ARISE - EFR
The theme of the podcast is independent living and advocacy for people with disabilities.
ARISE - EFR
“From Stage to Service: Max Smith’s Journey of Inclusion”
In this episode of the ARISE - Exceptional Family Resources podcast, CEO Bruce Drake sits down with Max Smith, the Community Inclusion Senior Supervisor at ARISE. They discuss Max’s unique path—from his early days in theater and education to his current role advocating for individuals with disabilities. Max shares personal stories, including his experiences growing up in Chittenango, his work with his cousin who has spina bifida, and his time teaching theater in Syracuse schools. Listeners will gain insight into how Max’s diverse background fuels his passion for inclusion and community engagement.
Tune in to hear how Max’s blend of creativity and compassion makes a meaningful impact in the lives of those he serves.
This is the Arise Exceptional Family Resources Podcast with your host, CEO, Bruce Drake.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, everyone. I'm Bruce Drake, the CEO at Arise and EFR, and I am your host today for the Arise EFR Podcast. I am thrilled to have joining us today our Community Inclusion Senior Supervisor, Max Smith. Something you should all know before we get too far into this is that Max and I are almost birthday buddies. My birthday is one day before his, and we will both be celebrating this weekend. So welcome, Max, and happy birthday. Thank you. Happy birthday to you. I appreciate it. Sure. Thank you. Max, you have such a great backstory before you even joined EFR. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and who you are and what your experiences were before you came here.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Loaded question. So I grew up in Chittenango, about half an hour from Syracuse. So I am local to the area. I have been lucky enough to walk a lot of different paths in this life. And work many different jobs in different areas. So I've met a lot of different people. And, you know, I've done retail, I've done restaurants, I've done work with people with disabilities. So I feel lucky enough to have brought in my horizons to meet a lot of amazing people, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02:Sure, sure. Now, am I correct that you have some background in being on stage as well?
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yep. I was a definite theater kid growing up. So I did a lot of stage work in high school. In high school, I also was recognized at my graduation for my work in the exceptional learners classroom. So working with people of all abilities has been a passion of mine since I was very young.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So where did you catch the bug to work with people with disabilities? How did that come? Did you have a personal interaction or?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Cousin of mine has spina bifida. She's in a wheelchair. So I have always been helping her with accessibility since I was very young. And I also worked at OCL right out of high school as a dsp so i was your cousin older than you younger than you she's about 10 years older than me
SPEAKER_02:okay and you said you went to work at ocl as a dsp
SPEAKER_01:yeah so it's her dsp so how was that it was cool it was really nice i was fresh out of high school so still a kid but it was a really it was a really good job and she and i are still very close to this day so whose idea was that Her parents, her family. I come from a very tight-knit family unit, so my aunt was just like, hey, you want to make some extra money and bring Ashley to some shows sometimes? And I was like, heck yeah, I do. So it worked out pretty well. And how long were you a DSP for? Not super long. Probably less than a year, I would say. And
SPEAKER_02:where did
SPEAKER_01:you
SPEAKER_02:go from there?
SPEAKER_01:I went to the Red House Art Center in downtown Syracuse. I was working in partnership with the Syracuse City School District. So I was writing theater curriculum and bouncing school to school in the Syracuse City School District, teaching theater curriculum to kids and tying it back into Common Core curriculum, which is a pretty unique job. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. And then you've done some stage work yourself, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yep. I was on stage. I was in a touring production of James and the Giant Peach. which was pretty cool. So let's talk about, so what is it?
SPEAKER_02:What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it?
SPEAKER_01:Touring production is a show that goes city to city and puts on, puts on the show. So I was touring. with the production of James and the Giant Peach for about a year.
SPEAKER_02:And any cities, which cities
SPEAKER_01:would you hit? It was all New York. It wasn't, not that big time. So it was all around New York State. I think the furthest we went was like the southern tier. Do you get nervous being up on stage and performing? I love it. I love The Rush. I have a dancing background, and I was in the church plays when I was like three years old as the baby Jesus. So I've been ready for the spotlight since day one.
SPEAKER_02:The best baby Jesus I've ever seen. Yeah, man. Well done.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:And what was your role in James and the Giant Peach?
SPEAKER_01:I was the centipede, the grumpy smoking guy. So just yelling at everybody the whole time.
SPEAKER_02:Did you get to dance or sing in that role?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yes, I did. It was a musical.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Yeah. So you have an interesting role here. here at Arise and Exceptional Family Resources as the Community Inclusion Senior Supervisor. Why don't you talk a little bit about the programs that you oversee?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. Yeah, I have been at Arise and EFR for about two years at this point. And I've been lucky enough where EFR and Arise have let me kind of build my own strengths and bring my own background and my own partnerships into the agency so that we can provide the people that we support with as many opportunities as they need. So I oversee many a program. Some of the main ones, a lot of the ones that people ask about, we do have our Fantastic Fridays every Friday at the Redeemer Church in Liverpool. Those are different activities each week, as well as we have our bingo. We have a Syracuse bingo, a Fulton bingo, and we're actually introducing a Madison County bingo and Chittenango this month, as well as we have a bowling group every Thursday at Flamingo Bowl, and we have the Sewell Branch Library gaming group every Wednesday. So those are just some of our recurring events where I also oversee see FSS Friends Connection. So
SPEAKER_02:FSS is a OPWDD program, Family Support Services. And so... Which of the programs for the FSS program do you oversee?
SPEAKER_01:I oversee Friends Connection and I also oversee Community Night Out, which is the Friday night dance and Kids Night Out.
SPEAKER_02:So what's Friends Connection?
SPEAKER_01:So Friends Connection is a service, as you said, it's family supported services. So it's people who are age 18, live at home with a family member and have that OPWDD eligibility. We just hang out at different places in the community each month. We have, we actually have bumped it up. Now we're offering three events per month. So things like like bowling or baking or sporting events.
SPEAKER_02:Who decides what you're going to do?
SPEAKER_01:So myself and my amazing team decide, but we normally will ask the participants what they want to do and then schedule it around their desires. For example, they love mini golfing. Who doesn't love mini golfing? Who doesn't love mini golfing? So next month we're going to go to Big Don's in Cicero just because they love mini golfing so much.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And then what were the other FSS programs?
SPEAKER_01:So we have the Friday Night Dance, which is the the third Friday of each month at Salt Space right next door. And that is, again, for people aged 18 and up. And it's always a place for us to come and dance and eat some snacks and have fun as a community. And then another facet of community night out would be kids night out, which is for ages six to 12. And they do things like tie dye or molding crafts on the first week of each month.
SPEAKER_02:Max, you've really done an outstanding job in your role. I know when I came to EFR six years ago, years ago, one of my goals was to get EFR to provide 12 group activities a year because we weren't. And now it sounds like we're providing 15 or 20 group activities a month.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm proud to say we have an offering for almost every day, which was definitely one of my goals. Something else that I'm actually very proud of was I wanted one of my goals for myself in this role was to have an education series, some way where our individuals could learn and kind of have an extra support in day-to-day activities. So right now in the education series, we have a money matters class where people can learn about budgeting and financing and spending versus saving. We also have a health and wellness class where people can learn about very basic things like hygiene and relationships and comfortable boundaries, but then also does build into sexual health depending on the individual's comfort level. And we also are offering fitness classes almost every day of the week at this point in partnership with elevate fitness into it. So we have a lot of educational offerings going on right now that I'm very proud of.
SPEAKER_02:So I know we're able to offer those because of relationships that you've built in the community, right? Yes, sir. Those are things that we've never done before, and we honestly never really thought of doing them before until you came on board. Can you talk a little bit about how you establish relationships in the community and kind of convince people to help us with these things?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. I like to think that I surround myself with people who are like-minded So people who do want to see growth in the community and see the value in the work that we do. And these are people that come from all different walks of my life. So for example, our health and wellness teacher, she actually teaches curriculum specifically for folks with disabilities through Planned Parenthood. And she's one of my best friends from high school. So that just happened to work out in my favor. Whereas with the Red House Art Center, you know, we have people that are participating in Broadway level shows, because that was where I worked before. So
SPEAKER_02:what was your role at the Red House Arts Center?
SPEAKER_01:I believe the title was Building Lead or Teaching Fellow. The main goal was community impact and growth.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So you run into these people, but somehow you keep them in your life and convince them to help us. How about the credit union? How did that kind of come about?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, AmeriQ came through another member of my team, Erica, who is just simply phenomenal. I believe that they are a family.
SPEAKER_02:Erica doesn't get any royalties for this, does
SPEAKER_01:she? Erica, I'm so sorry you're not getting anything for this, but maybe a nice coffee. But, so Erica had a family connection, but we also are partnering with the Sydney Federal Credit Union and I just ran into their representative through a networking event at the Women's Opportunity Center. So just finding these sort of events and finding like-minded people and creating that bond and growing together.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. So, you know, you've done a lot of things that you should be proud of. I'm just wondering, you know, if you had to identify the thing that you were proud of of your accomplishments, either here at EFR and Arise or even before, what would you say? That's a big one.
SPEAKER_01:Well, answer as many times as you want. Yeah, right. I would say, I'll loop it back to what you were saying about wanting to offer at least 12 events a month. It is very nice to see, you know, I see some faces at every single one of my events and there are some that I only see once every few months, but I know that it's impactful for them. It's making a difference to see them and see the community and it is vital for me Thank you. a bingo once a month where people will see a familiar face, know that they're safe, and that they have a place to go where they'll be celebrated.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. That's great. So you've accomplished a lot in two short years. What's next on the agenda? Do you have some goals or some services or supports that we haven't been able to provide yet or we haven't had the opportunity to do yet that you kind of have in the back of your head that, boy, I'd love to figure out a way to roll this out to everybody?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. We actually have quite a few things coming down the pipeline that I'm really looking forward to at the end of the year, Erica, give Erica another shout out, worked out a kitchen literacy project with the Salt City Market where people will be able to go to a real full kitchen downtown and we'll provide the food, we'll provide the teachers, we'll provide the venue and just teach people with disabilities how to cook a home-cooked meal that's cheap and easy and doable. And I know that a lot of people want to live independently, so that's a big one for them. Also, Nick, who works at Arise and EFR, we've been collaborating with them to offer an ASL, an American Sign Language course, for our DSPs and perhaps our individuals, just to make communication that much easier. I've also been working with Radiant Abilities, Kathy O'Connell, on a support dating and relationships because you know with dating apps and social media and all of that it's a very dangerous place for people who might be a little more susceptible to fraudsters so getting a course out there for not only the individual on how to be safer in dating and relationships but also for the DSP to know how to support somebody who might be not engaging in safe activity online so those are a few of the partnerships and programs that I'm really looking forward to within the next few months.
SPEAKER_02:Those all sound very exciting. So Max, if somebody is listening to the podcast, and hopefully there are many of you, what's the best way to get a hold of you if they want to hear more about any of the great things that you're doing?
SPEAKER_01:So we have a general recreation email. That's kind of the easiest way to reach our team. That's recreation at contactefr.org. I can spell it out if you want me to. I
SPEAKER_02:think you're good.
SPEAKER_01:Or we have a general phone number. It just goes to a voicemail, but then one of us will call you back as soon as we get it. And that phone number is 315-707-7752.
SPEAKER_02:Max, again, great job with everything you do. We really appreciate everything. Thank you for spending some time with us this morning. Thank you for everything, all the services and supports that you're delivering. Ladies and gentlemen, that was Max Smith, our Community Inclusion Senior Supervisor. Thank you all for joining us. And we hope you join us the next time as well.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. This has been the Arise Exceptional Family Resources podcast with CEO Bruce Drake, recorded and produced at the WCNY Public Broadcasting Studios. For more information, visit our website at contactefr.org. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thank you for listening.