Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation.

The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.

On today's show, we'll learn about two organizations that are doing important work in the Chattanooga area.

The first creates healing spaces for those affected by trauma.

The other is dedicated to fostering independent living for adults with disabilities.

We are stronger together.

Chattanooga.

Stay tuned to learn more.

Welcome to Chattanooga Stronger Together.

I'm Barbara Marter.

Kaysie Strickland is the founder and executive director of Homes and Havens.

The organization is focused on designing for homes that support recovery.

It's a unique approach to dealing with trauma, and we're glad to have her here to tell us more.

Kaysie, thank you so much for coming in today.

I really want to learn more about Homes and Havens and and your vision and what you want to see happen.

So tell me more.

Yeah.

Well, I started the organization in 2016, so we've been in operation for about seven years at this point.

And we have really three arms of focus.

So we specialize in a type of design, what we call trauma informed design, which is really a unique approach to both the client and the design through the process.

So there is a sensitivity to their story, to the trauma that they've overcome.

What this space itself may be holding for them as well, whether that's a new space or an old space.

What happened in that space?

We have an incredible sensitivity to that dimension.

But then when we also go to the design plan process, the the colors we're selecting are are based on a lot of research around the psychology of color, the space planning elements.

We're thinking through spaciousness and flow and eliminating clutter, things like that, that would make the space actually more calming to the nervous system, especially if they have had some significant trauma in their life.

Mm hmm.

And so the type of people that come through that you're actually helping women with children and you're creating a safe environment not only for the children, but a calming environment for the mother, also to.

So have you done a lot of those or is that just sort of branching out and adding more to it?

Yeah, no, we our primary focus is working with women in recovery.

And so they're in a stage in their recovery journey where there is some more stabilization after the incident or after the season of life.

That's been really traumatic and they oftentimes have kids.

So there is that element of a space that is for multiple people and taking care of each area of that space so that it meets the needs of the family that we're serving.

We also work with nonprofits and do spaces.

So that kind of first touch point in a woman's journey or family's journey out of a traumatic situation.

We work with a lot of organizations in Chattanooga and design their residential spaces, their therapy rooms, their intake areas so that we can bring that design and that care to those spaces so that they can be met with calming, soothing environments, especially very, very close to the incident that was traumatic.

So we work with the individuals families, and then we also work with nonprofits to offer that kind of design.

Mm hmm.

So.

So how do people find out about you?

How do they know about this special, unique gift that you have?

Yeah.

So Chattanooga is just a very warm and welcoming community.

And the our primary referrals have come by word of mouth of just like people enmeshed with people's stories or walking a journey with someone that they care about, that they will make a referral.

And we have recently changed our referral process.

We used to work closely with caseworkers so only caseworkers could refer clients to us.

But as we've kind of stepped back over the last couple of years and figured out what's working, what's not working.

Is this really helpful for for these clients?

At what stage in their recovery?

We've noticed that once they're in more of like a stable situation, that our services are really the best make the best impact in that stage instead of crisis intervention where they're just exiting, they have no furniture.

The furniture bank is something that is a resource for them.

But we come in at a later stage in that journey where they've been stabilized for about a year and have been in the same housing situation for about a year and they have to have a couple of references to apply, but they can apply for themselves.

So there's more of a story and a, yeah, personal interaction that we get to have with them like this.

Instead of working through a caseworker, if that makes sense.

So, so where you're developing these personal relationships and they're telling you about the journey that they've had and where they're at in their life, and then how do you develop the theme for what you're going to do for them, the color scheme and the materials and the furniture?

How do you come up with all of that?

Yeah, so there's two phases of our process for working with an individual client.

So the first phase is, is the intake and then the story work part.

So the client actually comes to our studio and we work on basically creating like a collage vision board, if you will, where we're listening for certain things in their story.

So we're kind of stirring up a little bit of like what has home meant to you?

You know, what, what has it represented in your life?

And that can be both dark and light, but holding, creating a place where we can hold the tension of both of those things, of like where has home harmed you and where has it been a place of harm?

And then what do you want it to be?

And casting vision for that.

And then we start opening magazines or looking at paint swatches develop like they are developing their own design plan with our oversight.

But we're really wanting to empower them to name and create what they hope it could be.

And then we can take that into the second phase where we're actually picking the items and doing the room planning and the space planning, and then doing the installation of all of those things based on what she wanted.

So her voice is elevated even above our own when we're picking and designing and then installing her space for her.

Yeah, I think it's amazing that they are creating their own new home environment, but they don't really realize that.

Mm hmm.

And so they're speaking to their soul, and all you're doing is just sort of pulling it together and adding, you know, the touches to it, because that comes from your background.

And I think you have a degree in psychology.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think trauma is a very.

It takes away your power.

Yeah.

Any kind of trauma.

And so our process is intentionally giving them power back over their space, over I mean, just simple things like favorite colors.

What do you want on the walls?

What do you want it to say?

What do you want it to not say?

And and I think the environment piece is so overlooked in trauma care.

And trauma is also a very embodied experience.

Like their times, where, I mean, that's part of what trauma does is it's disconnecting you from your brain to your body and you're stuck.

And so the environment is a way to re like to embody safety, you know, to experience that in your body so that your body can catch up with your brain again.

And give those good cues of like, we're safe, we're okay, you know, and I love it here.

I love this and this represents me and what I want for my future.

And so it's just a holistic process, but also just a feature of trauma care that we're really excited to offer.

So you mentioned earlier the the furniture bike.

What, what is that?

It's a, it's a other organization in Chattanooga that you have to get a voucher through or a caseworker to receive furniture.

And once you're kind of transitioning out of either homelessness or you've had to leave a home and you're just needing just items like beds or tables or different things.

So this is just a temporary set up to kind of get them right into it and everything like that.

Right?

So I think in the six or seven years that you've been doing this, how many families, how many have you touched?

I think it's near and in combination with the nonprofits that we've worked with, too.

So they're offering larger facilities and larger set ups.

It's near 200 to 300 individuals that we've had the privilege of hearing their stories and creating some sort of space for them to be held by.

Mm hmm.

And that you're making a difference in their lives.

Yeah, that's.

That's so cool.

That's cool.

I believe that you're going to be launching a new retreat.

So tell me about that.

Yeah.

So last year, we being in the nonprofit culture here in Chattanooga, we our team just bore witness to a lot of fatigue in in the culture itself.

And just like how how hard people are caring and putting their lives on hold or just opening their lives to so much trauma and care.

And that really stirred something in our hearts to offer them a space, you know, that where they could be contained and held and and heard.

And so we worked with the Maclellan Foundation and launched a new retreat initiative that is designing this just in a different way.

So we're designing these retreats for nonprofit leaders, ministry leaders to come and just be cared for in a beautiful environment, in a thoughtfully curated schedule and offering and just giving them rest and respite in in a way that we uniquely can because we work in space and environment, so much so that's been a new feature that we've loved offering.

Okay, so when did that start or as it started last fall and it was a ten month cohort of ten leaders from the community engaging with 9 to 10 retreats every one every month.

Wow.

So that there's a new topic in a new space and it's in it's long term care.

Instead of focusing so much on one event where you feel like you have to kind of rise to this mountaintop occasion and then go back to reality.

We wanted to offer something that was more sustained and gentle so that they could keep coming back and know that we're going to pick this conversation back up and there's going to be care offered again so that you don't feel like there's a scarcity to like.

I have to soak up this experience for all it's worth.

Mm hmm.

How long does is it just a couple of days?

Or is it a weeklong retreat or so?

There's three overnight retreats where you're gone three days, and then the rest are one day retreat.

So it's like one Friday a month where you kind of pull away from work, get some care, get to be heard, get to sit in a listening group, and then back to a weekend and then back to your work and your mission and disconnecting the phones, disconnecting the calls, disconnect and the concerns that are going on that is so hard for these executive directors and these leaders and these, you know, ministry people to to walk away and say, okay, I'm not going to think about that.

I'm not going to work on that.

I'm going to work on myself or I'm going to try to find a place where I can just be quiet.

Right.

I did some amazing.

So we need spaces like that.

We do the spaces here locally or all in the Chattanooga area.

Okay.

Okay.

Now, Kaysie, thank you so much for coming in today.

You and letting me and everyone else to learn more about Homes and Haven and how we can support you in your mission.

So thank you.

Up next, we'll talk to Susan DiStefano from Hosanna Community.

Stay with us.

serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger at WTCITV dot org or use the hashtag stronger WTCI on social media.

We're happy to have Susan DiStefano with us.

She's the executive director of Hosanna Community.

The organization's primary goal is to foster independent living for adults with disabilities.

Welcome, Susan.

Thank you, Barbara.

Oh, thank you so much for being here today.

I want to know more about the Hosanna community.

So tell me about it.

Well, we've been in Chattanooga, in Hixson area for about 28 years, but we were established primarily to service folks with disabilities.

Initially, they were physical disabilities, but we broadened our mission.

And now we have folks with cognitive disabilities.

We have some people we have a lot of people with traumatic brain injuries.

In addition, the folks that we service are tend to be younger individuals because they don't want to live at home with their parents.

They want to be independent, but they need some kind of safety net and that's what Hosanna provides a safety net.

And these this population was targeted because they're active and they are too young to go in nursing homes, but they don't want to be at home with mom and dad.

So that's how the vision was for the founders that we take in some of those twenties, thirties folks and provide a home for them.

And so there's not like a term limit of how long they can stay.

You've got people that have been there a very short period of time to a very long period of time.

We've got some people that have been here, almost since we opened the doors.

So the thing is, we don't take people after 55.

We don't want to be a retirement home.

Those folks have other options.

However, if somebody moves in, let's just say at 30 and they get to be 60, we don't ask them to leave because it's their home.

So we do have older residents.

We just don't admit them when they're 55 and then when they can't be independent anymore.

We work with the families and try to find them an appropriate place to live.

We really work towards keeping people independent.

That is our number one goal.

And to do that, you have to keep them engaged.

So a lot of our some of our folks work.

They go to jobs.

If you can't go to job, then you volunteer.

If you can't do either of those, because we have a couple that just can't do, then we try to encourage them to go to an adult program during the day.

So we partnered with Signal Center and we have a couple that go there.

So it's so cool and so cool.

Do you still have what was at that clubhouse or there was a house in the very back, a little house.

I called it the doll house.

Was that a craft house or whatever?

Yeah, we call it the tree house.

Oak tree house.

Yeah.

As you're familiar with, when they built the two houses that this was a house that was there prior to them building Hosanna, and they just left it there.

And I think it was a garage maybe from the 1950s is what I'm guessing.

Mm.

But they kind of closed it up, you know, had a and it was just sitting on the property but we started looking at that particular building and thinking, you know, this has good bones, it needs a little work, but it has good bones and it would be a great common area for our residents.

So we ended up turning it into kind of an all purpose building.

But mostly what we use it for is crafts.

So we've partnered with a lot of different places, the Hart gallery, etc.

and they've come up, they've done crafts with the residents and yeah, that's been great.

So I want to talk about the garden.

Okay, I love that garden.

Thank you.

I do too.

And I love the fact that you have different levels so that those who can't get down or wheelchair bound can actually roll up to it and still tend it and everything.

But a few minutes ago you were telling me that the story about the the peas, snow peas.

Yes.

So share that with me.

Um, well, first of all, we have about 14 gardens and that our raised beds and we just plant those babies, you know, pretty much year round.

We found a guy to build them for us according to our specifications, because we did want some raised beds so that folks with wheelchairs, if they wanted to garden, they could.

But I have a young man who likes to follow me around in the garden and he helped me plant the snow peas.

We tried them in the fall and because I didn't know if they would germinate and they get big enough, they did sort of germinate, but they never reached maturity.

So he was kind of disappointed about that.

But we tried in the spring and he has been watching the Snow Peas every day he comes to me.

Have you see the snow peas?

They're getting big.

Have you seen them?

He's so excited about the snow peas.

But, you know, we were really big on health.

It's become more of a focus because a lot of our residents don't know much about health and they tend to eat kind of junky food.

So we just got rid of all the junk food.

When COVID came, we started doing exercises every morning.

Oh, yeah, we had a morning exercise program and they vary.

It could be tai chi, it could be meditation, it could be chair yoga.

We do walk a mile on Friday.

So the nice thing is, is the garden subsidizes our healthy eating and we do beets and snow peas and cauliflower right now and broccoli and tomatoes and all sorts of everything we can think of to plant.

So and like I said, it's very beneficial for the residents, just as a healthy atmosphere, you know, And I love the fact that a lot of your seeds are donated from elders.

Ace Hardware.

Yes.

Into the season.

Their vendor says throw it away.

And they're like, No, we want to give it to those who could use it.

So yeah, yeah.

Has been a huge blessing for us because we there's something about planting seeds and watching them come up.

It's a little bit different with plants.

For my residents, it's a plant.

Yeah, but, but a seed.

Watching it, seeing it germinate is very exciting for them.

And it's exciting for me too.

I love it when stuff starts to come out.

Well, it's not only that, it's the health issue.

They're getting the sunshine, they're playing in the dirt and they're watching something grow and then they're actually harvesting and eating it.

Do any of them are they allowed in the kitchen to help with any of the prep work or like making salads and stuff like that?

Yeah, absolutely.

We always keep a salad in the refrigerator.

So when we have our you know, if you want something to eat, you can always go in the refrigerator and get a salad, which is the healthy food.

Which is the healthy food.

And we do, you know, hummus with cut vegetables.

But that's really important for us to walk a mile.

We just took everybody, all the folks that had walked 50 miles, 50 miles.

That's pretty good for our residents.

Yeah, we took them all out to lunch.

And so now all the other residents are like, okay, I want to get to my 50 miles.

But it's made a big difference for our residents.

They've lost weight and we're really proud of that so well, and you keep them engaged.

So do you have for the medical needs, do you have doctors that come to you or do you take them to their doctor's office?

I mean, how does that work?

They all some of them have the same doctor.

Some of them have different doctors.

Some of them have specialists.

We have my assistant director, Beth.

She a lot of times takes them to specific doctor appointments, dental appointments.

we keep a watch on their health.

We make sure that they get in and get foot care.

Some families take care of their own residents and take them back and forth.

But then we've got people that don't have family.

We have we have residents from, I would say, all over the world.

One of our residents moved in from England because we are unique, because we're focused on independent living, we're focused on health, and we just kind of fill that crack.

That doesn't necessarily, you know, that that's difficult to... fill.

Right.

All right.

So you have two houses.

We do.

Are you top down?

I mean, are you full or.

I actually have one opening right now, but we're hoping that we'll be full soon.

And so that give you a total of how many?

20.

Ten per house.

That's our max.

And really, these folks take a lot of individual attention.

You know, you're looking at their health, you're looking at their diet, you're looking at their exercise, you're looking at their work situation.

There's so many things that are involved just with one person that, you know.

Ten, 20 Yeah, ten per house, 20 individuals is just a really nice number.

And we have men and women living in both houses.

It's really important for us that they are a family.

Mm hmm.

And it's it's kind of a beautiful thing to watch.

They decided on one of the houses on their own, decided before dinner they were going to sit down and have prayer together for individuals like they did.

I mean, we always had prayer before meal, but they wanted to sit around and talk about those individuals that they wanted to pray for.

We have all different denominations at our houses, but that when I was there, I was doing dinner one night and I saw them do that.

And I was nobody told me, you know, and it was so touching to see that, that they they truly are a family.

There are really and they make decisions together as a unit and they sometimes fight together, you know, just like siblings.

Yeah, they're just like siblings.

But the really beautiful thing is that they take care of each other.

Oh, they really do.

If if somebody has an issue and wants to sit down and talk with someone, they will do that.

It's it's kind of a beautiful thing to watch as they interact.

Well, I will tell you, this Hosanna community is a hidden jewel in their community.

So I want to thank you so much for coming in today and sharing your heart, your passion, and letting us know more about the Hosanna community and its residents.

Yeah, Thank you and thank you for joining us.

We hope you've learned more about the incredible work being done by Chattanooga's nonprofits.

So tell us what you think.

Email us at Stronger at WTCITV dot org or use the hashtag StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter and from all of us here at WTCI, we'll see you next time.

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