Episode 227 – Helping Single Mothers Across Wyoming featuring Katie Hogarty

You are tuned into the Jackson hole, connection, sharing, fascinating stories

of people connected to Jackson Hole.

I am truly grateful for each of you for tuning in today and support

for this podcast comes from:

I begin today's episode with a thought for you in something I do most days,

which is to practice gratitude.

When I journal, I write down what I'm grateful.

At my businesses, we begin every meeting with moments of gratitude.

We go around the, the horn and everybody shares, something

that they're grateful for.

You can be grateful for the lunch you just ate or the shoes on your feet.

And practicing gratitude costs you absolutely no money.

Takes a very small amount of your time and it will fill your emotional

bank account and it can improve your.

And the day of the people around you.

Nothing to overthink here.

Just give it a try.

And I am grateful that you are gonna take action to make your life happier each day.

And you are listening to episode number 227, and my guest today is Katie

Hogarty, the c e O of Climb, Wyoming.

And Climb Wyoming has a mission.

To help single mothers discover self-sufficiency through

career training and development.

myself being a child of a single mom who worked two jobs to provide for

her three children, I am grateful for the work climb Wyoming has

performed for the past 36 years.

Climb.

Wyoming is about lifting families out of poverty to be successful

in the long term, and that's Katie and her team are accomplishing.

And as Katie says, the world is hard to manage.

Katie, thank you for joining me here today at the Jackson Hole Connection.

It's delighted to be connected to you and to be able to

have a conversation with you.

this fine day that we have here in Wyoming.

Good morning, Stephan.

I'm very much looking forward to the conversation and honored

to be here with you This.

Well, Katie, we will just blow the bubble up here that you do

not live here in Jackson Hole.

However, the organization that you are with has a really strong footprint

here in Jackson and throughout the whole state of Wyoming and.

I love starting the episodes off with people sharing their connection to

Jackson, but since you don't live here in Jackson, let's start off with your

connection to the state of Wyoming.

Were you born in Wyoming or how did you get here to Wyoming and let, let's have

a little bit of background of Katie.

I was born in Wyoming.

I'm a Wyoming person through and through, which makes me feel very proud

and connected to the Jackson area too.

I was, born in Sheridan and, raised there and.

found a love of, backpacking and being in the mountains when I was

in junior high and high school and made my way to the Tetons as often

as I could, during that time because, just seeing the mountains and being

in that space just, uh, spoke to me.

So I, I love being from Wyoming.

I love this state and, have always felt really connected

to that part of our state.

It's so special and, don't wanna start this, interview off.

Two with too much cheesiness, but there's just something about being

in that area that it just hits you in the gut when you, um, see the iconic

landscapes and the, the vastness and the wildlife, it just, it just speaks to you.

It, uh, it just kind catches me in the, my throat and takes my

breath away every time I'm there.

I think anybody with an appreciation of the mountains, whether they're in

the Tetons, the big holes, any other mountains around the state, the winds,

which is, you know, the largest mountain range here in the state of Wyoming and

has our largest peak, has an appreciation for wherever you are in the mountains,

Mm-hmm.

in the woods.

Yeah, I feel very fortunate to be from Wyoming and to be in.

Katie, I'm curious to, are your parents, did they move to Wyoming or does your,

do your roots go back a few generations?

You know, hilariously enough, when I was in elementary school, people used

to tell me that I wasn't from Wyoming because my parents weren't from Wyoming.

My parents are both from Chicago.

Okay.

What took your parents from Chicago to Sheridan?

All the same things we've been talking about,

Okay.

Fish fishing, the mountains, the landscape, a simpler life, community,

I think is what made them stay there.

It's, such a lovely community and, the lack of anonymity I think helps

us be all connected to each other.

And,

Mm-hmm.

we really experience that in the, with the smaller towns.

And I know my, parents really loved that.

So they stayed.

My sister and I were born and raised.

That's awesome.

Sheridan's got a cool history.

It's a, it's main street has still those real wide streets, if I

recall correctly, that were so wide.

So those wagons, when everything was by horse, could turn around.

Yep.

it's beautiful and I feel a little remiss if I don't talk about how much I love my

So I've been here almost 20 years.

And, just love this community too.

I think I feel that way about every, every town I get to visit in Wyoming,

I such, so rich in history and, the just people I feel very grateful to

be in the state and the, just all the recreation that we get to do all.

and Laramie is the home of the Pokes University of Wyoming.

Are you, University of Wyoming grad.

I am not well for graduate school.

I am, I went to, I went to undergraduate on the, school on

the East coast and the West coast.

and a couple different interesting jobs in between that and the time I came

back to, Wyoming for, graduate school.

But I came to law school in Wyoming.

and haven't left.

fabulous.

here since then.

Okay.

And you are currently the c e O of Climb Wyoming.

I am,

right.

so, very, happy for my legal background and very happy to not be

practicing law in a tr traditional way.

And I've been working at Climb for over 12 years and it is, such an amazing organiz.

and has such a profound impact on the state of Wyoming.

I'm very happy to have made my career home with Climb.

and what did you start off with doing at

Well, right after law school.

I started work at, in the governor's office doing policy work in health and

human service areas, and, uh, met Dr.

Ray Fleming, dine who Isle's founder and former executive director.

and doing policy work in the state.

I was, very interested in the work that Ray was doing through Climb.

She, was such a visionary.

Is such a visionary.

And, the work that Climb was doing to effectuate good policy change

was, probably shouldn't say this on the podcast, was better than

the state programs that were really focusing on poverty alleviation.

And so Really hitched my wagon to raise work and was really, deeply

committed to poverty alleviation through employment and came to work at Climb

shortly after that as the program and business liaison in our Laramie office.

So I was responsible for running the program here locally in Laramie,

and, uh, placing the moms in.

Which to me is the, although I love the work that I'm doing in

a statewide leadership role, I loved being a matchmaker for the

participants and their career.

It was, some of the most, interesting and challenging and

fun work I've ever been a part of.

Why don't you share with people what climb Wyoming is?

Climb.

Wyoming is a statewide nonprofit that's, committed to job training and job

placement for low income single moms.

when I say low income, we really strive to help those families that are

struggling the most, and in our state.

And those have the most barriers.

And so that's why we choose to work with single moms.

And, that means that we're, we're working with moms that are

making, on average about $500 a.

and having two kids.

So we work with, a population that there's no really no other services in

our state that would be able to reach, reach them or provide them services.

and we provide really comprehensive and sophisticated short-term

training so that moms can get into higher paying careers right away.

So for example, in our Jackson office, we just last fall completed

a truck driving training where the moms, in the course of less than 10

weeks were certified truck drivers.

And all of those moms are in truck driving trainings right now.

Um, so we.

on average, we've across the state have a 98% graduation rate.

And, we know that we, we keep track of our moms for two years after the program ends.

And we know that on average our moms more than double their pre-program wages.

So we really work hard to make sure that, we're breaking the

generational cycle of poverty our outcomes are stronger than any.

A job training program in the country.

So I really think about climb as a national, one of the national

thought leaders and national experts in poverty alleviation work.

do you have a, a reason why climb is so successful compared to what

you see on the national stage?

that's a great question.

I think there's a couple different.

Different parts of our success, our se, our secret sauce.

one is that we are a mental health based model, so we know that, almost a hundred

percent of the women that we work with have experienced one form of trauma or

another, whether that's, You know, a pretty serious trauma or the trauma of

being in, chronic poverty that, uh, really has an impact on you and really impacts

the, ways that you can navigate the world, through executive functioning skills.

so because we're a mental health based model, we really help women strengthen

those skills that are required to keep a job for the long term.

So the being a mental health-based model is one way that we do.

Another, reason I think our outcomes are so strong that we really concentrate

on, each community's workforce needs.

So the, the workforce needs in Jackson are vastly different than the workforce

needs in Rock Springs or Gillette.

So each of our offices provides really different training because

we wanna provide a, a valuable service to the, the community.

We want to have a training and offer training where the jobs are.

And, we do that in a very short period of time.

So we work with moms that have incredibly high barriers and

provide really, sophisticated, comprehensive training for them.

And then, rather than, just setting them up with a job, we get a job for them.

We work with them, they interview for a job, and we support them

as they transition into their.

so we really help them practice the skills that they've learned at Klein

when they're new in their job, which is such a precarious time for anyone

to be start, you know, to be successful in their job is right out of the gate.

So I think the combination of being a mental health-based model, the

great trainings that we offer that are, uh, needed in the community.

uh, the fact that we place moms in jobs helps set us apart and

create the high outcomes that.

I, I appreciate that approach.

It's not, as you said, a traditional approach and it, it's nice to know

that you look at it e the needs of each community as well and,

and be able to fulfill those needs

An example of the, oh.

yeah, go.

An example of that is, I know, how important housing is to the Jackson

community right now in terms of workforce and maintaining workforce

and just overall community health.

Housing is such a big deal in the community, and so our Jackson office

right now is looking into ways that they can help moms that are really struggling,

staying in the community to, find a job that might be connected to housing.

So they're offering a, professional office careers training this spring,

and they're really focusing on, banking and finance skills in the training

because, that industry is really committed to helping employees find

stable housing and sustainable housing.

So our hope is that moms can get the skills that they need to

enter the, jobs in the banking and finance industry and be able to find

housing connected to that work as.

That's fabulous.

And, you know, looking at the job training and, and, and the placement

and, how this works throughout the state, do you find that you

receive the support from the state?

, which, you would like to see or where's, where's our state stand

with doing this work to help?

And for me, it, it's more of what you said in the introduction, it's

lifting people out of poverty and what a better way to, to help people.

I.

Creating a system that keeps 'em in poverty, but create a system

which teaches people that yes, you can, rise out of poverty.

Right.

We have such a great relationship with the state of Wyoming and it's

such a mutually beneficial relat.

the climbs been around for the, for 37 years, and through the course of that

time, we've saved the state of Wyoming conservatively over over a hundred.

And it's, it's 117 million reduction of, benefits.

So the service that we're providing to the state has a huge impact

across the state of Wyoming.

When you think about reductions in, food stamp costs, You know, housing,

when we, when you help a, a family become self-sufficiency, the cost

savings to the community is quite huge.

So, we know that we're providing that service for the state.

And we currently, we don't receive state funding.

The, our, we receive, quite a bit of federal funding that comes to climb

through the Department of Family Services, and, we work very closely

with our state agencies, to kind of.

Policy in the state of Wyoming.

you just mentioned the housing.

Issues and, and yes, here in Jackson we have housing issues.

What does it look like for these single moms in the rest of the state

of Wyoming, the housing situation challenge that they might be having?

Yeah.

because we're focused on serving those families that are most in need across

the state, our families come to us from a wide array of housing situations.

Some of our participants may own a home or a trailer.

Some of our participants and their kids might be, couch surfing and

living in, in houses, of friends or family and just trying to piece

it together and make it work.

One of the things that we know is it's very hard to go to work and be

successful in a job if you're worried about where you're gonna spend the night.

And so as moms come to climb, we really help them focus on, stable housing so that

they can have housing prior to going to.

So, um, and we know that's not always possible in our communities

or, with the moms that we work with.

So, we really offer a lot of pre-programmed support to help moms

get fined and secure stable housing before the program or, during the

programmers are going to work.

We just help them prioritize housing because that's so connected to

their long-term success on the.

you, what is climb scene when helping these moms?

Find stable work that becomes, could we say it becomes a career for them?

what's the impact to the family that you might see, let's say for example, for

a family that's at the poverty level, the graduation rate, expected graduation

rate of those children versus when a.

has gone through the climb program and is able to lift out of poverty

cuz they stick with everything and the graduation rate of, of their children.

right?

When you take a

Mm-hmm.

poverty, you change the, the child's entire life and entire trajectory.

anecdotally, a lot of the stories that we hear, kids will come back and say

like, I never thought I could play soccer, or I never thought I could be,

that we'd have enough money that I could be on the hockey team, or, I got to

have brand new shoes for the first day of school and they weren't used shoes.

My mom had enough money to get school supplies.

we also hear the, kids of the moms that we talk ab that we work

with, talk about things like.

or the moms themselves talking about, you know, before climb, they might have

been working two or three jobs just to piece it together for their kids.

And now they have a stable schedule so they can pick their kids up after

school and be with them in the evenings.

And they're, they're more available, they're more accessible.

and then there's the other impacts that you.

alluding to an, a higher high school graduation rate.

uh, more success in school.

I have a great, uh, story that we heard out of our Gillette office where, a

principal was, working in a, in, in a junior high was, was working with

a kid who was just struggling to show up to school, to show up with a, you

know, prepared, was really struggling behaviorally in the school and all of a

sudden, kind of overnight the kids started to show up, was prepared, was successful,

the principal got curious about what had changed in the student's life.

And his mom was, had just completed the climb program and as she got more

stable in her life and found more stable work, her son was able to find more

stability and get in less trouble and show up and be successful in school.

we see those stories, stories like that all over the place with, every time we

help a mom, find stable work and get her feet underneath her, we know the

lives of her kids are changing too.

Would an uplifting.

Story to share and, and for people to think about of the impact that this makes.

And as you said, it, it to make a change generationally of keeping people out

of poverty makes such a difference.

Yes.

it's, it could be as big as a, as graduating from high school

or even thinking about applying to college or going to college.

And it can be really small things too.

Like I was, skiing and nerd, in a cross country ski the other day, after work

and ran into A graduate's daughter.

So the daughter's in, junior high she was able to be a part of the ski team and,

she stopped me and she said, Katie, I've never even been to Happy Jack before.

This is so cool.

She had no idea what was in the, uh, backyard of Laramie, but

because her mom, um, has stability and has a different job and could.

You know, pay for her to participate in an activity like this.

Her whole world had opened up.

Uh, I believe it.

I've, I've heard stories of even here in Jackson, of families that are in.

Poverty, category, and they've never been to the Grand Teton National Park.

And it's hard for people to imagine how can you live in Jackson and

not go to Grand Teton National Park and not even know where it is?

Well, all you're doing is working to be able to just scrape by and, and survive.

And, and I, I think a lot of people don't realize that there

is poverty here in Jackson as.

Yes.

There's very deep poverty there.

I had of the honor of connecting with a graduate from the Jackson program,

just a, a few months ago, and she was talking about how she had moved to

Jackson from Colorado and how grateful she was to be in Wyoming because

there's no other, she was staying to us.

There's no program in Colorado that would've helped.

get out of poverty and help her have as, the life that she has now.

She said that this would never happen in any other state.

So I feel like Wyoming is such a special state, and Climb

is such a special program.

It's very unique.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah, very much so.

Katie, we're gonna do a quick break to get a word from one of our sponsors,

and then we're gonna come back and talk more about Climb and the impact

that you're making here in the state.

Katie, welcome back to the Jackson Hole Connection.

You just shared a few stories with us of.

Hearing from kids and principals and, parents, as well as the

impact that climb has made to them.

I'm, I'm very curious to know what does your team look like?

How many people does it take to make such magnificent work happen?

that's a great question.

Across the state, we have less than 40 employees, so we're a

very small team, and specifically in our Jackson office, we have.

Two full-time staff and a part-time contract mental health health provider.

So the impacts that we're seeing in Jackson, we have with, you know, less

than three full-time, pro program staff working directly with the moms.

And I know in the, Jackson area over the last years, served

almost 300 moms and over 500 kids.

That's, uh, you know, such a significant.

group of people for a small community with a very small staff.

Could you repeat that over what time period and impact that you've made?

Yep.

that work in the Cheyenne community.

and I, I like to think about that, Stephan, in the context of schools.

You know, many of our schools don't even have 500 kids in the entire school, and

that's the number of kids that we've worked with just in the Jackson community.

And if you think about those kids having more stable lives, more stable, futures,

having hope, having more stability in and success in their schools, that's

not, that is not an insignificant.

No, it's, it's not.

It's, it's a major number.

Yes.

And if we think, and if we think about that across the state of

That's, that's beautiful.

And.

I'm, I'm curious to know from here, whether it's here in Jackson

or the rest of the state, what would be barriers to someone?

Participating are, well, not what would be, are there any barriers to somebody

participating in the climb Wyoming?

Because this sounds like something that, if anybody meets the criteria,

they should definitely be doing it.

Yes.

And, um, there's a, there's a lot of barriers when you're struggling

with, poverty at this level.

The world is hard to manage.

There's a lot of barriers that might get in the way of your success.

We were just talking about the ability to drive to the

mountains and see the mountains.

Oftentimes when you're living in poverty, you might be sharing a

car with your family or friends.

the car might not function very well and you don't have enough money to fix it.

You might not have enough money for gas.

oftentimes our moms are struggling at the level of poverty where they're having to.

You know, the gut-wrenching decisions that no mom ever wants to make between, feeding

their kids or putting gas in their car so they can make it to a job interview.

Housing can be a barrier.

Childcare can be a barrier.

just the rural nature of Wyoming itself can be a barrier.

You know, we have women from the, that participate in our Jackson

program that are traveling, from Alpine and Afton and Lincoln County,

to participate, in the KLE program.

And so we have a responsibility to, to help break down some

of the barriers of the.

Rural nature of our state just by offering, virtual services

or helping, pay for gas.

Just helping people get to the program could be important.

is one of the most interesting things I think that we, address at Climb,

which is I'm gonna be, I'm such a, I talk with my hands so much, I'm

gonna just try to describe this in a podcast version that makes sense.

But, when you experience the chaos of poverty and you've been in poverty for

your whole life, it has a physical, a physiological impact on your brain.

It roots you to the fight, flight, freeze, faint part of your, the back part

of our brains, because that keeps you.

Right.

So if you're experiencing trauma, your brain, functions

in a way that keeps you safe.

executive functioning skills like problem solving, planning,

brainstorming, emotional regulation.

communication, those type of skills happen in the, the prefrontal cortex

in the front part of our brains.

And so one of the things that we can do through safety and through

relationships with our participants is really help them build neuro actual

physical neural connections from the back part of their brain to the front

part of their brain so that they can have a, a different experience at life,

an experience to, to, slow down and.

Not react to life from fight, flight, freeze, faint perspective.

so, being able to, being able to build that safety through relationships

and structure and being able to work with our participants.

To remove some of those barriers to their success, really helps them stay in their

jobs long term, which is what we see.

We keep track of our graduates for two years after they finish

the program, and we know that they're moving up in their careers.

We know that they are successful in their jobs, and a lot of that is

because of the work that we do really help them build, those types of skills

that their executive functioning.

And How do you help people after graduation to stay successful?

Because graduation to me means.

, I'm out of the program.

But is, is that the case with Climb to help someone remain successful

during that period of time?

We have a motto, Stephan, that wants a climb.

Mom.

Always a climb mom.

So

Hmm.

first part of that is really staying with a participant as

she's transitioning to her job.

So our business liaison is working with the mom and her employer for the first

six to eight weeks that she's in the job.

So they're having, they're, Helping to facilitate, evaluations at work.

They're helping the mom problem solve any barriers that might come up for

her as she's starting the new job.

our staff are really helping to, facilitate relationship building

quickly between the mom and her employer so that as problems arise, the mom

can problem solve with the or, you know, even just learn the job better.

So, uh, we offer that support as every, as every mom is placed into a.

We also host, monthly or graduate lunches so that AAM from any program, can come,

participate and meet with other graduates.

They can celebrate a raise or celebrate a promotion, celebrate each other

and then also help each other network and problem solve, problems that

might be coming up at work together.

So we're really helping to build on the social capital in, for our part.

but the, as I step into this statewide leadership role, I'm very curious

to learn about, I, I'd love to gather some data from our graduates.

We collect wage data and we stay in touch with our graduates for two years.

But I have a lot of questions about impact that the program

has had on their children.

Have they been able to purchase a home?

What do their lives look like?

So I'd love to, dig, more deeply into the data around our.

to see if that we can learn how to strengthen our program or, work

with our graduates, to help them keep successful after the program.

I bet it would be, very encouraging to see

I am hopeful.

I'm excited to learn about that.

And, we have a great team of, Bo on our board of directors and I would,

work really closely with, we have three, Teton area board members.

We work really closely with Laura Lad, JJ Healy and Carrie Kirkpatrick to

support our strategic vision and where we're headed with the organization.

I know data's very important to them and very important to us as we continuously,

work to strengthen our outcomes.

Speaking of data, I'm curious to know if you have data that shows when you

have a climb graduate and you help that individual find secure employment.

What is the longevity of the individual staying with that business?

We don't have that particular data, Stephan, but I can tell you

that two years post program, it's close to 90% of our moms are.

Working in higher paying jobs.

really curious to learn of the moms that aren't in a higher paying job after that.

who has moved on to continuing, education?

A lot of our, like, say for example, a lot of our CNA graduates will leave the

workforce to go on to nursing schools.

I'm, I'm curious to learn more about that.

but I do know that close to 90% of our participants are still working,

two years outside of the program.

I'm, I'm happy that you talked about that continuing education, cuz that thought

just popped into my head, you know, as somebody's climbing outta poverty and

now they have more stability, They're more just life is secure for them.

Do they then start going to some night school or, finding some other

way to continue growing themselves to help benefiting the family?

Yes, that happens all the time.

I, I just got invited to, graduation of a woman who's,

just finishing her RN program.

She's getting her associates in nursing, and she started climb after

years of waiting tables, started climb, became a C N A, and is now

graduating with her, know, RN degree.

That happens all the time.

and all across the state.

When I first started as the business liaison in our Laramie office,

we had not had a placement on the University of Wyoming's campus.

And I, knowing what a difference that type of employment and

access to education could mean for families, really prioritize that.

And now we have over 50 moms that have been placed on jobs at the University

of Wyoming campus almost half of those moms are taking classes regularly now,

Hmm.

I can only imagine what that means for their children and their kids

having access to the university.

It's, it's life changing.

Four generations.

Mm-hmm.

. Yeah.

Access to a university is so valuable and I think sometimes it's under.

Appreciated what a university brings to the communities and, and for a

small state like this, even the junior college, how we have Central Wyoming

College and some of the other junior colleges throughout the state, what that

brings to those communities as well.

Yes, we have very strong partnerships with our community colleges across

the state because we know that they're not only providing great

training, but that they're of, such a great resource for our participants

and their kids after the program.

Now, does that mean that they're offering, opportunities for scholarships

and helping people figure out ways to, to fund that continuing education

where the, the climb graduates have a desire to continue learning more?

The state of Wyoming is very generous, is that when it comes to, post-secondary

education and we help our participants access all sorts of scholarships and,

resources and ways to make, college more affordable for those women that

are working on campus, they have an opportunity to take a free class

either at UDub or at at, Laramie College, so for free every semester.

So there's a lot of opportunities that we help our participants access so that

they can continue their education if, if that's something that's to them.

And you said that the state doesn't fund climb in any way, but you do

receive funding through federal.

On the federal side of things, what are other ways that climb is funded?

Because it sounds like what you're doing takes an immense amount of

resources, financial resources.

Yes.

And what's most important to me is the sustainability of the program.

we offer such an important resource for moms and making sure that it can continue.

perpetuity is so important to me, and so there's an order to do that.

a couple things need to happen.

Our funding needs to be diverse, so we really work to diversify

our public funding and our private funding through, individual

corporate, family foundation giving.

and, we need to continue our strong outcomes because I want to

provide a really valuable service for families and for the workforce

and community in the state.

So, continuing our impact to me and being the best stewards possible of the,

of that funding is, critical to climb.

And when you say private funding, what?

What does that look like

Yeah.

when we think about private donations, we know that, because we have the strongest

outcomes moving families out of poverty through work in the country that, uh,

when people give to climb, they're making an investment in their communities.

And so people can give, directly onto our website, they can connect with

Jean Lewis, who's our director of Stewardship in our Jackson office.

we know that the return on investment that you make with Climb is very

significant when moms double their wage.

you're really, impacting not only a family's life, but

a community's, community.

You're making a community brighter by investing in the client program.

well, you certainly have me sold on the, the benefits of climb and what

you all do there, your committed staff and the impact that you're

making with, not a large staff is, so important because that means that the

resources that you have are, are going.

to the program and are being as impactful as possible, which I,

I very, very much appreciate.

thank you.

This is such a great opportunity to be able to talk about climb in a more.

Public way because we have such a huge impact in the community and

such a huge impact in the state.

Uh, I'd love for people, more people to know what we're doing.

It feels really important to be able to spread the word about climb.

You know, we've had the opportunity over the last several years to speak at the

White House Council on Rural Poverty.

We are very connected.

At the national level, really helping policy leaders think about rural poverty

and think about an effective program.

And, I'd love for people all across the state to know what's happening

in their, in their communities.

have you found that since you are on a national forums or you.

with other national groups that you see other states

replicating what climbs model is.

We we're getting a lot of questions about our outcomes and.

Mm-hmm.

I have, I feel a deep responsibility to be able to think about our expertise

and how we can to move the needle forward on poverty alleviation.

So while no one's replicated climb, I think there are things

that we can learn that might, help other programs have strong impact.

So I'm, I'm really interested in learning more about that because When you see a

mom struggling before the program and see her life completely change in such

a short period of time, it changes you.

It changes you as a human.

And I feel such a deep responsibility in thinking about how we can

share our expertise and have other people experience that.

That's beautiful.

What an uplifting way to spend your day each day to see others lift themselves up.

And what is the website that Climb has?

How do people find climb?

Wyoming?

Yeah, it's Climb Wyoming

And for here in Jackson, because we have old bills, does Climb participate

in the old bills that you, you all receive funding through there?

We do old bills is a

that's fabulous.

fundraiser for us.

It's a very important connection to have in the community.

And if people wanna find a way that they can help support Climb is there

are, do you guys have business coaches, job coaches out in the community as.

we do.

I would love if anyone is interested in learning more or participating

or learning about how they might be able to support Climb.

I would love for them to connect with our local office.

Christie Thomas is our program Greta Frak is our, business.

Amy Volo is our mental health provider.

She's been there for over close to 20 years in our Jackson office.

And, they can find the way, find ways to connect with our local site,

either through the website, the kline wyoming.org, or they can, they

can call the office if people are interested in learning more about how

to support Climb or to, if they're interested in hiring a Climb graduate,

or they're wanting to, just be a part of this important work, they could

go to the website, which is climb wyoming.org or, call our Jackson office.

The number is 7 3 3 4 0.

That's, that's fabulous.

Katie, I so applaud you to you and your staff and, and the board

of what you all are doing to.

Make such a positive impact into not only the local communities, but

the state community as well as well.

Thank you.

thank you.

And thank you for the opportunity to talk about this important work and

for being an important part of it.

We appreciate it so much.

You're welcome.

Well, take care.

Katie, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

I appreciate it.

Stephan.

Appreciate you.

You're welcome.

To learn more about Katie and how climb Wyoming makes a difference in the lives

of Wyoming citizens, visit the Jackson hole connection.com, episode number 220.

Thank you everybody who helps keep this podcast going.

Get out there and share with me Facebook, Instagram, what are you grateful for?

Share with me your daily gratification.

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Thank you, Michael, for keeping this podcast going with the editing and

marketing, and of course to my wife Laura, my boys Lewis and William.

I so appreciate you joining me here today, and I really look forward to

seeing you here back next week for another episode of the Jackson Hole Connection.