Changemaker Kim Young, Chief Executive Officer, The Children’s Cabinet

Kim Young's journey from social work intern to CEO of The Children's Cabinet reveals how innovative public-private partnerships can transform communities. With over 30 years in human services, Kim leads an organization that serves 15,000+ Nevada families annually through programs addressing critical needs from birth to age 26.

The Children's Cabinet was founded on a revolutionary premise: what if public and private systems joined forces to identify and fill gaps in family services? This founding vision still guides their work today, with high-level public officials maintaining permanent board seats to ensure responsive, effective programming. From childcare subsidies and parenting classes to on-site high school education and workforce development, their 40+ programs evolved organically by listening to what families actually need.

Welcome to the Agency for Change podcast.

Connect with Kim and The Children’s Cabinet at: 

· Website – https://www.childrenscabinet.org/

· Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/childrenscabinet

· Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thechildrenscabinet/ 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Kim Young
• 4:11 Children's Cabinet's Mission & Programs
• 8:05 Housing Affordability & Childcare Challenges
• 15:26 Kim's Journey to CEO
• 21:12 Asking What Families Need
• 27:52 The Oddie Project & Future Plans
• 32:36 Supporting Mental Health & Final Thoughts

Transcript

Connect with Kim and The Children’s Cabinet at: 

·       Website – https://www.childrenscabinet.org/

·       Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/childrenscabinet

·       Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thechildrenscabinet/

Kim Young: 0:01

Come together, support families, and create brighter futures.

Announcer: 0:09

Welcome to Agency for Change, a podcast from KidGlov that brings you the stories of changemakers who are actively working to improve our communities. In every episode, we'll meet with people who are making a lasting impact in the places we call home.

Lyn Wineman: 0:23

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Agency for Change podcast. This is Lyn Wineman, president and Chief Strategist at KidGlov. Today we are talking with Kim Young. She is the Chief Executive Officer for The Children's Cabinet. This is a Nevada-based nonprofit that keeps kids safe and families together through more than 40 different programs that serve over 15,000 families every year. That's a lot of services. With more than 30 years of experience in human services herself, Kim has dedicated her career to supporting at-risk youth, strengthening families and building communities where every child has the opportunity to thrive. I am excited to have her on the podcast and looking forward to hearing her take on the challenges families face today and the ways that The Children's Cabinet is making a difference. Kim, welcome to the podcast.

Kim Young: 1:39

Thank you so much, Lyn. It's nice to meet you. Thanks for having me.

Lyn Wineman: 1:43

Absolutely. I am really looking forward to hearing more about The Children's Cabinet, and I'd love to just start there If you would just tell us more about this great organization that you lead.

Kim Young: 1:58

Well, thank you. So The Children's Cabinet is a nonprofit organization. We started in 1985 in Washoe County, Nevada, which includes Reno Sparks area, and really based on the idea that the public system and the private system had the ability to come together and if they were to come together and look at gaps and create programs to help children and families, it could be more effective and more efficient. And so that is our foundation. It's really based on public-private partners and the public side still is representative as Children's Cabinet board members to this day. It's a huge opportunity for us to talk about what they're seeing when they're receiving youth into a detention center, or the sheriff sees them, or family court judge, human services so all of those spectrums are represented on our board and really, again, we talk about gaps. Our mission from the beginning was to keep children safe and families together. Still our mission today, and our more than 40 programs that we have are all surrounding and support that mission.

Lyn Wineman: 3:19

I love hearing you say and talk about the public-private partnership and I really love it when a nonprofit you know looks at what is going on in the community in the area that they serve and says this is where we can come in and help. And you know, one thing I read about Children's Cabinet is that you have 40 different programs serving 15,000 families. That's pretty expansive. Like, can you give us an idea of some of the programs that you have? I mean, if you go through all 40, that will make this the world's longest podcast. But just give us some high level of the different things that you do.

Kim Young: 4:11

Yeah, so as an organization, we really serve the birth to 26 age group and so that that hones us in a little bit more. And so for young children, we offer childcare subsidy to support them, their families, so that their family can family member, can go to work while the child is in a safe setting for child care. So that's one of our larger programs. We also offer no-cost parenting classes. We have an on-site high school. We do workforce development and training programs for young adults, and so I think the interesting thing about our programs is that back in the day when we started in the late 80s, we started with a truancy intervention program, and so that was working with families to understand why kids weren't going to school and at that point in time learned that communication was a big issue in the home, and so one of the programs that we started right off the bat was parent education classes, and then that kind of led into free family counseling and that's something that we still do today. That led into case management programming. And so that's something we still do today.

And so when I think about our organization and I think back of the historical part and I think about where we are today, our programs really stem as we continue to see community need. And so we had a tutoring program for a period of time that was attached to our chronic absenteeism and then had some opportunities to expand into the early education space and just knowing that that investment in those zero to five years for all of us is really important. And so to have had the opportunity in the mid-90s to engage in early education programming was huge for The Children's Cabinet. And then we've grown programs around what we were seeing when we were working with parents and providers, childcare providers that had young children, and so that when I think about our programming and people always say, oh my gosh, you're so huge, how do you serve all of these? And it's that kind of that ripple effect of well, we have an onsite high school and a lot of our kids that are graduating from high school aren't going to go on to college.

But they needed workforce development. So we responded by creating some workforce development training programs, and so that's we've responded to the needs that we see in our community. And sometimes we keep a program forever, and sometimes it's just it meets the need for a certain amount of time and then it either goes on to another organization area or it might’ve met community need and it’s not something we need to continue. So we stay pretty fluid and flexible.

Lyn Wineman: 7:10

It all feels very organic too. You started in one particular area and then you saw a need and you expanded and another need and another need. I mean I love that you're looking at birth to 26. I remember my kids are grown now but I remember when they were younger, reading articles about how your brain doesn't even fully develop until those mid-20s, right, but yet certain programs or systems kind of say you're 18, 19, 20. We look at you as an adult now. So I love that you've expanded the program to really even fit into those young adult years. So, Kim, this may seem like a really obvious question, but I'd love to get your take on it. Why is the work that you're doing at Children's Cabinet so vital right now to the well-being of children and families in your communities?

Kim Young: 8:05

We're absolutely barrier-free, and so I think all of our programs are no cost. They're easily accessible. We have several different locations, but our locations are on bus lines, so it's easy for people to get to us, and I think we've been around for a long time and so we have a following of people that have received services from us for a variety of different programs, but they also know that we're here to help.

And I think that right now people need help and they're not exactly sure where to go sometimes. And so from my perspective, for our agency, it's important that we meet people where they're at and it's important that we're responsive when they ask for help. And we might not be the answer for everybody we don't. We do a lot of programs, but we don't do every program, obviously and so. But we can be informed about everything that's happening in our, the communities where we serve, and so just really having that culture that that our organization has, that we're here to be client centered and people first and really embrace those things, and I think that is really critical right now. It's a safe place for people to say, hey, I need a little help with X, y and Z, and we can say that's not something we do, but let's call together, let's call this other organization and get some help for you, or that is a good fit for us and here's what we can do.

Lyn Wineman: 9:49

Kim, I imagine, with the breadth of services you have, that you see a lot and I'm really curious is there one or a few kind of little known challenges that you see families facing right now?

Kim Young: 10:02

Yeah, I think I don't know if it's little known, but I'll say one of the biggest, biggest things that we're seeing right now is rent is expensive.

And families are struggling. They're struggling to make those ends meet and the resources for rental assistance are, they're few and far between. So I think getting access to more of those emergency kinds of needs where we can support families. We see so many of our families are, you know that one paycheck away from being homeless, and so how do we keep people out of homelessness? Because that's really a tough road and it's traumatic, if you have children and it's a long, long path out once you enter that system. And so we talk a lot with our team about how do we keep people out of homelessness. What can we do to look at budgets in different ways, and we have we happen to have an on-site market pantry where we can give people a bag of food for a week, and that's really helpful and get them connected to other resources in the community. I think the rental assistance piece as I talk to our team members that are frontline staff, that's a hard one. That's a hard one to resolve right now.

Lyn Wineman: 11:21

I mean really safe, stable housing is kind of a cornerstone to mental health, physical health, the ability to you know, for kids to be able to be in school and receive education, to even have the mindset to go to school and be ready to learn. So that's a big one. You don't maybe think of that as an obvious one, but I completely see what you're saying, Kim. I keep hearing too about the whole early childhood and daycare crunch that's happening right now too, and how daycare as a cost for a family keeps rising in proportion to their overall income and expenses. But yet it's also very difficult for daycare providers to bring enough in to remain stable as well, and I imagine you see that one as well. 

Kim Young: 12:22

We sure do. We're doing a lot of work on the early childhood system. We talk a lot with our government officials as well. And what can we do? Because there are a lot of moving parts when you start to talk about that early childhood system and you've got the wage that the child care provider is making, and how do we get them, we've we ask them to care for our most precious little ones.

We want them to be certified, we want them to do all of these really high level things and feel confident as a parent that we're dropping them off safe. So all of those things factor in. And then we say, okay, it's $12 an hour. That's so broken to me. But then the business owner how do you pay a higher wage? Because we can't balance that on parents either. The childcare cost is already so much. So there are definitely a lot of challenges to that system and the affordability is a factor and just finding childcare.

Lyn Wineman: 13:33

I mean people are getting on the list before their babies are born. The lists change. I've heard of many people from all areas of the country who have said I was on the list, I thought I was ready and then at the last minute, I lost my spot and I was scrambling.

Kim Young: 13:52

Yeah or a center closes or a provider they can't afford to be in business any longer. I mean definitely, definitely a lot of scenarios there, and I think you know Nevada is considered a child care desert, like a lot of other communities, but we also don't have a robust investment from our state into early education, and so there's, there are some levers that can probably be pulled if we again work together. It’s a huge issue, it's a billion dollar issue if not more.

Kim Young: 14:30

And it's beyond what private fundraising can do. But we can. From the Children's Cabinet perspective we can be that voice of families and childcare providers because we work so closely with them and we hear the stories. That's kind of our approach with how we can help be part of the systemic change that really needs to be happening.

Lyn Wineman: 14:51

Yeah, Kim, I can tell from hearing you speak on all of these issues that your communities, kids, families are lucky to have you and Children's Cabinet advocating for them, and that makes me curious about your personal journey and I always like to know you know, how do people get into the places they are today? Can you share more about your personal journey to becoming the CEO of The Children's Cabinet?

Kim Young: 15:24

For sure, this is one of my favorite stories to tell.

Lyn Wineman: 15:29

Oh great. Most people will just be listening. They won't see your video here, but I see you smiling ear to ear as you're about to tell this story, so I can't wait to hear it.

Kim Young: 15:42

Well, I was a social work intern at the University of Nevada, Reno, and that was in the late 80s and the children's cabinet had been around for just a couple of years at that point and I was placed at the children's cabinet for my student internship.

Lyn Wineman: 16:00

Oh, wow. So, you really made a whole career here. That's amazing.

Kim Young: 16:06

And so, and there were about five people here, there was our executive director and then three or four other people on staff and there were two of us that were interns from the university, and we really got to be just so creative and we got to know we knew all the board members. I mean, we, we were really on that foundational side of this organization, and it was exciting. And the truancy intervention program that I mentioned earlier was just kicking off and so that became our program as interns and so we got to really dig in and help develop it and work with the partners on what made sense and how to talk to parents. And here we are, 19 years old, having these conversations with parents about why their 16-year-old wasn't going to school.

Lyn Wineman: 17:02

You're probably like I skipped class today to come to this internship.

Kim Young: 17:07

So we were filled with wisdom, and so we did that, and then the interestingly, one of the things that bubbled up as an issue for kids that weren't going to school is that they didn't. They couldn't read well in their English class, and they didn't want to be called on, so they'd go to 711 instead, or something like that.

Lyn Wineman: 17:27

Wow, yeah, I can imagine, though, the pressure of that. Nobody wants to be called out and embarrassed, but yet you've got to be in class to learn.

Kim Young: 17:40

Yeah. So it gave me the opportunity to develop a volunteer tutoring program that could go into the schools and work with kids and recruit community members to be volunteers and train them and write a grant to get it funded. And so I had this amazing experience early in my career and then went on. I have not been at the Children's Cabinet this entire time. I left in the mid-90s and my background was in social work, but I knew I was interested in the administrative route and not the direct service route really. So I became the executive director of another organization here in town called Child Assault Prevention and then got married and had kids and left the community. And then got married and had kids and left the community.

But when I hit that point in my life, I had kids but still wanted to be connected to nonprofits. That was really important to me. And so I had the grant writing experience and started working just as a contract grant writer for a number of nonprofits in Southern California and then Southern Nevada. And then we decided we had three young children and needed to come home to be close to grandparents. 

Lyn Wineman: 19:00

As a grandparent now myself, I think it's always good to be close to the grandparents.

Kim Young: 19:07

Yeah. So came back home and my first call was to The Children's Cabinet to say what's going on and what's this organization doing now, and it had grown so much. I mean we were at our statewide and there was just a tremendous amount of growth that happened and a lot of exciting programs, and so I started contract grant writing for The Cabinet. And then my kids were a little bit older and I was ready to really rejoin the workforce and the director of operations position was open and so I just jumped in. 

Lyn Wineman: 19:46

I mean I love that you have experience with literally every aspect of the organization, starting as an intern going away. I think too, I think grant writers just have this amazing skill of seeing the impact of an organization and pulling it into really meaningful soundbites that will resonate with a funding audience, and I actually think that's a really important skill set for a CEO to have too as you're out representing the organization. I actually even feel it today as you and I are talking, you know the way that you present the organization and share the impact. I think is really, really artful. So, as a matter of fact, I'd love to hear, because you've had this great rich experience, are there any stories that you can remember about your time with Children's Cabinet that really captured the heart of the mission?

Kim Young: 20:44

Yeah. So our mission is to keep children safe and families together, and I'm going to go back to my intern days. We had a family and they had three children but one of them was brought in for not going to school. During the interview process, I was talking to him and said so how come you weren't in school today. What's going on? He was young, he was an elementary school child and he said it wasn't my day to wear the shoes.

Lyn Wineman: 21:24

There's goosebumps on my arms. Wow, a simple pair of shoes.

Kim Young: 21:35

There are three kids, they had one pair that the children shared and, depending on the day, was who would go to school, and so, and then you know, you say this is, this is something we can solve. We can solve this today. So having that ability as again when you think about nonprofits, we can be nimble, we can. We can run down to Target and buy shoes if we need to. A donor would not think twice about supporting something like that.

And so those kinds of things I think like that story will stick with me forever and we know we changed we changed their life that day too by the fact that that little guy was picked up, that he was brought to The Cabinet, he was honest about why he wasn't at school. We were able to really help them and then continue services to get the family to a place where they could thrive and be sustainable.

Lyn Wineman: 22:35

Yeah, wow, that's a great story and it's a great reminder that I think we don't know what's going on below the surface. Everyone has a story, and sometimes it's something that can be solved simply. Sometimes it's more complex. Kim, I'm really curious from your perspective, what is one thing that you really wish people understood about supporting at-risk youth and families?

Kim Young: 23:05

Well, I think that I think we can't be afraid to ask people what they need, what would help them, what would help you get to a place of where you feel confident, you can go to school, your family can be in a place where they have what they need. I think it's. We can't lose the human touch, we can't lose that piece of conversation and asking people questions and letting them tell us and engage. And so when I think about the cabinet, I think about our case managers and how they have that opportunity to ask the question, and we've talked a lot about like some of the questions we ask people are really, they're hard. It's very personal. You're just meeting them and you're asking them a lot of stuff.

Lyn Wineman: 23:52

And it's hard to admit that. It's hard for any of us to admit that we need help. I believe it totally is right.

Kim Young: 24:03

So, building relationships with people in a conversational way, face-to-face, not by text. Maybe that is how you communicate afterwards, but in the beginning you've got to have that communication with each other to build a relationship and ask people what they need and ask our at-risk youth. We can't lose our youth voice, right, and we have to ask our kids what they need and ask our at-risk youth, our kids. We can't lose our youth voice.

And we have to ask our kids what they need. We're doing some really exciting work. We have our fourth Youth Mental Health Summit is in a few weeks.

Lyn Wineman: 24:40

And I love that. You know what, if anything good came out of the pandemic, it's that I feel like, since the pandemic, people have really opened up to talking about mental health and accepting that it is an issue for many individuals and many families right now.

Kim Young: 24:57

Yeah, exactly, and last year we tried it and this year we're really building on it. We're bringing in the youth voice. So for every adult that we have speak, we have a youth panel that responds to that. And I just think it's so important for us to engage the youth, because we can't do to them, we can't do for them. We need to ask them.

Lyn Wineman: 25:21

Yeah, oh, that's beautiful. I love that is such a creative idea to have the youth panel that responds and interjects. It sounds like it's going to be a really exciting event, Kim, and I can't wait to hear about the outcome of it. Another question I've just been wondering about. KidGlov is a firm that does a lot of nonprofit branding. I'm interested in your name The Children's Cabinet. How did that come about and what does it really represent?

Kim Young: 25:51

Our founder is Michael Dermody, local businessman, and when he started, his intention early on was to create a better community, to create a healthier community, a place where children felt safe and families were staying together. And so when he started his conversations about what can I do? What can I do, and he met with local judges and he met with local social services and juvenile services officials and as they were talking, he realized that some of the barriers were because the public side, it takes a long time to make change and on the private side, we can be a little more nimble and pilot programs and do things a little more quickly. And so he got together with these high-level officials and said what do you think? Should we form an organization? I'll be the founder, will you all be on my board? And so they're that highest level of public official, they're the cabinet branch, if you will.

So that's The Children's Cabinet name. And so and super proud that to this day those highest level of Washoe County officials have permanent board seats on our board.

Lyn Wineman: 27:09

That is great. That really really helps that public-private partnership as well, doesn't it? Right there on the front lines and you're able to ask and partner with them? I appreciate you telling that story because that all, as you tell that story, I really you can see how the organization was really just set up to grow the way that you have, and I always love seeing a founder's vision come to reality in a way that impacts people positively as well. So, Kim, I'm really curious. You've got all this great stuff going on. What's on the horizon for The Children's Cabinet?

Kim Young: 27:52

Well, we are continuing to grow, which is exciting. We are truly a statewide organization and that's wonderful and allowed us to really grow. And the next really exciting project we partnered with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, and The Children's Cabinet and the Food Bank purchased a parcel in a high need neighborhood in Sparks and in that parcel we're coming together to create services. It was formerly a grocery store that's been vacant for quite a few years, so we formed a separate entity. It's called the Oddie Project and the Oddie Project will have 100 slots of child care. It will have workforce development, a production kitchen, culinary training, an on-site market, case managers, job developers and just general supportive services.

Lyn Wineman: 28:52

That's amazing. Yes, congratulations, that is amazing. And tell me again it's called the, the Oddie project. Okay, and there's got to be a story.

Kim Young: 29:07

It's on Oddie Boulevard 

Lyn Wineman: 29:11

Oh all right, all right, well, that's great. So it will be very easy to find the Oddie Project. Well, congratulations. It sounds very innovative and also just like a great central place for the community to come and get the kind of help and support that they need. Kim, what is one piece of advice you would give someone who's out there looking to support children and families in their own community?

Kim Young: 29:39

Don't be afraid, you know, jump in call organizations that you're familiar with, or even that you're not familiar with and ask around. I think that we can all use extra hands all the time and so, no matter what community you're in, find your passion. If your passion is working with youth or tutoring, or maybe it's packaging food bags, I mean just I think there's a little bit of internal digging that people need to do to figure out what fills their cup the most and what population, and then ask around. I don't think it takes too many conversations to figure out the organizations that might be a good fit for you, but lending a hand is I think I speak for any of my partner friends that I chat with. We always can use extra help, and it might not be immediately, and so don't get discouraged. Sometimes it takes a little bit to find your right fit and do the kinds of service that you want, but being part of the service system is really important and you just your impact is critical. 

Lyn Wineman: 31:15

Following up on that, for our listeners who maybe want to reach out to you, learn more about the organization, support your work, what is the best way for them to find out more about The Children's Cabinet?

Kim Young: 31:16

I think our website is probably the best place, which is childrenscabinet.org. We define most of our programs on there and there's a lot of contact information on there. My information is on there as well. I'm always happy to talk to people. I think that the work that our organization does is exciting and ever-changing and fun and challenging and all of that and so love to engage in that conversation.

Lyn Wineman: 31:47

That's great and for everybody who's listening I know some of you are probably driving while listening We'll have those links on our KidGlov website with the show notes for this episode as well. All right, Kim, I'm going to change gears a little bit. I'm going to ask you my favorite question. Our listeners know I'm inspired by motivational quotes. I would love a Kim Young original quote for the podcast.

Kim Young: 32:15

Okay, Come together, support families and create brighter futures.

Lyn Wineman: 32:23

Oh, I love it. Come together, support families and create brighter futures. That's beautiful, and you know what I think it's the perfect summary of what you have shared with us today. Thank you for that. Kim, as we wrap up our time together today, I'd love to end by asking you what is the most important thing you would like our listeners to remember about the work that you're doing.

Kim Young: 32:53

Well, I would say that the work is really important right now. The work is timely. Families need support more than ever. I've been involved with The Children's Cabinet for a very long time, but, just as a member of a community that has seen a lot of change, I think it's recognizing that life is filled with a lot of challenges right now and wages have not met the cost of living, and our kids really need us more than ever.

We are more openly talking about mental health, but we need parents to really engage with their kids on that and ask their kids how they're doing and being brave enough to have those conversations, and so there's all kinds of training programs in every community about how to talk to your kids about their mental health, and I think that's critical. I think that's what saves lives, and so, if you're a parent, find that resource in your community. I think the work I think for us it's interesting because we are birth to 26. And so I can pick any age population and think of something important, but overall, it's that connection to family. Parents stay connected to your kids, ask them the questions, and that's what's going to allow us to grow healthier communities.

Lyn Wineman: 34:27

Kim. What a great note to end on, really a call to action for everyone to take that next step. I appreciate that. Kim, I fully believe the world needs more people like you, more organizations like The Children's Cabinet doing the good work, and I appreciate you taking time out of that busy schedule of yours to talk with us today.

Kim Young: 34:50

This was wonderful, thank you. Thank you for the great conversation too.

Lyn Wineman: 34:54

It was a fun conversation. Thanks a lot, Kim.

Announcer: 34:59

We hope you enjoyed today's Agency for Change podcast. To hear all our interviews with those who are making a positive change in our communities or to nominate a changemaker you'd love to hear from, Visit kidglov.com at K-I-D-G-L-O-V.com to get in touch, as always. If you like what you've heard today, be sure to rate, review, subscribe and share. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.