Ep 93: The "I Love U Guys" Foundation 2024
Episode 93
Published Nov 18, 2024
Last updated Feb 18, 2026
Duration: 48:31
Episode Summary
We were honored to have John-Michael Keyes, Stacy Avila, and Kevin Burd from the “I Love U Guys” Foundation in the studio today.
Episode Notes
The panel discusses how the foundation started, how it has grown to over 50,000 schools, agencies and organizations, and where it is headed in the future. They take a look at the mission, the messaging, the training, the instructors and so much more. “The “I love U Guys” Foundation was started in 2006 by Ellen and John-Michael Keyes following a school shooting that took the life of their daughter, Emily. On that day Emily sent two text messages… One to her mother, Ellen, "I love u guys. K” and to her father, John-Michael, “I love you guys.” Their mission is to restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities. Today, the Foundation is led and supported by survivors, family members, first responders and community members with a vested interest in safety, preparedness and reunification in schools.
View this episode on YouTube at https://youtu.be/CUMmyyxSjvs
Transcript
Bill Godfrey:Today in the studio, we've got some special guests, the I Love U Guys Foundation. Stick around, it's gonna be a fun conversation.
Welcome to the Active Shooter Incident Management Podcast here at the National Center for Integrated Emergency Response. My name is Bill Godfrey, your podcast host, and I have with me today, three very dear friends from the I Love U Guys Foundation. Of course, John-Michael Keyes. And he'll tell his story in just a second. We have Stacy Avila and Kevin Burd, and of course some of you may think, well wait a minute, Kevin Burd, isn't he wearing the wrong shirt? Yeah, he does have a couple different shirts he wears. Kevin is also one of our instructors here at the National Center, as well as being very, very involved in the I Love U Guys Foundation with John-Michael for a number of years. So welcome to you guys. Thank you for being here.
Stacy Avila:
Thank you for having us.
John-Michael Keyes:
Thank you.
Bill Godfrey:
Appreciate you coming down. So, John-Michael, I thought this might be a great opportunity for us to talk a little bit about where the foundation is going here in 2024 and some of the new directions and things that you're doing. But before we do that, why don't you talk a little bit about the foundation and how it came to be?
John-Michael Keyes:
Absolutely, Bill. And again, thanks for having us. The foundation was founded in 2006 and it was based on a text message. A stranger entered Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado and held seven girls hostage. One of those girls was my daughter, Emily. While she was held hostage, Emily was able to send a text message, "I love U guys." And ultimately, the stranger killed Emily and the Jefferson County Regional SWAT team then killed the stranger.
It's pretty impactful just being here, because one of those SWAT team members is sitting right next to me.
Stacy Avila:
Yes.
John-Michael Keyes:
Stacy Avila was the negotiator that day.
Stacy Avila:
Yes.
John-Michael Keyes:
And we started the foundation in 2006 and initially worked with other organizations in support of the mission to restore and protect the joy of youth. And it was in 2009 when we developed the standard response protocol, understanding that there wasn't common language between students, staff, and first responders in a variety of crises. And we started in 2009 and it was a humble start, but today the program is being used in over 50,000 schools, districts, departments and agencies.
Bill Godfrey:
And that's a huge impact. It's a huge impact. And Stacy, you and Kevin are overseeing the foundation's training programs, instructors and that kind of stuff. Tell us a little bit about where that has come from in the years that you've been with the foundation.
Stacy Avila:
Yeah, so when we introduced ourselves, I always find it kind of interesting 'cause we say, well, I've kind of been there since day one, right?
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Stacy Avila:
September 27th, 2006. And the opportunity to work with John-Michael and Allen has been so impactful for me and just a life changing, life changing that came from a life changing event.
And so we started in 2009, John-Michael and I would go out and do debrief for Platte Canyon. And I remember thinking, 'cause we'd always end with a little SRP, and I thought, well, what is this? What is he talking about? And you know, kind of from that moment as I was learning more, I just thought, this makes sense and just have been such a proponent for the programs since.
In 2017, I retired from the Arvada Colorado Police Department, retired as as a negotiator, and John-Michael gave me an offer and he said, "Would you like to come and do a little training, a little more than the debriefs? Maybe, you know, a couple times a month." And I think I was home maybe eight days in August, but not all together. And so it's, and since really kind of 2017 when I retired, it really kind of started picking up closer to 2019, where I started training more and just have kind of weaseled my way in more and more and closer and closer. And so now I'm the training coordinator for the foundation. So still go and instruct. And then in addition to that, taking the engagement coordination and getting the chance to talk to people and getting them kinda set up with the classes that would be the best fit for them. And so it's just been a remarkable experience and thank you for that.
Bill Godfrey:
Oh, Stacy.
John-Michael Keyes:
Well, you don't see this very often. You don't see a negotiator who was outside of that classroom talking to Emily.
Stacy Avila:
Yes.
John-Michael Keyes:
All day. And the family of a victim, in the same room.
Stacy Avila:
Right.
Bill Godfrey:
Yeah. Yeah, it is truly remarkable. Kevin, tell a little bit about how you became involved with the foundation. 'Cause I know it was quite some time ago.
Kevin Burd:
Yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
And how you've seen things evolve.
Kevin Burd:
So my introduction into the I Love U Guys Foundation actually came on April 19th, 2010. And at the time I was with the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office and running our special operations unit, which consisted of the county SWAT team, our school safety initiatives, which in 2010, I didn't know what that looked like or what that meant. I was just tasked with the county chief of detectives. The county prosecutor just said, "Hey, get a grip on what's happening throughout the county and see what we can do better or how can we get everybody to be coordinated."
And trying to figure out what is that cookie cutter solution, which we've never found. Right? Stumbled across this training that was being held in Hamilton, New Jersey, and it was the I Love U Guys Foundation. And then when I'm looking through the flyer, it has the SWAT team leader from that day and John-Michael presenting. And I'm like, this is interesting. We have a situation, an incident, where, lost Emily, but now the father and somebody from the SWAT team is there talking about it. This got my attention. So drive down. And I don't think there was a dry eye in the room.
Bill Godfrey:
There never is.
Kevin Burd:
No. And I remember at the end of that training, I handed John-Michael a business card, and I said, you're gonna never remember who I am.
John-Michael Keyes:
I didn't.
Kevin Burd:
And you probably have a fishbowl or something of all these business cards, you know, back at your house, but I need to talk to you. And the simplicity of what they're describing outside of talking about the debrief, what happened that day. But when they got into the standard response protocol. And reunification wasn't on the radar, then, this was 2010. I'm like, wow, this is so simple. I can take this back. I can even go back and sell this the superintendents, the the Chiefs Associations for Fire Law Enforcement, EMS. And I'm like, man, I think all of my answers are right here. So I did a little recon, an investigation.
John-Michael Keyes:
One of the events that we had going on was a motorcycle ride. And it started in 2006 spontaneously. And it was symbolic. It was a ride from Columbine High School to Platte Canyon High School. And the very first year we had like 3,500 motorcycles, 5,000 people show up. And the funds from that, the proceeds from that very first ride we distributed to the families of the other six girls that were held hostage. But it's an interesting event, because I've got the Blue Nights, a law enforcement motorcycle club, riding elbow to elbow with the Sons of Silence, which is.
Bill Godfrey:
Which are a law enforcement club.
John-Michael Keyes:
Correct. And it was kind of an unusual event, because it's also starting at Columbine High School. And the second year we added a 5K run to that event. And it was kind of fascinating because the SWAT team, A.J. DeAndrea was a team lead. And he gave me a call and he said we want it to run from the sheriff's office. And I said, AJ, we're doing that. It's a 5K run from the substation in Bailey. And he said, "Wrong sheriff's office. We want to run from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office." And I said, "Man, that's 37 miles." He said, "No, it's 38." And and it became a tradition. They ran that first year and my son Casey actually ran with him, and I think he kept up.
Stacy Avila:
Yes, built more for running than for tackling.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yes, exactly. And the following year we did the 5K again, and that would've been 2009, the next one, 2010. And we saw this registration coming in from New Jersey. What's that about? And recon.
Kevin Burd:
Yes.
John-Michael Keyes:
What was up with that?
Kevin Burd:
So one of my responsibilities was trying to coordinate from the first responder response to an active threat event, what's happening in school safety and trying to find a way to be able to present this to all the leaders of the county that I was in. And I knew the second, right, we all do this when somebody brings something up, we start hitting the internet. And I saw the parade and saw some of the folks at the parade and said, let me go check this out. Because if I came back, I wanted to have the answers before the questions were asked, right?
So went out and it just solidified all the thoughts that I had in my head. When I saw the community coming together, that's what I was looking for locally. How do I get, not just the first responder, emergency responder community together, from a parent and back then, I think my son was probably one, my daughter was probably three at that point. So I was trying to look at everything from a tactical perspective, but also a parental perspective. What can we push out that the parents are going to accept also? And hearing the story, seeing the community all come together, that's when it clicked for me. And I think 2011, 2012 school year, my county started using the I love U Guys Foundation Standard Response Protocol. And then eventually we got into the reunification discussions from there. So that was kind of the start for me.
John-Michael Keyes:
Well, and from our perspective, here's this guy from New Jersey and New Jersey's at sea level. Bailey, Colorado's about 8,200 feet above sea level.
Bill Godfrey:
I'm familiar. As a guy that lived his life at sea level. I'm familiar.
John-Michael Keyes:
And the guy from Jersey came in second.
Bill Godfrey:
That was also a decade ago.
Stacy Avila:
This may be a dispute.
Kevin Burd:
I think the SWAT team let me finish second because I made a trip.
Stacy Avila:
I know those guys. They would not have let you. You had a good showing, yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
So John-Michael, one of the things that I want to get you to talk a little bit about, and Kevin kind of touched on this. He said, I saw this material, I saw what he put together. And I said, "This is so simple. It's so straightforward. I can take this back. I can make this work." And that was one of the things that struck me about all your materials, but specifically with SRP and then SRM. Is the messaging, it's very specific. It's very carefully crafted, to be very understandable, but also the layout of the documents, the fonts, the colors, the accents, the callouts. I'd love to hear a little bit more about how that came to be in terms of understanding that if you were gonna be successful in pushing this out, you needed to wrap it in this, not just this simple message, but it needed to be done in a very professional way.
John-Michael Keyes:
So that's kind of a perfect storm, Bill. My wife Ellen and I had a type and design house in Denver in the eighties and had twins in 1990 and couldn't meet a deadline. But part of that got us into the software side of things. And if you think about typography and type setting, that those were some of the first computers that were used in business before PCs were being used.
And so we've got a background in graphic design and communication, and arguably in the education market, we're competing against perhaps the most talented graphic designers on the planet, textbook designers. And we knew that in packaging and producing for that specific audience, that it couldn't look like a mimeograph. And I may have to talk to the audience.
Bill Godfrey:
I was gonna say, you're gonna have to explain what mimeograph is.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah, it's in the basement and it smells funny, but it makes duplicates in blue.
And so we were cognizant of that. And the message itself is really very simple. There's today five simple actions that can be used in a response to a variety of unusual events that happen at schools. But Ellen and I brought that graphic design and the packaging to the materials from the very beginning. And the other part is, we made it available at iloveuguys.org at no cost. And we love saying not just at no cost, but not even an email address. And so frictionless downloads have been part of our DNA from the very beginning.
Bill Godfrey:
And I can't overstate this enough. I think those things that you, the messaging, the layout, the care that went into it, but also removing that friction, the fact that you made it available for free and that it didn't require a download for somebody to go look at it. And then once they look at it, you're looking at something that you think somebody spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at some graphics arts house to really kind of do this and illustrate it. It's just amazing. And you put that love and care into every document that I've seen coming out from the foundation, including the website, it's all thoughtfully laid out to get to what?
John-Michael Keyes:
It's always been a real simple proposition. Take a look at the materials. If it works in your environment, you can download it at no cost, not even an email address. And if you think about it from a traditional sales perspective, there's no sell there. If it works for you, use it. And that's always been the philosophy. And I guess it's worked out.
Stacy Avila:
It's worked out all right.
Bill Godfrey:
Yeah. You said 50,000 schools and districts across the country. At this point, you're in every state, I'm assuming, every state and territory. Yeah, and I'm not aware of any other program that's even come close to accomplishing what the foundation has accomplished. And over the years, and I know, you know, Stacy kind of alluded to this, you spent an inordinate amount of time on the road.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
In fact, road warrior is not even a fair label for you. I think you maybe spent, what? 14 days at home a few years. You were on the road nonstop.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
And struggled to keep up with the demand. You had to scale the organization. What were some of the challenges that you faced keeping the messaging and the purity of what you were trying to do as you scaled and brought other instructors in.
John-Michael Keyes:
That might still be a work in progress, Bill. I think the real key is the heart. And if the heart's in the right place, that's step one. But the other part of it is we've got a fairly robust baseline that needs to be met in order to achieve our training objectives.
And so we've got practitioners both from the educational side of things and from law enforcement. And that's really important is folks that have some of that practical experience as instructors. There's also a little bit of theater in the mix. We don't deliver a traditional PowerPoint, if you will. There's brain science behind the presentation, both from a development and a presentation perspective. Stacy.
Stacy Avila:
Well, we hear this a lot from our class attendees. "This was unlike any training that I've ever had, right? I've never seen anything like this." And there's some of that goes into it. Also, I think, as you're choosing your instructors, they have a little skin in the game, right? So whether it's direct tie, like I might have, or the guy that stalked us from, you know, from the beginning,
Bill Godfrey:
Well put.
Stacy Avila:
You know, so it's, it's people, you know, the heart is paramount in that. And it's more than just a job, right? This is not just a training gig where we're going out just to make a little money. It's so important. And I always think this after I retired from law enforcement. You know giving up that badge, that's a huge piece of your identity. And for me to be able to replace it with a logo that is just impactful, and you might even make an argument that you can impact more of the world with the work that we're doing now, makes all the difference.
Bill Godfrey:
I know exactly what you mean in so many ways. I wanna revisit something you alluded to earlier when you were talking about the role that you play. You mentioned helping people that call, find the right training for them. Can you talk a little bit about that and some of what that means?
Stacy Avila:
Absolutely. So as soon as, you know, we're getting districts that have been here from the start, right? And so they kind of had an understanding. And so then that is a different conversation, then the folks I talked to that are just taking the first step and trying to figure out what is this, is this a good fit? And one of the things that I've really loved about this, it never feels like we're selling anything. We're just offering, if this is a good fit for you. And kind of talking them through that. A lot of times we might just be starting off with a half day standard response protocol class or just kind of an introducing, getting our feet a little wet about it. And then up to the other end of the spectrum where we have folks that are two day reunification exercise. We've been using this for years who are really all in, in the program start to finish.
So kind of finding the right fit for folks and also schools, you know, our rural school in Nebraska that has a hundred kids in the entire district, it works for them, but also a high school in Houston that has 4,500 kids using the programs as well. And that's been really kind of neat to see that we can tailor this to fit your environment and however unique that is.
Bill Godfrey:
Kevin, John-Michael mentioned, and Stacy kind of said it too, it's not standard training that people will say, this is not like a presentation that I've seen before. And I know exactly what they mean by that. But talk a little bit about some of the practical challenges of the presentation style and what that means for instructors when you're trying to make sure that the quality of the delivery is there.
Kevin Burd:
Yeah. And it can be a challenge, right? And I've been in a position now where I'm blessed and I got to watch John-Michael present for years. And then it was about 2015, 2016. I see this ASIM training and I just stalked.
Stacy Avila:
You stalked, again.
Kevin Burd:
I showed up in Conneticut and took.
Bill Godfrey:
He did. I first met him at a different state.
Stacy Avila:
Right.
Bill Godfrey:
Than the one where he's from.
Kevin Burd:
There's a trend there.
Stacy Avila:
Yes.
Kevin Burd:
There's a pattern there.
Bill Godfrey:
Your warrants are, you don't not have warrants still in Florida though, right?
Kevin Burd:
Not that I'm aware of.
Bill Godfrey:
Yeah, okay. Sorry.
Kevin Burd:
I was gonna go somewhere, we're gonna get back on track.
Bill Godfrey:
Yeah.
Kevin Burd:
Watching John-Michael engage the audience. And I could tell from an instructor perspective, whether it was a field training officer, early two thousands all the way through. There's something different about this presentation. Then finally it clicks. It's like, wow, he's going through a lot of slides and this is like a story I'm watching, a 20 minute newscast where it seems like, hey, I'm getting your attention. Then we're filling it in and boom, right off to the next thing and then go to the ASIM Advance class. And all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, there's a lot of engagement and interaction going on in here.
So two trainings that I've been able to be a part of, looking at the theatrics, the theater piece of this, and getting in the front of the room and owning the room. And somebody may have said to me over the years, like, or pulled me out of a room into a side room and said, hey, you are here for a reason. There's a reason why you're here. And you don't have to reduce your experience or your knowledge or your credibility to get somebody's attention. Like, hey, I'm not an expert in this area, but I'm gonna talk about it for the next 15, 20 minutes. No, you're in front of the room and you own it.
And I think part of it, some instructors that we've come across over the years have the heart, have the passion, but the front of the room may not just be the place for them, right? But we can find ways through professional development and instructor development workshops and things along those lines to try and bring that out of 'em. But at the end of the day, I think we would all agree we want to leave the attendees, the participants, the students, put in a better place than we met them.
Stacy Avila:
Yeah.
Kevin Burd:
And having the ability to engage the audience, have conversations, all those little tricks of the trade, if you will. And, you know, here's a conversation I had over the summer. Open up an ASIM Advanced class. And if those of you that have attended the Active Shooter Incident Management Advanced class know the beginning and opening where we talk about a few folks, and I like to throw a little line in there, you know, how would that impact you if you lost that person also, during one of these incidents?
When we finished the advanced class and there was a ASIM basic right afterwards, I started talking through some trainer tips and, hey, you heard me three days ago open up this class. And I talked about we're trying to pull the heartstrings. Some call it the hook, some call it, I've heard WIIFM right? What's in it for me? You're trying to get their attention. When I talk through about how I tried inflection in the voice and look at somebody in the eyes and talk about that teacher, you know, Mrs. Johansen's, a sixth grade art teacher. When I told them they weren't actually true stories, he yelled at me. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second. What do you mean? I'm like, no, this is a part of, but it can be real. It is real.
Stacy Avila:
It is real.
Kevin Burd:
It is real.
Bill Godfrey:
It is real. It's a fictionalized illustration that incorporates the totality of the impact of these tragic events. And that's, and you know, kinda like the names were changed to protect the innocent kind of thing.
Kevin Burd:
Yes.
Bill Godfrey:
It's a fictionalized piece that in each piece of the story, it represents things that have happened for real that are, you know, absolutely horrible as they go through it. John-Michael, he mentioned, Kevin mentioned the PowerPoint, or well, sorry, Keynote, because you're a Mac guy.
What's your slide count now?
John-Michael Keyes:
I don't know, it's 1100 slides.
Stacy Avila:
1167. I know that because I had a project that I had to go through each slide and say the intent of it. And it was, yeah, we're about 1167, which people cannot believe 'cause they go quickly. And to Kevin's point as well, we're going through a range of emotions through the day. So yeah, there's some hard topics that we're discussing, but a lot of humor built in as well, so that we get you the hook is exactly right. 'Cause that's a good negotiator term. We're getting everyone's attention right at the start. And then it just nicely segues into what we're gonna talk about. And we have a lot of eyebrows raised when we're like, oh, you were just south of 1200 slides and I didn't see you look at any notes.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Stacy Avila:
Yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
And therein lies why it is quite the challenge to be an instructor for the I Love U Guys foundation. That's an eight hour day and a lot to know that deck cold as you move through it.
So as this scaled up, and I know you and I have talked a lot over the years, you know. We were talking last night at dinner, I'm trying to remember, and I was racking my brain. It's been over 10 years,
John-Michael Keyes:
I think it's been a decade.
Bill Godfrey:
Yeah, I just don't remember the exact date. But over the years, we've both talked about the challenges with doing the training and while you're focused on schools, and we're obviously focused on law enforcement, fire, EMS, that public safety response to these events and how to manage them. We have a lot of the same challenges in terms of providing the good quality training and scaling that up as things go. But I also know that you experienced the same thing that I did. There were a lot of years of grinding where it seemed like we couldn't quite, it just seemed like an uphill battle the whole way. And then all of a sudden in a fairly short period of time, the demand starts growing in a way that you really didn't see coming, didn't anticipate, didn't expect. And that creates some real challenges to meet the need and cause you to scale the foundation quite a bit. Because I know it goes by as a blur.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Bill Godfrey:
What do you remember from those challenges in those days and things that you think went well as you went through it and some of the challenges that, you know, if you had the inevitable do-overs, which we never did, you might do a little differently.
John-Michael Keyes:
Well, some of it's about focus. A nonprofit is an interesting animal. And we spent some time in the early days doing some traditional nonprofit things, donors, management, galas, events. And one of the epiphanies was that training is a mission-driven activity. A gala isn't necessarily a mission-driven activity. And so finding that balance of sustainability that allows us to develop and continue to iterate programs and still offer them at no cost. It was understanding mission-driven revenue models from a nonprofit perspective.
And so we've seen districts, departments, and agencies implement the programs without any intervention on our side and do it with fidelity. But our training became one of those things that could add value to the district, department or agency. And so scaling up the training, there were a couple of missteps in that. And yet we've got folks that have been doing it now for decades. And so we knew it was possible to have somebody not John-Michael training.
Stacy Avila:
That was tricky though, right?
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Stacy Avila:
Because in fact, I was in a little town in Texas and I go in that morning and the superintendent comes to meet me and he says, "You are not John-Michael." And I said, "No, I apologize if you, sent the understudy." I think we kinda make that joke a little bit. Had the same situation. But I think that there's enough of your fingerprints on the slide deck, on the conversations, where we can have the fidelity for the presentation, but also adding in some perspective that is a little bit new. So having law enforcement perspective, having the educator perspective with some of our instructors, it really, still, the message still hits home. The understanding and the concepts of the training are still right there.
Kevin Burd:
And as you grow, a couple things always come into my mind, and that's that balance, whoever that instructor is, know enough from the first responder, emergency manager, school side, to answer those questions in front of the room. So balance, having enough knowledge, and that again, I find myself in that position wearing a lot of different black shirts. They all seem to be black for some reason.
Bill Godfrey:
Schizophrenia. I dunno.
Kevin Burd:
Having some institutional knowledge from all these different programs and bringing it in to, again, build that credibility when you're in front of the room, but consistency as you're growing and as you're scaling, keeping the trainings, the slide decks consistent, the messaging consistent, and yeah, you can personalize a little bit of it, right? Without going off into the war stories, and I know you and I have talked about that a lot over the years.
What is the objective of this slide? What's the intent of this slide? What message? And if you can relate a brief work experience or something you've come across, great. Throw it in there to reinforce that learning point, that learning objective. But keeping the consistency, I think as you're growing. How do you maintain that consistency with the training day in and day out as you expand from three, four, five of us doing it for the first how many years? And I know on our side 30 some instructors and about the same C3.
Bill Godfrey:
We actually just crossed 50.
Kevin Burd:
50, yeah. So how do you keep that consistency between keep going from training to training and yeah, there's gonna be some slight variations, right? That's expected. 'Cause you don't know what questions you're gonna get from the audience, what group of students you have. And we ran a study over the summer and what we found on the attendance side was about 20% of our audience is law enforcement. I think it was 17% emergency management.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Kevin Burd:
Which was very interesting from our perspective. And that even goes back to some of the calls Stacy gets. Who's calling? Is the 50 students school in a small rural Midwestern town? Or is it the emergency manager who wants a plan? How can I roll this out throughout my county? How can I roll this out throughout my state? And that's a different conversation, but we can tailor it to all that. But maintaining that consistency, not giving up the quality of that training. So at the end of the day, you're still leaving the students in a better place than they were when they first walked in.
Stacy Avila:
And I heard some feedback from newer instructors that were, well, I realize I'll never be able to do this like John-Michael, or I'll never be able to do it like you or Kevin. And I always wanna say, no, no, no, don't think that way. Because I remember of the years of watching John-Michael and getting to watch Kevin, how can I do that? Right?
Yes, it will still have my individual perspective, but I wanna do that because I saw how you owned a room right from the start. And I'd always thought, oh, you know, I'm a decent public speaker. I can do this. I talk for a living. But there was a different feel to it. And as soon as that became clear, I knew I needed to study it. And that's what we want from our instructors. Not thinking, no, I can't do this, how can I do this?
John-Michael Keyes:
The brain science, there's a ton of brain science in this. And you touched on it. You you start with that emotional hook. We tell Emily's story, that emotional hook. It turns out humans learn much more efficiently when there's an emotionally charged event in the mix. And so we start the learning by setting that emotional hook.
And certainly over the course of the day, there's some humor, there's some heart. But it is deliberate. The stories are told deliberately. Humans learn more efficiently through storytelling and putting all of that together into the presentation and someone listening who hasn't seen it, you hear 1200 slides. There's a rule. There's no more than seven words on any given slide and there are more pictures than words. And so it's visual support of the spoken word versus bullet lists that is a more traditional presentation. And getting instructors into that mindset is an investment. We have them zoom themselves in today's world. They attend, they observe, they begin to participate, they go hands-on with our exercises. And that gives us an indication of where they fit in that training strata, if you will.
Bill Godfrey:
I think that really illustrates the thing. And for me, Kevin kind of alluded this as well, some of those challenges, I don't think that it is possible to walk the perfect path. I think you take a look at the situation, you call the shot the best that you can. And if it's off target, you adjust.
And so one of the things that has become a little more clear to me over the last several years is that what's important is what I'll call the vector. The direction that we're going. Now, we may meander a little bit. We may go a little left. We may go a little right. We may end up a little bit off target, but as long as that general vector, that direction that we're trying to go is the right way, then to me, that's a win. And as you are, I don't wanna say retooling, but as you look at where the foundation is at 2024 and where you're moving ahead, what is your vector for the foundation moving forward here from 2024? 'Cause I know you got some new stuff.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah, we've. We work with umbrella organizations and one of the first ones was TASBRMF, the Texas Association of School Boards Risk Management Fund. And it was an insurance pool that insured 1100 districts in Texas. And they saw our materials and they wanted to sponsor training specifically in Texas. And that gave us a model that we call curriculum adoption. And since then, we've worked with a number of insurance pools, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, but that also vectored us into other state level organizations. And so today we work with the Texas School Safety Center. We also work with the state of Virginia in the Center for School and Campus Safety in North Carolina and South Carolina and New York and Michigan and Nebraska and South Dakota.
Stacy Avila:
South Dakota coming on. Yes.
John-Michael Keyes:
Just came in. And the benefit of working with those state level organizations, is that they host training that can go to organizations that may not be able to afford foundation direct training. And so it's a fascinating expansion. And we've never sought to lobby or legislate our programs.
Our notion is that if it becomes a mandate, it's a checkbox. If it becomes an initiative, it gets done with fidelity. And so working with the state level organizations, they make it a recommendation and then they host the training. And so we've begun to expand into that state level hosted training umbrella organizations.
Some of them are less formal. Indiana has a wonderful model in how they promote school safety in the state. It's their school safety academy. And the state mandates that they've got school safety specialists. And every district has a specialist that is trained by the state. And that allows the Department of Education to evolve the program without being constrained by legislation. If they had legislated a specific program, they're stuck with that. 'Cause it's hard to move the legislation. By mandating that they've gotta have the specialists and giving the Department of Education the funding to train the specialists, we can then have evolution in practices.
And that model has been picked up in other states as well. And that's where we see some of that stuff going is, is let's facilitate an umbrella organization relationship, have them hosting some of the training they produce. Sometimes we'll produce customized materials for that specific state. And it's a way of expanding that reach with a state blessing, if you will.
Bill Godfrey:
I love it. It's a wonderful direction to go. I'm gonna wrap us up by asking this same question of each of the three of you. And Kevin, I'm gonna put you on the spot to start first, what do you wanna see for the foundation in 20 years?
Kevin Burd:
Ooh. So first and foremost, still doing what we're doing, making an impact. I believe as we move forward, we are going to see that number elevate. We're gonna go beyond 50,000, because we are starting to see more and more state level conversations and then just tipping our toes into the waters, if you will, on some international conversations going on. So I think this is gonna continue to expand, but I think from a personal and professional perspective, I want to maintain the consistency and the heart behind everything that we do. I don't wanna lose that.
And at the end of the day, I'm not a business guy, right? But I watched enough, read enough, tried to learn the business ends of things as you're growing and scaling something. And I don't wanna fall into that - As we got bigger, we lost our focus, or our vision, that vector. I don't ever want to lose that because this has been the most personal and professional. It's had the biggest personal professional impact on me for sure. And I don't want to ever lose that and made a comment to somebody recently, you know, that why do you do what you do? And I thought to myself for a moment, you know, I spent a large majority of my career working with some great professionals, right? And we were protecting people we never knew.
And I kind of look at that from the school perspective also. We have a group of trainers or it's hard to get teachers in the trainings, but we're impacting somebody. And if we didn't hook somebody in, we're taking that apathy, turning into action by creating an advocate, right? And they're taking it from there. So I never wanna lose that focus and what our mission has been from day one. Our mission statement at the foundation still stands from day one here 18 years later. And I want to, 20 years from now, I want that mission statement to still be in the same place and making an impact.
Bill Godfrey:
Stacy.
Stacy Avila:
Thanks a lot for letting Kevin go first. 'Cause now what do we say? Yeah, so much parallels exactly what Kevin says.
You know, I said at the start, that was an impactful day for all of us from the very beginning, 18 years ago. But to see what it has become, and I always think this, because people ask this after trainings, how do you do this? How do you go out and tell the story over and over again? I know that you get the same feedback. And I always think if I can just get one person in the room to have it mean something and then they make a change at their school, or their department, then it was all worth it.
And so it's, and I talked a little bit about this earlier, the impact that I know that I'm having now, you know, as a street cop in a suburb of Denver in Colorado, yeah, you can maybe impact and make a difference for a neighborhood or a specific family or the county. Now I know we are making a difference in the world. And you say that a lot when we're, you know, we're changing the world, and I really believe it. Absolutely. And so I wanna keep doing that.
Bill Godfrey:
John-Michael, 20 years from now, what do you want for the foundation?
Stacy Avila:
Not to travel so much?
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah.
Stacy Avila:
Sorry. I forgot to tell you, Indiana, you gotta go there in February again.
John-Michael Keyes:
Okay, perfect. We're actually working on that right now is organizational changes that will allow us to keep the heart and soul. I stepped down as Executive Director and I now have a new title and that's Director of Strategic Initiatives. And our new Executive Director is a Platte Canyon survivor. And she really is the new face of the organization moving forward in a very different way than I was. And yet I think, I think we all share the confidence that she's going to be able to 20 years from now have the heart and soul of the foundation. And it may look a little different, it may look a lot different, but I think the outcomes, the objectives are still all gonna be met.
Stacy Avila:
Absolutely.
Bill Godfrey:
I think that's terrific. And by the way, before we wrap up, Abigail says hello. My youngest daughter, I told her we were, we were doing this today, and she said to give you a big hug, but tell the story, if you would, real briefly about when you came down to do that training for Abby's school. She was attending a private school that did not have any programs set up at all. No school resource officers. And it was a fairly large school with kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. And I'd asked John-Michael to come down and to kind of see if we could get the conversation started. Can you talk a little briefly about that?
John-Michael Keyes:
It was of fun engagement. We actually did a little pilot of reunification in that mix. And I think we learned a couple things not to do. Again.
Bill Godfrey:
The vector was the right direction. We were a little bit off, yeah.
John-Michael Keyes:
But I think it actually highlights what some of the programs are, and that's a Trojan Horse because at the end of the day, we've got people working together who may not have worked together before. And you said the academy didn't have an SRO, but we saw a couple of county sheriffs in that room engaging with the staff and starting to forge that bridge. And I think that's one of the, the secret side effects of our programs is creating the bridge between public safety education and students.
Bill Godfrey:
And that's exactly why I brought this up, because that conversation that you started. You're right. They didn't have an SRO program. We did have a couple of the representatives from the sheriff's office in the room, and that started a conversation. Within a week after you left, they implemented SRP and SRM, which was wonderful. And they rolled it out, made a massive commitment. But the, excuse me, within six months they had a full-time SRO on campus.
John-Michael Keyes:
Yeah. We'll talk about the secret Trojan Horse effect in an upcoming episode.
Bill Godfrey:
Absolutely. Well, thank you all for being here.
Stacy Avila:
Thank you.
Bill Godfrey:
It was wonderful to talk about this and to share the history of the organization and where you're going in the future. And I know we're gonna have a couple of other conversations as well today to bring out some other items that we wanted to talk about. So thank you guys for being here. Everybody, please stay safe. And until next time.
I got that completely outta order, Karla. She's laughing at me right now. Our producer Karla's laughing at me. I thought I was gonna get through this one without goofing that up. Thank you to our producer Karla Torres, who keeps us running on time and gave me the 30 minute warning sign about 30 minutes ago. And until next time, stay safe.