Friends Life Community

Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:21):

Hi guys, welcome to the Raising Kellan podcast. My name is Marsh Naidoo and I blog at raisingkellan.org, where we curate resources for parents raising children with developmental delays and/or disabilities. In today's episode 73, I'm chatting with Waverly Ann Harris CEO of Friends Life Community, an organization based here in Nashville, Tennessee. As always, remember the information provided on this podcast is purely educational and if you are seeking advice for your specific situation always contact a trained professional.

Makendra Ezell (01:05):

Hi guys, my name is Makendra Ezell, and I'm a senior at Dyersburg High School and I am interning on this podcast. I saw Friends Life Community a few months ago, performing and I just thought that they did an amazing job. So, I thought it would be a great idea to interview them and see what their organization is about.

Marsh Naidoo (01:30):

Thanks, Makendra, for letting us know about Friends Life Community. And guys, get ready for some awesome conversation. Put those feet up, grab your cup of coffee and let's get going.

(01:43):

Welcome to the Raising Kellan podcast, Waverly. We are so glad to have you here with us today.

Waverly Ann Harris (01:51):

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for asking me to be on.

Marsh Naidoo (01:55):

Waverly. I would like to introduce you to Makendra Ezell.

Waverly Ann Harris (01:57):

So nice to meet you.

Makendra Ezell (01:57):

Nice to meet you too.

Waverly Ann Harris (01:58):

Makendra, you came to the Kindling show. Is that right?

Makendra Ezell (02:06):

Yes ma'am.

Waverly Ann Harris (02:08):

That's wonderful. Thank you so much for coming.

Makendra Ezell (02:10):

You're welcome. Okay. My first question would be, could you give us an overview of Friends Life Community, and what role you play there?

Waverly Ann Harris (02:20):

And sorry, what was the second part?

Makendra Ezell (02:22):

What role do you play?

Waverly Ann Harris (02:28):

Yeah. Friends Life Community started as just wanting to make sure that adults who are aging out of high school have a place to go after high school, but also to be a part of the community, make friends, and continue their learning. We have been operating as a program for about 14 years, now. Next year will be our 15th year. Since 2011, we've been in this wonderful, old home as our home base. We're here Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. And we have multiple classes throughout the day, in which the friends get to choose what classes they do within three areas. We have life skills, service learning and employment, and then, visual and performing arts, which is a part of the arts program that you saw. Through those programs, they grow personally, which is a lot of confidence building, self-advocacy , and self-expr ession. But then, they also grow socially by building friendships and also socially within the community.

(03:38):

One thing we really believe in is making sure that we're not just expecting individuals with disabilities to change in order to fit into society. But, we're also educating the community as a whole so that they have more opportunities and that the community is understanding the value that they bring to the community. Everything we do has a very community facing agenda, and it's all about breaking down barriers, changing perceptions, and creating these bridges, so that everybody can work together and be better together.

(04:16):

And you had asked about my role. I'm the CEO of Friends Life Community and I started in 2011 when they started the day program. I was hired as the first program director and I got to work with a really special team to start it up grassroots and have been fortunate enough to be able to see it grow for the last 11 plus years and get to be a part of where we are today.

Makendra Ezell (04:46):

You talked about community events, how many community events do you all host a year?

Waverly Ann Harris (04:52):

Ooh, that's a good question. We only host maybe three or four per year. Sometimes we have them on-site, but the Kindling Arts Festival that you attended, we were actually one of 60 different arts groups that applied to be a part of that festival. Kindling Arts Festival hosted it and we were chosen. We were one out of 16 different groups that were chosen to perform. We have a couple of groups. We have an event coming up on November 10th. It's a Thursday night at Tennessee Performing Arts Center. TPAC will be hosting this event. And this is where... It will be similar, to a performing arts presentation. But, 10 friends have written their own stories that they will then be performing on the TPAC stage.

(06:00):

Through the arts, we probably have maybe 10 events per year. But then also, we have traveling acting and dancing groups and they each have a season and they perform maybe 30 times within a season, out in the community. Different schools, nonprofits, and businesses will host us and will book our friends to come and perform for them. And that's another way that, again, going back to building those relationships and breaking down barriers. We can't expect everybody to come to Friends Life, but when they partner with us and have us come to their groups and maybe we're there for their lunch hour or whatever, it's a great way to build relationships and start to break down some of those walls. So we do that. We probably have maybe 60 shows a year, that we do.

Makendra Ezell (06:58):

Ooh, that's a lot of shows.

Waverly Ann Harris (07:00):

It is.

Makendra Ezell (07:03):

When I was there and I was there to watch my niece Keonna.

Waverly Ann Harris (07:06):

Oh my goodness. I didn't know she was your niece. That's amazing.

Makendra Ezell (07:12):

And while each piece was beautifully pieced together and some of them were even emotional. So, my question is, how long does it take to put each show together?

Waverly Ann Harris (07:25):

Long time. Well, I'm so glad... Keonna's piece, just for those who are hearing this for the first time, if you go to our YouTube page, Friends Life community's YouTube page, Keonna's piece, her film is the first video that pops up. And a couple of years ago, she wrote this piece. Keonna, like many of us, is always looking for a relationship and always looking for a boyfriend. And she wrote into her piece, her ideal date and being with her prince. And then, in the middle of it, she has separated from him and then surrounded by these amazingly strong women who then helped transform her into her best self and recognize within herself the power that she has. And she comes out and leads this choreographed dance with these women of power supporting her. And then at the end of it, one of the women holds up a mirror for her and she then says into the mirror, I love you.

(08:40):

And so, it's this classic story of how oftentimes we're always looking externally for love. And then, we are on this amazing journey where we find it within ourselves. This story is something that is representative of Keonna, but also such a great example of how she may tell it in a way that's unique to her. But, we can all relate to it. And that's what makes that emotional connection. Because you're right, some of these stories are very emotional. That's what we love. We want people to laugh together, to cry together.

(09:17):

But to your point about how long it takes to develop that we have some incredibly specialized staff who help the friends. Because of some of our friends... Keonna is very verbally expressive. But, we have quite a few friends who are less verbally expressive. And so, it takes time to gather lots of information in different ways in order for them to best tell their story. It usually takes maybe about a year and that's meeting once a week or so, to help the friend be able to tell their story because we want it to be them. We don't want to be telling it for them. So, gathering the information, putting the story together, and then, comes practicing and acting and being able to perform it, or to be able to film it.

Makendra Ezell (10:12):

I never realized that it was their own story. I thought that somebody had written it out for them or...

Waverly Ann Harris (10:22):

Everything we do within the performing arts is original work. Some of our staff may help them create the storyline so that what they're trying to say makes sense to a larger audience. But, everything is completely their story. The TPAC show in November is a whole new set of 10 new friends with their stories. But then, Keonna will be performing what you saw at Kindling. She'll be doing that live again, but it's all like Jimmy Miller, for example, he loves puppets. That's just something he really loves. So, we partner with the Nashville Puppet Theater and they helped him create a puppet that looks like him. And then, he's written this superhero story of what his ideal... What his perfect day would look like as him being a superhero. He'll be performing it on stage with some other team members of the Nashville Puppet Theater. But it's his story and they just helped him bring it to life.

Marsh Naidoo (11:36):

Waverly, can you tell me how businesses or nonprofits interested in hosting Friends Life Community at their place of business or at a community event can contact you? Or, what does that look like?

Waverly Ann Harris (11:55):

Yeah. Well, if it's in Nashville, it's really easy. We have different seasons where we run different shows and definitely, you can call the office here. Or, we have a listing of our staff on our website and Sarah Edwards is the director of our performing arts program. But really, you can always just email admin@friendslife.org and we will get anyone to the right person. When it comes to something that's a little bit outside of Nashville, then we love to work with people to coordinate, being able to spend a good amount of time there around other events and also bring around awareness. We worked for... I guess it was about three years, we did a project in Carol County, west Tennessee. Because, there were quite a few families out there who just really had a hard time finding programming, we were able to partner with them to bring some programming there. But what it did was it also, gave them something to bring families together, so that then they could communicate and coordinate around.

(13:07):

So, in 2020 we started the Friends Treat Truck and it is essentially an ice cream truck that businesses, nonprofits, churches, and apartment complexes, hire us to then come out and provide ice cream treats to their customers, employees, pretty much anyone and everyone. And so, that also creates opportunities for the friends to learn job skills. But, we've also hired five friends to work evenings and weekends this year. And that has been a great way for us to also... If there was a business or a church group or a school that's outside of Nashville who wanted maybe a performance by the friends but also wanted the treat truck to come out, we could create a longer event, but also build community and create awareness around all the individuals in their own community that are there and are also looking for programs to be a part of and opportunities outside of school.

Marsh Naidoo (14:18):

Well, this is an amazing organization. And for any folks out there that want to know more about Friends Life Community, what would be the best way to contact you all Waverly Ann?

Waverly Ann Harris (14:32):

Our website has a lot of information on it. It's friendslife.org. Also following us on social media is a great way. We're on Instagram and Facebook. Just to stay in touch with events that are coming up or activities, get to know who we are. And then, anyone can always just call us. All of our information is on the website or email us. We love talking to people and we love giving tours it really is all about community and just building that community. So, we love it when people reach out.

Makendra Ezell (15:09):

So volunteers, how do you do that? If anybody wanted to come and just volunteer for a day and spend time with them, are they able to do that?

Waverly Ann Harris (15:19):

Yeah. We love volunteers. I will say that, again, a lot of it's about building relationships as usually if we have a one-day event it's more work-related. So, it's doing things around campus. As you probably know, our friends are very social and they depend on relationships. So, if someone wants to work with the friends, say assist in classes or volunteer for the treat track, we do require a minimum of three months of commitment because the friends build these great relationships. And a lot of times people come in and out of their life a lot. And so, we really focus on those long-term volunteer opportunities, but we have our volunteer manager is actually on maternity leave right now, which is exciting, but it does... We're putting off new volunteers until January, but then we'll be back up and running with lots of volunteer opportunities for the next year.

Makendra Ezell (16:30):

So thank you for the interview. When I first went and saw your show, I was like, they really do some amazing work and it would be great to talk to them and stuff.

Waverly Ann Harris (16:40):

Oh, thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for coming. Please put November 10th on your calendar. If you enjoyed that, it's just a lot of the same concepts. And again, all original work by the friends. Keonna, you can show off your niece because she does an amazing job and she's just... She rocks it. She's so cool. Please bring your friends, tell people about it and stay in touch because there're still so many opportunities out there and we really want to be a part of growing opportunities for all individuals who have disabilities and have so much to give and really deserve to have a place in each community. So, whatever we can do to build up that network and partner with others, wherever you may be, we love that kind of work. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me here today.

Marsh Naidoo (17:42):

Absolutely Waverly and we look forward to working with you guys in the future.

Waverly Ann Harris (17:47):

That sounds wonderful. Thank you.

Marsh Naidoo (17:49):

Guys, thank you as always for listening along with us today. We would sincerely appreciate a like and a share of this podcast, to spread the message of the great work being done at Friends Life Community. Makendra, is there anything that you would like to add?

Makendra Ezell (18:10):

If you have any information for us or if you would just like to ask a question, you can easily reach out to us at raisingkellan.com and you can also visit us on all our social media platforms.

Marsh Naidoo (18:25):

Thanks so much for that Makendra. And guys, that email again is raisingkellan@gmail.com and our website is www.raisingkellan.org. Until next time have a great week and we'll see you all soon. As always remember, get to the top of your mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo together with...

Makendra Ezell (18:55):

Makendra Ezell.

Marsh Naidoo (18:57):

Signing off.