Changing Lives at the Habilitat with Kyler Edginton

Who is Kyler Edginton?

Kyler Edginton is the Public Relations Representative of Habilitat Inc. He also helps coordinate fundraisers and corporate sponsorships for the program. He is 29 years old and grew up in California and Alaska. He has been in the Habilitat’s program for 20 months and works in their business enterprise department.

Habilitat has long been recognized as one of the nation’s foremost Residential Long Term Addiction Treatment centers.For over 50 years, they have been helping people overcome problems with substance abuse and homelessness. They have a proven record of changing people who have lost hope into hardworking, responsible, caring human beings who are a benefit to society. They’ve been leading the way in long term addiction treatment since 1971.

To reach Kyler Edginton, you may contact him in the following ways:

Phone: 808-235-3691
Email: give@habilitat.com
Website: https://www.habilitat.com/
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/Habilitat?ref=ts | https://www.instagram.com/habilitat/

Interview Transcription

 ADRIENNE: 
gave it to me. Welcome back. And thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program. Well buy it. I’m Adrienne. And I’m Attilio. And if you have any questions, just give us a call at 7999596. Or check us out online at Teamlally.com.

ATTILIO: 
Our guest today is the public relations representative of habilitat Incorporated, he also helps coordinate fundraisers and corporate sponsorships for the program.

ADRIENNE: 
He’s 29 years old and grew up in California and Alaska. He’s been in the Habilitat’s program for 20 months and works in their business enterprise department. So welcome our guest Kyler Edginton of Habilitat.

ATTILIO: 
Hi Kyler.

KYLER: 
Aloha, thank you for having me.

ATTILIO: 
Sure. All right. So we, the you know, we always like to get everybody’s origin story. So tell us how did you you’re not not from you originally? How did you end up here in Hawaii?

KYLER: 
Yeah, so actually, I grew up in California. And I spent most of my adult life and Alaska. And through a series of events, I found myself in Hawaii. It’s actually kind of an interesting story. I was on my way home, through Seattle back to Fresno and California. And there’s a situation where someone needed to get off the plane, because it was over capacity for the pandemic. And they’re offering $1,000 For someone to get off the plane for a night. And I chose to get off the plane and take 1000. And then I found myself in a series of unfortunate circumstances. And that was actually probably the ticket to save my life and sent me out here to Hawaii. I spent some time on the Big Island after that, and this is about two years ago. And then from there, I found my way here to Oahu to add the Habitat program.

ATTILIO:
So hey, things happen for a reason. That’s

ADRIENNE: 
right. And we’re so glad that you found your way to a Oahu and to Habilitat.

ATTILIO: 
Well, you know, Habilitat’s you know, been around what since What is it 90 says

ADRIENNE: 
47 years?

ATTILIO: 
Forty-seven years

ADRIENNE: 
over 40 or 50th ? Yeah.

KYLER: 
Yeah, it’s actually so we’ve been doing our our Christmas tree fundraiser. We’ve been doing that since 1975. So that’s been 47 years. We actually started in 1971. So actually, after this year, we’ll be approaching our 52nd.

ADRIENNE: 
Wow. Oh, wow. So that’s a long time. program. Absolutely. So share with us a little bit about what what exactly is this program? What does it entail?

ATTILIO: 
Well, let’s you know, in the you know, here’s what I want to do on this one caller, I want you to tell us immediately just this let’s get straight to it on the fundraiser and then go to that question and then we’re gonna hit them at the end with the fundraiser again.

ADRIENNE: 
Okay, fundraiser. What is it and fundraiser again? Yeah.

KYLER: 
Okay, absolutely. Yeah, so we have a couple of fundraising projects throughout the year. And our next big project is going to be our Christmas tree loss. And then that happens on November 26. And we sell trees all the way until we run out around Christmas time. And we have different lots around the island. So are for retail loss. We have one here in Conway and that’s by Safeway we have another at KOKO Marina center in Hawaii Kai. And then there’s two more we have one at Stadium mall and I area and then last but certainly not least, we have our main central lot at Central Union church in town. And we have everything from door charms and wreaths to small cute little baby cheese all the way up. So we actually I believe have a couple of 15 and 20 footers left. So we have a little bit of everything.

ADRIENNE: 
And then you can all So go on to the website and pre order, correct? Absolutely. Right now, today, you could do it.

KYLER: 
Oh, yeah, absolutely, you could call her number at 828-235-3691 and ask for one of our sales representatives, and we can get you a pre order treat today, it’s actually it’s a pretty good deal because you’re gonna be able to get a small discount on the tree. And then you’re also going to be able to have that tree held for you. And you’ll be able to pick from that category of tree, any tree you like, and the category that you choose, you know, much better to

ATTILIO: 
actually use that’s gonna prevent What’s that people who procrastinate ending up with a scraggly tree?

KYLER: 
That’s, that does. That does happen over the air I was just talking to somebody about it’s interesting. Your salesmanship is actually going to increase while you’re running the lot towards the end of the year, because that will be your time to really make the cells on the last minute trees that are leftover from the loss.

ATTILIO: 
You tell him. I know this tree looks like when swirl cactus. Arizona Christmas tree, that’s gonna be

ADRIENNE: 
next year, you’ll just preorder. Yeah, so just go to the website and just do it now.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, this correctly tree is gonna make you appreciate the holidays even that much better. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what, you don’t have to put so much decorations on them?

KYLER: 
No, they’re just ready to go. Yeah, but unique character

ADRIENNE: 
with this Christmas tree fundraiser? What, like, what does the money go towards? How does it support that?

KYLER: 
Yeah, so this is actually um, as I was saying, since it’s been around for 47 years, this is our main supporting funds for the program. So we do have over 100 residents on our facility. And we support all 100 plus of them with food, clothing, vocational training. And we actually take in a lot of people who come from unfortunate circumstance, whether that be frustration or homelessness, so a lot of us cannot afford the program. So that money is actually going to go back towards the program overhead, and also towards helping bring new people in that maybe cannot afford it and come in on scholarship.

ADRIENNE: 
So you’re mentioning the program, and in talking about, like where some of the participants are coming from. So let’s talk a little bit more about what actually is the program.

KYLER: 
What is. So Habilitat has a program. So it’s a three phase program. And we start off with a six month treatment phase. And that’s where you kind of get to identify your behaviors and what you need to work on. Second phase is vocational training. And we have many different areas we have are the one I work in business enterprise. There’s also construction accounting admins administration, there’s culinary, there’s also we have an inductions team that does admissions. And that gets some kind of skills and a clinical aspect. And you could probably get a job at a treatment center after that very easily. But the program itself is like, the way I look at it honestly, is we’re one big family, we’re very big on family concepts and values. We operate as a whole, we operate as one unit. So not only do we kind of like take the selfishness out of the individual and teach them altruism and its place and teach them to find the good in themselves and help find each other, help them help each other find that and themselves. We also try to spread that out into the community. So during our residents stay here, they’re actually going to be getting involved in things that help out the community. Our culinary department makes food for us. That’s three times a day, every single day. My department gets to do school fundraisers for Christmas trees, and that goes towards local education. We’ve had projects in the past where we work hand in hand with the community whenever the need may be we actually my favorite one that I’ve done so far as we have. There’s more on the environment side we’ve gotten to go plant koa trees over on the Big Island with the owners of Connie Lea gladly. So we spend about five residents our every month to the next island. And they get to Yeah, they have a reforestation project, it’s really beautiful they have and a huge project where their their plan is to plant 195,000 trees to represent the 195 countries of the world. I believe that the exact number could be off a little bit but that’s their project and actually they’re doing it I believe last time I was there, they’re, they’re well into the 10s of 1000s of trees planted.

ATTILIO: 
Wow. And you know what, I’m sorry if you’re the 196 country you gotta wait to your tree is planted and then you can be official country. Now have a tree planted. You know, let’s talk about the services be because people you know, a lot of people don’t, I think a lot of people aren’t aware. So let’s talk about the services that you guys offer. Because these are people that if you want to do something, some type of construction, some kind of audition, some type of service for your own home, what a great way to give back to the community while spending money on something you were gonna spend money on anyway. So let’s talk about your services. Yeah.

KYLER: 
So we do have a very deep and rich history of our, our services department, they do construction around the island, and they do commercial and also residential remodeling. The biggest crew, I would say, is our, let’s see our landscaping and also our residential maintenance, they do a lot around the island, and then also our fencing department, we have a very big fencing department. And also, they do a couple of different side things every now and then I believe we do tiling. And then we used to have somebody who does masonry. Yeah, so that is a really good service. And that same thing on all the services we provide, you can just call her number and ask to speak with whoever is in charge of construction and services. And that’s really good, because all the same thing, everything we do here is gonna go back to the nonprofit, so all goes towards the people. That’s what I think is awesome, too, is like when I say it’s kind of like a holistic process is, you know, like I came in here without any money, I didn’t have anything much at all going on for me. And once you get to the middle stages of your program, whether you’re working construction, or you’re doing what I do, you get to play a part and not only supporting the program that helps save your life, but also in helping save another life. So it’s all residents. And for the residents. It’s really a cool process that I feel like you don’t see as much nowadays, especially in the treatment community, we’re definitely one of the kind Well, I

ATTILIO: 
think too, with with the pathway, unfortunately, you know, not like it’s 100%, but it’s a higher probability that, you know, it’s going to lead to incarceration. And, and I’ve watched enough documentaries and seen enough of that statistics us where, you know, the number one country in the world. But also we’re also you know, as far as, like products and services and, and, and lifestyle, but unfortunately, we’re also the number one in the world as far as incarceration. And I don’t Yeah, I don’t think the I think the recidivism Mazar 50 cent word for today with our incarcerated adults here in the United States is not nowhere as good as what you guys are doing as far as breaking that cycle. And so you’re catching people, catching individuals and helping them avoid that that possible? Life pathway? Yeah,

ADRIENNE: 42:51
yeah. Kyler, you’re the program has a pretty good track record. Yeah, let’s, let’s talk about that, like your program has some different results than others.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Tell us about the great successful results that you guys have? And what’s been the key to that?

KYLER: 
Yeah, absolutely. So see from the beginning, so I feel like the program is so successful one, because of the length of time, myself, I’ve been living on the wrong side of the tracks for about 15 years in my life, young age. So I’ve tried other things before and also of how to take some time out from society, if you will, for a few years. And, honestly, to reverse 15 years worth of mistakes. For some, it’s 20 to 30 years of mistakes for older residents. I feel like that’s not something you can do with with a 30 days, 60 days 90 program, it’s just like, that’s, there’s way too much momentum and inertia from a lifestyle like that to just stop it abruptly. And I believe that’s one of the biggest factors also remove people from all distractions. And we, you know, we’re pretty, we have graduated levels of freedom, and you know, kind of like privilege here. So when you start off, you know, you’re just on the facility, you don’t really make a whole lot of phone calls out, you don’t have distractions, from family, from friends, outside influences. We have a beautiful property on cardio a day. And then as you start to get older in the program, you start on reconnecting with your family more and going on doing more stuff in society. And I think that’s also a big impact. And I think that one of the other biggest things is like we don’t focus so much on on drugs and alcohol, we actually, it’s a rule here, you’re not really allowed to talk about it, at least in the sense of glorifying the past and talking about stories. And I really liked that opposed to, you know, some traditional methods of treatment where they really talk about like, oh, this happened and that happened. And it’s a lot better that way. We focus more on the behaviors that that lead towards it. And then also we follow up with people who graduate so it It’s the program technically isn’t over. When you graduate, we stay very connected with our graduates, our graduates come and visit once a week, sometimes more. And they’re always open to having them come eat dinner and lunch with us. And there’s a follow up period where you actually, especially for our residents that come from any kind of court or legal situation to actually get their clinical discharge from the program, you will have to have a job, stable housing and no involvement with crime or the justice system, six months after graduating, then that’s when you officially are a habilitation graduate. And we stay really plugged in also, the program is challenging, we hold a lot of higher standards for people we teach accountability, punctuality, honesty, hard work, it’s, um, it’s a very thorough program. So I’ve seen a lot of people succeed. I’ve seen some of my friends, honestly, who were looking at almost life in prison, and the legal system gave them a second chance to stability. And they were able to go through the program, and have their family come visit them. And it’s so awesome to see. And now they’re working towards a career to be like an arborist and actually own their own business when they leave here. And they’ve been able to do habilitated Instead of that are directors. So to be staff here, you actually have to go through the program. And there’s actually two graduated phases you can stay on as an elder and a staff trainee, that’s two extra years, then you can stay on a staff. And our director or Executive Director, actually, Jeff Nash went through the program. And he was same kind of situation, he was facing a very long time in prison, he went through the program, and he stuck it out. And now he runs a place and there’s just hundreds of success stories with a program that’s been around for this many decades of people have left and done very well in their lives.

ATTILIO: 
Well, you guys are the extreme version of the second chance.

ADRIENNE: 
You go.

KYLER: 
I’m not familiar. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
Well, it’s just giving people a second chance as opposed to Hey, straight to incarceration. Yeah, it’s like, you guys are like The Matrix. You know, it’s like, here’s the blue pill, and here’s the red pill, Swallow this pill, you go back to your, your normal negative life, Swallow this pill, and we take you down the rabbit Hill, and show you what your life can be like, maybe you should have more in the admissions office.

KYLER: 
To tell the admissions, guys either they’re gonna love that. No, that’s true, because it is, it is a wake up to reflect and we were very strong on reality checks here. And that it’s tough love, sometimes we tell it like it is. And we tell it straight and we don’t sugarcoat it. And you know, we tell people where they’re falling short, like, Hey, you’re selfish, you’re totally self centered. This is what you need to change, change it. And there’s really no room for anything else. And it’s awesome, because it works. A lot of us came from lack of discipline. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
You know, the last week we went to visit the facility and what I liked what some I forgot who told me maybe it was, you know, our host and stuff like that, but I like what they say in the admissions office is that their job is to make sure that you’re not just using this as a Get Out of Jail pass. Like, you know, we joke that you’re serious on monopoly, but this is like for real Get Out of Jail pass and that you guys that they’re going to commit to the program, because you don’t want them in there. Skating by and then influencing the other people and dragging them down with them. You guys are very serious about your admissions program. And if you make it through that, then you you know, then then it’s up to them if they’re serious about making that change in the life because the program is gonna put you through the paces, right? You can only fake it for so long.

ADRIENNE: 
So this this program sounds wonderful and intense and exactly what’s needed. And also it comes with a cost. So back to the fundraiser. Yeah, the trees is coming up, you can pre order your Christmas tree down to the lot. So down to the lots support ability that you

ATTILIO: 
do I tell the people the locations again, because I know that pop up everywhere. But we want people focus on these locations. Because the other places they’re going to sell out to you know, Home Depot, Costco, all those places,

ADRIENNE: 
this support the local nonprofit, that’s actually you know, doing some very important work.

ATTILIO: 
I would say that the dollar you spent with with the ability that tree lots is going to come back 20 fold into our community. Yes, you know, you know, I love Home Depot, Costco and all that I spend a lot of money over there, but I want to see that money coming back into our community. Saving some individuals in our own backyard.

ADRIENNE:
And these individuals also do a lot of community service. Yeah, so like serving the US bats and working with the local schools. So it’s this trickle down effect.

ATTILIO: 
But tell us the lots again, before we wrap it up, tell us where these lots are.

KYLER: 
Yeah, absolutely. So our main lot and that usually has the best selection of trees. Actually, if you’re looking for the larger one, yeah, that’s going to be Central Union church that is in town. And then we also have the stadium mall, which is by ice palace and I area. And then we have our home lot which is here in Conroy and is going to be by Safeway, Safeway shopping center. And then we also have our lot at the Koko Marina center. And I believe this year we will be setting up by First Hawaiian Bank. Yeah, so

ATTILIO: 
I thought we tell every all our listeners when you go down to the lot, first thing to do, as soon as you get on the lot is yell. Oh, come down. So you know who?

ADRIENNE: 
Definitely, thank you Kyler for calling in and sharing a little bit about habila tat and then also this Christmas tree fundraiser. We appreciate it. Thank you. And we’ll see you on Monday. Yes.

KYLER: 
Yeah, absolutely. We’re looking forward to it. Thank you so much for having me on. And I look forward to seeing you too on Monday. All right. Thank

ATTILIO: 
you. Aloha. Aloha. Alright,

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