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Conversations with the Inspiring Kendra Cluck

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kendra Cluck.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In the summer of 2010, I got my first job working with the IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) community as a summer interventionist within a center-based behavioral therapy company. It was the first year of their young adult summer program. My past experiences of working and volunteering with adults lead them to put me on the adult summer program staff. This was the beginning of my journey…

I made relationships with the families from the summer program that allowed me to stay with the company working their after-school program and later working in their early intervention program. After two years, I left to help create a new center based behavioral therapy company as one of there program directors. As program director, I helped build their adolescent social skills and adult prevocational programs.

As much as I love the early and adolescent population, my heart has always been to the adults. The more I was working with them and meeting with their parents I saw that there was a huge need for adult services. After three years as program director, I left to start my own business The Roost Training Center that is an adult only service provider within the State of Colorado.

With the love and support of my family, The Roost Training Center was able to open it’s doors June of 2016. We are currently providing prevocational and community services and serving 30 adults with various intellectual and developmental disabilities with ages ranging from 18 to 40. I never thought this would be my dream job, it’s crazy where life can take you.

Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth no, rewarding yes! The struggles started right from the beginning. I was needing to get approval from the state and that process took about six to eight months if not longer. Once I got approval, I had to learn everything from billing to policies and procedures to running a business. The hardest struggle has been allowing myself to let go and know I can’t do it all. For so long, I had done everything myself, from meetings with case managers to planning and implanting programs. Thinking I had to do everything myself caused me to lose focus on the reason why I started The Roost in the first place. The best thing I ever did for myself was to ask for help. A friend of mine who owns her own business working with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities was my point of contact for figuring out the how to’s of this business. Asking my mom to help support my clients with I was short staff or needed to go into a meeting. I recently hired a job coach that is giving me the tools to learn how to be a business owner, I am learning to trust my staff. They can and are able and want to handle more than I have been allowing them to do.

If I can offer any advice, it would be to keep pushing forward no matter the obstacle that is in front of you. I get to witness this first-hand every day through my clients. They have not been given an easy road in life. They hear NO more than the hearing a YES, yet they wake up every morning with a smile on their face ready to take on another day. If they are able to do it, then we can too!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Roost Training Center story. Tell us more about it.
The Roost Training Center is a service provider to adults 18 years and older with various intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our clients are on what is called a Supportive Living Service waiver or a Developmental Disabilities Waiver. These waivers grant our client’s money to attend programs such as ours that help with their ongoing need for supports within there home, work and community.

The Roost specializes in offering our clients prevocational services as well as community supports. What makes us different is the way we structure our prevocational program. The Roost Co-Op is what our prevocational program has turned into. The Roost Co-Op was created to give our participants the opportunity to learn real work skills and earn a profit for the work they do. All participants who attend The Roost Training Center and receive prevocational services are all equal members of The Roost Co-Op.

What I am most proud of as an organization is the way we care for our participants, their families, and our staff. To us all people matter. We encourage participants to foster relationships with one another, parents to connect with other parents, and staff to be tight-knit. This family-like culture and the belief that we are all capable of being the best versions of ourselves provides a unique and respectful environment that encourages participants to grow. We are providing excellent programs by how we teach. Our program looks at every moment as a teaching moment- an opportunity for participants to learn concrete life skills. This includes everything from conflict resolution techniques and emotional regulation, to advocating for themselves socially and professionally.

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
The best advice I have for finding a mentor or networking is by talking to anyone that is willing to listening. Find someone that has been doing what you’re doing for the same amount of times as you or who has 20 plus years experience on you. Take them out for coffee, ask all the questions you can ask. Learn from them. Be open to change. Trail and error is ok.

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Image Credit:
The Roost Staff

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