We are thrilled to introduce HASS’s brand new interview series: People, Pets, and Purpose! Maddie’s® Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships Diaz Dixon is in conversation with leaders in and out of animal welfare about building connections, finding solutions, and so much more. In this inaugural episode, Diaz talks with Matt Pepper, executive director of Michigan Humane, and it’s a very inspiring conversation you don’t want to miss!
Find Human Animal Support Services Online:
We are thrilled to introduce HASS’s brand new interview series: People, Pets, and Purpose! Maddie’s® Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships Diaz Dixon is in conversation with leaders in and out of animal welfare about building connections, finding solutions, and so much more. In this inaugural episode, Diaz talks with Matt Pepper, executive director of Michigan Humane, and it’s a very inspiring conversation you don’t want to miss!
Find Human Animal Support Services Online:
Hello, welcome to the new podcast, People, Pets, and Purpose. I'm Diaz Dixon, I'm the Maddie's Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships for the Human Animal Support Services project. That's a project that really brings together the human service world, and animal welfare and all the places that overlap that are beneficial for both parties. We don't look at these things oftentimes with the impact that they could have. But they have a lot of impact. And we're gonna have some wonderful people on this podcast, this brand new series, to really focus on the work that's being done and a lot of the work that needs to be challenged and needs to be done. We're going to be talking to some amazing world changers in and outside of the animal welfare about the essential work of building connections, making hard, necessary, and transformative change that keeps families together and save animals lives. But it also saves human lives at the same time. It's going to be inspiring, actionable, and exciting. And I hope you will be a part of it and tune in regularly. If you know someone you think should be a guest on People, Pets, and Purpose, please give us a shout out. If you got a topic you want to explore, you can just drop us a line at marketing@americanpetsalive.org. We'll get back to you pretty quickly and see how we can pull it all in. For today's inaugural episode. I'm speaking with a good friend of mine and this guy is amazing. And I'm not saying that just because he's on screen right now. But Matt Pepper is the executive director of Michigan Humane Michigan's oldest and largest nonprofit animal organization, where Matt and his team really shaking things up with their mission to keep people and pets together. And also giving pets a second, third, or 10th chance at being impactful. So bad. Welcome to the show. Glad to have you here, bud.
Matt Pepper:Diaz, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Diaz Dixon:Yeah, we are. We're lucky to have you as the first guest ever you and I've had some conversations over the years about a lot of these different topics. That's why I was super glad to bring you win because you not only do you understand the animal welfare side, you understand the social services in the human side, as well. Let me start real quick by asking you about your One Health Program. I understand Michigan Humane has partnered with doctors, dentists, and human service providers alike to keep families whole and healthy. Tell us a little bit about this program.
Matt Pepper:Yeah, so I think first thing we have to do is go back to 1877 when we started. And so we think about these, you know, these programs are sort of an evolution of the industry. And it is, but it's also getting a little back to our core to our foundation. So Michigan Humane for example. We started in 1877, helping a workhorses. And then the other part of our mission was women and children suffered to domestic violence. So we have always been a human centered organization. And then somewhere along the way, we began hyper focused on sort of companion animals. And now I sort of see us coming back. But before I talk about one help, I'll tell you a quick story that illustrates why why thinking about the human element in the human condition and context of our work is so important. I was at our pet food pantry probably three months ago, and a young woman was driving by and she had two huge cane Corsos in her car. And I just happened to come by and say Ma'am, can I can I pick your dogs? And she goes, absolutely these dogs were absolutely loving it. She looked me in the eye. And she said, I just got to thank you. These were my sister's dogs, but she passed away. And my children love the dogs and I can't afford to care for them because I just lost my job. And normally I'd rely on my parents. But last year they passed away. And I've really been struggling with that. And I happened to be there with the dean of the Social Work program at Wayne State University. And she looked at me and said, You just ask someone, can I pet your dog, and you've gotten more from them about their life than a social worker can get in three months? You know that she's struggling with grief and loss that she's got children who she's struggling to meet the needs, that she needs help with job placement, which likely means she needs help with things like utilities and housing. And you did that just by saying Can I pet your dog? That is where the idea of One Health came from. Because I think what we have to do is recognize that there are two ends of every leash. And unless we consider both ends, neither one of them can maximize the impact of the other. So a pet can't. Pet is only as healthy and safe as a family it lives with and the community that lives in so us creating healthier family units healthier community safer communities by connecting and intersecting with health and human service organizations create better Pat's healthier pets, safer pets, more stable pets, which in turn creates safer communities and healthier communities and more engaged communities which in turn and turns our neighborhoods around which draws in talent and builds our our community. So I really believe that animal welfare organizations can be the most impactful social service organizations in a community. If we really think about our impact, not just the outcome, not the numbers, but the outcomes and the impacts on families but but where one health came from was sort of us asking around, you know, it started with our conversation with the organization here in southeast Michigan, called Gleaners, which is one of the largest human food insecurity organizations and in us asking the question, how many of your your participants in your program have pets. And we all know now that about 70% of American, the American population has pets, he found almost to a tee 70% of his population had a pet. And not only did they have a pet, that organization found that they were sacrificing the human food they were given for their pets. So what we did was create a value proposition that if you want your food to go to the right purpose, you need us involved because if we're not involved 70% of the time, they're giving your food to their dogs, because they're prioritizing their dogs over their own health. So that bled into other opportunities. We brought in University of Detroit Mercy and Delta Dental to provide dental screenings for humans as they were waiting for their dogs to get dental screenings that are one elements. We brought in DTE Energy Corporation to help people talk about the utility bills, because they're waiting anyways, the dogs are inside waiting, let's give them access. In the city of Detroit, we're talking about a population that's been promised a lot of things. And we can't be an organization that promises more and doesn't deliver, and we can deliver for their pets, which gives other organizations an opportunity to kind of piggyback off that trust. We've developed over 145 years and create safer, healthier families. So last year, we did you know, 10 to a dozen one health events. But our one health programs incorporate kind of all of our work, it's our door to door work in the community, we we actually go door to door and ask people what are they what do they want? What are they want to see? Do they know who we are we we provide indigent care services in the in the in our veterinary centers. But in fact, we've committed 38 million by 2030 in resources and subsidizing that very care to Metro Detroit to keep families together. And frankly, that's a cheaper model than sheltering them. Man, for every animal that walks in, I would challenge you to think about us in the industry, we think about intake by appointment, and you make an appointment and a couple of weeks later you bring in dog, what if we lived in a world where appointments ran the other way and you surrendered your dog, two weeks later, we made an appointment for you to come back and pick it up and got him out of the shelter. So I think we're at a real interesting time in our organization. But but one health is about, it's about truly that one health, it's about using our access to give people exponentially greater exposure to the other services in this community that can help them and their family thrive.
Diaz Dixon:That's amazing. Because you're sitting there you're doing this right now in communities that people probably would have said this wouldn't have worked in, you're doing it in you're doing it in Michigan, you're doing it in Detroit, you're doing this in areas that are probably a lot of them are lower socio economic areas, you're doing it with marginalized population, you're doing it in places where people would probably normally say no, that has to be more fluent. You're breaking so many stereotypes in my mind, and I'm thinking about this is mind blowing. And for how long you've been doing it and pulling entities together. And really thinking about it in a holistic manner of all the connections. I got to ask you, Matt, what all of this stuff is fantastic. What kind of pushback Have you had? So I'm gonna
Matt Pepper:be honest with you, we ever seen zero pushback and much broader acceptance of our work. Our relevancy, both in the community and in the funding community in the corporate community has greatly increased. And that's because we're doing things a little bit. We're doing things a little bit differently. I think. So. So what you're going to hear today is a lot of failure, evolution and growth. And what I mean is, if I were sitting here right now talking to me, 15 years ago, I would look at myself now and say that guy 15 years ago is the problem I had to evolve and how I thought I've sat in the suburbs looked at a city like Detroit and said, Boy, there's so many problem owners here. This is an issue. I my thought process has evolved as I've actually asked people what's important to you, and what do you what do you what do you think about the services? What do you think about your pet? Tell me about your pet? And I'll tell you it's it's changed the way we've we've done work when you look at the people you're serving as a part of the solution as a part of a part of the problem. I'll give you a great story, there's a man by the name of Tony. Tony is fantastic. He has no transportation lives in a home that most of us would think had to. But this has to be a condemned house. I mean, it's the roof is caving in, he lives there. He's this, he has the greatest smile on his face in the world, his seven dogs. And he has seven big dogs because he's found them either hit by a car on the street, or he's picked them off the alley. And he's brought him into his like he can't feed himself. Yet he still struggles to feed these dogs. And the reason I think about this is 15 years ago, I would have said that guy can't afford these animals, we need to remove these animals. Right? Think about it differently now because now I've got a community champion. This is what this is what Tony did, Tony one of his dogs got attacked by another neighborhood dog in the leg got pretty massively injured. He put it in a wagon and walked it one mile to our Mackay center and asked for help. And we were able to we were able to help him. We cleaned up the wound manage it, but it needed to be cleaned and changed every day. This man for two weeks, one mile there one mile back in a wagon, walk their walk back every day that he cared. That's, that's love. And now what I have now is somebody who in the community goes, Man, you want help? You call Michigan Humane, and I can I can come in from West Bloomfield and send in a train go, I'm here to help you. But when someone in the neighborhood says no, no, they really are here to help you. And this is what they did for me. That that makes a difference. When the people in your community are your champions. Not a part of the problem?
Diaz Dixon:Absolutely, absolutely. What you're talking about too, is the ability from an organization standpoint or a system standpoint to listen. And I I tell people all the time, some of the trainings I do silent and listen, have all the same letters. But oftentimes, we're not good enough to be silent. We want to come up with the solutions. Now it must be done this way, cut out, you know all the boxes and say they everything's got to fit inside this box, when really the solutions are coming from the people that we're serving that if we will just listen, there are more ways to find those pathways of bridges of the values and communication that actually works, rather than us doing it with our own biases. And you're a perfect example and I'm gonna take a pause for just a second, not for commercial, but people out there don't know Matt pepper, I'm gonna throw a little I'm gonna I'm gonna pepper them with a little bit of a little quick. Matt's got two tripods. Ideally, he's got two three legged dogs. So this is a man who not only walks the walk, or talks the talk, he walks the walk as well tell us a little bit about your clubs as I as I bring here.
Matt Pepper:So I've got I've got I've got Rocky and Tucker here next to me Tucker here is a little bit loud every once in a while he's about a foot a year and a half old Pitbull and he was he was founded by our by our cruelty and rescue team. He was about a couple months old, with a wire tied around his leg in an abandoned home in the in the north end of Detroit leg was dead, it was a completely dead leg. That leg we when we wrote the binding, it was pretty thin, pretty rough shape, we amputated the leg. That's a tetanus infection, which caused him to lose mobility and all of his joints, he could use the bathroom, he could swallow that was it. So for three months, our team syringe fed him spoon fed him, let them watch this, you this, this tablet a bit of a trail. So he felt like he was walking. And then my other dog here Rocky is a little rat terrier mix, who was about this close from getting the wrong end of an 18 Wheeler on i 75. He lost his front leg. And it has a little bit of knee issues in the back. But both of them are great examples of the commitment that Michigan Humane gives every animal in our community. And I would challenge every organization to think this way, which is an animal inside your walls in your facility isn't your responsibility. Every animal is your responsibility. Whether it wasn't however, it was acquired, however, its conditions, whoever its owners are, they're all your responsibility. But these guys are medical team. I mean, Tucker's a great example he wouldn't have survived in any other scheltens in the state of Michigan except for an art team and they didn't do it because the CEO wanted him he was already kind of up and moving before I got interested in him. And Rocky was the same way I sort of fell in love with them. So you've got a you know you see so many animals in this world you try not to get too attached to them all but these two are definitely a couple I got attached to
Diaz Dixon:what I had to throw that story out there man because you're leading by example. That's pretty cool. Which I went well,
Matt Pepper:let me let me tell you one of the reasons they're alive too is that I'm lucky enough to have the 2021 shelter veterinary of the year and Dr. CC working in Michigan Humane and incredibly talented. So we have a great team.
Diaz Dixon:That is awesome. That is us. So when you are sitting around with your team, how is your team in the shelter Have you guys integrated with the program with the what are the voices all come from? Is this something that you were just leading and talking about and pushing?
Matt Pepper:This isn't this is an organizational initiative, I think like any good leader, my job is to surround myself with people who are better than I am. So do their job. And I don't I don't ever dictate this is something my job is to is to bring people along. And I think it's taken a little while when we work in animal welfare, we're so used to working with the animals and thinking a certain way, it's hard to evolve. When you see suffering, when you see things, it's hard to think there could be a different way of, of doing it. But I have to give our staff a ton of credit. I mean, they they have absolutely bought in our leadership team is created specifically from different sectors. So outside of my VP of medicine, and my VP of animal welfare, all my other members of my leadership team came from outside the animal welfare industry because I wanted different perspectives from from social work to private industry, all sorts of different different backgrounds, in that's helped me be a better leader, surrounding myself with smart people. But I'll tell you, we've got 251 employees, every one of them gives their heart every single day for this job. And as a leader, I know important and the person who comes into Detroit every day and cleans a candle, I just have a different job. Matter of fact, I started my career in Kenosha, Wisconsin cleaning kennels, that's how I ended up evolving through the system. But this is an organization wide concept and organization wide philosophy that we're all on board with. So everyone in this organization knows that if someone comes walks in our door and says, I think I might need to surrender my dog, anything they can do to keep that pet at home is on the table.
Diaz Dixon:Anything that we do, you know, having that knowledge of what other resources are out there, what can we do to help support you? It's not just the transactional experience, this is about what can we do to be supportive to view it's not just taking in an animal or adopting an animal out? And when you're talking about doing things differently? I think animal welfare really has to start looking at how to do things differently, how do we pull in people from outside industries to be a part of the problem solving that we need and moving forward?
Matt Pepper:I think we've evolved in a bubble and you and I've talked about this before. I think as an industry, we've got to start measuring things differently and discarding old philosophy. I think we're at a point of, of changing. But but your talk really interesting about something about your the staff and giving them the information and the tools. So we sent 40 of our staff members, our public facing staff members through health and human service navigator training through Michigan 211. We have a social worker and staff we have social work students from University Michigan, and Wayne State. All in someone might think you're training your staff to be social workers. We're not we're training them to ask the second question. So I'll give you a great example, our call center just a couple of weeks ago, one of our employees, Shelby McWilliams, who's fantastic representative in our in our call center, someone called and said, No, my dogs heard I need to get an appointment. And like anyone were loaded with appointments, it's going to be way up. But because of the training we've got, they just recognized, you know, something, something just seems a little off. So they asked the second question, you know, what else is going on here, that led to somebody expressing the story of you know, I'm in an abusive relationship, my dog is injured, you know, I don't know what to do. So my staff, instead of saying, I, you know, I can help with a dog, but I don't know what to do. She said, You know what, hold on for a second, let me find you another resource that you can call to help you maybe get out of this abusive relationship, and we'll take care of your dog. Because as you and I know, 82% of the time, a battered woman won't leave a situation if you can't take your pet with them. And they'll admit the abuse of their pet report lament their own abuse. But if you ask if you recognize that there's a human element to our job, you can have a pretty dramatic impact. So that's, that was just an example of training people just to ask the second question. And now what do I have? If I only let's say, I'm somebody who just cares about the dog? I have a dog that's now living in safety, free from an abusive owner. When when I I've won, it's everyone's happy.
Diaz Dixon:That's a win win all around. And brother well, you're talking about is sustainable change you're talking about when you say the second question. I like that. Never heard that before. The second question that's going in deeper that's making a strong enough connection, to gather more information to find out what needs really are. This person on the other end isn't thinking they're going to be talking to someone who was a potential resource that can be helping them out. I know for years, you talked about talking to Matt 15 years ago, I was talking to diets 15 years ago, I was running a substitute treatment facility for women and children. We built this giant campus. It's absolutely gorgeous. We have these cottages that women could live in for up to a year, and I didn't allow pets. I didn't allow pets. And I looked back and kicked myself. You know, later, when I was able to build a homeless youth shelter. I recognize the importance of people being able to have their pets with them when they were coming off the streets, and I write in my wrongs, but I wish I could go back and kick my butt. You know, before we learned, we learned more
Matt Pepper:from failure than we do from success. And I think in failure doesn't always have to be a bad thing. It doesn't have to mean at the time, that's the best information we had, you know, you make decisions with the best information you had at the time. I've got different information now. And I'm different way but I'll tell you something else you can think about is when you think about stepping away and not having to be the hero and let the people you're working with be the hero. Yes, that changes their involvement as well. I mean, it's as simple so our narrative, for example, most people know that we've changed our name from the Michigan Humane Society to Michigan Humane. And part of that was sort of a narrative change. So the reason we did that was a humane society. We all know it's a generic term. The word society if we talk about the world we live in now, but we think about equity, we think about inclusion, the word society and errantly it's just not an inclusive word. So we dumped it, and then the word humane and humanity humanity has two elements of it human and Academy animal as well. It's a human, and an animal element isn't limited self to the pets. But part of our change was in our narrative. I think every animal welfare organization, almost everyone uses the hero narrative, you know, somebody is struggling, I swoop in, I saved the day, look at what I've done, and then I save it. And that's okay. But what if the narrative was that our pet food pantry not not me standing in front of a line of people who need help, but me handing someone a bag of food and saying you love your dog? Why don't you feed your dog, let you be the hero, you spent the time to come here and prioritize yourself. You're the hero. And then instead of sitting on camera and saying, This is what I've done, for all these poor people, which is what I've done before, I said that before the interviews, the putting the microphone in front of someone saying what does this mean to you? And having them tell us how this kind of changed their life? Yeah,
Diaz Dixon:yeah. Much more powerful, and much more altruistic? I think a lot of people, but one of the problems we have is leaders think they because of their battling their imposter syndrome, they think they have to show that I win. The reality of it is, if you're the dumbest person in the room with your leadership team, and you're in your overall team, you're doing good.
Matt Pepper:They're 100%. And I absolutely am. And I love that. And I mean that, truthfully, I have a incredibly smart team. And I have future leaders in the wings, I think in the next 10 years, you're gonna find the tentacles of Michigan, You made everyone in the country leading organizations. And if I find myself, not relevant to the organization in the next 10 years, I've done my job. Yeah, yeah. So I'm really excited about about about where we are and the team that we have in place.
Diaz Dixon:That's amazing. That's amazing. So it's great to be able to build up those leaders around you so that they can be in position where eventually they go run their own organizations, whatever it may be. So out there, you guys know that Matt didn't say you become still a staff. But we know where to find really talented people where they're being groomed off the
Matt Pepper:I know, I know who you are folks that we training.
Diaz Dixon:That's that Michigan coaching tree that's going on here. But we won't we will call it the Wolverine coaching tree. We'll call it this Michigan.
Matt Pepper:Let's just let that one go, folks. All right. Well,
Diaz Dixon:we'll save that we'll put the
Matt Pepper:topic guys come on. Let's stay on topic.
Diaz Dixon:I got another question for you. We're talking a lot about, you know, obviously having really intelligent people from different industries that have come in. So people from the human service side, let's talk a little bit about the connection between human health and pet health. So many people think that these are separate. You wrote an incredible op ed in the Detroit Free Press about how they're actually connected. Why did you write that? Op Ed? And what was the response?
Matt Pepper:Well, the response for First of all, when I mentioned earlier about my our relevancy, dramatically increasing within this community, it's because we looked at our impact differently. And I'll, again, I'll tell another quick story that answer your question. I think historically, a story in animal welfare would have been told like this, a dog comes to us broken. We fix it, we do incredible work for it. And then a family comes to the door, they fall in love and they walk up into the sunset, and that's the end of the story, happy ending for the dog. I think that if we if we tell that story, we're selling ourselves short, and we're measuring the wrong things. What I think is that's the beginning of the story. That's the beginning and up until that point, that's the number that's the that's the old. Yeah, that's the that's the number. The actual outcome is what happens to that family after adoption. Studies show that they're more active, that they're healthier that they're more mentally stable in a city like Detroit community. Trees that are more engaged are safer and more connected. In a city like Detroit, where we aren't, we don't have a ton of animal friendly amenities, we're lack, we're falling behind that ability to attract and retain young talent that are primarily driven by their pets. So what we talked about in that in that Op Ed was, don't think about us as an animal welfare organization. Think about it as a driver to the economy as a driver for public health and as a driver for public safety. And could it really have the conversations about what the safe spaces do in a neighborhood in Detroit, and when I can relate them not to just a dog park for dog exercise, but I can relate it to less crime, less obesity in young people, less heart disease and stroke, more activity. Now I've got people who go, I didn't do it when it was a dog park, but when it's a community center, creating safer, healthier communities, you have my full attention, you know, when it's when we talking about attracting young talent when I talk about, okay, so you want animals, you know, we don't want animals in our in our in our in our building, because they might make a mess, or whatever it is. But when I say in this remote work environment we live in, if you want to attract someone in their 20s, who could live anywhere they want, you're not going to do that unless you unless you include their pet, in your considerations into the future. So that Op Ed was written to to change the narrative of Michigan Humane from a animal welfare organization, to a quality of life organization for everyone in Metro Detroit that uses animals as a window into the lives of people. And that can dramatically impact both the people and pets of Metro Detroit.
Diaz Dixon:As as, as you as you're talking, I hear my herd go running by my door, you know, being able to really think about it differently, and picture animal welfare on the continuum of social determinants of health, if it makes sense, because now we started thinking about it with a domino effect of all the impact that it has on communities and help people getting out and being healthier. I love it. I love it. And
Matt Pepper:diets, I'll tell you this, what if we could have what if we could get to a world where because of their actual the chemical changes in our body, the emotional changes in our body, not only does pet acquisition become something that everyone should experience, but I keep I one of my board members and I keep talking about for over Pharma. You know what if one day people could prescribe pets, because of the physiological changes that we undergo with a pet in our life, I'll give you a great example. We're working with teen Susie, which is an in dementia and Alzheimer's organization here in southeast Michigan. And they have a a physician who oversees some of their work. If they qualify in that program, we do subsidized adoptions for family and early stages of dementia and Alzheimer's. Because not only does it give the person struggling a chance just to connect to something different. And oftentimes that can be a real chemical reaction to them. It gives the caretaker who caretakers die 35% time 35% And a caretaker dies before the person struggling and Alzheimer's and dementia gives them a chance to go take care of themselves while the person is with someone. Now the caretaker can go use the bathroom, get a sandwich, take a break. So imagine if we started to think of dogs as as prescribed treatments for mental and physical illness. Now that that's that's, that's a world I'm excited about seeing.
Diaz Dixon:Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Because it research, the research is there more and more research has been done to show the positive impact that it has on us, you know, from from depression. Well, and we also know that coming out of COVID Those numbers are spiking on the human side. Yeah, question suicide, mental health issues and, and the solutions perhaps are right here under our nose in recognizing the impact that pets happens. So I love how far ahead of the curve you are and what you guys have done and put into place. Do you think you'll start seeing shelters shift and become resource centers in a way? And how do we get there?
Matt Pepper:I think if you want to remain relevant in your community, you're going to have to the reality is I think shelters now are 17% of acquisition. So if your entire model is based on adoption, you're you're you're losing the battle. If you're if you're merely thinking about metrics on animals within your community, you're losing an opportunity. And if you are not engaging your community as part of the solution rather than part of the problem, you're missing the point. So I think there is a really, I think we're at a pivotal point in our industry where we have to stop thinking ourselves as processing centers and start thinking about ourselves as community resource. centers I mean, so as animal populations decrease at Michigan Humane, we've pivoted to education. So we have high school programs at Michigan Humane and veterinary medicine and Detroit public schools, we have 15 to 20. pre vet first and second year vet students who come and work with us over the summer eight to 10 weeks 15 to 20, surgical X turns. And we are now developing programs that we want to draw from Detroit Public Schools, and give them a talent pipeline. So as our world changes, we can change our focus, I believe Detroit in 10 years, will be the hub for particularly diverse veterinary talent in the country. I think you'll see more veterinarians, particularly minority veterinarians coming out of Detroit than you will any other city in the country. And that's because we're trying to find a way to use our existing resources as a resource center, and give people opportunities to see themselves in the work that they clearly care about.
Diaz Dixon:Well, you know, what, if people don't see themselves, they don't see people who look like them, or they don't, they're not even exposed to world, they're not going to be digging in. And we made a huge selling point there, that you, you're going into the educational system, kids have to see something as an opportunity or something that they can explore in order to gain interest, if they don't have the awareness about it, how are they going to be a part of it, and you guys are not only looking at what you're doing here, in this present, you're looking at the future you're looking at impacting and inspiring young minds to be a part of something that's impactful. It's, it's, it's really impressive.
Matt Pepper:Let me share too, because I think too often people are afraid to share, especially when you talk about the DEI space, you know, people oftentimes mess up and they and that's has to be okay, so I'll give you a great example of my failure. A couple of years ago, we created a program with a great donor that was primarily for minority candidates from Detroit to go to vet tech school at Macomb Community College, it was going to pay a but it's a pretty intense program to your program. And for three and a half years, we had this program, and we couldn't figure out why was nobody taking advantage of this free program, and nobody would even apply. And the reason was, we didn't take into consideration our target population and their experiences, which were, oh, that's great. I can go to school for two years. But I also have to work to feed my family. So this isn't an opportunity for me. So when you when we back and thought about that we thought about well, how do we solve that issue? Well, how we solve it is by saying I've always got vacancies. Every organization has vacancies. And there are some great online programs. So we started a relationship with Penn Foster two years ago, where we pay for the tuition to Penn Foster, online veterinary technician school. And then we hire them as unlicensed technicians, which technician can be a challenging unlicensed technicians, give them a mentor, and watch them grow and learn the technical skills under a mentor while they're doing the school on their own. And now we have six students in the program this year, we have eight more coming in 2023, from Detroit public schools to try that work. And understanding other people's experiences has been a learning opportunity for me. But it's also helped me create more programs that have better buy in from the community and helping the community be no too often animal welfare organizations are in a community, but they are a part of the community. And we have to be part of a community.
Diaz Dixon:There's a big difference between sitting in space that's in a community that being integrated in seeing as an integral part of the community.
Matt Pepper:Partnership are two different things
Diaz Dixon:to different things. And when we're talking about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, people missed the mark, oftentimes, because they just go from there looking at it from an optical, from, from optics and the we've got the look of this, but it's always much deeper than what we see on the surface. So for you to dig in and say, Well, why are people you asked the second question, why are people applying? And then we look, because we're all products of our own experiences and environment. So we tend to look at it from our own goggles, free education, why wouldn't they just jump in and have this free education? Well, the privileges that we have, may allow our families to be able to do such, but if we ask the questions, let's learn let's learn the answer. But the best part is, not only did you figure out what the answer was, you took the next step, and say, Alright, we're gonna put a solution to many people will learn the answer and go oh, whoa, whoa, okay, we're gonna go and do something else.
Matt Pepper:Yeah, I love this. I think the increase so we all I think you're right. We think of DTI as representation. Do I look like my community? But I think the the inclusive, the inclusion part of that conversation is equally if not more important, sometimes, you know, I had to ask myself, I have this beautiful $16 million facility right in Detroit. But does the single mother across the street feel like she could walk in my doors and adopt? Yeah, probably not. When I think about the impact of poverty on transportation, we have a pet food pantry distributed it's 1.7 million In pounds of pet food last year, which is really good for the people who live right around my pet food pantry, so this year, we're changing that model working with other organizations and going into more of a distributed model. But we are bringing our box truck into the communities to eliminate that barrier of transportation to people. So continuing to evolve and recognize you can do something well, and still have opportunities to grow and evolve.
Diaz Dixon:Absolutely, and continue to build trust, building trust in your community. And when I talk about the D IB, I always include that V mat, because the be the belonging, people feel like they belong, and get to be themselves, then you really got to go move mountains, we're gonna,
Matt Pepper:in order to do that, again, you have to step back from being the hero, let them be the hero for their pet, but also make it their program. So one of the things that we do when we go into a new community, as we send in either someone from the community or someone we contract with, who's familiar with the community, to go door to door without any assumptions, you just go what's important to you. So I'll give you a great example, the north end, this is a community where we're in our Mackay Center for Animal Care is it's 1600 vacant or burned out lots, there's no school on the north end. It's high crime, incredibly high poverty. And I think 15 years ago, map, this map would have said, their dogs are tied up up back because that people don't care about their pets. The MAT now knows differently that that I just had somebody shot and killed us. I'm a Mackay center six months ago, if I had a child what I want, I'm walking my dog on that street where they're not safe. There's no parks in the north end, where do I go to safely engage with my pet, there's very little access to pet friendly housing, when No wonder my dogs outside. So we look at it differently in but we and what we found when we actually went through the north end was that things you think would be important? You know, school systems, more patrols by the police access to emergency services, shops, stores in that community can access. And then the fifth one was was a dog park. And I think we We think too much about why would why would this community with so many needs when a dog park? And the answer is because they're part of my solution. They love their pets. And I've got to give them the opportunity to have different experiences with their pets.
Diaz Dixon:Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. And that's again, building trust. And that's meeting people where they're at, and figuring out what is it that is different, we can't have a cookie cutter approach to all this stuff, we got to take in the individual differences. You know, this, this podcast is really about finding inspiration and making all the different connections and you're doing it all you're talking about all these different connections, tell me that what was the most important or one of the most important connections that you made at Michigan, you at Michigan Humane? And in other parts of your life? If you were to just pull out one thing that pops out in your mind,
Matt Pepper:what would it get? I'll give you two points of inspiration for me one here recently in animal welfare that's really stuck with me about this community work in another personally. So my dad was a very successful businessman which you talked about the the privileges that gives you and I'm very, very conscious of that. But when I was originally going to college for advertising and public relations, and I changed my major one day, I went up to him and said, Dad, I changed my major. I'm gonna do wildlife biology and work with animals. And my dad looked at me and said, okay, but you have to promise me two things. Don't measure success. Based on what I have what anyone else has, you measure success for yourself, because everything is different. And the other thing he told me was, success is also waking up every day and being willing to grow and give it everything you have. And that has inspired me to believe in myself. And you know, that every day I owe it to my to myself and to my community to be to be everything I can every single day. The other one is validation of this work. And about about three years ago, kind of a height of, of COVID When everyone was really at the height of isolation in Detroit was a community that really struggled with security or in self being self conscious around health issues. And we had a woman Their name was Cynthia. Cynthia is wheelchair bound. She has one arm she has no legs and one arm. She in a wheelchair, got herself to from the east side of Detroit, to our pet food pantry, by bus and wheelchair. All because her seven cats who was struggling to feed we obviously gave her food and then arranged for us to get to her house and bring your proof Milan. But the change in narrative and what it's allowed me to do is think about that woman as the hero. That woman trudged herself in winter in a wheelchair with one arm to our pet food pantry for her cats. And what I challenge you to do is don't think about what we did for the cats. Think about Cynthia's life without her cats during the pandemic and its height, when we were all isolated when you've got mobility issues, when you're probably scared, and you we have a video of this woman sitting there feeding her cats treats. This is a woman who's clearly been handed some tough cards. The biggest smile on her face, like all problems in the world are solved because she's feeding treats to her cats. That's the impact of our work, because I could not imagine that woman's life without those cats, and she inspires me every day. I'm not sure. She knows she does. But she does. And a matter of fact, I should probably reach out and tell her that she does, because she's a pretty cool lady who loves those cats. And is further evidence of what our work can do to people's lives. If we let it.
Diaz Dixon:Love it, I love it. I don't know, there will be a better way to sum up People, Pets, and Purpose. In our title, the net story you just told. I mean, it it is. And it is what we're here to be able to brag about the Elevate to aspire to. And let me close this map. Because you you've been very inspirational today. And I really appreciate you taking the come on taking the time to come on. I want to ask you about hope. Okay. And it's been really hard over the last couple of years, if you just need to talk about COVID people were struggling. Organizations are struggling. We're trying to find the new new and what we need to do to be successful and to be efficient and effective. Where are you finding purpose in these really difficult times? And where are you finding hope?
Matt Pepper:So purpose is in the opportunity. So right right now we all know that Detroit is a city that has struggled for many years, there is more need right now than I can address. For every family I help. There's another family I may not have gotten to. That's my drive my drive. And my purpose. I just challenged my leadership team this week of saying in five years, can I look you in the eyes and say that I have touched the lives of every one of the estimated 150,000 Pets living in poverty? Can I can I tell the world that every single family in Detroit with a pet has had one interaction with a veterinarian? Can I can I ensure that when somebody walks in our door at the Mackay center, they never have to surrender their pen if they don't have to, for whatever reason. That's my that's my that's my purpose. My purpose is that there is opportunity. And that I argue that we aren't we measure things like live release rate, if I have my way, I'll have a zero live release rate in 10 years, because I won't have every animal come in go home. The only animals will have the shelter ones that are relatively suffering, or dangerous. Other than that everyone comes in and goes right back to a home where it's loved and cared for. Now, my hope comes from the individual successes comes from seeing the joy that my team gets from from getting an animal back to its home. And the joy that that I see in somebody eating their dog and getting that bag of food that helps get them through. From the individual successes we see every day, channeling the passion that already exists in the city, when you recognize that the people you're serving are your biggest asset. Yeah, there's a lot of hope in that and a lot of opportunity. You know, Detroit has roughly 700,000 people, when I realized that I don't have a staff at 250 I got a staff of 700,000 Who can help me get to where I need to go. That brings me a lot of hope.
Diaz Dixon:Let's go. Go. I love it. I love it. So Matt, how can people get ahold of you? How can people find your website? What's What's your address?
Matt Pepper:All right, so hey, come down to michiganhumane.org, contact me directly. And pepper at michiganhumane.org. I'm open to anyone, check out our website. I'm happy to help anyone in any way if they want to evolve down some of the roads that we've gone. And I will tell you, one of the things that I give this industry a lot of credit for is nothing I've come up with is necessarily original. It's piecing together parts of what people have come up with, with parts that other people have come up with, in willing to make mistakes and try willing to be different and think about our industry in different ways. So I want to thank everyone, all of my mentors, all the people in the industry for doing what you do every day because you paved the way for some incredible things to come. But again, it's michiganhumane.org Check us out happy to help in any way we can.
Diaz Dixon:awesome to have you Matt, thank you for the inspirational talk today. It's conversations that fantastic. For those of you out there you know where Michigan Humane is. We also have the Human Animal Suppor Services (HASS). Check us out on our website as well. We are putting together as much information as we can to support the industry as well as social services, bringing the world together. Well, we know we need more human kindness and pet kindness. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you on the next show.