- This month on the SPARK, our theme is "Building Community While Making and Preserving Memories".

We'll learn about a nonprofit providing a regular program of Memory Cafes to help those with memory loss and their caregivers, an organization serving those facing Alzheimer's disease and related dementias through education, support, training, advocacy, and research.

And an organization rooted in faith that's lifting our community through home repair and leadership development.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2023.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency 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.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sp onsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Ad ditional funding for the Spark is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, EcOp, the Memphis Zoo, and by My Town Movers, My Town Roofing.

[upbeat music] - Have you 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.

They're a nonprofit providing a regular program of Memory Cafes to help support those with memory loss and their caregivers.

We're here with Kristen Miller, she's the Executive Director with Memory Makers of the Midsouth.

And Kristen, let's start out.

What led you to launch Memory Makers of the Midsouth?

- Well, the Memory Cafe program started in the Netherlands in the late '90s.

and it slowly but surely made its way across the world.

And when I heard about the program about two or three years ago, I said, "Memphis really needs this."

And so after a year of trying to get other people on board, I said, "You know what, I'm just gonna start with a mobile one and see where it goes."

And now it's blossomed into seven Memory Cafes that meet once a month.

- So go ahead and talk about what is a Memory Cafe?

- So the Memory Cafe is a chance for people that have memory loss and their caregivers to come together.

They can leave the diagnosis at the door.

We have a program of activities that are designed for a person with memory loss to feel successful and be engaged and have a good time.

We have refreshments, of course.

We have a free resource table where our caregivers can pick up more information on caregiving and about the disease processes.

And we also offer support as well as a program of educational speakers.

- When you look at opening access, making it convenient with the locations, and then also building community with those with memory loss and their caregivers coming together with the experts, the support, the resources.

Talk about those two pieces and why that really is helping to lift our community.

- Right, so we estimate there's about 13,000 people in Shelby County living with memory loss and there's just really not enough resources to go around.

So that's one problem.

Another problem is where those resources are located.

Most of those are out east, so people would have to drive to get to 'em.

And then the third part of the problem is the cost.

Some of the options that we have are just cost prohibitive for a lot of people.

So the Memory Cafe is free and we purposely place it in neighborhoods where there are no resources so people don't have to travel to find things, they can just enjoy it right there in their neighborhood.

- If a location would like to partner with you and become a Memory Cafe, what goes into that?

- So we are always looking for refreshment sponsors.

We're always looking for donations because we are a nonprofit.

The refreshment sponsor is very low investment.

We just ask you to bring some snacks and you can bring your brochures and be on hand to answer any questions that a caregiver might have about your services.

And we always welcome volunteers of course.

- You've put together a playbook, so to speak, in terms of creative ideas and opportunities for engagement.

Talk about the playbook.

- Right, so that actually is our protocol.

So when I first started the Memory Cafe here in Memphis, I decided, you know, I kind of needed a roadmap so we weren't just kind of randomly pulling ideas together.

So I wrote a guidebook that's called "A Year of Meaningful Dementia Activity Themes".

And there's five themes for each month.

And each theme is fleshed out with all the activities that we do that include music and games and creative arts and sensory integration, all kinds of things.

- What's been the feedback like?

- Oh, it's been fantastic because if you have memory loss, or if you're caring for a person with memory loss, it's very isolating and there's not a lot of places where you can go out in public and feel comfortable and maybe it's too overwhelming, there's too much noise, or maybe you're afraid of saying the wrong thing or your caregiver is gonna be embarrassed because you did something a little outside the norm and they have to explain it to other people.

Here it doesn't matter, you know, you just come as you are.

It doesn't matter if you can't remember something, we are all there.

- Talk about some of the ways the community can help, including opening up more Memory Cafes.

- Right, so we have seven Memory Cafes that meet once a month.

We have two or three more in our pipeline.

Our goal is to have 20 all over Shelby County.

So we are recruiting more locations.

So if you have a public space that might be interested, we'd love to hear from you.

And mostly we need help spreading the word and letting these caregivers and their families know that we're there for them, that we exist, that they are welcome to come to any of the Memory Cafes, not just the one that happens to be closest to them.

And really that's the biggest benefit to us is helping us spread that word.

- When you talk about spreading the word, talk about where we can go to learn more about the Memory Cafes, the different locations, and also too Memory Makers of the Midsouth.

- Right, so our website is memorymakersmidsouth.org and our website is full of information about our locations, our services, resources.

And as far as our locations, we have Memory Cafes in Lakeland, Cordova, Germantown, Collierville, East Memphis, North Memphis, and Orange Mound.

- Well Kristen, thank you for all you do to power the good.

Greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you so much for having me.

[upbeat music] - They're an organization serving those facing Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

We're here with the community educator with the Alzheimer's Association, Tennessee chapter, Dr. Janis Knox.

And let's start out, give us a little bit of your story, your why tied to Alzheimer's Association, Tennessee Chapter.

- Thank you.

Good morning, Jeremy.

Where do I start?

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2010 and she passed in 2016 and she was a teacher.

She taught 43-plus years.

So you know, the Renaissance woman just really doing a lot of things.

If you thought about it, she had already done it.

And at the end she introduced me as her sister, you know, not her daughter Jan. And she struggled for words, remember 43 years teaching.

And you know, words were difficult and that led my passion to continue to work with the Alzheimer's Association.

And I have a walk team called Team Forget Me Not in her honor.

And I walk every year and it's just important for me to give back.

And I am a community educator and we go out into the community to promote awareness.

And I do that at my church.

You know, I have many friends that, you know are basically walking this walk now and just whatever I can do to connect them to the Tennessee chapter especially to know what's available.

Because we have found that that's what's happening that so many people are unaware.

After that initial diagnosis, it's like the deer in headlights.

Where do I go from here?

You know, you have your familiarity with your primary care physician and he can lead you to some degree, but you need the social workers, you need the nurses to do that care navigation to get you to that 1-800 number to help you with the resources that are available.

- Go ahead and dive into a little bit of background on Alzheimer's disease.

- Actually, the question, dementia.

Dementia is the overwhelming umbrella.

Dementia.

And there are multiple types of dementia, with Alzheimer's being the most common.

And in the news you've noticed that Bruce Willis, and I can't think of her name, Wendy Williams, have frontal temporal dementia, which is another kind of dementia.

And there's also Lewy Body.

And there are, I won't say lesser types, but less known types.

But the most common one is Alzheimer's.

And they talk about the brain and there are formation called plaques that will happen that affect the memory centers.

And that's part of why, you know, words are a problem and mood swings happen and different changes because of these plaques and amyloids, you know, not getting too deep into that, but that's really just the background.

But yeah, dementia is the umbrella, and Alzheimer's is the most common with the others following, so that's the biggie.

You know, you'll hear people say she has dementia, you know, and there is a type, you know, and you can have just dementia, you know, a mild cognitive impairment.

But those are the types.

- Talk about some of the ways that the Alzheimer's Association Tennessee Chapter is really making a difference and an impact by providing the support, the resources, the community so to speak.

And you know, being able to help the caregivers and those with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

- The thing that I like about the Tennessee Chapter, of course the 1-800 number is universal, but there are over 200 languages.

And that's major too because if you think about our population, it's not just one area.

You know, we have multiple.

And so if we get people to engage, and so when we do our community education, that's definitely something, you know, probably ad nauseum that we talk about the 1-800 number because that's the gateway to care navigation, if you will.

You know, and we talk about, and it's a 24/7 number that you can call anytime.

We've had videos where this gentleman talked about being stressed at two o'clock and he called somebody and he was able to calm down.

That's really our, you might say focus, caregivers as much as the persons with the disease because they're the ones that care.

And most of the time they're unpaid caregivers, family members, daughters, you know, just everybody.

So you want to have everything available.

Respite care, you know, respite care is where you can put your loved one up for the weekend so you can have that, you know, I can relax moment.

And so just things like that that people aren't aware of.

Just basic things, financial needs, you know, leading them where they need to go with it, the next steps after you get the diagnosis.

So we want that highway, if you will, to be a straight way for them.

- You have upcoming events, you have ways to get involved.

There's a walk as you mentioned, you have a team.

Talk about the community engagement piece.

- Oh boy, the team is just amazing.

And we generally have somebody from one of the stations, I'll mention Andrew Douglas, I'm being biased, from Channel 5.

He's just such a good spirit and it's just a wonderful day to walk.

And you get to meet people that you don't know.

You know, other groups, you see them with their T-shirts and the families are together and they're engaged and some of the patients are able to come too.

And it's also a networking event too that people there can find out what's going on because you have your home health companies there.

It is just almost like a community fair, if you will, before the walk.

And so it's a perfect segue and we just always try to get everybody to come.

You know, and the people who have come for their first walk always say that they're coming back because they did not know that it was such an engaging, it's more than a walk.

It's what you said, a community event and a place for networking, a very important piece.

- The number again, 1-800-272-3900.

The website is alz.org.

So Dr. Janis Knox, thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you.

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

The 2023 Nonprofit Award for organizations with a budget under $1 million went to Destiny Center of DeSoto County.

[bright music] - Destiny Center of DeSoto County is a nonprofit organization located in DeSoto County in Olive Branch, Mississippi.

We serve people, we bring resources to people that can't get to the resources.

We serve seniors, we do transportation.

There are transportation insecurities, there is food insecurities.

And we work with those people.

There are so many people that are forgotten.

Our seniors are forgotten and the kids are busy.

They forget about their parents, they forget that, you know, that they're not able to do and to get out and do like they used to, to the doctor's appointments, to get medicine, just to go to the grocery store.

And so we go into homes twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, and we feed 'em lunch and we have a relationship with them.

We go in, we just don't say, "Here's your meal.

Go on."

Unless they require that.

We feed 'em, we talk to 'em, we love on 'em, we see what they need.

You know, we know all about their grandchildren and all about their children and their church and everything.

So they're friends.

They're part of our community.

We love them.

I guess I've always loved social services and helping people and when Doug, my pastor and our CEO asked me to, you know, take on as director, and I thought, yes, 'cause we can serve people.

And we've had, you know, the monies have come in and been able to, and it's just, it's made an amazing impact on my life.

My volunteers encourage me when I get down and I get so tired.

'Cause people do call all the time, you know, when you get tired of it, you gotta put it back in perspective.

What are we doing this for?

We're doing it for love and we're doing it to help people.

At the Destiny Center, I think you should know that you can change people's lives.

You can make an impact on one person and that impact can extend their life.

At least let 'em die in peace.

At least let 'em feel like they're loved and cared for.

And our organization is our volunteers.

I mean, we have, our oldest is 88 and he's still driving and delivering meals.

He's phenomenal.

And I think our youngest is maybe 63.

And they love it because they know what, how important it's to give back and they know how they feel and it's changed their lives as well.

We have an individual that was on hospice, one of our volunteers was on hospice.

And I mean, he was like in bad shape and he started serving.

He started getting out and serving and he's changed lives.

And now he's one of our best volunteers.

He goes in these homes and he's encouraging other people to get up and go.

If you're sitting at home and you're retired and you're poor me, you need to get out and serve 'cause that's gonna change your life.

[bright music] - They're an organization rooted in faith, lifting our community through home repair and leadership development.

We're talking about SOS, Service Over Self.

We're honored to have their executive director Philip Walkley with us.

And Philip, let's start out, give us some background for SOS.

- Yeah, thanks Jeremy for having me.

Glad to be here.

You know, SOS started in 1986 out of Christ Methodist Church right down the road on Poplar as an effort to care for our own city, repairing homes with volunteers.

And it grew to eventually become our own nonprofit and doing much more than that now, but started as just a simple desire to love and care for the community by meeting critical home repair needs of homeowners in our city.

- Talk about how the magic works because you're engaging youth at a lot of different ages and levels and times throughout the year.

- Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so again, SOS started really as kind of like a summer volunteer mission service camp organization.

And so we still do that, you know, in the summertime we host hundreds of high school students from all over the country that come to spend a week here on like a summer camp, summer trip, serving our city through providing home repair.

We also do the same thing in the spring with college students who are taking a spring break and instead of gonna the beach, they're coming here, putting a hammer in their hand and putting 'em to work repairing houses.

We have, as you mentioned, the academy.

It's a nine month community development residency for young adults, either gap year in college or kind of between college and what's next to get their feet wet in the community development world, serving communities in Memphis.

And then beyond that as a way to get, you know, most of our volunteers are coming from all over the country, but folks in the communities we serve like Binghampton and Orange Mound and the Heights said we'd love to find ways that our own kids can get more involved.

And so through a lot of things in the last 10 years, we've developed on-ramps for students right here in our city to come and serve.

The biggest way that happens now is through a program called SOS Builds, which is a year-round vocational tr aining program for youth, primarily in Binghampton, where th ey get a couple of days of instruction during the school year, after school, soft skills and hard skills in the construction industry.

And then that kind of is capped off with a summer jobs program where they are actually helping us reroof houses and for many of them their own neighborhood.

So a lot of different ways all that happens, all centered around home repair and equipping people to do that, to serve others well.

- Talk about the home repair side and you know, what that looks like on that end.

- Yeah, so we'll repair anywhere from twenty-five to thirty houses a year.

All of these are homeowner-occupied homes in one of our partner neighborhoods.

So Binghampton, the Heights and Orange Mound.

So we don't do rental property or vacant homes, things like that.

And with all of those, essentially we're providing a total roof replacement.

The goal is to make the home warm, safe, and dry.

And so that's really where we start.

Occasionally we're able to address another repair here or there, but mostly we concentrate on roof replacements for homeowners and that's all at no financial cost to the homeowner.

So if they own their home, live in one of our partner neighborhoods and apply and are approved, there's no financial obligation for the homeowner to get their totally new roof on their home.

- What sort of stats do you track, when you look at the economic impact and the independence for those who are able to, you know, have a home with a nice roof and then you look at on the other side, the number of students and the number of college students and high school students coming to Memphis, the number of youth locally hired and, you know, equipped for success.

What stats do you track?

- Those are things that we are, have just been doing more and more of in the last few years.

And so, you know, some of the things we track with homeowners, for example, is asking them a simple question of "Do you feel safer in your home?

Do you feel more proud of your home?"

So because so much, you know, we could track, we could say, well, this many houses don't leak anymore or other stats.

But what that tells us is that the impact to the homeowner is sometimes hard to measure, right?

This kind of feeling of, I don't have anxiety every time it rains because I know that my home is safe now.

And that goes a really long way.

We've looked at tracking things like utility bills to see the impact.

We know that a lot of times the work we do makes a decrease in utility consumption, which impacts homeowners pocket books in a positive way.

But then beyond that, really with all of the participants who are coming to do the work or the SOS Builds students in the neighborhood.

So much of what we're using that for is again a platform for leadership development, for helping people see needs in the community and equipping them and encouraging them to do that.

And we always get ov erwhelmingly positive feedback on surveys from participants that SOS really made an impact on them personally or on their spiritual journey or on their desire to serve.

And then lastly, with the youth and the job training program, not only are we tracking that, but we are looking at their actual skills that they are learning and assessing their skills.

And we do an assessment at the beginning of the school year to figure out how much they know as far as construction is concerned.

And then we do an assessment again at the end and to see the data and the numbers on some students coming in, not even being able to identify maybe a hammer from a screwdriver to being able to build an entire picnic table by themselves with lumber in our shop and all the power tools.

It's a pretty remarkable thing.

- How can the community help your efforts?

- Yeah, so a lot of different ways, you know, bringing groups to some of our spring or summer camps is always helpful.

So if you're part of a church or school group that wants to come and serve, you can do that.

Of course, a lot of work we do repairing homes for free and paying youth in the neighborhood to do that costs money, so obviously donations are always welcome.

And then beyond that, as I just mentioned, especially people in the construction field, we are always interested in partnering with organizations or individuals for soft handoffs, for training for these youth, for opportunities for them, so.

- Wrap up with contact information.

Where can we go to get involved and learn more about SOS?

- Absolutely.

Sosmemphis.org is our website.

Lots of information can be found there.

Or you can stop by and see us at our office at 2505 Poplar.

We'd love to see you or visit with you anytime.

- Well Philip, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Yes, thanks so much for having me.

[upbeat music] - In this month's episode, we're reminded of the profound impact that compassion and care, creativity and innovation, and commitment and community can have on the world around us.

We're fortunate to have organizations like Memory Makers of the Midsouth providing a regular program of Memory Cafes around our city to open access and provide opportunities for social stimulation, support, and education for those with memory loss and their caregivers.

Alzheimer's Association Tennessee Chapter is providing family support, offering community and professional education, and advocating for the needs and rights of those with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, as well as research for its prevention, cure, and treatment.

Then Service Over Self is leading the charge in neighborhood revitalization and youth empowerment through their summer camp spring break service opportunities for college students, SOS Academy and SOS Builds, which is training the next generation of leaders in a very hands-on way.

Each organization is building community while making and preserving memories.

They remind us that every act of kindness and every hand extended can truly make a difference.

So where can you plug in and become a 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 that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency 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.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]