SkiP HappEns Podcast
Skip Clark is a dynamic and captivating podcast host and radio personality who has left an indelible mark on the world of broadcasting. With a voice that can command attention and a personality that oozes charm, Skip has become a beloved figure in the world of entertainment. His passion for storytelling and his ability to connect with his audience shine through in every episode of his podcast and every moment on the airwaves.
Skip’s journey in radio began decades ago, and he has since evolved into a seasoned professional who effortlessly navigates the waves of the media industry. His deep knowledge of music, pop culture, and current events keeps his listeners engaged and coming back for more. Skip Clark's enthusiasm and authenticity make him a trusted voice in the world of podcasting and radio. His dedication to his craft and his commitment to providing quality content continue to make him a standout in the world of broadcasting.
SkiP HappEns Podcast
Empowering Caregivers: The Inspiring Work of David's Refuge with Kate Houck
Good morning and welcome to the Community Connection. It's Skip Clark and I got another great program for you today. With me on the line is Kate Houck. Kate is the Executive Director of David's Refuge, which is located right here in Central New York. Good morning, Kate. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good morning, Skip. I'm doing well. How are you today?
Speaker 1:Very well, it's a good day. It's always a good day.
Speaker 2:That's right, and it's even better.
Speaker 1:It's even better when we get to talk about David's Refuge.
Speaker 2:It's my favorite thing to do.
Speaker 1:I love it as well and you know, having that personal connection, I know exactly exactly what it's about. But I want you to tell us a little bit First of all what is the mission of David's Refuge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the mission of David's Refuge is to provide respite resources and support to moms and dads and guardians in our community who have children with special needs or a child who has a life-threatening medical condition. And really we do all of this with a vision to really empower these moms and dads, these caregivers, to be able to lead their families with strength and grace. So that really is built into every single thing that we do.
Speaker 1:What are, kate? What are some of the key programs and services that David's Refuge offers the families and caregivers?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we know that caregiver burnout is obviously very prevalent amongst caregivers, so we really love to come alongside these families by offering supports like an all-expense-paid overnight respite. So this is for mom and dad. This is two nights where the mom and dad get to go away. They get to breathe life back into themselves and then return home refreshed and restored. We also provide mental health counseling services in addition to physical, nutritional, financial supports. So this is a holistic approach to supporting caregivers in their journey. And, last but not least, events that you've been part of are community events. So we'll do a big event like a trunk retreat or a summer picnic or a retreat for just moms or just dads, in the attempt to get people together who are kind of on the same journey so that they can meet one another and connect through community.
Speaker 1:I love this. And what do you see as some of the most significant challenges faced by caregivers of children with special needs, and how does David's Refuge aim to address these various challenges?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think some of the challenges are things that wouldn't surprise any of us. This is, the parents we serve are what we call long haul caregivers. So they are many times caregivers 24-7, 365, for really for very long time. Some of the parents we serve have been in this role for 40 years, 50 years.
Speaker 2:So some of those problems that come, one of the main ones is exhaustion mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion just from the constant demands of having to show up in such a big way for your child. We also have seen statistics as high as 80% of divorce rate amongst families who have a child with special needs. So just that alone is something that David's Refuge looks at and we say you know what? Maybe we can be a preventative, we can come in and we can support these caregivers so that they can combat that caregiver burnout, so that they can get in front of that and potentially save relationships and save themselves a little bit and give themselves a break. We also just want caregivers to know that self-care is not a selfish act. Self-care is actually the only way that you can truly continue to care for your child and your loved ones.
Speaker 1:Exactly Well said. How does David's Refuge? How are they different from other organizations in the community that, let's say, serve? You know, the same people, the same caregivers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what I always love to say, skip, is that we are a complement, we are a complementary service to pretty much every other nonprofit in our community that serves the same families. So what we do is we serve the caregiver, which makes us very different, because many local agencies who are wonderful agencies don't really have the support systems in place for the caregivers. They're focusing all their efforts on the child with the disability or, you know, pouring research dollars into, you know, diagnosis and caring for people with those certain diagnoses. You know diagnosis and caring for people with those certain diagnoses. So what we get to do is we get to come alongside the person who is taking the child to all the appointments. We get to focus on keeping them going so that they can offer more and more resources to their child, so that they can meet families who are going through the same thing and ultimately feel more connected to their community. So we're just a little bit different. We're outside of the box and we haven't found anyone else in our community who's doing the same service.
Speaker 1:Being outside the box is good New ideas.
Speaker 2:I think so too I like to sit outside the box. I know Exactly.
Speaker 1:We're talking with Kate Helk. She is the executive director of David's Refuge right here in Syracuse, of David's Refuge right here in Syracuse. And, kate, can you, if possible, give me an example of how David's Refuge has made a significant impact on a family, or even a caregiver?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think one of my favorite stories to tell is when we were serving. We serve parents. Multiple parents will come together and they'll go to a local bed and breakfast location, they'll go to a hotel and they'll have these two night respite stays. And when we do that it's really random. So it could be parents from you know, from Utica, from Syracuse, from Rochester, even Buffalo that are all coming to the same place.
Speaker 2:And so what happens many times is parents will meet others that they never would have met in any other way, and what happens is these parents become the true support system or the very best friend of the caregiver. So a mom once told me that during the respite weekend yes, she said, kate, I got support for myself, my husband and I reconnected. But I got support for myself, my husband and I reconnected. But I got to tell you I met my person. And what she meant by that is she met the other mom who maybe lives two hours away but gets it, gets it fully, and when she's up in the middle of the night, you know feeling stress and anxiety and upset, she knows she can call that other mom because that's another mom who she doesn't have to explain her story to. That's a mom who is living it just alongside her and she will answer the phone. She will answer the text and sometimes, as humans, we just need one other person that gets it, and that's one of the best stories.
Speaker 1:No, I love that and I didn't mean to cut you off. I apologize no, you're fine, I was going to say, like outside of our circle, outside of the everyday person we see it's always good to have somebody a little bit further out that you connect with and maybe you can bounce ideas off of, and all that so that's right and you don't have to explain everything, because some of the families we serve it's it's hard to understand what they go through and really, unless you're in it, you don't get it.
Speaker 2:And you are well aware of. So the families we serve are able to meet another human that does get it, and so I think that alone is part of the magic of David's Refuge.
Speaker 1:I love that, kate. What has been the community response to the services that David's Refuge provides, and how has the local community helped support the organization's?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, the local community is why we're here. We were started back in 2012 by, you know, a mom and a dad, warren and Brenda Full, who had a vision after they themselves had been caregivers for 13 years to their son, david. So they wanted to start this. They started it in their house and it was never thought that it was going to turn into something what it is today. They just wanted to help people. They truly saw what being a caregiver and what that role was, and they wanted to use what they had learned to pay it forward and love on other caregivers. They wanted to remind them they're not alone, what they do matters and that God in our community loves them. So today, you know, the first year, they served about 30, 45 couples in their house.
Speaker 2:And then, when you look at what the community has chosen to do, the community has chosen to say we want to invest in David's Refuge, we want this organization to be part of the beauty, of what our community offers to families, families and so this mission has been grown and and made more beautiful and they've been able to expand because people who we meet with as a team we go out and we we talk. People like you are saying, yes, david's refuge needs to be here. David's refuge makes our community even sweeter, so it's all about the community. I always say that to people at our events. I say I could stand here on this stage, but if none of you were here, this wouldn't be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:No, how true that?
Speaker 2:is and when we have you know, when we opened our application this year 2025, we have gotten unprecedented numbers of applicants. We are overwhelmed, in a good way, by the number of families who are trusting David's Refuge to show up in their life this way, and what that means for me and my wonderful, amazing staff is that we got to push the gas pedal down even further. We got to keep grinding, we got to keep going so that we can continue to grow this mission.
Speaker 1:I love that you say you have a staff, which I know maybe it's not big enough, so do you incorporate volunteers into what you do?
Speaker 2:We absolutely do. Our volunteers are just the best. We have volunteers that show up in many different ways for David's Refuge, from driving things to places to our wonderful board of directors, to people who go on the respite weekends and make sure everything is perfect and everything in between. We have had such success over the years. I would say we have 50 to 75, what I would call key volunteers to our mission and we simply couldn't do it without them. You know all about the key, how wonderful volunteers are, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:And how does somebody get involved? Let's say they're listening to this and they say you know, I'd like to do that. How does one do that?
Speaker 2:We would love people to go to our website, davidsrefugeorg, and go to the contact form, and that's where they can fill in all of their information and we will have a member of our staff reach out and really understand just exactly what that volunteer is looking to do. Understand just exactly what that volunteer is looking to do, because we know volunteering isn't one size fits all. So we would encourage people to go to the website, fill out the form and then a member of our team will be in touch with you.
Speaker 1:Now we talk about a new year, 2025. We're well into it already, but you know what are some of the biggest goals or initiatives that David's Refuge has for this upcoming year. What's the vision?
Speaker 2:Well, we are going to continue our work here in Central New York and we're actually bringing our Summit and Wellness Retreat which is a beautiful event that is really meant to be a culmination of all of our services into one, and what I see it as is really our chance to have an event, really a reason people want to come to Syracuse. If you're a caregiver, I want people to be at this event because you're going to get so much value and you have an opportunity to learn about caregiver burnout and you're going to have the chance to meet other people. So that event is going to be in the fall here in our community and we're so excited about that. In addition to over 500 respite weekends that will be taking place all over upstate New York, we also are working on looking at how we can grow our mission in communities just down the road.
Speaker 2:So communities like Rochester, communities like Utica, oswego we want to make sure caregivers that really aren't that far away know that David's Refuge is a mission that's there for them. So we're putting into place some strategies around. How do we do that? How do we do growth with excellence? So we have a lot going on in addition to some marketing plans, but it's all about how do we do what's right so that we can grow our services. So it's all you know. We're all pointing at the same exact vision to get David's Refuge to continue to be strong and to continue to be able to show up for our families.
Speaker 1:Now, david's Refuge is only right here in Syracuse, right, or? Have you expanded to Rochester and other areas.
Speaker 2:So we have been serving families in Rochester. Our office is here.
Speaker 2:Our office is in Syracuse, All of our staff are in Syracuse, but because of the nature of our services and because these communities are somewhat close and very drivable and many of our families, Skip do drive up and down the Thruway all the time. They do that for doctor's appointments, and so families in other communities have heard about David's Refuge and what's beautiful is a family from Rochester. They might come out to Skinny Atlas or Casanova for their respite weekend. So we're really bringing new people into new communities and showing off the best of our communities as well. So it's been a beautiful way to spread the mission.
Speaker 1:So it's been a beautiful way to spread the mission. Kate Helk is who we're talking to, the executive director of David's Refuge, their office being right here in Syracuse. Kate, what would you say is the most important piece of advice or support you offer to caregivers who are struggling?
Speaker 2:I would say the very first thing and the very largest, the largest bridge we need to get to get over with many caregivers is that feeling of guilt, that feeling of I'm not worth. You know I'm not worth it. I shouldn't take a respite, I shouldn't take time away from my child because their children are going through so much. And what I always remind them is self-care is not selfish. This is truly the only way, if you take some time for yourself, that you can continue on this journey, because no one is going to be able to get up like you are for your child to perform all the things you need to perform, to make all the phone calls, to be their biggest advocate. No one can do that if they're burnt out, if they're suffering from physical and mental exhaustion, if your marriage and your relationships are struggling. So if you put yourself first, you actually will become an even stronger advocate for your child, which I know is at the heart of every single caregiver we know.
Speaker 1:And you've seen it, and you're putting that balance in between self-care and the caregiving experience or responsibilities.
Speaker 2:Yes, so you got to have that balance.
Speaker 1:Kate, how did you get involved with David's Refuge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I came over to David's Refuge. I was so lucky to find this, this organization. I had run the Muscular Dystrophy Association for 10 years here in wonderful central New York and I guess what I had seen firsthand is how many moms and dads we had served through that organization that really were struggling. You know, they were struggling from the day of diagnosis through caring for their child. Their marriages were struggling, and so I got to see firsthand just how much these families go through. And when I heard about David's Refuge and what the founders were really working towards, I knew deeply that this was something our community needed. And so I, you know, applied and they brought me into the family, and now I've been here 10 years.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh, has it been that long? Yes, you know, I think, I think. I believe I first met you when you were with the MDA, I believe so, and then you go way back. Yeah, we do, and you just mentioned 10 years with David's Refuge already I kind of go, oh my goodness yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, and we haven't aged, it's not at all.
Speaker 1:You haven't, maybe I have, but I know you haven't. What is, as we continue to talk about David's Refuge a little bit, what are some of the core values that guide David's Refuge in its work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we love to stand on our values of compassion. I think compassion is something that our team and our board and every volunteer really is working towards. So we know, first and foremost, that the families we serve they are dealing with so much, and that is never lost on us. We want to make things easy for our families. We want to always offer grace. In a society that doesn't many times offer a caregiver grace, we want to be the ones who do, and so compassion is, I think, the leading value that many of us really think about each day, each phone call, each email, every single thing that we do.
Speaker 2:And then we also function on the values of respect, relationships, excellence. These are all things that are very important to us. And then the last one is empowerment. We want actually I love hearing when a mom and a dad who have been part of our mission for a few years they call and say Kate, we actually, we're actually not taking the respite this year because David's Refuge has taught us how to put ourselves first. They have taught us how to do many dates. They've taught us, you know, that yoga is something that really will help our family or help me as a caregiver, and so I want to leave my space for a new one, a new person, and so to me that's also the goal is we want families to actually learn and become, to have that become a habit. That self-care isn't selfish, and now they're doing it on their own because there's always going to be new caregivers who do need us. So that's, that's the last value and something we hold on, that hold very highly, yeah.
Speaker 1:When you hear something like that from the caregivers, it's got to just kind of increase the motivation that you have and you know and you think about the organization's mission and what you're doing. When you hear that it makes you want to do it more. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very, um, very. It feels like something that's actually making a difference and all like I keep saying I value every local organization. I know the importance of every single local nonprofit and the work that they do. What I've always loved about David's Refuge is it's something very tangible. We are able to see results very quickly because caregivers who maybe say I don't need an overnight, we'll go on a two night stay, they'll be brave and they'll go, and then they'll tell us so immediately that I didn't even know I needed this. You know, I didn't even know, and it's simplistic but it's very deep at the same time. So I just find it to be extremely rewarding.
Speaker 1:Who wouldn't you know? And that's why I think people love being part of it. Yeah, you're blessed to be able to do this and you know that's what it's all about. But now the funding for David's Refuge. You have different events throughout the year. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. David's Refuge is starting out this year at the Sata Cherry Preview. That's how many local nonprofits start their year in their fundraising. So we'll be at the On Center on February 12th and then we will actually be at the Fairgrounds. We do a 5K event with the International Taste Festival. That's been three years now that we're able to do that event, so we're always looking for runners and people who want to fundraise and just be part of a really amazing event at the fairgrounds.
Speaker 2:We then go into our Taste of David's Refuge, which is going to be at Heritage Hill this year on June 13th. That is our largest signature event of the year and something we're extremely proud of, where we bring people together, and you know the owner over there, dan Palladino, supports us. He shuts the whole place down for us and we fill it with 500 of our favorite people. So that's always an option and we love when people come out. And then in the fall we'll actually do our Pine View Challenge, which is so fun. It's down in Lafayette at a racetrack. We get to have people race cars and have a lot of fun doing it. So those are just some of our key events and then we'll be doing a premier fundraiser in Rochester for the third year in the fall as well, love it. So we have a lot going on, and all of the events, as their dates are secured, will be listed on our website at davidsrefugeorg davidsrefugeorg.
Speaker 1:The website Gotcha Gotcha. Now you know the race car thing I was going to do and I forgot what happened, but I definitely want to do that.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll send you something. You're in. No, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We'd love to have you and.
Speaker 1:I'd love to have you and I'd love to be there. Pretty obvious, got a very close attachment to David's Refuge. I have a son that's down syndrome, you know that and Zach is 24 now and of course we look, you know we're always here for him. But yeah, there's those moments where you know I just I just need a break, just need a break, and that's what.
Speaker 2:David's.
Speaker 1:Refuge does for you. So if somebody wanted to reach out, they can get all the info. Davidsrefugeorg about anything right.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, they can sign up. So if you know a caregiver in our community who's full-time caregiver to their child with special needs or has a life-threatening medical condition, you can go to our website and apply for services, as well as figuring out any of the information from our fundraising activities, our community events, volunteering Basically everything is right there on the website.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love it. I love it. Kate Helk, the Executive Director, david's Refuge, right here in Syracuse, I just want to say thank you for doing what you're doing and, of course, thank you for allowing us to to chat with you and, uh, you know, let's get this out and I want listeners to hear it and let's see what we can do to help you out as well with david's refuge.
Speaker 2:so again, thank you for joining me this morning no, thank you so much for having me and being our constant advocate and friend, skip. We appreciate it so much.
