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- If you had to describe what the shelter does in one sentence, what would it be?
We provide a safety net for at-risk kids
- Why do you do what you do? What motivates you?
I believe that I was meant to do this. Everything in my life has prepared me to do this. And I know these kids. I know these families. I understand them. And I believe in this work. There are kids who are in desperate need of our help.
- What's your biggest goal with the shelter? If you could have your dream come true, what would it be?
I want to build a healthy, vibrant, effective organization. And that means strong governance and management that's focused on measurable results. But it's not going to be effective without the appropriate funding and staff and cutting edge programming in place.
- What are your major issues?
We live an area with a very high-cost of living, so while we're very expensive, we're also vulnerable as a target for constant cuts in funding.
Also, staffing is a huge issue. In order to live in the Florida Keys, you have to be willing to live on an island, in isolation. You have to be willing to buy your underwear at K-Mart instead of the local mall, and you have to want to eat fish sandwiches every day for the rest of your life. You have to be willing to do a really hard job, and not get enough pay to allow you to buy into that island living dream.
- So how do you solve these problems?
What if we come up with a means for making the organization critical to the state of Florida? What if we plan for staff turnover? If we become an educational-focused organization, partnered with universities across the country, we'll attract interns and varying levels of social workers and psychologists. The Florida Keys Children's Shelter can become a learning environment for them, and the provision of services to the kids can benefit from that. So, we'll have cutting-edge, new programmatic approaches being piloted and we'll move away from thinking that our employees need to move here permanently.
- If you got a million dollar donation, what would you do with it?
I would put it in an endowment and start creating the ability to weather some of the funding storm.
Now, if I got a second million dollars? I'd want to start looking at some of the program enhancements that we just don't have like a full-time art therapist and more bachelors-level staff.
- What's the biggest misconception about the shelter?
There are a couple major misconceptions. One is that we have delinquents in the shelter. Actually, Florida statute precludes us from serving delinquents as a population in the shelter. Another is that the majority of our kids come from Miami (less than 3% do). There is also the perception that we have the authority to remove their children from their home, but we don't have that at all. And as a result of that assumption, parents who would otherwise voluntarily seek help don't, because they're afraid we'll take their kids. It's a confusion about who in the system does what.
- Why should people give their money to the shelter?
Well, because we're not just good, we're damn good! Ha ha. I think most people don't understand that our government funding is at the bare-minimum, and we're expected to find the rest of the money we need by ourselves. We don't just want-we need the help of our local community to protect, safeguard and begin the healing process for these kids. Nobody else is going to do it.
- What brings you the greatest amount of pleasure at the Florida Keys Children's Shelter?
Oh, gosh. I'm a person who sets short term goals. I'm looking 6 months ahead. Every time I accomplish one of those goals, I say to myself, "Oh, OK, I can do this". Knowing I can make a change, even if it's one small change at a time, is really rewarding.
I really like the whole organizational development process. When I came here in 1995, the organization was about to go under. They were on the verge of losing all their contracts, they hadn't had an executive director or a CEO for 2 years, and it was really in dire straits. So when the board of directors interviewed me, I thanked them kindly, and said I would give it some thought. And for the next couple of weeks, I kept saying to my husband, "Gosh that's really important work and I hope they find somebody who can really turn it around and it's really important for the community. Kids need to have access to this kind of support and I really hope they can find somebody who can help. After two weeks of this, my husband said, "Honey, the universe is trying to tell you something. If you don't want to do it, you have to let it go". So that was that. I started from the ground up, and in 2004 we became nationally accredited.
- What gives you the greatest amount of grief?
Not being able to provide the kind of support system for kids that I know that they need. Then there's my wonderful staff. Their small salaries depend on us being able to raise enough money. They work extraordinarily hard and I want to be able to give them stability.
- How important is the staff?
The staff, care-for, supervise, council, feed, listen…the things that kids need as they grow up. The staff is the product. So the staff is everything.
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