Meet Shidiah Clark of Host Home Helpers in Firestone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shidiah Clark.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Shidiah. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Host Home Helpers essentially started in 1991, when I was only five years old. That’s when my mom became a Host Home Provider and our first client moved in with us. My grandma had also been in the field for a while at that point and went from Host Home Provider to SLS Provider as well as long-term respite. I grew up watching and helping them provide round-the-clock care for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I.D.D.) while running busy homes.

There are so many things that go into being a Host Home Provider, I didn’t quite realize how unusual of an upbringing this was until just a few years ago. I learned so many things about this rather fascinating field from just observing and assisting my mom in her daily routine, and watching people come and go in and out of our lives. It was just how life was for my sister and I.

At the incredibly young age of 18, I had my first daughter (and second shortly thereafter). I worked full-time in managing low-income apartment communities and spent most of my free time at my parent’s house, sometimes living with them through a transition or my second very challenging pregnancy). I enjoyed working in an office setting, but it wasn’t quite enough to pay the bills and I missed raising my babies. I almost simultaneously got involved in being a Host Home Provider myself and starting my own small direct sales business.

I’ve always loved working for myself, even from a young age: lemonade stands; painting decorative rocks and selling them out of my red-rider wagon; selling roly-polys, grasshoppers, tomato worms, and earthworms as fish and crawdad bait; running a small chore-doing business for my neighbors as a preteen; I was even nudged to someday operate my own Residential Service Agency.

After working as a Host Home Provider for almost 15 years, I had seen and experienced many, many challenges (and not just the daily things that most people don’t deal within a “normal” lifestyle). Several Residential Service Agencies that I contracted with had cheated me, lied to me, ignored me, used me, and left me to fend for myself in many situations that were definitely preventable and solvable. A lot of times they do the bare minimum that’s required by the state, if even. Many of them tout that they are supportive and care for their clients – but in reality, this is absolutely not the case.

They will move a client in and either leave you to sink or swim or be extremely overbearing. Not only is this a common theme for many Home Home Providers, but through my experience, I came to understand that Host Home Providers also deal with isolation, crippling depression and anxiety, overwhelm, extreme chaos, stress, and burnout (just to name a few). The final straw for me personally and what lead to the creation of Host Home Helpers was a situation that was so extremely stressful, chaotic, and expensive (to the tune of $10,000 worth of damage to our home), yet we were on our own. I had to go to desperate measures to receive calls back from the Residential Service Agency and Community Center Board/Case Management, and even then I was handled with disdain. No one cared!

That’s when I decided to be the change I wished to see in the world. It’s like a lightbulb came on and I realized my passion and purpose was to help the caregivers of people with these cognitive disabilities receive the support, advocacy, community, education, resources and leadership they so deserved. They need to know that living in constant chaos, stress, overwhelm, burnout, sickness, and agency manipulation does not need to be part of this lifestyle! Living a fulfilling, peaceful life and working with agencies that actually care IS possible!

So I started by conducting my own market research (there’s not a lot of information available for this specific group of people, ya know?). I spent a summer meeting with Host Home Providers, other direct support persons/caregivers of persons with I.D.D., as well as admin support persons (case managers & resource coordinators), and even executives and their assistants. What every single one of them told me was that the concept of Host Home Helpers was so very needed.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Absolutely not! Getting to the point of starting Host Home Helpers required me to experience first-hand what these caregivers go through. The things a Host Home Provider or any I.D.D. caregiver deals with on a daily basis are truly amazing and incredibly challenging.

There have been three major challenges with getting Host Home Helpers up and running. The first is harmonizing my regular everyday life with building a unique business. I have three daughters, ten pets, a large home, and am still a full-time caregiver. Finding time to practice what I preach (self-care & home management), along with raising kids and building a business is one of the most challenging and special experiences I’ve ever encountered. The second is that because Host Home Providing is such a unique field and most people are unaware of it, explaining what it is and how it works to someone who has never encountered it before is a process.

Every time someone asks me what I do, it begins a lengthy conversation packed with many questions and lots of awkward compliments. Part of this journey has included bringing light to and educating others on this magnificent yet often grueling service-based industry. The learning curve of how everything works and is connected can take years to fully understand. Even people who have been in this field for decades usually have a difficult time conceptualizing how and why Host Home Helpers desires to help fill many gaps in the support and resources that are virtually non-existent to these unique caregivers. And that is my third biggest challenge – helping other caregivers, case managers, admin support teams, and agency owners realize, understand, and implement the resources and strategies I’ve developed.

For every person who gets excited and tells me “THIS IS SO NEEDED!!!”, there’s one who doesn’t grasp how Host Home Helpers can help reduce the chaos, overwhelm, and burnout so that their caregivers and support teams can live more fulfilling peaceful lives. They don’t understand the value in up-leveling their company culture to attract and retain high-quality caregivers and provide better care for their clients. The long-term time and money savings are not an important investment to them.

Many agency owners and operators have told me that Host Home Providing is very low stress and easy and that their agencies don’t experience the common problems that their competition does. Clearly, they are out of touch with reality; my market research, their reputations, and the gossip mill proves otherwise. It is challenging and frustrating to show these agency owners/operators that the people who make up the foundation of their business are struggling and desperately need more assistance than they provide! It’s beyond challenging and frustrating that the lifestyle of chaos, confusion, overwhelm, stress, and burnout for everyone in this field is an industry norm and perfectly acceptable.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Host Home Helpers – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Host Home Helpers has two divisions. The first directly supports caregivers (not just Host Home Providers) of persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to reduce stress, overwhelm, confusion, isolation, anxiety, depression, chaos, and burnout through education, resources, and community so that they can live more fulfilling, peaceful lives.

The second partners directly with Residential Service Agencies to attract, train, and retain high-quality caregivers and staff, resulting in massive time/resource conservation, increased profits, advancing community reach, improved company reputation, better quality of care for their clients, and boosted employee/contractor loyalty.

What sets us apart as a company is that the concepts, strategies, and services we provide are extraordinary. We pride ourselves on being able to help a very deserving and often overlooked group of people.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
A lofty goal for us is to reach every direct support caregiver (Host Home Providers, Day Program Support, SLS, Respite, etc.) of someone with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities/Variations in the State of Colorado. We are very much looking forward to expanding the exposure and growth of our services, working with Residential Service Agencies who are invested in their valuable workforce and continuing to support the caregivers in many ways.

Pricing:

• Collaborative Agency Consultation – Free
• Caregiver Intro Workshop – $0-$500, Dependent on attendees (contact for more info)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hosthomehelpers.com
• Phone: (720) 209-1966
• Email: info@hosthomehelpers.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/hosthomehelpers

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