- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "A Targeted Approach."

We'll learn more about a nonprofit providing reading intervention, family literacy, and communication programs to build stronger families and communities.

An organization providing character, abstinence, and tobacco prevention programs to promote healthy choices for youth and their families and an orthopedic group leveraging technology to improve patient experience and giving back to improve the community.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2021.

- From our very   beginnings in 1954,   Lipscomb & Pitts   Insurance has been built   on the values of   customer service,   leading with integrity, and   supporting our community.

We believe in promoting   the positives,   encouraging engagement,   and leading by example   to power the good.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The SPARK is provided by Meritan, ECOP, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, My Town Miracles and by SRVS.

- Ever been excited by a new idea, inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is The SPARK.

[upbeat music] They empower individuals and enrich communities through literacy.

We're here with the Executive Director of Shelby Literacy Center, Penny Aronson, and let's start out recent name change.

Give us a little bit of the history for the organization.

- Sure.

Well, we have been in Collierville since 1987 as Collierville Literacy Council.

And we were really an adult literacy center,   which focused on high   school equivalency   or the GED or HiSET and   English as a Second Language.

In 2020, we really decided to change over.

Things were really hard with COVID, we really wanted to take a deeper look at how we could be better for our community, how to serve our community better.

And we looked at some of the statistics and information about family literacy.

And so we started this journey into focusing on English for speakers of other languages to really updating our language program for the conversation, culture and classes, and then Reading Intervention, particularly for middle schoolers.

And then we wanted to focus in on family literacy to bridge those two demographics and bring in our community to talk about all the ways that we learn throughout our entire lives.

So Shelby Literacy Center really reflects our programming and who we are with our mission and vision.

- Let's go ahead and dive into the programs.

You mentioned the eading intervention and you work specifically in the middle school age group.

So talk about why that's so important and then dive into the program.

- Sure.

Our Reading Intervention, we really wanted to focus in on those middle schoolers.

What we saw in our high school equivalency program is that adults were coming to us with a third or fifth grade reading level.

It is really hard to get that high school diploma when you have to do trigonometry and write an essay, but you just don't have the background.

For people coming in to see us, they would often leave and not achieve their goal.

What we really wanted to do was keep those kids in school.

There's something called the middle school moment that was actually focused on way back in 2012, where kids suddenly when they have to need to learn   and they're not   able to decide,   that they really aren't   engaged in school.

So we wanted to change   that, build that confidence,   build that   foundational literacy,   keep them in school   successfully so   that when they get   to high school,   they really have a chance to   go on to secondary education or a career.

So that program was really when I was very passionate about getting off the ground.

And they're not really focused on in the way that we do it in other areas of the county.

So our other programming is our English Speakers of Other Languages,   where we take individuals,   whether they are learning hello   or thank you, all the way   up through citizenship   and getting a job,   and walk them through   that fluency of what   is it to speak English,   read, listen, and write,   all the way through   ordering at a drive-through,   getting your US citizenship,   getting a driver's license.

Whatever the individual goals are, through that process of literacy which takes between five to seven years, if individuals are really dedicated to learning English and moving outside of their community.

We also wanted to build culture, and we do that through Global Tees, where our students from more than 20 countries now, can come together and share their cultures, share people who are also in the same, but may have a different background so that they can learn how our community is truly a melting pot.

The Family Literacy program takes both of those different demographics and gives us the ability to learn as a community.

So if we're gonna talk about financial literacy and you don't have a bank account yet, or you're a teenager and you don't know how to read your pay stub, or you just don't really understand what an interest rate on a loan is, we can really work together and do that.

That's learning to change a tire, how to find out where to go and print a document if you don't have a printer at home.

It's all of those different ways that we continue to learn.

It's never too late to start, and it's never too much to continue.

- Give us an idea of what success looks like, and so you don't have to names specific names.

When you talk about the youth jumping grade levels with their reading and the families and the literacy and the communication.

What does success look like?

- That is such a great question.

So success for our students is where one student in particular, one little boy is not afraid to stay in the classroom anymore.

Before, he would wanna go to the bathroom all the time, that was really red flag for his teacher.

So now he's also helping other students in the classroom continue with their homework.

He's now doing way better in his wrestling.

So that confidence builds that they can take on whatever those hurdles are in their lives and they don't feel like they aren't good enough and they can't do it.

And that's the power of learning to read, it's way more than just reading words on a page.

It's that confidence to be able to say, "I may not know this now, but I can learn it."

For our ESOL students, it could really be meeting that individual personal goal right then.

We have students who come to us and say, "I really wanna be able to order food at the drive-through if they don't have pictures."

So that's that one particular goal.

We have students who come to us and they say, "I want to be able to have a conversation with my child's teacher."

That for them is that success moment in time.

And then we say, "Okay, we learned that, what else can we learn now?"

And it opens up a world that was formally was completely closed.

So now we get to really have those deep conversations, we work in a safe environment, we make sure it's open, and we make sure that our students feel like they can learn.

- So how can we help you?

How can we help Shelby Literacy Center fly?

- Well, we are always looking to build our student base, we are looking obviously for funding, we're continuing to grow, it's been a tough couple of years.

So we're looking for corporate sponsors and donors and we have a full fundraising events calendar this year.

We are looking for board members, we're always board recruiting.

And we are also looking   for continued education   professionals to work with us.

We really like the idea of   having teachers on our staff   and then helping those   volunteers who come in.

So our volunteers can   work with us one-on-one or an ongoing basis, and we'll provide training for them.

- So where do we go to learn more, to get involved?

Website, social media, phone number?

Where would you direct us?

- That's great.

We are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

You can find us on the web at shelbyliteracy.com.

You can give us a call at 901-854-0288.

- Well, Penny, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for having me.

[upbeat music] - They're helping youth rise and make healthy choices.

We're here with the Project Director for Aiming for Healthy Families, Alesha Knight.

And Alesha, let's start.

Give us some background, some history for Aiming for Healthy Families.

- Well, hey Jeremy.

Thank you so much for having me on today.

We're an organization that goes back over 20 years, started by Ms. Carolyn Gowen and Ms. Pat Trainum.

They wrote their   curriculum about abstinence   and abstinence education   at that point in time.

And they not only shared that information in the schools locally, but they went all over the United States, and we've just only grown from there.

- And you have a local approach hands-on working with schools.

Talk about the partnership with the schools.

- Well, that's one thing that's very interesting.

It's wonderful to get to be in the schools   and get to be   with our children.

In 2011, the state   of Mississippi   passed House Bill 999,   which required abstinence   or abstinence plus education   in all of our schools,   knowing our statistics.

And so it's a   wonderful partnership,   a lot of our curriculum   aligns with the curriculum that has to be taught in the schools, either in the health classes or now the College and Career Readiness classes.

And so it's a win-win for both the schools and for our agency to be able to go in and teach a touchy subject that maybe some teachers wouldn't want to approach, or maybe they don't feel adequately educated and prepared to, we get to do that for them.

- I think one of the unique things though, is that you are educators.

And so you are an educator on your end, you come from the teaching background.

And so you know how to do it with empathy and respect and have those conversations.

Talk about it from that educator angle of going in and working with the youth.

- Well, if you've ever even step foot in a classroom while a class is going on, you understand that it takes a lot to be an educator.

It takes time management, it   takes classroom management,   and then the planning and the   prep that goes behind that.

So from us coming out of   the schools ourselves,   we understand what all has   to happen on the back end,   the survey links   that are sent,   the permission forms   that are sent out,   all that kind of stuff   that's got to happen.

But when we have educators or former educators, we also know how to interact with the students, we get the energy from those students, and we know classroom management.

Because yes, sometimes younger children get a little giggly when you mention certain subjects, and so you have to be able to have fun with them, but also make sure the message is delivered and the classroom management and that type of thing is taken care of.

So it does help to have that background, because it's completely different if you've never experienced it before.

- What's been the feedback from the students?

Because obviously on your end, you get a lot of information back from the students and you're fighting a lot of false narratives and trying to give them accurate information.

So what's been the feedback from the students?

- Well, they find it very interesting.

And one of the things that we do is that the very end of lesson nine, the very last lesson that we're with them, we have them take out note cards and tell us what have you learned through this curriculum?

And so many of them use the little cliche, I'm gonna decide before I slide.

And so we talk about that in one of our lessons, deciding before sliding into sex.

And so it's nice to hear that repeated, it's nice to hear that they didn't understand how certain STDs are prevented or how they're spread.

There's a lot of myths out there, and so it's really rewarding when our students give us feedback that we have made them think, we have made them think what it's like to be a possible single parent, or how they want to achieve their goals.

So we love that feedback and we feel like we're doing a lot of good work within these schools.

- Tobacco prevention, alcohol prevention, also bullying, staying in school, you cover a lot of topics.

Give us a little bit on some of those other subject areas.

- Oh, gosh.

Well, one of the things that we talk about, we do talk about bullying, we talk about that from an empathy standpoint.

A lot of people approach it from a "Stop bullying" type of thing, but we want to approach it from a, "How would you feel when you walk into the cafeteria "and there's a new person sitting by themselves?

"If that was you, how would you feel?

Or if somebody said this about you, how would you feel?"

And so we take a little different approach in the bullying aspect from that.

We also have two other grants that cover the tobacco coalition.

We have ones that serve Alcorn and Tippah and Tishomingo and Prentiss.

And so vaping as we know is a huge, I almost say situation among our youth now.

So many of 'em are vaping and not even realizing what that's doing to them physically.

They think it is less harmful than cigarettes, but they find out that that's not always the case.

So it's really important for us to go in and educate the youth on all subjects: domestic violence, unhealthy relationships.

I like to give an example   that one of the schools   that we went   into in Lee County,   there was a young lady   whose mother was worried   about the relationship   she was in.

She thought he was   emotionally abusive   and she wouldn't   listen to her mother.

She happened to   sit in our sessions   and she kept saying the red   flags that we talked about,   and she kept saying, "This   is me and this is him,   and this is us."

And she ended up   breaking up with him and actually ends up speaking to several...

When we have events down there in that particular county, she speaks on our behalf, because it made such an impact.

And her mother and father are so grateful now that she was able to see those warning signs, not from them, but from our program.

- You work a lot with parents.

And for you yourself as a parent, what's something that you've learned or how have you been better equipped, through the education and everything that you're doing?

- One of the biggest things I learned that I think our parents are not aware of, is regardless of what's happening in our children's lives, the number one influence in their lives are their parents.

And I think as parents, we don't know that that's true.

And we think that it's social media, we think that it's friends, and obviously those play a big role in it.

But when you ask our youth who's got the biggest impact on them and their lives, especially on the subject of abstinence or sex or sexual education, they're gonna say their parents.

So we have got to become more comfortable talking about this.

- You have a number of helpful resources online.

So go ahead and wrap up with your website, social media.

Where would you direct us to get involved, learn more, and access all the information?

- Well, we do have social media on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

So please follow us there in our website, aiming4hf.org.

- Well, Alesha, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you for having me, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2021 recipient of the Corporate Award for Companies with 100 Employees or Fewer is Grind City Kicks.

- Grind City Kicks   initially was started   to resale shoes, Jordans,   Yeezys, and stuff like that.

From there, I wanted to   be a little bit different   than everybody else.

So I wanted it to have some kind of community impact that we did instead of just selling shoes and making money.

So we started to do stuff like give shoes back to families that have lost loved ones due to tragedies, as we did with the [indistinct] family.

Her son was killed in   a drive-by shooting   at his grandma's house.

As we did with Kam Johnson,   he got killed in a bus accident   coming down from Dallas,   playing in a   football tournament,   so we gave a shoe to his mom.

So doing stuff like that,   after that, I took over the   company and then started to expand it even more.

So even going into sports leagues, sports organizations   doing different things   with MICR Memphis,   Inner City Rugby Club,   doing things with She Got Game,   a women's basketball league   that's here in Memphis.

He Got Game, another   men's basketball league   here in Memphis.

Doing things with   American Cancer Society,   giving back to breast   cancer awareness.

Happy with the help of   Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson   signing the shoe and   giving it to [indistinct]   to raise more money for   breast cancer awareness.

Doing things with [indistinct],   giving them jerseys and   stuff that they didn't have,   they couldn't afford because   it wasn't in their budget   so the MLK location.

With the pandemic, giving   money back from last year,   'cause it was just a   shocker for the whole world   that everything was going on.

I felt that in   terms of my company   and then my new found   nonprofit organization,   Grind City Cares, being   able to use my platform   to give back and donate a check   to Neighborhood Christian Cente   for them to do more   work in the community   and provide more resources to   people that are in need of it,   especially to have   dealt with COVID.

And we allowed people to   buy this shirt to give to...   For the proceeds to   go back to the victims   hat have dealt with the COVID.

I can't even remember how   many people bought the shirt,   but this was the first time   that we had so many   people around the country,   not just in   the City of Memphis,   not just in the Mid-South   area that bought the shirt   and was supporting,   was tagging each other, putting everybody on Facebook and Instagram and all of social media.

And then we were able to give this checkout to Neighborhood Christian Center and it was just an amazing feeling.

We started from as a   reseller trying to get shoes   and trying to resell into   people in the community   and get some   money up for that,   to now having our   first official shoe.

It's just another   speechless moment.

It's big, it's for   the social awareness, it's for things that's going on from this year and last year.

And more people tell you all the time, they support you, we love what you're doing and stuff like that.

But to win something like this is just...

I'm truly honored.

[upbeat music] - They're an orthopedic group leveraging technology to improve the patient experience and also giving back to improve our community as well.

We're here with the Director of Marketing for OrthoSouth, Melissa Kandel.

And Melissa let's start.

Give us an idea of the number of locations, number of physicians, give us some background for OrthoSouth.

- Hi, OrthoSouth we offer comprehensive orthopedics across eight clinic locations and 38 physicians.

You can find us in Memphis, Bartlett, Germantown, Southaven and as far down as Hernando.

We offer onsite physical therap   at all of our clinic locations, and we even have two outpatient surgery centers.

- Talk about some of the things that make you unique.

One is you apply kind of a hospitality twist, so you're focused on that patient experience, but you're using really the hospitality industry to make sure it elevate even more.

So talk about some of the things that make you different.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, one of our major focuses since the brand began in 2019 has really been bringing an optimal patient experience   into the healthcare fold.

So every touch point that   we have with a patient   from their call, their   first interaction with us,   all the way to their   last interaction,   we try to make that a   five-star experience.

It doesn't need to be   the sterile medical angle   that we have come to   expect from healthcare,   we want to elevate that and   really roll out the red carpet for all of our customers.

- I mentioned leveraging technology and that includes some new robots.

And so talk about technology.

- Yes, we are happy to have two new outpatient robotic systems to assist with knee replacements in both of our surgery centers.

One is available in Germantown and our Germantown surgery center location on Exeter Road.

And the other one we are proud to say is the first robot assisted knee surgery or knee replacement platform in North Mississippi, which is located at our Southaven surgery center.

- What does that mean for the patient experience, for the physicians?

What does the robotics mean in terms of being able to take it to that next level?

- So the robotic experience just helps physicians provide that extra level of comfort and assurity to patients who are getting their knee replacement procedure.

We have coupled that with the outpatient setting so that patients don't even have to go to the hospital anymore to receive that next level of assurity.

And they can have that surgery in what we call a same-day surgery environment.

So they go into the surgery center that morning, they have their robotic-assisted surgery, and then they leave that same day and go home to rehabilitate in the comfort of their own home.

- I know that your physicians in OrthoSouth as a whole does a lot around education.

And obviously as we get older taking care of our bodies, the health and wellness is extremely important, and so education plays a vital role.

Talk about why it's so important to be educating the community on not just orthopedics, but just health and wellbeing so that we can take good care of ourselves.

- Especially over the past 10 years or so, health and wellness and being able to head off these chronic conditions that we often see when we age, has become vitally important.

So we do try to provide educational sessions whenever we can.

Oftentimes, we try to have a webinar once a month that is geared toward patients and some of those more common conditions that we run into over time whether we're more athletic minded or just as we get older and we've used our joints for a period of time.

Anyone who is interested can go to orthosouth.org and subscribe to our patient newsletter, where we send out invitations for those webinars.

And we also always put the recording of the webinars on our website as well.

- You work a lot with schools and youth and your physicians are on-call right there to make sure that the youth are well taken care of.

And so talk about the partnerships with the schools and working with youth.

- So we're in a number of schools where we have an athletic trainer on-site, a number of high schools and middle schools   throughout the   Mid-South region,   and then athletic trainer   really works in the school   with the students day-to-day.

They're primarily assisting   the athletes and the coaches   and helping to support   the teams on the sidelines   and during practices.

But many of them will tell you,   they also see students,   they see teachers,   they see friends of family who   needs an orthopedic consult,   or they're there   when they have...   hen there's a minor   injury on campus,   they assist the nurse's office.

They're a really good source of our outreach to the community and really help us give back.

- Speaking of giving back, share why it's so important on your end to be involved in the community and for you, your team, your physicians, to be serving in the community.

Why is that so important to OrthoSouth?

- So anyone, any orthopedic group, any medical group, any business can... We can go out there and be the best we can be in our business, but it really comes back to community   and serving our community.

And that's what   we're all here for   when you talk in the   broad scope of things.

So it's really   important for OrthoSouth   to find additional ways   to serve our customers,   to serve our patients, and   to serve our communities so   that we can be a good   support in their lives.

We've partnered with the   number of foundations and nonprofits over the years, and we continue to do so.

Coming up in May, we'll be working very closely with the Arthritis Foundation to support their outreach efforts and awareness surrounding all forms of arthritis in the Mid-South community.

- Wrap up with contact information.

So we website, social media, where do we go to learn more about OrthoSouth?

And as you mentioned, sign up for the newsletter and get involved.

- Absolutely.

We can always find us at orthosouth.org.

You can find us on Facebook, we are @orthosouthcare, or you can just search for us in the search bar.

We're also on Instagram at orthosouth_.

And we'd love to grow our following and just be able to reach patients and other people who are interested in athletics and sports medicine and orthopedics, physical therapy.

So find us at all of this locations and we'll be happy to see you.

- Well, Melissa, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks so much, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - We've heard the saying, you can't be all things to all people.

In order to make a difference in the lives of others and in our community, it takes a targeted approach.

t takes focus, strategy, persistence, patience, empathy, and understanding, and going the extra mile to do whatever it takes to help those you love and care for, those who depend on you, and those who need our support.

As we saw in this month's episode, we're fortunate to have organizations taking a targeted approach to helping youth and adults, supporting families, and strengthening communities.

Nonprofits like Shelby Literacy Center are providing Reading Intervention to youth who are struggling in school to help them build knowledge and confidence.

And they're bringing families together through literacy and communication programs that empower and enrich our community.

Aiming for Healthy Families is giving youth and their families the tools necessary to combat all of the problems associated with high risk behaviors such as teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, violence, and dropping out of school so youth can thrive.

And companies like OrthoSouth are not only taking a targeted approach with how they help patients and leverage technology, but with how they give back and improve our community as well.

The more we focus, the more we can fuel positive change.

So thank you for watching The SPARK.

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month and we hope you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From our very   beginnings in 1954,   Lipscomb & Pitts   Insurance has been built   on the values of   customer service,   leading with integrity, and   supporting our community.

We believe in promoting   the positives,   encouraging engagement,   and leading by example   to power the good.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is honored to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]