I sat down with our Director of Operations, Jordan Hopper, to talk about the four words that run our entire company..

Jordan spent seven years as an Executive Pastor before he stepped into operations at SRS, where he now oversees 11 residential programs and close to 100 individuals with high behavioral needs. He didn't come from this industry looking for a job. He came from a night called Night to Shine, a prom for people with special needs, and it never left him.

In this episode of State of Care we covered:

→ How SRS built its four core values from real employees

→ Why being protective means treating a new hire and a hospital visit the same way

→ What it actually costs to be on call for the most vulnerable population there is

→ Growing from 5 homes to 11 without losing what made the first 5 work

→ How documentation, corrective actions, and audits keep the whole thing honest

You can hire for skill all day long. Jordan's point was simpler than that. If someone doesn't share the values, no amount of training fixes it… and pretending otherwise just wears down everyone who does.

Jordan, thank you for hopping in the podcast to share things we most care about. Glad to have you here.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:00 Meet Jordan Hopper and the four core values

02:34 Faithful: showing up on time, every time

03:01 Ever evolving: growing from 5 homes to 11

07:36 Protective: guarding the most vulnerable population

09:07 Everyone matters: from shareholders to the lawn guy

11:12 Hiring and firing by the core values

16:24 What being on call actually looks like

19:01 Working with CMH to solve the hardest placements

27:03 Compliance, audits, and a day in the life of operations

~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Specialized Residential Services. https://www.srsmichigan.com/

Prefer to listen? https://pod.link/6810743620

I grew up watching my grandparents treat total strangers like family. My dad, Spencer Bertram, is a pain physician and my uncle, Timothy Bertram, has run our group homes for over thirty years.

On this episode, I sat both of them down to talk about where our company actually comes from.

My grandparents ran a group home and that house became a twelve bed home. Then a commercial property with forty private rooms, where my grandparents lived in the basement so they'd never be far from the people they cared for.

In this episode of State of Care we covered:

→ How a house in Davison became a licensed home for six residents

→ Building Greenley Square and its forty private rooms

→ Charlie and the residents who felt like family, not clients

→ What growing up in a group home did to two very different careers

→ Why the next goal for our residents is independence, not just stability

The things that really keep people out of crisis aren't complicated. It's clean homes, good meals, and staff who notice when someone's having an off day before it becomes an emergency.

Thanks to my dad and my uncle for sitting down with me to talk about how we've lived our whole lives. I’m glad to have you both on the very first episode!

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and three generations of family care

04:54 Greenley Square: from one home to forty beds

07:09 Living above the business, hands on every day

10:49 Setting the standard for cleanliness and openness

12:18 Charlie and the residents who felt like family

14:59 What grandma and grandpa taught them about hard work

25:10 How growing up in group homes shaped two careers

34:00 The next innovation: independence over dependence

34:48 Reading behavior before it becomes a crisis

38:06 What legacy means to this family

~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Specialized Residential Services. https://www.srsmichigan.com/