CEO's You Should Know: Ryan Taylor, Nancy K. Perry Childrens Shelter

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should Know. I'm Gary David, joined today by
Ryan Taylor, the CEO of theNancy K. Perry Children's Shelter. Ryan,
it's great to meet you finally,Buddy, Hey, great to be
here. I think pretty much everybodyis aware of the Nancy K. Perry
Women's Children's Shelter and Family Services.I guess actually, yeah, well we

(00:23):
hope they are aware. Yeah,heard of what it is, but maybe
they don't know everything about the servicesthat you're offering. And by the way,
this month CEOs you Should Know isbrought to us by the Lexington Chamber
of Commerce. So obviously this isan asset to the Lexington and broader community

(00:45):
with what it is you do.But we want to find out more about
what it is you do today.Yep. So I get the great honor
and privilege of being the executive directorof the Nancy K. Perry Children's Shelter
in Lexington, South Carolina. We'vebeen around for fifty years now. We
get the opportunity to serve kids infoster care and also provide outpatient therapy for

(01:07):
families at risk for losing their kidsor their kids entering foster care. We
provide therapeutic services and foster care servicesin the house. How long have you
been associated organization? I have beenwith the Nanscape Harry children Shelter for five
years now. And what brought youto this point? So my background.

(01:34):
If you would have told me whenI was nineteen that I was going to
be leading staff and empowering children,I would have called you crazy. But
I found my way through college,have an undergrad at uscach and in psychology,
have a master's in Professional counseling fromLiberty University, and then went back

(01:59):
and got my MBA from usc achand as well. Okay, so it's
been a progression to get you tothis point. This is, as I
say, nineteen years old. It'snot like you dreamed of, Okay,
this, well I'll be doing oneday. But life has a way of
leading you to that place. Itdoes. And the leading up to that
was I worked for the Department ofSouth the South Carolina Department of Mental Health

(02:20):
for several years, did private practicein home, was a director there,
and then I work clinical director forseveral years at a what we call a
PRTF, which is a full lockdownhospital mental health hospital for teens and adolescents.
So this is interesting because you know, most oftentimes on CEOs you should
know, we talked to folks whoown small businesses and such, and so

(02:44):
this is not a small business,but it's run like a small business.
Now. It very much is.You say, you were in the interesting
position of, you know, havingthe experience and the education of the background
to be you know, on thefront lines and doing what you do.
But at the same time you've alsogot to run it like it's a business
and be a business owner and aCEO. Correct, we have contracts all
of our kids. We have contractswith the South Carolina Department of Social Services,

(03:08):
so, like I said, allour kids are in foster care.
They cover about fifty percent of ourbudget. The rest of it comes from
the community, and you know,whether through grants, partnerships with Lectioning Medical
Center, Mount Horbe Church, otherchurches in the area, the Lectioning County.
We have a partnership with that coversthe remaining of our budget. And

(03:30):
then of course the community is thebiggest support for us. But just like
in a small business, you mayhave a customer today but not have them
tomorrow. These partnerships and these grants, They're not guaranteed to be forever,
right. Correct. Our service thatwe provide for the kids, our mission
is, our vision is that webelieve that every child can be successful for

(03:51):
the right environments created. And ourmission is that within the shelter we seek
to create a healthy family style environmentso these kids can heal and grow,
and in our outpatient services, weper we teach families to create that healthy
family style environment so that those kidscan live in a in a healthier environment.

(04:13):
So you've been in this position forfive years. I believe you kred
so twenty nineteen ish, Yeah,in eighteen nineteen. Yeah, okay,
I don't like doing math on theradio. I always mess it up.
But something happened during that period,Yes, that thing, And how did
that thing, that COVID thing affectAnd have you seen a lingering effect of

(04:34):
that? With the services that you'rethat you offer that you're you're seeing maybe
more children these circumstances, well,maybe fewer. Yeah, on a micro
level. Unfortunately, we couldn't closeour doors. We still had to operate,
We still had to run. Wewere there every day at work doing
what we needed to do, servingthese kids, providing in the same services

(04:57):
and level of service that we doon a macro level. Yeah, it
definitely has impacted. There was adrastic shift in the age range that we
saw. Unfortunately, the behaviors thatwe saw increased, and definitely during COVID,
the population decreased just because they weren'tbeing seen by doctors or teachers or

(05:20):
other churches or other community outreaches thatwouldn't necessarily know that there's an issue within
the home. So we definitely sawa drastic decline during COVID, But when
kids started to go back to schooldoctor's office, a drastic increase for sure.
Well, and I'm glad you broughtthat up because we talked so often

(05:43):
about the effect that had on ourkids and being isolated from the usuals,
you know, especially at a youngerage, not being able to go to
a classroom, not to be ableto see their friends, right, not
to be able to do the thingsthey normally do socially. And so I
guess for a while there, Imean, the services you offering might have
been their only interaction with the outsideworld. Yes, and they let us

(06:06):
know that a lot in good waysand bad ways. But no it uh,
yeah, we were their only interaction. And props to South Carolina Department
of Social Services for doing the workthey did during that time to making sure
they connected with every kid they possiblycould. I mean, that's an unprecedented

(06:26):
moment, and for us, itwas unprecedented. And how do we keep
these kids active, entertained, andkeep their education going, keep their therapy
going when all the doors are closed. Let me switch gears here. We're
speaking to Ryan Taylor's executive director ofthe Nancy K. Perry Children's Shelter,
the Children's Services Children Family Services again. Put your you know, for lack

(06:50):
of a better word, the CEOhat back on right now. Sure you
gotta you're the orchestra conductor to keepall this going. How many folks do
you have in the organization and anygiven times, about twelve to fifteen to
fifteen, okay, and a lotof small businesses, it may be a
handful or so, you know,for a small business, for example,

(07:11):
twelve to fifteen is a pretty goodsized staff when it comes to leading these
folks. And you're probably a littledifferent here because I'm going to guess that
for the most part, these arefolks who have a real passion for what
they do. But that's not alwaysthe case in business. So let's just
say that's not the case. Ifit's not, how do you go about

(07:32):
instilling that passion and leading folks?Where do you gain your insights from?
Are the folks you follow? Youever had a mentor when it comes to
being a leader? Sure, westill I mean, you're right, it
is a small business. We stillhave to maintain a work culture. I
still have to hire, fire,ad structure, you know, correct,

(07:55):
build, grow all those things,both the business and staff. And of
course we're always working with different personalities. When we talk about families, it's
always interesting because everybody has a differentdefinition of family and everybody has a different
perspective of family. So it reallyis a challenge. But the joy of

(08:16):
what I do to help other peoplegrow, not only the kids to grow,
but also the staff to grow aswell. Our philosophy. We have
a great work culture. My philosophyas a leader is definitely a servant leader,
and that's what I stress to ourstaff to help serve these kids,

(08:37):
help them grow. I always say, you're not going to lead people to
change, but you can help themgrow, and I think that's the way
we help them grow. Is byshowing them a different example, holding them
accountable to what needs to be heldaccountable to. One of the other things
we have in our office is nobody'sabove approach, myself included. If something's

(08:58):
not working, we try to finda way to make it work with the
whole goal of serving these kids andproviding the best environment possible. Your job
is to change the lives of thesekids to enhance it. But let me
ask you this, Ryan, howmuch of these kids changed your life?
Oh very much. So we havethe great joy and I sit back off

(09:20):
and relish in these moments. Oftentell my staff that we are not harvesters
in this world. We are seedplanners. And every once in a while
we get the great opportunity to lookback and see a crop grow up,
and I always say, hang yourhat on that crop and go back to
seed planning. But we do havesome kids that grow up, and we've

(09:43):
had one several go on to college. One that is doing most recent is
doing fabulous. She's got her ownplace, got a car, got a
job, and she's creating her saferonmentso that she can have a healthy life
and a healthy family in the future. Are there volunteer opportunities aside from the

(10:05):
folks that are on staff, Imean the folks who just want to get
involved to help out there very muchis we have a mentor program where we
partner community folks with kids that weknow that are going to graduate, so
that when they graduate, they're nottotally left on their own. That we
kind of partner volunteers and families withthem to help launch them through their college

(10:26):
years or after high school years.You know, just somebody to wish them
happy birthday, What are you doingfor Thanksgiving? What are you doing for
Christmas? How's life? Yes,we know it's hard, you'll make it
through it. Somebody that's there toencourage them through those young adult years,
which can be very challenging and aswe know, can lead us astray if

(10:46):
we're not if we don't have thatsafety net. So we have that volunteer
opportunity. And then of course wehave volunteer opportunities at the shelter as well,
to anything from labor to just hangingout with the kids, spending quality
time and so forth. Someone wantsto get involved on that basis where they
need to do, uh, justreach out to our website at www dot

(11:07):
NKP four kids dot org or giveus a call at eight oh three three
five nine eight five nine five.Ryan Taylor, the executive director of the
Nancy K. Perry Children's Shelter,thanks for joining us. Absolute pleasure and
thanks for what you guys do.Thank you, thanks so much. This
is iHeartRadio. CEOs you should know