your stuff ready. They go to school. You know, people to come in to help them with their GED. They do stuff online, and then once they finish, you know, during school time, everything that they need to finish for that, then they'll go and help with the animals. We have counselors. The State House operates 24/7, so there's always someone there. So sometimes the council will fix meals, but other times they're having the boys to fix. They have to learn, of course, yeah, and so they'll have dinner, and everybody sits at the table and eat, but it's breakfast, lunch and dinner, just like you have at your house. But in between that, you know, these chores that they need to learn how to do, right? And then, of course, they come out and they help with the animals. And then at that point, they after, you know, the educational component, they have some free time that they want to go and do things that typically boys like to do. You know, they like to play the video games. They like soccer. You know, they like music a lot. So we have instruments that were donated so they can learn how to play instruments. We have piano, guitar, set, things like that. So they're musically inclined or they want to learn. They have the opportunity to do that. So we have volunteers that,

Speaker 1

22:01

oh, teach. They had to play nice and help them nice. So that's pretty

Speaker 2

22:05

much a typical day. And then, usually, you know, when boys do hate, take out the trash, yeah, you know, do things like that, you tell your sons to do right? You know, help around. And then they'll go talk to the ranch hands and say, Okay, we need help with. So they'll help to feed the animals and, like I said, Walk them and, you know, clean this. Help to clean whatever needs to be cleaned. And then they just come back and just kind of, you know, relax at the end of the day and have their dinner and prayer time and, or whatever your read time. And then they go back to to sleep in. Okay, start the next day over

Speaker 1

22:42

so and until the new place is built. Is anyone staying here, like on this property, any of

Speaker 2

22:48

the new prop level the older property? Oh, there's a different

Speaker 1

22:51

location than even this location for the Bob state health. Okay, okay,

Speaker 2

22:55

yeah. But everybody now has moved to the new property. Okay, so all of the boards over there now, just okay, yeah,

Speaker 1

23:04

and what's the occupancy over there for the boys?

Speaker 2

23:07

For the boys, we really don't let people know by Oh, number okay, that we have, but I can tell you, probably by the end of the year, I think Bob said he they were hoping that they could have, you know, close to 50. Wow, 35 to 50. But I don't know I can get that number for that

Speaker 1

23:32

would be, like, Max occupancy would be 50. Okay, that's good. That's all okay. All right, moving on. All right. Describe the facility. Are they individual little houses, or what does that look like?

Speaker 2

23:50

Yeah, the new facility basically is kind of like a city within the city. Everything is gated, everything is secure, cameras and the whole thing. But when you go in, there is the rec hall, okay, which is kind of the focal point of the place, and there's an administration building, okay, then you have the new safe house. And then with those with that safe house, there are transitional living homes that are adjacent to the safe house. Then if you walk a little further, there's where the barn area bond area where the animals are and all of their land and property, okay, so at the front of the place where you initially come in, there's some more space where the new administration offices will be built, because we are temporary right now, and we're going to be building a chapel on the property as well. To the north or to the left side of the Rec Center is where. Where that land will be dedicated for the younger kids. So they're working on getting the certification, or whatever is needed to be able to house youth. Also, Bob will be making an announcement about that, where we'll be able to house 11 to 17 year olds. Wow. So they will be on the opposite side of that, we have 40 acres, right?

Unknown Speaker

25:22

So I was asked that 40 acres, okay, wow. Okay.

Speaker 2

25:25

So everything, I mean, everything, is set up for the initial, first phase that we've gone through. And so the next phase is adding more transitional homes, which is why I said he was hoping to have, you know, up to, well, I'm gonna say the numbers ran between 35 to 50. Just depends on how many they can get in, sure, but by the end of the year, to have already on site, okay, I was

Speaker 1

25:53

hoping to learn a little bit about the programs I saw the this is EE, I'm sorry, E, A, C and EMDR. Can you talk about those at all?

Speaker 2

26:05

That would probably have to be a landing question. Okay, he could give you more information than those, so

Speaker 1

26:10

maybe I can get his email and just ask him to kind of outline that for me. Okay, all right, okay, describe the range of males who come here like their ages, their needs, how long they might stay, their backgrounds, and how far away they come. Oh Lord, well, I know you said 1818, to 24 so once they're 25 or

Speaker 2

26:38

I think the oldest one we have right now is 22 okay, but we house 18 to 24

Speaker 1

26:43

Okay, all right, and their needs? What do they need? Everything, everything

Speaker 2

26:47

that you would need for a home, basic household items. I'm

Speaker 1

26:53

sorry, I guess, like I meant personally, like, what do they

Speaker 2

26:57

need? Oh, personally in terms of physical clothing or both. Okay, yeah, all right. So always needing clothing, because typically, when we do get them, they're very emission emaciated, yeah, thank

Unknown Speaker

27:14

you. You started it. I got Yeah,

Unknown Speaker

27:16

and so the you know, to try to build up that nutrition again with them,

Speaker 2

27:23

so they grow and so the clothes, yes, any shoes, any type of toiletries that you would get a young man, shaving stuff, things like that. But trying to think it's pretty much, I mean, mentally, right? It's, it's more of just kind of going through the their trauma and and having them understand what happened to them and and, you know what they can do to help themselves when they feel that maybe something may trigger something. How do you handle that? How do you handle your anger? How do you deal with the hurt and the betrayal and things like that? So that's why it's a lot of intensive counseling that goes through that. I am not a counselor, right? The best person to handle to answer those questions would be land. It

Unknown Speaker

28:19

gave me a good overview. That's, yeah, you did good.

Speaker 2

28:21

But from the physical standpoint, they need everything that you would need, you know, clothing, toiletries, things that they can use at their house, appliances, you know, stuff like that that they would need to, you know, survive. You

Speaker 1

28:43

mentioned that they can work on their education. Do you find that the majority of them have not graduated high

Speaker 2

28:49

school? None of them have, at least the ones that we have had, which that's why they all we try to work with them to get their GED. So you said there's

Speaker 1

28:59

some testing at the beginning to try to figure out where they are educationally. And educationally as well as mentally, right? Okay, and then, like, from there, you just, like, meet them where they are and go forward. Okay, build on that, all right. And like, duration, do they? Do? You find that most of them need to stay here for four or five years, or some of them, like, I don't know, you know, they got it in a year

Speaker 2

29:19

we I've only been here a year and a half, test to the ones that I've seen since I've been here, we have two young men who are currently at UNT, and they decided they wanted to go to college. And one wants to be a counselor, to be able to help kids nice, to go through the things that he went through, yes and and so, and they're doing phenomenally well, from my understanding making A's and B's good. But I think with them,

Unknown Speaker

29:57

I think with the what was the last question you asked?

Speaker 1

29:59

It was. Like, like, the duration of, Oh, yeah. Does that vary at all?

Speaker 2

30:03

It does vary. They can stay with us up to that point, up to four or five years. But these young men were here, like, 18 months. Oh, you know, so some people may not need as much exactly, and some people just depends on their progress or how they feel. It could it could be six months, it could be a year. It could be, in this case, these two young men were here around 18 months, and they went through the process, and they're flourishing, you know, and it some people that is taking a little bit longer because the damage was so severe, you know, we have a young man who was trafficked by the Aryan Nation, and they gave him this drug. And I can't remember if it was wet or tranq, but it was familiar the Aryan Nation. Yeah, Aryan Nation. And basically the drug that they gave him. I don't know if it was formaldehyde mixed with PCP or fentanyl mixed with PCP. I can't remember the exact ingredients, but it basically just fried his brain. And so he, when they, when they did the testing with him, to just kind of see where he is mentally. He He has a mind of a eight or 90 year old man going through dementia. Oh, my goodness. So he can't take care of himself. He's gonna have to have lifelong care. So at this point, until he's that's why we're working with partners that have, like, long term care homes that, you know, they can kind of go into. So we're working with with people like that to help him, but until he, you know, is ready to make that move, you know, Bob and they're gonna keep him here that we know, we're gonna love on them. We're gonna make sure he feels safe and make sure you feel secure. Wow.

Unknown Speaker

31:55

How old is he?

Speaker 2

31:58

2122 I believe? Yeah. Okay,

Speaker 1

32:02

so you've already given me some background information, but I know that you had said that Bob was raped as a young man, but to me, that's a little bit different than being sex trafficked, like sex trafficked is continuous,

Speaker 2

32:17

yeah, after that, when he went and again, I don't have to be a story he will have to tell you, because I don't want to want to embellish or misinterpret. But basically, when he went through what he did very hard for him to process that right. And so he went from there to being homeless at 20 and got hooked on drugs. And so did what they call survivor sex, and so realized at that point that he was part of that trafficking world too, because people were using him. Okay, you know? So that filter into that, okay, okay.

Speaker 1

32:52

And do you find some other young men are from that type of background, whereas others come from the area, nation, type of environment, um, do their backgrounds vary, I guess is my question. It

Speaker 2

33:02

does. It varies. We have young men who a lot of people think, Oh, they're just troubled youth, and they ran away because they were just bad kids. And that's not necessarily the case, because sometimes they left the home because the damage was done to them in the home, right by a parent, by a stepfather or an uncle or a grandfather or a neighbor or, you know, a mama. I mean, it's just, it's crazy, right? And so they felt that their chances were better on the street than staying at home and still dealing with what was being what was being done to them. So it's not just like I just ran away because I just want to be rebellious. I ran away because the pain was at home. Yes, you know, yes. And so then that's what the predators do, and then they pick up on stuff like that. Well, I'll never let that happen to you, and I'll take care of you, and they feed them and clothe them and make sure they have a roof over their head, and they basically treat them in a way to build that trust. And then once they build that trust, okay, now that I've done all of this for you, what are you going to do for me? Gotcha. So all of that process is called grooming, yeah? And then once they get them to that point of, okay, now I feel obligated that I have to do these things for you because you helped me. I can't go back home because that's why I left. Yes, you know. So what do I do? Well, I do what I have to do,

Unknown Speaker

34:38

right? Yeah.

Speaker 1

34:39

How about geographically? I read that this is one of the only male sex trafficking. Okay, so like, How far away are you? Are people coming to you?

Speaker 2

34:50

The advocacy program that we have, we have people we're working with as far as Alaska. Oh, we also have young men who've come to us from across the board. Order that were trafficked from

Speaker 1

35:03

Mexico, from Mexico, that border, making sure we're talking about

Speaker 2

35:07

I know that Bob and Landon are talking with people in Canada to help with with all of that, because that's becoming a big problem with them, and because our country lies between them to those right borders, but, yeah, that's kind of what we do. Okay, all right. We have national we were everywhere, but that's about as far as we'll go. How

Speaker 1

35:31

do you receive new clients? I read that you called them clients on your website, right? Isn't that what our residents are? Residents? Okay, okay, so how do they come here? Yeah,

Speaker 2

35:40

the counseling program will typically refer to people as clients, okay, but with Bob's house of hope, their residents

Speaker 1

35:47

Gotcha, okay, thank you for clarifying. Yeah. So how does they get to you? Is it a police department?

Speaker 2

35:53

It is a wide range of services, of course, police, because Bob works hand in hand with all law enforcement agencies, from border control to FBI all the way down to state and local police. Okay? So sometimes in raids, they will call Bob and let them know, Hey, we have this case

Speaker 1

36:14

like an ice raid, or something like an ice raid, an immigration

Speaker 2

36:18

Yeah, yeah. Well, not immigration, but, I mean, they give tips, okay, that they think that this human trafficking thing is going on, so it can be a combination of that. Again, Bob will probably be better to kind of tell you the specifics. But then our juvenile system, various agencies like Casa or Department of Family Services, helping with children feminists or DFS Department of Family Services. So then it can also come through from other collaborative organizations like refuge for women and a couple of other organizations that do the trafficking for women, sometimes they don't get people, and they may know boys, and they handle boys, gotcha. So they will refer them to us, and vice versa. If we hear something that comes in and it's a female, then naturally we're going to go to refuge for women, or some other organization like that to say, hey. And you

Speaker 1

37:24

said this is the only one, only safe house in the nation for boys who have been sex traffic, correct? Okay, so are there any others in the world?

Speaker 2

37:31

They may have them in the world, but I don't that's huge. I mean,

Speaker 1

37:35

that's a big hole, a big Yeah, okay, all right. How many clients do you currently have living at Bob's house? Can you tell me that or not? It's okay. If you

Speaker 2

37:47

can, I'll live in and tell you that. I don't know how they want to word that, and some of that too is

Speaker 1

37:53

for their protection. Yes, here, I mean, we can skip it if you already said Max occupancy is 50, so I'm good with that now, okay. Okay, describe your staff, tell me who's helping these boys.

Speaker 2

38:06

Well, all of our counselors are certified counselors. Again, that's a landing

Unknown Speaker

38:15

question because,

Speaker 2

38:18

but they all have specialization in helping children who've gone through traumatic situations. Awesome, awesome staff. The nationally, they call this a reduction of symptoms nationally, when people start taking having counseling dunks for them, it usually, on average, about they'll have about 64% of reduction of symptoms. Is what the industry calls that. You know, once you start counseling, it helps to start reducing those symptoms that will help, that will set you off or trigger something that will make you feel that memory again, that makes you feel kind of where you were when that happened to you. Right with us. I think because of the great work that these you know folks are doing, I think we're probably in the higher age now, wow. Okay, so Landon is always asked to come and speak at different forms about what we do, because it's so far ahead of the average and the curve right? What is going on in the United States? He will be speaking, actually, we all will be at the crimes of these children national conference. So they will have people from all over the country and the world coming to this conference that's going to be held in August 11 through the 15th, that will be held here

Unknown Speaker

39:52

in Dallas. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah. How does the community benefit from Bob's house of hope?

Speaker 2

39:58

That's a good question. Yeah. I think, I think it benefits in that we're putting these young men in a position where they can become productive citizens, oh, yeah, to get back into the community so we get in there, work, pay taxes,

Speaker 1

40:16

and they want to do that. I mean, they want to be productive. They want to

Speaker 2

40:21

feel that, hey, this is my life. This is what it should have been for me. So for the community, that standpoint of having these young men coming in and contributing that way versus, you know, they basically have three options when they're out there with this human trafficking, and it is a lifetime of addiction to drugs, jail time or death. You know, that's their only option. So you look at all of that, and so my time is more vested in making you become a productive citizen, versus me having to pay for your jail time, right, you know, and all these other things that you're doing,

Speaker 1

41:05

right? That's a great answer. Yeah. So you mentioned earlier that you have volunteers that help teach music. Are there any other skills that some volunteers come in and help with, like culinary or

Speaker 2

41:20

things? Again, these young men don't know, right? So we have people come out to teach them how to cook, how to do ceramics, carpentry, yeah, how to sew, just basic things like that. That sometimes people say, Well, I don't know. They think that they have to have this massive amount of knowledge, and it could be something as creative as crocheting, okay, or knitting, right? You know, they're always interested in learning. They want to learn. They're like sponges. They just look. How can I learn how to fix electronics, right? You know how we have, matter of fact, our Executive Director, his dad comes out and volunteers. So he shows him how to fix things like

Speaker 1

42:04

cars or like plumbing or whatever, things like handyman kind of things, gotcha that's awesome.

Speaker 2

42:10

Come out and learn how to do these different things and how to fix this and how to fix that, and the toilet backs up

Unknown Speaker

42:18

lots of things. Like,

Speaker 2

42:19

I love that people come in with a wide range of

Speaker 1

42:23

talents, right? And they volunteer their time to teach those boys to be better or to have a better opportunity. That's wonderful. Okay? See if you like this question or not, what are three major events that shaped Bob's house of hope into what it is today? Was perhaps buying the new problem. I don't know if you even bought the new property. Maybe it was donated. Maybe it was

Speaker 2

42:43

donated. Oh, Lord, that may be a vibes question. Maybe put five on that. Okay,

Unknown Speaker

42:47

alright, to answer that. Alright. Gotcha.

Speaker 1

42:50

Okay. What surprises residents when they arrive, so like day one, when they arrive, what surprises them when they look around? I'm

Speaker 2

43:06

going to say, from my perception, I think landing from the mental health side of it and how they're processing things, he would be better to answer that. But from my perspective, I think what surprises them is the kindness that they see, that they actually see people are wanting them to get better and feel better, and they don't want anything in return for them to have that feeling of okay. I'm actually now starting to feel safe. I know that I can trust these folks, because when they come in, they're not trusting anybody, right? And of course, the adults excuse me, were the ones doing the infraction, especially the males,

Unknown Speaker

43:49

right? So

Speaker 2

43:50

they're not trusting anybody. I now, when I come out, they run to me and I give them hugs. And I had one guy, he told me, he said, You Can you give such great hugs? And I made a joke. I said, Hey, I give Mimi hugs because I'm hugging all the time. And he says, I like that. I like it because he never had one Mimi that would show affection to him that way, and that I'm not asking you for something in return, right? So it's just the love that's being shown. And I think it surprises them, for them to see, you know what, they're still good people in

Unknown Speaker

44:27

this great answer, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1

44:37

Oh, okay. I was trying to, I phrased that weird? We're almost done.

Speaker 1

44:51

You got like three questions left? Okay, what needs to take place for clients to be deemed approved to leave? Eva Bob's house of hope. What do they they need to show that like you're talking about earlier that summer at UNT, and they're all working on this and landed, they did

Speaker 2

45:10

the best one for them. Okay, I would say, I mean, they, they look at everything from where they were to what they're doing now, all of the testing that was done is there's constant testing throughout the duration of their being here, because there's metrics that have to be met. So there's phases or parts that they have to you know, are you? You know, did you finish your GED? You know, this, like the physical stuff, then they look at the mental capacity. Where are you mentally as compared to where you were when you started right, you know? So there's constant testing that's going on to see where the progression is right. And then once they get to that magical part, then they have that conversation with the person, with the resident, and say, okay, you know, you fulfilled all of these check boxes, and you feel that you're ready to take that next step. How do you feel about it? Right? You know, so we still give them that option to make that determination of how you feel, Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready, or I feel I need to hang on a little bit longer because I'm struggling in this area. And then they just regroup, okay, but that's kind of the

Unknown Speaker

46:22

general what can readers do to become involved? How can they help you?

Unknown Speaker

46:26

I can help me? Well,

Unknown Speaker

46:33

donations, yes.

Speaker 2

46:37

From my mindset, it's all about we got to get the money in for sure, more money that we can get in, and more young men we can help. Yeah. So in terms of helping, they can help us through financial giving, through net financial covid, being part of being a wall of Hope sponsor. They can help to be an event sponsor at one of our fundraising fundraisers. Okay, they can also be a monthly giving donor that also helps, because that's sustainable money. You know? They can help to spread the word. So they can be our ambassador to let people know what we do, who we are, how we're helping people, connecting us with folks, so that we can have those dialogs with people, sure to let them know about us volunteering their time, efforts and energy.

Speaker 1

47:33

So if we have, like, a skill that you would like to share with them, you can, yeah, contact and then say, I can do this. Would you? Are you in need of this? Connections could be made.

Speaker 2

47:43

Us to secure in kind donations for our auctions. Okay, administrative help. We're always needing people to help us to get letters out to folks, put together newsletters. So if someone is very creative in graphic design, you know, things like that, that's kind of that all kind of falls under that administrative category, right? So we, you know, in terms of the animals helping with making sure that the animals are good and fed and clean. You know, people, some people some people just like to work outdoors. They like to work with animals. So there's always need there at the ranch for the animals to show them love as well, because they've gone through, you know, a lot of horrific things. So that's all part of the volunteering. So to the gist of it, the category would basically be helping financially, whether it's money or being kind, helping to spread the awareness, volunteering their time and services and just opening doors for us. You know it may be Hey, you know what? I work at XYZ company. I give you a prime example, my youngest daughter, went to work for KPMG, which is the fourth largest accounting company in the country, okay, here in Dallas. And so when she started working here, she came to me and she said, Mom, you know, they have grant applications. You can apply for funding, because she found out through the course of talking to people, and I'm like, oh, okay, great. So open that door for me. Who do I need to talk to right there that people who may work for organizations or know, someone who knows, someone who can open that door for us. Yeah, to get in, because once we get in by me, or either Landon, and we get in, and we start talking, Wendy, people are like, you they're like, Wow. I didn't know that all of this was really going on, or I didn't know that we even had this in our back door, right? Because this the human trafficking, unfortunately, is an epidemic. They're taking care. It's across the board. It's not like it's all white kids, all black kids, all you know, Latina. It's pretty much even okay. You know, 30 is about 30. Last time I looked at some of the numbers, 36% Caucasian and 34% African American and 30 something, 29% or 30% Latina or Mexican descent, and then the small percentage was up, okay, to make that 400% whatever those numbers, right? But in terms of the main ones, it's about even, you know, yeah, they, they the predators tend to like biracial kids, autistic kids or

Unknown Speaker

50:50

autistic. So

Unknown Speaker

50:53

do you receive autistic, um,

Speaker 2

50:55

adults? I have not seen any since I've been here. Okay, I'm not saying that that's not the case, right? That would be a landing to talk about previous people that who may think about that element. Yeah, okay, because I guess they figured the autistic kid would be the one to be able to explain to you what was really, really going on. Yes, you know. And so it's unfortunate they pick on the most vulnerable. Now,

Unknown Speaker

51:23

okay, let's see one in five year goals. What do you what do you guys hope to happen over there at the new location?

Speaker 2

51:34

Well, I'll tell you my goals. Yeah, okay, sure, yeah, yeah, that sounds great. Bob and Linda can kind of give you the overall but I'm hoping for from the business development side, my short term goal is to try to create as much awareness as possible within my sphere of influence here in Dallas and North Texas, to get more ambassadors to kind of double our capacity of people who can be out there like I am, and kind of carbon copy myself, to say, hey, I need you to go here. Can you do a presentation for us and letting people know what's going on? Because we need the more more people know, the more active people are going to want to be, and there's more eyes out there now being cognizant of what's going on around them that some because police officers can't be everywhere, but other people can be where police officers are not sure. And so what do I look for? How do I even begin to process that? Right? So to have those ambassadors would be my short term goal at this point to start building up that team, to get those ambassadors in, and then start building some business, some more business developers to come in, and then we can kind of break up the categories a little bit, where I can have folks focus on particular areas, instead of us, like, right now, everything is kind of blanketed. You're hitting everybody. But it's more effective when you can get people to say, Okay, this is your territory. This is your area. So from the business development side, that's kind of my short term goal. Long term goal, I would like to have a small sales force throughout the country that could be out there and basically being a developer, raising funds, creating awareness, developing those relationships with those corporations, so that we can bring in additional dollars to continue the expansion. I know that Bob and Lennon had talked about they would love to see Mrs. Moore like way down the road, but to see more Bob's house of hopes

Unknown Speaker

54:00

throughout the nation, about the nation, sure? So,

Speaker 2

54:03

so you don't necessarily have to have everybody having to try to get here, right? We have to fly somebody in, or bring someone in from the bus station, or whatever the train station, whatever the case may be, where there's immediate, direct access to resources and services to help them to get, you know, into a safe and secure environment.

Speaker 1

54:24

Do you have any partnerships with local businesses for the the young men who are ready to leave and like, find a job? Has anyone like reached out and said, we'd be definitely interested in helping you know your guys get their first job? Is there anything like that that said, set up. Yeah, we've

Speaker 2

54:40

had some companies that the case managers really work on that to talk to businesses like that's also part of my ploy. I do, or have been in conversation with Workforce Solutions. Yes, solutions and text. There's a new. Other one up here in Denton, there's Texas Workforce Commission, and then there's a Texas Workforce solution. Okay, so people tend to think they're the same thing, right? Actually, two different people. Okay, so, but we do talk to them, and they'll let us know if there's people there and availability. We also work with the local schools like NCTC to help if they want to go get an associate degree or things like that. And then through those types of organizations, you know, of course, they have job development and placement there for their students. But for us, we work with those types of agencies to try to help our young boys to find employment, but and, and then just conversation, talking to people. Hey, you hear about something, you know, let us know, and the case manager will communicate, and we'll get fill out an application.

Speaker 1

55:56

So in terms of education, you mentioned you they can get their GED. We can do teachers come on property and teach, or is it basically all done online?

Speaker 2

56:04

Basically online, but we'll have the mentors to come help them to work through some of that stuff, okay, but it's online.

Speaker 1

56:11

Okay? And then you also mentioned that you have an example the student going to UNT does, is he able to, like, live at Bob's and commute to UNT? They

Speaker 2

56:21

can do either way. Now, both of these young men decided they wanted to have opportunity to live on campus. Okay? To have that campus life.

Speaker 1

56:30

Alright? So they basically left Bob's correct, awesome. So they're all on their way. They've got their wings. Okay. Is

Unknown Speaker

56:35

there anything else you want to add that I didn't think to ask you? Um, oh, no, you were pretty thorough. You feel okay. I know he said summer Bob and

Speaker 1

56:42

summer Landon. So yeah, I'll turn it like, stroll back to those and put them in an email, and then they can be just burst to whoever needs to answer. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker

56:51

okay,

Unknown Speaker

56:52

I'm hoping I gave you as much. Oh, you did

Unknown Speaker

56:55

great. I mean, you

Speaker 1

56:56

totally did great. Okay, it just might be good to get you know, because I really wanted to know about some of the treatments. And I think you said Landon would be the guy for that, yeah,

Speaker 2

57:04

he handles the mental health side of all, I'm the business side, okay, so, like I said, he can explain more about where they where they're wanting to see this, yeah, long term, I can tell you kind of my vision for wherever I can see, the business development focus, you know, to be on right? So that's my primary. Is just trying to build up these ambassadors and those that extended arm in the community, to get out there and let people know, people who would want to maybe go talk to the schools or go to churches, you know, go to auxiliary organizations. I had a meeting with the Kiwanis Club at Wilson Ranch, okay, to talk to them about what we do. They were like, Okay, well, what can we do? How can we help? You know, blah, blah, blah. So I haven't had one incident where I've made a presentation that someone hasn't said, What can we do to help good? How can I help? Good? And we have groups that are coming in. Of course, everyone who comes in has to be vetted, right? Just can't walk up and walk up and say, I want to do this, yeah? First you have to go through a background check and a fingerprint check and all of that, right? And then once that clears, then they go through a full training process. And it's probably about maybe 446, hours of training, okay? And then, depending upon what areas they want to specialize in, they may have to go through a little bit longer training in terms of if they're going to want to work with the boys directly, versus working with somebody like me, if I'm prepping for events,

Speaker 3

58:42

or I don't need that intense, right? All right, yeah, I understand, yeah. But

Speaker 2

58:49

with the boys, there's heavy bedding that goes on if they're wanting to have direct relationship with those young

Speaker 1

58:55

men, okay, and I heard about you guys at the Unity luncheon that Lewisville Chamber was holding, yep, okay, why would for the quarter, what are we taking pictures up? I know of you. What else? What else are we doing? Um,

Speaker 2

59:06

well, we can go to the stable and we can take pictures there. And the

Unknown Speaker

59:12

question is, since you guys are moving.

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