Reflection
As part of its annual Allies event, APEX Events hosted Encircle, a non profit LGBTQ+ organization based in Provo, Utah. Encircle is a Family and Youth Resource Center for LGBTQ+ individuals that offers support and resources. Encircle seeks to deepen and enrich the conversation among communities of faith and LGBTQ+ people, and teaches individuals to love themselves and empowering families, cultivating an environment where LGBTQ+ individuals can thrive. The six representatives from the organization were Dr. Stephenie Larsen, Dr. Jared Klundt, Jordan Sgro, Marilyn Taylor, Amber McMillan, and Jacob Dunford. They were introduced to the stage by the SUU College of Visual and Performing Arts student senator, Billy Clouse.
Dr. Larsen, Dr. Klundt, Jordan, and Jacob were joined onstage with Dr. Lynn Vartan. Dr. Larsen began the conversation with sharing with the audience her personal story which led to the beginnings of Encircle as well as learning about the high suicide rates of young people who identified as LGBTQ+. Upon realizing the massive number of LGBTQ+ youth who didn’t and don’t have love and support from their families, Dr. Larsen, with the assistance of her uncle who had come out as gay, set forth to build a home in Provo, Utah that LGBTQ+ individuals could come to and be in a safe environment where they experience love and support for who they are. Due to the large numbers of LGBTQ+ youth and families that had traveled hours to come to the home, Encircle began building another home in Salt Lake City and will soon be opening a home in St. George on April 18th, 2020 as well as working hard to expand Encircle to more locations in Utah and even outside the state. Each of the representatives onstage talked about the many programs and therapy options that an Encircle home has to offer before engaging the audience in a brief Q&A session, asking questions ranging from how to volunteer at an Encircle home and fighting for LGBTQ+ rights from a legislative standpoint.
More information about the organization or how to volunteer.
- By Emily Sexton
Encircle Podcast Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, everyone, this is Lynn Vartan and you are listening to the A.P.E.X Hour on KSUU Thunder 91.1. In this show, you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over, learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations on stage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on to some new sounds and new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. or on the web at suu.edu/apex. But for now, welcome to this week's show, here on Thunder 91.1.
[00:00:46] All right, well, welcome into the show, everyone, this is Lynn Vartan and we are here on Valentine's Day week 2020. Oh, my gosh. And one of the things I love about Valentine's Day is that we do a show that just shares love of all kinds. So for those of you who know sort of my history with A.P.E.X., I've been working with A.P.E.X. for about three years now and each of the year around Valentine's Day, we do some kind of an allies related event. And so we want to celebrate the family and friends of our queer brothers and sisters all around Utah, all around our families and all around our communities. To that end, this year, we are featuring an organization called Encircle that is based here in Utah nd we have one of its main guys here to talk about it. So I'd love to welcome into the studio Jacob Dunford! Welcome!
[00:01:44] Lynn, happy Valentine's Day.
[00:01:46] I know. Isn't that great? It's like love all around.
[00:01:48] Love, love, love, love, love is love.
[00:01:51] So, Jacob, we want to tell all of our listeners all about Encircle what it is, kind of its history. So let's start with the question: what is Encircle.
[00:02:01] Well, if you were to show up at an Encircle house in Provo, Salt Lake City, or soon to be St. George, April 18th, mark your calendars. If you walk into an Encircle house, it's open Monday through Friday. From 2pm to 8pm, inside you would find freshly baked cookies, a hug, if it's hot outside, maybe salsa.
[00:02:21] Oh, my God.
[00:02:23] From the salsa garden.
[00:02:24] Oh, my God. That's amazing.
[00:02:26] But you know what you're really going to find is a community of people who are trying to love and accept those in our community who are LGBTQ. And most of the folks that are there are ages twelve to twenty six. But we do serve the whole community.
[00:02:45] Yeah.
[00:02:45] It's a place for everyone.
[00:02:47] And I just love your sort of main mission statement. Can you kind of share that, that main slogan? That's everywhere.
[00:02:54] So our slogan is "no sides only love".
[00:02:57] No sides only love. Perfect.
[00:02:59] Love is love. And I think, you know, it reminds me of a story of one of the kids came to the house and they were worried that, you know, Encircle is an organization and was going to kind of push them one way or another. And, you know, Encircle. That's not really our question we're asking. You know, the question we're asking is how much love can one person hold? And we think, you know, as much love as we can give that person and give our community without any sides.
[00:03:30] That's great. I think that's amazing. One of the things I think, you know, I'd love to just kind of talk about like the nitty gritty of it. You started presumably with one house to start. And I think this is not a house that people live in. This is the house that functions as a up space for people to come and share from, mostly from the hours of 2 to 8, right? So it's it's kind of like a a gathering place more than like a house that you go live in per se, right?
[00:04:00] Exactly. Yeah. Inside the house, you've got support groups, therapy, evening programs, while folks don't live there. We do have some homeless folks that will come through and take part of the resources, but mostly it's a community center, a drop in center.
[00:04:18] Yeah. So you can come and anybody who wants can come at anytime. You can just drop in. Get a tour. See what's going on.
[00:04:25] Grab some cookies.
[00:04:26] Grab some cookies. That's a great way to start, you know. But there's a whole bunch of other programs that you offer and I love to hear about some of those. It seems like from what I understand, kind of every night, there's an organized activity of some kind that you can participate in. What are some of those?
[00:04:44] Well, there's something going on every night at 6:30. My favorite is probably Music Night because we whip out show tunes every Thursday.
[00:04:52] Oh, my gosh, I love it.
[00:04:54] It's kind of structured in that you can we just sing whatever we want. Yeah. And once a month, I know we have music therapists come in.
[00:05:03] Oh, wow.
[00:05:04] But regardless of kind of the setting, it's mostly just everybody jamming out and having a fun time.
[00:05:11] Yeah.
[00:05:12] And connecting with one another.
[00:05:13] Yeah. And I also read, I was curious about the, I think the writing workshop is called Blue Sky. What's that one like?
[00:05:22] Blue Sky. I love the name, and basically, you walk in and like when you're looking up at the blue sky, you know, whatever you envision and want to write about is what you write. And it's led by a English professor from the local universities at each house. And basically, you're writing your feelings, whether they're good or bad. Whether they're funny or sad and you just get it out onto that paper and if you're willing, you can share it with the group and connect with one another.
[00:05:53] Oh, that's so cool. I really love that there's, you know, both sort of more structured things and also unstructured things. And one of the other, I think, hallmarks is the friendship circles. And I had wondered if you could tell me a little bit more about how those work.
[00:06:12] I just went to a parent friendship circle. So this is parents of LGBTQ children. And I'm sitting there and there are 13 parents in the group. And we go in around the circle and like we do in our friendship circle, we introduce ourselves and we check in.
[00:06:30] Mm hmm. OK.
[00:06:32] And the parents start to check in with each other. And I'm sitting there and every single parent had had a child that had come out of the closet in the last 12 months.
[00:06:42] Oh, in the last year. Wow.
[00:06:44] And, you know, they were all on different journeys, but it was really quite touching because by the end, there was a sense of connectivity between all the parents. One father said, you know, this is beautiful, that I'm able to sit in a room with other parents who I can ask these questions that normally I'm laying in bed worrying about. Yeah. And instead, he can come in and, you know, make some friends, connect with some other parents and find some needed answers.
[00:07:09] Yeah, that's great. That's great. And you have all different kinds of friendship circles. I think that there's there's ones for all kinds of age groups.
[00:07:19] Ages, orientations, whatever it is you're needing, whatever sort of support. And in fact, we'll introduce new friendship circles based on the needs of the community.
[00:07:30] Okay.
[00:07:30] So if we start to see an increase in, say, parents, we might open up two friendship circles for parents or transgender youth.
[00:07:38] Right.
[00:07:38] You know, open up two of those if needed. So we'll introduce new programing. Depends on who walks in the door.
[00:07:47] That's awesome. But what if someone, you know, is maybe really kind of wants to participate but is sort of nervous about sharing? Can they come and sort of participate in the friendship circles but be sort of on the quieter side until they get more comfortable? Or is there you know, do they have to really, you know, feel like they have to get involved right away?
[00:08:06] Well, I think there's probably nothing scarier than walking into Encircle.
[00:08:10] Yeah.
[00:08:11] Regardless of who you are. So I would suggest to anybody who might be feeling like, can I really go there? Am I welcome there? Maybe I'm a little nervous. Just show up with a friend, bring a buddy and get a tour. And I think to your point, the beautiful thing about the friendship circles is you can show up and you don't need to register. Yeah. And no one even needs to know your name.
[00:08:34] Right, right.
[00:08:35] I mean, I'd like to know it, if I meet you, but it's very anonymous.
[00:08:39] Yeah. Okay.
[00:08:40] You can just show up and be a part of that.
[00:08:42] Cause I think that's the thing. Some people, you know, really sort of want to really share who they are, but some people might be a little bit nervous. So it's great to know that they can kind of participate on all different levels. That's awesome. Okay. Well, we're already ready for our first song. I have some songs to play. And when we come back, we'll talk more about the locations and the brand new location coming to St George. But before we take our break, let's make sure to share the website. And so what is the exact web address?
[00:09:12] www.encircletogether.org.
[00:09:17] Okay. Encircle.org. There's so many great resources on it. All all the schedules for the houses are there. Also how you can get involved, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And then also lots of resources. You have books available, all different kinds of things.
[00:09:32] Cute videos.
[00:09:34] Yeah. Videos and everything. All right. Let's talk music. So I have some songs and I was looking, and I was kind of looking to expand my repertoire for queer artists that I might not be as familiar with. And so this one I knew, but I think she's so interesting. So Kat Cunning, you know, actress, Cirque de Soleil performer. She was in "The Deuce" or maybe still is in "The Deuce". I haven't watched that show yet. And it's gonna be on a new series, Trinkets, that's based off the Kirsten Smith book. But this is a song of hers called "King of Shadow" by Kat Cunning. You're listening to KSUU, Thunder 91.1.
[00:13:20] All right. Well, welcome back. That was Kat Cunning. The song is called King of Shadow. You're listening to the A.P.E.X Hour here on KSUU Thunder 91.1. And we are talking about the organization called Encircle, which is a Utah based organization that has tons of activities and programs for LGBTQ students, parents, community, and is just bridging gaps all over the place and making connections and friendships for people. So welcome back in, Jacob Dunford. So one of the things I wanted to make sure to talk about was where are the houses? And the new house that's coming. So tell me a little bit about the houses that are already up and running.
[00:14:05] So the Provo house opened on Valentine's Day 2017. So today is her birthday.
[00:14:13] Happy birthday!
[00:14:14] And since we've opened, that house has averaged 60 guests per day.
[00:14:19] Wow, that's a lot.
[00:14:22] And the Salt Lake City location opened on Valentine's Day 2019.
[00:14:25] OK, another birthday. Another birthday.
[00:14:29] She just hit one year. She's averaging about 50 guests per day.
[00:14:33] Wow. That's so cool.
[00:14:35] I'm calling all of them she's.
[00:14:36] Yeah. I love it.
[00:14:38] Don't assume pronouns, maybe.
[00:14:40] And then the St. George home opens on April 18th.
[00:14:46] Yeah. So that's coming up. So we want to make sure to let everybody know about the grand opening, which is coming up April 18th. And there's gonna be food and music and all that. And you can find out more. Definitely on the website, I'm sure.
[00:14:59] Absolutely.
[00:15:00] So I'm curious, the homes themselves tend to be historical homes or older homes. That seems to be the case. Can you tell me a little bit about the choosing of the homes? And I know the locations are very interesting and important as well.
[00:15:17] So, you know, the Provo house was our first one and it was built in 1891. And we, we're like, how are we gonna make this kind of crappy old house something beautiful?
[00:15:31] So had you been specifically looking for older homes or it just sort of happened that that was it?
[00:15:36] Well, it really happened that we went to the center of Provo or saying, you know what, we want something central to downtown. So what we ended up buying was a block south of the Provo City Center temple. And it's right there kind of next to both universities, close to downtown Provo, and we ended up renovating it. Took a year and we kept all of the original wood floors. And we finished all of the wood and trim while inserting all of these new contemporary modern furniture pieces and art. So you kind of had old contrast to brand new modern.
[00:16:13] Oh, yeah, that's great.
[00:16:14] So when you walk in, it's very beautiful. We actually won the Heritage Award for that house.
[00:16:19] Oh, my Gosh!
[00:16:20] And the reason we do them so nicely is so that when you walk in, you go "Man dang, I wish my house like this cute." And, you know, it really feels like a a safe space for not only yourself, but a good representation of how beautiful our LGBTQ community is.
[00:16:36] Yeah. That's amazing. That's so cool. So then did it become kind of a thing to, you know, to go into really the center? So the Salt Lake is also in the center of, the Salt Lake house...
[00:16:48] Just a block north of Trolley Square.
[00:16:51] And so that seems like a very conscious sort of commitment to kind of being the center of things, be accessible to everyone, close to public transportation, I imagine.
[00:17:00] Exactly. The track station in Salt Lake, right off the front runner station in Provo, here in St. George, we are right in the center of town.
[00:17:07] And Salt Lake is also a historical home.
[00:17:11] So both houses were built in 1891.
[00:17:13] Oh, right.
[00:17:14] Very old. And the St George House. So she's the oldest 1860.
[00:17:18] Oh, wow.
[00:17:19] The St George's House is 1860. Oh, my God. And now I understand through the grapevine that that one is actually, you know, she needs a little more love, right?
[00:17:30] So the first day I walked in, I said, can this really become a beautiful, beautiful Encircle home? And, you know, I just left the house yesterday. And I'm not convinced it's going to be our best.
[00:17:41] Oh, wow. Okay. So how big are these homes about? Do you happen to know this?
[00:17:46] So the Provo and St. George houses are similar in size. They have two therapy rooms on the second floor.
[00:17:52] Great.
[00:17:53] And some group rooms for support groups and art nights on the first floor and a living room and kitchen.
[00:17:59] Oh, cool.
[00:18:00] What's beautiful about doing a house in St. George is the weather. We actually invested some time and resources into making a beautiful outdoor space.
[00:18:10] Oh, how nice.
[00:18:11] There's a fire pit and lots of cute lights. We're going to be hosting some summer barbecues and movie nights all outside.
[00:18:18] Oh, I love it. Fun. That's great.
[00:18:22] Yeah, right? I want to go.
[00:18:23] I know, but, and you guys have been kind of really refurbishing this one. The St George one is is, you know, getting all done up really nice and and it's pretty close to done, I would imagine.
[00:18:36] Well, not only is it close to being done, but the reason it's been able to come together so quickly, you walk into the house and there's all these expensive tiles and furniture and you're like, how did this little charity pay for this?
[00:18:47] Right.
[00:18:47] I mean, that's my question, because I still am just shocked that when we showed up in St George, folks just started donating. You know, the Larkins donated all of the A-check and the plumbing and of course, Carpets Plus jumped in and gave twenty thousand dollars worth of appliances and tile. So you're seeing all these companies donate to make the house a reality all the way down to the electricians, putting in the wiring, coming in and doing extra hours, just to make it happen that fast.
[00:19:18] That's so cool. That's one of the things that we were talking about earlier with Encrcle that's so, I think particularly special about this organization is that you you have a way of kind of bring everyone together. And even at the corporate level, you know, you're really seeing a lot of buy in, a lot of support from corporate entities. And Encircle is a nonprofit. So you can reach out and and everybody can kind of participate in whatever way if you're a business person or if you just want to volunteer. So I'd love to hear a little more about that aspect of it.
[00:19:56] One of the coolest experiences for me in my career with Enircle was the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, came down to the Encircle Provo house.
[00:20:05] Really?
[00:20:06] Yeah. And he sat there and was handing out Apple watches.
[00:20:10] Oh, my God.
[00:20:12] To all the youth and in adults there. But he ended up spending a few hours there just, you know, having conversations and hanging out and laughed and told us that it was one of the most impactful experiences he had that year.
[00:20:25] Wow.
[00:20:26] Having grown up as a gay CEO, you know, he's looking back saying, I grew up in a conservative town and I wish I had an Encircle when I was growing up. Yeah. So to our surprise now, the Rainbow Watchband is one of the, if you go on the website, you can look at it. But it's way cool because they just announced Encircle as one of Apple's main benefactors. When you buy that apple watchband and lots of different, you know, exciting changes both on the big level like Apple, but also just like companies in St George donating product. And electricians staying the extra hour. You see it from that biggest of big to the smallest of small. Corporations and community members saying, I think we can do better.
[00:21:16] Well, speaking of donations, we want to make sure to let everybody know how they can participate and how they can get involved. And I know that there's donation options and also volunteer options. So can you tell us, for anybody listening, saying, like, I totally want to get involved, how can I do it? How can they do it?
[00:21:34] I think the best way to get involved is getting on to our website. I mean, if you're giving to a charity, I think your main concern is where's my money going?
[00:21:42] Right.
[00:21:43] And with Encircle, we've got a program where you can donate five bucks a month and you get onto our website, you can click which Encircle house you want your money to go to. And when you pick that house, we guarantee you that 100 percent of your money is going to what's happening inside that house.
[00:21:58] That's so amazing.
[00:21:59] You know, it's not go into any corporate salaries somewhere far away.
[00:22:04] Right.
[00:22:04] You know, it's going to the paint brushes and the therapy sessions and the cookies in your local Encircle. And you can do that online, encircletogether.org, and make that donation. What's amazing is, is there are a couple hundred people in Provo who have signed up for that program and now that house is completely paid for.
[00:22:23] That's so cool. That's so cool.
[00:22:26] We've got to do that in St. George.
[00:22:27] I know get on it, everyone! So, and what I love is that I think you were mentioning earlier that regardless of how much or how little you donate, you get a report. So you really can follow kind of what's going on?
[00:22:41] Exactly. So, you know, you donate your $10 a month and you're gonna get a monthly email saying this is the impact your money had. This is how we used it.
[00:22:49] Yeah, I love that. I think that that's so important. People really, they really, if they can't be there in person, they really want to see kind of how things are being spent. And that's really nice that you provide that thought.
[00:23:01] Absolutely.
[00:23:01] But also, in addition to money, people can donate their time. And I think that you work a lot of volunteer resources. So what's that about?
[00:23:11] Well, it's amazing to me. We have about two new volunteers signing up every day.
[00:23:16] Wow.
[00:23:16] On our Web site, we have we've been open three years and we have 3000 volunteers currently. Wow.
[00:23:22] And our volunteer army, our volunteer family, answer the call. We'll put out a call to our volunteers saying, "hey, listen, we need 50 people to help us come clean the yard. Can you come on Saturday?" Yeah. And we send out that message. So anybody who's willing to come to one of the homes and volunteer their time or expertise, I really encourage them to get on the website to sign up.
[00:23:46] Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I wanted to ask you before we take our next musical break, how did you get involved with Enircle? What, what brought you to this organization?
[00:23:56] Well, I attended BYU and I came out to my parents as gay. After I'd been to the school for a year. And of course, when I came out to my parents, they said something like, we love you no matter what and we're in your corner. That's amazing. And what that allowed me to do is actually move back to Utah and decided that I wanted to get involved and start working in LGBTQ. And I was fortunate to meet Stephenie Larsen, the founder of Enircle.
[00:24:23] Yeah.
[00:24:24] And I started working for her and since then, it's just been a crazy three or four years, and the most impactful part for me, I would say as a gay man working in Encircle is that we're able to see hundreds, if not thousands of folks just like me feel lost, feel without community. And then find it. You know, because, listen it's quite simple. Everybody deserves love, acceptance and community.
[00:24:56] Absolutely.
[00:24:56] And we're working towards that.
[00:24:58] I love it. Okay. Well, it's time for another song. But when we come back, I'd love to talk more about some of the community programs and some of the other things that Encircle does. But you know that the website is encircle.org. So definitely check it out. And like we were saying, you know, you you can sign up to do monthly donations or one time donations, volunteer. I mean, we've got that St George house coming really soon, so we definitely want to support it as much as possible. Okay. So the next song that I have for you is, I wanted to, you know, kind of dig into some other genres. I play a lot of world music on here and I I don't play that much country. But I was looking at LGBTQ representation in country music. And Shane McAnally came up and I didn't realize his career was just so amazing both as a writer and producer. But I have a song of his to share with you, and that song is called "Somewhere with You". You're listening to KSUU, Thunder 91.1.
[00:28:59] OK, well, welcome back, everyone. So you're listening to the A.P.E.X Hour KSUU Thunder 91.1, this is Lynn Vartan and that song was Shane McAnally. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but last name is M-C, Capital A-N-A-L-L-Y. The song is "Somewhere With You". And as usual, all of the songs, if you're interested, are, every song that I play on the A.P.E.X Hour, I put into a played on A.P.E.X Hour Spotify playlist that some completely open and public and it's on our website, which is suu.edu/apex. So if you're interested in any of the songs that have happened on the show or just want to check it out, please feel free to go and look at that playlist. So I am in the studio with Jacob Dunford. Welcome back, Jacob. And we are talking about all of the incredible services that the Encircle organization offers for our LGBTQ youth and parents and families here in Utah in the various houses, the newest house of which which will be in St. George and is opening on April 18th. Mark your calendars for the grand opening of that. But one of the things that was so great in the event today was and you were sharing some particularly powerful stories. And since we're talking about St George, I wondered if, as you guys have gotten into the St George, if there are any stories that you might want to share that kind of come to mind, like a special moment that's kind of happened in the growing of that new house there.
[00:30:31] Absolutely. We've got about 200 folks together for a demolition day.
[00:30:38] Oh, my God.
[00:30:39] Go and knock down some walls.
[00:30:40] Oh, my gosh. I want to go. That sounds great. Have another one. I feel like I could break things.
[00:30:45] I know that's a hit. It's very popular. But we needed to get a lot of walls down. And tear out a lot of tile and carpet. So everyone's working on it and we ran out of tools, cause there were so many people that showed up like you Lynn, so excited.
[00:31:00] I know.
[00:31:01] So I had to run over to Ace Hardware. So I'm there at Ace Hardware and I have a bunch of, you know, stuff in my basket. And I'm just trying to get checked out and kind of, you know, just scattered. And I notice that the person helping me scan the items and, you know, check out, that he was staring at me. And then I realized that I had my Encircle t-shirt on and my Encircle nametag on. And I you know, it kind of kept going through transaction. And he finally said to me, he goes, "So are you with Encircle?" And I said, "Yes. Yeah, I am." And he starts getting emotional and starts to cry.
[00:31:45] Wow.
[00:31:46] And he says. "I have been waiting for this. I've been needing this. He says, "I just barely came out. And I've been kind of reading online and watching the videos and I've just been watching this from afar. And I'm so excited. You guys are in town and I can't wait for it to open." And I said, "Oh, that's so cute. Thank you so much.".
[00:32:09] Yeah.
[00:32:10] And he goes, "No, of course," and he goes, "you know, you should really think about signing up for an Ace Hardware account."
[00:32:18] And he ends up getting us 20 percent off our tools, you know. Really cute story because I think there's a powerful lesson there for our community. But there are LGBTQ individuals everywhere and we're being watched and observed and our actions and how we talk and speak. So I think it's our duty as community members to be aware of it and hopefully be advocates for better conversations about our LGBTQ friends.
[00:32:50] Yeah, that's, that's such a powerful message, as you said, and such an important part of not only what Encircle stands for, but just the beautiful sense of community that I think everybody wants. And can you talk a little bit about that part of the Encircle mission? Because one of the things I really admire about the organization is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's not like, okay, we go in this house and we're all like just in this house, away from everybody else and we're doing our own thing. No, it's really about becoming the community of today and tomorrow. Can you talk a little bit about the community connection aspect of what Encircle does?
[00:33:31] Yeah, I think the best way to illustrate that is when I came out to my dad. He said, "Son, I want you to know something. You're not my gay son, Jacob." He says "You're my son, Jacob. Who happens to be gay.".
[00:33:47] Right, right.
[00:33:49] And he said to me, "being gay is just 1 percent of who you are."
[00:33:54] Right.
[00:33:54] It's a beautiful, wonderful 1 percent. But we are so many other things. As individuals. You know, and I think that as allies and LGBTQ community, it's just community members, when you show up at Enircle. We want all of you, a hundred percent. You know, and I think that, that principle and being able to walk in the door is a game changer.
[00:34:20] Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story. You know, and I think that's a really important message because, you know, now I think, in our whole culture, you know, there's so much like we have to we label ourselves as this, I'm a vegetarian or I'm a this. It has in every aspect of our life. You know, I'm this kind of dress or I listen to this kind of music.
[00:34:42] I'm a hippie.
[00:34:43] You know, whatever, you know. And I think that, you know. Yeah. Looking at the person as a whole, I mean, yeah. We can be all of what we are, we're people, you know. And to share all those things.
[00:34:56] Yeah. I think there's just a culture in Encircle of we don't need any labels.
[00:35:01] Yeah. I love it.
[00:35:03] You know, and you can walk in Lynn and I can walk in as Jacob and it's just you and I walking in. And we're there and we're both human.
[00:35:11] It's, I think it's the message we need. I love it. One of the other things that I wanted to make sure to talk a little bit about, we we also talked about this morning, but just to get a little more detail is another component of of what the Encircle organization offers that I think makes it really special, is that, that you are really committed to the therapy aspect of, I should say, the mental health aspect and just making the person healthy. And to that end, you offer therapy for a lot of people, parents, young people, everyone. And so if you could tell us a little bit about for anyone listening or anybody who hears the podcast, what is the therapy component of what Encircle offers?
[00:36:00] When it comes to mental health, I think the biggest challenges are cost and availability.
[00:36:06] Yeah.
[00:36:07] And I you know, I maybe as an LGBTQ person or as a mom or dad of a kid, your main concern also is, is the therapist equipped to handle these challenges? And Encircle brings all three of those together. So we make it affordable by subsidizing the cost. So 50 percent of all of our clients pay 25 bucks or less procession.
[00:36:28] That's amazing.
[00:36:29] It's amazing.
[00:36:30] And is that because the the the sum of the donations you're getting are specifically to subsidize that or the doctors giving reduced rates? How does that work?
[00:36:39] So it's actually our monthly donors that help pay for therapy.
[00:36:42] Wow. That's awesome.
[00:36:43] You know, hundreds and hundreds of folks giving five bucks a month. Mm hmm. You know, and I and I think the more powerful element of that is not only is it affordable, but it's exceptional. And it's ethical. Which is really hard to do. And we searched high and low for the best therapies for these conversations, which is gender, faith and sexuality. That's our specialty. And if that's something that you've got going on, you've got questions about it, I encourage folks to head to encircletherapy.org, book a consult. It's free. And let's start the conversation.
[00:37:17] That's amazing. So the first visit is is a 30 minute consultation that's completely free.
[00:37:23] Yeah, I mean, why not?
[00:37:24] Yeah. And then what happens from there? Can you do you get to choose? Are you put with someone? Do you get to choose? Is there a package? What? What's the process look like after that?
[00:37:34] Well, when you go to that consultation, what your therapist is going to give you is based on your application that you filled out before the console online. We look at your income and whether or not you have insurance. And we're able to determine how much we think you should pay per session. Maybe that's five bucks. 10 bucks. Who knows? And after we discuss that with you and find an agreement, Encircle will subsidize the rest of that cost. And we're a short term therapy clinic. So most patients will stay with us and anywhere from like, you know, a couple weeks, all the way up to six months.
[00:38:06] Oh, I see. Okay.
[00:38:07] But we're hoping to then transfer people into either long term care somewhere else or they no longer need our support.
[00:38:15] All right. That's amazing. Cool. Well, thanks for sharing that. Again, all the information is on encircle.org and the link to and Encircle therapy is there, but it also is a standalone site, it sounds like?
[00:38:29] Absolutely. Encircletherapy.org
[00:38:31] Okay. Great. What does the future of inner circle look like? What are the pie in the sky dreams?
[00:38:41] So we're opening the Encircle St. George House on April 18th at 11:00 a.m.. After that, what we're really hoping to do is open up two more locations here in Utah. Oh, cool. Up in northern Utah. Right. As well as next year, we're going to expand out of state into Arizona and Idaho.
[00:38:59] Wow. That's great. So you guys are already bursting at the seams, the expansion is amazing.
[00:39:05] It's needed.
[00:39:06] Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And you're going to, you also have some relationships with universities already. I know some faculty at Dixie are going to be helping out at St. George and that you have some other university partnerships that are developing and that's something you're really interested in continuing.
[00:39:23] Yeah, I think the really amazing part of a university partnership is we can help collaborate with we know, Encircle's always dying for interns. Fabulous interns, fabulous clinical interns and student volunteers. So any sort of cooperate, like collaborations we can do with universities, we're all in.
[00:39:41] That's great. And actually that was a question we got quite a bit today. So if there's any, you know, college students looking for internships, there is that possibility. Also on the website, you can find that like there's a little intern button, I think, that you can find and you can go in and inquire about internships.
[00:39:58] Come join the family.
[00:39:59] Yay! All right. Time for one last song. So for this one, I dug deep. And this is another artist that I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know about. Jackie Shane, born in 1940. And so this is, her story is just one of the like, really, I mean, you know, she's an African-American woman. Gender nonconforming, you know, just all the social acceptance, all these kinds of things. And just a history there. So check out her music and see what you think. The song I have from her is called "Walking the Dog". This is Jackie Shane. You're listening to KSUU, Thunder 91.1.
[00:43:05] All right. So, yeah, that artist, that's Jackie Shane, who I believe is, you know, about 78 now or right around there, could be over that and is living in Nashville, Tennessee. At least according to my most recent research. And yeah, she was born and lived through the really tumultuous time in the U.S. and as a woman of color, transgender. And she just sang about all the different things with poor conditions, tenement living, kind of the blues and all these different aspects. And and the time that she was speaking is really amazing. So I'm really happy to know about her. Again, if you're interested in the music, you can check out the played on A.P.E.X Hour Spotify Playlist. That's on our website, suu.edu/apex. This is the A.P.E.X Hour, KSUU Thunder 91.1. Today we are talking about Encircle and Jacob Dunford is in the house with me. Welcome back Jacob.
[00:44:07] Thank you.
[00:44:07] We want to make sure that everybody knows the main things that we want to everybody to mark their calendars. April 18th is the opening of the St. George Encircle House.
[00:44:17] Correct.
[00:44:18] 11:00 a.m., right?
[00:44:19] That's right. Ribbon-cutting at 11:30.
[00:44:21] Oh, my gosh. It's great. Everybody come out and then the website is encircle.org and they're-
[00:44:27] Encircle together.
[00:44:28] Encircletogether.org. Thank you. Encircle together.org. And on that website, you can find so many resources, how to volunteer, how to donate, what programs are offered, what the schedule is for the different houses, where everything is and everything that you need to know. So, yeah. And there's even stuff that you can buy, right? T-shirts and sweatshirts.
[00:44:52] And cute stickers and books.
[00:44:54] And iPhone cases.
[00:44:56] iPhone cases, backpacks. I love it. Well, Jacob, thank you for the time that you spent and sharing the organization with us. I have one last question for you. I know, and it's the one that I always love to ask everybody. And it's a playful one. It's just kind of like what's turning you on this week? And it could be anything. It could be a TV show. It could be a movie, it could be food, it could be a clothing brand. It could be anything you like. So my question to you, Jacob Dunford, what is turning you on this week?
[00:45:27] OK. A few things. Good chicken sandwich, good nachos. Blanket forts.
[00:45:36] Oh, my gosh. OK.
[00:45:38] And most importantly for me, I've been obsessed for probably a year now with good hot yoga.
[00:45:48] You are speaking my language. I like that. Oh, my gosh. Every night.
[00:45:53] Every night. Six o'clock.
[00:45:55] Oh, that's amazing.
[00:45:56] Ninety five degrees. Get all those toxins out.
[00:45:59] Isn't it the best feeling in the world?
[00:46:01] Sweat it out on the mat.
[00:46:01] Oh, I love it.
[00:46:02] I love a good flow.
[00:46:04] Oh, my gosh. Well, you and I are kindred spirits in that way because I am a yoga girl. And we were just talking about just a shout out to Be Hot Yoga in St George. So you're headed down to St. George. And I was sharing with you, I've been enjoying some of the classes down there.
[00:46:22] I'm seeing you tonight at Be Hot Yoga.
[00:46:22] I know! I'm seeing you tonight at 7:30.
[00:46:24] I love it. Definitely go check it out because it's, it's the closest hot yoga. We don't yet have hot yoga in Cedar, but that one is really good. And there's some great classes. So I'm so happy to know that you like about yoga. That's awesome. Well, this has been so fun. Again, encircletogether.org is the website. Please feel free to check it out. And I hope everyone has a really happy Valentine's Day week.
[00:46:50] Thanks so much for listening to the A.P.E.X Hour here on KSUU, Thunder 91.1. Come find us again next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime, we would love to see you at our events on campus. To find out more, check out suu.edu/apex. Until next week, this is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the A.P.E.X Hour, here on Thunder 91.1.