The Able Mindset: Meet Addis Gonte

Following a car accident  at 16, Addis Alemayehu Gonte's life changed forever. Eventually he recovered from multiple traumatic injuries. Addis shares the challenges of living with visable and invisible disabilities. While in college he founded a nonprofit, ABLE Mindset, that works to uplift and empower lives through the creative arts. Addis reflects on the isolation often felt by individuals with disabilities and how we can bridge those gaps. We reveal the personal journeys that have led us to understand the significance of vulnerability and the importance of suspending assumptions.

His work with ABLE Mindset, particularly the rhythm workshops and creative arts programs is supported from partners incuding the University of North Texas, the YMCA and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

Addis Gonte's Bio
 Addis Gonte is a highly motivated and dedicated community outreach specialist with a passion for creating positive change in underserved communities. After a life-threatening car accident at 16, Addis Gonte was left with traumatic injuries. He was determined to continue his education, completing high school and college, graduating with a B.A. in Sociology and Rehabilitation from the University of North Texas. He is a certified peer and family support mentor for the Christopher and Dana Reeve organization and United Spinal Association, and is dedicated to supporting newly injured individuals and their families with this difficult transition in life. While in College, he founded his nonprofit, Able Mindset, dedicated to empower persons living with disabilities utilizing creative arts to have an enriching life experience. 


Contact Addis at: https://ablemindset.org/ 

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Transcript

Ann Price: 0:01

Hi everybody, welcome back to Community Possibilities. You know, if you are a listener to this show, I hope, like me, you count yourself lucky to virtually meet some of my community guests, and today is no exception. I want you to meet a young man whose name is Addis Alemayehu Gonte. He's originally from Ethiopia. He's lived in the United States, in Texas specifically, since he was four years old, and when he was 16, he was involved in a severe car accident that dramatically changed the course of his life. So you are going to hear Addis's story today, how he has used his abilities to touch his community and beyond. He is the founder and CEO of ABLE Mindset, and he is driven to empower persons living with disabilities by utilizing creative arts to have an enriching life experience.

Ann Price: 1:10

I hope you join us for this conversation. We would love to hear from you about your thoughts about what can be done in your community to include those with hidden and not so hidden disabilities. Thanks, everybody. Well, hi everybody, welcome back to Community Possibilities. I am so happy to have my guest today. I met him through a mutual friend. Welcome, addis Gante, to the show.

Addis Gonte: 1:48

Thank you, Dr Ann. So delight to be here and have a meaningful conversation.

Ann Price: 1:55

We are going to have a meaningful conversation. In fact, we have been having a meaningful conversation about names and the meaning of names. Mine is Ann and it's funny. The hardest thing people have about my name is whether I have an E on the end. But we were talking about the meaning of names, how to pronounce your name. But my name means Grace, and the funny thing about that, addis, is that my family used to joke when I was growing up that I am anything but graceful. If there was a cup of milk to be spilled, I was the guilty party. Yeah, to this day, I'm always dropping something. I do not live up to my name. Can you tell us your full name and what it means, because I thought that was so beautiful, what you just shared, and I want everybody else to hear it.

Addis Gonte: 2:53

Yes, and I didn't really embrace my full name until I started really experiencing life with a third, Ever since I started experiencing life with my third lens after my injury and yes, it will but I started really appreciating my individual and my individuality as a human being and after wanting to find out more about my culture and when I read my name I was like, wow, I think life has more to offer and I look beyond my disability. So my name, Addis Alamayu Gante, actually means a new world movement and that made me really do a self-check and to see how I'm embracing my individual identity with my personal life experiences.

Ann Price: 3:59

Well, it is a beautiful name to hear, to hear it roll off your tongue, and it's a beautiful thing to aspire to. So your mom and dad named you well.

Addis Gonte: 4:13

Thank you. I hope to live up to it and keep growing as a person.

Ann Price: 4:19

Well, you and I have had the opportunity to chat before, so we've gotten to know each other just a little bit. But I want you to introduce yourself to my audience, and I always like for people to talk about how they came to be, who they are, not just their pedigree and where they went to college. That's all great, but I think it's much more interesting to talk about who you are and how you came to be, and so, to the extent that you feel comfortable sharing, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Addis Gonte: 4:50

Yes, so I'm originally from Ethiopia.

Addis Gonte: 4:55

I came here to the States, deep in the heart of Texas, when I was four and I had my first, many first cultural shocks and cultural experiences. And at the age of 16, while I was growing up in the States, I had another traumatic life experience, but this was after sustaining a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury from a car accident when I was 16 years old and that completely transformed my life and it helped me just really connect with myself in a sense, and it helped me kind of slow things down. I just felt like, when I reflect on my experience before my injury is that we're just living everything day by day and not really appreciating each experience as much as we should. And after this life-changing injury at the age of 16, it really helped me be more present with being my best self. And that was the most difficult transition, at the same time the most comforting, because it allowed me to focus on my individual self-care, which I think it's something that we don't pay attention to much these days with our daily life responsibilities.

Ann Price: 6:49

You know, Addis, you're probably I don't know exactly how old you are, but you're probably old enough to be one of my sons. So I'm just kind of picturing what that must have been like, of course, for your family, but also for yourself as a, because I think about my kids when they were 16, there and marching band. They're in school, they're doing all the things and at that age, you know, you never think you're going to get sick, you never think anything bad is going to happen. You know life is just full of promise.

Addis Gonte: 7:27

Right right, and it was kind of a wake-up call for me and it really helped me be more serious about my education, more serious about my community engagement and growth. So those elements really helped me continue wanting to live a life of purpose and discovering my new skills. And it was something that I had to relearn, how to develop, especially from the traumatic brain injury. And that was another significant experience because everyone first identified my visible disability, which is my physical disability, but a lot of times people didn't recognize that I also had a traumatic brain injury and how that affected my different learning style, my vision, my memory, my processing skills and it was all a process to really discover how to continue learning and moving forward with my life experiences. So I'm thankful for a lot of failures, because those failures are what helped me discover my learning paths and skills to perform my best in everything I do. Mm-hmm.

Ann Price: 8:58

You know I did some research, of course. I looked at your website and looked at some of the things on YouTube and I found your poem Able Mindset, and it just so spoke to me and I was wondering if you would mind sharing that with us.

Addis Gonte: 9:18

Oh, wow, I'm glad you asked.

Addis Gonte: 9:21

That was a significant time period where I never felt more abled and disabled and I wrote that poem during my last semester before I graduated from University of North Texas and during that period I never, like I mentioned, I'm sure, myself and the other persons with disabilities in the disability community we never felt more empowered to keep moving forward, because this pandemic period was something that we were constantly living through with our daily lives, with continuing to overcome many barriers that we face on a day-to-day basis.

Addis Gonte: 10:09

So this was a transition, like a smooth transition, for us, whereas to the rest of the world it was a taste they were finally getting a taste of our medicine and seeing how we had to continuously evolve and adapt to different difficult situations. And during that semester I was just and now, by the way, we were everything was clocked down on campus. In fact, every department was closed and there was only one side of the campus that was still operating or that was still housing their students, and I knew that education was going to be the only pathway for me to really have a more enriching life experience and an opportunity to grow as a different profession in my profession. So I created this Able Mindset poem that goes like this yes, yes, let the Able Mindset, yes, yes, as the Able Mindset, yes, yes, what will you do next? And that is to motivate each individual to one possess a competent, radiant spirit, to continue growing and to help them take the step forward to living a life of purpose, with more confidence and determination to complete their goals.

Ann Price: 12:00

That is such a beautiful poem.

Addis Gonte: 12:04

Thank you.

Ann Price: 12:06

And such a gift, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So what is ABLE mindset mean to you? It's more than just empowerment, right? What does that mean, able mindset?

Addis Gonte: 12:21

Three words.

Addis Gonte: 12:23

It's a process and I feel like we overthink the process and we want the ultimate goal.

Addis Gonte: 12:34

But without the process we're not going to get to our goal and sometimes we just need to take a step back before we take a big jump forward or a big step forward. So we'd like to take it step by step and that's what helped me kind of throughout my recovery journey, as I reflected in when I was creating ABLE mindset is what was at that time. That time was my 12 year anniversary from my injury, and it's a process was what constantly rolled on the back of my mind, because it was after failure, after failure, that I continued to grow and heal and learn and discover my new learning style. So I'm like you know what I'm probably not the only one that has to learn how to do things and most certainly learn how to find my rhythm, because I think that's the key element in our individual lives is finding our rhythm to becoming being our best selves, and I think that's the magic token that we all possess to really have a enriching life experience.

Ann Price: 14:01

So you mentioned your organization, so this might be a good place to tell us about that, and you named it, interestingly enough, able mindset. So tell us why you started it and what the organization does.

Addis Gonte: 14:15

Yes. So the mission of ABLE mindset is to help each individual develop their creativity to have a enriching life experience, and we're mostly supporting persons with disabilities because I think a lot of times access to resources or discovering resources are limited and we want to make sure each person, especially each child, to develop their learning style at a as soon as they can, because once you leave the school system, life is just going to be more difficult for them to really pivot and transition to different career, career goals and responsibilities. And our goal with our ABLE mindset mission is to work with each individual community member to with different creative art activities and elements to help them discover their creativity so that they could identify their learning style and be their best selves with their education and life goals.

Ann Price: 15:37

So I'm curious did you always have this creative bent always? Were you always arts-minded before your accident, or was this new?

Addis Gonte: 15:48

Actually it's funny that you mentioned that because it was my iPod, I say was my saving grace throughout my injury, because that was the only thing I naturally gravitated towards, because at that time, when people would talk to me and communicate, I wouldn't be able to really process the information because just something small meant a lot to me. Like there was a lot of pieces moving that I was still foreign to, because I'm still trying to grasp the whole concept of life and recall that it was nothing that I connected to as much as I connected to music and when what really caught my attention was the rhythm and how. That helped me really find a tune to follow, that helped me one become more calm with my goals of life and life and also just to be more present. And the music was really was my saving grace because it helped me have more passion for life.

Ann Price: 17:31

Now, do you have a favorite style of music, or are you pretty eclectic?

Addis Gonte: 17:36

Oh, I am all over. I have a diverse genre and classical reggae, reggaeton, country. My sister is a huge country fan so growing up with her, she's always been playing her country music and I'm a big Tim McGraw fan, toby Keefe and Kenny Chesley and yeah, so music is something I really naturally gravitated towards and found a lot of peace with.

Ann Price: 18:17

Well, I can totally see the country, having been to Texas a few times myself.

Addis Gonte: 18:23

Yes, welcome y'all.

Ann Price: 18:27

Well, I'm from Georgia, so we're all about that, y'all. So I'm picturing you as a college student. Most college students don't say I'm going to start a non-profit organization. That's kind of not where I think most college students are. So how did this idea come into your head?

Addis Gonte: 18:51

Yes, so a lot of opportunities weren't available for one during this whole pandemic period.

Addis Gonte: 19:00

So I'm like wow if career opportunities were shrinking day by day.

Addis Gonte: 19:09

And second, it was really difficult with doing career explorations with so many limitations and I thought what can I do now to not only help myself but the rest of the world?

Addis Gonte: 19:34

Because I knew that I wasn't probably the only person that was going through this obstacle. And by relying on my network and the communities I've got to develop throughout my life journey, it helped. It made the process smoother to get established as an entity and also being able to make an impact and serving the community. So I identified those elements in my life to make this vision possible and it's hard to believe it's already been three years and to see how much we've accomplished thus far by partnering with the University of North Texas, where I'm an alumni, and also partnering with the YMCA International Organization and being an ambassador for the YMCA Ethiopia Club and wow, and also being a part of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and being a peer and family support mentor, which made me have another reflection on my life journey and the theme of the Superman, by growing up in a small farm town and discovering my unique identity after my injury and how I saw that as a superpower to really make a positive impact on the community.

Ann Price: 21:26

So, yeah, running a nonprofit is not easy. We've talked about that and as the founder and executive director, you have so many hats, especially as you're growing right. You've got your programming hat, you've got your fundraising hat, you've got your legal hat. You've got a great board behind you. Tell us a little bit more about what you are doing in community, so the services and programs that ABLE Mindset offers, and where you offer those programs.

Addis Gonte: 21:59

Yes, definitely. Those roles, those multiple roles, are definitely a part of the process. That slogan is what keeps me waking up each day. Moving forward is understanding that everything is a process. So just by taking it step at a step, one step at a time really helps me stay calm and collected to execute each action item.

Addis Gonte: 22:26

And the opportunities to work with our partners, with the pub, by beginning our program with our neighboring library, which I refer to as our backyard, is something that really helped kickstart our community outreach program and bring more visibility to accessibility and education.

Addis Gonte: 22:52

And I was just stunned whenever, when I first went to my public library and it was really discouraged to continue utilizing the resource because of the many barriers and I finally realized, hey, the awareness is not there and this was an opportunity to really help the library continue making an impact on the community and by being able to communicate with the library and share our program, it helped them understand accessibility with a different lens and by being a small town, it was really it was not the major topic, let's just say, for community members. So I was grateful for having that opportunity to not just only begin our creative arts and rhythm workshop at that library but also to see the impact it was making by getting referrals to our neighboring cities. Library called the Wiley public readers read it through at Smith Public Library in Wiley, texas, and naturally just growing from the Wiley to other cities and partnering with the University of more Texas. So I think a organic growth experience that really helped us make an impact.

Ann Price: 24:29

Yeah, I don't think people really appreciate the community library and the great resources they are, and it sounds like you are also able to help them see that there are people out in the community children and adults with visible and invisible disabilities that they can, they can serve, and it sounds like that's been a really great way to get your message and your programming out. So tell us more about these rhythm workshops. What would, what would it look like if we were walking, we're returning our books and what do we see?

Addis Gonte: 25:08

Yes, we will definitely have a theme for each a library's workshop and because each community has their own different programs, so we try to adapt to their, to what they've already established and, for example, our most recent one would be our February creative arts and rhythm workshop, where we had we were, we created a self care kit that I had my amazing academic, one of my academic advisors volunteer to coordinate and we created a workshop where everyone created their own individual self care kit and it's this and then the acronym selfie is for the self care that was created and it helped each individual be more creative about their, about being having their own unique self-care kit to utilize on their daily, on their daily routine and their daily routines, and it had multiple craft supply items for them to select from to create their selfie kit, which is their self-care.

Ann Price: 26:33

Mm-hmm, gotcha, gotcha. So it sounds like each one of the workshops that you provide can be customized depending on what the community needs.

Addis Gonte: 26:44

Correct yes, and the population we're serving yeah, and we serve both children, youths, teens, adults, aunts Wow, I didn't realize it and seniors too, yeah, and it's been a great way of really connecting our diverse life experiences and helping community members move forward with their life goals.

Ann Price: 27:14

Well Adise. What do you hope Able Mindset achieves or grows towards in the future? What do you see for your organization?

Addis Gonte: 27:27

The big picture that I see is having a space where all community members are welcome with their unique individual talents to put a light in the community and to not and to break the isolation experience. I think that's the worst feeling any person can go through, and for a person to recognize they have a unique get to contribute to their communities is something that we aim to aspire each community member to experience.

Ann Price: 28:06

And I have to ask you what do you think communities can do to better support people with disabilities, not just physical disabilities, but also individual disabilities?

Addis Gonte: 28:20

I think the best way is through having meaningful conversations and listening to each other and, most importantly, serving together. I think that's the best way to really connect with the human being is when you serve together, and that's what I'm proudly doing with our community garden and bringing awareness to accessibility and community gardening and having a space where all community members can participate and give their time to. And that's something I'm proudly doing as a Lions Club service chair for our club here in Saxey and it's been such a rewarding experience.

Ann Price: 29:11

You know that is such a great example because my head immediately went to our church community garden and the two others that are in probably within a mile of that. You know, I don't maybe one or two raised beds Someone in a wheelchair had limited mobility could get to, but it would be. It would be even difficult because I don't think a wheelchair could fit in the fence, I don't think it could fit in between the raised beds. You've already, you already have me thinking so, just because I don't have a physical disability, it's not my world. So I have to. I have to have people kind of open up my eyes a little bit. And as soon as you said that, like well crud, it's so frustrating.

Ann Price: 30:02

I think I told you the story about how I gave a workshop one time and you know, silly me, and it was for a disability group and not everybody had the ability to stand. And what do I say? Everybody. Because we needed an energizer. Everybody stand up. Ah right, you know we're always learning. I hope we're always learning. I'm always trying to learn, I'm always trying to get better and be more aware. So thank you for sharing that.

Addis Gonte: 30:31

Oh, no, glad to, and you know, I'm sure that person was understood, because it's not, it's not common, you know. So we're just so grateful to at least allow the people to recognize, you know, their very unique experiences and to, you know, be more mindful.

Ann Price: 30:50

Yeah, I mean we can. We can always be more aware, we can always learn. I know I think I probably mentioned to you when I shared. That example was when I'm giving workshops and sometimes they're in big rooms. Sometimes they're not a big room, but I'm always conscious now about always using the mic and passing the mic, because we can't assume that everybody in the room has has hearing, maybe to the level. Do you know what I mean? Right, right, there's that kind of invisible disability. Yeah, almost right, I think that was too much for me, but I know I bet you've been in a room where people say, well, I don't need to use the mic, right, we make that assumption. Or we might assume that everybody wants to process in a big group format and some people aren't comfortable with that. Or we may see someone parking in a handicap spot but there's no obvious disability, and so you know, we make all sorts of assumptions in our head.

Addis Gonte: 31:54

So yeah, and the best way to break that barrier is just by communicating and, you know, being open and letting go of our vulnerability. I think that's the one other big piece that I'm grateful for having this life experience is because, you know, I don't have to pretend like I'm not vulnerable and by letting, openly expressing that allows me to focus on me being my best self instead of wearing so many hats and covering up my identity. So I think the more open we can be to one another, the more meaningful conversations and impact we can make as a community.

Ann Price: 32:40

Yeah.

Addis Gonte: 32:42

And everything begins with a hello, a greeting. So yeah, yeah.

Ann Price: 32:48

Yeah, and I would say, suspending our assumptions about people would be helpful too.

Addis Gonte: 32:55

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, that's true, yeah, big factor.

Ann Price: 33:02

All right. Well, I would be remiss if I did not ask you, Addis, how can people support your work at Able Mindset?

Addis Gonte: 33:10

Oh, we that. Thank you for asking we are. Our best way to get ahold of us is by reaching out on our website and there are email addresses info at Able Mindset dot org and that's our email address and where they can just go to our home contact us page at Able Mindset. com or . org. And if they do go to type in dot com or automatically go to the dot or our dot org page and yes, we have our and they can reach out to us by completing the contact us form to see what type of engagement they or how they like to get involved. And, yeah, we'd be grateful to have their support and maybe be able to present or host a workshop in their location.

Ann Price: 34:11

Well, that's terrific and that reminds me what is it? A papaya that I saw on your website.

Addis Gonte: 34:17

Yes.

Ann Price: 34:18

What's that story remind me?

Addis Gonte: 34:21

Right, right.

Addis Gonte: 34:23

So the the significance of the papaya was, the was inspiration for what.

Addis Gonte: 34:29

Where I got the vision for Able Mindset?

Addis Gonte: 34:33

And that was after reflecting on my first experience, traveling to Ethiopia before my injury, and reflecting on the experience, the amazing experience I had of connecting with the community, with my family, and visiting and doing all the sightseeing without any accessibility challenges, and comparing that to my second visit, which was about six years post my injury, and at that time I was still lost and didn't really discover my individual identity as a person with a disability as well as a person in a different, with a different cultural experience, so that those two experiences made me really reflect on, you know, my, my journey and my motivation was to come back to the states to complete my education so I can go back home to make a, to make a positive impact for persons with disabilities back home, because it was a whole culture shock for me when I was there and the and the item that that resonated with me the most was the, the fruit that we grew in our backyard and it was a papaya and the seeds to represent what a community could become when they work together to create a fruitful life experience.

Addis Gonte: 36:07

And that's where I got the inspiration fruitful life experience for able mindset for people to really prosper and to have a enriching quality of life journey.

Ann Price: 36:23

Well, that was a perfect setup to my last question, Addis. When you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?

Addis Gonte: 36:32

Oh, more, more diversity and richness of beautiful garden. That's what I see is how we are unique, how we are all uniquely gifted and have many experiences to share with each other.

Ann Price: 36:52

Well, I want to thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I just I'm just so grateful for this conversation and grateful that we had the opportunity to meet. I definitely want to keep you in my life in the future. Addis is the best way for people to get in touch with you then through the website. If they want to hear you know, maybe have you come and speak, or anything like that.

Addis Gonte: 37:15

Yes, that would probably be the best way to get a hold of me. Also, at is at able mindsetorg is my direct email, so that's Addis at Able Mindsets spelled out.

Ann Price: 37:33

Okay, that's awesome. Well, thank Addis Gonte, . You are certainly living up to the name you were given.

Addis Gonte: 37:41

Thank you, dr Ann. It was a pleasure to be a part of your podcast and I look forward to listening to more rich content you provide.

Ann Price: 37:50

Well, thank you very much for that and thank you for joining me.

Addis Gonte: 37:53

Yes, thank you.

Ann Price: 37:57

Hi everybody. I am so glad you joined me on this episode of Community Possibilities. You know reviews and ratings are the lifeblood of podcasts these days, so if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, can you do me a solid? Can you go on over to Apple Podcasts and leave a review? That would be so helpful. You know it's been a skinny minute since I've had a rating or review, so would love it if you would do me that favor. Thanks, everybody, and I'll see you next time.