Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 142: Cathe Dykstra, President & CEO, Family Scholar House

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Episode 142: Cathe Dykstra, President & CEO, Family Scholar House · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Today's change maker is Kathy Dike Stretch. He is the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: president and CEO of Family Scholar House, where she leads
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: one of the country's most comprehensive models linking affordable housing, education,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: and long term economic mobility.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Under Kathy's leadership, Family Scholar.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: House has grown to serve over one hundred and six
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: thousand households across forty eight states.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Kathy, Welcome to the show.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Katie.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: I'm delighted to be here.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to have you here, and you fit
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: a very niche audience of what you're serving in these households.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: And I want to get into what Family scholar Houses do,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: but first I like to open these conversations on the
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: podcast really getting to know the person as well, not
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: just the program and the results and the performance. I
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: find so often the backstory of who you are and
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: how you got here to be so so valuable for context.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So would you care to share a few of moments
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: of your backstory and maybe what brought you to the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: position where you are so a.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Long time ago. I taught my daughter not to think
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: of me as what I did, like not you are
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: a doctor, but you you are you know you.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Do that work.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: And I did that because I knew my career would
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: change a lot based on my interests through through time,
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: and I never wanted her to feel like she'd lost
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: who I was. And so I've had one of those
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: really nice crooked paths that that get you from an
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: education at wake Forest. It focused on economics all the
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: way to working in a domestic violence shelter promoting home
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: ownership and economic mobility for survivors, to being able to
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: take on a very small nonprofit and then guide it
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: to self sufficiency have it be sustainable and scalable across
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: the country, and that is really something that I enjoy.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I think of myself more as a builder. I've often
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: told my board that when we get to the point
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: where what we need is somebody to monitor the thermostat,
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: I'll help them find that person. But it isn't me.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: And so all of that to say, pretty much throughout
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: my career, I've said yes and then try to figure
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: it out, as opposed to saying no and then wish
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: and I'd said yes, and that has ended up very
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: well for me.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: That's a real skill set that people can pay in
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: near something and not just maintain it.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Is there is something specific.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: That you could reveal what it's like to have a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: comfort operating in that space. That's that's not a given
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: that people are comfortable being a pioneer. Yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: I often tell our board leaders that you have to
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: become comfortable being uncomfortable, and there's a and that's not
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: good for everybody. There are people that are just like, well,
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: this is just way too much for me. But if
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: you know that you're uncomfortable, and likely everybody else in
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: the situation that would be asked that question or asked
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: to do something would also be uncomfortable, then there's a
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: solidarity in that. And then you say, okay, well, if
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: everybody is equally uncomfortable about this, what could I do
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: that would advance it? Even if that's just an inch?
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: How do I get this an inch closer to the
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: goal line? Everybody's sell a quarterback, everybody's offensively. You need
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: both and so who can get the challenges out of
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: the way so that the person calling the play or
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: running the play can knscore?
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I love that analogy.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: We're talking about your leadership, which naturally segues into Family
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: scholar House share. For our listeners who are not familiar
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: with what you do and where you are.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Why don't you start us there.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: So the whole focus of Family Scholarhouse is to help
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: families attain full self sufficiency, independence from government subsidy programs,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: by getting the education that they need for the career
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: of their choice and then entering that. But we recognize
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: that it isn't just about serving an adult. It's about
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: serving that adult and their whole family. Because I've, as
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: one of the mothers said to me very early on,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: don't fool yourself, miss Kathy. If you're not helping me
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: with my children, you're not breaking the cycle of anything.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Here's wisdom in that it's a comprehensive program that looks
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: at how do we get our kids on the right
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: path for a strong education, and how do we take
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: particularly single parents and vulnerable young adults who come out
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: of foster care and help them enter the post secondary space.
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  Speaker 4: And when I say college, I'm talking about everything from
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: apprenticeships and credentialing programs all the way through anything that
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: is post secondary. How we make it okay for them
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  Speaker 4: to choose a path and maybe change their mind, but
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: choose a path of their own, and then empower them
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: along the way. And that's resulted in just here in Louisville.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Even though we serve forty eight states, Louisville is where
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: most of our residential programming is right now, nine hundred
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: and forty nine college degrees earned by folks that never
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: thought they would even go to college. I think about
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: one young woman who came to us hoping she would
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: get a medtech degree, and she's now an obgyn in
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: our own community. And it all it was getting her
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: in for a credention program and then say look, you're
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: so good at that, and then a two year and
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: then a four year, and then medical school and then
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: a specialized program after that in residency, and all that
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: was a step at a time, not one big goal
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: at the end, but what is the next thing? Helping
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: people see that can often be the difference between whether
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: they feel competent to do it, and then knowing that
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: they have your support to help them makes everything a
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: whole lot easier.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: You're delivering a program that for many industries, there's this
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: tension that where they say, hey, we're just about property management.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: We just build the apartments, We just make sure that
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: trash is picked up and the law and care is
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: taken care of. And yet reality, there's so much that's
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: going on inside the unit that impacts the property, that
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: impacts the community, and not a lot of people want
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: to take the risk to dabble in that social space
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: where you're operating and so but yet here you're telling
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: us that you're you guys have taken the risk and
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: you are developing programs with results. So speak to how
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: leadership has had to develop this program, like did you guys,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: how did you guys get started?
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Well, let me say a couple of things about what
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: you just said first, and one of them is going
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: to be controversial, so i'll I'll just preface that. The
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: first thing is that some of those property owners that
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: you just talked about, those property management companies and owners
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: actually contract with us to provide the residence services for
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: the people that they care for because they know the
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: outcomes are so much better when they have rack around services.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Now here is what I believe, and I'm speaking on
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: behalf of me and our organization. We have an affordable
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: housing crisis across the country. But it isn't just about
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: building more affordable housing. It's about using the affordable housing
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: that we have more Wisely, able housing should be a
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: pathway out of poverty, not a lifetime in it. It
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: should be a way for people to have economic mobility,
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: not be kept in that housing for forever because they
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: don't have any other opportunities. If you see it that way,
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: then the services become a natural extension of the philosophy
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: that affordable housing is an important step for building not
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: just an individual and a family and a community, but
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: building up our nation, providing employees for employers that want
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: to hire quality candidates. And we've really lived in that
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: space and we are a national best practice. We are
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: award winning across the nation. And we didn't think in
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: the beginning. We didn't think anything we were doing was
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: just all that special. We thought it was something everybody
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: should be focused on. How do you help the people
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: that live with you, that you care for, have a
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: better life. And so we have to hire a unique
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: blend of person to hit that leadership level because it
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: isn't their traditional model. We spend a lot of time
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: educating partners about how we're different and about the requirements
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: of our program, and that has really been well embraced.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: You mentioned economic mobility, and you mentioned a crucial piece
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: here about how people can have a pathway out of poverty,
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  Speaker 2: and that is a link that sometimes gets to be,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: like you mentioned, very controversial. But I've been thinking, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I may put some writing around this, because everybody assumes
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: that you can bootstrap your way out of poverty. Why
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: can't you just do better? Why can't you just go
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: into a medical school? Why can't you why can't you
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: just go out and get a degree and get a
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: better job, et cetera, et cetera. And so let's let's
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: break down some of that myth of why you can't
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: just bootstrap your way out.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: So seventy three percent of our residential participants are the
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: first in their families to go to college forty percent
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: forty percent are the first in their families to graduate
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: from high school. You imagine that that's your reality. Nobody's
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: ever talked to you about college. You nobody in your
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: family ever went to college. People in your family have
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: a lot of have bought into a lot of myths
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: about college. It's completely on afford it's not necessary. You
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: should just find a job and stick with it. And
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: the job that you are in doesn't provide enough income
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: for basic living expenses on childcare. So I was asked
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: one time, gosh, why don't your folks just work? And
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: I said, back to this leader, I used one of
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: his own analogies back on him. He was always talking
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: about digging holes. I don't know why it was his thing,
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: And I said, well, if you woke up in the
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: morning and you found yourself in a hole, and you
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: dug all day to make little footholds on the wall
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: to get out, and at the end of the day
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  Speaker 4: the hole was digger that was deeper. How many days
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: would you do that? And he's a wide stop. That's stupid.
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  Speaker 4: I said, that's the situation my participants are in. No
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: matter what they do, they can't make enough to survive.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: And so if they have to pay for childcare and
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: transportation and that affects their rents, they're now the higher
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: because as they're making money, then their whole is deeper
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: every day. The only way that changes is if the
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: landscape changes. Is if you say, you know these programs
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: and this is the way we see it. These programs
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: are for a time out are for a space life
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: where you can get all of the resources together so
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: that you can do things that will ultimately lead you
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: to self sufficiency. And that is getting an education, whether
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: that's a credentialing program or all the way through a
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: four year degree or even you know, an advanced degree.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: Sixty two percent of our folks go into healthcare. I
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: don't think there's anybody that disagrees about the need for
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: healthcare workers across the nation. It's a huge shortage. We
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: need those folks, but how do we expect them to
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: be able to do it all if they can't even
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: afford to go to go get the credentialing they need
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: to do it. So this is, you know, really looking
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: at the systemic problems and addressing those at the root cost.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the example of a person. You mentioned the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: example of a person who was going to start out
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: in a medtech role and then went on to be
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: an OBG y N and a doctor. And we think
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: a lot in metrics of those types of aspirations and degrees.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: But I'm sure you have more examples. Would you like
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to share another example or two about how somebody moved
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: out of that.
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Path party I have so many stories and they're so amazing.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: And the thing is, I'll tell a story and somebody
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: will say that's so extraordinary, and I'm like, no, she's
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: she is exemplary, yes, but she is representative of all
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: of the participants that we have, because everybody story is special.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: I think about one young woman who very early when
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: I got to our organization, they were tiny. They were
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: serving four people. I'd never worked anywhere where you had
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: four staff members and four people that you were serving.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: It's a one to one ratio. Nobody can sustain that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: So a lot of things needed to change. And just
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: as I was thinking about whether or not this was
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: really a good fit for me, a young woman walked in.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: She was eighteen years old and she had a four
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: year old son. That means she had a baby at fourteen,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: and she looked at me and Katie, I could see
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: it in her eyes. She actually believed I could help her.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: And I wasn't sure I could help her, but she
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: believed I could. Good student, had graduated from high school,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: very very shy, had been in foster care, and the
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: father of her baby was twenty years older than she was,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: and there was a relationship between the father of her
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: baby and her father, and so there was a lot
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: of stuff going on that couldn't possibly be blamed on her.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Her son was born and they decided we'll raise him
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: like her brother and have them both in foster care
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: until she turned eighteen and decided to age out of
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: the system. And all of a sudden, she's a mom.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: She's a mom. She's a high school graduate. She's terribly
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: shy and afraid, she doesn't know what to do, and
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: she's no place to live. And I think about her
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: a lot, because when she came to us, I was
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: then immediately responsible for her and her son, and I
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: understood that I was, and I wasn't afraid to be
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: I was afraid to fail them. I wasn't afraid to
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: be responsible. I was afraid to fail them, which I
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: worked really hard with my staff to make sure we
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: were doing everything that we could. She is now first,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: she got a bachelor's in psychology. She is now a
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: nurse and a homeowner, and he is a graduate. And
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: all of that came about because after not having a
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: true family for most of her life, she found a
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: family in US that would offer and this is so important,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: unconditional love and accountability in equal measure. In measure, we
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: held her accountable, but at the same time, we supported
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: her in achieving the goals that she had set and
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: the expectations that we had. For instance, all of our
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: folks have to be full time in their post secondary program.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: I don't have a donor that wants to help somebody
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: take one class a year. They need to be actually
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: focused on that, and so that can be hard, but
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: that means we provide the academic coaches, success coaches, family advocates, mentors, tutors,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: all of the support people to make sure that there
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: are no gaps in service and that people are comfortable
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: asking for help. And I think we can both admit
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: that asking for help can really hard. And if you
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: can get them to the point where they are okay
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: with asking you for help, then you know what the
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: need is and you can help them figure out how
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: to meet it.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: What an amazing example of really moving people forward, bettering
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the community.
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: And it's just such a success story. And I know
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: you have that multiplied times so many other numbers you mentioned, Donor.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: I'm sure this program is not happening without partnerships. Can
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: you explain a few of those dynamics.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: So we've had all kinds of partnerships through the years,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: and my approach to that is like a Venn diagram.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: I think about the people that are the most natural partners,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: like we do the same sort of work. So all
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: of the shelter system, the churches, colleges obviously benefit when
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: they're students that normally would stop out and drop out
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: aren't stopping out and dropping out. There they're getting all
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: the way to the finish line. You know, those sort
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: of partners. But then I also think about the most
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: unusual partners. Who is it that you would partner with
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: that just feels like what is the overlap? And it
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: might be as thin as a hair. For instance, we
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: work with employers, We've worked with other property owners which
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: you would think would be our competitors, and they're not.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: We work with medicaid companies, so we're helping people come
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: off of Medicaid even as we're helping other people go
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: on to Medicaid, creating a continuum and a path. And
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: so when you look at it that way, there really
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: isn't anybody we can't or don't partner with on some
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: level in some area for some need.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: There is an economic cost of trauma, and a lot
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: of people try to put numbers to that how much
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: it costs society, But we also don't want to We
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: want to do it because we should do it, not because.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: It costs society.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Quite frankly, we should do it because it's the right
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: thing to do. But can you speak some of that
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: economic cost of trauma and what does that mean? And
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: how are you then explaining that to some of your
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: partners that you just mentioned.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: So we struggled so much to explain it. We wrote
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: a white paper and put it on our website so
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: that we could connect people to that information because some
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: people want, you know, a thimbles full and some people
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: want to understand where all the research came from. There
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: is an economic cost. That cost is borne by all
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: of us across society, and it's generational. So it's kind
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: of an interesting thing to think about that PTSD can
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: be inherited. You don't have to have experienced it to
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: have experienced the PTSD of a parent, for instance, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: in living in their world with their PTSD, it can
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: affect a child. So we did a couple of things.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: One is we did the research. We started talking to folks.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: We got great, absolutely great response from our Kentucky legislators
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: saying Okay, now I get it, Like now I get
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: it because before that, you know, good heart want to
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: help people, but want to help people to a certain point.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: And now they understand, Okay. The reason you do opioid
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: debatement work, the reason that you focus on mental health,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the reason that you do all these things, addressing all
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: of the trauma and helping people develop coping skills is
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: because it's the right thing to do and there's a
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: benefit to society.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: From doing it.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: And that led in part to the development of our database.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: We built our own database. I tell you what. We
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: looked everywhere for something that would meet our needs, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: we had spreadsheets of where our spreadsheet were and you
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: get so big that the spreadsheets are just not cutting it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: So we built our own database with the help of
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: the Humana Foundation. They funded the initial build and it
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: tracks two hundred and fifty fields of information for every
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: household we serve, including their trauma, particularly for those that
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: have experienced what we call complex trauma, so poly victimization.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: They've had a lot of different traumas, and in trauma
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: one plus one is greater than two. The more you've
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: been victimized, the more you see the world as a victim,
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: and we want to switch that to seeing the world
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: as a survivor. So we've done that work and that
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: database now has one hundred and twenty two thousand households
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: in it. Of that, eighty six five hundred and thirty one,
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: our Kentucky households and our Kentucky legislators come to us
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: for data. Now they're not getting names, but they are
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: getting an indication of what works and what is most
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: cost effective even in helping families overcome this. And that
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: has just been such rewarding work because we don't just
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: use it with external partners. When you have a young
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: woman or a young man that they're saying, you know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: I just have so far to go and it just
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: feels like I can't do it, and you can help
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: them look back on how far they've come, they can
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: find a renewed strength in pursuing their goals. And we
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: use the Arizona Self Sufficiency Matrix, so it's a very
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: objective scoring method. But one of the really cool things
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: with an external partner that came about is one of
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: my dear friends Senator Julie Rocky Adams, she's a state
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: senator here, developed a legislation around strangulation, and she had
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: a lot of peers saying, just don't talk about that.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: You know, it's I mean, relation is an awful thing.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: But what we were able to do, and in part
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: with the work with trauma, is helping people understand that
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: strangulation isn't just a crime, it's a traumatic brain injury.
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: Strangulation you may learn differently, which you may qualify for
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: support from your college or university that you did not
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: realize you qualified for or that was available. Brain is different.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: That releases a victim from the feeling that they're responsible
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: for why they can't learn the same way they used to.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: And you know, to be able to do that together
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: with community leaders and bring forth legislation that matters and
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: help people feel good about what they've overcome and the
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: path there are, that's just the best work ever. We
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: combine housing with that, I mean, I don't socided that
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: because if you don't have housing, doing all this other
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: stuff is super hard, right, you just do it.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: We have so much to learn in this space as
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: it relates to people, how we learn, how we move forward,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: how we improve lives of ourselves.
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: And you know this this tension of are we providing
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: housing with just what we see on the outside or
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: are we doing more based.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Upon what's going in the unit.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I think that's so crucial about having you here to
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: talk about how we can develop strategies, how we can
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: develop programs to really move people forward at the same
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: time while that stable housing moment right. And you know,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I think that often when people hear our story, they think, oh,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I need to start all these programs.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that you may. I have community partners
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: already in your community that can help you with some
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: of these things. Partner with them. We work in other states,
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: you know what, I will work for other property owners
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: look for people who could provide some of this. I'm
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: not asking property managers to all of a sudden become
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: social workers. Both leverage social workers that are part of
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: your ecosphere to support your residence in ways that benefit everybody.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: So two titles that I saw that you were called
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: a chief Possibility Officer and female disruptor. You've actually been
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: titled those. What do those titles mean to you?
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: Well, first, the chief Possibility Officer actually came about from
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: my board quite a few years ago, and it comes
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: from saying yes and then figuring it out, like because
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: I would always say, what are the possibility Let's look
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: at the possibilities. And I knew they really got what
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: I did when they named me that and then described
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: somebody else in the community as the chief impossibility officer
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: because he said no to everything, And I thought, okay,
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: well they get what I do as a disruptor. I
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: think what I like about that is that it says
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: I'm not content. That is quote, I'm not content to say, well,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: we help those young women, we help those families, that's
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: good enough. It's never good enough. We have to be
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: doing more. And that isn't just about us doing it.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: We have an affiliate program that helps other nonprofits replicate
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: our work because I don't want to do it in Seattle, Washington.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: I want folks in Seattle, Washington to care about their
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: community enough to want to replicate the program. So when
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: you look at it, you know, how do we how
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: do we well the way things are done now in
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: meaningful ways that create a new norm, a new norm
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: for how things are done. And then we're going to
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: disrupt that one too.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I really really appreciate this because I've talked openly about
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: some of my own housing instability, being homeless and living
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: in a tent, living in subsidized housing, living in crappy housing.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: And there's pieces.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Of this though that don't have to be overcomplicated, but
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: it does take a person like you to be willing
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: to be the disruptor and to explore the possibilities and
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: navigate the risk. I'm really hoping that somebody is listening
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: to our conversation and it just hits a certain part
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: that they are willing to then take a leap and
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: be a self appointed disruptor in this space.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: So I really appreciate you sharing.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Before we close out, Kathy, is there anything else that
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: you'd like to add to this conversation, something maybe we missed,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: or something you want to circle back to.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: One thing I do want to point out is we
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: created our own parent company in twenty twenty two, really
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: the very end of twenty twenty two, because there are
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: so many other programs that are tangential to Family Scholarhouse,
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: so Family is the parent company, and I would encourage
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: people to get on family brands dot Family or Familyscholarhouse
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: dot org to learn more about what we do to
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: see if there is a way for us to help
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: them leverage resources in their own community to do similar work.
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: We let other nonprofits use our database compartmentalize their information
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: off that they then have the kind of data that
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: helps them write really good grants to get support that
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: they might not be eligible for if they didn't have
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: the data. I love a story, but I want it
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: backed up by day data, but I want it backed
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: up by a story. So the combination of those things.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: We want to help other nonprofits not just help people, Yes,
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: so help other nonprofits help the people in their communities.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I can even envision you helping developers who are developing
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: affordable housing and who want to put together a package
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: talk about holistic housing as well.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, you've.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Got nonprofits, you've got developers, you have housing authorities.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of people in the space that can
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: learn from what you guys have accomplished.
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: You know, I think there's a real lesson in here
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: for HUT as well, because if you look at how
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: our use of vouchers lead to a family never needing
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: a voucher again, that that is something that seems to
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: be missing on a larger scale, how to use a
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: voucher so that it never isn't needed by bat family.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Again, it'd be great to see the self sufficiency piece
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: that's already existing in the program, but to really really
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: be funded at such a level that decision makers could
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: come out and utilize platforms to say, all right, let's go,
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: we want you know, whatever percentage of participation. You know,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: we want fifty percent participation. We want three year.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: Goals, five year goals.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: But it's done in a balanced approach, not an arbitrary approach.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: It's done with the data. It's done understanding that people
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: need to have space to achieve some of those metrics because.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: We all make mistakes. Making a mistake shouldn't end the opportunity.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: It should be a way for you to reset and go.
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: You know, I keep pushing for a HUD demonstration project
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: to show across the country with us in our non
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: profit affiliates, the difference that is possible look at housing
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: and support services together.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I like the fact that it can be not forced
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: self sufficiency or not forced bootstrappy, but it can be
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: collaborative responsiveness.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: And that's what you and your team are doing.
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to share
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: and I love your enthusiasm for our work.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it has been a pleasure. Once again we
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: have Kathy Diikstra, the president and CEO of the Family Scholarhouse,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: with us on the change Makers Podcast.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Kathy, thank you for your.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Time and God speak you and your team as you
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: guys keep doing what you're doing.
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Kate. It's better pleasure.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Change Makers with Katie Gore. To
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: That's quad El dot com. This has been a production
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: of Forbes Books radioh