Crisis and trauma don’t always stay at the door when a family arrives at Freedom House, and healing takes time. In Episode 4 of Inside the House, host Steve Schauer sits down with Success Coach Ashley Brick to talk about the work behind the work. She shares what it takes to build trust with parents, why a Success Coach believes in families rather than managing their cases, and how wins like earning an HSED, passing a driver’s test, or writing a first resume build the confidence families need to move forward. Ashley also explains the barriers many people never see: weeks spent waiting on birth certificates and Social Security cards, the stress of an unreliable car, and the challenge of parenting a newborn while working toward stability. She talks about how partnerships with Safe Families for Children and Counting Stars support the whole family. Whether you’re a longtime supporter, a potential volunteer, or just curious about what happens inside the house, watch to hear why Ashley believes everyone deserves dignity and to be truly believed in.

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Inside the House — Episode 4: A Conversation with Ashley Brick

A Freedom House Ministries podcast production. Homelessness is a difficult and polarizing topic for some to discuss, and there are many dynamics and layers involved in helping families and individuals achieve housing again. On this episode of Inside the House, we dive deep into the barriers and challenges families face at Freedom House Ministries, and the successes and rewarding experiences too, with Success Coach Ashley Brick. She talks about helping families navigate those challenges, build self-confidence, and build trust and rapport with staff, volunteers, and community members as they work toward housing, employment, transportation, and a life filled with happiness and joy.

Steve: Freedom House is a safe place, but crisis and trauma don’t always stay at the door when families arrive. Can you talk about families and their trauma and crisis once they reach a point where they feel safe? What is that like?

Ashley: I would say they definitely do not stay at the door. We’ve all experienced our own traumas. Typically, once families are here and feeling safe, you’ll see a lot more of that trauma come out, whether physically or mentally. It really comes down to meeting them where they’re at, allowing them that time, and offering different opportunities, such as therapy. We have Kaylee from the N.E.W. Community Clinic here on Tuesdays. Many families weren’t able to seek therapy before this opportunity, and going to her can really help with setting goals, discussing that trauma, working through it, and learning coping mechanisms for themselves and their children. Honestly, time is typically the only thing that can really help. I can’t push them any further than they’re willing to go in that circumstance.

Steve: Ashley, there was a past episode of Inside the House where we talked about those coping mechanisms. You mentioned time, and I would imagine that for each family, time is different. Can you talk about how long it takes for families to feel safe here — to know that they have their own space, and staff and volunteers who care for them — and about time in relation to the expectation of getting back into housing?

Ashley: Correct. Every family is very unique and individualized, and depending on how they’re able to cope, some may move a little faster than others. But you can’t necessarily push it and hope things happen faster. We really have to allow them to move at a pace they’re comfortable with, so we’re not retraumatizing them or having them experience too much at once, because being overwhelmed wouldn’t help either. So we have to give them that time while helping them overcome those barriers. Sometimes getting coping mechanisms through therapy is what helps. Sometimes it’s just being here and feeling safe long enough. It really depends on each family.

Steve: Ashley, can you talk about being the Success Coach for all 16 families staying here at Freedom House? What is it like to build trust with them, so that when the moment comes — the tough love, the encouragement to get documentation or find housing or whatever challenge they’re working on — they can get things accomplished? What does it take to build that trust?

Ashley: Trust is really important. It’s building rapport right off the bat, being non-judgmental, meeting them where they’re at, and then walking alongside them through the whole journey. Oftentimes they might not have the confidence in themselves to do some of these things, but when they’re trusting me and I’m trusting them, I’m often able to say, “I know you don’t think you’re ready for this, but do me a favor and please try.” And then they’re able to do and accomplish things they wouldn’t have thought they could.

Steve: Let’s step back. A Success Coach is a case manager to a degree, but here at Freedom House we use the term “Success Coach” — building success through coaching — because we’re not managing your case or your life. It’s a more dignifying way to approach families. What is a Success Coach, and what do you all do?

Ashley: A Success Coach is really coaching, through a lot of motivational interviewing. More than anything, I think it’s having another trusted adult who believes in you and is able to help you through the process, whether that’s getting a birth certificate, a Social Security card, or your first job. It’s knowing that somebody really believes in you and is helping you through it without judgment. That’s what a Success Coach is.

Steve: You mentioned believing in families. Can you give an instance or a couple of examples of what that connection is like when a parent feels that somebody like yourself believes in them and cares about their future?

Ashley: Sure. Just recently, three moms completed their HSED, and two of the three were really hesitant. They said, “I never did go to school. This is why I didn’t graduate. I don’t think it’s for me.” And I said, “Well, right now you have a great opportunity. Let’s just try.” With me believing in them and encouraging them, they were able to take those first few tests just to see where they were, and they scored a lot higher than they ever thought they would. Eventually they took the HSED tests, and they didn’t only get their GED — they earned their HSED. Just knowing that I truly believed in them, they were so proud and excited when they’d come in and say, “Oh my gosh, math was so hard, and I passed! You’re not going to believe it.” It was great to see.

Steve: And it takes those small moments — not that the HSED is a small moment by any means — those building blocks over time that eventually get to transportation, employment, child care, with housing as the end goal. What are those small building-block moments like, in terms of building self-confidence?

Ashley: I would say that’s where it starts. We really want them to be successful. Our end goal is to watch them truly believe in themselves, build stability, and be successful without us, and to give them the tools and believe in them. Take the HSED: maybe she then believes in herself enough to take the driver’s license test as well, and then to interview for that job she thought she wasn’t going to be qualified for. It’s about building that confidence and watching them succeed. Through some of those smaller wins, they gain enough confidence that they’re feeling that success, and eventually they become successful.

Steve: As a Success Coach, what is something you want the community to know about your position — something that’s very rewarding but also very challenging — for those who don’t understand homelessness?

Ashley: Homelessness can really happen to anyone. Nobody wakes up and says, “I hope I’m homeless tomorrow.” It can happen to anyone for any kind of reason. So just treating everyone with dignity would be amazing, and educating the community that everyone deserves that dignity. People aren’t here just because they didn’t want to get a job. That’s not typically why.

And it’s definitely rewarding — far more rewarding than I think people might know, just from really believing in them and then watching them grow. It’s like with your own kids: we’re always coaching them up, and when they succeed, we say, “Oh my gosh, that was amazing!” It can be something small or huge. And within the family, you walk alongside a mom or a dad, and then they’re able to teach their kids some of these things, and you see it all blossom together.

As for challenges, I’m working with adults, so it’s adult to adult, and sometimes they’ve been through a lot of things, so that trust takes a little more time than I was hoping for. But once you gain that trust, you get to see all the wonderful miracles that happen.

Steve: Ashley, we’ve had a lot of conversations off camera about the challenges families are facing. I think sometimes, from a community perspective, it’s viewed as housing, employment, transportation, helping kids — but there are so many more factors and underlying layers that have to be addressed before you can get to some of these bigger things. Can you talk about the small, basic, foundational layers that have to be built or tackled before you can even have that housing conversation?

Ashley: Sure. Everyone has their own steps to get where they need to be. Some of us were surrounded by a great family or community that showed us how this works right off the bat, and some of us didn’t have that. So figuring it out can be harder and takes time. Some people don’t even know for sure which hospital they were born at. They just know they were born in Brown County, and maybe they don’t even know that Brown County and Kewaunee County are different. Maybe their address was in Kewaunee, and they say, “Well, I don’t know a hospital over there,” but they were actually born in Brown County. Helping them figure out small things like that leads to much bigger things — now they have a birth certificate and a Social Security card. Maybe they realize, “Oh, I was not only born in Brown County, but this is where other things took place,” and all the different connections start to click along the way.

I would also say it helps to offer them a chance to build community with volunteers and other services in our community, and then to watch their own little group grow bigger. Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know, and as they engage with others, it helps a lot.

Steve: I want to dive into that for a moment, because I think it may be a piece the community doesn’t understand or think about: documentation. In conversations I’ve had with families who’ve ended up in homelessness for a variety of reasons, documentation sometimes gets lost or isn’t kept track of in the stress, trauma, and crisis of the situation — birth certificates, Social Security cards, and I would imagine other documents I can’t think of in the moment. Can you talk through what documentation is needed, and the length of time it takes to obtain these documents, and how that sometimes slows big forward movement?

Ashley: For sure. Typically, if you come in and you don’t have your birth certificate, we have to request it, and depending on whether it’s in-state or out-of-state, that takes time — at least seven days or more. Some can take four to six weeks before we get them back. Some, right here in Green Bay, can take two or three days, depending. Once you have your birth certificate, you can apply for a Social Security card, and having an address here helps because they’re able to get mail right away. Some might have applied otherwise but then moved, and now that mail is lost. Once you have your birth certificate and your Social Security card, you have the documents you need to obtain a job as well. But all of that takes time.

Steve: What are we talking — a week, six weeks? What’s the length of time you typically experience in helping families obtain these documents?

Ashley: I would say two to six weeks, for sure.

Steve: Does that feel frustrating, for you or the families, waiting up to six weeks for the documentation they need to apply for employment or housing or to get the kids in school? Is that a frustrating period of time, knowing that’s just the way it is — but also that there are other things to work on too?

Ashley: Yes, I would say it is frustrating. Patience is all we really have in that circumstance, and it’s the best thing we can do. But we can also use that time to engage with other opportunities they might not have had otherwise. Some people just want to get the documentation and go straight to work, but then they don’t stop to think, “Now I have a little more time. Maybe I could work on getting my high school diploma in the meantime. Maybe I could look at what other jobs are really out there. What skills do I have?” Just because someone is an adult doesn’t mean they’ve ever done a career assessment. Maybe they don’t really understand what their skills are, what they’re good at, or what they’re maybe not so good at. They’ve just been working entry-level jobs right off the bat, and that’s it. So we’re giving them that time.

Steve: I want to ask about that in terms of employment. Sometimes in the conversations I’ve had, it feels like it’s “cash now, quick employment” because of the situation they’re in, and not necessarily thinking about a career with a business or company. I had a conversation here with a mom who moved out about two weeks ago. She went through some difficult challenges before she got here, and then she obtained full-time employment with all the benefits — a 401(k), retirement, all those things she didn’t have before. What are those conversations like, to help them think about the possibilities of something they may not have had before?

Ashley: Typically, in crisis, we’re all about the now. We need money, we need to do this, this is what we need — without being able to take a step back and think about the future. What are we doing to set ourselves up in the long run? Sometimes when we don’t have somebody to discuss all that with, we just keep moving, right? But sometimes, just sitting down and talking it through, they say, “Oh, okay, you’re right. I’m going to do this instead of just going to Festival Foods making $14 an hour.” They take a step back, redo a resume or learn how to do one, and apply for something else. Then they pick up a few different skills and maybe move up to where they’re making $18 or $19 and working full-time, and they qualify for other benefits such as a 401(k), which many of them react to with, “Are you sure I even need that?” And then, as they think about their future, they start to understand all these different things.

Steve: I think that ties back to your title, Success Coach — and what success could look like and the potential to get there. I would imagine that when those conversations happen and that breakthrough and understanding occurs, those are really positive, cool moments to be part of, for yourself but obviously for the families as well. What is that like?

Ashley: It’s great, because you’ve worked with them that whole time, and you’re so proud of them and excited for them, and they’re so excited, and their kids are so excited because they’ve been talking about it. Especially with a car, right? If a family is able to get their driver’s license, and they either save for a vehicle or one is donated, the kids are so excited. They say, “Can you bring me to school tomorrow? Does that mean this summer we could go swimming at a lake?” It’s not like when they depended on public transit — and not many of us want to sit out there and wait in the cold. Now that it’s getting cold, knowing that mom has a vehicle, everyone’s just excited, and it sets them up for the future as well.

Steve: I want to dive into that a little bit — transportation. We did one question with Ashley two episodes ago on the podcast. If you were to look through the parking lot right now, we have families with no transportation, some families with vehicles that are likely unreliable, and some families with transportation that is rock solid and getting them from A to B wherever they want. How do you navigate transportation when there are such different levels of it among the families here in shelter?

Ashley: Transportation is a huge barrier, for sure. If families are able to use public transit, great. It’s not necessarily ideal, though, since it’s not always running at the times you need, and navigating it with young kids is hard. A mom with a newborn, a five-year-old, and a three-year-old — it’s not easy to be out there at 6:00 a.m. to get them to school by 8:00 a.m. But that’s one route. Then there are families with a vehicle that’s falling apart. They need that vehicle to get from point A to point B, especially for jobs, school, and appointments, so finding affordable mechanics they can use is also difficult. And for those with a rock-solid vehicle, that’s amazing, and it helps 100%. Transportation is huge, and it definitely helps when they have it. Then it comes down to time management. As long as you have that vehicle, time management sets you up pretty well.

Steve: We’ll put this out there: if you are a mechanic who happens to be watching and you would like to step in and make repairs to some of these vehicles, now or in the future, we would gladly have that conversation. Or if you’re considering purchasing a new vehicle and wondering what to do with the one that might be on its way out of your home, let’s have that conversation here — maybe you could give a discount or even donate that vehicle to a family.

Back to the part about unreliable transportation: we had a conversation recently about a mom who was contemplating whether or not to get employment because she was worried that if she got to the job, the vehicle wouldn’t start or run, and she couldn’t then pick her husband up to go get the kids. What is that stress level, of having a vehicle you don’t know will start from today to tomorrow?

Ashley: It’s a huge stress, honestly. You wake up in the morning thinking, “Oh my gosh, what if I make it to work, and then the car doesn’t start again, or that tire leaks all the air out?” There are so many reasons why. Then what do I do once I’m there? How can I get my kids from school afterward, or pick my husband up from his job? We try to help navigate that, but honestly, if your car dies on the side of the road, there’s not much else we can do besides a tow truck, which adds more expenses.

Steve: I want to flip that. We have a mother currently in shelter who got connected and had a vehicle donated to her. Let’s talk about her situation and how that opened up so many doors, now that she has a reliable vehicle for her kids, to get them to child care and to the other pieces of what’s next for her.

Ashley: So that mom has completed her HSED. She took her permit test, took her driver’s license test, and now she has a vehicle. She’s so excited, and her youngest is six weeks old, so we’re currently looking for a child care that’s able to take infants. There are a lot with wait lists for infants. Her other two boys are in school, and she’s working on her resume and actually having so much fun with it now that she understands exactly what a resume is. She has the confidence to say, “Oh, I know I have this skill, I can do this or that.” She’s applying and doing mock interviews. It’s going to open things up tremendously for her, now that she has a secure vehicle that fits all the children. She’s also able to drop her older child off at child care and then go to the gym, which she hasn’t ever been able to do before. So she’s really working on herself in every way.

Steve: This mom has a newborn, and I want to touch on that for a moment. This summer we held a baby shower for three mothers who either had just had their baby or were expecting in the back half of this year. Life doesn’t stop, whether you’re having a child or not. Can you talk through these moms with newborns in shelter, trying to take care of a precious infant while also navigating employment and all the other pieces? How do you navigate motherhood, or help them at least?

Ashley: I think it’s really about meeting them where they’re at and just listening — just listening — because they’re overcoming many barriers, and it’s not easy having a baby, let alone other children as well. Mom guilt is real, too. They feel bad: “I just had this baby, I have to give so much attention to the baby, and what about my other kids?” Doing that alone is not easy. So here, we build community around them and connect them with other organizations such as Safe Families and the YWCA. And us, too — when you need to vent, you can come to one of us. You don’t have to keep everything in. We talk through different things. Maybe it’s breastfeeding, and I’m getting her to a place where she wants to have that conversation with the WIC office. Maybe they need extra diapers because they thought they had enough, and they come to one of us and we’re able to support that, or help them realize they’re going through more diapers in a day than they expected, so we need to start planning for that. Navigating all the different forms of life is interesting.

Steve: Ashley, this has been a great conversation so far. This is a good moment to take a break. We’re going to do one question with volunteer coordinator Julio Zuniga. Julio, can you talk about Family Nights and the opportunities for the community to be involved?

Julio: Correct. Family Nights are an opportunity we provide for community members to bring in a fun activity. It could be bingo, a game night with a bunch of board games, or maybe a simple craft, like creating some fun artwork. It’s an opportunity we’re now offering on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30, just a chance to get the families together. We want to make sure they have that time for themselves, as a family, so they can have a space to create lasting memories and strengthen the bond among them. So honestly, this is a call from me, from us, to you: bring your activities, bring your talents, bring the fun, because we truly believe that families still deserve to have fun.

Steve: If you’re interested, email Julio at volunteer@freedomhousegb.org, or visit our website for more information. Thanks, Julio.

Julio: Thank you.

Steve: All right, back here with Ashley to continue the conversation. We were talking about motherhood. In 2025, 82% of the families we served here at Freedom House were single mothers. As a mother yourself, what is that connection like, as you try to help each family and each single mother we serve navigate all the complexities of being a mother?

Ashley: Sure. Nobody wants to be told how to parent, so I think it’s really important to approach them and give them all the agency over themselves and their family. I offer a listening ear, and from female to female, parent to parent, I know it’s not easy. It’s not easy for me, and it’s not easy for them. Being a parent, no matter what, is not easy. What matters is having people there who can offer whatever kind of support they need in the moment. Maybe they’re just frustrated because their two-year-old started biting, and they’re asking, “Why are they biting?” And sometimes the child doesn’t have the words yet to use. Maybe they’re just feeling frustrated. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent by any means. It just means we have to navigate that as well, giving them the tools they need and just really being there.

Steve: People who have visited Freedom House have commented on how clean the building is and how new it looks. That has created a standard of living from your team. There’s also a standard of parenting, and I’ve seen, in conversations I’ve had and conversations with you and your team, that the standard of parenting sometimes gets a little gray. What I mean is that some families and parents grew up in poverty, homelessness, maybe with addiction in their families, mental health struggles, alcoholism, whatever it might be, or a combination of all of those. Is it difficult sometimes to elevate that level of parenting when that parent didn’t have it as a kid, so they didn’t have that role model? Is it difficult to help parents understand the expectation when they didn’t have it themselves?

Ashley: I would say yes, it’s difficult, but as long as you have trust and rapport, and they know, “I truly want what’s best, and that’s why I’m bringing this to their attention,” it works. I’m not coming across as, “Well, clearly you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re not a great dad.” By no means. I often use myself as an example. Maybe the school has to reach out to me about one of my children. It doesn’t mean I’m a terrible mom. I just hadn’t known how to navigate what was happening. So it’s okay to ask questions and try to figure out what’s best. Sometimes, unless somebody brings something to your attention, you don’t realize it, because that’s just the way you were raised, and most people around you handle things the same way. Then when you can say, “Wow, okay, let me try that once and see,” maybe it works better, and maybe it doesn’t. And then we can find a different tool to use instead.

Steve: I think this is a great moment to bring up Safe Families. You mentioned them before, and they’re a new partnership for Freedom House Ministries. Safe Families for Children is another nonprofit in the community with a ton of volunteers throughout their network who, to a degree, offer mentorship to help families, and we’ve recently partnered with them to help the families we serve. How have you seen that relationship grow, organization to organization, but also from their volunteer to the family we’re serving? How has that connection been helping?

Ashley: It’s definitely individualized, but honestly, it can be life-changing, because they’re there not only to help with a child, but to support the family. More often than not, the volunteer is mentoring the parents along with the children, showing the children a different way of doing things, or showing the parents a different way. Maybe the child has an upcoming appointment and the mom is really stressed — she’s not sure how to navigate it, or what questions to ask. Her Safe Families volunteer can attend that appointment with her, whether that’s just giving her a ride or sitting with her in the waiting room to keep her nerves down until she’s able to go in, and giving her tips on what to ask for to make sure the child is supported. It really helps a lot.

Steve: In all the things Freedom House does to help families, there are a lot of tentacles and layers to homelessness. Having a very strong network makes the path forward a little easier. Would you agree with that? How have you seen that play out?

Ashley: Yes, for sure, 100%. You and I have our own network and our own support, and they need that as well. Sometimes just through talking with a volunteer, they find a job opportunity opens up. Maybe being a little more trusting with me also lets them trust their Safe Families volunteer, which then allows them to start parenting in a different light. That’s transforming the whole family. It might be offering chores to each child, and now their rooms are being cleaned differently. Or kids now have a space for their homework. Like you or I have a refrigerator at our house where, if our kids are proud of something, they can put it up — it’s not necessarily the same here, but we help parents find a spot to be proud of their kids and hang that artwork up. Maybe it’s homework time after school, which they typically wouldn’t have done before. Maybe it’s going to the library and doing things there. The network definitely helps a ton, because the more people they feel comfortable with, the more opportunities they have.

Steve: Do you think, to a degree, that part of this is trying to normalize the situation? What I mean is having the opportunities that some of us watching, or you and I, might take for granted — going to the library in the summer, going to the pool, different activities like that. Presenting those opportunities to families here, so they’re not only thinking about the current situation of trauma and crisis, but about what’s available. Is that part of what your team is doing — presenting different opportunities for families to try?

Ashley: Yes, for sure. We want them to have all the opportunities that you and I have, because we all deserve every opportunity out there. It just depends on how you’re able to get to that opportunity. Many of them have never had the chance, or haven’t had enough confidence to talk with somebody who’s going to offer that opportunity, or to know how to engage with somebody who can help them through it. Sometimes we’re just defensive because we already feel judged, and we don’t want to open up. Once you do start opening up, it can really help a ton.

Steve: What have you witnessed this calendar year, and what are some of the experiences that have been presented? We’ve done a dairy farm field trip, Bay Beach, and a whole number of other activities, even here at Freedom House. After those activities occur, and leading up to them, there’s a lot of excitement in the building. Talk through that excitement and what it’s like in conversations with parents, and with the kids, in giving them the opportunity to do fun and really cool things.

Ashley: I would say the lead-up is always amazing, for the parents and the children. Just because we live in Green Bay, we gave Packers tickets to a family. The mom has lived in Green Bay her whole life, and her son is seven, and they had never been to a Packers game. Being able to do that was amazing. It was just her and her son, and they had an amazing time being in the crowd, with him able to see players he was excited about.

Even Bay Beach: the summer we went, two families had never been to Bay Beach before, and they were more than excited — they had no idea it was even that close to us. And the farm trip was great, for the parents and kids both. They talked about it for probably two weeks afterward. There was a calf born. Some of them were just excited to go to a park they felt was in the woods. There were a lot of opportunities through those trips that I don’t think people would have experienced otherwise, or would have experienced differently. We went as a group, everybody was with their families, and a lot of people here already have friendships, which is nice, instead of a single mom taking her kids to Bay Beach, overly stressed: “This kid really wants to go on this ride, this kid wants to do that ride, how many tickets do I still have?” This was more at peace, just being able to enjoy time with your children, and I think that’s what they really liked.

Steve: And I think there are plenty of opportunities out in the community for people to be involved and make those experiences available. We talked about Julio in the one question — Family Nights are a great way to be involved.

I want to shift into another partnership that’s been formed this year, with Counting Stars. A lot of what we were talking about in 2025 tends to shift toward parents: housing, transportation, employment, child care, all the documentation you mentioned. Those are things parents have to do. And as an organization, we sat back, reassessed, and realized we weren’t doing enough for the kids. I think bringing in Counting Stars was an important partnership. Can you talk through that partnership and what it has done for the children here at Freedom House?

Ashley: Sure. Counting Stars is a great partnership that we had recently been exploring, and it’s definitely evolving. I would say it’s there for the entire family — not just for the parents, and not just for the kids. It’s supporting mom in getting those chores in place for the kids, maybe giving some visuals, but also really working with the kids themselves, asking, “What kind of chore would you like? How do you think that chore looks?” It’s being at the child’s level and letting them get some of that success we’re also trying to build within the parents. It could even be reading after school. Every family needs something different, but it really helps the entire family, kids and parents.

Steve: For those who might not know, Counting Stars is another nonprofit in the community that helps kids who may have disabilities, may be on the spectrum, or have behavioral issues. It helps the child, but also the parents and the whole family dynamic. How have you seen that develop in connection with Brown County services assessing the whole family situation when a family arrives and gets settled in, to look at things from all different angles?

Ashley: Sure. Once things start to settle, different things pop up. Maybe a family hadn’t known that their child has some developmental delays, and we can use Counting Stars, but we can also use other county services such as CLTS and CCS. There are many services — I’m still finding out more and more — and we just have to know which ones there are and how to attach them to the right child or parent, whatever the need is. We just have to make sure we’re able to get them the services.

Steve: Ashley, can you talk about partnerships? What I mean is being able to pick up the phone and call another organization or nonprofit in the community and say, “Hey, we have a family that might need your services,” or “What information can you help provide?” What is the benefit of having those partnerships, and how important are they?

Ashley: Those partnerships are very important, and they can be life-changing. The stronger the partnership we have, the more it helps. If I believe in an organization, then the individual is also more likely to believe in that organization. They can tell if I’m saying, “Hey, we really have to try this, I think it’s really going to help, it’s going to be beneficial.” If they can see that I believe in it, they’re more likely to do it as well. That’s beneficial in all walks of life, because families are only here for a temporary time, but some of those organizations will walk alongside them for the rest of their lives. They have more longevity with these families than I’m going to have. So making those partnerships, and helping the family be comfortable with both the individual and the organization, really helps when they’re out of here and still able to call or meet, wherever that may be. And when a partner is able to come to us, that’s really where the trust starts.

Steve: One question for your team: you mentioned the agency of the family earlier, and I think it’s very important for the community to understand that when a family comes to Freedom House, they are not boxed into a certain timeline or required to do things at certain increments along the way. It is the family’s agency to decide what the barriers and challenges in front of them are, where they’re trying to get to, and how you’re going to help them along the way. Talk about the importance of having that as one of the leads of your team’s methodology.

Ashley: Sure. We have to give them agency in order to build success, because they can’t just rely on you or me. And when you’re trusting another adult, you want to know that they have your best interest at heart. Allowing families to dictate what’s needed for their family is only going to build more success for when they’re no longer here. I can’t come in and decide, “I think I know what’s best for your family,” because then they’re not going to want to listen to me. They truly know what’s best for their family, and we just need to help them make sure they’re getting what’s best, however that may look. Every family’s path might look different, and we want every family to be successful, but each family’s success might look different.

Steve: After all the things we’ve talked about in the last 30 or 40 minutes, what is something I haven’t brought up that you think is important for the community to know or understand?

Ashley: That everyone’s trying their hardest. Whether or not it looks like they’re trying from the outside, believe me, they’re trying. I come to work every day and try my hardest. You’re trying your hardest. Each individual here is waking up every day trying their hardest, and that might look different for everyone. So it’s best to just not judge, and to assume that they’re trying their hardest. It might not be easy, but they’re still up. They’re doing what they need to do.

Steve: Very true. I’m glad you said that. Last two questions for you, Ashley. We always close out our podcast with the previous guest asking a question for you, and then you have the opportunity to ask one of the next guest. Tara Prahl was our last guest, and she asked: “What is one big dream you have for our community over the next three to five years?”

Ashley: That everybody can feel that they are truly believed in — inclusion, equality, the things I think everybody wants. Truly, things need to be affordable, for one, but people also need the tools to even achieve that affordability. So I think it comes down to just being human. If you see someone struggling, it’s okay to offer help. It doesn’t mean you have to say you know what’s best for them, but you can help them with whatever they might need. Everyone deserves dignity and to truly be believed in. Just because it looks different for each individual and each family, between you and me, it doesn’t mean that one of us is better than the other. We all just need to feel that we’re someone. We actually matter.

Steve: If you had a question for the next guest, who we still don’t know yet — I kind of fly by the seat of my pants on this podcast — what would it be?

Ashley: What would be a victory to you? What is a victory?

Steve: That’s a solid question. I like that. That’s a great way to end this episode of Inside the House. Ashley Brick, Success Coach here at Freedom House Ministries, thank you. And thank you for watching and listening.