Episode 271-Harmonizing Potential: Championing Neurodiversity in Education and Employment with (TACT) Teaching Autistics Community Trades Founder Danny Combs

When former Nashville musician Danny Combs stepped into the world of autism advocacy, he uncovered a symphony of potential within the neurodiverse community. His own son Dylan's autism diagnosis became the opening note to a life-changing movement, a tale of embracing unique abilities and transforming challenges into opportunities. In our conversation, Danny articulates the importance of shifting our perspective, acknowledging the individual strengths that every autistic person brings to the table. We also extend a heartfelt thanks to Harri James O'Kelly for orchestrating this connection between us and the conversation around the significant progress in the autistic community.

Venturing into the educational realm, we uncover the significance of tailored education strategies for neurodivergent individuals. From the dramatic impact of dietary interventions to the power of trusting parental instincts over conventional wisdom, we examine how adapting learning environments and class sizes can profoundly affect a child's development. Delving further, we share strategies for enhancing workplace inclusivity through universal design and proper preparation, ensuring neurodiverse individuals aren't just placed in jobs, but are truly set up for success.

As we look to the future, it's the innovative career development programs for youth that ignite a spark of excitement. We discuss how hands-on education, starting from a young age, can shape passions into viable career paths, highlighting the importance of competency-based learning and adaptable support systems. Wrapping up, we touch on the transformative effect of scholarships within our transition program, advocating for the potential within every child to be nurtured, regardless of financial barriers. Join us in this episode to witness the milestones being achieved and be part of the ongoing support for these essential initiatives.

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:04

Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding. Enjoy the show. I'm so excited. All right, yeah, no worries, this is. It's going to be great. Thank you so much for your time. And yeah, this is just. I don't know if you've heard even of my podcast, but it's pretty organic and just kind of a natural conversation. So just kind of find out about you and go on from there.

Speaker 1: 0:44

That sounds wonderful, thank you.

Speaker 2: 0:45

Okay, here we go. Thanks for joining the SJ Child Show today. I'm so, so honored and excited to have Danny Combs. Hopefully that's how you pronounce your last name, right.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Yes, thank you for getting it right. I get Coombs a lot, but it is Combs.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Thank you, oh, it's so, so great to meet you. You know, I have to give kudos to Harry James O'Kelly, who connected me to you and she is such an amazing connector and through that we can find out about these incredible resources that are out there, especially for our autistic community. And so just so excited for this conversation today. Let us know, a little bit about yourself, kind of where you started, and then we'll go from there. Well, that's a load of questions, you know, however many years back you want to go.

Speaker 1: 1:39

So, yeah, I always like to tell the full story because it kind of frames. It's amazing how life ends up putting you exactly where you're supposed to be. So I come from a background of the trades folks. So my great grandfather and grandfather and father worked in the trades, my great grandfather and grandfather in aerospace, and then my dad was a general contractor. So you grew up, when I grew up, doing that for free, essentially after school and weekends and all that kind of stuff. You kind of reject it. And so I decided to go to Nashville and become a musician, which is what I did, and it worked out okay and did music professionally for over a decade in Nashville, which was pretty great.

Speaker 1: 2:16

And then my amazing son, dylan, was born and at two we learned the things that made him extra awesome was called autism at Vanderbilt University and you know, even just he's 15 now, even 13 years ago. It's a wild how much things have changed and how much more we know and still there's quite a bit of ways to go. And so I started looking at what his future looks like and it was scary. It's still very scary, I think, out there for a lot of families and the resources that are available. It's better now than it was then, but a long way to go. And he was able to visualize and conceptualize and manufacture these amazing things even before he could say hello, dad. He was like six, six and a half before he could say hi, dad, I love you, and but he could make these amazing things. I was that dad to let my kid play with scissors and so, um, I spent a whole bunch of time in various therapy offices, spending a fortune on those things. It's quite expensive to pay for those things monthly, especially cash out of pocket. They're amazing people. They did amazing things and I put them down at all that my son wouldn't be where he is today without those individuals that worked hard.

Speaker 1: 3:23

And all that time sitting in waiting rooms talking to other parents. It was isolating, it was frightening, it was lonely, and then there was always deficit-based hearing what he needed to change and do better, never recognizing all the amazing things that made Dylan Dylan, and so I started looking for a strengths-based approach. I have a master's in education so that kind of helped my knowledge of getting things set up the curriculum is designed to use in Nashville to teach music and started just kind of racking my brains for things for my son. It was very selfish. I mean, it was really it was all about Dylan at the beginning. It definitely was really it was all about Dylan at the beginning, Definitely was. And um couldn't find anything like it at all and had the chance to meet Dr Temple Grandin and said, hey, I've got this idea, what do you think? And she was like put down your guitar and go do it. And so I did. And so the joke is always you know, temple told us to um she's pretty proud of that too she's.

Speaker 1: 4:22

I love it. She's pretty proud of that too she's. She's a friend, and now whenever I talk to her, she likes to remind me that she was the one that pushed me to do it and then started out of a vintage truck, a vintage car guy. So we started out of a 58 Chevy and it's grown from driving around the churches and rec centers and libraries to, yeah, this, our incredible 19,000 square foot facility. We serve hundreds of kids every year.

Speaker 1: 4:47

12 school districts have students to us and we're leading the state of Colorado in transitioning autistic youth and young adults into employment, and not just employment but careers, and I like to differentiate. There's a difference between a job and a career and there's lots of great programs out there doing amazing things. Not to put them down at all, Our community by and large has felt very siloed and atomized. It seems like we're at a really pivotal moment where a lot of us are starting to talk to each other, work together and change the story of what's possible for our kids. So it's actually a pretty exciting time in a lot of ways, I find.

Speaker 1: 5:20

A lot further ahead than years ago, right?

Speaker 2: 5:27

find, oh, a lot further ahead than years ago, right? No, I and our son's 14.

Speaker 1: 5:29

So we're literally right in that same that same era with you.

Speaker 2: 5:31

You know, and you know going through and we did. You know diet changes at four years old, and it was their gluten and dairy free things back then. Are you kidding? No, like I had to make the most disgusting food for him. And here we are, and luckily you know.

Speaker 1: 5:48

it's so funny you say that and I appreciate not to get on the, but I love to bring up that because my son's gluten free sounds like yours too, and at the time there didn't seem to be much literature about that. And so I started researching on, you know, the internets and the interwebs, if you will, about that kind of stuff, and I talked to the doctors and they literally told me it was pseudoscience, like they're exact where, like there's there's nothing to document this. And so we ended up just trying the gluten free diet and Dylan's speech therapist at the time we didn't tell them about it, we just started doing it. We're actually documenting his speech because he went to speech therapy and he still does speech therapy and a month into it they called his mom and I in and they said hey, we have to ask you something.

Speaker 1: 6:37

And this story goes with goosebumps every time I tell it have you all changed something? Because we're still doing the same thing we're doing and Dylan's speech has more than doubled in a month and we have no way to explain how he's seen the progress that he's seen. So it was like a great blind study and they had it all graphed out. I mean, it gives me goosebumps. My hair stands up every time. I saw it Because it's worked for him and I think still to this day. If he eats gluten, his speech really goes down quite a bit. I mean it's interesting how that affects him in that way. And you're right, because, like, if you're on a road trip with kids and you're trying to get gluten free, especially over a decade ago, what do you got?

Speaker 2: 7:17

Potato chips, here you go.

Speaker 1: 7:20

For a grilled sandwich that you're scraping everything off of, and just here's a grilled chicken breast from whatever restaurant you know, kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 7:28

So it was. It was really really tricky and really tough and, just like you, I was a medical paralegal before I was pregnant with.

Speaker 2: 7:35

CJ and so I did the same thing, researched so hard and when I found this protein imbalance with the dairy and the gluten and realized this is impacting my son's speech and this is also impacting his incredible amount of stimming Cause I just a little like. Last week I saw a video of him, when he was about one and a half, just humming and spinning circles and bouncing, you know around, and there was just like no um way to communicate or to get to him or with him and the incredible changes that happened.

Speaker 2: 8:11

And the same thing. Like you said, dj was reading at one and writing at two and we wrote back and forth with each other before he ever spoke. And the same the doctors were just like well, that's ridiculous. You need to be looking at the. You know, kids don't need to be writing at two years old, they need to be well, you don't know my kid I can't believe.

Speaker 2: 8:32

you're faced with experts that you're there to get their opinion and your heart breaks when you're like you're wrong, you do not know what you're talking about. Like, how can this be possible? So it's, it's a crazy journey to get people on in line with you. Did he go to like public school? How did that look?

Speaker 1: 9:06

he go to, like, public school. How did that look? Yeah, he still goes to public school. So it was his IEP. Um, traditional classroom 80% of the time and then he gets pulled off for services. Um, he goes to a mountain school here in Colorado and they actually do their credit. I mean, the mountain schools here in Colorado have lots of windows, smaller class sizes, like in the Denver metro area. This is, that's a different story. I mean, it's a metropolitan city with millions of people, the rural environments, they don't have the same access to resources, but the actual space itself seems to be pretty good and at least their team seems to be willing to listen. And just finding a team that is willing to listen rather than tell parents what you know they're quote, quote doing wrong and then and there's a lot of validity, I mean they have a lot to share. So, again, not to put them down at all, but being willing to know that, hey, maybe a parent knows their child and what does that look like?

Speaker 1: 9:55

You know they might have some advice on things that can support them to be successful.

Speaker 2: 10:00

And I think that watching what you're doing and doing what I'm doing with my events and stuff, and really sharing the narrative and letting autistics show up and speak their truths and say, hey, this is what it is like, this is what it was like when you didn't believe me, when the doctors said this, what and whatever.

Speaker 2: 10:18

And you know, we kept going. And now here I am, the you know supermodel, rachel Barcelona. Right, you know, like, come on, she was, you know, non-speaking until after five and now she's on billboards in New York City, like it doesn't get realer than that, like, and of course that's like an extreme extreme. Then we have our individuals, who I like what you said about the environment, cause I think that plays such an important part and when we set up our child's or, you know, student's environment in a correct way for them to not only learn but thrive with their energy and their space that they're in, because oftentimes I think that you know schools and their budgets and whatever, they don't care about the environment that the child's actually in and it's so important how do you incorporate kind of what you're doing with the companies to let them know this is the environment that this individual might need when they get to work with you and your company.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Yeah, well, it's multi-steps. I mean it takes time, and so we look at it from a couple different ways. For ATTACT, first, we fully embrace the idea of universal design and we work with companies to help them understand what universal design is and what that looks like and how that plays into communication and the environment and overall success, not just for their neurodivergent employees and the neurodiversity community at large, but also their neurotypicals, because everybody benefits from setting up a space correctly. The idea that the classrooms that you and I probably went through, where you know four white walls, desks in pretty little rows facing forward, feet flat, listen to the teacher, you know, can't move around the desks. If you were fidgeting I used to get in trouble all the time because I would turn sideways in my desk and that was no good if you were doing that.

Speaker 1: 12:06

And so we set up our first, our space to mimic what the actual workplace looks like. What we still find is most training educational institutions don't look anything like an employment setting at all. It looks like a school, and there should be a pathway to connect the two. They shouldn't be two completely separate things and two what's happened in education and training and I start here because it's a big part of it, I think it's where a lot of groups could benefit from embracing is A lot of groups right now. Just take an individual and say, hey, this person wants to work, here's a job, let's put them together. But they haven't trained that person, they haven't set the employer up. Those things don't necessarily lead to success. They can, but they don't always and in fact statistics would show they very, very rarely lead to success.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Work it looks like an employer sites. We're using the same tools, we're using the same language, with the exception of we don't have fluorescent lights, we use LEDs, we use different colors, we use more window. I mean we're doing things that again embrace that universal design approach. But then when we get to the employment setting, then those individuals have already overcome the sounds, the smells, the sensations of that work environment and, knowing that it's going to be okay, they practice that. They have a team around them to help them experience success in that. Then, when they get to the job site, yes, there's probably going to be some variance in the actual site, but it's the same tools and it's the same language and it's the same, for example, toyota and Subaru sponsor programs. So our students get certified by Toyota and Subaru, which is amazing for neurodistinct individuals to have that opportunity. They have all those certifications. They know the tools, they know the language, they know the cars and they step into the job. Okay, a TAC team member is there with them. So they've got a person there they know and trust as well. Now it's a different environment. So we're minimizing how many things that can create anxiety and different environments. We're minimizing how many things that can create anxiety.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Then, on that job site, we work with those individuals to help the managers get trained, the leadership get trained, because it can't just be you know the individuals working right beside them. It has to be a whole culture shift and it can't be this DEI check box where people are like, oh great, look, I'm hiring the neurodistinct kids or the autistic kids Yep and check, look how great we are, and then advertise that. Right, we're not looking for that. We're looking for businesses that are saying, hey, these kids have value, they have strength. We're valuing inherently the things that they're offering our organization and their community and their coworkers. Those are the kind of partners we want and I think there's a lot of businesses that actually model that and and the trades.

Speaker 1: 14:41

I mean there's all kinds of cool studies. There was a great one that just came out of the UK that talks about how the trades are already doing that. And the neat thing that honestly, we didn't plan on but it's been a wonderful benefit is because English as a second language has already been embraced a lot within the skilled trades. They've already set up these beautiful task analyses which anybody that has a child that is on the spectrum know. You can see his task analyses, hopefully, in their educational setting, where it's laying things out in a way that provides opportunity and helps it differentiate for that individual. And so they already have this beautiful infrastructure in a lot of ways not perfect, but it's a further way ahead than a lot of groups that have already started in a lot of different industries. We found that to be successful so far.

Speaker 2: 15:26

I love that too. I think that it's so important. I had a question. It bleeped out because I kept listening, so it'll come back.

Speaker 1: 15:35

It'll come back to you like 30 minutes later. I know right, Exactly.

Speaker 2: 15:39

But I do love what you said about them overcoming. You know, right, exactly. But I do love what you said about them overcoming. You know, I know that something Temple teaches a lot too is overcoming those noises and sounds and sensations and senses, and working with people and working with a team, and I love that you partner up to, you know, lessen the amount of anxiety. That's so important for all the individuals that are involved with doing it. Yeah, that's fantastic. What are your plans moving forward? What are some programs that you want to incorporate that you're thinking of?

Speaker 1: 16:12

Yeah, well, I'll come back to that if it's okay, but Temple's right, I think, on that. Again, we do that because it's holistic in the nature and the way that it teaches right. A lot of times everything in education is siloed, where it's math is separate from science, which is separate from physical education, and it trades all of it together and students are able to experience and overcome frustration, tolerance and executive functioning and communication. We're not practicing these things separately, we're practicing them holistically in the nature of life, and that seems to be more authentic and help kids be more successful. The things that we're aiming for we're going to be opening culinary in August, which we're very, very excited about. That's something that we have gotten quite a bit of requests for, and we had an incredible donor come in and provide the funds to do that. We have some incredible people in our community that make this possible.

Speaker 1: 17:01

What we're doing doing and we're proud of that, and then thinking further.

Speaker 1: 17:06

We have a corporate sponsor that I'm meeting with right after this, mitsubishi, that their foundation has been an incredible supporter to us, and Mitsubishi Electric the organization too, is supporting us with all kinds of HVAC and heat pump equipment, and we have a clean energy program where we're already doing solar panel and EVs, and so we're going to start incorporating the HVAC into the clean energy program that we have.

Speaker 1: 17:29

As we set up more campuses, especially, and helping our individuals be more successful. I mean, the neat thing is the kind of technology, for example, that we're trying to embrace for our kids to help them out. Cutting-edge stuff is we have a partnership with Trimble and Microsoft, for example, and we have access to the HoloLens, which is augmented reality, and the neat thing is a lot of these corporations have already embraced digital twins for work environments that again create a hands-on, step-by-step, color-coded this is how you walk through everything kind of installation. And think about that. If somebody came out to your house wearing augmented reality and was able to walk through step-by-step with this technology, that doesn't work in every situation, but the fact that we even have the partners that provide that opportunity for our kids to experience that, that's where it's going. In fact, you can probably hear them hammering outside.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Yeah, it's great, it's great.

Speaker 1: 18:28

We're live in the warehouse guys. It's neat that we have those partners that believe in our program that much. But they're also recognizing that our community is a disenfranchised group, that's an untapped work pool, and they're supporting it because of the innovation that it's bringing to their organization.

Speaker 2: 18:39

So it's pretty cool, that question came right back, just like you said it would. What is your opinion and you know you'd know more than I do about, you know, the underpay and underemployment that is occurring and is it changing and how do we change it?

Speaker 1: 18:58

That's a great question. I would love to say it is changing and it kind of is. There's still last I heard is 36, 37 states that still allow sub-minimum wage. Colorado was one of them until just a few months ago, which breaks your heart. In 2024 that that was still legal.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Thankfully, tact grads, we're really proud that the average starting rate that our kids are earning is $19.86 an hour. That's pretty awesome. That's well above minimum wage. They're having incredible careers and, again, I think that's partly the skilled trades opportunity right, people used to look down on the skilled trades as less than, and there's incredible things that can happen with the skilled trades. I think they're needed. I don't think it is a lesser than in any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 1: 19:42

That being said, the poverty rate for our community again isn't recognized. It's another thing that our group falls into. Most autistic adults are working less than full time and if they are, it's because of things like SSI, where they're afraid if they leave SSI and lose those benefits, then they won't be able to get back on them, and they're right. It is super hard, I mean. So there's a lot of benefits counseling that comes with families and individuals, help them assess that and what that looks like, and then two, depending on how much they're making, that changes. So it keeps our community down. And when you look at Colorado, it's less than $200 a week that the average neurodiverse individual is actually making. That's far below the poverty line, far, far below the poverty line. So even when you look at in Colorado, for example, 12.2% of autistic adults are employed. That's not a good statistic by any stretch of the imagination. Of those, the average is that less than $200 a week. That's garbage. That's's. That's nowhere near acceptable.

Speaker 1: 20:43

But there's all kinds of laws still that need to be changed that are keeping our community down and making it harder to even for organizations like us. And the sense when you start looking at programs that have resources to assist our program, like voc rehab for example, they do great things trying to help. They should funnel more things, in my opinion, to programs like ours that are trying to make a difference and are actually tangibly making a difference. But the laws in place are for organizations where it has to be a seven to one neurotypical to neurodiverse ratio. I can't think of any other demographic in our country where they would put ratios in place of individuals when it comes to employment. Why would you do that? That's just wild. I mean that feels like the 1950s all over again and not a good way, you know. I mean that's not appropriate, but those are real things that are still happening right now.

Speaker 1: 21:34

And the wildest thing, you know, it's one in 36 now being diagnosed with autism. The latest that I'm hearing is that it's going to jump to one in 27 when the CDC releases the new stats. So we'll see. That does seem to kind of correlate with the trend and at some point I think individuals are going to have to wake up and recognize hey, this is a big part of our community. I know somebody that's autistic my friend is, my neighbor is my son is, my dad is whatever. Because there's still so much of our community that's even masking and not even, you know, letting them know, and then the burnout that comes with that because they're afraid to show it, especially in their workplace. So I think employers have a really kind of once in a lifetime opportunity to all of a sudden recognize the demographic they've missed so far, and that can really change. You know the landscape of what employment innovation looks like.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Yeah, definitely. What programs do you offer now, Like so our listeners know and they can, you know, do some more research.

Speaker 1: 22:35

Yeah. So we start kids really young, as young as five. Obviously, we're not putting five-year-olds on welding torches and table saws and undercars. That would be not the right thing to do, obviously. But we want kids to get excited about the idea of making and fixing things and working with their hands. So for the youngers, we offer all kinds of camps and workshops for their makerspace, stem-type programs where individuals can come in and try things and see, hey, what is it like to fix something with small things like radios and working on instruments and fiber arts and textile and different things like that, and some woodworking with hand tools not power tools other than like a drill, for example, for kids to set up for be successful, and say, hey, this is fun. And then with those camps and workshops, you know we track all of that data, so that it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that as we record all that data, we have all of that. So when they get to that age of transition, they have here's all the years that I've been working with this.

Speaker 1: 23:36

This is something that I want to do, because what happens now is an individual is supposed to have a transition pledge. It's law. They should have it in place by 14. Only 54% of schools have anything like that and that's, I think, being generous, because if it is 54% I would doubt very much that they're actually adhering to it. And then with that, if they're going into a career rather than a college setting, then organizations like Medicaid and Voc Rehab, for example, can fund programs that are transitioning kids to employment. They like to have documentation because things can change right. A child can one day be like I want to be an architect or an archaeologist, or a doctor or a firefighter, a carpenter, right, if there's documentation that they've wanted and shown this for years, it increases the likelihood that those programs are going to fund that. It's not just a win that, hey, today I want to be a firefighter, yesterday I wanted to be a doctor, tomorrow I want to be a mechanic, kind of thing. So then we have our career tracks, which is our transition program, and that's kind of our meat and potatoes, like really working with individuals in that transition age to young adulthood, to, hey, what does a career look like? How can we set you up for success?

Speaker 1: 24:45

At TACT we have everything differentiated, where everyone's path is different. It's not a standardized course. It's competency-based rather than duration-based, which, in the sense of even looking at it from a competency-based approach rather than a duration approach, is completely different than traditional education. For some reason, they've looked at things in the past like, okay, you're going to go to college and it's going to be two semesters a year times four years, so you're doing this and this is how long it takes. Why? Why should that matter?

Speaker 1: 25:13

Some of our kids can actually learn things so fast, like you said, yours could write it too. Is the idea that they have to stay at a certain grade level even though they're already past that, simply because of their age, as if it's a manufacturer date? Why should that matter? So if our kids can achieve success faster, let's help them do that, and so we set it up like that. If they need more time and supports to be successful, let's give them that too. They shouldn't just be out because up. You had six weeks to learn this, it didn't happen and you're done. That's not how things should be set up. It sounds really simple, but it's a completely different shift from the last 7,500 years Before that.

Speaker 1: 25:54

That's the way everything was done right, I mean like you look at, like my great grandfather and grandfather that helped to build, you know, the lunar module and satellites in space. These are men with high school. Maybe you know eighth grade education certainly not college degrees and they did amazing things. I mean, there's more PhDs right now than any time in history, but you don't see the same level of innovation that we saw a hundred years ago. I think it's just reframing the way we look at it, and so then once we get individuals set up in that transition, then we have an entire team of support specialists employment support specialists that actually work with the employers in the job setting, that are supporting them in employment. So those are our programs. It's kind of holistic when we look at it. It's from the whole range, through advancement and then eventually one day, retirement Right.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah, absolutely. Now, that's so fantastic and I'm sure you help them with things like resume writing or interviewing and kind of all of the stuff that it takes to get into those processes. So what is Dylan interested in now is what career line is he? Is he going to be the astronaut guitarist behind you here? He? Is he going to be the astronaut guitarist behind you here.

Speaker 1: 27:08

Yeah, I fly satellites for the Air Force so I always have the space stuff here too. So that's just another thing. I don't talk about that one as much, but it's kind of a different part of the brain and I feel really fortunate to get to do that, which is really fun. So you know, I my goal for him, my dad goal, was that he would love working on cars and stuff as much as I do. He does not, he tolerates it.

Speaker 1: 27:30

He's pretty good, he's very handy. His comes in the space of still the visualization, the manufacturing, design. He can somehow see things in his mind and how they should look. And then he's working with the computers to design. I could see him being an engineer or an architect or a drafter, something like that. And despite, like where you know it's just sitting and talking with Dylan having that kind of communication, writing and texting. He's amazing, like he'll text me or write me the most amazing things. So we live in a world now that those kinds of tools are there and where that actually really sets him up very well for success and um, so I see him doing those kinds of things and excited to see where his mind leads because somehow how he's able to see how those things exist and taking it from two dimensional or three dimensional and um scale it and make it. It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2: 28:26

Wow, it sounds like it. Scale it and make it. It's pretty amazing. Wow, it sounds like it.

Speaker 2: 28:32

I love the creativity that comes from when you honor someone's space of passion and you can see their you know their love and their creativity that comes from that. I think that's the best part about being an intent, an intentful parent that you want to see your kids thrive and so, even though, like you said, might not have been your dream for him not to work on cars, like you honor his space in what he's good at, and I think that that's just a mindset that has come about and still needs to completely take over. I think that that would be so phenomenal to see you know parents be on board, with really not having to recreate their childhood or recreate their things they didn't get to do, but more you know, honor what your child loves and what they're good at and what they feel wonderful doing. I think that that's so important and I think that you're really doing that in creating this space for them to come to be a part of the world in a way that they've never been able to be a part of.

Speaker 1: 29:39

Yeah, well, thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, that being said, I should say that he's since he's getting to the driving age. We've been doing a father son project. We found an old car that we bought from a charity for $800 that hadn't run in like over a decade and we've got it running and, um, yeah, it's still fun to have that father-son time. But, yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 30:00

Is he going to? Does he want to drive? Is he excited about that stuff?

Speaker 1: 30:04

He loves driving.

Speaker 2: 30:10

He doesn't love driver's ed. Isn't that the truth? Oh man, that's so great. Well, I am so, so glad that we were able to get together today and have this amazing conversation and I really support what you're doing. And just in you know I, if there's anything I can do to just get the good word out, and just whatever I can do, send you connections. Otherwise, please let me know.

Speaker 1: 30:32

And thank you for sharing and thank you for helping others know about our program. We appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 30:36

Yeah, and before we do go, please let people know how they can find out more about you and more about TACT and all the good stuff.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Yeah, so our website is buildwithtactorg, so I'd encourage everybody to visit our website, and we're on LinkedIn and Facebook and the Twitter, and I think we're on the Twitter, or now X, isn't it called and then also Instagram, but we try to showcase all of the things that our students are doing all the time Lots of pictures and videos and stuff because our community is creating amazing things.

Speaker 2: 31:08

Yeah, and is there a way we can support and donate and things like that? Is there a place for that on your website?

Speaker 1: 31:14

There absolutely is. And I would like to point out too that of the clients that come here for our transition program, 98.6, or sorry, 98.5% of them are ona scholarship. So we're not that program that says okay, only if parents are able to afford an expensive program can kids come here. We work really hard with foundations, grant scores. Folks will hopefully donate after hearing this, businesses, all those kinds of things, to make scholarships possible for kids to come here. So we create millions of dollars for scholarships to kids to come to our program and actually get the same kind of a quality of opportunity. So if they go to buildwithtacorg, there's a donate section on the top right. So we would really appreciate that. We need those kinds of supports.

Speaker 2: 31:54

Absolutely A hundred percent. I agree with that, so go and check that out. Thank you so much for your time today. It's been so wonderful getting to know you more.

Speaker 1: 32:03

Thank you, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 32:05

Absolutely and we will definitely.