Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 335. How to Center Mental Health in Culture + Mission - Kirk Brown

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335. How to Center Mental Health in Culture + Mission - Kirk Brown · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Becky Endicott: Neon One makes software solutions specifically built for nonprofits. You can finally have your donor management, fundraising software, program management, and nonprofit operations all in one place. Learn how Neon One can help your nonprofit create long lasting relationships by visiting neonone.com/weareforgood.
• 0:23
  Jonathan McCoy: Welcome back to Mental Health Week on the We Are For Good Podcast. We want you to feel cared for this week. So be sure to visit our full landing page with resources and more at weareforgood.com/mentalhealth.
• 0:31
  Jonathan McCoy: We're so glad you're here.
• 0:36
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm Jon.
• 0:37
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky.
• 0:38
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
• 0:41
  Becky Endicott: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:50
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:58
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community, we're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 1:09
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started. Becky, what's happening today?
• 1:14
  Becky Endicott: Welcome back, everybody. We are knee deep into mental health week. And I need to tee up the intro of our guest with a little story because as we were setting the lineup for mental health week, we had four incredible guests that we had already booked. We're looking for the fifth one. We are in the lobby of a hotel in Denver, we've just spent about four hours listening to the most incredible stories of changemakers who are making their stands as part of the Stand Together Foundation's Catalyst Program Pitch. And our hearts are so full. We're loving everybody, we're meeting all these incredible people. The evening ends, we go and we're debriefing down sort of in a restaurant area. And we notice off to the side, some friends that were also at the same event with us. And we just kind of walk over and introduce ourselves and we stumble upon Kirk Brown. And as we're talking to the incomparable Kirk Brown, we find out not only is he a licensed counselor, he has the most incredible story. He is the ED of one of the most amazing community based nonprofits in Broward County, Florida that is uplifting youth, either in poverty or in crisis situations or in welfare and the stories of what they've done to empower those kids and the community around them was a story that was worth telling. So I'm so delighted to introduce Kirk Brown to our community today. He is the CEO at Handy Inc. Handy is just an incredible organization. that's a constant and use lie that served more than 50,000, Broward County children and foster and relative non relative care that's associated with the child dependency system. And they do something that we believe in.
• 3:08
  Becky Endicott: They believe also the community is everything because youth form lasting bonds with caring and dedicated staff that are tied to each other, live in more healthy relationships that allow him to heal, grow, learn and transition to adulthood as empowered young, young adults with confidence and skills to become successful. And here you've got Kirk, who is this incredible management professional, over 20 years of experience with economically disadvantaged at risk families.
• 3:36
  Becky Endicott: And he is guiding the development of these programs.
• 3:39
  Becky Endicott: He's actively recruiting youth, community partners, donors, and policy personnel to come together and become involved in the mission of educating and empowerment of communities of need. And I think the thing I want to say because I found this quote about you, Kirk, and it just moved my heart and I think it'll be really tone setting as we're talking about mental health this week is you said,"Think of how many cures to illness, great inventions, and how much further we could be as a society. If we did not close or limit the entry point of societal access." We have someone coming into our home with an open hand and an open heart Kirk Brown, welcome to the We Are For Good Podcast. We're so glad you're here.
• 4:25
  Kirk Brown: Thank you for having me. I feel really blessed to I mean, just the name alone, We Are For Good. You know, I'm just feeling really blessed to be here to be in a company of you know, people who are transparent in a society to create hope.
• 4:42
  Becky Endicott: So Kirk, before we dive into learning about your incredible organization at Handy we want to know about you. We believe the lived experience informs so much about why we chase the things that we chase in our lives, whether it's professionally or personally. So take us back to little Kirk, tell us a out how you grew up, and how that brought you to today?
• 5:04
  Kirk Brown: Well, I'm, I like to say, I'm the end product of a lot of solid ground people, individuals that saw a young man that was born in extreme poverty, surrounded by, you know, extreme violence at every turn. And, you know, I watch, I watch people that were born with nothing, in really adverse poverty situation, survive and do things to survive and watch people from the sake of survival, you know, really make choices that lead them down the wrong path, a lot of criminal involvement. But I also watched individuals who made very little money, take $1 and still fed the homeless guy, right? I watch people who, there's something about individuals that are surviving on the brink of humanity, from a financial standpoint, that really bonds people together and bring them really closer together, I see it even today. I remember, you know, just as a young man growing up, I remember getting$20 one day, and when I found four of my other friends who I knew had nothing, and we just cooked and everyone ate, you know, that was literally the community that exists in that atmosphere. My background is, you know, born to a single mom, a lot of poverty, a lot of violence in our community, and a lot of solid ground people. My third grade teacher who told me I was smart, you know, the guy on my street homeless guy who called me son, for the first time, every fatherless child knows the first time he was called son. And he just did it like, son, you should do this.
• 6:56
  Kirk Brown: And I was like, whoa, I've never been called son before, you know, things like that people who invested words of kindness.
• 7:02
  Kirk Brown: Without even knowing my story, without knowing my history, without even knowing my family, people invested words of kindness, my little brother, who, you know, to this day, we dream together, we didn't accept the reality that we were sitting in as a reality that we needed to conform to. So we dream together. I remember the first day he told me he was going to be a doctor, we were literally walking home. And for this new school generation walking home at walking miles. And we walked by a hospital, and he saw a doctor and he was like, I am going to do that. And the first thought that went across my head was we haven't eaten in two days, and you want to be a doctor, this is great. And I just started encouraging him about being a doctor and today he's an emergency room doctor in North Carolina. And so we still dream together, we still, you know, uplift each other. He He's, he's my surrogate father.
• 7:59
  Kirk Brown: And I guess I'm his. So that's, that's part one in a nutshell.
• 8:06
  Jonathan McCoy: Thank you for taking us there. I mean, wow, I'm taken aback by just the power of the small things, you know, and how those small moments where someone's stepped out. It's the things we talk about, you know, you think we talk about big philanthropy on this podcast, if we're talking about major gifts, but it's never that that's the big major catalysts. And I think as I look at your life that you've shared with us, and Handy, this incredible organization. Now, I mean, you've touched more than 50,000 children. And I think, even that seems like such a big number. But it comes down to just like the one like, what do you do for the one and it's transformational for their life and their family? Where you unpack this organization for us?
• 8:47
  Jonathan McCoy: What is it? What is the impact look like? And what do y'all how do you show up and serve these kids?
• 8:54
  Kirk Brown: So you know, our mission is to create supportive communities where youth and families achieve self sufficiency, their version of self sufficiency, and to really unpack the organization, you have to talk about what the client looks like. And, you know, numerically the client walking in the door as a young person, whether of dependency involvement in Florida, we call it dependency, but there's that's more foster care involvement. Right? They have, they have experienced a level of abuse, neglect and abandonment.
• 9:27
  Kirk Brown: So we serve foster care, relative care, homelessness, human trafficking victims, and youth that just need some help.
• 9:35
  Kirk Brown: And that's the lens in which we carry every day. And so we don't see them as people who are needy. We might see them as people who are in need. And then we impart a level of service from the place of dignity. Human dignity is really important to us how we impart a service to the individual and to really achieve the secret ingredient of the how you have to hire people, while we feel, that you have to hire individuals that understand a lived experience, right? You know, the individual who understands what the wind feels like at 2:30 in the morning for a homeless person sleeping on the side of the street, will serve that homeless person with a certain level of vigor and compassion that fits, you know, the pain behind the purpose. And so we hire individuals that walk in with the lived experience, we believe it is a secret ingredient, because most people are going to show up with a degree. You know, you put your job descriptions online, and people check the boxes, and then they Google the top 50 interview questions, right? But the lived experience is going to answer the phone at 1:00 a.m. In the morning for the client, the lived experience, is going to sit in silence for the extra 30 minutes while the client goes from anger spectrum all the way to, I'm ready to listen, you have to get through the framework of the pain first in order to impart what the purpose should look like. And so we hire for lived experience. And that's why our practitioners are individuals that work with us.
• 11:19
  Kirk Brown: They work with us for their community, they don't work for us. They work with us for their community. And so they walk in the door with a vigor, a level of valiant hearts that is willing to do whatever it takes to change the trajectory of the community that they serve. And so since 1985, Handy has put together a litany of services that is there to fill the gap of humanity for children in need.
• 11:50
  Kirk Brown: And so in that gap, we provide you development services, emergency needs, services, workforce development, of course, mental health services, and housing. And so those five pillars teaches us to embrace and educate then empower the individual towards self sufficiency.
• 12:13
  Becky Endicott: That in itself has tremendous dignity. And this is something that struck Julie and I, as we were visiting with you, Kirk, like your level of humanity, and empathy is so high. And I just think that level of emotional intelligence is serving your people so well.
• 12:32
  Becky Endicott: And it's something that we harp about a lot in this community, we pour so much into continuing education for the hard stuff, and our missions. But the magic, the transformation, we believe is in the soft skills, knowing yourself, being human, being vulnerable and authentic. This is the way that people connect and feel seen and known whether that's a donor, whether that's the person you're serving in your programs, it could be a volunteer, it could be somebody who's just trying to get involved in their community. So I want you to talk us through just the mental health aspects of this. I mean, when you look back at the last two years, from your perspective, like set the scene about where you've been, what you've seen in the last two years in the pandemic, how it is affecting your people, how's it affecting all people?
• 13:27
  Kirk Brown: I think um in this one, I get a bunch of likes. So let me warn, you know, I think we have created categories to avoid the human. Okay, you know, if we if we would start with a basic category that everyone that we serve is a human being, we all have that in common, right? And so, over the past two years, I've seen us just build categorizations, of need. And so I give you an example, I had a conversation the other day, and the person said to me, well, are they really poor? Are they extremely poor? Or are they low to moderate poor? Are they you know, and I was sitting there going, do you really think the person who can't feed their kids is sitting here going, you know, I'm not extremely, extremely low, poor level, but on the industry and on the societal and it is comparing levels of pain to figure out which one is more in pain for us to solve, but to the person that's in pain, it matters, right? If you look at the trauma debate, where people are like, well, I don't think what you just described is trauma it's still trauma to that person. Right? It is still, it is still important to that person, they still, it is still important to that community. And so we sit back and we build eligibility criteria as as an industry. And so one of the eligibility criteria is that I find, you know, we challenge here a lot is, well, if the kid if the young person is living with a caregiver, and is not failing in school, it's very hard to find that child services. Right? And you're like, okay, well, I know some individuals who are having consistent nightmares, and is in the morning thinking of cutting themselves, but they have a 3.8 GPA. And they live with their mother. Right? So it happens to all of us. And so at the end of the day, we really have to sit back and think about, you know, the categorization and eligibility criteria that we drown, you know, people in need with, because I've met parents who are in dire needs and they're calling and all of the phone numbers and you're like, well, your kid is not as extreme yet. Do they have a charge?
• 16:07
  Kirk Brown: They've been in trouble with the law yet. And mom's like, that's what I'm trying to prevent. And the young person doesn't qualify. The other thing that we've really combated over the past two years is what I what I call macro harm. That turns into micro hate, and in communities and in homes, right. And so one of the hard populations for us to serve right now is the immigrant, the immigrant population. Because if you really think about it, from a macro perspective, just turn your television on this afternoon, right? From a macro perspective, if you're an immigrant watching the news today, would you accept any services into your household?
• 16:52
  Kirk Brown: Would you trust anyone to walk in to say, I'm going to help you? So there's another lens as a social worker, we have to think about, if you're an immigrant in a domestic violence situation, who do you call, who's going to come save you?
• 17:11
  Kirk Brown: Who's going to help? Because everything from a macro perspective that I'm hearing, while sitting here, in a domestic violence situation, is telling me, I don't like you.
• 17:25
  Kirk Brown: And so from a macro perspective, we have to think about what is happening at a macro level, and how many populations of need is being disenfranchised, just by rhetoric. And those people are going on to grow. And those people are becoming harder to reach. And then it rises to the top. And then you see a great percentage of individuals walk in the streets like we did, when we were sitting at a hotel, we see a great percentage of people homeless, we demonize teachers, we've spent an elegant two years, teachers went from being essential to now replaceable, if you follow the macro, the macro language around it, right. And so now, the teachers who are one of the lowest paid occupations in our country, are walking away from that industry. And so we have to be very cautious around demonizing educators, our social workers, and even law enforcement, because when we're literally the bandaids for the wounds of society. And so at the end of the day, if if you demonize the bad days, there's a lot of young people looking at careers that they thought were admirable, at one point, watching the macro hate going, I don't want that I don't want to be involved in that. And they're walking away from the profession. Even the ones in the profession are walking away from the profession. The third thing is there's been an uptick in need from the client. So I equate it to a basic example. I was talking to a friend who's a firefighter, and we were just talking about our different industries. And he was like, well, what you just described to me is, you know, we average one fire maybe a week, right? One or two fires a week, when I signed up it was one or two sounds like you have people signed up averaging maybe one or two fires a week. And as 20 fires a week, because people just went through a macro level of trauma. All of us did. So we just live through a life threatening situation with COVID. And we're all responding to it. And so the treatment specialist, so that is our therapists, our case managers and industry of social work. And so now an industry that was probably used to two fires a week and seeing 20 fires a week. The case managers coming in have a caseload of 15 kids, and our use of maybe three or four exploding per week, and as 12, the therapist is used to, you know, five deep level therapeutic situations a week.
• 20:12
  Kirk Brown: Now it's 10. And so that is kind of what we've seen over the past two years. And if we're not careful, we will lose some very high performing people in our industry, if we don't take a closer look at the industry and the need, the societal need that drives industry.
• 20:33
  Jonathan McCoy: I mean, this is, wow, I'm trying to just zoom out and apply this throughout my life. Because I see, the micro/macro thing that you describe is impacting basically, so many sectors across the board. But I want to go deep on staff because I feel like you're leading us there. And I think the piece about losing the humanity is so important, and those that are on the frontlines, and I'm talking frontlines, like Handy sees a double of the amount of trauma and cases and workload. It's not just cases, like we want to use the even those terms, but it's like, the weight and the pain that stacked you know, from a compassion fatigue standpoint.
• 21:14
  Jonathan McCoy: And from a burnout standpoint, what do you see? Like, what's the path out of this? Because the need is growing? How do you support staff in the midst of this? How do you know what needs to change or what needs to happen?
• 22:01
  Kirk Brown: I think first we have to first see that is a greater need. And so maybe we have to lessen the caseload for the staff. And also get the staff some aid. In addition to that, looking at the staff well being is priority number one, individuals are working under some very interesting situations with our clientele, because everyone's coming in hot. And so being very, as a manager, as a direct manager, being very aware of the human in the staff is necessary. Checking in with your staff member each day and saying, okay, so I see that you had an explosion on your caseload yesterday. How are you feeling today? Do you need some time off? Do we need to go to a four/one work week? Do we need to go to a three/two work week where you can do two days virtual? Because of course, there's that telehealth spectrum where we can meet with clients virtually also, do you need to two wellbeing days?
• 23:05
  Kirk Brown: Organizations, I think even on our end, we've looked at how can we modify individuals PTOs to really match them taking well being days, what can we do as a group? Do we need to do group sessions? Are people going to be open to group sessions?
• 23:22
  Kirk Brown: Spontaneous lunches go far away.
• 23:22
  Kirk Brown: And of course, I'm gonna bring it back because I worked on the front line also, salaries need to go up. Spending some really good time with your donors, your state funders, your county funders to help them understand that DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion has the word equity in the middle. Right? And so, can we make it equitable for social workers to continue to work in our community? I think one of the things I did in 2018-2019, was to ask just direct questions, can we make all of our services available to our staff? And now it is speak, sitting down with a donor and saying the biggest thing you can do for our organization is to provide me with some funding to avoid homelessness of staff.
• 24:20
  Kirk Brown: Because if you really think about it, as you look at salaries of teachers and social workers across this nation, you will see that they qualify for the same loan affordable housing that their clients do. And so at any given time, throughout the year, we average two to three homelessness situations of our staff, and for us to stand up for them and say, listen, we will help. And we've taken the dedicated effort as a board and as a leadership to say, we will help you prevent homelessness in your family. And that's what I mean by seeing the human and the team.
• 24:56
  Becky Endicott: I mean, you are saying this so gently. And I have to confess, I am just like mad as hell right now. I am I, I hear these stories in nonprofit of our people living on the margins living on the fringes.
• 25:14
  Becky Endicott: And yet they're showing up every single day. And they're pouring in to things that are well beyond the job description. And it's been normalized. Is that not strange that this has been normalized? And I want to thank you for taking a hard stance on this in a very gentle way. I mean, equity baked in the middle that, that impacts everything.
• 25:43
  Becky Endicott: It's not just equity in our programs. It's not just equity in our board and the way we serve people, it's how we treat each other, how we value each other. And this work is hard, what you are doing on the front lines of Handy is extremely hard, the burnout, the compassion fatigue must be so high. And I submit to all of you out there, these are stories that need to be told, if you need your utilities paid for and there is a powerful case for why your utilities need to be paid for by your board by your donors absorbed into your operations, that is a story that needs to be told. And we need to step into our bravery, and find our voice.
• 26:22
  Becky Endicott: And I think the voice component Kirk is so important. And I think that's the big retrospect I'm having right here. Words matter. When I think about the macro harm piece, how we show up at work matters, how you show up on social media matters, how you show up to connect or pile on somebody matters, and it will have a trickle effect. And I think you have succinctly pointed back to the trickle effect usually ends at the child, at the poverty level, at the marginalized community. And so really, I'm going to also be taking away from this conversation, our responsibility in lifting our voice for good and lifting it for community and lifting it for help, for acknowledging things that are wrong, speaking them. And that's what's going to have to change for the sector. And I have to have you tell the story, because I think it's so fascinating slash funny, slash whimsical and perfect for what your mission is. But you talked a lot about making the unique case to a donor. And I need you to tell our community about the time you asked a donor to sponsor a hamster funeral for one of your children.
• 27:40
  Kirk Brown: So the Handy hamster funeral is for me speaks elegantly to how micro we are in care. Right. I'm away. I'm traveling to some summit to you know, talk about our organization doing the CEO thing and I get a phone call. And it's like we're doing a hamster funeral and I was like, okay, alright. Let's talk about it.
• 28:13
  Kirk Brown: And so one of our young people had an emotional support animal was a hamster and the hamster they realized that the hamster was not going to make it. And so the therapist got the entire team together to put together hamster funeral. And so at Handy is everyone's in. That's it, everyone's in. And so we had our Director of Education designing the obituary, we had the case manager putting together the schedule for the funeral, someone was designing the headstone in our graphics department. And they were like, well, we need this much money for the repass, the celebration after the burial. And I'm listening to all of this. And all I'm thinking is the young lady on the other side of this must really, really feel supported. The case manager is like, wow, this is this is why you hire for lived experience.
• 29:29
  Kirk Brown: And so spoke to the donor and the donor said, Okay, great.
• 29:34
  Kirk Brown: Just make sure they put it in a box and not bury it because of the laws of Broward County.
• 29:38
  Kirk Brown: Because he knows like, yeah, great. And then I get a picture of the majority of our staff and a hamster funeral. We shut down business for the federal and then people had lunch and talked about loss and grief around a hamster funeral. There is nothing in my classes in college, for my master's in social work that talked about 32 people stopping to acknowledge the pain of one. And so to our therapy team, I just felt eternally grateful that day. The fact that we stopped, we spoke to a donor, we spoke to each other while we spoke into a life that now feels extremely supported through a grieving process. Mental health doesn't have to be sitting on a couch in someone's cold room with four white walls. It also takes a community to enhance an individual's mental health. I solely believe that we have to think about how important the life is the life that sits in front of us and what, what measures are you willing to take? If I told you a hamster funeral could save a life? Would you do it? Right? So why not?
• 31:05
  Kirk Brown: And so at the end of the day, you know, it's how we reach in to each other. And the way my team asks me was so funny, it was just like, I was just sitting there going, well, I guess we're doing a hamster funeral, right? I need pictures.
• 31:27
  Jonathan McCoy: Everyone's in.
• 31:29
  Kirk Brown: Everyone's in, including the CEO, including the donor, including two board members everyone's in. And that's, that's how we show up.
• 31:35
  Kirk Brown: And it's necessarily show to show up on that. Because that life needs to know that there's a mutual benefit to it. They're sharing their grief with us and we're taking their grief. And we're literally on our end, showing them that their grief matters. Because there's nothing like grieving in solitude, right. Only bad things happen from grieving in solitude. And so having a village degree with you and embrace you, I think is is more important than anything else. And our team exemplifies that every day.
• 32:09
  Becky Endicott: Hamster funeral was not in the budget. It wasn't in the strategic plan. It wasn't a part of you know, what we were going to prospect for this donor. And I mean, I say that in jest, but I'm also saying, we got to show up in the ways that our people need us to show up.
• 32:24
  Becky Endicott: And when I think about a young teenage girl living on the street, who finds a hamster, and it becomes the one thing that she can cling to, and you have encircled and understood that.
• 32:36
  Becky Endicott: And you even used it not as a way to support her, but as a way to support yourselves and each other. That is next level evolved leadership and mental health training. And I am just so grateful for the way that you and I and I love the way you tell that story. And it is funny, but it's also so feel good. And there's so many lessons to come from that. And it was humane. At the very basis, it was humane, thank you for showing up to be humane.
• 33:12
  Kirk Brown: Thank you so much.
• 33:12
  Kirk Brown: You know, I can't say this enough. The team, the Dr.
• 33:15
  Kirk Brown: Campbell's of the world, you know, is our I would say our clinical leader here. And she sees a human every day. Every single day, never miss a beat with humility. It may not be a part of our strategic plan, but it's a part of our core values.
• 33:36
  Kirk Brown: Right? And so human dignity, humility and integrity is a part of our core values. And everyone throughout the fabric of the organization must feel that.
• 33:49
  Kirk Brown: We're not perfect. We will admit that right now. We are a wonderful dysfunctional family.
• 33:54
  Kirk Brown: But there's the word fun in dysfunctional, but we we we we compete on human dignity and you know, utility and integrity of the client and those people that work here every day. Back to the mental health portions of what we're talking about. I find that kindness is not that difficult.
• 34:16
  Kirk Brown: I do have a pet peeve. However, my pet peeve is, every time I see a training on getting leaders in a room to teach them how to treat other people like human beings, I always ask myself the question, if you need a training hm, how many trainings do you really need to know you can't just walk by people every day? Like how difficult is it to say, You know what, I'm gonna circle on my calendar that I'm gonna take two of my team members to lunch a week. And I'm just going to ask them three simple questions. How are we doing? How are you on your five year plan? And if you are me, what would you do different so your job could be easier? I that is literally not from a training or executive coaching, it's just from being a human being, like literally and I've been invited to so many trainings that the basis of the training is look people in the eye when you say hello and treat them like a human being. I really don't get it. I still battle with that. That's a growth area for me. I need more empathy. I think that's a great word for individuals that need assistance seeing human beings.
• 35:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Kirk, I mean, please write a leadership book.
• 35:44
  Jonathan McCoy: I don't care if it's kindergarten principles, like, we're here for it all. And I mean, man, the threads of the story, I'll never forget the hamster funeral. And like what that means, you know, and I think I threw the 50,000 number at you earlier, that would still come back to the one and I'm like, what a beautiful expression of that, you know, what a beautiful expression of everybody's in. And we talk so much about culture on this podcast, it's like one of our favorite topics. Just because of the power of when you live your values, when you actually put into motion, your mission reflected within the walls for your staff, the way you show up the way you support, like that alignment. Yeah, it's not gonna be perfect, but it man, it feels so much better. And I just feel this oozing from this conversation of gratitude that y'all are, you know, fighting that good fight and figuring it out along the way. So I mean, I think there's got to be so much here for people to take, regardless of what kind of nonprofit or mission you're part of. But I want to give you a chance to just round out with some advice of just for nonprofit leaders in this moment, how can they really prioritize the well being of their staff, volunteers and support for their mission?
• 36:57
  Kirk Brown: So I, I'm very proud of being a social worker. I'm extremely proud of being a social worker. You know, you got to be careful when you get on planes, and you sit next to someone and they're like, What do you do? And you're like, I'm in social work, because get ready.
• 37:16
  Becky Endicott: You're gonna hear it all.
• 37:18
  Kirk Brown: Yeah. Usually start.
• 37:18
  Kirk Brown: So my cousin and I'm like, oh, this. But I would like to challenge, not really challenged. But yeah, challenge is the word. I'm 25 years in.
• 37:35
  Kirk Brown: I'm almost 50. And so I see social workers and therapists, I see us work 16 hour days. I see us at funerals. I see us at weddings. I see us at momentous occasions in the lives of our clients, you know, when they're going through significant emotional experiences we're there. But I don't think we do a good job telling the world what we do. I think some of the onus of onus of you know, this devaluing of our industry has to do with us. Right? I tell every social worker, one day I was driving around with one of my donors who is in construction, and he kept pointing, he was like, we built that building.
• 38:34
  Kirk Brown: And then we built that building.
• 38:34
  Kirk Brown: And then he came into our office and one of my young people who, you know, we met under a bridge homeless, walked by, and she was in college. And I said, well, we built that life. And we built that level. I just kept saying it to get relativity. And when he came, when he got back to the conference room, he was like, okay, I see exactly what you mean, because our industry is transferable. We walk in the darkness, interpret light to the people in darkness, and then interpret the darkness to the rest of society. That is powerful. And so I challenge the world of nonprofit and social work to make a very powerful claim to stand where we stand.
• 39:23
  Kirk Brown: If not for, right, if not for what would your communities be like without us? Not that we're going on strike, but we really need to start having these conversations around, if not for, what would your streets look like? What would your households look like? If not for the therapist? What would your what would your corporate community look like? Right? And so making that very powerful claim about the industry that we represent and being very protective of our industry is necessary, because the lifestyle that we serve, is immensely important that we need to reflect that importance in expressing the value of the industry, or it will continue to be devalued. Push back on the contract, when they say we will only pay your social workers minimum wage, push back on contracts, when they say I don't know if we can find enough money, but you're fighting for a million dollars just to paint that core. Enter of the street blue, right? For staff on those moments and express the value of what you present in these communities, the voice of the voiceless has to scream. The voice for the voiceless has to scream, we this whole, I know we love being humble, great. But the people that we represent is not allowed in the rooms that we find ourselves, we can be very clear and honest about that, right. And so if we're in the room, we have to scream, or we have to make a very loud noise.
• 41:10
  Kirk Brown: My one good thing secret to success, and a good habit to have for the leadership in this industry. You don't know everything. That is, you do not know everything I was told very early on in my career, that geniuses sit in the cubicles walk around and be transparent enough for your team to share with you how they think we could do a better job with the client and with the community. We don't know everything that is one of I will say that is what I asked my clinical director here all the time, this is what I'm thinking I start with, this is what I'm thinking. And then leave it open. Because I will tell you there are programs that we currently have now that were created by people in a cubicles, they were not created from some research driven information from a national level, it was literally a case manager walking into my office and saying, hey, what if we did this? And we did it, and it worked. And so that's my one good thing. Um, if anything you can remember about Handy is that no matter how dark it is outside, we're going to win.
• 42:34
  Becky Endicott: You are winning.
• 42:34
  Becky Endicott: And I have to say that I think, to your point, and we go back to it over and over. You started with one, when you start with one person, and you give them humanity, the ripple effect of that could I mean it will just be compounded person after person. And I also have to say what you're saying is not hyperbole. This saying that the person who's going to make the differences in the cubicle is exactly what we say about solving the biggest problems and crises of our missions. If we just go to the frontline of the community, to the person who's suffering inside, they will have the solution we just have to be brave enough to ask. And so Kirk, I just think that you are one of the wisest souls maybe who's ever graced this podcast, you are spitting all kinds of wisdom down here in truth that I want to see in this industry.
• 43:35
  Becky Endicott: But I think you're such a beautiful storyteller and orator, is there a story of philanthropy that has changed you doesn't have to be the biggest gift, but a story of someone that has really stayed with you over time.
• 43:50
  Kirk Brown: So I get a story almost every week, because of what we do. So I'm going to say this story without even mentioning any names. So this one hero, I'm walking into my building, going from our tech center back to my office to you know, write a grant. And I walk by a mother at the front door.
• 44:16
  Kirk Brown: And she's standing there looking through the glass at her son.
• 44:22
  Kirk Brown: And she has that look on her face that look of massive despair. And so, in like five seconds, I see that a corner of my eye and I see one of our practitioner of the left corner, my eye looks at me gives me the head nod like I got this, right.
• 44:40
  Kirk Brown: And then he walks over to her is like how can I help and she just melted. Like she just melted and she's sitting down and he's talking to her. I walked back I'm like, Okay, you got it, got back to my office, found out she was homeless, her son was homeless. He was in our after school program. She was just very happy he had something to eat. Walk them over to you know, one of our housing team members.
• 45:10
  Kirk Brown: And the next phone call I get from the housing team member like three days later, and she you know, I can hear it and I could see it. You know, she was just like, I got them the apartment. That little boy walked in and kissed the floor of the apartment. And so I was having one of those days where you get, you know, covered with numbers. But those of us who run organizations, you're covered in numbers, policies and procedures, and you didn't get a chance to walk away from the computer. And she's describing it to me. And the person was describing it to me, the practitioner, her child was battling the C word, right. Her child was battling a health crisis, as she's showing up right now. And she's calling me.
• 46:11
  Kirk Brown: And she's crying on the phone, saying, the little boy kissed the floor, and said, thank God.
• 46:22
  Kirk Brown: That's why we're here. Those are the people who are showing up.
• 46:28
  Kirk Brown: Those are the end results.
• 46:28
  Kirk Brown: That's why we're here. That's it. The nine year old, 10 year old is no longer sleeping in a car in a parking lot. And so anything that we have to do to make that happen, that screams humanity, there is no categorization to that life.
• 46:48
  Kirk Brown: That is a 10 year old kissing the floor of an apartment and for everyone that was homeless, who slept on the street, who has felt what the ground feels like to sleep on, understands a 10 year old kissing the floor of an apartment. And so I don't care what we have to do to make that happen over and over and over and over and over again. We're going to do it and tell the practitioner to take the next two to three days off. Because there are certain things you can't unsee right. And so of course, as we talked about, you know, we talk about stress and secondary trauma that also plays a role and give it telling her that okay, I'll see you in 48 hours gonna take you 48 is necessary.
• 47:54
  Becky Endicott: That was the perfect way to end that story is giving your staff space to work through that. I adore you Kirk Brown. You're good man.
• 48:06
  Kirk Brown: It's our team. It's our team.
• 48:09
  Jonathan McCoy: Well Kirk, tell us all the ways people can connect with you and with Handy I mean, what a full hearted conversation.
• 48:15
  Kirk Brown: So handy is www.handyinc.org. That's our website. You can see everything that we're doing from our programs, store events, to donation pages to stories, we're on Facebook, we're on Twitter.
• 48:33
  Kirk Brown: You know we're on everything on social media. If you search for Handy, South Florida on Facebook, you connect with us you can see what we do daily.
• 48:45
  Kirk Brown: And if you're in the Broward County area, you know, our address just look up Handy Inc.
• 48:49
  Kirk Brown: and it will give you 1770 North Andrews Avenue. If you're a person in need of services, you know how to reach us on the internet and on on our website and we take walk ins.
• 49:07
  Becky Endicott: Okay, one last thing. What is Handy's greatest need right now. I want you to pitch it to our audience?
• 49:14
  Kirk Brown: greatest need is financial. We are a nonprofit.
• 49:17
  Kirk Brown: And we're seeing two to three homeless families a week. Like I said, as a firefighter example before, our, the intensity of services for our clients have gone up. So our greatest need is financial. Donations are welcome. The other need that we have is corporate partnerships.
• 49:35
  Kirk Brown: Because we have a workforce development program where we pay young people $10 to $12 an hour for the first 200 hours to work for a cooperation so they can have work experience on their resume. We are at about an 87% retention rate there, where most of our young people go from subsidized to unsubsidized employment. And so corporate partnerships that are willing to give a young person who have gone through abuse, neglect and abandonment of first shot at employment is more than welcome.
• 50:08
  Becky Endicott: Kirk, thank you for inspiring us today. Do gooders please go check out Handy. Connect with Kirk on LinkedIn. He is such a powerful thought leader. And my gosh, my friend keep going. You are a treasure to your community and to this world. And we're just so blessed to know you, rootin for you in all things.
• 50:27
  Kirk Brown: Thank you.
• 50:28
  Jonathan McCoy: Such an honor.
• 50:28
  Jonathan McCoy: Thank you.
• 50:31
  Becky Endicott: Thanks for joining us for these powerful discussions about mental health if you'd like to dig deeper we're continuing the conversation in the we're for good community here we'll double click on some of the topics and support each other and community come join us it's free at weareforgoodcommunity.com