The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 51 with Guest, Barbara Campbell

Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast

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I am Justin Alan Hayes founder and

executive director of Voices for Voices

host and humanitarian

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the stigma around mental health

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helping people get the help they need

while also helping them prepare or

transition into the workforce with the

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connect Talent with opportunity for both

job Seekers and employers alike from

coast to coast and in every industry and

job level

today please join me in welcoming

today's guest

executive director the Dalton foundation

and co-founder of the Haiti Health

Network Barbara Campbell thank you for

joining us today Barbara thank you for

having me Justin I'm really glad to be

here yeah, we're very excited to

have you in studio live to be able to

share with the viewers through uh

through television and in audio

and even today some of our viewers will

will notice that we also have integrated

American sign language interpretation

and want to give a shout out to the Kent

State University American English sign

language interpretation program in the

two sign signers we have for today are

Elise Miller and Grace Sherman

so always trying to take a step to be

able to make our make our podcast more

more inclusive for those that want

to be able to tune in and find out what

we have going on and who we're talking

to

so Barbara can you tell our audience and

viewers a little bit about yourself how

you got started with the career you're

at and maybe why that was interested to

you yeah sure I'm happy to share my

story and how it got to where I am now

um I don't have a tragedy story which

I'm very blessed to say I think my story

is more one of dissatisfaction and

searching and my life's been a journey

I grew up in a great family and had

great opportunities and for that I'm

very blessed but I found myself in my

mid-thirties very dissatisfied I think you'd

probably say depressed although not

clinically diagnosed but very

dissatisfied even though I had a great

husband and I had great children and I

had a great house and I had

I had the American dream but yet I was

dissatisfied and I began a journey for

me for me it was a very strong faith

journey of researching after researching

religions and faith and

um really finally for the first time in

my life understanding my Christian faith

that I had been brought up in and had

rebelled from

and that was unbelievably impactful for

me and literally overnight I went from

extreme dissatisfaction to unbelievable

joy and not one of my circumstances

changed so it was an amazing life change

for me as I began to study the Bible on

God's word and it was an amazing

transformation and the story continued

the same kind of thing happened for my

husband he was in a similar position in

our lives drastically changed from I was

in healthcare as a pharmacist he was in

business as an international executive

to

how do we change our lives to serve and

for me it really began and for our

family too to be honest with you in 2010

in January of 2010, a big earthquake hit

Haiti maybe your viewers remember that

maybe they don't something I'll never

forget I had traveled all over the world

at that point of my life but I had never

been to Haiti I had never been to a

place like Haiti we spent our time

avoiding places like Haiti I must be

honest and so I was there I had the

opportunity to go with my church a few

days after the earthquake hit and it was

absolutely life-changing

um

it ended up at that earthquake just as a

refresher about a hundred and fifty

thousand people died which you know

again we've we see earthquakes are

happening all the time but that number

is probably not accurate it's probably

low but it's just unbelievable the

amount of life that was lost within and

to be there and to see that

and to feel so utterly helpless in the

light of that it just radically changed

my life from that point on I

um I just felt this pull to Haiti and to

the people there and it's what I fell in

love with Healthcare professionals while

I was there because as being one

I think we have this view that you know

if you have education and if you have

things then your life is good and my

impression in Haiti was people were

super educated and passionate about

their work and working hard and yet

their lives were so difficult and

for me I came back from that trip you

know very passionate and started leading

trips down from our church started

leading medical trips down to kind of

continue the work in the area where we

were and to support the medical clinic

that was there

and then you know one thing leads to

another and my husband is quitting his

job and we're both working at this

Mission organization in Haiti he's doing

more business development he was working

with women that had survived the

earthquake that were amputees and then

also the hearing-impaired Community as

well in a tragedy like that the

hearing impaired Community is very

vulnerable and they were able to

aggregate them together to help support

them and he worked with that so that was

kind of how our lives changed and we

switched paths and how it all began for

us and we spent about six years working

down there we didn't live there full

time our children were in high school

but it was a great experience for them

as well

so as the transition of kind of

looking

inward to now looking outward and

serving others how does that emotionally

how did that make you feel

um you know because we hear terms of

well

if I if I serve others that that's not

going to fulfill me or make me feel

good either about myself about my life

about what I'm doing can you maybe share

just some of those feelings that you had

and it sounds like you probably still

have those today which probably keeps

you still working with in that line yeah

I would say absolutely I think there's

there's so many lies I think we believe

and one of them would be that

serving like that would be um

you know giving up so much and I've

found that and I still believe that lies

so I don't want to pretend that I have

it all figured out, but I have found that

when I am serving, I am doing what I have

been created to do and I truly believe

all of us every single person has

created to do things and to help and

serve each other and when you do that

you get a glimpse of what God has

planned for our lives and it's

it's like a I don't know how to describe

it it's like a high that you can never

explain and I will say this though

to add on to that because I think there

can be something a little misleading

about that it's important to remember

that it's not about you and I think that

that's a lesson as you do serving like

that long term and it becomes hard and

it becomes challenging and there's a

time and you know you volunteer you

serve you might have experienced it as

well when

man this is not that this is hard this

is not that fun and you really have to

realize you know who you're serving and

why you're serving and I constantly you

know am reminded it's not about you and

and that's a really important

lesson and I think important for people

that do serve as they go into longevity

is that it isn't about me I mean I do

think it's important to take breaks and

to take care of yourself and all that

stuff becomes very important but you

have to keep in mind who you're serving

and why you're serving and to really

dovetail on that and take that that view

of it's not always about me serving

others is good it's good for it's

good for the world it's good for the

soul and I like to think of when I may

maybe my Revelation or accepting and

wanting to wanting to serve and I kind

of looked at life and said what do at

the end of my life what do I want to be

remember for do I want to be remembered

for

person a who is totally narcissistic

wanting to go out and party and do

things that were detrimental health-wise

to relationships

or is there something bigger how can I

make a bigger impact where again to your

point it's not about you it's not about

me it's about how we can touch the lies

and help and

and that feeling it does it feels good

and it doesn't it doesn't always have to

take money sometimes individuals think

well if I donate or if I can donate

I'm not contributing you know it can be

your time it can be that and that sounds

like how that started with

Haiti where it started out with time uh

and was the organization formed at that

point and you were coming on board or

how did that work itself into your

lives so the organization that we ended

up working for definitely existed I was

strong and already had a health clinic

it already had a lot of great ministry

happening in that region of Haiti and we

came on to serve and augment in those

areas and

um I view my job I always say I was like

a consultant and that I was there to

support the Haitian Physicians that were

there and just a cheerleader really is

what I was and then to help support them

by raising funds and helping them

Finance eventually so that was how I

always viewed my role and as that

evolved I got more and more interested

in the bigger picture of like okay we're

doing this here I've always been really

passionate about collaboration and

working together and when you'd work at

a place like that even here in the

US when you're working for a non-profit

let's face it can be hard you got to

raise funds you're relying on so many

other things that are out of your

control so I became really passionate

about connecting organizations so that

they could share resources support one

another and I was really passionate

about doing that around the health care

sector in Haiti and the Dalton

Foundation was one of our financial

funders at the time I got to know Mr.

Dalton and his family very well I loved

the way he thought of big picture

thinking and there was a time after we

had launched our mobile medical program

and everything was kind of running I

always I always said I my view is to

work myself out of a job that's a win

right so you can work yourself out of a

job I was at that point and then he had

offered me to come to Ohio and to help

lead the foundation and so we did that

in 2017. and moved up here so the

foundation is based is it based in

Hudson or twenty. it's based in Twinsburg

yeah, it started by The Dalton family

with the profits from their businesses

and there have been eleven of them over the

years the current business is still

existing really Medical in Twinsburg and

we are able to

be blessed with many resources to help

us give back and the giving that we

do usually surrounds three or four

areas we do health care a lot of that is

international so we do we still do a lot

of work in Haiti which I can talk about

that a little bit more and then we also

do some projects in Africa and other

regions as well we've done some stuff to

support Ukraine in the past year so

that's one period and then here in Ohio

we definitely focus on addiction

recovery helping individuals that are

caught in human trafficking situations

and re-entry people coming out of

incarceration how to help support them

so we support organization events that

support people and then we do things

directly and I'll talk about the ruling

about award project in the little one

yeah

what's the what's maybe the

favorite of the foundation the

favorite area and I and it sounds like I

mean it's all giving it's all served but

is there one area where you know you're

gonna be working on that project coming

up or are going to be traveling that

makes you feel extra gives you the

extra boost extra energy or does it all

fall into that same feeling I mean our

two main things that we put most of our

energy to are into our work in Haiti

where we help form the Haiti Health

Network for that Vision that I had in

2017 and Mr. Dalton had in 2017 to make

that come to life and that's been really

huge now for if your viewers are

following Haiti it's not a good place

right now I couldn't be there with my

family right now even if I wanted to

it's not safe and so but the passion for

the people of Haiti the desire to

advocate for them the desire to support

the organizations is stronger than ever

and the amount that our team is able to

do despite the difficulties is

incredible so that's a huge focus of

ours but what I you know hear locally in

Ohio talking about are real link.org

project I think is really important

because we have worked

with a lot of people here in Hudson but

we really work all over the state of

Ohio on this project and this project

started out

from the opioid epidemic which I know we

all know is ravaging our area

and the um

the absolute lack of understanding of

what resources were available especially

back in 2017. you know you have a

foundation and people come to you and

they would like funding for this or that

and I think one of the first questions

you need to wisely ask is what's already

happening like you're telling me you

need a detox facility but how many other

detox facilities are there in Summit

County how many are there in Cuyahoga

County so we set out to answer that

question and map the state of Ohio

related to addiction recovery resources

so where are all the beds where are all

the treatment centers and we did that

and we set up focus groups around the

state to collect data and get input to

make the software easier and easier to

use but we quickly learned that just

listing addiction recovery resources

wasn't enough that people that are

struggling and trying to seek recovery

they need a lot of resources over a long

period of time and so we added in

resources for basic needs like food

clothes building Furniture we put in job

resources Second Chance employers all

these type of things you know many

people that struggle with addiction also

have felonies on their record so how do

we help people with felonies get jobs

that's where the kind of the re-entry

piece came in and so we work very

closely with the Ohio Department of

Rehabilitation and Corrections on this

project

and then we also like when you talk

about human trafficking most of the

individuals that are caught in human

trafficking are also struggling with

some type of addiction and so it all

overlaps and so we designed to put that

all in one platform and the platform now

has over 13 000 resources covering all

Eighty-eight counties it's used by a couple

thousand people in Ohio every single

week and we have a great team that's

working on it just to create awareness

the site is completely free it's no one

pays to use it our motto is three clicks

three seconds at least three options and

so we want people to be able to find

something quickly

and we also it's people don't pay to be

on it there's no advertising it's not

like if you have a lot of money, you come

up higher in a search it's a Level

Playing Field giving people information

that they can make decisions that's

that's some that's amazing we do have

students that maybe watching

listening and with being an

instructor at walls in in the

marketing program there are many

students that are looking at

entrepreneurship ideas of starting a

business and what all that takes I

know we don't have time to get into all

the specifics but maybe at a high level

uh with you know your all your

experience I don't want to say like

professional and surveying but all your

experience how did you make a decision

how does one go about once you have that

idea how does one go about forming or

saying I want to start organization

versus I want to everyone just serve

with an organization

oh that's a good question I think that's

an individual thing that people need to

you know in my case I would say pray

through and just see where you're being

led

on all that I think when you come to the

idea of Entrepreneurship I'll

Channel Mr. Dalton a little bit and try

to say a few things that he would say

because he's a Serial entrepreneur and

you might want to interview him because

he'll help you with that topic but you

always want to identify a problem you

know that you're trying to solve because

if you can hit a pain point with people

that's how something will be and whether

you're talking about a non-profit idea

which was the real link.org idea or

whether you're talking about a

for-profit business that might end up

making a lot of money someday either way

you've got to have a problem you're

trying to solve that other people

perceive as a problem as well that that

can be a huge challenge because

sometimes people identify a problem

but no one else really sees it and so

that becomes a problem but once you

identify that problem and then you try

to say okay who else is trying to solve

this

so that you make sure like maybe it's

already being done and maybe you just

want to join in or maybe your solution

is a little bit different and that's

goes into the next question is how is

your solution or how is what you're

thinking better faster or cheaper in the

case of a for-profit and be able to

articulate that so if your students are

marketing people they have that ability

I don't have that ability but to be able

to articulate that clearly and concisely

I think it's really important to get

something started absolutely thanking you

thank you for that

we've talked about how the

Dalton Foundation helps others we've

talked about relaying uh

do you want to go maybe a little in more

into depth about relink.org about how

people can find out about it and

different options like you said being

either listed or if somebody knows of

somebody that is in need and wants to

check that out just what those options

are yeah like I said

absolutelyrealink.org is free and the

website is just

www.relink.org and you go to that and

then you'll click need resources and up

pop the database and you can search and

I ask everyone to test it please three

clicks three seconds at least three

options in all of our categories is our

goal and the main users of the site

again the original intent was to help

people that were struggling and or their

family members and those people

definitely use the site but we know what

we have what we call our super users and

it's used by a lot of social workers

it's used by a lot of counselors we're

doing a lot of work in the church

Community now to help pastors and

Priests be able to save time

um we know I mean I know when I was on

front lines in Ministry people come to

you with needs all the time and it can

be really overwhelming and it can be

time consuming if you need if so-and-so

needs to find a bed for their child

today and you've got your agenda it

takes time right and so our design

with reelink.org is can we save people

time so if you're a pastor or priest and

you're

talking with people with needs and your

church might be able to meet these two

needs but no church can do everything

how can we find a tool that can quickly

connect people save time and then let

the counselors the priests the pastors

do what they're there to do which is to

love on and to Care on and to guide

people not waste their time finding

things so that's our goal with that is

to be a big Time Saver so I encourage

people to log on and use it realink.org

and then if you are a service provider

so you offer some sort of addiction

recovery resource a re-entry resource

something for those caught in human

trafficking or even a food pantry a

clothing thing you can register on

reelink.org you can reach out to us at

info relink.org or if you go to the site

you'll see an easy button to click and

register and once an organization is

vetted you can actually update your own

information and the remarkable thing for

organizations too is they are searched a

lot of times like we keep track of how

organizations are searched and since

January some of our top organizations

have been searched close to ten thousand

times since the beginning of the year

and we're only right now we're February

so

um anyway it's a way for organizations

to get visibility so we encourage them

to get on and again no advertising

nobody's Pace to come to the top it's

just where people are searching

organically that's awesome

getting back a little bit into when

you made that initial trip to Haiti of

and I guess this comes from even me

and my parents and my family of last

year when we were making the plans

to go to Poland to help some of the

Ukraine refugees is it safe you know

what is there any precautions do I need

a bodyguard really do I need security

um we're for people that want to want to

help out and they have that interest but

maybe

that those thoughts creep into mind like

well I have the resources I'd love to go

I love to help but I don't I just I hear

these new stories and it just sounds

like it's dangerous or whatever

that or is how did you get over that

initially that’s a great question

confession time I'm not over it

um I think what I've learned is I mean

I've been probably on two or three

passports worth of trips to Haiti and

spent extended periods of time there for

months and months on end

it never goes away for me in that for me

always in my mind it's easier to do

nothing yes, it's easier to do nothing

it's easier to stay at my nice cozy

house and take no risk to not put my

children in any risk it's easier I mean

I'm not going to lie it is and it's

always in my mind but again I believe

that is the voice of the enemy but I'll

talk about the other side of that in

just a minute because you do have to

have wisdom along with it but I believe

Comfort is a blessing but also a curse

and when you are comfortable it becomes

harder and harder to come out of your

comfort zone I will just say that being

a part of a wise planned out trip to

somewhere like Poland or Ukraine or

anywhere like that or even another area

of town that you're not familiar with or

that you necessarily feel comfortable

and it's an unbelievable blessing after

you do it every single time I get on the

plane I'm like why am I doing this every

single time I'm coming back I'm like

thank God I did that and it's I

mean maybe it'll go away from me someday

the culture shock and things like that

have gone away but not that draw toward

comfort so for me it's a constant battle

so I would encourage people if you felt

it don't now on the other side you have

to have wisdom so again I've went to

Haiti I've brought my kids there when it

gets to a certain point you have to rely

on people on the ground you have to rely

on information that tells you this is

not a wise place to go and again I use

prayer for my guideline always too and I

feel like there's enough wisdom and

information out there that you can go

and but there is a risk there is a risk

when you go into it and I'm okay

with that as long as it's a calculated

decision so it is a risk it does and

and I believe and I wholeheartedly

believe and agree when I got on

the plane heading over to Poland it

my mom's in my own area

it's very dangerous and then on the

other side it's like but that's stepping

outside of my comfort zone and that's me

helping others so it may take a little

bit of a risk and getting on the plane

leaving there it was like oh my gosh

like how could I ever not want to go

I want to go later in the year and I

want to out loud and do

connected so thank you for that because

that sometimes comes up with I mean

family anybody really of thinking like

oh are you sure you want to do that did

you already book The Ticket yeah like is

there a way you can get out of it a

refund policy but you get the insurance

in that it's good to have people that

love us and worry about us absolutely

yeah, that helps balance out what do you

want people to take away from your

discussion today there's a lot of

information and they'll be able to

view it listen to it see the signing the

transcripts but kind of overall what

would you like people to have a takeaway

if they're just tuning in at this point

well I think a couple things I mean

certainly the real link.org resource we

want to encourage people to use it let

people know that one thing I've observed

from the state of Ohio there are a lot

of people here that want to help there

are a lot of people there are a lot of

resources out there so if you're in a

situation where you're feeling desperate

look up because there are people around

in the different communities that want

to help and then secondly to your last

point of just about that getting out of

your comfort zone just be mindful about

comfort and what it is

Comfort is a blessing

but I will tell you it hinders us from

so many things and just be able to think

through that and I encourage everyone do

something hard every day if you do the

same thing every day

when I look back on my dissatisfaction a

lot of it was that I had an easy life

there was nothing challenging things

were great but I believe human beings

are meant to be challenged I believe

we're meant to grow God wants to grow us

and develop us and refine us and we have

to let them do that

yeah, absolutely any social media I

know you went

relink.org any social media uh

handles that people could follow we

are on Facebook and LinkedIn at

reylink.org also the Dalton Foundation

uh has a website that talks more about

all the work that we do, and we have

LinkedIn as well as Facebook so yeah

it's awesome and to hear from

somebody like you that's on the ground

that sees you know taking those

analytics of

10 000 searches and you know we're not

even two months in into a year that's a

big number it's not ten it's not yeah ten

thousand that's huge and that

shows that there is a need and people do

want to help and again to reiterate

if somebody is in need and isn't sure

and just wants to research and see are

is there anything out there that could

help me seeing that might help change

somebody's life just saying Oh I thought

I was alone I didn't think yeah like I'm

starting new business maybe there's

already somebody out there that's doing

it maybe I don't have to travel thirty miles

to get it maybe I can travel a little

close or maybe I can do it through

Zoom yeah and something I hear we've

heard quite a lot just this past week is

that this world is can be a dark

place and can be lonely and you can go

through

things where things are beating you down

and sometimes people say I

just had no idea that there were so many

people out there that wanted to help

it's like yeah that's another lie we

believe they're there they want to help

just you know reach out awesome well

thank you so much for joining us today

Barbara thank you for having me great to

be here absolutely

and thank you for joining us for this

episode of the Voices for Voices podcast

and again a special thank you to Our

Guest today Barbara Campbell for

spending her time with us and with you

until next time I am Justin Alan Hayes

founder and executive director of voices

for voices host and humanitarian we hope

you have a great day and please be a

voice for yourself or somebody in need

[Music]

[Applause]

thank you

Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate

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