We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madison Forristall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madison below.
Madison, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I work for a non-profit called Best Buddies International. We serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am the deputy director for Eunie’s Buddies, the family support pillar in Best Buddies. The Family Support Program provides one to one mentorships for parents who either just got a diagnosis of an intellectual or developmental disability for their child or are still struggling with the diagnosis. They are paired with a parent who has been down that road, they know how to navigate it and they’re ready to be a friend to these newer parents. Some days work is light, easy and breezy, many others, however, requires 12-14 hours of hard work trying to engage the community about this new program.
How I get through those long days and where I feel my work ethic come from is the inspiration I receive from my nephews. I have two nephews, one with down syndrome and one with autism. They are the light of my life. They are the ones who inspired me to apply for this position and take on the program development fearless and tirelessly. I believe that good work ethic doesn’t solely come from ourselves, but it really is a team of people around us who inspire our work. I love working with the families, who, when they learn about the program, visibly drop their shoulders as if a weight has been lifted off of them. My family, and the families we serve, are the people who help me to strive to be better and to have the work ethic that I have. I think of them when I want to develop new areas of the program, when I need to get more organized, or when I feel tired and need more energy.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I work for Best Buddies International which is a nonprofit that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In Best Buddies, we serve those individuals by creating one-to-one friendships, job placements, inclusive living opportunities, leadership development and initiatives, as well as a family support program, which I am the Deputy Director of here in Colorado. What is so wonderful about best buddies and all of our individual programs, is that it serves a vulnerable, marginalized community by treating them as equals, as valuable, contributing members to our society, and seeing them just as they are; wonderful friends, employees, roommates, leaders, and so much more. I am honored to be the Deputy Director of the Family Support Program here in Colorado. It is wonderful to work one on one with the parents of children with disabilities to help them with the support, that they need, and to bridge the gap that is common for these families between isolation and community. Community is truly the backbone to what we do in addition to inclusion acceptance, and friendship.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three qualities that have been vital for me in my journey have an empathy, patience, and tenacity. I’ve worked in social work and with nonprofits for many years. Empathy is a vital quality to see where your clients and your participants are at. Try to put yourself in their shoes and understand their emotions. We may not all go through the same experience, but we all experience the same emotions.
Patient is important because in the world of nonprofits nothing happens overnight, even though most of the time it feels like it should. Knowing that the work you put in are just seeds planted to be grown another day helps to gain perspective of the work that you’re doing. A path is made by laying one stone at a time.
Lastly, tenacity is something that is needed in this realm of social work because there are going to be days where you don’t feel inspired at all. Maybe a client or participant is not doing well, maybe you’re having a disagreement with a coworker, maybe funding got cut to a specific program, or maybe all of these things happen on the same day. Seeing the work, remembering the joy that it brings you, and the joy that it brings the participants can fuel tenacity to be able to persevere through difficult times.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking for new partners and collaborators for the brand new Family Support Program here at Best Buddies. Right now we’re looking for mentors and mentees for our family support program. These mentors and mentees are parents of children with disabilities either looking for support or willing to provide support to newer parents or caregivers. We’re also looking for community volunteers to help up with the program. In addition, we are always looking for other organizations with similar missions and goals to collaborate with. We love to support other nonprofits and organizations and being able to tell our participants about them as well as getting the word out about our program and the opportunities that the family support program provides. They can connect with me by emailing me at madisonforristall@bestbuddies.org
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bestbuddies.org/family-support/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/euniesbuddies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuniesBuddies/
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