Hi, this is Sarah with connect our elders. And today I'm here with shifra belty Nester, the CEO of social bridge. So I hope I did not hack your name too bad. I really appreciate you being with us here today, I have definitely been following the work that you're doing, you know, via social media, I've been keeping up with the things and I can I can tell that your heart is 100% focused towards helping our elders. So with that said, Could you tell us about what is social bridge? What's the mission? What's the vision? So social bridge is, first of all, it's a nonprofit organization. And our mission is to alleviate elder loneliness, and to build relationship between the generation. I truly believe that if we create those connections between generation, we will create much more stable society. I often say that, you know, I see society as a house, and the elders are the foundation of the house. If the foundation is shaky, the whole house is unstable. Absolutely. And I think that I'm, I'm interested to hear what you have to say about this. So I very much grew up with my grandparents as part of my life. I mean, I would sleep over there more often. And I had both sets of grandparents. And so I think I have seen some articles here and there about how the relationship between the grandchildren and the grandparents is so important. But over time, our society has become increasingly geographically separated. And so it has it has chipped away at those familial relationships. And so how does social bridge help with that particular factor? So the mission, as I said, was to alleviate elder loneliness, the vision I have is, imagine a situation where you are here in San Diego, and you go and visit your neighbor, five Doors Down the street, once a week, every other week, just building relationships with them. Their children live in Arizona. And they visiting someone else in their neighborhood, who's their children live in Oregon, and you get the picture. Right? Yeah. So by Korean because we become such a transient society, where, you know, and in the US is more than many other places in the world world, it's huge. And I frankly, we go to Orange County here from San Diego, it's still two hours on the road. It's a long time to be on the road, to go and visit in between soccer, basketball, swim thence, and all the slew of activities. So if we create those little communities, where, in a sense, we're adopting, the elders in our neighborhood, can mimic the good all sleeping over with banter, or having relationships with grandparents. Right, I love that. So basically, we're going to mimic how it really would be but um, it's basically you know, my, my children don't have access to their, their, you know, actual grandparents because we live in this state. So, we borrow your grandparents for this. And, you know, and that's gonna really help the elder and the grandchildren to be able to develop, you know, to have that social interaction. Yeah, I see, I just had this huge vision in my mind of this network spreading out across the United States. Exactly. And just imagine you know, you have that those images when you know, in technology, you have all the network, you have the dots connecting the network. map like that, where the dots are the people and the connection between them. Right, right. That is so beautiful. What, what is your why behind this? What led you to have this vision? So what happened is in 2018, after 18 years as a director of technology in a private school here in San Diego, it was time like any teenager to leave home. Really the school, I, I have a lot of passion to education and to relationship and really understanding people, so we can connect much better. And so after. Yes, and I went to my mom, my mom is right now for a fact, generally. And she lives in as well, which is far away, I'm trying to get there twice a year, unfortunately, with COVID is not as easy. You know, went there, as always sitting at lunch with her friends and hers. And they were talking, sharing about family. But suddenly, I have no idea what but I heard what they not say. It was, for example, someone say, My son is so successful, he's now the manager of the department is working so hard. So in the weekend, he just wants to rest, so I hardly see them. And another one say that no one had time to stop work and come pick her up for wedding. So she didn't go to the wedding. Exactly. And it was like, Oh my god, they're so lonely. They are lonely. And I think that I think because from my experience, and I carry a lot of guilt about this, and I'm you know, I'm constantly working through that, but it's the guilt of I didn't go home and see my grandparents a whole lot when I when I left. And I don't see my mom a whole lot. I didn't see my dad a whole lot. Um, so but it's the thing is the grandparents and your parents will never tell you well, that's my experience. And that is my experience. You know, when I'm talking to a lot of them, like they will never say, hey, it's really bothering me that you don't come and see me, I wish you'd come see me because what they lead with because they're your grandparents and parents is how proud of you they are that you are, you know, succeeding and but they keep all of that loneliness tucked inside. It's really sad. Really? Yeah. And it's exactly that. And it's interesting, because after that, you know, I tried to push it away because I had other plans. But it kept bothering me. So I started reaching. I said that for sure there is a solution out there. I'm sure there is at least one organization that decided to tackle that. I couldn't find anything. And I said, Okay, that doesn't make sense. So now my next step, second step was, I need to check if it's only my mom and her group of friends, which might be or it's much bigger scale, and I interview about 100 plus by now, seniors and professionals. And like you said it was most common answer was we don't be want to be a burden on our kids or grandkids There are so busy. There's doing so well. We are so proud of them. That was the same bargain. I asked them straight, because that's who I am. I'm asking Frank question. I'm not going around, I want to know the truth. I asked them how often they feel lonely. They said, you know, most of the time, and especially at night, because in the morning, they have a lot used to have right? It's now it's a problem with COVID. But they could go to a senior center, they could go to the church, they could go somewhere. But they say when we coming home, the wall falling on us, it just asked on TV. So it's a problem. And I said okay, I whoever I am with my heart and compassion and the values I'm living by, so they cannot let it be I have to do something. I applaud your passion for this. Because when I think about it, it makes my heart hurt. You know, because you guys, those of you in the audience, you know, think about this. It's not like it's just a couple of days. I mean, we have elders in our society that are going a month with or more without actual social interaction and day after day. So think of the times when you've been lonely yourself and then just think about that for four years that they suffer through this loneliness. It's horrible. Now and the thing is, it's only been exacerbated by COVID. And I think it was you she for I think I saw a post from you on social media. You had a gentleman that Sad, and I think he was what 87. And he said that he would rather die from COVID than die from loneliness. Yes. Yes. And, and that's where they are actually, you know, I spoke with my mom, I'm speaking with her every day, this morning. And she said, You know, I'm tired of it. What the point for me to be isolated and not to be able to see anyone. There is no point in life when we cannot interact with each other with the people we love with the people that care about us, you know, right, whatever the situation is, and it's COVID, the problem of loneliness didn't happen with COVID COVID, what the call I say with it, no regret and no COVID was the biggest present gift that the universe gave the older population because it put the spotlight on their loneliness. And it's, it just made it much more, much bigger, because even the limited interaction they had they lost, but it was here before and if we will not do something as a society, it will stay here. It will only to me. So I love I you know, I pay attention to what you and and your husband, you know, you guys do a lot of you do a lot of deep thinking, and you share that with all of us. And I love that. But I love how you guys have a knack for taking something in and no matter what finding the positives that can come from it. And so I absolutely agree with you that the one thing is, is that people are actually having conversations about our elders in speaking seriously about how we can better connect them and provide for them and that that needed to happen. So what do you how do you go about connecting people or providing this companionship or this connection, I don't know, if you're actually doing physical companions, or if you're using some sort of technology platform, or how you guys operate? Look, as well, although I was the director of technology for 18 years, and I believe technology is has more than 50% of the issue of loneliness, not just with the elders, but with society. in general. With the elders, it's even more, because we think that this device, solve the problem. At the end of the day, human being need the human physical connection. So we don't need to hug every time. We don't need to hold hand every time. But just to sit and talk eyes to eyes with no glass in between us. Aren't we like a pack animal? We are. And it's more than a pack. You know, sometimes even just to have one or two people around you the queue no cares about you is enough. But because we become such a busy society, and running after the activity and to do more and get bigger house bigger, car bigger, better kids. Everything is a competition about how bigger is we have no time we lost time. I don't know if you saw my post from Few days ago where I went to work and I forgot my phone. And suddenly the 30 minutes break that I had was much longer. Yeah. I was not checking my email, answering clients question. It was not it was quiet. So I use grant I was thinking about this. What you were just talking about how our time we you know, we have no time because we're working so hard. we're so busy trying to get the nice car, the big house this any other. But I really thought about that. I don't I don't remember what brought it up in my mind the other evening, but it was the question of is it really that we don't have enough time to reach out to people and connect with them? Or is it because we are choosing with our free time to mindlessly scroll and I make a point now with my own social media, like it's very strategic. I use it a lot for business, right and I do use it to connect with friends and stuff. But I remember there's been times where I'll just mindlessly scroll because I'm just passing time well If that's the case, why not actually send a message to somebody if you are opting to use the social media or pick up the phone and call or go and visit? Right? So like, it's, like, it's a matter of prioritizing what exactly, exactly. in society again, especially, I don't believe it's only in the United States. However, in the United States, I can either say everything is bigger and more extreme. And the problem is that we, in the US are the only future that we, when we see someone, all of it, basically put the mirror in our face, and show us the truth that we will get old, and we will have wrinkles. And at the end, we will die. So it shows us the truth. And we don't like to see the truth, many of us, but there is no new waiting. That's the thing. Like if you work with people that like you and I work with you realize after a while that it is a reality. So you may as well embrace it. And you know, like what I say for my organization connector elders in power it right. So let's deal with it in an empowered way with with resources and lends more, you know, it's respecting it. Oh, I like that. I really like that. It's respecting, because look, and I spoke with someone yesterday, and I was really angry, because we go into artificial intelligent, and we go into artificial taste. And we go into artificial flavor. And soon enough, we will go into artificial people. But it's official, it's not true. It's not reality. It's just something we create, to minimize our Gil, to think that we solving a problem, although we don't end up and honestly don't even think that artificial intelligence can replace the real intelligent, because the real issue of an election. It's more it's even more intelligent, and the wisdom they carry from life experience. We like fabric is the fabric of society in passing down the stories. I mean, that that is how our culture is built. And that's how societies progress forward, right? Is the trickle down of the stories generation after generation are the values the traits and experiences so right that? Yeah, and what do we want our grandkids? great grandkids to have? Do we want them to have artificial intelligence, tell them how they need to live their life? No, we want people to tell them, because the the artificial thinner will never be able to replace the depth of the human wisdom. And that we can only get from the people. Yeah, in our neighborhood, our grandparents, our other teacher from second grade that she's 90, some now we need to keep them part of the community, not throw them away. And I'm sure you see that too. I do. I'm sorry, I could talk about this stuff all day long. So I what I see a lot is there are lots of resources, you know, of course, and there are wonderful community resources that people can take advantage of. But oftentimes, what I'm running into is that if people need assistance, or they need this interaction there, they're having to pay for it. Right? And no, it is it can be quite expensive. And so the question is, what do we do? What do we do for these elders that we have in our community that are, you know, just desperate for some sort of interaction but can't afford to pay? You know, 27 to$32 an hour for it? What can we do for them? So what the social bridge work with a framework that called ICU plus II, which is we identify the needs, we connect between or two with the people We understand the situation and their needs. And then we educate the people so people don't volunteer. And right now, it's only volunteer base. Although I'm really thinking of increasing the capacity of servicing seniors, we really train our volunteers to create the connections, and the connections need to be built. It's not always it's like dating, right? You don't go to the bar, you don't go to the bar and pick up a boy and say, hey, let's go date. The relationship, pretty aggressive. I mean, I'm married now, but I know, I believe you can send I was aggressive too. But still the most people, right. And you and I believe, Sara, that you and I really have no problem go knocking on the next door neighbor, older person and start connection with them. Right. Right. Right. So yes, we have this ability to build relationship. And actually, what social bridge do is basically helping organization to manage their relationship with their elders. So the organization itself, like the house will be much more stable. So we working with the with organizations, to build a stronger community, including the elders, and we work in with the individuals to go and visit the neighbors, because the idea is convenience. Right, so so there's like that geographic locality to it, meaning meaning you're matching volunteers based on you know, if they're geographically close, because you're trying to the community at large, which is going to really involve the elders not only just because they have a volunteer going to visit them, but you're building the fabric of that specific community. Exactly. Exactly. Because strong community is a safe community is a community that you really feel home at is a community that you feel comfortable. It's the community that you feel welcome, in that reduce hate, violence, crime, and everything. So there's that element to it, too. I like that we have a question from a friend of mine, Paul, civil Lani. Paul, I really apologize because I think I tried to say your name one other time, and I didn't know how to say, really get on the phone call. So you could tell me how to say it. Right. But anyway, Paul has a question. And the question is, what happens if the senior is not technology literate, and we're still dealing with COVID? So it sounds like this question is centered around using technology to facilitate this connection. But if what I'm hearing from you, she froze that you guys are using volunteers that obviously you screen and make her say it make sure say, to go and do the human connection. Right, right. So even with COVID, they're still there, the safety protocol. So when I'm going to visit elders, when my volunteer going to visit, we all having masked and we all having gloves in we keeping the distance, some I will visit outside we sit six feet apart, and we have a conversation, just to see someone smile to you even from six feet apart, make a huge difference in their, in their total feeling and being because they know I did an effort to come and visit them. I cared enough to keep them safe. And to keep myself safe. Because if I will say that I will not be able to visit them. Right? So there is that synergy. I'm going back because I'm going back to a child in a month there is synergy between the child and the mother. They both know they want the best for each other. Yeah, and just by that feeling that you know someone cares about you. You feel better and more protected and safe in automatic boost to the psychosocial well being of her is what I'm thinking and and I feel like everybody, everybody has a desire to be seen right now and that doesn't go away. You know, people I think you often will think about the toddler Mommy, Mommy, look at me, your Daddy, look at me. You know and of course as we're growing, you know, we want people To see us and what we're doing all of that, but that does not go away just because somebody becomes an elder that people want to be seen. Yeah. And as I said before, I am not a huge technology as a solution, it can be a solution, but it's not the solution. Because even if I'm talking with Sarah, right now, we are technology, I rather meet in the coffee shop and talk face to face. Because it's not the same, it's there is different dynamic on person to person. Again, we really strict about keeping safe distance. And everybody understand that I believe they do. I mean, I feel like people do these days is what I hear. If I had to put, like, super concisely, what you're saying is that, of course, there's a place for technology with, you know, keeping our elders connected, but technology cannot be a replacement for human interaction. No, cannot and must, honestly, must not, must not okay, I believe that us in the interesting, we must fight against, against the notion that it can replace the physical visit with them. Yeah. And hopefully COVID will be end in the end of 2021. And we can go back to really openly visit and drink coffee together, have more interactions. So absolutely. So as an organization, I'd be I just want to express again, how wonderful I think it is what you're doing. And the fact that it has a specific focus, right, which is, you know, generating that human connection as an organization. What specifically Can people help you with right now? So right now, as a nonprofit, we all need we need the donation, honestly, right now, because I want to grow the operation. And I feel I feel we, as society need much stronger and much wider network to work with it, and that I take time, money and energy. every donation every every penny count, and that's what we need the most right now. And donation can be made on our website, which is social bridge us.org. Okay. Do you have a vision of expanding to other countries one day? Yes, I first has the vision I am I hope that in 2025, we will have presence in every state within the United States. I love it. I my goal. We definitely need to make sure that we we meet offline from this podcast so we can discuss how we can much more closely collaborate, right? To get you to that point. Because this is, this is definitely Your welcome. This is so needed. Can you share with us what the process is? So if somebody right now in the audience is listening, and they say they recognize that they have a neighbor, who doesn't seem to ever have any visitors? What what's the process? How can somebody get in touch with you? What's the intake process? How do you end up getting them a volunteer? What does it all look like? So the flow is really if you know a neighbor, contact us, you can on the website, there is the email and the phone number, but the phone number is 858-376-7880. And you can call me You can call us we will pick up the phone and we start to get information how much information you have. In the past actually, when COVID just started. What we start doing is doing shopping for the seniors because they didn't want them shouldn't leave home and it's a great way to Start relationship. It's not on a social need that we less inclined to do. It's more on the very basic need of Maslow's Hierarchy where it's food. Yes, yes. I, I don't know if you know, so. So I have a nonprofit to vets for elders. And it's similar, but not as, like, specific as what you're doing. And in the beginning, when COVID happened, there were quite a few individuals that I had connections with who who just needed the basics of food. So we get information. So the process that I had with one neighbor that called about her neighbor is, you know, we need to have the consent to come and start talking with them. Right. So first of all, we we ask you if, if you mentioned it to them, and then if you just want to do it, what I will do I, I will give you, you know, a few ways to start a conversation, and basically icebreaker, if you may, how to really approach in and don't because it feels, if it's not part of your nature, it feels awkward. It's really, and I understand that. So we have ways of breaking that ice. And so it make it less awkward. That's very unique. I mean, that is unique. I've worked for numerous caregiving agencies, right, throughout San Diego. And yes, caregivers do receive training. But there's not a whole lot of focus training on how can you develop a rapport with the client, here's a list of icebreakers. And here's certain directions, you can take the conversation that would be so helpful to any organization that is employing caregivers, I mean, or any volunteers, right, any of the organizations out there with volunteers that need that little extra mentorship, on how to develop a relationship, right? And, and people call me as a matter of relationship, because it's very natural for me to create relationship. I go on the strip, I say hi, after three times, said, Okay, at this point, let's introduce yourself, I love you, I am too but it's not natural for everyone like mine, for example, I mean, be in a room with five people for an hour and not even say hi to someone like that, that would be the extent of it. Yes, and, and that's what I'm saying. So, I, what come natural for me and I with yours, as you see, you know, I have on my sleeve some experience, I learned that it's not natural for other people. So I start giving them tips how to do it. So it's less awkward. And you know, again, for your husband, it might be you know, start a conversation in last football game, there's not that many really these days, or for my friends that know how to bake, I said just take a plate with cookies, you know, the, the So, again, it's part of the Ico is I need to identify, I need to understand the need to connect. And once I have the picture, I have solution for almost everyone, I love that. So, so tell us again what is I see you and then you said there was an E so what was so I see you is identify, connect, understand and educate. That is beautiful. Because I am telling you right now like I this, your organization is going to grow, I have a very distinct feeling that it is going to grow. And it's going to grow quickly. And so I know I asked you earlier what you what you need, you know in that process and so for those of you listening, and then you know I will be re sharing this once I convert it to a YouTube so I'll make sure that we put a call to action in there for for donations. And basically we said $30 in $30 a month, which is less than $1 a day you sponsor a senior to have someone to come and visit them. I got that okay with them, shop for them, whatever they need, we will not take everyday activity. That's no we don't do. Right. We we we are just about the social interaction which we all so need. Everyone was it would be mutually beneficial. It's not as In the elder is the only one that's going to benefit from this concerted effort to connect, I mean, social interaction is a mutually beneficial experience. I mean, pending that it's a positive interaction. And it's not some sort of, you know, abusive situation. And that's why we we screen, people, you know, and I have a very cute story about a boy that start to pen pal with an older woman in assisted living. And there was some, he didn't feel comfortable, he didn't feel seen, right, looking back to the beginning of the conversation. And she basically gave him a lot of wisdom. So he can feel better about himself and really see his situation, from the family perspective, and not just for him. So she was able to connect with him. And, and show him something else. Because a lot of kids especially between the age of 10, and 25, they, they're not willing to listen to the parents mean, my daughter's 11. And that's already started happening. She thinks that she is so much smarter than me. And I was not expecting for this to happen until she was like 16, I was not expected for it to happen as a kid, but I can definitely relate to that that statement that you just made. And if she would connect to a senior understand her situation, everything can be better, because then she can even bitch and moan about you, which is healthy, honestly. Yeah, but she has wisdom on the other side, to calm her down, not to put more gas into the fire just to answer is this part of social bridge where you guys are matching up? pen pals, basically, between elders? And then and then younger kids? Yes. Right now it's spent off right before again, we trying to find an end there is a magic in the writing and the reading that it's that not not necessarily exist in technology. Well, I love that. I mean, I think that it's a I was talking about something else a few days ago, I don't remember specifically what but it was it had to do with the fact that we've gotten away from from the written word like actually writing and taking the time and just doing that can be very therapeutic or people. People love to receive mails now mail, you know, that's part of my marketing strategy actually is is sending out actual mail where they have to open the envelope, you know, within, you know, because we've gotten so far away from that for now. Yeah. Yeah, I actually have something and not it's not the letter mail. But right now I have, I'm piloting something called breaking bread. And, okay, yeah. And the idea is that, you know, when you donate$65 or more, you get two loaves of bread. Oh, my God, one for you. In one you need to take to an elder in your immediate community. This is phenomenal. I Oh, god, I'm so excited that I'm having the opportunity to learn about this and I cannot wait to help you more. What was that again? So you you donate how much you donate $65 and less. Okay, you don't have to see $5 Haha, one time if you want to do it monthly, there is a this country by $65 you get a box with two loaves, two and a half loaves actually. So one the, the two loaves one is for you. One is for the elder and the half loaves is to someone you trust will continue the chain and we'll grow the network and donate and we can continue that and create start building that connection that we both see in our mind. Yes, a common I'm gonna see if I can show it. Okay, so this is from arley de Arlene de she's actually a girl that I grew up with. Her sister and I were the same age. So Arlene, thank you for commenting. She said I agree sir. I loved this and then definitely will use these tips to social Connect hopefully with someone I typically wouldn't connect with. I believe everyone has a very reason for entering your life and molding us into who we are. I'm excited to hear more. Thank you for going live with us. Well, you are super welcome. And I think that what's unique about what she just said in there is that she is going to make a point to socially connect with someone that she typically wouldn't connect with. And I think that's important, how she said that, because I think that we always feel like, Oh, we should connect with our grandparents, we should connect with our parents. But if they're not local or whatnot, let's actually make a concerted effort to connect with the people that are around us, even if they're not our family. Yes. And you know, when COVID just started on March 16, I was on Channel eight, and then a few days later, channel 10, or vice versa. But he really my call was back then go and check on your neighbors. And because everyone tells him to stay home, and I believe there were a lot of people because I keep hearing, oh, I saw you. And you know, because of you, I start checking on my neighbor. So I keep getting that echo feedback, that that's what people do. And and we forgot, again, because of technology. And I think technology is great. But what technology did is took us from the village like neighborhood like living to something that is so far away from it. And what we need to do right now is bring it to the middle. Yes. And come down technology, increase social human interaction, and Let's marry healthy together. And a healthy balance. Yeah, I think that something that we're always working against, when it comes to this type of stuff is that it's easy to assume that somebody else is checking on that neighbor, right? If you have everybody assuming that the other person is doing it, chances are nobody's doing it. Right. And, and it's a problem. And, you know, again, because we fearing so much from getting old, and we're doing all those technology surgeries, that hiding the age we afraid to to be infected by them. My skin cream doesn't count, right? Like, no. You're saying that people, you know, with everything that is available to us in society, oftentimes people won't even realize that maybe somebody is as fragile as they might actually be. The reality is people become increasingly isolated, because their friends literally start dying off, or their other family members have passed away. And so their circle becomes tighter and tighter, totally, and smaller and smaller. And you know, when you get old, sometimes you will stop tolerate what you tolerate for 80 years. And you might be more Frank, and you might have less guards on what you say and how you say things. And I always tell clients, I said, Just take it on, don't take it personally as much as you can. Because it's not you that I say, you know what, they've earned their right, like they no longer they no longer have to have a filter, they have earned it at that point. Yes. And, you know, me I want to protect my volunteers too. So the again, it's it's that balance, since it's really to understand, to try and listen beyond the spoken words. A lot of time, when you listen to what people don't say, you will learn much more about them. And if you reflect back to them, what they didn't say, you will hear the truth. That's powerful. That's powerful. Do you think sometimes the stuff that can come out is it comes from a place of hurt and fear? Right? And I mean, also, because I've had many clients over the years where there's dementia, right? And so it's not really them saying those things. And so it's important to keep that in mind that you have to step into their reality, right? Because maybe they can't step into yours anymore. So just to, I guess, when it comes down to is just lead with love, you know, lead, lead welcome here. Which brings me to because I love it in your email signature block you you have this thing that says with motherhood, compassion, integrity, Respect. So we have a few minutes left. And so why don't we end with you explaining why those four different words are important to how you've established social bridge. Those four words is the values that I live in lead my life, and everyone around me when I, first and foremost, I'm a mother. My friend was laughing and say, You know what? creating social feeds, you basically said, I'm going to take care of all the orphans in the worlds. The fact that they are very old, they're still orphaned, and many of them are Yes, though. Yeah. So I'm a mother of this world. I am, you know, at the age of eight, they asked, What do you want to be when you grow up, I said, I want to be a mother. I want to have eight kids, and I want to stay a child. So I have four biological kids. And each one of them it is at least one friend that feels like home here. So I said, I fulfill my mission on that. And if you talk to my kids, they will tell you that sometimes I'm the most childish in the house to play and beat. Why they serious all the time. Oh, yes. So when I need to be I'm serious. But um, I love I love to have fun. And, and I think when when you have fun, you can bring much more compassion and care to your environment. Because you, you can see things in a different classes. We just feel happier yourself. Exactly. You know, we tend to treat other people much better when we're happier ourselves, you know? So yeah, so that's about the motherhood in compassion, you know, that's who I am. I have compassion as this again, as a child. I live in a we lived in Israel. And I lived in a kibbutz with a communal way of living. And everyone that had a dog in Israel that didn't want them anymore, came to any of the kibbutzim and put the dogs there, knowing someone will take care of them. And I always adopted those dogs brought them home. So, again, I always took care of those that needed care when, in when I was in high school, I always went in and was like, a big sister to someone, or so it's, it was part of who I was. It's who you are. Yeah, yeah, that's part of me. Um, integrity is, if you out of integrity, you basically out of my life, I don't like people that have no integrity. Don't try to butter me up or anything, be honest, be true. And, and I will I, if I will never cross someone with lack of integrity. It's, it's really nothing. And that's part of the other side of integrity is respect. Because yes, I don't respect you. I cannot be in integrity with you. Yes, it that integrity is, is paramount. I mean, it's one of my driving core values, because I feel like it feel like if you do not have integrity, when you're dealing with people, you're not even giving them the option to choose whether or not they want to be associated with you do business with you, whatever the case may be, but I mindlessly view or be honest with you, right? Because if you are out of integrity, everyone that doing business relationship life with you will be out of integrity, and then we create a society that is yucky to live in. Yeah, off kilter. Right? If you're if you're not in integrity with yourself, right, right. And, you know, I never really thought of that in two different ways. So integrity and honesty and how they're a little bit different, right? Or the feeling of being in integrity, but like, exactly if somebody is not being or dealing honestly, honestly with you, then the chances is that you're out of integrity with yourself and you don't even know it, which is dangerous. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, okay. So Yeah, so and social bridge is based on those values, comparison, which is the leading values of that. And in the long side, not that far away from it, you have the integrity and respect because, again, if you don't have respect towards the elders, that's what society have right now. Again, the bigger schemes, and we hear about elder abuse and elder scam that is right now, and it's breaking my heart every time I hear something. And so social bridge, integrate those cores value into everything that we do into the education into the the connection in you know, social bridge, like any business, the founder of the business, bring their own value into the business. Exactly. So it sounds like your volunteers will have the same set of values, otherwise, they will not be a part of the organization. And what came to my mind right then is that not only are you providing this, there's social connection for them. Now, if you're bringing volunteers to the table that have the same set of values, you're also providing like a protective force, right for these elders to ensure that they don't have the scam artists, or the other, you know, types of abusers coming at them, because they will have contact with someone, a protector is what you're providing, in addition to social. And look, I know in San Diego, there is a lot and in California, but there's a lot of laws that are supposed to protect the elders. But even with caregivers, even the caregiving companies not always know what really happened in the house. And when you have a volunteer that really come from the goodness of their heart to spend time with the seniors, you have another set of protective eyes on what's going on in the house, a friend, a friend, a real friend, and in your situation, right so if your parents and grandparents live so far away, you know someone is there to look to make sure there's food in the fridge to make sure the bill were paid, you know, they will not check on it, but they can with the training that I will do they will have the tools to smell if something is wrong and just to raise the question in your mind right to contact the family right contact you and have you contact the family and say hey, you know we have some concerns right here exactly. Because part of part of the system in non six nonstick situation right now in COVID situation is that there is every visit there is a report. Answering few basic question for the volunteers again, so we we can be another set of eyes for the families. Wonderful. Well, I really appreciate Oh, we have one more comment. Love this conversation. So important. But I have to say I love that. Well, thank you to who I have lots of hats, but they're all ballcap. So this is my first one like this, and I'm blushing now. Anyway, so she read thank you so much for being the guest today. And to those of you listening as a reminder, Schieffer is the CEO of social bridge, which is an organization specifically focused on creating social interaction and bridging the gap for our elders in the community with dreams of being in every state in the United States by 2025. So I will post the information to her organization, it is ww w dot social bridge us.org. And you can find the information on there. As a reminder, my name is Sarah and my organization is connect our elders. Our entire focus is providing education on various resources, the navigation through those resources and ongoing advocacy so that way we can connect our elders. Thank you so much again for being with me today. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And we need to connect offline. really well. Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye. Thank you.