Visual Eyes - The Community & Collaboration Podcast

S2 Ep 20 - Hope, Healing & Impact: Dustin Forman’s Journey with WestCare The Village South

• Visuals by Momo • Season 2 • Episode 20

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What happens when a former tennis coach discovers his true calling in community engagement? In this episode of the Visual Eyes Podcast, host Chris Baker sits down with Dustin Forman, Director of Community Engagement at WestCare The Village South, to uncover how behavioral health, family support, and community partnerships are driving transformative change across South Florida.

🎧 From coaching to community care, Dustin shares his deeply personal journey into the nonprofit sector and how his work now centers around building trust, creating impact, and restoring hope for individuals facing substance use and mental health challenges.

Listeners will hear about:

  • WestCare’s one-of-a-kind residential recovery program that allows women to bring all of their children
  • A new 83,000 sq. ft. crisis stabilization and detox center launching soon in Pembroke Pines
  • Powerful partnerships with Florida Blue, local banks, and Leadership Broward
  • How small acts of kindness—like holiday toys and community yoga—leave lifelong impressions
  • The importance of legacy, joy, and connection in building sustainable nonprofit systems

Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, philanthropic investor, behavioral health advocate, or community builder, this episode offers powerful insights into purpose-driven leadership, trauma-informed care, and the human side of recovery.

🔗 Learn more about WestCare The Village South:
 Website: https://villagesouth.org
Contact: 954-477-9349 | Email: dustin.forman@westcare.com
Connect with Dustin: LinkedIn


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Special Thanks to Stacy Daugherty for the beautiful wall artwork in the background. Socials: @artographybystacy

Chris Baker:

Chris Baker, and each week we'll explore incredible connections between nonprofits, businesses and the community. This is a space where we highlight inspiring partnerships, uncover strategies for creating meaningful impact and share stories that show how working together can make all the difference. Whether you're a nonprofit leader, a business owner or someone just passionate about building connections, this podcast is for you. Welcome back to Visual Eyes. Today I have Dustin Forman from WestCare Foundations, the Village, south Dustin. Can you please tell us a little bit about your journey of becoming the director of community engagement?

Dustin Forman:

Absolutely. First off, thank you. Thank you for having me my pleasure. It's a real honor to be here.

Dustin Forman:

My journey here was probably not the conventional route. I actually started actually working in athletics at a university. So I was actually the director of tennis for five years at a small university called Milliken University in central Illinois in the city of Decatur. How big is that? We had about 2,000 students. Okay, the one thing as the tennis coach I always joked about is that X's and O's.

Dustin Forman:

I was not very good, but I thought where I excelled was in the recruiting aspect, and when you're recruiting at a Division III school, that's probably even more important than the actual coaching. That makes sense. It's a little bit trickier. So you really had to develop those relationships with not just the players but the family, the parents, because obviously to come to a private university it's not cheap. They were going to have to spend a considerable amount of money and you really wanted to make sure that you provided them with all the information about the school, let them know what it was like and then let them make that decision if they felt this might be worth it A small class size versus going to a state university with a bigger class size, so you're developing those relationships. University with a bigger class size, so you're developing those relationships.

Dustin Forman:

And as I was doing that, I realized I'm not so much enjoying being on the court and like coaching, but I'm really enjoying having these conversations with these families about the benefits of coming to Milliken University. And with Milliken we always joked that we had to work five times harder than the other universities in our conference because we were the southern most conference, so kids that were living in Chicago would have to go through every other school in our conference. They would have to say, nope, I don't want to go there, I want to go three hours south to a small town and play tennis there, versus being in the big city of Chicago. So, with that being said, after my time, after I realized that I did not want to be on the court coaching all the time that you know let me use, you know what the word they always say is that transferable skills.

Chris Baker:

Oh yeah, you definitely developed a lot of transferable skills there.

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that's what I was said to myself. Okay, what can I do? I I've always been someone that loves to volunteer. I love giving back, I love working with individuals that maybe don't have the same opportunities as others, maybe some that have fallen on hard times and just for me to enter into the nonprofit space doing community engagement and fundraising and development, it just seemed like a perfect match. I had a few other opportunities at different nonprofits before joining West Care of the Village South, but for me, I feel like I hit the home run with the work that we're doing. I'm so honored to be working with West Care of the Village South. The work that we do is phenomenal. I think we're just scratching the surface of the impact we're going to continue to make. We've been here for 50 years and we're not going the surface of the impact we're going to continue to make. We've been here for 50 years and we're not going away anytime soon, so we're excited for the impact we're going to have for the next 50 years.

Chris Baker:

That's fantastic. So 50 years is a long time. Congratulations, that's amazing. When did you start with WestCare?

Dustin Forman:

So I've been with WestCare now for just over a year and a half. Okay, so I started the latter half of 2023. It's been a remarkable experience. You know everyone. The staff is helpful to the clients, to volunteers, to staff, new staff especially. You know I'm coming in there. You know the work that we do in the behavioral health space. I did not have that much experience in the behavioral health space when I first started. I had a little bit, but not a lot, and you know the time that they've all taken to kind of explain some of the stuff that allows helps me when I'm going out and speaking with potential donors, nonprofit organizations that we can collaborate with, banks that we've collaborated with. It really has been very helpful. So our staff is just tremendous.

Chris Baker:

So you mentioned a little bit about the programs, but can you talk a little bit about more of the services and programs that you guys offer through WestCare?

Dustin Forman:

In behavioral health space. We work with individuals with substance use and mental health challenges. We provide I always kind of give you an overall idea we provide outpatient services in Palm Beach, broward and Miami-Dade and what that is is that's actually in-home, on-site, so we're going to the homes of the individuals or, if the individual or client feels more comfortable meeting at a Starbucks or a McDonald's or somewhere else, a park, we can do that. We also offer inpatient residential services at our facility in Broward County. So that is actually for women, pregnant women, single women and women with children.

Dustin Forman:

And what's really special about this program, we are one of the only nonprofit organizations in the state that allows the women to bring their children with them, so keeping them together, avoiding that trauma both for the mother and for the child of being separated. And we also don't put a limit on the amount of children they can bring. So you know, if they have one child, please, you know, bring them. If you have four or five children, we're not going to place a limit on how many kids you can bring. I can only imagine how challenging and difficult that would be if you have four kids and the facility says you can only bring two. So we say bring them all.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, no, I think that's very important to try to keep the family together as much as possible when you're going through that.

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, and what's really nice about our facility? We also we manage a children's academy right next door called the Pembroke Pines Children's Academy, so that academy allows the children that are staying at our facility they're able to go there so, as their mothers are going through their clinical sessions during the day, they don't need to worry about their children, because their children are being taken care of at the Children's Academy, getting a top-notch education, and then, once the school day is over, once their therapy is done for the day, then they're able to be together in the evening time.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, you're giving them an extra opportunity to not only take care of themselves and get better, but you're also taking care of the kids. So that's time. Yeah, you're giving them an extra opportunity to, you know, not only take care of themselves and get better, but you're also taking care of the kids. So that's awesome.

Dustin Forman:

Absolutely yeah. And then for Miami-Dade, we also provide emergency crisis response. So if you're in Miami-Dade County and either yourself or someone you know is having a behavioral health crisis, you can call 1-800-HELP-YOU. You'll be immediately connected with a licensed clinician and then, within 45 to 60 minutes, we'll have a team, a peer support specialist, a licensed clinician and a behavioral health technician on site addressing the situation, providing you with resources and linkage to services.

Chris Baker:

You said that was in Miami Dade, correct. What options do people here in Broward, and as well as Palm Beach, have?

Dustin Forman:

For that emergency crisis response. There's a different provider in Broward and Palm Beach County that offer the same service. So each county has a licensed provider, yeah, a provider that's been licensed to provide these services. Do you partner with them If we get a call? Obviously Broward and Miami they're touching each other, right? So someone might see the sign, the billboard in Miami, 1-800-help-you as they're driving back from work or they see a behavioral health crisis, they're experiencing one. They call 1-800-HELP-YOU. We will speak with them and then we will connect. We will contact the provider in Broward County and then they would be the ones that would be out there in the field to address this situation.

Chris Baker:

Can you talk a little bit about more, about partnerships and collaborations that you're using in the community right now to help further WestCare's mission?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so it's been really great. So that's one of the things that you know, since I've been here for you know, coming on two years now is really making those relationships in the community whether it's other nonprofit organizations, whether it's for profit companies that want to volunteer and want to collaborate with us has been phenomenal. We've been very blessed. So we've had various banks. We've had PNC Bank, we've had Seacoast Bank, we've had Valley Bank. They've all come in and they've provided financial literacy workshops to our clients.

Dustin Forman:

We've had some teachers that have careers as teachers and then we've had some that have never really had a career job. So some of them don't know much about financial literacy and I mean even some of us don't know about financial literacy. So it's really very valuable those partnerships that we've had with them. And what's great to see is the client's reaction to it. Each session is very engaging. So the banks have done a great job of engaging the clients. I do focus groups with the clients once every six weeks and that's one of the big things that they keep mentioning is how much those financial workshops are very helpful.

Chris Baker:

I completely agree, because I mean looking back at the schooling that I had. You know, I had an accounting class, but there wasn't enough information to actually give me all of these budgeting tools in a real life situation. Because like, yeah, if you're going into account, be an accountant or you're being a bookkeeper, that accounting class is great, but that's literally almost where it stops.

Dustin Forman:

They don't teach you about Roth IRAs, 401ks. We don't learn that in school. So that's why, having these banks come out and you know we also have some staff that join in and want to learn, because unfortunately, some of this stuff is not, it's not talked about and it's not taught in the schools. So it's been a very, a very beneficial partnership and collaboration with these banks.

Chris Baker:

In general, like we need to start bringing that into the classroom. We need to start having more of these conversations before we get out.

Dustin Forman:

as an adult, yes, yeah, the sooner. The sooner we can have people learning this stuff, the better.

Chris Baker:

Any other collaborations or anything that you want to share? With our listeners.

Dustin Forman:

Absolutely yeah, so we've. We've had a great partnership also with Florida Blue. So Florida Blue has come and they've also provided workshops. Also, anyone that was needing insurance our clients would be able to sign up for insurance if they were in need. Most of our clients are either uninsured or underinsured, so Florida Blue has been able to kind of provide some information about that, while also giving them presentations about various topics that are of help for our clients. So it's just been a really good partnership. We've also worked closely with the Florida Blue Foundation. So one thing that we have is we in our residential facility we have some renovations that we're working on, and Florida Blue is very generous to renovate one of the rooms for us.

Chris Baker:

So when you say that they actually are helping with the insurance, so like I'm guessing especially if there are non-insured or they're underinsured is that something that actually works with Florida Blue and WestCare, so they kind of help get that at least them started and at least have that insurance to start, or how does that work?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so our kind of goal is to make sure that when they are leaving our facility, that they're leaving and they have a lot of things kind of checked off. Do they have a bank account? So we have the banks coming in to help with that. Do they have insurance when they leave? That's why we have Florida Blue coming in to help with that. Do they have insurance when they leave? That's why we have Florida Blue coming out making sure that our clients, when they do leave, they're going to have insurance. So we have at our facility, at the residential facility, you're going to have two different levels of care. You're going to have some that have just entered and then some that have entered what we call the re-entry phase. So the re-entry phase is when they start working again, but they're still at our facility but they're working. So they're going to leave during the day, go to work and then come back.

Chris Baker:

How does this work? So, like, if somebody is going through that crisis and they give you a call, are they always the one that are giving you the call directly, like they're going through it, or sometimes, you know, maybe a family member or, depending on the situation, they're in, a law officer or judge, or how does that all come into play?

Dustin Forman:

All of the above. Okay, I would have figured it might All of the above. So, yeah, we certainly get a lot from the judges, the courts. We do get, you know, some self-referrals, so it really runs the gamut of ways that people can enter our care. We have a missions director, a missions office that they can call. Anyone can call, and then, you know, find out, and then our team will kind of see if they meet the criteria to enter our facility.

Chris Baker:

Gotcha no, and I'm sure that that's a process to make sure that it's you know, the right fit and it's going to be the best for them.

Dustin Forman:

Right, so you know, just like an idea. So for our residential facility it's just for women and women with children. So single women, pregnant women and women with children All our other services though, men, women, children it's just the residential facility right now that is just a women's only facility.

Chris Baker:

Right, and I think that kind of probably is a smart way to look at it at this moment, because, especially if they're bringing their kids that way, they can just be in a space with other women that are going through the same thing and they'll feel a little bit more comfortable.

Dustin Forman:

Also make sure that they are ready once they do enter or depart our facility, successfully discharge our facility, that they're ready to, you know, take care of the child and, you know, just get back, to get back to life outside of our, of our doors.

Chris Baker:

No, that's important. Ok, what is the future strategies that you guys are implementing in WestCare that is going to help this community?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so very exciting. We have the Broward Community Behavioral Health Center. So we are working on that. We are working on renovating. It's a former state hospital, okay, and it's about 83,000 square feet, wow, okay, very large facility. That's awesome. And when we were starting to look into providing services from there, we had an idea of what it was going to be. We had this grand idea, but we said, hey, let's speak with the community. We are a community organization. We want to be able to provide services to the facility. So we thought it was one thing. And then when we spoke with various stakeholders in the community, they were saying, well, actually, this is our number one need that we have. So we actually said, okay, we're going to kind of flip on what we were originally going to do and we're going to make sure that we're doing something that the community is most in need for. So that facility will be a crisis stabilization unit and a detox facility. So that's going to be. We're hoping to open that within the next probably 15 to 18 months. Oh, okay.

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so we're. It's not open yet, yeah, but we're hoping, yeah, we're hoping definitely within the next two years, hopefully within a year and a half, that we'll be able to open that and, you know, provide that service. That is not very there's not a lot of opportunities for those services in the South Broward area. A lot of times if someone needs that facility and they're in South Broward, they may have to go all the police or whoever may have to take them all the way up to Fort Lauderdale. So then that takes a police officer with the stakeholders that we've spoken to, is going to be very, very valuable.

Chris Baker:

Can you mention where in South Broward it's potentially going to be set up?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so it's actually going to be. So it's going to be in Pembroke Pines, actually about 300 yards from our current facility. It's actually about 300 yards from our current facility, oh, thanks. So there's the Howard C Forman campus over there, which is a lot of behavioral health, different behavioral health organizations located on this campus and it will be over there. So it's a former state hospital that I believe was built in the 60s, but there hasn't been much, uh much, going on there in the last couple decades. So we're kind of coming in there, uh, gonna provide, revitalize it, revitalize it. Yes, definitely revitalize it, and then make sure that the community has these services that are so desperately needed.

Chris Baker:

I agree I think that you know, opening that up it's going to be very valuable for the community Then. So the next question is kind of along that same road, because now that you explained that, um, is it going to be similar to the residential piece that you have, where it's only for women and children or is this going to be open to everyone?

Dustin Forman:

It'll. It'll be open for everyone. It will be open for everyone and it's going to have individuals with all different types of you know mental health challenges that we'll be able to support.

Chris Baker:

That's amazing, awesome, very much looking forward to that. I think that's an amazing good goal and I think it's going to pull it forward. So I know that you have an event coming up here relatively soon in April here, so can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so I am the proud graduate of Leadership Broward class of 42. Our slogan was we got you Congratulations. Thank you very, very much. So, as part of the Leadership Broward class of, in any class there's a community project, so you partner with a nonprofit organization to help them with something that they need assistance with, and we decided, hey, this would be a great time for us to try to become one of those projects for the Class of 43. We were very blessed and honored to be selected by the class to be one of the eight nonprofits.

Dustin Forman:

So we actually have our community project team that is working on helping us build a gazebo on campus that the women and the children can really utilize, which, as we know, in the summer it's hot, the sun is shining. As we know, in the summer it's hot, the sun is shining. So to have that additional shade for them where they can do yoga classes, they can eat lunch there, eat dinner there, whatever it is, it's going to be so valuable. So we're really looking forward to having that gazebo probably is going to be ready within the next two to three months, okay, and then, since we are a community project, leadership Broward hosts an event for us. It's a social event, social networking event, and we would love to see as many people out there. It's going to be on April 23rd, which is a Wednesday, here in downtown Fort Lauderdale at the Fitz.

Chris Baker:

Okay.

Dustin Forman:

And we'd love to get as many people out there to support us. All the proceeds of the event go directly to WestCare, the Village South. We'll also be able to share more information about all the work we're doing. Probably we'll have some updates on the building that we're revitalizing, yeah, so definitely would be great to have as many people in the community that could come out there. Meet, you know, great networking event, meet individuals. I'll be there. Some of my colleagues will be there. A lot of the leadership ROWARD individuals that are part of this class as well as past classes will be there.

Chris Baker:

So just be a great networking event, that's fantastic and if I remember you told me previously it wasn't that expensive, like $25?

Dustin Forman:

$25 entry. Perfect $25 entry, and then you can just enjoy the night and network with great individuals in our community.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, I think for that. I mean, it's going for a good cause and you're actually getting a chance to meet with some amazing people in the room. So wonderful, wonderful, All right. So, as we wrap up, there's two questions left. One, how do people reach and contact and getting touch with WestCare?

Dustin Forman:

Yeah, so our website uh, that's one of the best ways to get a hold of us is villagesouthorg. So they can go to villagesouthorg. They can see a list of all our programs, all the resources that we provide. On there they also can see ways to give. If anyone's interested in giving whether it's time, talent or treasures they can certainly do that. They can also, of course, contact me anytime. Whether it's community engagement, fundraising, whatever it is, I'm the best person to get a hold of at West Care of the Village South. So feel free to reach out to me. My number is 954-477-9349. You can also reach me at email, which is dustinforman F-O-R-M-A-N at westcarecom.

Chris Baker:

The last question, and this is the most important question that I really love to ask all of my guests, is what is the legacy you hope to leave for future generations?

Dustin Forman:

So and I love this question. So the week before Christmas we do events galore for the clients. We do all these events. We partnered with Macy's. Macy's has been just an incredible partner for us. So we partnered with Macy's. We partnered with the Gumacanda Ready Foundation. We partnered with Girl Scout Troops, and the amount of toys that they were able to provide for our children, the amount of hope they were able to provide for our women was unmatched, just to give you a quick story. So we did this Macy's event on a Saturday, monday.

Dustin Forman:

One of our clients saw me at the facility on campus and she said Dustin, look, and she was able to show off the watch that she was able to buy because Macy's provided them all with gift cards. So she was so proud and happy and she was actually being successfully discharged a few days later. So she was on cloud nine, she was so happy. So that was great to see. We also actually, just the other day, a little kid couldn't have been more than eight years old. He saw me and I hear him whispering to his mom hey, that's the guy that got us all those toys around Christmas.

Dustin Forman:

So you know, for me, when it comes to legacy, I just want to do good in this world and put a smile on people's faces. And when these women and these children they're coming with us, it's not the ideal situation for them. They know they need to be here, but of course they'd rather be at home with their loved ones, but they know at this time in their life this is where they need to be. So if we can, if I can make that and we can make that just a little bit better as they're going through their recovery, I guess that's that's kind of the legacy that I that I would like to leave.

Dustin Forman:

And you know, at the end of that, events galore week, every woman, every woman at the facility, they all, they made a scrapbook for me all saying you know, thank you for all that you did, thank you for you know, putting a smile on my face, on my children's faces. Thank you know, thank you for all these events that you were able to coordinate for us. That's what you know, that's what that's what it's all about and I obviously I keep that, that scrapbook, with me. It's definitely something I hold, I hold very close to my heart and in the end, I think that's what it's all about.

Dustin Forman:

We want to make sure also that when these women do leave us successfully discharged from our facility, that one they're going, they're kind of leaving this, their life, behind, where they're from our facility, from the thing that got them here, they're leaving that behind, they're entering a new, a second chance. And also, if we can make that memory at our facility just a little bit easier just a little bit easier, because it's it's tough so if we can make that their time here a little bit more enjoyable, uh, you know, have some positive memories for these children, some of the children that are with us, this is going to be their first memory.

Dustin Forman:

Oh yeah, this is going to be it for them, like they're not. You know they're not going to remember anything before. So for some of them this is going to be their first memory. Let's make sure it's a positive one. So that's why when we do these events and it's exhausting it's between Thanksgiving and Christmas it's real tiring, but when it becomes Christmas Day, and then you can think about all the work that went into the last month, it's all worth it, because for the women to see them smiling is amazing. And knowing that these children that were giving them probably their first memory and making sure it's a positive one, to me that's what it's all about.

Chris Baker:

So there was one word in there and I honestly feel like if we were to sum it up for you you want to leave for future generations. It was hope, Literally. When you said that, I felt it. I was like, yep, this man wants to leave a legacy of hope for future generations. I think that's beautiful.

Dustin Forman:

Absolutely. If you have no hope, it's going to go down a dark path. But if you can have hope, hope that tomorrow is going to be better than today, better than yesterday nothing's stopping them.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, it opens up multiple doors and it saves their life, because now they have something to at least look forward to. Absolutely so, Dustin, thank you so much today for being here on the show Visual Eyes, and I actually hope to have you back in the future. So thank you again.

Dustin Forman:

I would love to be back. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you.

Chris Baker:

Thank you for joining me on this episode of Visual Eyes. We hope that the inspiration and practical insights can help you foster stronger connections and meaningful change. Don't forget to subscribe, share the episode and leave us a review. To learn more about Visuals by Momo and how we support collaboration and storytelling, visit visualsbymomo. com. A huge thank you to everyone out there listening. Until next time, remember, collaboration fuels change and your connections can inspire the world.