Episode 118: Kimberly Tissot with Able - South Carolina

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Well, hello there and welcome back to another episode of Just say Something podcast. My name is Philip Clark and I'm the CEO here at Just say Something. And I want to welcome you to today's episode. Before we get started, I want to remind you to comment, like, share and subscribe if you haven't already subscribe to make sure that you can find our podcast and have access to it anytime you need it or to be able to share it. So today we have Kimberly Tissot with us from Able South Carolina. So, Kimberly, welcome. [00:00:47] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:00:49] Speaker B: So, Able South Carolina, tell our listeners what that means. [00:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So Able South Carolina, we are a disability led organization and we do anything really related to disability. And so first, we do equip people with the skills to be as independent as possible. And when we say independent, we mean just controlling their lives. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Not necessarily having to move out on your own. That sometimes, you know, is not always feasible. But what we want is we want to make sure people have a choice and what, and have control over their lives. We also educate the community about the ADA Rehabilitation act of 1973, disability awareness. We do a lot of accessibility consultation, but we want to make South Carolina a better place for people with disabilities. And so that comes with that education piece. And then we also do a lot of advocacy. We have been able to change state laws. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. Pretty progressive laws as well to protect the rights of people with disabilities within employment, within parenting, just. But there's so many barriers for the disability community. But we do a little bit of everything. We're a team that serves, serves the entire state. We've got two offices, one in Columbia and one in Greenville. And we go out to people so they don't have to come to us. We will go to them. Which really helps with that transportation barrier. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Now, disability means a lot of different things to different people. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:19] Speaker B: So what does disability mean for Able South Carolina? [00:02:24] Speaker A: So disability, we actually follow the definition of the Americans with disability. A lot of people think the definition for disabilities under Social Security, that just gives you money if you're unable to work at that moment. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:02:36] Speaker A: So not, that's not the definition, but that definition is actually you have to have one or more major life activities impacted. So there's not a list of disabilities. But it, if you have major life activities, which could be walking, seeing, eating, even controlling your metabol, your metabolite, your metabolism, you know, there's just so many different disabilities. But it goes, you know, cancer is a disability, you know, diabetes is a Disability, but also we serve people with physical psychiatric disabilities. That's also one that people don't always recognize that mental health is also a disability. [00:03:17] Speaker B: Well, we don't do a good job of that because we don't recognize mental health as being an issue. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Correct? That's correct. [00:03:25] Speaker B: But that's good to. That's good to know. Yeah. Disabilities mean so different. Many things. And so say I have cancer or I have a disability. What are some of the programs that able. South Carolina is able to provide me to get whatever assistance and help? [00:03:52] Speaker A: And so our services are a little bit different. You come to us and you let us know what you need, and we will walk you through that process. We do have some specific programs to work on, making sure that you know your rights, making sure that you have the skills you need. But we also do a lot of navigation with even adjustment to disability. So when somebody gets a new disability and acquires it, we. We help them with that because sometimes that is. They go. People go through a grieving process, and so we are there with them to show them that disability is, you're okay. You're going to be fine. And we really walk them through that. But we do so much. I am just so proud to be able to see the impact that our organization has every single day, because people will walk through our doors or their role in our doors or give us a call, and they are so afraid to just ask for help. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Right. [00:04:45] Speaker A: And that is not anything anyone should be afraid of. [00:04:48] Speaker B: We are. [00:04:48] Speaker A: We are here. [00:04:49] Speaker B: I know I had someone reach out to me not long ago, and their brother was going to lose a leg, and so he needed to have his house. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:05:00] Speaker B: Upfitted in a ramp and all those kind of things. And they're like. [00:05:05] Speaker A: And we help with that, too. [00:05:07] Speaker B: And so I gave him. I need to follow up. Because I gave him. Yells information. So I need to follow up on that. Absolutely. Please. Yeah. So y' all do things like that? [00:05:18] Speaker A: We do. We do. We. I mean, we help people get back to work or go to work for the first time. We help people being able to speak for themselves, because that, believe it or not, that's an issue in the disability community. People like to speak for us, and that's something that we have to be very careful about, that we can speak for ourselves. And so we, you know, know, we just. We do so much, and it's. There's a whole list of things that we do, but, I mean, it's anything related to independent living. So think about being a parent. We help Parents with disabilities navigate that. There used to be a law in South Carolina that actually said if a parent has a disability, they can actually lose custody of their child. But we reversed that. So we helped create legislation to really protect the rights of parents with disabilities. So just everything. And we learn from consumers every day to understand what they're going through. And that's really what we wrap our services around too. What is actually happening in the real world for folks with disabilities? [00:06:23] Speaker B: Is there an age limit or how young and how old we serve? [00:06:27] Speaker A: Birth to all the way. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we had. Our oldest consumer was 102. [00:06:34] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay. So if you're housed in Columbia and Greenville, how do people. So for one thing, how do people get in touch with you or how do people find you, especially if they're not in one of those two locations? [00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we are, we're really close to the nonprofit world and also any agency that serves people with disabilities, they know who we are. [00:07:02] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:03] Speaker A: But we're always trying to get that name out. And even non disabled people should know about our organization. [00:07:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Because honestly, if we all live long enough, we're going to acquire a disability as well. And so folks that are listening, and I'm actually a cancer survivor, pediatric cancer survivor, and I have one leg and that happened at the age of two. Did not plan that out. But this is how I've adapted my entire life and live a very independent of life. [00:07:32] Speaker B: And I can, I can see that here with us sitting across from each other. You're, you're. I mean, it's, it's great. It's great. So as part of that, because I know it's got to be very difficult for us, especially for kids, but then also for their parents of oh heck, now what, what do I do those kind of things. What some advice out there that you can provide for those parents who are wondering what can I do that will best suit my child? [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'll say I'm a parent as well. I'm a parent of a young man, a 16 year old, so very young man. But he has an intellectual disability. And so, you know, I use my disability experience also with him to really help encourage him to speak up for himself. But all I would say is treat them just like you would treat any other child. There's going to be, you know, there's going to be barriers, but learn disability rights. People with disabilities are so protected under the Americans with disabilities act. There's idea for students with disabilities. There's section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. I mean, we are very protected, so discrimination should not be happening. So I do know, always prepare parents. Just get that advocacy hat on, because you will be fighting for your child until they can fight for themselves. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, you know, whether they're disabled or not. We work with families and kids to be able to express themselves and to be their own voice and their best champion for themselves. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Yes. And, you know, growing up with a disability, too, you do feel very othered. You feel like you don't belong in this world. And that's something that we're trying to change as well, because everybody should feel like they belong. They have a place. People with disabilities can work, people with disabilities can go to school. We can have families. And that's a perception. That's the perception that we run into that people think that we can't. And so that is also what we're trying to change. We have needs assessments every three years of the community. And they always say that the number one barrier in South Carolina is what others think of them. [00:09:56] Speaker B: Oh, wow. So talk about stigma. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah, significant stigma. [00:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's. So as we think about this and as we look at this as a community, what are some of the activities or things that Able South Carolina does to educate the community about their services? [00:10:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we go out. I mean, we do so much outreach. So if anybody needs any outreach, we'll be happy to come in and do an in service. And even though. Even if you don't think that you touch somebody with a disability, if you're not serving them, you do serve them, you just might not know that they have a disability. And so we really prepare businesses and agencies to really learn how to be welcoming for people with disabilities so that they're not having, you know, any barriers with accessing their services or we're also customers, so we also need access to stores. We're taxpayers. And so, you know, we, We. We have the right to have access just like everybody else. And so. But we have so many events. We do Advocacy Day for Access and Independence, which is a great day up at the State House. We bring people of all types of different disabilities to come together, and we fight to unlock the barriers. And so the barriers of. For people with disabilities are a lot. It's. It's obviously that perception, but health care, we're having a crisis right now with Medicaid, and that is something that we're scared about. We're already seeing people die because of the decrease and funding. And South Carolina Our Medicaid system isn't the strongest at all. And with, with less money to be able to provide, folks are struggling. And so we're really trying to make sure that that is funded in South Carolina, but we really work on any of those barriers. So transportation is always a barrier. We can all. Our state can do so much better with public transportation and making it accessible for people with disabilities. If you can't get to work, you're probably not going to go to work. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:02] Speaker A: And so that is, that is something that we also advocate for. But we have three events that this coming, coming up for you. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:12:10] Speaker A: So our first event this summer is actually starts next week and it's at the University of South Carolina, the College of Nursing. And we're trying to get more people with disabilities in the field of nursing because that has been one field that there's research that shows that when people with disabilities are in that environment and are in that field, they actually provide better services to their patients and they have more empathy. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Empathy. It comes back to empathy. [00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And they understand what they're going through. And so we're trying to get people more in the field. And so youth will be coming, if they're interested in nursing, they will be coming to a summer camp. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:52] Speaker A: For a couple of days and learning about that possibility, about what age group is that far. So that is people who are just graduated and beyond. And then we have the Youth Leadership Forum that's actually going to be happening at Lander University. And that is a three day, three night event that we do to prepare youth with disabilities to be leaders. And so we teach them how to be proud of themselves with their disability. We teach them to speak up for themselves. We teach them about their rights. Because this isn't taught in schools. [00:13:29] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:29] Speaker A: We didn't, I mean, when I graduated I had no idea about the ADA and, and the Rehab Act. So we were, you know, we, we make sure that youth understand that. But most of all, we make sure that these youth are leaving, you know, our event and feeling confident in themselves. Because again, that perception, that perception can push people down so hard. And especially when you're at that teenage [00:13:51] Speaker B: years, teenage years are tough anyway. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:54] Speaker B: But add a disability onto it and that raises the bar dramatically because I know with our youth Summit and our lesson, it's about teaching kids those skills that they're not getting anywhere else again so they can become their best owned advocate and don't need someone else to stand up and doing it in a nonviolent way. [00:14:19] Speaker A: Yes, yes. It's so important. And I mean, this is our future, you know, so that's very important. And then that next event is called Equip Leadership Series. And this is all year, but we have a specific summer series that lasts a week long with youth with disabilities and it's all day, so they come and are learning those skills as well. But it's a little bit more spread out than Youth Leadership Forums. But they can stay connected with us. And of course, our doors are open for anybody with a disability. We do not turn people away. We do not need verification. It's really all based off of self disclosure. And the neat thing about us is that we are mandated by law to be here. So out of the Rehabilitation act, we are mandated to be run and operated by people with disabilities, which is really cool to be able to serve the disability community and make change within the states. [00:15:16] Speaker B: So where does your funding come from? [00:15:18] Speaker A: All over the place. So we have 34 grants, which is very fun. It's amazing with reporting, but we've got a great team that helps us with that. Some of our funding does come from the federal government, so we do get a little bit, but we're also required to diversify our funding. So we actually have to show evidence that we are going out, getting grants, doing fee for services and that type of thing. The government basically says, we know we don't give you enough money, but you're mandated to do all of these services, so you got to go find your money in your house. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Sounds familiar. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. [00:15:53] Speaker B: Especially with our friends at 988America. [00:15:56] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. [00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. [00:15:59] Speaker A: It's tough. [00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and I know these days, especially being in the non profit world, that funds are going away at much quicker pace than they're coming in. [00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah. I've never, you know, I've been the CEO for 16 years. I've never seen it like this. It is very scary. But on top of it is also loss of services for the people that we serve. And so people, we're serving a lot more with less right now because there's just so, so much. [00:16:30] Speaker B: The need is so great. [00:16:31] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:16:33] Speaker B: And so that's what I always say, and I was at a meeting earlier today, and the issues that our families face are bigger than any one entity can provide by itself. [00:16:45] Speaker A: None of us can do it by ourselves. [00:16:46] Speaker B: Right. And so we've got to partner and take our piece of that pie and help build that for those individuals and for the families that are in need. So if someone wants to get in Touch with you. How do they go about doing that? [00:17:02] Speaker A: So they just give us a call or they can also go on the website. It's able s. They can give us a call, but whoever picks up the phone will also be a person with a disability. So that is, they will automatically talk to somebody who understands them, which is great. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Okay, and what's the phone number? [00:17:22] Speaker A: Oh, I knew you were going to ask that. Okay, so it's 803-779-5121. [00:17:28] Speaker B: Oh, I know for us, our phone number has been the same since 1992, so. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it's. [00:17:34] Speaker B: It's implanted like my Social Security number. [00:17:36] Speaker A: We have a couple phone numbers. So that's the thing. [00:17:39] Speaker B: Gotcha, gotcha. So if there's one thing that you would like to say to our listeners that you haven't said or a question that I haven't asked you yet, what would that one thing be? [00:17:52] Speaker A: I would say come learn from the disability community. If you're wanting to be involved with people with disabilities, work in the field, learn from actual people. There's so many times that programs are created about us, without us, and they don't work. They've got ableism in it. They've got things that are just not even age appropriate a lot of times. So we really encourage people to come learn from us. We will help you through it. We will help you create programs. We will help you be able to be a service provider for folks with disabilities. But you've got to learn from the actual community. There's no textbook, there's no class in college that you can take where you really truly understand disability. [00:18:41] Speaker B: That's important. I know again, we work with families and parents, and so we want that feedback so we can improve and help them improve. And so it's cycle that we always continuously are cycling through. [00:18:58] Speaker A: Absolutely. And people, you know, they recognize when they need help too. Like, you know, we talk, we. We train doctors and residents to. To understand the disability world because sometimes doctors can be the, the worst because they might tell a parent or tell somebody that you can't. They can't be independent, but they can. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:18] Speaker A: And so it might look different from non disabled people how non disabled people are independent. But there's a way to do anything and there's. You just have to do it differently. [00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And one size that fit all correct? [00:19:33] Speaker A: Correct. [00:19:36] Speaker B: I was trying to think. So you mentioned earlier fee for services. So before we close. So everything you do, is it a sliding scale or. [00:19:50] Speaker A: So our services too, two people are 100% free. [00:19:53] Speaker B: Okay. [00:19:54] Speaker A: It's the businesses that we charge. [00:19:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:19:57] Speaker A: We gotta get that funding, too. But we actually do architectural accessibility assessment, so we make sure that the actual site that you're looking at is accessible and accommodating for people with disabilities. We'll do policy and procedures. We do keynote speaking. We do trainings, you name it. We also do website assessments, but it's the law to make sure that your website is accessible, especially when it's public using public funding. And so we actually have a team that goes in and looks at your website and it's users and non users, so people who are blind and people who are not blind that go in to make sure that your website is fully accessible for people with all types of different disabilities, but particularly people who are interesting. [00:20:46] Speaker B: As I think about our website, I [00:20:48] Speaker A: know everybody, everybody goes, oh, I don't know if our website's accessible. [00:20:51] Speaker B: So, yeah, we'll be finding out. [00:20:53] Speaker A: I know, right? We'll be checking it out. [00:20:56] Speaker B: Oh, well, Kimberly, I appreciate you being here with us today. I appreciate the work that you do. I appreciate the team. I know the. The able South Carolina team here in Greenville is very active. Very active, and I appreciate that about them. And it's always great to. To see and, you know, your team here gives out hugs and smiles just like everybody else does, and so it's always great to be around y'. All. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:24] Speaker B: And so I appreciate you being here today and appreciate what you and your team are able to do for the. Our communities in South Carolina. [00:21:32] Speaker A: Thank you. We all have to work together. Absolutely appreciate you guys, too. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Thank you. Well, that's another episode of our podcast. It just say something. I appreciate you being here with us today and. And until next time. We will see you then. Take care and stay safe.