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Sometimes I find it's hard to keep on the news. See, have to isn't a, isn't it a shame? We, but it's
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Not music by champagne. Charlie and the Wawas find them on Spotify. The song title is Sometimes I find
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This causes dear to my heart because of the abuse that I went through with the church and them trying to force me into manipulating and lying to a woman into marriage. And I now see that that's a very common thing going on in the church and I think that that's causing a lot of domestic violence inside the church itself, and there's a lot of other issues in our state as well. But that's where the fight for the domestic violence part came in. And I want to build the first neighborhood for domestic violence victims. We want to build 103 bedroom, two bath town homes and 101 bedroom, one bath studio apartments. We want to bring healthcare, childcare, legal counsel, support groups, and job training and placement through a resource building inside of that neighborhood. I'm partnering with Tina Johnson, who is the director of Safe House.
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She will run the application process for the victims that move into this neighborhood. They will provide the support groups and the legal counsel and things like that. Tina and her team work to get abusers put behind bars, and I have seen this firsthand myself with the victims that I have worked with that have come through Tina Johnson and her program. These are victims that want to be a part of what we are doing in this because the one thing I have learned is a victim always wants to use their story to help other victims become survivors. So we will be providing the healthcare through Finn Finn Corporation is my nonprofit that we are launching. It will be coded as a long-term mental health type rehabilitation facility. We start with the neighborhoods and then I want to eventually grow from the neighborhoods to our first rehabilitation campus for our homeless and substance users and children thrown out of the foster care system. We want to build that first campus to house about a thousand residents and bring them through a 12 month step up rehabilitation process where they get education, healthcare, all of their needs are met when they move onto our campus and by the time they end our program, we have got their finances in order, their credit fixed, we've got 'em into housing. Hopefully we're going to be a part of providing so that we can give them a sustainable life worth living off of how we rehabilitate them and what place we get them to in life.
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That's Zachary Heath of Tennessee. He's got a big vision and a can-do attitude with experience in insurance, finance, construction and design. He's someone who doesn't get discouraged by how things are done. He focuses on why things need to change.
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I'm pretty much self-taught on everything that I learned in construction because I took a job in a company that grew tremendously. The first year that I worked there, we built three houses. The second year I worked there, we built 19 and the third year I worked there, we built like 32 or 35. So I had to adapt and I did all of the project management. I did all of the client management, I did all of the subcontractor management. I did all of our accounting, all of our administrative stuff. I had our showroom set up for all of our selection meetings. So I was part of all phases of the construction process from the purchase of the lot to the closing of the sale when we had finished the build and everywhere in between. And I thrive in a high pace, just balls to the wall, constantly busy.
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I'm a problem solver and I love it. And I feel like that's why I feel like everything that I have experienced in my career has set me up to do what I want to do. But the thing that was important to me was construction is what I love and I want to continue building. And I sat down and thought, okay, what way do I make this into a purpose that I can help others? Because after I dealt with my trauma from the church and went through therapy, I'm one of those people. I'm a victim who wants to use their story to help others. So all of it just kind of fell into this and I created this based off of all of the career experience that I have and I truly believe I was made for this.
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Zachary not only has the skills and the vision for this project, he has a history of abuse in the church because he is gay. Most programs that help survivors of abuse are religion focused, but when the trauma comes from the church itself, it makes it hard for a survivor to find their way. Not to say that his project doesn't allow religion to be part of it. No, not at all. It's more about going beyond the thoughts and prayers and focusing on policy and change.
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I want to build 95 neighborhoods across the state of Tennessee for domestic violence. I want one in every county because we need that much support. There is that much and that still isn't enough housing for the number of victims that we have to housing. I mean, it's not, the statistics in Tennessee are horrible. I mean, we are seven to the nation for men, unloving women, and a lot of those are intimate partners. And northeast Tennessee specifically the church tells you to stay and pray and that it just baffles me that any Christian would say, stay in abusive relationship and pray your husband gets better because the thoughts and prayers we've learned in America just doesn't work. And so one of the things that I want to try and do is with our funding and the way that we get it, I'm going after corporate sponsorships for the neighborhoods because I don't want my hands tied to rules and regulations from government grants.
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Now on the rehabilitation campuses and the other things that we do, yes, those are things we're going to use grant funding for, but I'm trying to do something different than what's being done. And that's why I'm taking this different approach and I'm going to need about 1.5 billion to do 95 neighborhoods. And that does not intimidate me at all. I mean, you're talking, I was building half million dollar up plus homes that finances and knowing people that will fund this, it doesn't intimidate me. But going across that, I want to create a lot of construction jobs in that with building these neighborhoods. So there's a lot of organizations that I want to work with where yes, I come in and have somebody that'll start up a construction company and then use these people that are coming through these programs to place them working for these companies that are building this housing across our state for these victims to actually give people a chance to learn a trade, get experience on the job while they might still be going through a program, they might be going through our rehabilitation camp, our Rehabilitation to Life campus. All of those things are programs that have people that can help us build these neighborhoods all across the state while giving people a second chance.
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Zachary goes on to talk about the rehabilitation programs that would be part of this project, like a detox program, something that can be difficult to get into for survivors because there simply aren't enough of them to serve the Tennesseans who need them and getting into rehab. Well, you can't go there until you've detoxed. Hey, it's me, Sally, and this is a commercial. If you want to follow Zachary's journey, just go follow his account on TikTok at Zachary Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y, Heath, H-E-A-T-H 21. While you're there, follow me too at shout your Cause. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at the same handle. And if you want to know what Zachary's Corporation is called, it's Finn Corporation, FYNN, that stands for find your New Normal. They've got a.com website [email protected].
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And the rehabilitation program is we want to be a rehabilitation over incarceration type thing. We want to run our own detox program, our own detox facility for anyone that needs to come into that rehabilitation program. We want to run the detox for them so that they don't have to find that somewhere else. And my healthcare director went through that with her child. She fought and fought and fought to get her son into rehab, but no place takes them until they're detoxed. And it's really hard to get into a detox program to do that type of rehabilitation.
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But like any worthwhile project, where does the money come from? Zachary shares his ideas around that. Take a listen.
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One of the main things that I would love to see happen is a large commercial developer get behind me and my vision to help us because that developer would be building that campus and you're talking, this is $150 million plus campus that we're going to be building. So I'm really hoping to get a commercial developer. I would love one in the state of Tennessee that would love to say, you know what, we want to kind of be the founding donor to get this kickstarted to help things go. So that's one of the avenues that I would love to take.
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Zachary has thought of everything. He wants to help homeless vets, foster kids, pretty much anyone who is faced with an uphill battle.
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So that's kind of how the two types of neighborhoods domestic violence is where I'm starting. Foster care will be a lot more work, but I've already sat down with directors from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth and especially in the northeast Tennessee area, and they said, what you're trying to do is what we need. What you're trying to do is what will change foster care in Tennessee.
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This all sounds so ideal, but it doesn't come without its own issues like security for a community like this. Zachary addresses that too.
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So with the neighborhoods, they will be security gated, meaning when you pull up to the gate, if you are allowed in that neighborhood, you're going to have a barcode on your car that scans as you go in and allows you in. If you do not have that access, then you have to stop at the gate and show your ID to the security guard. If you are not on the list to be approved to come in, then the security guard is going to turn you away. And then at that point, any abuser is going to be on that list as a no entry. And then to take it a step further, I want panic buttons in everyone's home so that they know we will have 24 hour security where people are there, whether it be someone that rides around on a golf cart that's constantly just checking things to make sure that everyone's okay.
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So security is a huge, huge thing. And I actually have a veteran that wants to head up the security department and he wants to use other veterans that have that type of experience to help these survivors as they go through what they're going through. So that is a huge part of this and it's already an entire department that we know will be growing tremendously as we go through this. Security will be a huge factor. I'm hoping that our process will keep women from going back or keeping victims from going back. A lot of victims go back because life gets too hard at some point and it's easier to live in that abusive relationship where your needs are met versus trying to go out and figure out life on your own. And what we are hoping is that since we are taking the approach to carry people down the broken road to healing, we're hoping that that will be the key factor there that helps people get through this and not go back because we do know that that is a huge issue.
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This sort of reminds me of the Netflix movie made where a woman left a domestic violence situation and got an apartment at a shelter for her and her young daughter. I asked Zachary about shelters and this is what he had to say.
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The main thing for me is shelters are great, but I don't think it's the solution, especially for women with children. I feel like there's so much neglect and abuse that could possibly go on inside of these shelters just from things that I've heard and just not feeling safe. One of the main things for me is that these victims have their own space, whether it be a three bedroom, two bath town home because they have children or it be a studio apartment, they have their own place to go at the end of every day to reflect on their therapy and the treatments and the things that they're going through for that. I feel like that is going to be the key factor in helping these people rebuild their lives is just having that sense of security and stability right out of the gate to just begin moving forward. I feel like if you take the things that hold people back or the negative things from that process, if you take those out, you're going to have a better success rate. In my opinion.
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It's me again, Sally. I was thinking wouldn't it be nice if this podcast episode could help Zachary raise some of the funds he's trying to raise Now he's got a link on his homepage. Just go to finn corporation.com. That's FYNN corporation.com. The donate button is the first thing you'll see.
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I say my work will never be done on these neighborhoods because I think we will. I always want to be buying land that I can expand more housing in each neighborhood because there's one thing that Tennessee needs and that's affordable housing. So we can never have too much of that on this. I want the process, no two people are going to be the same. No two stories are alike. And I genuinely feel like in this instance it will determine with what Tina Johnson, who's the director of Safe House and their therapist, I think that's going to play a lot into how long they will live in this neighborhood. But for me, especially a victim with children, I want them to know that they are there until their children are grown and in college and that they don't need any type of financial support. Because in my opinion, single mothers, that's the least our state can do for these people is to help keep their head above water while they are taking care of their children.
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And once they no longer have that burden or it's not a burden, but once they have that need met and they no longer need that need met, then that would probably be, in my opinion, the time that they would move out. Or it's more or less going to determine on when they feel they are ready to move out. But I want them to know that as long as you have mouths to feed and a roof to put over children's head, we've got you and we're going to love you through this. Because getting over domestic violence, I don't think you ever get over it. I think it's something that you deal with for the rest of your life in a lot of these cases. And I'm telling you, I'm working. I have worked with some people that have some horrible stories. I've sat in support groups that I can't even listen to the things that they've gone through without just breaking down in tears. And I just think, how can a man do that to a woman? How can anybody physically do that to another human being? I don't think we'll ever be done building. I think it will be a continuous project that we are always building to meet the needs because I want it to be long-term for them. I don't want this to be a bandaid that just lets 'em live somewhere for a year.
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I wanted to switch gears to talk politics because I heard a little rumor online.
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I'm running for governor if you haven't heard. I heard. So my goal for running for governor is on a campaign of healthcare. And I genuinely feel like Tennessee is destroying our healthcare. We are losing healthcare professionals left and right and they are destroying our treatment. I am a victim of healthcare neglect missing the tooth.
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Zachary is talking about an incident at an East Tennessee hospital where a nurse refused to treat him. She thought he was seeking drugs, but in reality he had an impacted infected tooth that nearly killed him. He left that hospital and went home to pull the tooth himself. But I digress.
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My entire team is ready to quit their jobs and come work as soon as we have our watch funding. And that's where I'm at in that moment. And that was my healthcare director. Christie, when we sat down last year to bring healthcare or when she was trying to bring healthcare to the homeless, I was like, oh my God, everybody's telling me I have to figure out how to fund this. And if we do it as healthcare, then we can bill insurance. I can fund my campus. And I was like, so that is when healthcare became my fight last year. And then it was like now I get some type of relief from what happened to me because now I'm bringing healthcare to people so that it won't happen. And it wasn't a month after that that I started working with Tina Johnson and I was like, we're going to start with the domestic violence neighborhood.
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We're going to put a doctor's office in there and then we're going to expand to the campuses. Because if I build 200 homes for 200 victims and we bring the healthcare there and create the model, then we can expand that model onto our campus. And that's exactly what we're going to do. So while I'm building the neighborhoods, my healthcare director will be doing the campuses because I'm going to use a commercial construction company for that. I don't do commercial construction. That's going to be a way bigger project than I want to do. And then when it became I was going after healthcare, foster care, homeless, substance abuse, all that, I was like, I just might as well run for governor because they're destroying our state and politics with this add an education. And I'm pretty much fixing all the issues that people have problems with in Tennessee right now, and I don't want to make money off of it. Bill Lee put HVACs in before he became governor. I built the whole house and I think Tennessee's ready for somebody that can build the whole house.
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Well, folks, that was Zachary Heath. Remember his name. Even if he doesn't become our governor after Bill Lee's time, he's making a name for himself in Tennessee and beyond. We need more people like him. Thank you for listening today. I'm your host, Sally Hendrick. Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review. If you like what you hear, visit [email protected].
