- Good morning. How is everyone today? - [Audience] Good. - Good, all right, wonderful. I mean the Earth, Wind and Fire wasn't all that loud so I can understand why you were not as fired up as I am. But I was up here listening to it. It was great. Welcome. Today is a really big day for me and for the agency. I wanna thank you all for being here and thank everyone on the livestream, across the state, welcome digitally, to the Oakland History Center, and to the True North meeting. So, this is a process that really started even before it was announced that I was coming to DHS, as I was sitting in my living room at my house really thinking about, what the concept was for the agency, What the vision looked like, it really started and ended with us understanding what's truly important for the agency. And for what we're doing for the people that we serve that's critical, is what we're doing. And this process was really built around the folks that we serve in our community. So that's really important. It started many months ago, it then moved forward in earnest about eight weeks ago. We sat down and started working with all of the division directors and you know who all those folks are, and said, "We want you to go back to your teams "and think about the people that you serve "and really understand how the agency "can serve them in the best way." What are the goals that we have? What's the direction we're heading, to serve the people in the State of Oklahoma. So they came to us, we've had lots of meetings, more I think than the division directors would like. Lots of conversation, a lot of those meetings there were like six or eight of us or 10 of us around a table and here's our ideas, and it was like almost somebody likened it to Shark Tank. Like, hey, here's this and let's put this over here. It was great. Anyway so what came out of it, was this True North presentation. And, I am so excited to share it with you, because we really have an opportunity to use this as sort of the guide rails on how we work going forward. The intent is, of course, to motivate and to really give us direction, but also to empower, not just everybody in this room, but everybody on the live stream as well, to know that, if I'm operating sort of towards these goals, that I'm doing the right thing and that I can make decisions for the people that we serve, as long as they're around the concepts that we've all agreed are critically important to our folks and to our customers. That's what we're talking about today. We have some really cool outcomes on the back end of that. I mean, I can't be more excited to jump in. However, we do have somebody here who's going to, sort of lead us off. It's really difficult to adequately introduce this guy. In fact, I had to text him 'cause I've known about all of these things before, but I said, hey give me a couple of bullet points real quick, because I know him in a different way than all of these bullet points I'm gonna to share with you. So Justin is an MMA Heavyweight Champion, by training, and he is a global humanitarian. He's gonna explain all this, so I'm gonna try not to steal his thunder. But, somebody who has served people all over the world and served them in the deepest of ways, just like you all do every day. He has served people here in the United States domestically, and he's gonna talk about that, which I'm really excited about. And he has also served the State of Oklahoma and is doing that in in deep ways as well. Personally, he is a really, really close friend of mine, somebody who inspires me every day, and gives me sort of the legs underneath me when I'm thinking about what the opportunities are serve a guy with this level of energy and passion and direction is fantastic, to sort of look to. I could not be more excited to introduce you to Justin, to let him share his story and then I'm gonna to come back and I'm going to go through a bunch of slides so it's not quite as cool and fun, however, you're gonna be inspired. So thank you all for being here. Justin, please come up. - [Announcer] Justin the Big Pygmy Wren. - [Commentator] Exclusive video, fighter stats, upcoming events, ticket info, you can also become the fourth judge, that's always fun. Spread it around, back with no defense and how do you score that by Justin Wren? - [Commentator] It gets caught again. Almost turned out of it completely. His first two times gold tour cage, Justin Wren was feeling his way back. - Jimmy, he's back. - He's an MMA fighter, he's a humanitarian. But I would call him a world changer. He's a guy that's maxing out his life and changing so many other people's lives across the globe. - Fighting in a cage isn't enough and he decided to go to one of the most dangerous places in the world and dig wells and try to make a difference for the forgotten and the forsaken. - He continues to fight for those less fortunate and wrote a book about it, "Fight For The Forgotten". - My guest today is Justin Wren aka The Big Pygmy. - Justin Wren, everybody. - I met my second family here in the Congo, the Mobutu Pygmies. They call themselves, The Forgotten People. All pygmies, are denied their basic human rights. They're victims of hatred. Fight for the forgotten, we're always gonna be focused on the pygmies. But there's kids in our own community right here that feel forgotten. And whenever I was a kid sitting at the lunch table by myself getting poked in the back of the head with chocolate spit wads, food, fists. When kids were pulling up my shirt and slapping my belly and twisting my nipples in front of the girls and acting like they're hitting me with a harpoon, 'cause I'm the size of a whale and all this stuff and telling me, "You should just kill yourself." Telling me, "You should just kill yourself. "You're worthless, you're nothing." I mean, I felt forgotten. 160,000 kids, in the United States alone, skip school every day because of bullying. Relentless bullying. That's 3 million school days lost every month. I'm from Oklahoma, at least I lived there now, and looking into the at risk youth behavior survey, 28.9% deal with depression that affects them for two weeks or more, 15.1%, struggle with seriously contemplating suicide. 7.4% have actually attempted suicide. - So wait, how do you bullied, 'cause you're a big guy? - I am now. I didn't have a growth spurt until I was like a freshman or sophomore High School. So third grade to eighth grade was really bad - Takes a lot of balls to bully you. - Yeah... - It might backfire. - It's actually kind of why I found fighting, or not why, it is. - [Commentator] Justin Wren is raining down the leather hard right now. - You've got to find something you're passionate about to focus on. For me, it was martial arts. Wrestling and the martial arts instilled humility, discipline, respect, honor and there's like 3.9 million kids in the country that do martial arts. And probably half of them find it because of being bullied. So we are hopefully getting into hundred martial arts academies this year, to equip them with bullying prevention curriculum. It's called "Heroes in Waiting." Everyone is a hero in waiting. Nobody really understands that there's 5,000 children each and every day, that die of waterborne disease. Every single day. Then what is the hero? A hero is someone who sees a need and takes action immediately. My wife and I, we started a foundation called Fight For The Forgotten. Together, what we wanted to focus on was land, water and food initiatives. We were focused on really helping people in the practical, tangible way that will change their lives. We get to put the tools in their hands, the training and knowledge in their heads, send them out so that they can change their own community. Because they're from that community, they can make a bigger difference, and we can. I love to fight. I love to be here and compete. But it's even better to fight for people and so to know that fighting in here, getting a choke out, I wanna go to the Congo and knock out the world's water crisis for my Pygmy family. Amagu amagu, we are one, we are not different. And so siku mingi, it's been many, many days. I can't wait to come back and see you guys very very soon, and drill some more well. - [Announcer] The Big Pygmy Justin Wren, we'll see him again soon, give him a hand. - Yeah, so that's the guy we're dealing with here, Right? So I said that, there were a few bullet points that I asked him for. And it's really important even though that these are the things that we see and the and the passion that we see. Justin comes to us as a two time wrestling national champion. Of course, an MMA professional fighter, humanitarian. He currently fights in the Bella Tour League. He's now a international celebrity, so he comes with his own camera crew now. Cash app has funded, along with some other partners, friends of Joe Rogan, have funded a full length documentary on Justin, potentially that has incredible scope. So I'll leave it there. And so they're here filming today. So thank you for allowing that and smile if they're in front of you. It is just such a great honor to present, Justin Wren. Thank you. - Wow, I am, my hands are shaking a little nervous. I would actually actually, I said actually actually, see that. I would actually much prefer getting in a cage in front of tens of thousands or fight in front of 6.8 million at one time, then speak, because I get nervous. I grew up with a speech therapist from kindergarten to sixth grade and was getting bullied really intensively from kindergarten to second grade struggled with speech. But what I wanna say is, I'm incredibly honored and humbled to be speaking to you guys today. To be able, to have the opportunity to speak to 6,000 or so heroes. You heard me in that video say a hero is simply, someone who sees a need and takes action. It's not someone who has supernatural powers, or superhuman strength or has some potential platform. Because what I know is that you can impress or influence, from a platform, but you truly impact one on one, in person off the stage and that's what you guys are. You guys are heroes. And I am very honored, to be speaking to the 77 counties in Oklahoma, I'm still new, and 92 different offices of the agency. I'm absolutely honored and humbled Justin that you and invite me here, Director Brown. - [Man] Thank you Justin - You heard that. Please Justin, you could address me as Justin. And your sweet and lovely wife, Kelly for being here. Yeah, my name is Justin Wren. I'm so grateful to be here. If you guys do wanna check out what we do, it's fightfortheforgotten.org. Our overarching vision, is to defeat hate with love and our mission is to knockout bullying worldwide. We do that through community development for the world's most oppressed or bullied people group, the Pygmy people, that expand across nine African nations of the Congo base and rain forest, the second largest rain forest in the world. And we do that through land, water and food initiatives by empowering the locals, to be able to do it for themselves. The whole adage, give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. I believe that opportunity is greater than charity. Charity can be great, but most times people are looking, asking and searching and seeking or sometimes even begging for an opportunity. Not a handout but a hand up. And a lot of you are in the trenches. A lot of you are on the front lines. And even if you aren't, I really want you to hear this message today, even if you feel like you're just in a back office job or in a cubicle, what you do matters. What you do matters. This is the Department of Human Services. Each and every day, I hope that you can wake up with a little bit more of a sense of purpose. Or on those tough days, you might wanna throw in the towel or give up, or you're just exhausted. Just remind yourself of your why. Why you're doing this. The people business is a messy business. There was a pastor friend of mine, that shares a story. He's a pastor at Central Christian and in Las Vegas, and he's an awesome guy. He was walking through Caesars Palace. I didn't plan on sharing this at all, but he's walking through Caesars Palace, and him and a friend of his see a person slip and fall right on their back. The person knocks the wind out of himself because they fell so hard and wind had slipped him. The pastor and his friend just immediately jumped down, grabbed him on both shoulders, started trying to wipe off his back. He tell the person literally knocked the wind out of themselves. So they start trying to clean him up and it took a good 10-20 seconds before they realized the person slipped in some intoxicated persons vomit. Life is messy. But I believe each one of you here are called to jump down in the mess of life, help clean people up, serve 'em, love 'em, bless 'em. And so I truly am so honored to be here with you guys today. What I've learned through fighting, getting my hand raised and feeling empty inside. Thinking, is this it? Is this all? It's one thing to fight for yourself, but it's another thing to fight for people. I took a hiatus, I took time off, to go do humanitarian work and missions work and to serve people, to fight for people. And now I get to fight still and now that has been something that man, I can tell you the person with the most reasons usually wins. The person with the biggest or the strongest why, usually wins. The person that is purpose-driven, passion-filled, that remind themselves through the tough times, through the hard times, can protect themselves or avoid from burnout or compassion fatigue, it happens it's real, I've experienced it. But when you remind yourself of your why, or your True North, letting that be not your guard rails, I like this their your guide rails. Just heard that term today. It's a game changer. It will increase your longevity, your quality of life by reminding yourself of why you do what you do. Why you're here, sitting in the seats, or if you're in Lawton or Tulsa or wherever you may be, why you're here. This is my first trip to the Congo. This is back in 2011 and I learned quickly by looking like some vanilla gorilla, walking in there, that you will become a human jungle gym, after the fear leaves and they stop hiding behind trees. I love these children. These people are one of my biggest why's. I've been adopted in his family after living there for a full year at one time. At least a year and a half maybe approaching more like two years boots on the ground. And who knew that, a simple picture and family portrait which you never even, had one mirror for the village broken piece of mirror. So to have family portraits and to laminate those and give those to them, that that'd be one of the greatest gifts you give a grandmother. I was adopted and given the name Efe Osa, mobutu manbo, and you gotta say it like that. But Efe Osa is the one I treasure, it means the man who loves us. And mobutu manbo, replaced my fight name, the Viking, made me see why. But it's the one that I love to go by now, in which everyone knows me as. People might see me in Vegas or New York or Russia and call me, "Hey Big Pygmy." Mobutu manbo, just means the big Pygmy. And so I love that name. This is Chief Leomai. He's a mobutu Pygmy chief. And he is absolutely amazing. He's an incredible leader. And something that I love about leadership, is that a good leader knows the way, goes the way and then shows the way. He doesn't just know the way, but it goes the way himself, and he also shows the way to others. Through knowing who Chiefly Leomai is, that's who he, that's just what he embodies. But also just say quickly, and I wasn't brought here at all to be a spokesperson for Justin, he wanted me to speak to you guys. But you got a guy that is learning the way and that is trying his hardest to know the way so you can show the way, you go the way, show the way with you guys and then empower, you to truly empower you. I know it's one of his greatest desires. Love you bro. I just want to honor that. This is my wife and I in the Congo. Oops, there's a DHS logo in there, it's brought brought brought to you by, brought to you by OKDHS. I didn't see that on the run through. But this was actually my wife's first night ever camping was in the rain forest of the Congo. And her name is Lucy Mai Kumeteily. That's what Chiefly Leomai named her after his mother. Lucy Mai which means chosen and Kumeteily which means belongs here. On this first night she had roaches crawl across her neck that kind of made a freak out. Just sleeping on the dirt. I love her. In my book, and I brought a few books for people that will get after this. But in my book, this caption says, she must really love me. But she loves the people, like GP, who's going to be chief one day. He's in school for the first time. But there's also been some really difficult stuff. I never knew that I would meet a person that was actually enslaved. This was the first slave that I met. I'm very excited to say she's no longer. She's out of that lifestyle. But two men would put this on her back 100-220 pound bag of charcoal and she would walk three miles at a time. They would tie a rope around her head and the back of her head would bleed and she would get paid in scraps. Her slave masters told me they pay her and fish. And they said that fish is this size. We call those minnows or fish bait. This is Andy Bo, the first person I knew who died of the water crisis. He's one and a half years old, denied hospital treatment, because they said they wouldn't waste their medicine on a Pygmy animal. The team and I, this isn't about me, there's a team behind all these pictures you'll see today. The team and I dug his grave, had blisters on her hands and cried because his life was cut way too short about again, something that's completely preventable. And the reason I say that completely preventable, not everything you guys do, not everyone you serve, in the cases, in the circumstances are completely preventable, I get that. But there are going to be things that you are empowered to do, policies put in place, training that you have, your are educated and equipped and empowered to prevent a lot of things from happening in the lives of either the children or the elderly or the disabled, and you are empowered to make a big big difference in their life. Here's a quick video that kind of sums up the Congo Congo story. Does slavery exists now, today? It's not just a thing of the past. I mean, that's what I thought, living in my American bubble, there's no slaves today, we are not living back in the 1800s. Slavery in today's age, why? Why should it exist? Communities torn apart for generations, they would call us monkeys or jungle people. The Mokpala told us we were nothing. And that we had no importance to society. After they called us nothing we would think, did God create us? Are we human? Their slave masters come up to me and say, "What are you doing with my animals? "What are you here doing with my property? "I own these people." Work hard from morning until night, and we get two bananas to share. Two bananas for a whole family? The Mokpala has been beating us for many years. If we made even a small mistake, we would be beaten. God created us. We are human. We have to fight this. People, are worth fighting for. My name is Justin Wren. At 13 years old, I wanted to be a UFC fighter. I start fighting professionally at 19 years old, was on a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter, when I was 21, I was the main event at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas when I was 23 and since then, I've come here to Congo. Fighting in a cage under a tone of lights and getting my hand raised. That was it was cool. It was cool. But it wasn't great. I was fighting against people, but really I was just supposed to be fighting for people. They're sweet, loving, amazing people. And why, why should these sweet loving, amazing people be literally thought of and believe to be animals, whenever they're these sweet, loving, amazing people? One of the main reasons for their slavery, is because they don't have land. They don't own land for themselves. And so, because that, the land that they were always living on, was stolen from them. They come in, they steal the land from them and if they're going to live there, they're going to enslave the pygmies there because they can use them for whatever they want. Whatever they want, whenever they need, and make sure that they are stuck in a cycle of slavery. It would be foolish of us, to come to the slave masters and say, "Hey, we want to set your people free." So you have to go at it in a respectful way, to both parties. You can't love one side and hate the other. Because if you do that, it's only gonna cause more problems for the people you're trying to love. We came in saying, "Hey, how can we partner "with both of you?" What can we do to give solution for this? So we sat down, and we said, "I think we have to make a team "that can go to lobby those bound to "can give some part of the land back to the land Pygmy." The land purchases we're huge for giving them some land of their own that they could be free on. But water was what really soften the hearts of their oppressor, soften the hearts of their masters. Congo is, one of the regions in Africa which has a lot of fresh water, but people are dying from waterborne disease. And most people dying of waterborne diseases are Pygmies. It's worth anything. It's worth everything, to struggle, to great, to fight. We have to fight. And to see freedom happening, where that's freedom from literal slavery, which is happening now, with freedom from waterborne disease. If somebody just got to be here, and experience what I'm getting to experiencing, yeah it's crazy, yeah it's hard. But it's amazing and it's awesome and I love it. Our life is so good. Today I'm free, I am on my own land. No one can, "Say what are you doing? "I'm on my own land, with my own water. "It is good. "It is so good." I would love to say thank you. You're not just giving clean water to people but for me for my Pygmy family, like you're literally helping free people. I've seen people set free bro, and I've seen people set. I just got a burst of joy watching that actually and I looked out at a father figure of mine that's here today, our director, Fight For The Forgotten because Papa Y, I yeah I call him Papa Y because he's like a father figure to me walking in today he FaceTime with me and encouraged us and even personally, this is my personal favor, he prayed for this meeting today. So it was great to see him in that. I love this Swahili proverb. I think it's for everyone here. I think that this could be a potential new mantra or Swahili proverb, that you guys can hold on to or certain departments within the agency, not officially but at least remind yourself of this. This is my team of heroes. And I love this Swahili proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go together. We need each other. We absolutely need each other. And because of these people in this video, or this picture, our community development has turned into 60 water wells and counting. 45 in Congo and 14 in Uganda. They're actually drilling the 15th there today. One in Tanzania, land acquired close to 3,000 acres of land back in their name legally. So if we had a reference, it would be almost like maybe here with our great Native American population having land of their own. This is land of their own that was taken from them and now has been given back. And farms started four of them. Three are sustainable and being in markets, are the best bananas, best corn, best beans. We've been able to replant over 4,000 trees and see over 1,500 people transition out of an actual life of slavery and into a life of sustainable freedom for the first time. That's why there's this documentary being made and a book out and it seems crazy to even seeing that that happened and was possible, but there's more to the story. It's kind of wild whenever or strange whenever someone makes means about you, that really feels weird. The story's gone on some cool places like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Sports Illustrated ESPN. It's been on some really strange places. I was on Jimmy Kimmel Live and he was talking about the video you guys saw them petting my beard, he was like he's a golden retriever. And I was with some really good company on TMZ live. I was right after Lindsay Lohan and right before Honey Boo Boo. But what's great, what's really great is whenever they make memes about your work, your passion, your purpose, your True North, your why. It's that look you give when you get clean water. And I have to zoom in, because this grandfather here, it's jaw dropping. His grandson understands that this is great. But the grandfather who's lived decades longer without access to clean water and has lost , this grandfather has lost , family members due to dirty water. The victory that comes from that, the sound of the clean water coming out, that's a sound of a giant. With the name of cholera or Ikolai or Shigella or typhoid, hitting the dirt. This the sound of a giant being defeated. Mama Miriamo story is tragic, I have a video of that I'm gonna have to blast through. But she's an amazing woman. But she was born into slavery, lost her eyesight due to river blindness and lost five of seven children, because of dirty water. This was their water source, the worst water source that ever seen anyone drink from. Completely stagnant and they would have to move during the dry season, have to move the algae or the green stuff out of the way. But through the team of local heroes, a local problem needs a local solution. And so through that, now this is their water. It's only 20 footsteps outside of mama Miriamos front door. This right here, you have to remember these moments. You have to remind yourself of the victories during the tough times. I'll sum up why this is so important. But this is one of our are well drillers and it's some of the toughest work you could ever imagine. There's going to be tough times, there's going to be difficulties, you got to hold on to the good moments. These moments are some of the best. I've been to the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, the World Series, I've been to all these things, the biggest fights in the world. But nothing can compare to the sound of a small village getting the access to clean water and transformation and the celebration is different. It's different than cheers for a sporting event. Its victory of life. This right here, some of the toughest work, hiking and driving hours sometimes 24 hours, 48 hours to get through the mud and everything else, but hiking in bags of bricks, maybe 30 minutes, an hour, maybe three hours of the nearest roadside because you're going into the rain forest. Hiking in bags of bricks, or one ton of well drilling equipment and six meter 20 foot long pipes, it is absolutely crazy carrying hundred pound bag of cement. But to overcome your greatest challenges, what we've learned is you have to be equipped with the right tools, you have to be educated with the right knowledge, you have to be encouraged by a strong and believable why, it has to be a powerful why. You have to believe your why. Because it will embolden you. And you have to be empowered by a True North that allows you to be the change you want to see in the community. To see at OKDHS. To be the change you wanna see in the world. Something that directs you and provides guardrails, guide rails and keeps you in the center lane. You're gonna have times where you get stuck in the mud. And you're gonna feel like you've taken one step forward and two steps back, but then you'll get creative. You'll discover a new way to handle a new challenge and you'll lay a path that actually might help others do the same. This was the third time we were stuck behind this obstacle challenge, but then they're able to dis collapse bridge, But then they're able to send pictures and say, "Hey, we got got through it. "We're fighters, we're fighting for people. "This matter. "These moments." And for me, my why, this was before my comeback fight after five years taking time off. Again, it's the person with the most reasons that usually wins. I was backstage and everyone's hitting mitts, everyone's wrestling around, they got their rock, their rap, their inspirational music going, I've got forest music from the Pygmy people and us around the fire. And my opponents walk out music comes on and he's headed out to the cage and he's all tied up I don't know, he's huge. And entire of that, my wife was very intimidated. I was kinda not really, but Emily text me this picture, moments before I put this up. I was turning off my Bluetooth speaker, putting my phone in my bag, and she texted me this picture and she says, "Remember why and who you fight for." Remember why and who you fight for. I guess right after that, I look at my coaches, Olympic gold medalist Kenny Monday, from Tulsa, hey coach, and he looks at me and also I'm, And I'm tearing up, he goes, "You gotta get your head back in this." But, these moments, these moments, you gotta remember your why. These moments right here. Gotta zoom in on some of their faces. This little girl, after 37 wells doing some of the most backbreaking work, you can imagine, we were ready to give up on this well. I snapped the shot over my shoulder, he didn't see me taking it, and that was because Albert and Alan and Kakura, I was just like, "Guys, we got to remember these moments." Now it's to be a hero. Sharing my own bullying story now, I don't have time to share it, but you guys could just google Justin Wren bullying, and it's from the Joe Rogan podcast, it's got over a million views. But what I've learned about this is that sometimes out of your deepest hurt, it becomes your greatest message. Your most impact and your most meaningful ministry. I believe that the divine loves to use what is intended for harm, and to take you out and to use it for good and to give others hope. It might just change or save a life if you let it. There's a moment where I was told I should just kill myself, was in front of the whole school. And did you know that Oklahoma is number one in the nation for ACES, the Adverse Childhood Experience Survey. A great resources is, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, and her TED Talk, or her book called "The Deepest Well". But I love that part of OKDHS is True North, is to be a recognized trauma informed agency. And I believe under the leadership of Justin Brown, you won't just be a top 10 agency, you'll be one of the top leaders in the nation. You guys are gonna do it. You gotta do it. And you will, you can. I mean 6,000 have to buy in and believe it, have to. But each one of you it starts with one, each one of you can make a difference in an impact. Here's a Swahili proverb, If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito. I love that. And as a guy that's gotten malaria and almost died from it, It has a whole other meaning to me. It was the biggest opponent I've ever faced. There's a video here, I don't think I have time for it, but there is a video of a boy and I have permission from his family to share it, in UConn that was relentlessly bullied, that made the news and he was being beat up on two different days. His name's Rayden and this is him. We just felt led and people reached out, it's great to do stuff for as many people as possible. But you impact up close. And so with Rayden, this is Rafi Lovato Jr, the greatest American of all times doing jujitsu, the current MMA World Champion, we got to rally around him and we've been with them actually the last two weeks, every single day but two. He was even diagnosed with a concussion. And it just so happens that I just started going to the best concussion treatment for the most part, which is hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Affords your brain with blood, blood flow and stem cells. There's research on it from Dr. Daniel Haymen, If anyone wants to look. But guys like UFC champions, NFL world, Olympic champions, Super Bowl champions are all using it now. And being able to just rally around Rayden, get them in there and start getting some treatment. Going to church with him. He goes to church called Life Church in UConn, you know he'd go to his youth group and then they'd invite him up and share a story and 300 people rally around him and cheer for him. In the car, his dad asked him what that made him feel like, and he said, "It made me want to cry." It made him want to cry. And then also some girls said hi on the way out and so he said that was his highlight. But the news is reaching out and it was nuts. Like everyone wanted a news story. People start posting their home address online. Even the bullies that beat Rayden up, they were sharing their addresses saying, "Go beat them up." And his family's talking about forgiveness and don't bully the bullies, like that doesn't fix anything. Let's love the bullies. Hurt people, hurt people, but loved people, love people. And so let's be people of love, putting compassion and love in action. He likes taking pictures and so we're always on road trips together my wife finally told me that or she told me that, "I finally know why you're doing all this for Rayden. "You're just trying to be the guy that you needed "when you're his age, when you were in his shoes." Whole reason I'm sharing the story's isn't to get Pat's on my back, but you guys have these one on one encounters, where you're setting up systems that impact a million people and 25% of Oklahoma's population, what you do matters. This is Edmond Santa Fe, rallying around him. This young man gave his sunglasses to Rayden, so he loves it. The football team rallied around him. Our director of the bully prevention rallied around him he loves his new sunglasses. And so, knowing your why, is the right of a lifetime. It just is. But self care isn't selfish, you guys gotta take care of yourselves. Take time to fill back up. Live with purpose. Have quality relationships, make personal progress, discover your why. Cultivate a growth mindset, find your personal True North, follow that guiding light and then some questions real quick. How are you feeding your body? Taking care of yourself, nutrition, exercise, supplementation, mindfulness, prayer or as I say exercise isn't to lose weight, it's because it makes your brain healthier. It makes your brain healthier. How are you getting quality sleep? Protecting your sleep, hydrate and sleep. I go to counseling, not just once but twice a week. And he says, "If people just were hydrated "and got better sleep, it would be life changing "for 90% of people out there." Remind yourself of your why, why you got into originally? Keep that at the forefront of your mind, avoid burnout and increase longevity by attaching purpose and meaning to everything you do. Compassion fatigue is real, make sure you're talking to someone, go to professional counseling, don't bottle it up. Healthy release of pressure. And please be careful what you're turning to. Make healthy decisions when detaching and relaxing. Have healthy boundaries with people, and beware of turning to drugs, prescription pills and excessive drinking after seeing some of the tough stuff. Guys, I know you see tough stuff, it's really hard not to be caught up in those ensnared things. But you're on the front lines and if you know anything is life is a battle ground not playground. If you treat it like a playground, you will lose the battle. But you also got to have fun too. I really appreciate you guys time, and one last thing before Justin gets up here is that, I hope you guys will rally around each other. What this picture showed me, was that, one, align yourself with your True North vision, rally around it and rally around each other. Let it be your guiding light, let True North compass give you direction, motivation and empowerment to put love and compassion in action and do your job with excellence and elegance with passion and purpose and integrity and sincerity. This picture real quick was from my last trip, before Justin came into, OKDHS. And I was I was playing Tug of War with them. They brought out the rope and wanted to play and I said, "Sure." And I'm looking over in this picture, you might think that I was like kinda pulling back and forth and that's what I was planning to do, was to, pull them around a little bit and then eventually, let them win. The reality, look at little Ivan's face here. They were trying harder than I was, But they dragged me around that ground, that grass, on my butt, I did not pull them back in inch, they dominated me. Didn't just defeat me, they dominated. And, if you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together. Our team leader said, "What can we learn from this?" And he said, "When we come together, "we can overcome any challenge." One of the kids said, "When we come together, "when we unite and fight, "we can defeat giants." It's one of those kids. And other said, "When we come together "we can move mountains." I'm rooting for you guys, thank you so much. - Wow. So I get to follow that. Yes. Really incredible, Justin. Thank you for sharing your experience and the lessons that you've learned internationally and domestically is wonderful for us to take. I sort of lost track of all of the things that I wanted to say, following that up. One of them is, you have to believe and remember your why. That's a lot of the message here, that we need to share as an agency. We do this for a reason. You all are in this room and you all online, are not here for the paycheck, you are here to make a difference and to serve. And it's just an honor to do that next to you, and every day, I remember my why, and so I'm hopeful that we can get to the point where everybody also remembers their why here. So thank you again, Justin. Appreciate it. Okay, so now, we are going to take a few minutes here, and we're going to walk through our True North. Again, it's been a long process, eight weeks, we've worked with the division directors. These are the guide rails, really where we're headed as an agency. Each of these program divisions, serve so many different people and are so important to what we do. Although they work very closely together, and they will continue to do so going forward. Each of them has their own charge and their own mission. We wanted to do this separately. There are a lot of people who sort of gave some advice to me, that we should have three to five goals for the entire agency and I thought, that just doesn't sound right. You all do so many different things that we need to have three to five goals for each division. And so that's what this is. it's important to note, these are not smart goals, yet, the next stage really is to define the measures, the metrics that we're going to use to drive us in the right direction. These are like compass needles, taking us and pointing in the direction that we're going to head. So, there's some intent behind this, of course, to motivate the team across the state. I mentioned it earlier to empower the workforce. You guys have the true opportunity to serve in your own communities. And this True North should allow us to know where we're headed, so that you can really pick up the torch and serve those in your community with with confidence. Direction of course. This is important because, we are about to release something that will provide lots of incredible ideas from all over the state. And how do we bring in those ideas and understand which are the most important? How do we prioritize the time, limited time that we have in the budget, of course limited budget that we have? And that's by measuring all of these innovative ideas against this True North. So it really gives us this level of direction for setting priorities. And then of course, as you'll see here, in a few minutes, there's a level of transparency as well, that's critically important to people that we serve and the foundations and nonprofits and partners and stakeholders in our communities, they need to know what our goals are as well, it's not just us. And so if we're going to solve some of these problems we're going to serve in the best ways by doing so with the people, who serve alongside us. So to Justin's point in this proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go together. So again, these are broad, because it allows us to work within them and to set these priorities. And the next step truly is to have 123 metrics, that really will, prove that we're doing the right thing, and that we are top 10 as an agency. And I think just to read it, my goal is top one, right? What's top 10? We need top one. So ultimately, at the end of the day, every discussion we have and every decision we make, every priority we set should be tied measurably to our True North goals. Okay. So let's actually get to it. So I'm going to go through each division quickly. I'm going to read them off, although you can read, I'm also going to read them and happy to. At some point, I do have an email address, so I get emails, so feel free to send me emails, work with your division directors also if you have questions on them, we will follow up with additional materials and information. So we're going to start with AFS. So really we've got like say three to five for each one, helping Oklahoma families meet their basic needs and promote their move out of poverty through increased self sufficiency and economic independence. To me, I think if this agency is operating in the right space, it's preventative space, we are keeping people from coming to us and other areas and that means lifting families out of poverty. And so I feel like this is really sort of, a not sort of, it is as a critical goal in what we're doing agency wide not just within AFS. Second AFS goal, and one that is not inconsistent with other agents or other divisions as well, is increased food security for Oklahoma families and improve access to all available services and supports through collaboration with community partners and other state agencies. We gotta work together. Next is APS, Adult Protective Services. Increase the safety and independence of vulnerable adults living at home, by connecting them to Community Services. Increase the safety of adults living independently at home, or in long term care facilities, by investigating allegations of abuse and neglect and exploitation identifying the victimizers and alerting all appropriate parties. The third is increase the well being of adults living with HIV/AIDS by connecting them to medical and social services and providing case management for continued care and support to APS. Here in a minute, I'm going to sort of ruin this, a little bit, this will become public here in a few minutes. I see some people snapping pictures, which is great, feel free to do so, but this will be wide open for everybody to see. Next aging services. Increase the accessibility of options for adults to live independently. Improve living arrangements stability of residents in long term care facilities. Improve the quality of life for older adults in Oklahoma by adding or by helping to meet their basic needs including meals and social opportunities. Increase job opportunities for older adults to expand at workforce development programs. You'll see some common threads here. There are really three rallying points for all of these. Its safety, well-being and independence. So all of them, the executive team after we put all this together recognize that there's something in common with a lot of these. And it is those three things. We are here to promote safety, well-being and independence for the people that we serve. Childcare services. Improve the quality of and access to child care programs across the state. Enhance a high quality workforce through professional development, and increase collaboration with child care providers. There's another one, together. That's been said maybe the fourth one. Safety well-being, independence and doing this together. Child Support Services. You'll see that there's a part of this that I did. So like this is a really fancy one, and then I did this and the buttons don't work right and so, that may come up again, I don't know. Improve the economics ability of Oklahoma families by increasing the number of children receiving support from non custodial parents. Improve children's access to health care coverage and improving a non custodial parents ability to satisfy their child support obligations by promoting financial stability. And there are my buttons. Child Welfare Services. Increase the percentage of children served safely in their own homes. Improve the safety of children in foster care. Increase the percentage of children who achieve placement stability in family settings. Increase the number of children who achieve legal permanency prior to the age of 18 while providing the tools and skills necessary to those who aged out of foster care to promote a successful adulthood. These are not little goals, just so you know. Okay, Developmental Disability Services. Empower support Oklahomans with developmental disabilities to live independently and work in competitive integrated employment within their communities. Advocate for the elimination of the developmental disability waiting list and provide services to Oklahomans and their families as they wait. This one gets me every time. Improve the well being and independence of individuals receiving home and community based services. So those are the primary program divisions. I hope you will be able to rally around your why. That is our why as an agency within each of these divisions. Our team is here to support you. That's what our job is. So I wanted to provide a slide on what we're doing, the executive team, how we are giving you the tools you need to be successful, what we're doing to support you. So I've got one slide on that, even though I can go for hours on this one as everybody on the team knows. So the first is efficiency. Continuing to build fiscal and programmatic integrity and efficiency. Here's why that's really important for a lot of reasons. One of our customers is a taxpayer. But secondly, I really hope and I know I will get to the day very soon, where I can say to the governor and to the legislature, "That the money that we have "is spent wisely, there is little or no fraud abuse "or waste within our system, within the agency "or the programs that we operate. "And now here are 10 opportunities, to lift families." So when I can come to them with that level of confidence, then we can say here's what we need to truly change the state, and change the world to me, let's not stop at the state, to be honest, change the world. Second, Justin mentioned it becoming a trauma, a recognized trauma informed agency and embrace the science of hope. Lots of research here. This is a particular passion, I've mentioned it before. We all just by virtue of being humans, bring our own trauma and our own backgrounds to this agency in the work that we do, in lots of cases perpetuates trauma. So we need to recognize that, work through and give ourselves the skills and the tools to promote our own well being, so that we can promote well being in the families that we serve. Another great one, becoming an elite employer. I have said it, I keep saying this all time. But I've said it a lot. That, if you have a passion to serve, and I'm looking in the camera out there, if you have a passion to serve, our community, there's no place you should rather work than the Department of Human Services. We do this better than anybody. And we are an elite employer. And that means embracing ideas, really making it a safe place for people to raise their hand and have an objection to share something that's going wrong, but also to bring an idea that they know that everybody in this room and everybody online will know that if they come up with an idea that it will be considered thoughtfully. You'll will be reached out and you will be thanked for because we truly do appreciate it, and we will integrate it into the into the agency if it makes sense. So we have a lot of opportunities here to become an elite employer. Honestly, Myron, here leading as a chief of strategic engagement, as you all know and his opportunity is to work with me and all of you to build deep and collaborative relationships. Again, we cannot do this alone. And this platform we're working on and we're laying out, really allows us to do so in a smart way. Jamie Ledou, is our Chief Innovation Officer and that's the space where we're trying to get is to self correct to, really look out and understand the opportunities that we have to serve in the best way and in ways that nobody else is serving and that's what innovation means for our agency and how we're going to change the world. The last one is called a Culture Highway. Lots of people as I started here at the agency and as I lay out some of these plans asked me, "Okay, these are all great. "So how you gonna do it with 6,000 people and 92 offices?" That's a challenge. And the concept is called a Culture Highway. And it was brought up that I should probably mention this, because, we have a lot of things about to come. A lot of opportunities to learn, a lot of opportunities to take care of ourselves and one another. It may, if you don't have this context seem a little haphazard, I want to assure you it is not it is very well thought out. And it's all a process called building our culture highway. Ultimately, when we come up with an idea and if we're actually starting with giant worldwide, you all have had some experience with that, but we're building using giant worldwide to use their five voices platform to understand how to better communicate with one another and how to communicate better with the people that we serve, and that is a beautiful platform, but the beauty in that is not the actual curriculum, no offense to giant, it is great, but the beauty is it allows us to create connections with people in the community, with those in county offices all across the state and other offices. So as we build those connections, we're essentially paving a highway to deliver additional programming and additional opportunities. So giant is first, traction will be second, then by that point, I think we're gonna have a really good strong highway to deliver these platforms to you and then the next one is trauma. So we are really excited to educate our workforce on trauma informed care, understanding what the people bring to us when they come into our offices and they apply online and they call in. Really embracing that and helping them solve their problems so that they can solve problems for their families. So that's the culture highway, you'll start to see that. Wanted to make sure to share it because this is all very well thought out and planned out ahead of time. Okay, from here, and this should have gone in to points but again, I created the slide. So the first one is, we are launching it, this is the last slide, you'll be happy to know so. This is really important to dig into. The first thing is we're launching an online platform today. So you should be able to go to it right now. Correct? We've had an incredible team building this over the last, I don't know, six, eight weeks somewhere in that range. Through our innovation services platform. Anneliese been fantastic and working with that, spearheading that project. So we're building this website, it's not okdhs.org, It's our okdhs.org. So it is a combination of the relationship platform with Myron, as chief strategic engagement in the innovation platform, with Jamie, as the Chief Innovation Officer. So you should be able to get online, see our True North, download each of the slides to understand where your division is. But keep in mind, this is a public facing platform. We are sharing our goals as an agency with those that we serve and those that serve next to us. So people can get on, the beauty of this platform is not that it is just a website and has some really awkward videos of me on it. But the beauty is that people in the community can raise their hand, there's a button at the bottom, of all the slides that says Raise your hand. And that allows us to collect people who are interested in serving. This really hit me hard when I was giving a presentation, I don't even remember it was, but I was given a presentation talking about the goals of the agency where we're headed, and I had afterwards I had like six or seven people come up to me afterwards, and we were just chatting, and they were all sharing these unbelievable ideas. And the one that always hits me, he was from Calm Waters, he said, "I wanna serve the mental health needs "of those with developmental disabilities." And that was the hundred meter card and I thought, wow, that's amazing. But I only have your card with my handwritten scratch writing on the back of it and I stuck it in my jacket pocket. And that's the only way I had to collect this person's information and try to remember that that person wanted to serve the people that we serve. So this this website, although it's pretty has a an engine behind it that helps to collect those people virtually, allows us to understand who wants to serve with us, let them raise their hand. We can bring these some of these people to together, come up with ideas together and then as we do that, we can reach back out to those who have expressed an interest across the state, and say, "Here's the plan, we have to serve "the mental health needs of those "with developmental disabilities." We need your help in Gayman or in Tahlequah, or in Woodward, we need your help, you've expressed interest now come help us. So the guts behind it, the engine behind it is what's truly important. So that's launched right now go online, it also allows us, I'm gonna try to keep the short, but allows us to post innovation topics. So real ideas that that we've come up with, we know we need help with, so there's two I believe posted online right now ready to see. And one of those is kids aging out of foster care, giving them the tools they need to be successful. It's just a short articulated statement, there's probably a couple of little bit of narrative with that and allows people to say, "I have a great idea." Or when you're ready, I can help you. And so that's what this platform does for us is allows us to collect people in the community that wanna serve alongside of us. So I'm really excited about that. And then the last one, as you've already seen, it wasn't a surprise because it's been up there for five minutes, is Take A. There's a survey now in your inbox, wherever you are, that's three short questions. It's just how you feeling? How are things going? Do you think we're headed in the right direction? Just really trying to understand what the what things look like in the field. I'm there all the time, as you know, with my awkward selfies and people everywhere and all that, but we just want to hear from you. We've gotta again, do this together. We have to collaborate and understand what the opportunities we have to serve are alongside you. That's it. That's our True North. Real opportunity here to rally together and serve through these guardrails. We are going to come out shortly with our one to three specific measurables, that we're trying to make progress on and we need your help. We are excited about launching this platform. We are really moving forward in pursuing the goals of the agency and really serving in the best way. So thank you all for being here. Thank you for being online. Thank you for your passion and your commitment to serve our community. Justin I, don't know how to do Earth, Wind and Fire, but just picture Earth, Wind and Fire music playing in the background.