SimplyHome Founders Drue & Allen Ray featured in Outreach NC Magazine
SimplyHome was honored to be featured in the May 2018 of Outreach NC. The article, entitled "Carolina Conversations with SimplyHome," features SimplyHome's founders, Drue & Allen Ray.
The full article, written by Michelle Goetzl, can be accessed here, starting on page 28: SimplyHome in Outreach NC.
Below, we have included excerpts from the article for your enjoyment.
OUTREACH NC: What drew you to helping the people that needed their independence?
DRUE RAY: We started in long-term care in the early '90s. We were involved in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and large institutional settings for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After 10 or 15 years in that arena, we realized that for a number of folks receiving services on these various platforms, we were simply providing services that were above and beyond what was necessary if there was a way to meet those needs at home.
A photo in the Outreach NC article, depicting SimplyHome's Chief Development Officer Jason Ray assisting with a technology demonstration.
We started looking for ways to pair support staff and family with technology so that a person could exercise all of their capabilities where they wanted to live instead of living in a congregate care facility or congregate care because they didn't have any other option. Losing your home because you were leaving the stove on or losing your ability to live with your family because you were not medication compliant seemed extreme to us when there had to be simpler ways to meet those needs without the extreme cost of 24/7 care.
OUTREACH NC: How do you keep up with the constant technology changes and make sure that your clients have the most recent version?
ALLEN RAY: Well, one of the things we do is that we emphasize to people that we want to create an outcome... If we emphasize the outcome, the technology may change. That's the first part of that. The second part is that our team of engineers and team of customer service people, our whole focus is finding the next thing that might be beneficial to someone...For example in Vegas every year there is an automation conference [CES] and you go and people have stuff there that is not intended for what we do, but if it is open-source we can use that device and meld it into what we do."
OUTREACH NC: If you had to say a couple of things about what you love about NC, what would they be?
DRUE: Just a couple?
ALLEN: First thing is that it has been an absolutely wonderful place to raise a family. We are all outdoors people. You can get lost and do things and reconnect your soul and mind back where it needs [to be].
DRUE: Asheville affords us the opportunity to be an integral part of the community, too...Asheville was still relatively small at the time, so you were able to really get involved in the community and to feel like you were a part of it.
ALLEN: Asheville and North Carolina as a whole is the place we wanted to live. We figured there would be like-minded people. We have not ever found it difficult to find the right kind of people to share the passion and vision that we have.
DRUE: And then there's UNC basketball too.