Hello, everyone. Welcome to The Nathan Markley Show. I'm Nathan, and I'm here with Susan Raposo from Best Life RI. So, What is Best Life? So it's an organization that supports adults with developmental disabilities. It was started probably about a year ago, which is really exciting. But we were fortunate enough to receive some transformation dollars from the state of Rhode Island and we were able to start it.
We provide a variety of different services from support brokerage to employment supports, community support, building networks. It's really about customized life support. So it's really working with people and their chosen allies to figure out what they want their lives to look like. Sounds cool. What did you decide to set up an agency? I've been working for another organization in Rhode Island for 30 years. I started when I was 21.
I worked in a variety of different roles, and probably about three or four years ago, I started to meet these younger families and people that really wanted something different in their lives. They didn't, you know, they just wanted their lives to look different. And I wasn't sure that those supports were out there. So I started to think about how I could do it. I started to put an, I found a partner. I have a partner in this as well named Sherry Sorrell.
She's more of the she does a lot of the background stuff where I do more of the frontend stuff, We got together and we started to think about how to shape this and we started to talk to people nationally and in state and to just kind of see what it could look like. So we invited probably about eight or ten people to be on advisory committee and help us to start thinking about where to begin.
Once we did that shortly after is when the state you know, the state of Rhode Island due to the consent decrees, they were offering some money for organizations that were really thinking about transformation, transformational services. So one of the ladies on the advisory committee called me and said, Sue now's the time. And I said oh no, this is my 3 to 5 year plan. I don't have enough done. She said, No, no, now's the time.
And she said, You go home and you put a pen to paper mission, vision, values, services, and you start there. So I, of course, did what she said and I did it. And we started there and we created a proposal and we were awarded the funds, which was great. And we started and as of today, so about a year and a few months later, we're actually working with 30 people in their families. And so you provide, you're a support broker What does that mean?
Support brokerage, it's kind of a new word in the state, probably for the last maybe three or four years. But it to me and to best life, it really almost could be anything. So it's really again, what do you want your life to look like? How do we help you get there? So there's a few components many components to support brokerage, but there's a few. Like I can kind of go over. So sometimes for families, it's just help navigating the system. So what does that look like?
You know, the system in Rhode Island is pretty complicated. So, you know, sometimes they're trying to figure out who do you call for this? Who do you contact for this? So we will help them with that or, you know, there's a problem with their benefits. So we'll help them with those things. So it's there's navigating the system. There is for some people you meet them and they might be looking for employment services. So we’ll you know, kind of help them with that.
There's some people that may have a job, but they need they might not have any friends, so they might not be connected to the communities in which they choose. So we can help them navigate that. We help them in their families, navigate that to their chosen allies. We try to look at it on, you know, who are the people that you want to be with to help navigate your life. So you mentioned you provide helping find jobs. Can you explain a little how you do that? Sure.
It really again, we start with the person. You know, I always try to use the words interests, gifts, skills and talent. So what are your interests, gifts, skills, and talents. We figure out, you know, what is the person really looking for? It's really and we think about this a lot, but it's really about deeply listening to people and really understanding what they want their lives to look like. So that's kind of where we start.
And then from there, we just, you know, we'll try to navigate and figure it out. If your interest is horses, you know, we can Google my maps. How many horse farms there are in Rhode Island? There's a million of them by the way. So we can utilize those. We utilize whatever tools we can. We also have partnered with Doug Crandall, and he will with the, the Discovery Staging Record. So that's another option for people.
Again, it depends where people are in their journey and what that looks like for them. Yeah. So you find out what they what the person's interests are, what they like to do, and then you go out and look for what's out there and then you make those connections. Exactly. And what the matches, you know, where the matches. I think the match for really any relationship, opportunity, employment, connection, anything. The match is the most important piece.
You know, if you're not well matched to a job or, you know, relationship, community setting, anything like that, it's never going to work. I don't do well in a library. I talk too much. Now, after you provide a service, do you follow up with them to keep in touch with them, see how things are going, and they can always contact you? Absolutely.
So the way that it works is people in their families are chosen Allies will actually decide on an amount of hours or time that they will write us into their ISP for utilizing their self-directed support. So they kind of decide that and based on that and based on what people want and need, we will actually stay engaged with them in that way.
What I will say is that if let's say the person finds a job, he has friends, everything's all set and they don't they don't need us anymore, then that's great. Then call us when you do or, you know, ask us to reconnect whenever you're ready. So that's kind of the way we look at it. other than helping with finding a job what are other things you help with and experiences from people you help with. So we I can actually give you some examples of that if you'd like.
So we we actually are working with a gentleman. He's going to college. He's not quite ready for a job just yet, but he really what he asked us for was to he's really into sports. He loves to play golf he's really into sports. So we I actually worked with him to figure out some different ways that we could kind of get him connected to those two places. So we were fortunate. I actually know someone at the on the Brown University football team who's connected to them.
So he and I were able to go visit their office and meet with the head coach of the Brown football team and to really kind of get an understanding of how they play the game. He got to see the back end of what they do. It was really it was it was an excellent time. he and I volunteered at a golf tournament so he could kind of meet some other golfers and really connect with other people who like to play golf as well. So we did that. He's also a runner, so I was able to connect him.
He runs in his neighborhood, but he's never run a 5k, So he and I have done three 5k’s over the last year and he finished the first one in 29 minutes, the second one in 27 minutes, and the third one in 25. Wow. I know he was amazing. So anything like that Again, it's based what, what, anything that we do is based on people's interest, gifts, skills, and talents. So, thinking about all those things. that's the way that we kind of shape how we're working with people.
Nice. I'm always thinking, I think support brokerage for people and families is oftentimes it's a really very good term. I feel like and I think sometimes it's hard for people in their families to really grasp it. And I think I guess the what I would say is really just think about It could be anything, you know, so it could be anything to anyone based on who you are and where you are in your journey of life and where do you want to get to. So we can kind of explore anything along that path.
And another thing I think that families should understand about support brokerage is that we can actually help find staff for people to work with through their self-directed plans. That's that's always a good thing. It's definitely difficult to find someone Yeah. And, you know, there's different ways to do it, too. I always ask, I always share with families to think about who the who they know and who the person knows already.
I always think about anyone that I know, and I always try to think about a good match who would be well matched to the person. The other piece of support brokerage that I forgot to talk about was our advisor services. we have nine advisors on staff right now, part time. And the advisor role actually really kind of focuses with people on where they are in their journey and what they want their lives to look like.
So the advisor, if it's a person that again wants to connect with the sports community, the advisor will help them connect to the sports community. The advisor can also help kind of see what's available in their neighborhoods. Or they could walk the neighborhoods and see what the resources are there for them to connect to. And the way that we look at the advisor again is we we ensure that they're well-matched.
So if the person really like sports, we will connect them to an advisor that really likes sports as well. And then the person ultimately chooses if they feel that advisor is a good match for them. So and then the way that that relationship works is that's actually considered support brokerage, but utilizing an advisor. So that's another piece of it. And sometimes the advisor, again, it could be weekly hours, it could be monthly hours. It you know, it's really individualized to who the person is.
It's always nice to have someone to help out who knows how to access the systems and make those connections for you. I totally agree. Even if it's a little bit of time or a lot of time. And you know what? Sometimes it might need to be a little bit of time, and sometimes it might need to be a lot of time. So it really depends on, you know, where you are on that path. So I always think about that.
So with the transformation grant you got, sounds like you done a lot of work with it to help build an agency to help others with the self-direct support can you tells us a little more about what you've done. Sure. So we are actually a fully licensed DDO. We're a developmental disability organization in Rhode Island. we are a medicaid provider. We've done all that.
We actually were able to kind of start to create a really strong foundation for the business with outside professionals, with Sheri and I and different trainings that we were a part of, We actually were able to put all of our policies and procedures and we are in full compliance with all regulations. So we were able to create all those things. We have all the technology that we need, all the insurances, and we're actually we employ nine part time advisors Awesome.
Do you have, Are you working on any upcoming projects that you can share? Yeah, good question. So we actually recently have partnered with the Developmental Disabilities Council of Rhode Island and Star Fire Council out of Cincinnati, Ohio, And we are actually going to start a family leadership network in Rhode Island. The kickoff for that is February 12th. There's a sign up on our website which is best life ri dot com. But what that what that will look like is and the at the kickoff.
Tim, who is the founder of Star Fire, he's going to kind of help us to shape what it's like and what it's going to look like in Rhode Island. But it's really about families with either children or adults with disabilities connecting to their communities in a way that really focuses on gifts and belonging and doesn't focus on the label of disability. Awesome. That's always good to have. Yeah. So we're excited for about that. That's coming up. That's actually going to be a year long project.
We're hoping that ten families will be involved and Tim will be doing monthly info sessions and there will be a mentor, a family mentor as well. Awesome. I think another part of what we offer to people is really to discover what it is that they're interested in or what they want their lives to look like, what's out there, what are the different opportunities. Again, if you've never been fishing. We can try fishing. If you've never been to the arcade to free play arcade,
we can go check it out. and also. It's good to help people maybe they try new things, maybe they don't know they like fishing or like running or playing sports. And you give an opportunity to do that and find what they're really like and what interest is to help them live a meaningful life. Yeah. Be successful. I agree. I totally agree, Nathan. If an individual or family wants to contact you, how they go about doing that?
So they could utilize our website, BestLifeRI.com, there's info tabs after each section of information. So that's an easy way. My email address is SRaposo@bestliferi.com or I can be reached by phone as well, which is my phone number is 401-230-2708. Well, thank you Sue for joining us today. and good luck and have fun. Thank you, Nathan.