Danny Combs and the TACT Story: Crafting New Paths for Autistic Individuals

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by
Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mantur. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest is Danny Combs. He has an autistic child
who inspire hired him to start his business called Tact.
He's here to tell us about his child and his business.
Thanks for coming on, yer.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk
to me today. I appreciate it.
Oh, it's my pleasure. So I understand that you have
an autistic son. Is that correct? Yes, sir, that's correct.
Dylan. Yep.
What age was he diagnosed autistic?
He was like two esque at Vanderbilts down in Nashville.
Oh okay, my neck of the woods.
Yeah.
What were some of the things that was happening that
led you to believe that you might have to have
him checked out?
It was a lot around his speech. That was a
big thing. He wasn't didn't say hello, Dad, I love
you until he was like six six and a half.
Some of his sensory stuff into regards to when like
we would be out about if he was at like
a public park, for example, he would seem mesmerized by
certain things and not really interested in kind of engaging
with others in those kind of social situations. When he
was he's still kind of a little bit of a
toe walker. Just compounded a couple of those different things
were kind of like, okay, I mean, it was a
variety of tests. They ran everything from hearing to sensory
and then it went on and on and on a
bunch of different things.
How old is he now?
Fifteen?
Wow? Fifteen? Yeah, so he's going through the teenage years now.
How did he go through some of the early years
to what he's going through now with the teens? Because
I've been told that when kids hit thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
it can change their life and impact them in a
very dramatic way. So how did it affect him or
did it affect him at all?
That's a great question. It's hard to tell. If it's
the teenage years or patistica and him getting older. Dylan
is an exceptionally kind carrying young man. I mean, he's
always been very thoughtful, really curious about what others are thinking.
I think now that he's at the age that he is,
it seems where he's kind of getting lost, where he
doesn't necessarily fully understand what people are saying or how
they're processing certain things. So there's frustration that comes with that.
So he's trying to figure out who he is right
now is what it feels like. But he's doing great.
What's the schooling part now? Is he in public school
or do you have him in a private facility?
Yeah? No, it's public school. He goes to a school
called Connifer High School just west of Denver in the foothills.
But nice thing about the mountain schools is there a
little bit smaller class sizes, more natural sunlight, those kind
of things. So not that necessarily inner city Denver schools
kind of thing.
That's great. So how does he handle the classroom areas?
Is he an introvert an extrovert or does he kind
of mingle and get along with everybody? How does that
working out for him?
Definitely more of an introvert. Yes, he's very introverted and
he's in the classroom eighty percent of the time.
So does he have any issues with bullying because the
situation of where people just don't understand what he's going
through very much. So yes, So unfortunately that happens. But
when it did, how did you address it? Did you
go to the teachers or the school system? How did
you approach that?
A little bit of both, And it depends on which
age group you're talk And it's interesting because his tact
has become more successful and people are more aware of it,
the teachers and administrators seem to have a different course
of action, which is kind of an interesting way to
say it. So when it first started, it just became
a lot of communication with the teachers, with their support staff,
making sure things like as IEP were being met because
most of the time they definitely were not where like
they would say they were going to have all these
things in place, they absolutely did not. And then talking
to him and helping him understand. I mean, there's a
lot about that. Then there's been therapists involved, psychologists involved,
so a lot of those different things. But now it
comes to a lot of the times when in high school,
if you know, the most recent one was him leaving
eighth grade and going into high school talking to the
teachers about that, and they seem to be very dismissive
at first. Then it seemed like, for whatever reason, they
changed course one hundred and eighty degrees. And I don't
want to say that's because they're recognizing the impact that
the tact is having, but it seems like something to
influenced them all of a sudden where a complete change
of course, and maybe it's just a hot button topic
right now.
Thing is that they did change, but that is a
very interesting topic on my podcast, and that's how the
school system reacts and how they address the things that
they need to do. Yeah, hopefully they understand that they
need to learn more because it's an ever evolving situation
of where they're going to have more people that they
have to deal with and hopefully they can handle it better.
They don't have the adequate tools, and I feel that
I mean not to justify them, but to understand them
and empathize with them, like they're put in the losing
situation as educators where they have vastly under resourced. They
have so many kids per class, Like, there's no win
for that for them. They I mean, it's not that
they're not well meeting well intentioned teachers and support staff
and paris and therapists. They're just overworked dramatically.
So exactly, So what's your five year plan for them?
What do you see in his near future?
Well, that's really up to him. What I want form
and what he wants for himself for new separate things.
But I would love for him to personally, really really
really get into the creative side of his nature. He's
very artistic. He's very got a great way with words,
even though you know, sitting across and having a conversation
that might not necessarily the best way to get into
Dylan's mind. But what he writes down on paper, he
can write down some amazing things. He's a very, very
good writer. So I would love to see him explore that.
What he wants to do. He's still trying to figure
that out. So I would love for him to do
something that we're doing intact. I mean, the whole point
was inspired by him to the hands on project based
learning and you know, keeping the family tradition of the
skilled trades going all of those things are inspired. I
don't think he's going to become an auto mechanic. He
might be like an architect. I could see him doing
that too. Five years. I mean he'll be if he
wants to go to college, we'll support him and going
to college. If he wants to go military, I'm working
with the military to try to make that possible. If
that's something he wants to do. I would love for
him to go to trade school. So I just want
him to be comfortable in his own skin and know
what he wants for himself, and then give him the
freedom to choose that for himself and port him in
that and don't feel like he has to go. What
happens to most of our community is they get forced
into a certain pathway.
So you mentioned tech and how he was instrumental in
you starting this. Yeah, so can you expand on what
that is to everyone?
So tax where it's it's long winded, so that our
elevator's speech is longer than thirty seconds. But we are
a five oh one c three nonprofit that works to
essentially solve the unemployment crisis for the autistic community and
provide a quality of opportunity for careers. Actual training and
all of the resources to get them set up for
success for the future. So we have a variety of
different programs, but we start as young as five. Obviously
we're not putting five year olds on welding torches and
table saws and stuff, but we work with young students
to get them excited about the idea of hey, in
my future, is it fun to make things, to fix things,
to think creatively, to work with my hands, to problem
solve and fail and then recover and figure out how
I did that. And then we document the heck out
of all of that. And then when they get to
the transition age, then we have a full transition program
that we call our Career Tracks program, and that program
is designed just for that to transition young autistic adults
and teenagers into careers. If that's what they choose to do.
They don't have to go into the trades, but we
use the trades a vessels to develop those employment skills
because they're very, very hands on. It's very holistic. All
of our classes, they're completely differentiated for each client, so
every individual is getting pathway that's unique to them. It's
competency based rather than timetable based, and so everything is
set up for them to be successful. And then we
have another program that works to identify them a job
where they're going to end up. We have a whole
team that helps them with resumes and portfolios of the
interview process and then benefits analysis for those kind of
things to make sure that whatever career they choose, they're
supported in that. And then we have a team of
employment specialists that work side by side in person with
them rather than online help them as an advocate, as
a liaison. However, they need that person to be there
side by side with them as they're in the workplace
advancing in their career.
That's great. So what led you to do this? Did
you sit down one day and just think, man, I've
got to do something to help autistic people. What actually
causes this to happen? Because it sounds like it's a
really great program.
Yeah. So when Dylan was diagnosed with autism, I spent
a whole bunch of time in therapy rooms, hospitals settings
where he was being told what was where wrong with him?
Where I was being told what was wrong with him?
Where I was spending a whole bunch of money. Since
you're in Nashville. I used to live in Old Hickory,
so obviously on the northeast side of town in Davidson County.
At the time, there were very very few places that
you could go to get autism services. So I was
having to drive to the next count over, county over
and go into Mount Juliet before I was able to
find like actual resources. And when you're in a metropolitan
city and struggling to find resources, it changed a lot.
From when I hear from friends that are still there,
which is great. The last decade seems like it's been
very good to Nashville, but at the time it was
struggling a little bit there. So I kept all I
kept hearing what was wrong with him, what he need
to do different? I never heard what was right yeah,
and noticing how all these amazing things about my son.
It started very humbly, where it was just a selfish
dad wanting my son to see all the things he
could do, to feel encouraged and empowered and recognized for
his strengths. The braids came very naturally to him, and
being a fourth generation tradesman myself, I just thought maybe
that was part of it, Maybe that was just our
family lineage we were able to do with our hands.
So I started looking for a program like tact and
I couldn't find anything at all. I had the chance
to meet doctor Temple Grandon and told her about my idea,
and she said, stop what you're doing, put down your guitar,
go do this, go work, start this nonprofit. And I did.
It's since grown up and pretty amazing.
Yeah sounds great. So how long have you been doing
this now?
We started it in twenty sixteen, so eight years old. Yeah,
eight years It started in the back of a fifty
eight Chevy so a car guy had to be done right.
So fifty eight Chevy panel truck on a police car frame,
little three point fifty and point wheels, and you know,
hot rotted it, rat rotted it and would drive to churches,
in vac centers, anywhere anybody would give us a chance
to just like showcase, hey, what can our kids achieve?
And to mind you of using the word kids, because
they were children at the time. A lot of them
were you know, ten, twelve, thirteen, under eighteen individuals that
we were training. And then it snowballed from there and
as we started doing more and more, it grew, and
now it's become everything it is and
it has. We have a full staff of twenty people.
We served six hundred and forty two students last year.
We had twelve different school districts, another dozen plus nonprofits.
People move from all over the country. I mean, it's
grown into this amazing organization that started to league with
one guy driving around in a truck teaching that his
parents toot.
So well, that was my question. How has it grown
in the eight years now? Where is it located and
what areas do you service?
Yes, right now, it's just south of We're in the
suburbs of Inglewood, which is like four miles south of Denver.
I mean, depending on which we can go, get to
Denver at two minutes, so right just south. What happened
with Denver is when they legalized marijuana, all of the
industrial space got bought by marijuana growhouses. So nonprofits teaching
things like trade skills can't compete with big marijuana industry.
So Inglewood's been amazing. It's mainly the Denver metro area.
We do go further south into Colorado Springs. We've had
students as far west as Grand Junction, come regularly. Students
drive down from Boulder all the time. We had one
student come for one class just from Nebraska just because
he wanted to come try a class and said, Mom,
I signed up for this class, You're going to drive
me from Nebraska to Denver. So it's kind of neat.
The goal is going to be growing it. So we
just merged with fed Cap, which we're very very excited about,
and they're in New York based nonprofit that is exceeding
in workforce development and education, and with their support, we're
going to start standing up other tax across the country.
So we're looking at working with them for a couple
of organizations they merged with and within the FEDCAP group
to stand up a second tact in Queen's with the
APEX Group and then likewise in Austin, Texas with the
Green Leaf School. So soon that'll be like the get
go right to start getting expansion under works. And one
of the trickiest things is figuring out how to fund
it in all those different places. Every state has a
different set of rules and regulations, so that's kind of hard.
Yeah, I can understand that. So what's your goals now?
You've started out now you've expanded. Do you see this
getting to a national level at some point, oh, one
hundred percent.
I think in the next ten years or next eight years.
It's very very possible. Tax can be in a dozen
different locations in big metropolitan cities all across the country.
That's the goal, and then eventually even further in every state.
It's still this is still the only problem of its
kind in the whole country. And when you think that
the autism community by and large has a ninety percent
under unemployment rate, the state of Colorado has a twelve
point two percent success rate, so an eighty eight a
half percent unemployment rate for our community with an average
wage of less than two hundred dollars per week, attacked
doing with an over eighty three percent placement rate starting
wages of nineteen dollars and eighty six cents on average
for our graduates. We're creating real futures for students, and
we have so many business partners that work with us.
It's been really neat to have all of the companies
like subru Has sponsored us in Microsoft and Toyota and
Mitsubishi that provide these opportunities for our students to have
real hands on experience with the latest and the greatest
and authentic stuff to help them be successful in their careers.
Oh that's nice. So as it grows, what are you
doing so you can be part of all of this
yet still focus on what you want to focus on,
so you can have diversity across the board, so to speak.
You know, I don't have an answer for that yet.
That's been a real struggle in this room. My hair
looks brown, but if you and I were sitting at
a table across from each other, you'd see just how
great it's become. It's that's just something I'm really trying
to figure out. And you know, as we're growing, wanting
to make sure. I mean, I still teach at instrument
building class every year because that's something that I'm passionate
about and like making sure that I swell have that
time to actually engage. I don't want my job to
ever be where I lose focus and don't know who
all our community really is, where it feels like something
so compartmentalized that it's completely broken away from that. So
it's a balance. But at the same token, it's been
so invigorating and exciting to see so many organizations cities,
students and just community partnerships jump on board and start
recognizing what's possible. It's a really neat moment right now
where it feels like our community is finally starting to
come together and recognize in neudiversity, and I mean in
a top attack. Not sure if you're ware, but I
co founded the Colorado Nerdiversity Chamber of Commerce, which is
the first nerdiverse chamber of commerce in the country. So
getting to do that, working with the military for autistic
service members to take place and still feel it very
much feels like don't ask, don't tell in a lot
of ways there. So just trying to be a good
citizen and make sure that our whole community is really recognized.
I mean, if my son can grow up into a
world that looks nothing like it does now for the
better and he's able to be inherently valued for his strengths, man,
then I've succeeded. That would have been pretty amazing.
Yeah, absolutely, So what were some of the hurdles that
you faced when you first started out You were all
by yourself trying to get the word out. Yeah, and
now eight years later you've grown. So what were some
of the hurdles that you faced, and how did you
approach them so that you could get them to join
in and help you.
Yeah, Oh gosh, there's so many hurdles for anybody to
ask me that when they were like, you know, if
I was going to start this, would you make it
a nonprofit? Again? Oh boy, that's a tough one, because
starting a nonprofit from scratch, that's really hard. A few things.
Insurance was a really big issue because we were turned
down thirteen times for insurance. Insurance companies bought. The idea
of putting tools in the hands of autistic youth and
adults was a problem. So we have a great insurance
broker thirteen times now but one time, yes, and it's
been great since. So, I mean, that was part of it.
Part it was convincing our own community, where a lot
of agencies that work within the university and auto some
communities didn't believe that what we were doing was possible.
It didn't fit into the molds of the time. Being
strengths based recognizing the possibility of everybody day treatment was
at the time and still is in a lot of places.
The big thing that a lot of our community ends
up into certainly not career advancement and a quality of
opportunity there it's day treatment centers, so differentiating and recognizing
there's a difference. Finding programs the federal programs that would
fund us because we weren't timetable based was a big one.
Proving the idea of competency based education, which most colleges
have started to explore. In another ten years, most colleges
will head that way where that's going to become the
pathway forward. But that way, you know, eight years ago,
everybody thought again, we were kind of crazy finding the space. Thankfully,
we've got great team members. Becky Mershawn our COO. She's
been with us since the beginning, and I think finding
somebody that really partners with you well, that is able
to get a lot done, and finding worker bees that
believe in our cause and able to really support it.
And then it took a few donors at first that
recognized what we were doing because a lot of personal
money and assets went into making this possible at first,
and when you're doing a nonprofit, a lot of times
they want proven results before they invest. Part as a
startup nonprofit, it's really just taken some time to just
continuously steadily be persistent. And so I think that persistence
in being positive, in the persistence because we get told
no all the time. I mean like going to businesses
at first and be like, hey, look at that, the
amazing things our graduates are doing. Do you want to
hire them? I can't tell you how many times we
were told now, I mean more than I could ever recall.
But once they started saying yes, they started recognizing how
amazing our community is, and they would tell their friends
and their other businesses. And then it's grown and grown
and grown. Yeah, it's come to very organic the way
it's happened.
Yeah, that's great. So, as we all know twenty twenty,
highsight is always perfect. So is there anything that you
look back on now well and you say to yourself, well,
I wish you had done this, or I wish I'd
done that, or are you happy would just the way
things turned out?
No, I mean there's always things. I mean, you know,
there's definitely been bridges burns for sure. As we've approached things,
we approach things very differently than others. And while we
try to incorporate our values into our program of grace
and integrity and discipline and empowerment and respect. There are
just sometimes when you meet other, you know, people in
our community, that their ideas are just different than yours.
And so there have been partnerships with different organizations that
have been lost. You know, there are definitely some organizations
that when we started working with them, we were very
hungry to get students coming to our program, found ways
to get scholarships for students, and we'd get them to
come to us, and then we would go to report
on all this data, and those partner organizations would take
credit for our work because they were clients from their
program they were sending to us. It was sad to
see how the community wouldn't work together for the kids.
And there's still were very much fighting for their own program.
And I get right, I mean like they're running in
their own program. But I think I naively looked at
it as a dad rather than a businessman in some
fronts like why can't we all do this together? Rather
than like why are we all still fighting each other
over these different things? So that part's been hard. There
are some other trades that would have loved to teach,
for sure, and I would like to when I look back,
recognize we have a very very low turnover of staff.
Most of our staff sticks, which is amazing. I can't
take any credit for that. That's all Becky. I mean,
she's an amazing leader. Working with the staff on the
day to day, I get to do fun stuff like
talk to you. She's the one, you know, where they
make sure that the staff is happy. I think we
try to really we're trying to really build an actual community,
recognizing that it's not just a training program, it's not
just an employment program. But we want to be the
hub that works together. So we're trying to really share
resources with contacts, with ideas, with businesses. At the end
of the day, it's a dad that's trying to make
the world better and I want to make sure that happens.
And if that means I'm the person in the driver's seat, great.
If that means I'm the person you're in the passenger seat,
that's fine too. Like as long as we get where
we're supposed to go.
I think one of the biggest thing is understanding. Most
people don't even realize what autism is. Because of that,
a lot of people close their minds on what autistic
people can actually do. It's pretty sad. Actually, So what
you're doing really is you're a teacher. You're not just
going out into the community and helping your kids. You're
actually teaching these people that you're talking with what autism
is and what they can do. So because of that,
you're actually teaching them and understanding for autistic people.
Yeah, yeah, that's an unexpected part of the journey. That
definitely is the part of the journey for sure. Yeah,
thank you for missing that.
Sure pretty obvious. Actually, so what has come to you
When you first looked at it? You said to yourself,
I don't think this is going to work. Then all
of a sudden it just turned around and turned into
a success.
Man. That's really that. The things that I've thought that
wouldn't work the most were about a lot of around
money and funding where I mean, just the ideas of
the way that we're doing things. It just doesn't fit
into the box of a lot of traditional molds. And
I think that's the thing is like we're kind of
creating the bridge as we're walking across it is what
it kind of feels like. There's definitely been that part.
The communication with parents is a lot of times that's
been one thing where parents, myself being a dad and
just going on and on about how making my kids,
you know, world better. Parents are tough ones to crack
because a lot of times they have gotten to the
habit of speaking for their child and trying to do
the exact opposite and empower the child to speak for themselves.
That didn't go the way that I thought it was
going to go. Mind. You know, sometimes we meet advocates
that are doing amazing things. Not to take away from anybody,
but there have literally been conversations we'll have to look
at the advocate that's highly regarded or you know whatnot
and be like, would you please stop talking and let
the person next to you actually talk. I didn't for
things like that to have to take place, but that
has to take place, and it's not that they're not
well intended. That's just breaking down some of the traditional
things that have taken place.
Yeah, I've talked with a woman that had a really
rough time with just what you said. She had a
son that was autistic and was talking to someone and
he wouldn't talk with the son. He kept talking with her,
and she kept saying, talk to my son. Yeah, she
said she had a real difficult time getting him to
talk to her son because he just didn't understand that
just because her son was autistic, that he wasn't capable
of carrying on a great conversation.
Oh my gosh. Yes, yeah, well, and I mean not
to to backchack, but talk about your earlier point like
that the teacher education piece, you know, with the call
O and Neudiversity Chamber of Commerce. For the whole first
year of that, I can't tell you how many emails
we got, and the number one question we would get
was what is neurodiversity?
Wow?
But not surprising where it just blew us away still.
I mean big businesses, you know, winners of awards and
all these you know, big groups that still don't recognize
our community. And I think there's been unfortunately a lot
of misinformation too about autism. That we're having to retrain
people's minds and help engage their thoughts and hearts in
a way that stop looking at our community as lesser
than unable to do things and start recognizing all the
things that they can do.
Okay, So there's the reason why that the autism spectrum
exists because you have so many individuals that's all over
the spectrum. Yeah, so you have some kids, they'll have meltdowns.
So when that happens, how do you approach that in
the workforce so they can deal with it in the
correct way so that it won't be a deal breaker
and it can allow your company to still move forward
to help the person that needs the help.
That's a great question. This is actually really good information
for anybody that's listening to think in a lot of
ways that you know, just autistic individuals have meltdowns, or
nerdistinct individuals have meltdowns. Everybody has a point, for whatever reason,
where they need a moment. Like I can't think of
a human being on this planet that hasn't been in
a point where they're just like, you know, I'd give
me five I need to go walk, have a glass
of water on you know, Netflix, and just chill for
a second, like give me a moment kind of thing.
I think it's the humanity and helping businesses understand what
it actually is. I think a big part of our
job is reframing communication with businesses and helping them articulate
and ask questions in a way that's clear and concise,
and trying to seek information rather than push an opinion
or project some kind of idea onto somebody else. So
before we get anybody put into a job, we work
with those businesses to help them put those practices in place.
A lot of times it's again reframing the way things
are communicated, articulated, structured and simple things from like, Okay,
you're going to have a business meeting tomorrow, how about
the day before, give everybody the agenda so they have
time to process what's going to take place. I mean
little things that are big things, right, I mean like
does that really take that business leader that much more
time to shoot out a colick email the day before,
and helping them recognize that small accommodations than support enablers
like that lead to overall productivity lest hr costs for
rehiring and retraining individuals, and so it's a big part
of that. And then also again just recognizing that people
need grace and different managers handle that differently. What's really
helped us get a lot of businesses to start have
been parents or autistic adults themselves in those businesses because
I think what's happened a lot and one of our
fears is that our training is so much a lot
with tact on individuals themselves getting ready to step into
their career. There is a number of autistic adults already
working that are struggling, that don't have the resources that
they need in their current workplace. That's a great thing
where the chamber comes in and supports those individuals and
those businesses to help them be successful. In recognizing for businesses,
you already have autistic adults working for you. This is
how you need to set them up to be more successful.
And everybody wins from that. And so, I mean, I
think a lot of it, yes, advocacy, a lot of
it is helping them reframe some of their ideas, in
structors and communications, helping them look at different workplace practices.
And they're I mean, they're really all small things. I mean,
I can't say there's like some one thing where a
company is gonna be like I think that's one hundred
thousand dollars in this. Never have I heard of something
like that. I mean, we're talking rather small investments that
lead to big results.
Okay, that's great. Now you mentioned parents earlier. A lot
of emotions go through parents when they first find out
that their child is autistic. There's a lot of misinformation
out there, and sometimes parents will look at it as
if a child has a death sentence, and really they don't.
So how do you teach those parents that their child
can grow up, learn, be educated, work, live a fulfilled
life just like anyone else. And this way the parent
can have a better outlook and more positive that their
kid can actually live a great life.
Yeah, that's another great question. It's not as simple as
one thing. It's a few different things. First, recognizing and
hearing that the individual express their fears thoughts, recognizing and
understanding and validating for them that those things are real,
and then helping them understand beyond that what it really means,
because I think you know the way that it's expressed
by a lot of times from doctors or therapists or
whatnot when people first get that diagnosis, that could that's
a room for growth, I think, for the community to
handle that better in a lot of different ways. It
used to be here's a book, good luck. I mean,
could you imagine and anything else in life getting something
like that? That's that's no good. And so then too,
the amazing thing about TACT being a hands on, project
based program is that our students are building and making
things that demonstrate and showcase their talent and ability. So
there's usually a physical, tangible item that they've made achieved
that they can showcase. And when people see that, that's
so much more real. Right when you see, like I
was telling you about my son writing, when I read
his papers, I'm proud, Like it's like, wow, look at
what my son can write, look at what's its find
in his heart, finding those ways of getting that because
what I saw before starting tact is my son was
always on the sideline less I was on the sideline.
It was always a waiting room and the sibling was
always in a waiting room. There was never that camaraderie,
that teamwork, and when you're building things in projects as teams,
it inherently puts people in a position holistically where they
have to work together and socialize and problem solve and
do all these things together. And if they don't want to,
they need a place to move way, then they get
that opportunity the way that we've structured it. That's one
helping giving those parents that and then we also have
classes just for the parents where we do trainings for
parents as well, where they get to come in and
then they get to do the same projects that their
kids are doing, where they can then compare theirs and
when they see how good what their child did and
what they did, that's a real moment for a lot
of parent like, wait, this is how I made it,
but this is how my child made it. Like there
is so much better than mine, you know.
So yeah, okay, So is there anything I've missed that
you'd like to address.
I think it would be great if we could talk
about you know, as a parent, the cost to parents
and individuals is very expensive for services. So we've set
up our program where ninety eight point five percent of
the students that come through our Career Tracts program are
on scholarship of some sort. We work very hard to
work with government and state, county agencies, federal agencies to
make sure that resources are available, including you know, foundations,
Grand tours, community partners, businesses that make this possible for students.
I think that's something that really separates us in the
sense a lot of programs focus on one portion of
the spectrum too, and I think that doesn't just fall
on how the pie chart of autism truly exists, because
it's not just a linear line, it's it's truly a
chart just focusing on that, but recognizing that socioeconomic impacts
for families are very real too. And I hear of
programs a lot of the time that are amazing, but
they're expensive, and all of a sudden, then excluding family
is based upon their economic and social economics standing. That's
horribly exclusive and it's nature. Why should only families that
have access to financial resources have the ability to provide
programming and opportunities to their child or to themselves. So
I think that's something that really differentiates us. And likewise,
we have the full spectrum. So when you come to
TACT and I would love for anybody to come, go
to our website, set up a tour and come see
you'll see that we teach the full spectrum. So we
have students that are using iPads or other forms of
alternative forms of communication to the exact opposites I mean,
and recognizing a spectrum. If somebody is verbal or using
words to communicate, that you know their supports in place
for everybody. And I think that's important that the whole
community is being represented and given the opportunity, not just
a portion of it.
Yeah, Okay, that's really good. What's your next step. You've
got your home base and now you've expanded to New York,
So what's the timeline that you have in your mind
that makes sense to expand and continue to grow.
So I break it down in five years and ten years.
So in five years, I would definitely like to be
having the TACKED in New York completely up and running, taxed,
and Austin completely up and running, and least a handful
of other locations. Those are things that I definitely would
like to see happening in the next five years. I
want to see it in the next ten years where
it's not felt as just a training program and employment program.
I wanted to try to be just so much bigger,
and I personally would like to be more in a
position too where I could work with other organizations to
help them on a variety different level. That's why I
do things with the Chamber and the Air Force, volunteer
on other boards and city counts, are commissioner for the
Denver Commission of People with Disabilities, and a variety of
different fronts. Recognizing that still very much in all of
what I've seen in every state and everywhere I travel
and been traveling a lot as of late to various states.
Everything is still so siloed and atomized that until we
start bridging that and getting everybody talking and working together
and making it about the actual community. Our future generations
are kids that autistic, adults that are currently working and
start making it about them and not set ourselves. And
there's a long way to go. My goal I mean
to be truthful because I like conversations like this. EIGHTYA
has been out for thirty four years this July, and
when you read EIGHTYA, one of the top things in
that is employment. Employment has only moved one percent in
thirty four years with EIGHTYA one percent. There's a variety
of other things that society has benefited from when we
go on from rail to handrails, to ramps to et cetera,
et cetera. That's awesome. However, employment hasn't changed. If something
like what started at the back of the fifty eighth
Chevy is able to have more than a one percent impact,
that they'll have done more than any other program that exists,
that would be a cool legacy.
Absolutely, and it's happening. That's a great part of it.
Yeah, But I mean it takes people supporting us and
helping us make it possible. So I hope people listen
and want to dive in with us.
So when you first started this, did you see this
expanding like it has?
No, I saw a dad that believed in his son
and put everything into the fact that my son can,
you know, and he still can. He's going to do
amazing things. And you know when the world is better,
when he's ready to step into his career and it
will be the place that he deserves. That's the best
I can give him.
Right, yes, absolutely the best gift you can give him.
And thanks for coming on. I really appreciate.
It, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Oh it's been my pleasure. Thanks for taking the time
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