HOW IT ALL BEGAN...

 

     Nicole Ford started her journey caring for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in December of 1992 at Richmond State Supported Living Center (RSSLC). She was hired as a direct care staff on a behavioral unit working with young, female individuals. Although she had no real prior experience, she grew to love her job and the individuals she served in just a few weeks of on-the-job training. After about two and a half years, she was promoted to a supervisory position, assuming various responsibilities while still maintaining her direct contact with the individuals she loved so much. She was eventually transferred to another unit after the behavioral unit was closed, gaining more experience this time with an older generation of men, but loving them all the same.

     Nicole's vision to do more became very clear after rushing to the aid of one of her individuals during his first documented seizure. After heading back to the office to complete her paperwork, something dawned on her, she could do more as a nurse and in June 2006 she resigned from her position to begin the associate degree nursing program.

     In 2008 after completing the nursing program and acknowledging GOD, Nicole returned to RSSLC to her same unit as a nurse. It was as if she had never left, most of the individuals was still there and remembered her. She continued on in her position for another two years and then advanced to a case management position giving her the insight she needed concerning the needs of people in the community and how to become a community provider. She resigned in April of 2013 to complete her bachelor's degree, care for her husband, and obtain her licensure as a TxHmL and HCS provider.She began the year long process for licensure starting with obtaining her DBA. It did not take her long to come up with a name for her business and just as she had acknowledged GOD so many times before in her quest for an answer, HE answered again with "SAM's PLACE", named after her mother, Shirley Ann Mayberry, a true inspiration to her for all of the years of dedication she devoted to her and others as a wife, mother, daughter, niece, aunt, grandmother, friend, neighbor, and as a registered nurse. As Matthew 19:26 states, ..."but with GOD all things are possible", so it was  in April 2014 that Nicole obtained her TxHmL & HCS licensure and just a few months later, her first house, the Oliver house.  As GOD assured Habakkuk that his vision would surely come at its appointed time, Nicole's appointed time had come with ABUNDANT FAVOR... bringing into manifestation....SAM's PLACE!!