- Coming up on IGI discover the incredible story behind the Capper Foundation.

For over 100 years, they've been empowering people of all ages, living with disabilities through therapy, technology, and community partnerships that change lives.

Please stay with us.

This program on KTWU is brought to you by Friends of KTWU.

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Thank you.

Hello, and welcome to IGI.

I'm your host Betty Lou Pardue, and today we're featuring a Kansas institution with over a century of impact.

The Capper Foundation.

Founded in 1920 by Senator Arthur Capper.

This remarkable organization has dedicated itself to building abilities and empowering people of all ages, living with disabilities, from pediatric therapy to adult day services, from assistive technology to inclusive recreation.

The Caper Foundation is more than a service provider.

It's a lifeline for thousands of families across Kansas.

Joining us today to discuss Capper Foundation's legacy of service is Zach Arhens, president and CEO of the Capper Foundation.

And I'm thrilled to have you here and to get your message out.

We, we touched on this, Zach, about Arthur Capper, but please explain a little bit more about who he was.

- So we have a rich legacy and just a such a rich history in Kansas, and really as a model for the country that started right here.

And so our founder, Senator Arthur Capper, started the idea of what is now Capper Foundation in 1920.

Wow.

And so, as a philanthropist, as a newspaper, media publisher back so many years ago, he would have a tradition that touched so many lives.

He would, if you can imagine in your mind's eye on Christmas Eve, he would go around with the good fellows, an organization that, that he had started and had grown to provide gifts for children, you know, during times where the dollars just weren't there to be able to support those extra gifts to make the holiday special.

And so they would go around and deliver gifts, and over time, he would notice that most of the kids would kind of come running out to, to greet them as they would be coming with these goodies.

But there was a growing number of Kansans that weren't able to meet him, that were looking through their windows, maybe in an upstairs bedroom.

And what had happened was, of course, the polio epidemic had come across our country and had reached Kansas, and kids were going to bed one night to kind of stiff perhaps, or losing some mobility.

And within a few days, they lost the ability to walk.

- Wow.

- And so Senator Capper at that time knew that it was much more than just gifts that these children needed, but they needed that opportunity to be independent.

And so he would quietly and humbly pay for children to have surgeries and to give them what we think of today as the durable medical equipment, the braces or, or the crutches to be able to help them in their recovery.

Or even if they weren't fully able to recover from polio or other ailments that might have happened to be able to gain some independence and mobility.

And so in 1920, on Christmas Day, we said, this is the beginning of Capper Foundation.

And so today we continue that legacy and we have built it beyond I think, what Senator Arthur Capper could have only imagined, but probably what he dreamed of, of what could happen.

And so we are, as an organization, about 105 years young.

- Yes.

And you're gonna celebrate that actually this year.

We - Are, yes.

This, this is a banner year for us.

And, and it really is because it's a recognition of an incredible vision of philanthropy and leadership that impacted not only the state of Kansas, but the entire country as a model for what does a world where individuals of all abilities can be respected, can have opportunities to advance their hopes and dreams, to be independent.

And that is a celebration.

And there's so many stakeholders, there's so many supporters that have helped us along the way to be what Caper Foundation is today.

- Now it is a 5 0 1 C3, but where else do you get funding?

- Yes.

So we are a, we are a nonprofit.

We are a 5 0 1 C3.

Our funding comes from, from various sources.

So for some of our programs, our adult day and residential programs that allow people with disabilities to be in their own homes or in a home that we provide for them, we provide 24 7 supports for the individuals so that they can meet their goals and, and meet their needs and be able to thrive as independent as possible.

So that funding comes from home and community based service dollars, so HCBS dollars.

And that comes at the federal level through the Centers for Medicare, Medicaid.

So CMS.

- Okay.

- And then it comes into the state of Kansas ultimately administered through the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, or K Dads.

And so we do have some of those dollars for our kiddos.

About 68% are Medicaid or CanCare recipients.

We also accept private insurance or private pay or commercial insurance.

But there's still a gap.

And I think that that's one of the things that many people, including myself, have right before I became so deeply just entrenched in our mission at Capper, couldn't get my arms around - Right.

- Last fiscal year.

And our fiscal year closes on August 31st.

So we fairly recently, a few months back, you know, celebrated, if you will, our, our fiscal year.

Our gap between the cost of service delivery and reimbursements was $5.2 million.

- Whoa.

- And, and that is a, a huge gap.

- Yeah.

- And you know, one of the things that you think about when you think of a gap like that is, well, maybe you can kind of tighten in your expenses a little bit so that you can continue to meet these needs.

Capper Foundation, as a nonprofit, as a charity ranks in the top 5% of all charities in the entire country.

And there's Charity Navigator, there's other external sources that look at stewardship.

Where do we take each dollar and what, what does it apply to?

At Capper Foundation, 92 cents of every dollar goes directly into programs and services.

So we have learned how to steward dollars and, and, and to take them, to stretch them as far as we can to meet those needs.

And so even with that stewardship, we still have a $5.2 million gap.

- Wow.

- That - Okay.

We've gotta make that up.

- Yes.

- Okay.

So we are on the campus of Washburn University, and you recently opened a dialogue Coffee House.

What is that?

- So, dialogue Coffee House is a, is a retail coffee shop with a mission.

And the mission is to train people of all abilities to gain those life skills, whether they want to be a barista, to, to make those yummy com coffee combinations that we create to our homemade baked goods.

So we make our breads and our cinnamon rolls and our delicious cookies right there in our training kitchen.

And so our training kitchen is off of Washburn's campus.

It's, it's embedded into the community of Topeka.

- Right.

- And so that is where that magic happens as well.

And really, it's, it's a kind of an exciting story.

Can I share it with you - Please, Sarah?

Yes, - Do.

Okay.

Okay.

So, dialogue Coffee House was created by Kaitlin Halsey.

And Kaitlyn is a Topeka that realized, as many people do, that there are a growing number of, of good people in our community, of various abilities that really want to thrive and gain independence.

And so we at Capra Foundation share that.

Like, I mean, that that's an ideal that we believe in.

- Yeah.

- And so we invited Kaitlyn Holsey to join our board of trustees.

And if you can picture, we're sitting down at our, at my table in my office, and we're going through the new trustee board orientation.

And she's talking, and I'm dreaming, and I closed the board binder.

I still like having things on paper.

Sure.

I closed the board binder and I said, Caitlyn, let's just dream for a second.

Yeah.

You have one dialogue store.

There's a dialogue store that she had in Topeka At 29th engage in.

Right.

And, and she, I said, well, how many people do you employ with of Abilities?

And, and 10, well, what's keeping us from doing more?

Well, we form a family.

We form a bond.

We, we wrap everything around services and supports and, and you become friends, deep friends.

And so people don't leave.

And that's okay.

So I said, well, it sounds like we need to open up more stores so we can create more opportunities.

At the same time, there's a statistic in the state of Kansas, 28% of Kansans living with intellectual or developmental disabilities want to work.

They want to work.

Yes.

And you think about what we talk about, it seems like almost every day in, in common conversation.

Wow, we need to retain good staff in every sector, in every area, in every part of this, the state.

We want to, you know, keep good employees.

We have 28% of Kansas that have a, that, that find joy.

And sometimes those things that I grumble about.

- Right.

- And they're amazing examples of what you can do.

And so, and April of 2023, capper Foundation fully acquired Di Dialogue Coffee House, it was a for-profit coffee shop.

- Right.

- It is now part of Capper Foundation, so it is a non-profit.

- Right.

- And we thought, well, no, what's next?

'cause we love asking the question of what's next.

And so we grew and we opened more dialogue, coffee Houses, which created more job opportunities, more skill training opportunities for Kansans.

And so we opened our second store, our third store, our fourth, fifth, and now sixth location.

And we are in hospitals.

So we are attached to store Montvale Health System, of course, serving in various locations in, in the state of Kansas and, and primarily northeast Kansas.

- Right.

- Washburn University on the campus, which is an amazing partnership in the sense that some of the students that are learning physical, occupational speech therapy or other areas are able to see in real time people with differing abilities.

And they're not just becoming a diagnosis, but you're seeing them for the incredible people that they are.

And, you know, looking at what are some of the pathways of what's next?

What if there's a career training outside of, of dialogue?

One of the things that I also love is that you don't have to be a client of Capper Foundation to work at Dialogue.

- Oh.

- You are an employee.

So they are an employee of Capper foundation, just as much as I'm an employee, taxes and, all right.

So we are all in this together.

Right.

And, and we love that because we really want to build that equality, that inclusion, that idea that we are, we are just people doing good things together and we're growing together in all that we do.

- And when you go in, you can see the joy on their - Faces.

Yes.

- How excited they are to work with you, work for you.

- Yes.

- There's a story that if you would, don't mind sharing about the training of your son to be a barista.

- Yes.

So our son is a, is actually a senior in his, at Washburn University.

He's an education major.

And so he, you know, you know, dad, I'm looking for good jobs.

I, you always talk about dialogue.

He, he comes and, and we enjoy dialogue.

So he, we, we hired him to work at Dialogue.

Well, he needed to be trained.

And so our son Carter was trained by a gentleman with Down Syndrome to operate our super fancy espresso machine.

Lots of buttons, lots of knobs.

And you know, I, I paused for a second.

I, I, you know, we have a, an honor roll student and our son, I'm bragging a little bit that is going to school to be an elementary school teacher.

And, and the teacher to be is being trained by the te you know, by the student that was in this gentleman with Down syndrome.

- Wow.

- That is a, that has taught my son how to be a barista.

Carter then also learned how to operate our point of sale system, our cash register, if you will.

Right.

And there are individuals with Neurodiversity autism that trained him in those skills.

And that's what we see each and every day through dialogue or any of the other areas where we ask an individual, what, what, where do you wanna work?

We have a young lady that works with us that we loves suntan places, you know, the, those nice, those cell logs, fish sugar.

And so that's her, that was her journey.

I wanna work in a suntan place.

Sure.

Plus you get to Tan for free.

Yeah.

So, so we said, well, we'll make that happen.

So we set up that relationship.

We help train her.

Sometimes we provide transportation so that she can work in that setting.

So there, there's so many other areas.

You, you name an industry, you name an interest area.

And there we are providing those skills.

And they're amazing.

- They are amazing people.

Let's go to the youth.

Yes.

My niece had a son who is now deceased, but he and his, our entire family loved going to the Capper Foundation.

- Yes.

- He was not able to sit on his own, but everyone there was so welcoming.

I was speaking with my sister-in-law about it.

They were so welcoming not only to Logan, but to the entire family.

And she said the people who worked with him, she wasn't sure if they were called - Therapists.

Yes.

- Yeah.

But just made him feel so loved.

And they enjoyed the fact that they would go in there.

The equipment was bright.

Yes.

Colorful, cheerful.

The atmosphere was just amazing.

He said a professional photographer took his picture and added in it in the hallway.

They just could not say enough good things.

What does Capper Foundation do besides Logan's Case for children?

- Great question.

And I, and I love the story because we are, we are so fortunate, I feel like we curate stories.

We just collect so many life-changing stories.

So in our pediatric outpatient clinic, we offer physical therapy, occupational therapy.

So think of that as those skills that you want to take into the classroom.

If you're a young person or eventually into independent life.

What, what do you want to do?

Or to be able to brush your teeth, right.

To be able to take food orally, you know, for you think about how much life is around food, social, it's, - Oh, right.

- It's who's staying apart from a holiday or a family because you, their child can't, can't eat.

Right.

And, and so we work with those kiddos as well.

And then also, you know, speech and language therapy, physical therapy, and they work as an interdisciplinary team.

And what you've described is exactly what happens in our, in our hallways at Capra Foundation.

A little secret I'm gonna share with you and, and all of our viewers today, it's therapy, but they believe it is play because we, we reach the kid, the child where they're at, and we make it fun and exciting because for many children that may have had a traumatic brain injury, or for a child that was born with typical abilities and experienced an injury, they don't want to have to go through this.

And, and it's not just us, but it's working as an interdisciplinary team.

You still might be receiving services in a, in a healthcare system or other things at school and things like that.

And so we really try to make it an enjoyable experience, but we try to support the parents, the guardians as well.

- Right.

- Because they're all kind of going through this journey together.

In that process.

We use technology at Capper Foundation as well.

And, and ways that it's been exciting to see how it's continually growing and how we're, you know, including it into our, our services.

Can I share a story?

Please.

I, I, there's so many stories, right?

And so this is just recently last week there was a young lady that is almost 13 years old.

So if you can imagine all the things that, of that a teenager that has, - Would be going through.

Yes.

- And she is, is she is deaf, she also is not able to speak.

And so trying to find out and working with mom, you know, what, what can we do to know what your daughter's wants and needs are for her to communicate?

One of our speech therapists said, well, have you ever used a, a device that is an augmentative communication device and an a c as we call - It, okay.

- That you can push a button and it helps you express your wants and needs.

So we gave it to this, this pre-teen teenager, almost a teenage girl.

And she pushed it and said, go paint colors.

She was asking to paint.

Yes.

And so we gave her what she was looking for, and she started painting and asking for colors and concepts.

In other words, just because she wasn't able to speak, people thought, well, you know, I don't know, you know, is she processing all of these things?

She was, and she is.

And so can you imagine being able to, as the daughter being able, the girl to communicate your thoughts.

But mom, this is neat.

So if you have like your, your iPhone or your Android and I, I use Siri as an example, and you might say something, you, I said it to a girl's voice or a guy's voice, or sometimes the fun Australian accent.

Sure.

The a c just happened to be set to a girl's voice.

- Oh, - Perfect.

And when she heard the mom heard her daughter communicate for the first time, she said, I'm hearing my daughter's voice for the first time.

Oh my - Gosh.

- And moments like that happen each and every day at Capper Foundation, my office strategically located is really in the middle of, of two, two hallways that come together in our pediatric outpatient clinic.

So I literally have the joy of getting to watch a child take their steps for the first time.

Wow.

And they might be 15, 16 years old.

They might, they they might have their first words and we're capturing that.

- Right.

- And it's just an amazing moment that we experience time and time again.

And so the question that I always ask is, what's next?

- Right.

- And that's where this idea of job opportunities provided supported employment, job training, going out into the community, our residential program, all of these really builds a continuum of independence.

And that's what we've done over the years at Capper and not just in Topeka.

That's right.

What about El Dorado?

Yes.

Winfield.

So we have grown, so a lot of people in, in Topeka might think that it we're just in Topeka, but in fact we serve people in, in several counties.

And so when the Winfield State Hospital closed in Winfield, Kansas and Cali County, the parents came together and they formed a, a nonprofit to be able to make sure that the, their loved ones, their friends and neighbors were supported instead of being in an institution To, to be able to stay home to stay where they're at.

And so that had gone on for a time and it continued to grow and it's complicated.

And we talked about the funding challenges.

Sure.

It just couldn't be sustained.

Yeah.

So Capra Foundation loves to say yes.

And so in 2014, we said, yes, we'll, we'll absorb those needs and we'll take our services down to South central Kansas.

And so at that time, that allowed us to expand our mission to reach Butler County.

So think of it, Andover and El Dorado Sure.

And down in Cali County and Winfield all the way to Arc City, just a stone's throw from the Oklahoma state line.

And so capper reaches individuals that far in northeast Kansas where people recognize capper just being here.

There is more capper foundation in south central Kansas than there is Wow.

In proximity to Topeka.

A lot of people don't realize that.

- No.

- So it, we continue to grow really in response to the need.

- Are are, is an individual from a surrounding state able to attend or No?

- So not if they're part of some of the, the outside payer sources that we have.

- Okay.

- But if it's private pay, certainly they can, what we have seen is for our adaptive recreation programs, so we have, I can bike where individuals will learn how to ride a bicycle with adaptive equipment for any of the physical challenges that they may have.

Well, there are people because we offer this here that are from our surrounding states that will come in and spend a week here experiencing that amazing program.

- Wow.

- I can swim another great example.

And our newest one, I got this golf camp, so individuals of all abilities, being able to experience the game of golf.

And boy, that was magical.

What I love, I, I watch the Watchers and so I love watching the participants, but then the parents, but I pull it even back.

So as we're on in a golf course here in Topeka hosting that that event, you could see just the watchers, just the spectators kind of just taking it all in.

But boy, it started on a Monday, but by Thursday, Friday they're taking it serious.

Then they're thinking, you know, what's next?

And so we are hosting that again in October to give golfers and families that opportunity to say, I can do this.

I got this golf camp prior to this coming to Kansas was only offered in Arizona and Florida.

So this is how Capper Foundation has grown from something small in 1920 to reaching people in Shawnee County to great portions of Kansas.

And, but even beyond, - You know, we were talking about you're about to celebrate 105 years.

Yes.

Now I know every year Arthur Capper would always do an ice cream social.

- Yes.

Yes.

I love that.

So his birthday is July 14th.

And so he would have this big party and, and I've seen, you know, we have so many pictures.

That's the other thing that's so fun is we, we have so much history that we get to enjoy and we get to see 20,000 kiddos all gathered together in, in local parks, in, in Topeka.

And, you know, if you can just picture those little tiny cups and they, they'd go on that hot July day and they'd go to, you know, go and stand in line for an hour and then go back and do it again.

And it, and so we do that on a smaller scale, not with 20,000 people, well about 300.

But we really honor and celebrate just the richness of the heritage of Arthur Capper.

Right.

Two time Kansas governor, five time US Senator.

The, you think of the cooperatives, the cooperatives across well the country.

Sure.

But sure.

I think of the impact that it's made in, in agriculture in the state of Kansas, the Volstead Capper Act, when he was a US senator helped pave the way for the farmers' cooperatives, the cooperatives to exist.

So four H, he had the Pigs Pig club and the Poultry Club and all of these great histories he was very deeply involved at, at K State and had an impact there.

Of course, his hometown of Garnet - Yeah.

- Also is proud to claim him as the hometown boy.

And, and, and we had a celebration actually for his hundred and 60th birthday that was back in July.

And it was just amazing to gather Kansans from all over that, that have this connection from every corner of the state to Senator Capper.

- You know, you and I are both proud to say that we're part of the family.

That's right.

Because I worked at Channel 13 and you worked at the Capitol dur.

- That's right.

And so that's what brought me to the great state of Kansas a little over a decade ago as I came as the president and publisher of the Topeka Capital Journal, which Senator Capper owned the Daily Capital, which became the Capital Journal.

And then WIB WT V and Radio Cappers Weekly, which is very well known.

It's, it's now still operating under a different ownership.

But boy, he at Capper Insurance, an amazing philanthropist, an amazing entrepreneur creating so many jobs in, in our state of Kansas.

So yeah.

We, we are part of the family.

And so I - Love, love - That you're engrafted into the Kapper Foundation legacy.

- Absolutely.

It's, it's amazing that it just continues to grow.

I love looking back at all these pictures - Yes.

- Of and the fashions and the, the improvements over the years.

And it's always the what's next?

Yes.

What is next?

- Well, we, we want to continue to grow in response to the need.

Okay.

And so we love to say yes.

Here's, here's the kinda the sad reality of things.

You know, we depend on the support of, of dollars that come into the state of Kansas.

And you know, one of the challenges that we've seen in, in the last few legislative sessions is the home and community based service increase rates they had not increased substantially for, for a long time.

In 2022, they did increase by 25%, which sounds outstanding, but essentially that was a long time coming true up.

Sure.

For the wages of the people that provide the services to Kansans.

We also know there's been a growing number of Kansans with disability that are on what they call the the wait list, the, the waiver wait list.

The legislature has done a good job of trying to decrease the number of individuals on the wait list.

It was well over 5,000.

If you compare that to other states and even the folks on the other side of the river to the east of us.

Sure it's the same, their, their situation is better than ours because of how it has been made a priority in state funding in the state budget.

So one of the things that we really advocate for with our, with our legislature session after session is we want to see permanent increases.

They can be incremental to the HCBS funding that allows us, when we know that we have a $5.2 million gap with 92 cents of every dollar going directly into programs and services that we can say yes to those, those individuals, the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC says that, and this is a national number of course, that one outta 33 people today are being born with some type of an intellectual or developmental - Disability.

- There's a lot of various reasons for that.

I think a couple things, you know, number one, there's better diagnosis that people are, are being diagnosed, that they, people had it, there just wasn't a diagnosis.

We also are seeing as, as referred to us that that babies that may not have have, you know, their pregnancies may not have, they may not have been born essentially.

Right.

- Right, right.

- Premature and things like that are being able to be saved or surgeries in utero where they are born.

But there are complications, right.

If 26 weeks in NICU and discharge from the nicu, people have said, you know, they picture our little capper kiddos as as toddlers or preschoolers or teenagers or we are sometimes a discharge plan from the nicu.

Why?

So we take the tiniest of infants for those services.

So I say that to say we know that the number of individuals that are needing disability services is continuing to grow the wait list.

There's been times that a person has been on the wait list for 10 years.

- Okay.

- 10 years.

And so we advocate that we need to continue to decrease that number.

And this, and the elected officials and, and both chambers have done a good job of trying to, to address that.

There's a lot of other things that go along with that capacity building for the providers like CapperFoundation, we need the resources to be able to build that capacity.

And a incremental sustaina, you know, sustainable increase each year really does help and make that happen.

And that would be life changing for, for so many people.

- Thank you so much, Zach.

Ahrens what a, what a day.

Thank you so much.

And we're so glad that you have joined us.

We love the important work that the Capper Foundation is doing in our community.

And that is all the time we have for this episode.

But if you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

And if you would like to view this program again and help the Capper Foundation or any of the previous episodes of IGI, visit us online@ktwu.org.

I'm Betty Lou Pardue, we thank you so much for watching.

this program on KTWU is brought to you by Friends of KTWU.

We appreciate your financial support.

Thank you.