This month, we chatted with the amazing Lincoln Folkers at Adaptive Heroes to learn more about this inspirational organization. Adaptive Heroes delivers fun physical, occupational, and speech therapies to those with intellectual developmental disabilities. It’s more than that, though: they’ve developed a mobile platform to help their services be accessible to those in rural and frontier areas!
Are you as interested and inspired as we are? Check out our interview with them below and learn how you can help support them!
Mission & Inspiration
Adaptive Heroes has such a beautiful mission. What was the spark that made you say, “We need to make this happen”?
“I watched a good friend of mine experience heartbreak over his son missing therapy. His son has Down Syndrome and when he doesn’t get regular therapy he becomes stiff and has a hard time moving. There is a significant lack of therapy slots available to those who need long term therapy and I saw the opportunity to change the way these therapies are delivered to the IDD population in rural and frontier areas of Colorado.”
In a world where access to care is often limited, especially in rural areas, why did you decide to take this challenge head-on with a mobile platform?
“The mobile platform is far more cost effective than a brick and mortar facility. Both the start-up and monthly operating cost is substantially less than a brick and mortar facility. The mobile platform also allows us to target multiple underserved areas and develop a regular therapy rotation for residents who live in these outlying areas. As we deliver care directly to these small rural towns, we’re able to accomplish 4 major objectives simultaneously. 1) Provide therapy services, 2) Build capacity through university partnerships and clinical, 3) Engage in education for high school students who are interested in a healthcare career and 4) Collect data to more fully understand and assess the true need in the State of Colorado.”
Can you tell us about a moment or experience that solidified your commitment to helping individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities?
“I knew I learned I enjoyed working with the IDD community when I had the opportunity to coach a Challenger Baseball team but my defining moment was seeing the pain in my friend’s eyes when his son’s therapy clinic rescheduled his therapy for the third time in as many weeks. I knew at that moment I had to do something about it. Through each story I’ve heard, each challenge I’ve witnessed and every hard earned success has solidified the determination to help improve healthcare offerings for the IDD community.”
Renovating a bus into a fully equipped therapy unit is no small feat. What were some of the biggest hurdles you faced in getting the bus ready to roll?
“There were definitely some hurdles but it was a really fun project. I’d have to say that the biggest hurdle was doing it without a set of plans. We had a great vision of what the end product needed to look like but none of us had ever done this before. We sort of had to take it step-by-step and figure it out as we went. I don’t know that we had a single hurdle or issue that stood out. It really went pretty smooth once we started the demo and build-out process.”
Fundraising & Support
There’s a 120-day gap before insurance will allow the bus to be self-sufficient—how are you navigating the pressure to keep things moving during this time?
“This is a hard question to answer. There is a lot of pressure (Self-inflicted) to get this bus in service but we are holding fast to our commitment to provide consistent services. As a board, we decided that we would not begin operations until we had 120 to 180 days of funding saved. The one thing we cannot have is a false start. This isn’t about organizational ego, we’re looking out for the best interest of those we serve. If we go into operation and run out of operating funds before our billing catches up, we leave our patients in worse shape than they were before we began operating. So, to answer your question, the pressure is real, but we are focused on the fundraising effort to support 120 to 180 days of operating cost.”
You’re on a mission to raise funds to hire essential staff. What message do you want potential donors to understand about the importance of this fundraising effort?
“Donors have and will continue to play a critical role in the success of Adaptive Heroes. We are appreciative for those who recognized the possibilities and believed in our ability to bring the bus from vision to reality. In under one year, we began a capital campaign, purchased a bus, designed the inside and fully completed the build out! We are so excited to get operations underway. We’re only a step away from hiring staff and rolling into service. We know, through the kindness and generosity of donors we’ll be able to make a HUGE impact in the lives of many living in western Colorado.”
What role do you see donors and supporters playing in the long-term success of Adaptive Heroes?
“Like I mentioned above, donors have provided the financial backing that allows us to achieve our mission. I believe they’ll always play an important role in the life of Adaptive Heroes. We’re a little different though. While we’re forever grateful for the donors who believe in our mission and support us financially, we understand the constant request for additional donations can become tiresome.
By design, our model allows us to achieve financial sustainability for each bus through billing medicare, medicaid and private insurances for the services we provide. Just to be clear, we’ll never turn anyone away because they are unable to pay. We’ll have a fund that is set aside specifically for those instances. Donors will always have the ability to designate or direct where their dollars go. They are the fuel that keeps the tires rolling.”
Vision & Future Impact
Fast forward five years—where do you see Adaptive Heroes, and what impact do you hope to have made by then?
“I love this question! It’s probably my favorite thing to think about. In 5 years, I hope to have more than 25 buses working all over Colorado and maybe even into eastern Utah. I’d like to have a brick and mortar facility in Grand Junction. The facility I have in mind is BIG. Its a place where new buses get refitted, our fleet gets maintenance, our therapy teams get training and refilled and we
are providing therapies in our state-of-the-art gym where we have new therapy students doing their clinical rotations! In my mind, this facility is full of life and represents every strand of our organizational DNA!”
If you could dream big, how would you like to expand Adaptive Heroes’ services or reach in the future?
“This is my other favorite question. Did I mention I am a visionary? I have some big dreams for the organization. We want to be a leading provider for therapies to the IDD and physically disabled population in Colorado and beyond. We want to advocate and make change in the world that allows this wonderful group of people to live more fulfilling and independent lives. I believe we can have a HUGE impact wherever we go!
I see us launching into new areas of the US with western Colorado ALWAYS being our central hub. I have a vision for smaller hubs strategically located throughout the US. These hubs will allow the buses to easily deploy to underserved areas while maintaining a tie to a central support site. It’s critical that our people and equipment get back to the hubs for regular maintenance!
There’s even a dream of reaching into Africa. Last summer my family and I had the opportunity to travel to Uganda and assess the possibility of placing a clinic on a partner site where our therapy teams could go and provide therapy services to the IDD population there. We came home with a renewed sense of vision and purpose. The need for therapy services and high impact advocacy is massive in this part of the world.
While we’d like to go immediately, our focus is getting the first, second, and third buses underway.”