{"id":31431,"date":"2017-05-30T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=31431"},"modified":"2019-03-05T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:02:16","slug":"ep18-making-difference-foster-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/ep18-making-difference-foster-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep.18: Making a Difference with Foster Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-31431\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-31431\" class=\"sm2-31431 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover 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class=\"sm2-playlist-wrapper\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Danielle_Podcast_Final.mp3\">Ep.18: Making a Difference with Foster Kids<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" 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href=\"http:\/\/www.prx.org\/series\/34510-the-story-exchange\">PRX<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom2\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLaK2UyNCu2g2_preGI12R4z2iRXjIH3ah\">Youtube Music<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom3\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5lJgdFK8g9WWXLBYjWytyn\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom4\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/B094\">Pocket Casts<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom5\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom6\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31434 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast.jpg\" alt=\"Danielle Gletow, One Simple Wish\" width=\"1000\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-525x291.jpg 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-768x425.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-100x55.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-862x478.jpg 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/22225240\/osw_xmas_2016_podcast-846x469.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our second &#8220;Good on the Ground&#8221; episode features Danielle Gletow, the creator of New Jersey nonprofit One Simple Wish. Her online registry of foster kids&#8217; wishes lets caring adults bring more joy to childhoods of America&#8217;s invisible children.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/meet-jersey-mom-granting-foster-kids-wishes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See related article and video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>SUE: (as music plays lightly in the background) You\u2019re listening to Good on the Ground...<\/p>\n<p>VARIOUS VOICES: \u2026Good on the Ground...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: \u2026You\u2019re listening to Good on the Ground from The Story Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: Foster care\u2019s a topic that we don\u2019t talk about the way we talk about autism or the way we talk about childhood diseases like cancer and diabetes.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: This is Colleen DeBaise.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: This is Sue Williams.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And today...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...today...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We are once again digging deep...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...finding the best, most inspirational stories...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...for our Good on the Ground series. Should we remind our listeners why, again, we\u2019re doing this series?<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Yes, let\u2019s do that. Well, these are worrisome times in the United States...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: That\u2019s a good way to put it.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: ...with cuts to social welfare programs, public health and environmental safety.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: So we\u2019re taking a look at entrepreneurs working in the trenches, doing good on the ground, doing their best to solve social issues in innovative ways.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Which brings us to today\u2019s podcast.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: My name is Danielle Gletow, and I\u2019m the founder and Executive Director of One Simple Wish.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: We headed to Trenton, New Jersey to talk to one fearless mom...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: ...who wants to bring joy to America\u2019s invisible children.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: If you want to hear how one person can make a difference, give this podcast a listen.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: Foster care is almost never talked about and when it is, it\u2019s negative.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: Come here, sweetie. I can take her for you. Oh no, it\u2019s okay, baby girl.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And it is, \u201cWell, the foster parents take -- do it for the money. Well, the caseworkers don\u2019t care. Well, the kids are all damaged,\u201d all these negative, terrible stories. We\u2019re saying, \u201cYou know what? You\u2019re right. There\u2019s a lot that\u2019s broken. There\u2019s a lot we need to fix. So join us in doing something positive and we will show you the way to do even more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Meet Danielle, who is perhaps the most passionate entrepreneur I\u2019ve ever interviewed.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: I know. If anyone is going to change the world, it\u2019s her!<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yeah. Danielle started One Simple Wish out of her home in 2008. It\u2019s an online registry where foster kids can ask for anything they want --<\/p>\n<p>SUE: -- whether that\u2019s skateboards, or music lessons, or a birthday party --<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: -- and donors, ordinary people like you or me, can grant those wishes.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And keep in mind, these are typically foster kids who have no one else to ask.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: One Simple Wish empowers everybody to brighten the lives of children in foster care in simple and meaningful ways.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: This is a thank you note from Child Help to our team from their team for Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: There\u2019s of course a background story to all of this.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: There always is. Danielle grew up in New Jersey, the middle of three sisters.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I had a lot of issues growing up myself. My parents got divorced when I was 13 years old. I actually moved back and forth between both of my parents from the time I was 13 until I was about 19.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: For a while, she was separated from her sisters.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I struggled a lot with depression, anxiety, was briefly hospitalized when I was in my early teens. The more I learn about the children that are going through foster care and their instability, it reminds me a lot of my own childhood and it reminds me that I\u2019m actually really lucky, because despite all that moving around, I did know my parents loved me.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Danielle was a gifted student, but she wasn\u2019t interested in school.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: So I decided to go to Seton Hall, which is where my father graduated from, and I just went off the rails. I just drank constantly. I, you know, quickly like, made the wrong friends.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She dropped out, crashed her car, then quickly racked up debt, buying nice clothes and fabulous shoes.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And I think it was around that time that I decided, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t really care what I do but I want to make a lot of money. That\u2019s what\u2019s going to make me successful. I\u2019m going to be rich.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Fortunately, Danielle has a very strong work ethic.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I had like, 15 jobs before I was like, 22.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She finally found a career that stuck.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And so I moved into marketing. My writing skills really helped, and I noticed that, whenever I was taking on a project that had a lot of creativity involved, I was really excelling.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And that\u2019s when things started to groove for Danielle. She got married to husband Joe. They both worked in corporate jobs earning big salaries, they had a nice house, they went out to fancy dinners...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: That was my sign of success.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Her life looked very different than it does today.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: And then, she and Joe decided to become foster parents.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: Very soon after we got married we started talking about having, starting a family. I was very content with how things were going in my life and I wanted to be a mom but I didn\u2019t necessarily want to carry a child. And so I told him, you know, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we, why don\u2019t we look into becoming foster parents?\u201d with the goal of adopting.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: In 2006, they applied to become licensed foster parents. They had just completed certification when...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: The phone call came in from a worker in our county that said they needed to place a little boy who was 18 months old. His parents had been incarcerated that night for physical abuse of his brother.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Jose arrived at their door wearing a giant winter coat and a onesie.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: Just, you know, this so adorable little boy just looked so confused. You know, within a day we were like, \u201cWe love you! We love this baby.\u201d He did all of our family things with us. We took him to my sister\u2019s horse farm, and we took him to family parties, and he, we had him for Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But after three months, Jose was returned to his family.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Then came Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: He was two years old and he came from a very neglectful environment and we thought we were going to be able to adopt him.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: That didn\u2019t happen. His biological mother completed a very brief rehab, and regained custody.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: It was actually one of the most devastating things I\u2019ve had to deal with in my entire life, was saying goodbye to him. We fought pretty hard to try to keep him at least a little bit longer so his mother could get more help but the courts were pretty adamant about reunifying him. So after he was taken my husband and I, we were just crushed, just absolutely crushed and Joe said, \u201cI\u2019m done. I don\u2019t want to do this anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We\u2019ve been sharing the story of Danielle Gletow, who has started One Simple Wish, an organization that grants wishes to foster children.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Earlier in the podcast, she said no one talks about foster care.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yeah. By \u201cno one,\u201d I think she really means middle-class America, suburban folks who aren\u2019t typically exposed to the child welfare system.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: There\u2019s a stigma, really.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yeah, there is. As Danielle says, there\u2019s almost a sense that the kids have done something to deserve this. And of course they haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: That\u2019s it exactly. Danielle, of course, is very aware that much needs to change about the foster care system.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I want to see us think about innovative ways to recruit foster parents. Let\u2019s stop leading with, \u201cWe\u2019ll pay you to take care of kids.\u201d Let\u2019s instead lead with, \u201cYou\u2019re a great person with a lot of resources who\u2019s been an amazing mom or dad. Why don\u2019t you help out some children that could use a person like you?\u201d Period.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: But meanwhile, she has an expression for this: \u201cWhen you see a problem, just because you can\u2019t fix it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE: So let\u2019s pick up where we left off...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Right. After fostering two children, and saying goodbye to them, Danielle\u2019s husband Joe needed a break.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: He said, \u201cYou know, this, it\u2019s, it\u2019s not the kids. It\u2019s the system. I just, I can\u2019t deal with this. They\u2019re just, the decisions that are made, and the incompetence, and people not showing up when they\u2019re supposed to, and it\u2019s just too much. I don\u2019t want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SUE: And so they took a break. They went on vacation. They\u2019d still get calls once in awhile, from case workers. But Danielle would tell them: \u201cWe\u2019re not ready for a placement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Their careers were still going well. Everything was good.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: But like, this part, this amazingly big part of ourselves felt like it was missing.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: One thing led to another...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And so, you know, he said, \u201cWell, let\u2019s try to have a child, you know, the old-fashioned way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: But that didn\u2019t work so well either.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I remember thinking, like, \u201cAll right, universe. What\u2019s going on here? I\u2019m supposed to be a mom. I know I am and I can\u2019t adopt and now I can\u2019t get pregnant. What is, what\u2019s the problem?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: We think the universe listened...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Because one last phone call came in, from a caseworker -- this time, about a newborn girl.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: She\u2019s three days old right from the hospital. And it was like this crazy feeling of, \u201cOh my God, that\u2019s my baby.\u201d Very quickly after that, the doorbell rang and the caseworker, he handed her to me and I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s her name?\u201d And he said, \u201cI don't know. Name her whatever you want.\u201d And I said, \u201cOkay!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: There\u2019s more...we weren\u2019t kidding about the universe listening.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Two weeks after they took in Mia...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I was a little bit late and so I, we were having friends come over and I said to my husband, \u201cYou know, before they get here I\u2019m gonna just run and take another pregnancy test.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: You guessed it...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And I was like, \u201cI\u2019m pregnant.\u201d And his face was like, \u201cAre you kidding me?\u201d We have a two-week-old and I\u2019m pregnant. But it was awesome. So I raised Mia while pregnant with Liliana.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: After that, they decided to close their home.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: We lived in a two-bedroom townhouse and we didn\u2019t have any more space.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: But Danielle knew she wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I knew that this was what I was supposed to do, that I was supposed to help kids in foster care. I knew I had to do more than what we had done.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: While on maternity leave from her high-paying marketing job, Danielle did some research.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I decided to develop a platform that would make it easier for anybody who even had an inkling that maybe they wanted to help, that made it just beyond simple. And so that was how One Simple Wish started.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She\u2019d go to Starbucks, and sit there with car seats, her babies, and her laptop.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I would plug away on a business plan and downloaded every document I could think of about starting a nonprofit, and how to gather funding and support.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: In 2008, she and Joe decided to invest $10,000 of their own money to develop the One Simple Wish website.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And the idea was we would have a registry of wishes, simple things that pretty much anybody could do, especially people in middle, upper-middle class America.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: The site would NOT be full of things that adults thought foster children needed...<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But rather, it would be full of stuff that kids were actually asking for -- fun things like a tablet, or Legos, or tickets to an amusement park.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: We knew that from our experiences that they were going without a lot of some of the most joyful parts of a childhood, and we wanted to give that back.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Danielle made the rounds, making sure foster child agencies were on board with the idea.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I think the other agencies have really appreciated that we\u2019ve always come from a place of togetherness because it is a village.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She signed up 12 New Jersey agencies as part of One Simple Wish\u2019s partner network.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: But it was slow-going.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: It was mostly friends and family that were granting wishes or people that I worked with.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Still, the site started to grow. More and more people were granting the kid\u2019s wishes and Danielle found herself running home from her marketing job, kicking off her heels and doing as much as possible at night.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: After a year of juggling, she quit her day job.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I had a pretty lucrative career and it was a big decision, but best decision I ever made. You know, you can\u2019t really put a, a dollar amount on loving what you do, so.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: She and Joe learned to live more frugally.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I still have, you know, a closet at home full of Jimmy Choos and, and Paul Smith, and Manolo Blahniks, and, you know, those fancy things and, and quite honestly I rarely ever wear them anymore.<\/p>\n<p>*Musical Interlude*<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Four years later, a big break came. In December 2012, NBC Nightly News aired a segment on One Simple Wish.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: Now for our making a difference report. Tonight\u2019s story is about making some dreams come true for children...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: That was really the turning point for us. That night that it aired I think we did like $40,000 or $50,000 in wishes. And then in the month that followed, $250,000-plus in wishes. And we were just like, \u201cOh my God. What are we going to do?\u201d So we quickly ramped up. It was, we had a very quick trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Today, Danielle has a staff of five and an annual operating budget, excluding wishes, of $375,000.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: When a user decides to fund a foster child\u2019s wish, a small percent, about 5% to 8%, goes to the cost of overhead.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: And so now we\u2019ve gone from this organization that was just supporting children in New Jersey to supporting over 35,000 children in 49 states through a network of 800 agency partners.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: Did everybody see the Disney campaign?<br \/>\n-No.<br \/>\n-Okay, so go to onesimplewish.org...<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: A number of companies -- including Volkswagen, Disney and TJX -- are corporate partners, in some cases encouraging employees to grant wishes.<\/p>\n<p>SOT: Oh these are great. Ooh, and long sleeves, perfect.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Danielle is quick to point out that the \u201cstuff\u201d on the site is much more than just \u201cstuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: The wishes represent so much more to these children. These wishes represent the idea that there is somebody out there that cares.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: The fact that most of these kids have no one to turn to when they want something -- something that\u2019s not extravagant, just a cool pair of sneakers for school, or a tablet for games and reading, or their first bits of makeup -- it\u2019s pretty heartbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Yeah, it is. Danielle believes that foster children should be everyone\u2019s responsibility and that we should all step up if we can. Supporting these kids could help ward off...<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: ...poverty, pregnancy, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, depression, mental illness. These are all things that impact foster children at much higher rates than the general population.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Danielle hopes the organization will someday be a household name.<\/p>\n<p>DANIELLE: I want One Simple Wish to be, you know, up there with Make-A-Wish Foundation and I want to see Super Bowl ads about One Simple Wish some day. And then I want to see the website run out of wishes!<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: Our thanks to Danielle Gletow of One Simple Wish.<\/p>\n<p>SUE: Join us next time to hear more stories about innovative and inspirational women doing the things you\u2019d never dream of. Or...maybe you would. This has been The Story Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>COLLEEN: If you liked this podcast, please share on social media or post a review on iTunes. It helps other people find the show. And visit our website at TheStoryExchange.org, where you\u2019ll find news, videos and tips for women entrepreneurs. Sound editing provided by Nusha Balyan. Interview recorded by Sam Shinn.  Executive producers are Sue Williams and Victoria Wang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With her nonprofit One Simple Wish, Danielle Gletow is bringing the joy of childhood to the lives of foster kids, one wish at time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":31432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[20230,246,19495,19701],"class_list":["post-31431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-child-welfare","tag-mission-based","tag-nonprofit","tag-social-impact"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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