- PNC is proud to support "Business Forward", where local leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities and how we do business in Central Illinois.

(bright music) (bright music) - Welcome to "Business Forward".

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight, good friend of mine, Peggy Jacques.

Peggy is a registered nurse with a passion to make change in our community.

She also is the founder of Graceland Center for Purposeful Aging.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- Well, we could go down many roads, but I kind of want to tell a story if it's okay.

Because how you came up with this idea, I was blown away.

So I met you a few years back, and you came up to me and you asked me a question.

And do you remember, exactly?

- I do.

- So why don't you say, why don't you tell the story?

You're a better storyteller than me.

You go ahead and tell the story.

- I came up to you and I said, "Matt, I'm gonna start a senior center in Peoria, and I need help."

- And I was blown away.

And what was really neat about it is, one, Peoria needs it.

Central Illinois needs it.

Number two, the drive and the passion I saw in your eyes right there.

Because a lot of people have a lot of great ideas.

It's just whether you take that next step because you know this because you felt this, but when you have an idea and a vision, you also have that little something on the side of your shoulders saying, "Why am I doing this?

What am I doing?

Should I quit?

Am I doing the right thing?

Should I," right?

- Every day.

- Every day.

And but the bottom line is, and my personal motto is every day should change lives and save lives.

And that's what you're doing.

So why don't you first, before we get into Graceland, you're a nurse.

How long have you been a registered nurse?

- 43 years.

- And the only reason I ask is because my mom was a pediatric nurse for years.

So I always would just, I was always just blown away with that profession because I always used to say, I still think it, but that nurses do more than the doctors.

I know you're married to one so.

(laughs) But I always said, she just would do everything.

And I'd watch her and I'd go, how does she know how to do everything that you know that she does?

- Yeah.

It's an art.

It's an art.

And it comes from passion and caring, making sure all the details are taken care of.

- So what are you a what type of nurse are you?

- Oh, man.

- An everything nurse?

(laughs) - I've had, and that's funny because the only place I haven't worked is with sick children in the hospital.

So I started off in ICU 10 long years, and I got my associates degree because I'm the seventh of nine kids, and that's what I could afford.

And so when I got my bachelor's, I had married my husband who it was in medical school.

So he was busy.

I got my bachelor's, and he was still in medical school.

So I got my master's in community health.

And my drive then was we are so backwards in our health, right?

I mean, we don't do what we need to do to prevent things.

So in ICU, we were patching up heart attacks and patching up this and patching up that, that could have been prevented.

And so when I got my degree, I really wanted to go into public health.

So my degrees, my master's is in community health because I wanted to do prevention.

And I didn't pursue being a nurse practitioner because in that time period, I foresaw that medicine was treatment, illness-oriented, and nursing was holistic and health.

And so when I got my masters, then I taught students for a while, and then I worked at the health department here, actually.

We moved from Arizona, go Wildcats.

We moved from Tucson, and we came to the, he was in residency, so I worked at the health department.

So I supervised the WIC program and the elder care program.

- [Matt] Did not know that.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Was assistant director of nursing for three years there, and made home visits in all the homes.

And you know, a lot of mom, baby, drug-free families with the future, all of that kind of stuff.

And then we moved back to Tucson to pay off some of our loans.

And then I worked in employee health and infection prevention and moved back here, had a couple more babies and then returned to the workforce.

And I have always loved elderly from my childhood.

Just loved my grandmas and my elder.

They probably were younger than me, people in my neighborhood.

(laughs) But I was always on somebody's lap because I really enjoyed their wisdom.

I loved how they, older people pay attention to children in a way that busy adults don't.

And so, as I worked at the health department, I've worked in palliative care, hospice, home care, and now, I'm working as a diabetic educator, and I really enjoy that.

But on that journey, I really thought I would be someone who would take over a nursing home.

I love nursing homes.

I love taking care of elders.

But frankly, I've had to quit every single one of them because my license was at risk.

The last nursing home I worked at, I had 70 patients by myself with two aides at night.

- Yeah, let's talk about that for a minute.

Not just nursing home, but just nursing profession in general.

Because we're, I say this all the time, and we'll use nurses as an example, but also teachers, special ed teachers, child psychologists, or psychiatrists.

Then you're looking at therapists, and the list goes on.

But they all, there's a theme that runs through each one of those positions, and it's passion and compassion.

And so what I have been talking about a lot lately is that we need to get our kids to dream again, to want to be in these positions because these positions are so important.

People don't understand if you're short, which all the hospitals are short nurses.

If you're short nurses, what do you think that means?

There's a trickle.

And so you use the example of a nursing home, but I can use it as a teacher and say, less education, less of this, less of that.

And I don't know what the answer is, but it's a frustrating problem to have because I talked to so many different CEOs and people on the show.

And we all have that after the show conversation of we need more people that want to help people.

Do you see that too?

- Absolutely.

That's an interesting question.

- Yeah, it's like if you look at the stats of the hospitals just here in Central Illinois, not just Peoria, Galesburg, you know, everywhere.

- Anywhere.

- There's nurse openings 24/7.

And so I sit here and I wonder what that means.

And being, running children's home for all those years that I did, I know what open positions mean.

It means either wait lists or kids that are not getting services.

And that's appalling to me.

So it just trickles.

I'm getting off topic, but it's just an interesting dynamic right now in your business.

- Right.

Well, in your compassion, what you just mentioned, so if we know that, for example, 50% of the nursing homes that in Illinois don't meet standards, so you're right about the trickle effect.

And so I thought that would be what I would do because that's where, for heaven's sake, who wants their elder to not be taken care of properly, right?

But I had a couple friends that said, "No, you will burn yourself out doing that."

So then I did a Healthcare Gerontology certification through University of Phoenix, and part of that was a capstone project.

And I think what I'm hearing you say is that passion makes you keep looking.

If a avenue isn't gonna take you the way you best feel like your gifts are served, then how can I best go?

So that course was very good.

I learned about the laws and some of the social, and just economic implications.

But the capstone, I had to do a community assessment.

Now, mind you, I had been a nurse in the health department.

I had been making home visits.

I had been working in the caravan on the street.

I had done a lot of different things, but I didn't realize was Peoria didn't have a senior center.

I don't know why it wasn't on my radar.

But when it occurred to me, I thought, bingo, I can do that and I can leave a legacy.

I can make that happen.

And so, backing it up to where you feed that passion, it's when we look at the needs of elders, and we've talked about this, if social isolation and loneliness is a diagnosis, then how can we build that?

And personally, I feel like when we meet the needs of 30% of Peoria, 30% of the people are over the age of 50.

If we meet the needs of those people with socialization and to feel that they're honored in their aging, then that, think of the ripple effect of that.

You know, if I'm 50 and I know, oh my goodness, mom's failing a little bit and I don't know where to go, but I could come over here and get some help.

Or I'm 60 and I'm looking at retirement and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, what does that mean for me?

But I can go someplace and they can maybe give me some coaching.

What does that mean when I change careers?

I've had people sit in front of me and say, "I've been a teacher for 50 years, and now I, what do I do?"

They're lost.

- They're lost.

- They're lost.

- [Matt] There's no doubt.

- So I think all those examples will help build that because if that group of people can give back to the community, because as we age, we know we gain wisdom, we gain compassion, we gain an understanding of what's important in that latter half of our life, and then that can come full circle.

- Yeah, I if you think about it, I stepped down a year ago, and I'll just, I'm 53.

And I thought to myself, I'm going to have this next phase of my life and I'm going to do even more work.

I'm ready for that next run, so to speak.

And you do have that, and I'm a confident guy, but you sit there at times and you sit there and you go, oh my goodness, I was running this huge place, and I was always asked questions, and I was always needed.

And next thing you know, you're sitting there going, nobody wants me anymore.

(laughs) Or nobody needs me anymore.

- Yeah.

Depends on you.

- And so it's interesting because now, take it to age 63, 73, 83, 93.

And so this is why I love talking about this because when I, I'm gonna go back to that day, I'll never forget it.

And very rarely do I say, when someone says something to me and says, "What's your opinion," go all in.

And four years later, I still think you still go all in because the idea had such merit.

So I give you credit.

Now, let's talk about what it is now.

Okay, so first of all, where did you come up with the name Graceland?

- Hmm.

Actually on the treadmill.

Do you get your best inspiration when you work out?

- [Matt] That's right.

Okay, fair.

- We had talked, I actually had a core group of people, and I think that's at the key.

This isn't anything you do by yourself.

Absolutely not.

I have wonderful mentors.

I had a group of people that cared about me, and were passionate about the care of elders.

So we had been meeting and throwing ideas around and wellness and health.

And so one night I thought, I want this place to be a place of grace and dignity, and what would I call that?

And so I love Paul Simon.

And his "Graceland" song came into my brain.

And I ran up and told my husband, "It's Graceland!"

He said, "Oh, Peggy, they're gonna think of Elvis."

I said, "Well, that's not my problem."

They'll remember it.

- They'll remember Graceland.

- They'll remember it.

And it wasn't trademarked for anything else 'cause you know how you do that search.

So I wanted to be a place where people know that they're welcome, that they are respected, that they can age with dignity.

And culturally, Matt, I think that the biggest obstacle we face is that as a nation, we foresee aging as something to be feared.

Well, you know what, as a nurse, you either age or you die.

Frankly.

- Very true.

- You do.

So when people complain about birthdays, I really challenge them.

And I'm like, you have the gift of life.

You have breath in your body.

That doesn't mean no matter what your disability, no matter what your condition or circumstance, you have something.

You have a purpose.

- [Matt] That's exactly right.

- So that's where purpose came from.

- Okay, so your vision to advocate and create a culture within the Peoria community which salutes aging as a privilege.

I like that.

I like that.

So when you were putting together the vision, mission, vision, values, did you go back to that core group and come up with those?

Or did you just?

- Well, it's all been a group effort, some of it.

So for example, then you start connecting with who's been successful.

And so the Mather Center up in Chicago at the time.

They had several cafes.

And the Mather Center's an interesting story.

You know, stories encourage you so much because it helps, however people started.

So this gentleman- - And failed.

- Yes.

Yes.

- But go ahead.

Go ahead.

- Well, yeah.

So Mr. Mathers in 1941 did not like, he was a very successful businessman up in Chicago.

And he didn't like how his peers left their wives.

Now, back then, think of 41.

People died in their 60s.

And so these widows would be left without whatever it was, pensions or whatnot.

So he established an endowment.

And so there's the Mathers Research Institute that does amazing research on wellness and elderly.

And at the time, they had these cafes where they would sell food, and that would go back into the proceeds.

They'd have programs, they were just amazing.

- [Matt] Ahead of their time.

- Yeah, and then they also have those sequential living situations where you can buy in.

So I took my encouragement from them, and a lot of their concepts of the saluting aging as a privilege, and to help people age in place and to live their best lives.

- [Matt] That's awesome.

- Yeah, that's where some of that came from.

- You don't give yourself any credit.

You keep saying it's a group effort, and that's true leadership, but I'll tell you, they have to have a captain.

- That's true.

- And that's what you've done so.

So, all right.

I attended something that you put on.

You put on a symposium a couple months ago.

And when I looked out into the crowd, I couldn't believe, I guess I shouldn't be shocked because you put it together, but I looked out of the crowd.

There had have been 200 people there, 150, 200 people there.

And the speakers and the need and every, there were nonprofits there, there were healthcare organizations there, there were other leaders there.

City council was there, city leadership was there.

I found that pretty impressive.

And because it's very hard to get buy-in, you know this, it's very hard to get buy-in.

But every step I've seen you take, it's going forward.

You know, a lot of times in these, it's that two steps then one, one step, two steps back, whatever.

Not here because we're actually gaining momentum, and you're starting to see the fruits of your labor.

So why don't you talk about some of the ideas and thoughts of the programs that you already are doing or have maybe in the future that you want to do.

- So we have a strategic plan, and that really is so helpful to me because I can see the steps.

They're not as fuzzy as they were when we first got started.

So I know we started basically in 2020, you know that.

(laughs) You told me get off my stick 'cause that was a step back.

Get off your stick and we'll do the work just because you wanna gather elders during a pandemic.

Keep going.

Okay.

- I did actually push you hard.

- (laughs) Yeah, and you did.

Which was good because you know, you hit a wall.

So in the next year, what we plan to do are to help people understand what the need is by doing programming in the community, and regular programming.

So we're sustain.

So we are a confident, reliable, understandable entity.

We're a known product.

I think right now, we're not, I know, we're not a known product.

And for example, say before you knew me, say, what would you, if I said the word senior center, what would come to your mind?

- Where my grandma was in a retirement home.

- Okay.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So I think that's the veil we have to pierce.

Because here in Peoria, for some reason, we, yeah.

- It's frustrating is what you're saying because why it isn't already here?

Number one.

There is potential funding out there, but more importantly, there is a need.

People are living longer.

And like you said, if you think about it, my grandma, believe it or not, she lived to be 105.

- [Peggy] Oh my gosh.

- Think about that.

- [Peggy] That's a lot.

So she lived through two pandemics.

- Two wars.

- Two World Wars.

The Depression, invention of cars, technology, TV.

- That gives me goosebumps.

- I know.

It's crazy.

And she passed a couple years ago, and there was nothing more exciting growing up than hearing stories.

And I think you mentioned it earlier, the wise person, right?

To hear stories like, you know, being a baseball fan I said to her, "You were 12," she was born in 1915.

"You were 12 when Babe Ruth was in his prime."

Think about that.

You were, and I gave all these different examples.

You were in your 20s during World War I and II.

That's crazy, right?

So when you start hearing what she, how she lived and what she did, and how she hustled and would grind and all those different things.

Well now, take it to even people living.

They're living a long time.

And, but there's another piece here that I found interesting, I want to ask you about it, is technology.

Because I remember when she sent her first email.

We had to take something in and show her.

But in the past, before she passed, we spent about three years and she'd get on Zoom calls, FaceTime calls, and we'd be on FaceTime with her.

And she could not believe it.

She was blown away.

But it's hard too, think about this.

Let's say you're in your 80s.

And you don't know what a iPhone is.

You know what it is, but you don't know it necessarily everything.

How do you download an app, how you do this and that and everything.

There's a lot of things that people can be taught, and vice versa, here's how we used to do it.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, you know, during the pandemic, people paid attention to older adults because they knew they were isolated and felt a lot of compassion.

I think as a culture, when we don't value that, then we don't value and understand.

So it's up to us to help people understand.

So one of our, besides doing these gatherings, and doing programs for mind, body, and spirit, basically aging with wellness and vitality, our programs are gonna be called Vitality and Aging.

But for example, the gentleman I was telling you about that's one of my encouragers, he said, "Peggy, make it a place that's safe, so if I don't quite get on my chair well, or I maybe spill a little bit, or I'm not quite as fast, I feel safe because that's respected."

But it's also a brave place where you're gonna encourage me to learn that.

You know, to walk me through it so that I can, how can I, how can I reach my grandchildren?

How can I reach my great-grandchildren?

So I feel like what you asked was where are we going?

- Where are we going?

- And so, in the next two to three years, helping Peoria understand and seize the opportunity and to really recognize and come to some reconciliation because there's a reason we don't have a senior center here.

I don't know what it is.

Is it not respect of our elders?

I don't know.

Is it not understanding?

I think so.

I think it's that if I knew because I know I see the light up in people's eyes.

I tell 'em what could be- - That's exactly right.

- And they say, "Well, let's get it.

Let's do it."

And you know with the movement to draw talent to Peoria?

Well, if I know I'm gonna move here and I need my mom or my whoever I'm caring for, to be closer to me, I need to know that their needs are gonna be met just as much as my children at a school district.

You know?

So if I know mom, if mom can go someplace and she can enjoy meeting friends and she can socialize and learn something and have a little, show up.

Showing up sometimes is enough purpose for somebody to know that they're valued.

- I think you nailed it.

So not to, well, let me give you a different example.

People don't know what happens in social service work.

People do not understand what foster care even means.

They understand the high level, the 30,000 foot, but they don't understand boots on the ground, what it means.

They don't understand what behavioral health really means.

They hear it, they don't know what it means.

Autism school, whatever Boys and Girls Club.

They don't know what, what is it?

Just they go after school and play sports?

- [Peggy] Oh, the implication.

Yeah.

- They don't know.

They do more than that, right?

And so I think you're right.

There's an education piece here that needs to happen.

So your goal is to have a center.

So I just want to, a couple of the outcomes.

Participants of Graceland will report improved physical, mental, that's a big one.

But emotional health, that's key, right?

And then express reduced problems and higher satisfaction of accessing community resources.

So let's touch on that just for a second.

What I just said.

People don't know what's out there, right?

- Absolutely, or how to access it or what they need to know and how they need to advocate for themselves.

- Well, you don't know what you don't know.

So there's a branding, marketing component here.

So that's one thing we need to work on, right?

So I love the idea of it.

I know you've talked to great leaders like Andy Thornton at the YMCA, and Phil Lockwood and the Score Team.

We talked about them earlier and they were on our show.

And so anyway, this is a great topic.

Let's work together as a community.

I appreciate everything that you're doing.

I'm very, very proud that you kept grinding and grinding.

So Peggy Jacques with Graceland, thank you so much for coming on.

This was a fast 30 minutes.

I'm Matt George, and this is another episode of "Business Forward".

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