What Happens After 22? High Point’s Plan for Autistic Adults with Nathan Bryant

Mike Carr (00:05):

Well, welcome everyone back to another episode of Autism Labs. And this week we're talking to the executive director of High Point Village all the way up in West Texas in Lubbock.

Nathan Bryant (00:17):

And they're

Mike Carr (00:18):

Doing actually a lot of things that are very cool. And so I want Nathan Bryant to introduce himself first to you and share a little bit of his background, which is I think very interesting and different than what you often see for an executive director, but for our community, very, very appropriate. And then we'll get into what High Point Village is all about and talk about their current programs and maybe even more excitingly, what they're fixing to do when it comes to residential. So Nathan, please introduce yourself.

Nathan Bryant (00:44):

Awesome. Well, Mike, thank you for the invitation. This is super cool. Yeah, as you mentioned, I'm the executive director at High Point Village in Lubbock, Texas. Those of us who love it here say it's the closest thing to heaven on earth. I don't know that everybody agrees with us. A little bit about me, I have West Texas roots, but I also love big cities in Texas. And that just comes from my story. I was actually born about 30 minutes down the road from Lubbock in Littlefield, Texas, which is a very small town. My parents met in college at Texas Tech and they were both public school teachers and their first jobs were in Sudan, which is an even smaller town down the road from Littlefield. But hospital is in Littlefield. And so as the firstborn child, I was born there in the hospital and then spent the first six years of my life in another small town in West Texas called La Misa.

(01:23):

It's a little closer down to the Midland area. But after kindergarten, my family relocated to Katy, Texas, which is of course a huge suburb on the west side of Houston. And so when I think about home, I actually think about Houston. I think about Katy. But again, I've got West Texas roots. So my grandparents lived in other West Texas towns. And so I spent a lot of time up here and returned here after graduating from Katy High School to go to college at Texas Tech in the late 90s. And so had a great experience at Tech, loved it. Though to myself when I was graduating, I don't think I want to stay here right after college, but I would love to come back someday when I've got a family of my own. And so I was able to see that kind of dream come true 25 years after graduating from college when I was given the opportunity to come back to Lubbock and serve as the executive director at High Point.

(02:04):

So how I ended up here is, as you mentioned, kind of an interesting journey with a few detours as everybody's story seemingly has. Graduating from college, I actually felt a call to ministry my senior year of college here at Texas Tech. And so I moved back home not knowing exactly what that was going to mean. I lived with my parents for a couple years as I served in some intern roles at a couple churches in the Houston area and then took a big detour, stayed in Houston, but I had met the woman who became my wife while I was doing that. And she was a student at University of Houston. I decided to go to law school. And so I stayed in Houston and went to University of Houston Law Center. So that was of course a three-year academic thing in addition to what I had done at Texas Tech.

(02:43):

Of course, the whole time I'm thinking, I'm going to be a lawyer. I mean that's why you go to law school to be a lawyer. And I didn't know exactly what kind of law I wanted to practice. I still had a real strong passion for young people and youth ministry intern. That was my first love in ministry. And so I though maybe juvenile law. I'd grown up watching all Matlock and Perry Mason. So I though, okay, maybe some criminal law, I don't know, something that puts me in the courtroom. And long story short, I worked at some firms in Houston. I had a clerkship at a great firm in Dallas. I just could never figure out what the right fit was in terms of law that really fulfilled what I felt was a deep purpose. Spiritually speaking, I though God led me to law school and I really, looking back, I know he did.

(03:21):

It was to be a lawyer. I actually think it was to grow me up a little bit. I think it was to prepare me for things that were going to be down the road. And so when I was finishing law school, I turned to ministry and graduated law school, passed the bar, did all the stuff that you need to practice law, but I've never practiced law. And so immediately jumped into a 20-year career in working for churches and started out as a youth minister and along the way did some worship leading, led a campus of a large multi-site church in Houston for about four years. And at the tail end of those 20 years, I was a senior pastor in Jackson, Mississippi. But when we were ready to get back to Texas and bring everything back, I was like, "Man, this is my chance to get to Lubbock." And just happened to find High Point Village.

(04:03):

And the reason that High Point Village had become so attractive to me is that, of course, in that journey of ministry and being married and starting to have children, my firstborn son Zeke has autism. And so that introduced me to this entire world and opportunities in Lubbock. I was thinking there's a church on every corner in Lubbock, right? I mean, we're in West Texas, so surely somebody needs a worship leader or a pastor or something. But I found this faith-based, very faith-oriented organization that had chosen to serve families like mine and just happened to be looking for an executive director. And at the time I reached out to the board president and I was like, "I don't know if I've got the experience you're looking for. I've never run an organization that's specifically geared for families like mine." The churches I had served in were pretty intentional about serving special needs families.

(04:51):

And so there was a little bit of that and obviously led staffs, managed budgets, some of the things that did translate, but I was like, "Man, I don't know. But I am interested." And he was like, "Well, we're interested too." And that led to a series of conversations and a few months later I ended up here. So April of 2024. And so we're coming up on two and a half years of serving in this role. And the son that I have actually graduated high school in May. He's still doing an adult program in the school district here, but we have dreams of him coming out to High Point, working at High Point, living at High Point, all the things that go along with that. So it's been incredible, but that's kind of how I ended up here. That's a long answer. I

Mike Carr (05:31):

Think that's great. And I think some of the things that you cited make it really interesting when you think about all the hats that an executive director wears. So when you think about youth ministry and ministry in general, the spiritual side, helping families navigate tough journeys, especially when you got Zeke with autism, that background's got to be super helpful. And then even though you've never practiced law, I think having a law degree helps you navigate all the rules and regulations and all the changes that are going on right now. For sure. One of the things I wanted to ask you about is a lot of the parents that watch this pod have profoundly autistic or higher support need, older teen, young adults, they've aged out of school at 22. They're very interested in what's next. And very few, if any, programs in Texas and quite frankly around the country are prepared to handle the demands of a higher support need individual.

(06:32):

And we were a little bit dismayed until we talked to the guys at Howdy Homemade in Dallas, and that's actually

(06:38):

A Chain of ice cream stores.

Nathan Bryant (06:40):

And

Mike Carr (06:40):

Tom, the founder, had a really interesting word that he kept using. I kept pushing him on, well, who do you hire and how verbal do they have to be and what skill set do they have to be? And he basically said, our dream, our vision is to really provide employment for all kinds of folks that have challenges and special needs. And even though we maybe don't have a lot of people on our staffs yet that are high support, the key word is yet. He kept saying yet. There's always that possibility, there's always that dream, there's always that aspiration. So when you think about High Point Village and the day program you guys have right now and where you're going with residential, how comfortable would you be saying, hey, if a parent or a couple can come to us with a son, and he is profoundly autistic, so he requires more support than Zeke and probably a lot of your folks do, but they have the resources and they're willing to provide some of the staffing.

(07:35):

Is that something that you think, hey, it's going to be challenging, but we're willing to give it a try. No problem. We can do it. Not a chance in the world. Where do you land on that spectrum?

Nathan Bryant (07:44):

Somewhere between we'll give it a try and yeah, we'll do it. Know that, again, I've been here for two and a half years. High Point's run programs now for 17. So I don't know the full organizational history, but I'm learning it. I think our longest tenured employee has been on staff for almost 14, almost 15 years. And so there is some pretty good people to talk to about like, hey, how have we handled this stuff in the past? And we still have at least one original board member who has not served the full 18 years, but has served before and is currently serving now. And so again, I can pick the brains of people who were around when we created all of this and have been a part of it since the very beginning. We do have a specific day program, run two different day programs, but we have one that is geared to villagers with a higher set of needs.

(08:29):

So we call one reach high. We call one dream big. DreamBig is the one that serves villagers that have more profound needs. And we have had villagers in the past that fit the profile that you're talking about that have come with an attendant, just provide support for the staff that we have in that program. Right now we staff that program with two full-time coordinators, we call them. They serve eight villagers. And so the ratio is one to four. Again, those who might need a one-to-one would then provide an attendant and be helpful with that. But we have actually found incredible success just in the last two years that I've been able to put my eyes on the program in working with families and with folks that have profound needs and challenges to see incredible growth and gains, not just in behaviors, but in just attitude and skills and coping mechanisms and all the things that are needed, that we all need really to function in the world, but that they may not bring on their first day at High Point Village.

(09:25):

And so one of the things that's unique about High Point is we're not exclusive to autism. There's a lot of other organizations that aren't as well. We've had the opportunity, or I have in the last couple of years to visit some of the best organizations across Texas and outside of Texas through some really cool relationships and some organizations that we've chosen to belong to. What I have found is that, necessarily true all the way across the board, but the spectrum of challenges that our villagers have is as broad as anywhere as I have seen, to be quite honest. When people say, who do you serve? The overwhelming majority are going to have either an autism or Down syndrome diagnosis. Those are going to be the great two. But we have another six categories, if you will, or diagnoses, everything from Trisomy8 to Willy to traumatic brain injury.

(10:11):

And my favorite stories, favorites maybe not the right way to say it, but we have a villager here who's a young man, mid - 30s who was a, for lack of a better term, neurotypical college freshman at Texas Tech University and was involved in a traffic accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. And so he spends his Monday through Thursday with us. He's brilliant. He speaks multiple languages, have really deep, profound conversations. He faces some challenges when it comes to impulse control and some of his mobility and things have become a challenge and everything doesn't quite add up the way it probably did before his accident. But I have a brother who's 10 years younger than me that came to visit after I had started working here and he put eyes on this young man and that young man put eyes on me and they're like, "Is that who that is?" And come to find out, my brother had served on a college retreat before this young man had had his injury.

(11:04):

And so he knew him prior to that and now has met him since. And of course this young man remembered my brother. He's like, "Your brother was the one that..." And so it's just the way that, of course, all that works together, but he's just one of our. We have 70 program villagers, day program villagers, he's just one. And every one of them has a unique story and every one of them has a unique set of challenges. One of our core values is celebrating abilities. And so we look at the things that they can do and how do we major on their strengths? And then the things that make life hard, what are the things that we can address? Understanding we don't provide therapy here. We have space so that folks can have therapy. There's been a history of providing some speech therapy and music therapy at High Point, but right now we don't have any therapists on staff.

(11:47):

And so there are limits to what we can do, but with the relational approach that we've taken, we've seen some villagers that do have profound challenges really succeed in some awesome ways. And man, my two staff that lead Dream Big, they're exceptional. They're exceptional. So I would say bring them on. I mean, if we had room, and that's the thing, it's like if we have space, I say bring them on. We've got a waiting list in Reach High. I think we have a waiting list in Dream Big right now, but we have space for it. So that's kind of one of those leadership type things where it's like, man, could we take three more villagers and Dream Big and have to hire another person? We want to keep that ratio the right way and all that kind of stuff. But I'm not a never going to do something kind of guy.

(12:26):

Let's figure out how we're going to do it and we'll make it happen.

Mike Carr (12:29):

So let's talk about a couple of things you said and dive into it a little bit more and maybe get into the residential piece. So one of the things

Nathan Bryant (12:34):

You

Mike Carr (12:34):

Said, which I think our parents probably picked up on is Dream Big is two staffers, eight villagers. So you've got that one to four ratio. In Austin, our john13.org is at that same ratio. And we do have a lot of folks that are higher support needs. And what we discovered is there's almost this big brother pairing in some cases where you find someone that's a little bit lower support, a little bit more neurotypical, although they have challenges. You pair them up with someone that's a little bit higher support like our son who's nonverbal, but still can communicate through an iPad and they develop this relationship that's almost symbiotic. And they together can do things that are amazing and that you see the real human blossom in the responsibility and the fulfillment and the excitement and the love and the energy. And so we have tried, and I think we've been somewhat successful, and it sounds like you guys with 70 villagers over 17 years have probably seen this too, where it's the group of villagers that you have together under Dream Big that with the right staff really create almost like a big family and they really have fun.

(13:41):

And so I want you to speak to that and I also want you to speak to what do they do during the day?

Nathan Bryant (13:46):

So we definitely believe in, I think many of the same things you guys do when it comes to community integration. I'll say this about Dream Big. While they have their own designated space, which is a large space here, it's actually the most recently completed space at High Point Villages that they moved into that program to give them more space and opportunities for different things. There's a lot of integration between Reach High and Dream Big on a daily basis. And so our Dream Big villagers are not kept away from Reach High programming. And that includes the community outings. Sometimes DreamBig does a community outing on their own where the eight of them and the two staff go in an outing just as Dream Big. And other times they're just jumping in the vans with our Reach High villagers. And so what they do on a daily basis is going to be a combination of life skills, social skills, practical living skills, especially as we move towards residential, trying to give them more independent living skills.

(14:32):

And so we don't have the biggest building in the world, but our janitor closet has a washer and dryer. And so learning to do laundry, I mean that's one of the things that our Dream Big villagers love to do, just learning to sort and do laundry and move things from back and forth and fold. And we do like to get into the community. So we've had aim two Meals on Wheels routes for 15 years. We have villagers that get their 10-year pen or their 15-year pen because they've been delivering meals for Meals on Wheels for that long. And that's an outing that oftentimes we have dream big villagers like, "I want to be on that. I want to deliver the meals." And of course, there's nothing better than receiving your meal from one of our villagers. So talk about it like we put joy on wheels and we bring joy to you kind of that way.

(15:10):

So yeah, Mondays we have two Meals on Wheels routes. We serve at the local Ronald McDonald House, which of course serves the community here that's receiving medical care at one of our two hospital systems. Tuesdays is a fun day. Tuesdays is bowling. High Point has deep roots in bowling. The reason for that is the first conversations between the parents that originally became that first board happened on Sunday afternoon at a local bowling alley when there was kind of a special needs bowling league. And that league still exists. Many of our villagers still participate in it. But it was those parents who were watching their kids who were in high school at the time, and they're all just looking around going, "What are they going to do after high school?What are they going to do when they graduate?" And they looked around Lubbock and was like, "Man, we don't think there's anything here that we would feel comfortable putting them into.

(15:51):

We should create something of our own." I mean, it was really the foresight and the vision of these families. So with those kind of roots in a bowling alley, we go back to that same bowling alley every Tuesday morning. We're limited to the number that we can take by the number of vans we have. So right now I think it's about, let's see, 46 villagers that we can take out of our 70 bowling every week. So we kind of shuffle around and at times we've talked about buying a bus and all the stuff that goes along with that so everybody could go. But seemingly not everybody wants to bowl every Tuesday, so it works out the way that it does. But Tuesday's a fun day with bowling. Wednesdays we serve with Habitat for Humanity. There's some other organizations in town that obviously we love to partner with other nonprofits.

(16:25):

So whether it's Lubbock Impact who runs kind of a kitchen and a clothing closet, another organization called Found, many of them are also faith-based as you can imagine. And so we're just looking for more and more opportunities to get them into the community. Most recently, literally in the last month and a half, we've really tried to lean into our mission statement. We list these things that we're trying to create. We say we want to create a village where individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities can live, learn, work, worship, and achieve their full potential. And so we take those first four, achieving full potential being all of it combined and supporting them. Living, obviously, we're trying to tackle that with the residential piece. Learning, we feel like we've got a hang on that. We do a pretty good job with that. We worship daily. We have a monthly chapel service in which we invite churches to come out and worship with us.

(17:12):

But I mean, Bible study and worship is a part of our daily routine here. That work piece has always been kind of unique because it means different things to different people. Is that earning a paycheck? Is that doing something productive? We've seen the community service really fit into that piece, but we have villagers that would like to maybe have jobs or different jobs than the ones that they have now. And so we've hired a young woman who was a longtime staffer, left to go work at another organization in Austin, and we hired her back when she wanted to come back to Lubbock because Lubbock is better than Austin. And at least in her mind, I don't know where I land on that. I actually love Austin too, but she got some great experience working kind of vocational program there in Austin. And so we brought her back.

(17:52):

And what we're doing with her, in fact, I just saw her this morning, is we're finding community partners that would be interested in potentially employing adults with IDD. Of course the Texas Workforce Commission works with employers that does that, but who do we know that already supports and buys into the vision of High Point Village? And we've identified a car wash in town called Mighty Wash that has a ton of locations. So they're going to Mighty Wash this morning. They've been doing car washes here and now they're taking it on the road and going in and working at Mighty Wash this morning. H-E-B grocery store here has invited our villagers out to do the curbside deliveries and pull the groceries and restaurants. Old Navy let us come in and had employees show up like a one-to-one ratio and show everything that they do to get ready for the day and stocking and folding and all that kind of stuff.

(18:34):

And so that's in addition to serving kind of a community service volunteer type thing. We're now getting legitimate vocational job skills through our partnerships. But it's all about, to me, and I don't know where I came up with this. I feel like High Point serves our villagers by giving them the skills that help them really maneuver in a world that wasn't built for them, really interact with and succeed in a world that isn't built for them. High Point is built for them. We have taken their needs and their challenges into consideration so that we accommodate for the unique, amazing things that make them who they are. The rest of the world doesn't do that. And as much as I'd love for the rest of the world to take our approach and become more accessible and all those other kinds of things, I can help them learn skills, not me personally, but my staff can help them learn skills that does make the world a little easier to live in and to work in and to maneuver their way and travel around in.

(19:24):

And so that's with all those community integration. I mean, one, it makes Lubbock more beautiful when my villagers are in the different public places that everybody else is. And two, it helps my villagers better function when they're not here in that world that doesn't necessarily take their needs into consideration.

Mike Carr (19:38):

Hey guys and gals, we're going to go ahead and stop our conversation with Nathan for this week and we're going to come back next week and continue really diving into residential and respite. So please join us next week as Nathan up at High Point Village in Lubbock talks to us about his journey there.