Get Fired Up's Podcast
Self-direction is one of the most empowering programs in disability services. It's also one of the least talked about.
Get Fired Up is hosted by Cindy and Jamie from Community Horizons, a support broker agency in Wisconsin that helps people with disabilities hire and manage their own caregivers. We're here to change the conversation around self-directed care, for the people living it, the people working in it, and the people who've never heard of it.
New episodes weekly. Find us at communityhorizonsllc.com.
Episodes
22 episodes
Acumen Fiscal Agent: Vicky Gunderson | Get Fired Up Ep. 026
Fiscal agent, FEA, FMS, fiscal intermediary... why are there so many names for the same thing? Cindy and Jaime sit down with Vicky Gunderson, Executive Director of Acumen Fiscal Agent, to break down what a fiscal agent actually doe...
The Story Behind The Self-Direction Center | Get Fired Up Ep. 025
Cindy and Jaime had an incredible conversation with Molly Morris, Co-Founder of The Self-Direction Center.Molly shares how the center grew out of a national self-direction movement and launched as a community-owned nonprofit in 2025. Sh...
The Price Of Caring: Why This Work Is Worth It | Get Fired Up Ep. 024
Cindy, founder of Community Horizons, sits down with Pam, Community's Business Relations Manager, to get real about the daily grind of working in housing assistance and self-directed care. From confusing Medicaid cost-share increas...
The Real Barriers Keeping People Homeless | Get Fired Up Ep. 023
Cindy and Jaime catch up after a short work week and get into it - the guilt of taking time off when clients are still out there struggling, the disappearing art of customer service, and the absurd hoops people have to jump through just to get ...
REPLAY: The Medicaid Program Nobody Understands | Get Fired Up Ep. 001
Cindy and Jaime are off this week, so we're taking it back to episode 1! If you're new here or still don't understand what Self-Direction is, this episode is for you. For more information, reach out to the team at Comm...
Support Broker Testimonial: Alejandra Mendoza
After experiencing burnout in the healthcare field, Alejandra was ready for something different. What she found was a career in self-direction that completely changed her life.In this conversation, Alejandra shares her journey from work...
Talking Fiscal Assistance, Inc. with Ryan Beck
Cindy and Jaime sit down with Ryan of Fiscal Assistance, Inc. to pull back the curtain on the world of fiscal agents, self-directed care, Medicaid, caregiver onboarding, payroll, and all the moving pieces families have to navigate.Ryan ...
The Housing System Is Broken for Vulnerable People | Get Fired Up Ep. 020
Part 2 of 2. Jaime and Cindy talk about the scams targeting people searching for housing, the ridiculous hoops disabled and elderly renters get put through, and why "no address" shouldn't mean no housing. They also share the story of a ...
More on UW-Green Bay's CDCP Program | Get Fired Up Ep. 018
In Part 2, hosts Cindy and Jaime continue their conversation with guest Casey, going deeper into what it actually takes to professionalize direct care work. They pick up discussing the $250/$250 retention and referral bonus structure, why emplo...
Burnout, Broken Systems, and Real Talk | Get Fired Up Ep. 019
Part 1 of a two-part conversation between Cindy and Jamie about what it's actually like to work in caregiving and disability services right now.They get into burnout, the systems that make their jobs harder than they need to be, and wha...
Recruiting Caregivers in the Age of Burnout (Part 1 of 2) | Get Fired Up Ep. 017
Cindy and Jamie of Community Horizons talk recruiting and retaining caregivers — from the decline of job boards to the surprising comeback of newspaper ads and TikTok, plus dress-code mishaps and spotting passion over polish in applicants.<...
From Guardianship to Homelessness: The Cracks in the System | Get Fired Up Ep. 016
Another week, and more fired up than ever. This week, Jaime and Cindy dig into guardianship: the classes, the credit checks, and the court date that takes just ten minutes to decide someone's personhood and where good intentions can tip...
Community Over Institutions: Unpacking the Olmstead Opinion | Get Fired up Ep. 015
In this episode, Jaime and Cindy dig into the recent Olmstead opinion and what it could signal for the future of home and community-based care. Building on conversations from earlier episodes, they trace the history of deinstitutionaliz...
Not Fraud, Just Life: Ethel's Self-Direction Journey
In this episode, hosts Jamie and Cindy talk with self-advocate Ethel Quisler to talk about her journey into self-direction. From the friend who helped her navigate the system to the barriers she's faced along the way. Ethel shares candi...
From Mom's House to His Own Apartment: Brett's Self-Direction Journey
Brett Everman moved out of his parents' home at 21 with 24-hour care needs and no roadmap. In this episode, Brett and his mom Kareen share their honest journey into self-direction: the failed care agencies, the grind of recruiting staff...
When You Meet One Person With Autism, You've Met One Person With Autism
In this episode, we sit down with Heidi Jo Hanson of Fox Valley Autism. This is an honest, heartfelt conversation about what it really means to raise children on the spectrum. From early diagnosis moments and fighting to be believed, to...
IRIS Participant Spotlight: Cookie
In this episode, Cookie talks candidly about growing up blind, attending what she calls "Braille jail" (a residential school for the blind), and the decades of guide dogs, technology, and hard-won independence that followed.She opens up...
Understanding the ADRC & How to Access Long-Term Care Services
Ever wonder where the long-term care journey actually starts? In this episode, Cindy and Jaime sit down with Linda from the Outagamie County Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) to break down what the ADRC does, who it serve...
The Reality of Living With Complex Care Needs
This week, self-direction participant Katie Napiwocki shares her lifelong journey with self-direction. From navigating agency-assigned caregivers as a college student to building her own care team as a graduate student and professi...
“Nobody Taught Me How to Read My Own Budget" — The Hard Truths of Self-Direction
Real talk this week — Medicaid funding uncertainty, the caregiver workforce shift that never recovered after COVID, and why so many families have never even seen their own self-direction budget.We also get into the language gap that bli...
What Is a Support Broker? The Wild West of Self-Direction Explained
If you've ever had to explain what a support broker is to someone at a doctor's appointment, you already know this episode.This week, we're talking about what we actually do and why "broker" is such a weird word for it. We get into the ...
The Medicaid Program Nobody Understands
We're Cindy and Jamie — both healthcare burnouts who somehow ended up building something better.In this episode, we're starting at the beginning: what self-direction actually is, why almost nobody understands it, and how we en...