September 23, 2025 • 47 mins
Ryan Downey, Executive Director of East Atlanta Kids Club, whose journey from latchkey kid to community leader is rooted in resilience, purpose, and a belief in opportunity for all. Growing up in the south suburbs of Atlanta, Ryan often relied on the kindness of neighbors, friends, and coaches—an early lesson in the power of community support. Today, he channels that same spirit into building programs that give young people access to mentorship, sports, and educational opportunities they might otherwise miss.
Ryan shares how his path—from teaching poetry in schools and correctional facilities, to a decade of service with Year Up, to now leading one of Atlanta’s most impactful youth development organizations—has always been guided by one core conviction: every young person is an asset, not a deficit.
With nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, workforce development, and youth programming, Ryan is a first-generation college graduate, husband, father, board member, Australian rules football player, and above all, a tireless advocate for equity and community building.
Tune in to hear how Ryan and the East Atlanta Kids Club are breaking cycles of inequity, nurturing talents, and creating pathways to brighter futures.
Website: https://eastatlantakids.org/get-involved/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.downey.54390
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rdowney404/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandowney1/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ellington Brown (00:17):
Welcome to Speak Up International with Rita
Burke and Elton Brown.
Rita Burke (00:22):
Today we are in National Laboratory.
We speak of international.
We'll be having our usualconversation with Ryan Downey
and, because of his childhoodexperiences, our guest today
says that he learned a lot aboutself-direction.
(00:43):
That he learned a lot aboutself-direction.
Currently, ryan leads a strongyouth development program in
Atlanta.
However, at one point in hislife he taught poetry and
writing in the public, schools,correctional facilities,
shelters and restorative justiceprograms.
(01:05):
According to Ryan, all he wantsis for people to have access to
opportunities that wouldnurture their talents.
Let me introduce you to RyanDonnelly and you'll hear the
remainder of his story.
Welcome to Speak UpInternational, ryan.
Ryan Downey (01:28):
Thank you, Rita, and thank you Elton.
It's a pleasure to be here withyou today, from an abnormally
rainy morning in Atlanta.
Ellington Brown (01:34):
In other words, it's raining cats and dogs.
Ryan Downey (01:38):
Certainly, certainly.
At least cats Dogs might comelater if we hear the thunder
Cats.
Ellington Brown (01:43):
Dogs might come later if we hear the thunder.
Oh God, you have such aninteresting background, I must
admit, ryan, so I'm going to tryto start here at the beginning.
What inspired you to pursue acareer in youth development and
non-profit leadership?
Ryan Downey (02:03):
Youth development is a space that I've been
working in for the last fiveyears I'd say prior to that I
was more in workforcedevelopment, higher education
though ultimately they'reinextricably linked, because
when we think about workforcedevelopment, we're talking about
young adults oftentimes atleast that's what I did and
connecting the dots between theexperiences that our youth, our
(02:23):
kids, our teens have and theexperiences and access to
opportunity that young adultshave is like a pretty obvious
connection to me.
Ultimately, I do what I do nowrunning a no-cost after-school
summer camp, counseling, fooddistribution program here in
Atlanta, because it's the thingthat I needed and I think that's
probably a pretty common answerfor folks that work in the
(02:44):
nonprofit space that I neededand I think that's probably a
pretty common answer for folksthat work in the non-profit
space.
We seek to fill a need andfulfill a need or a service that
that would have been valuableto us or folks in our orbit and
that, in return, fulfills us andprovides us with a sense of a
value to our community.
Rita Burke (02:58):
Yeah, you are meeting a need and I believe
that sometimes, when we serveothers, it fulfills something
inside of us.
Ryan, tell us the story behindyour becoming a self-directed
(03:19):
individual.
Sure.
Ryan Downey (03:23):
Yeah, so when we think about learning, and
particularly when we think aboutself-directed learning or some
folks might talk about beingautodidactic, right?
Or there's differentterminology you use Oftentimes
we ascribe it to adult learners.
So we think adults are moreself-directed because they enter
into any experience with acertain set of lived experiences
(03:44):
and knowledge and expertise,and so they don't all enter as a
blank slate, right, that'sseeking for an expert to fill
them up with knowledge or withhow they might do the thing
they're attempting to learn.
That's a transmission method.
Right, that's the traditionalclassroom, with someone at a
chalkboard or a projector ortransparency and kids sitting in
a row listening and learning.
(04:04):
But I would argue that's notonly the domain of adult
learners and that certainly manychildren are self-directed
learners in their own ways, andwe can see that in sports.
So for me, when I was young, wecouldn't afford really expensive
sports leagues and so I wasn'tlearning from a coach and an
(04:26):
academy.
Right, when I played soccer inmy earliest years, I was in a
breezeway in the apartments thatI lived in with my best friend,
amish Patel, using the stairsand the walls, the goal, and
developing our own skills andour own sense of touch for the
ball and passion and interestand goals, and that extended to
everything.
That extended to writing.
I wasn't looking for writingexercises because that's the
thing we were doing for 10minutes in class.
(04:47):
I was writing silly littlemystery stories about vegetables
that committed silly crimes andthen reading them aloud to my
classrooms.
That second part is critical.
So the teacher provided thatspace right and adults provided
some of those spaces for me tolearn and experiment and fail
and set goals.
And that's critical forself-direction is that folks who
(05:08):
have experienced servicefacilitators and not always as
experts, and I think that'simportant for young people and
adults alike.
Ellington Brown (05:16):
I would definitely agree with that.
I don't have any reason not toat this point.
Talk to us a little bit about alatchkey kid.
Ryan Downey (05:29):
Sure, it's not a term that we hear as often
anymore for myriad reasons.
So I think, generationally, alot of folks, either whether
they be Gen X or eldermillennials like myself, will
have had the experience ofcoming home to a house where
working parents were at work andwhere oftentimes I wore a key
on a necklace.
Because I lost my key so often,my mom eventually made me start
(05:52):
wearing down necklace versusputting it on the doorframe or
under a rug or something obvious.
But that feeds intoself-direction, right Like I
came home, I would often preparemy own dinner.
I would either do my homeworkor, more often, probably not do
my prescribed homework and focuson something I was passionate
about Wander around in the woodsif I had lost my key and just
(06:14):
build things and make wreathsout of vines or build a fort.
So it was really.
Those two concepts areinterrelated and it's obviously
not what we want for our kidshere.
Rita Burke (06:38):
That's why I provide an after-school program,
because it's decidedly less safeto wander around a city or even
the suburbs nowadays than itprobably was in the 90s, which
is unfortunate, I think, forkids.
That I find intriguing.
You said that the term latchkeykids is not being used much
anymore.
Talk to us about why you thinkthat is the case, please.
Ryan Downey (06:52):
I think culturally we probably as adults, at least
institutionally, have found itless acceptable to leave kids to
their own devices duringunstructured hours, so outside
of school time or during thesummer during breaks.
There was a story in the newshere recently of a mother here
in Georgia who let her kid likeride his bike into town in a
rural area and the police showedup and arrested her.
(07:15):
The things that we define asneglect or as doing harm to
children nowadays have changed,so we don't leave kids to their
own devices and there is againsome real value to that, because
terrible things do happen toyoung people who are wandering
around without someone lookingout for them.
I live in Atlanta.
Atlanta is a hub fortrafficking, right Like.
(07:35):
We can't ignore that.
There's real risk out on thestreets for folks that wander
around, for kids in particular.
So I just don't.
I don't think it's part of thecommon vernacular because it
just doesn't happen as often orwe don't talk about it for fear
of being judged or penalized.
Ellington Brown (07:49):
What does your organization do and what does
your clientele look like?
Ryan Downey (07:57):
Yeah.
So we provide, by design, nocost.
We could say free, but freefeels a little bit, feels a
little bit more loaded than nocost.
No cost after school, summercamp, individual and group
therapy.
So counseling programming,weekly food security support
that serves families and seniorsand multi-generational
households.
And then community engagementprogramming because we run a
(08:19):
city of Atlanta rec centerthrough an operating agreement
lease, so my staff are managingthis asset for the whole
community in the middle of arobust and highly active public
park.
So that's what we do and forwhom do we do it?
We've been here since 1998.
And the young folks whom weserve and their families are
traditionally black, indigenouspeople of color.
(08:40):
They would often come from lowto moderate income households.
So here in the zip code we'rein, like the median household
income is, I want to say,somewhere in the 80 to 90
thousand dollar range, right,and typically our families are
in the 20 to 40 thousand dollarrange, so well below that mark,
and often have multiplegenerations of family members
(09:02):
living in the house and aretrying to hang on to space in a
community that has activelydisplaced legacy residents.
So that's who we seek to serve.
Rita Burke (09:13):
Quite a worthy task, quite a worthy venture, and I'm
sure that the people that youserve benefit tremendously from
what you do Now.
Ryan, in your bio you mentionedthat youth are assets to your
(09:38):
community.
I need to get my head aroundthat notion, that concept of
youth being an asset.
Can you talk to us about thatplease?
Ryan Downey (09:47):
Sure, look, it's a stance that is in direct
opposition to one that manyfolks, particularly affluent
folks and often affluent whitefolks in urban areas like
Atlanta, might hold, whetherthey name it or not, which is
that poor people, andparticularly poor black and
brown children, pose a risk orsomehow create a deficit in the
(10:11):
community.
Young people, regardless oftheir background, are not
inherently positioned toexperience adverse impacts.
Right, everyone arrives in theworld with the same potential
and the same possibilities, butthe doors get closed really
quickly for a lot of folks basedon the zip code they're born in
(10:31):
, the income of their parents,the color of their skin, and we
want to position our youngpeople as potential solutions to
the challenges that we see forour community, as any parent
would for their own kids.
Like.
We shouldn't just feel that wayabout the kids we make.
Right, we should think thatabout any young person and any
person in general, but I focuson youth because that's
primarily who we work with, andour young people are only
(10:53):
deficits insofar as we placethem at a deficit, and we're
very good at that.
For what it's worth.
We do that well in the States.
Ellington Brown (11:01):
What lessons have you learned from where you
work?
I should say at year up,presently club, yeah, yeah, okay
, you talk a little bit abouteurope yeah, I'll talk about
europe.
Ryan Downey (11:16):
So I spent nine years at europe now europe
united prior to east atlantakids club, and so europe works
with these feel like politicalterms nowadays to say things
like opportunity, youth, right,it's like a coded language.
What that definition means is 16to 24 year olds who are not
working full-time, earning aliving wage and not enrolled in
(11:36):
school full-time.
So it goes back to the previousanswer about assets, deficits,
trajectories.
So what we did there wasprovided workforce development,
so IT training, customer servicetraining, business skills
training to young people whowere not matriculating through
college and who had a need toachieve some mobility for
themselves and their family,financially and in terms of
(11:57):
their career pathways.
And I learned a lot therebecause I started there being a
little bit younger than some ofthe students who I taught I had
just graduated from graduateschool and I was 24, and I had a
couple students who were olderthan me and we had all come from
pretty similar backgrounds butobviously had landed in
different places based on theopportunities that presented
(12:17):
themselves to us along the way,and so it was a coming-of-age
experience for me as well forthat decade really learning
about myself in a professionalenvironment and sharing so many
successes and so many setbackswith amazing and talented young
adults.
Rita Burke (12:33):
Based on what you just said about supporting and
helping young adults, share withus one of your super success
stories.
Ryan Downey (12:46):
Yeah, so many at Year Up.
And then I'll share a littlebit about East Atlanta Kids Club
.
It's easier sometimes tomeasure success for young adults
than it is for kids, and that'sunfortunate, I think, because
we measure success in terms ofthings like how much money you
earn or the kind of job you canland, or buying a home or
graduating from college, and weshould probably look at all
(13:07):
growth and transformation at allinflection points as equally
valuable.
Right, it all leads us there.
But for the young adults thatyear up we had so many success
stories.
I was an instructor, I was aprogram manager and then I
worked in enrollment andadmissions and so I got to see
it from every end of the process.
And so I heard, especially inadmissions, folks' stories as we
(13:32):
interviewed them for theprogram and heard the setbacks
they had going to college andhaving to leave to take care of
an ill family member and be acaregiver, maybe having run-ins
with the law and having a recordthat needed to be restricted or
expunged and not knowing how toproceed.
And what we would have is youngpeople then making $60,000 or
$70,000 a year later working forsome of the biggest
corporations here in Atlanta andin Chicago when I worked there,
(13:53):
I've been buying their firsthomes and helping their younger
siblings go to college andhelping their mom with bills and
I think that those were amazingglow-ups for one year on
LinkedIn.
And in real life is these youngpeople that are in their 30s,
who are taking on positions ofleadership, who are joining
(14:14):
boards, who are raising theirhands to have influence and
leadership in their communityand taking power in a way that
is really useful and that'sreally necessary if we want to
keep this on, not keep this ontrack.
Get this nation on track.
And then Kids Club.
If you'll allow me just a realbrief, like I have an eighth
grader right now who's been withus for five years and she's
(14:34):
tremendous.
She should be the next mayor ofAtlanta right.
And she, in the same podcaststudio, has interviewed city
council members andentrepreneurs and activists.
She's run 5Ks through ourpartnership with Girls on the
Run.
She's helped make a filmthrough a film camp that we run
that had a premiere at the PlazaTheater with nearly 300 people
in attendance.
She's spoken at the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference
(14:56):
Conference on Women.
She's amazing.
She's an eighth grader.
She's doing more than manyadults do to shape her city and
her community.
Ellington Brown (15:04):
I was just getting ready to ask you about
that, ryan.
I'm sure you have many storiesand thanks Rita for bringing
that up and asking him to giveus an example of the good things
that are coming out of hisorganization, the current
organization that Ryan's workingin.
How do you feel working withBlack and Brown kids through
(15:29):
these programs that yourorganization offer?
How does that make you feel?
Ryan Downey (15:37):
Yeah, it is true.
If you look at my experience atEurope Chicago, europe, atlanta
, then Northern Virginia sitesthere, and then now my
experience at East Atlanta KidsClub I'm often one of the only
white people present, and thatwas true when I was a poet in
residence in the Chicago publicschools as well.
I would sometimes be the onlywhite person that went into a
lot of the schools in South andWest sides of Chicago that I
(15:57):
taught in, and so that does feelthat feels strange.
But it feels strange almostlike externally, like watching
it like from outside of myselfand seeing like why are there
not more folks like me presenthere?
Because nothing about doing thework feels strange.
This is the work that I'vealways done.
It's the community that I'vealways been in, and I grew up in
(16:18):
Atlanta and in the southsuburbs of Atlanta in a diverse
community.
I feel more isolated and moreout of place, like in a room
full of white folks, because wejust don't always have a lot of
shared experiences and or valuesor interests or beliefs,
although it's not always true.
I live in an awesome communityhere in East Atlanta that is
both diverse and where peoplehave different kind of paths.
(16:41):
But yeah, I mean, it's alwaysbeen my work.
I've never really tried tointellectualize it too much.
It feels good to do it becauseit creates opportunity for folks
that deserve opportunity,because everyone does.
It's that simple sometimes.
Rita Burke (16:56):
I so agree with you that everyone deserves
opportunity.
Wouldn't the world be awonderful place if everyone in
this world walked into that idea, that concept, that philosophy
of everyone deservingopportunity.
So you were relativelycomfortable being the only white
(17:21):
guy working with these folks.
How do they respond to you how?
How do they treat you?
Are they accepting?
Are they embracing?
Do they see you as one of them?
Talk to us about that, please.
Ryan Downey (17:38):
Yeah, I've had, so it's funny when I lived in
Chicago my answer would bedifferent than now.
Living back in Atlanta, I'venever had students whether they
be the young people we work withnow or the young adults that I
worked with at my previousorganization in Atlanta really
give me too much grief or lookat me as anything other than
(17:58):
just a member of a sharedlearning community or shared
just community in general.
I did have some students inChicago who were uncomfortable
with a white man being a coachor a mentor or an advisor in an
academic setting and that wasunsettling for me.
But I can actually I couldunderstand it pretty quickly
(18:19):
After being in Chicago for awhile and recognizing the ways
in which really deep, insidioushypersegregation that is largely
the result of steering andredlining and lots of practices
that still suddenly happen allaround this country had created
a community where there was justvery little change of any kind
of shared experience betweenblack and white folks.
(18:41):
Right Like folks might show upto a financial district in the
loop and work side by side tosome extent, but they didn't go
home to communities near eachother.
They didn't play on the samesports teams or join the same
social clubs.
It just wasn't how it workedreally there, and Atlanta feels
a little bit different in thatrespect.
So I've not faced the same kindof jarring disconnect that I had
(19:02):
there sometimes.
Ellington Brown (19:05):
So you are the executive director of East
Atlanta Kids Club, which I guessit started in 2020?
Ryan Downey (19:15):
I started in 2020.
Ellington Brown (19:16):
You started in 2020.
Okay, so you started in 2020and you have a car.
Anyway, talk to us about beingthe executive director at East
Atlanta Kids Club, where it isdiverse and, at least looking at
Google Maps, it appears to bevery diverse in that area.
(19:40):
Do you drive to work or do youwalk?
Ryan Downey (19:45):
I could do either one.
I live a mile away.
I live in Ormwood Park, whichis just the other side of
Moreland, so the state routeright here, next to the
neighborhood, and we servestudents from all across
Southeast Atlanta.
We had kids from 37 schoolslast year.
So further west and south of me, further east, north of here,
this whole quadrant of the citywe have students and families
from and more.
(20:05):
When you ask about beingexecutive director, it has less
to do with the folks whom weserve and our staff and our
community, and more just thepressure of being an executive
director of a small nonprofitamid a turbulent time in terms
of resources, particularlygovernment resources.
Right, like, honestly, like oneof the advantages I think I
(20:28):
have in engaging withphilanthropy is, even though I
serve a diverse discomfort, andI think there's power in that
(20:51):
that we should acknowledge.
And too seldom organizationslike this are led by white men,
like white men are executivedirectors at arts organizations
or conservation organizations,often not in youth and family
organizations, which is, I think, a shame and something we can
do better at.
Ellington Brown (21:10):
You talk about our.
How do you use your power inorder to motivate individuals
that are going through the stepsthat your organization provides
for success?
Ryan Downey (21:26):
As an executive director without a development
team because we don't have anystaff dedicated to fundraising,
it's like me and the board right, the most powerful thing I can
do.
I hate this.
I'm out here shaking all themoney trees and seeing which
leaves fall off and trying togrow opportunities like this
podcast studio.
I'm sitting in right.
It was funded with corporatefunding and community foundation
(21:59):
funding, building a film studio, creating a maker space with
t-shirt presses and lasercutters, doing weekly food
distributions and gettingcorporate and family foundation
support to do that.
We're trying to provideresources so that folks aren't
worried about just getting basicneeds met and instead can
nurture their interests, andthat's what money allows us to
do.
And money doesn't justnaturally flow into all
(22:21):
communities and householdsequitably right, so you have to
go make it move the way you wantit to move make it move the way
you want it to move.
Rita Burke (22:34):
Ryan Downey, who obviously is the community
builder, and those are thepeople we have conversations
with and speak of, internationalpeople who are making a
difference in their communities.
I believe that for people, fora community of black and brown
people, to embrace and to valueand to benefit from what you're
(23:00):
doing, you have to have specialleadership skills.
As a white man, as youdescribed it, to what special do
you bring, to what specialleadership approaches do you
bring to the groups that youwork with?
Ryan Downey (23:15):
Yeah, it'd be better to interview them than
not me, right, because I'd hateto put words in any in like
staff's mouths or in mystudents' mouths or family's
mouths a little bit in the sensethat I don't see.
So I both do and don't see.
My pathway is fundamentallydifferent, right?
So I identify the ways in whichwe have some shared experiences
financially, economically, interms of going from a working
(23:38):
class background to where I amnow, which is much more
comfortable for me and my kidsand my wife and I'm willing to
name where our experiencesdiverge and what I don't know,
and I think that's probablyuseful.
Right, I'm accessible.
I'm transparent, probably to afault.
I'm unwilling to playlinguistic games about what we
(24:02):
do to appease folks and to waterdown the work.
I think those are certainlysome of the leadership skills
that work at this organization.
They're probably also, if we'rebeing honest, like the limiting
factors for whether I can workat a much larger organization.
Rita Burke (24:18):
I want to hear more about that transparency.
Ryan Downey (24:22):
Yeah, no, I'm pretty open about everything.
So if we think about my staff,for example, because a lot of
times at nonprofits we thinkabout the folks whom we serve,
but the staff are equallyimportant and, frankly, are from
the same communities and arehaving the same kind of
experience and have dedicatedtheir life to this work at a
significant cost to themselves,because this work is not
financially remunerative in theway that a lot of other career
(24:44):
pathways are.
So if I think about them, likethe transparency, like I'm very
honest about the pressures thatthe organization faces, what
we're going to do to relievethem.
Where we are financiallyWanting to know, like where my
program team wants to grow, whatthey want to do, like my job,
is to get resources for them,it's not to establish guardrails
for them.
(25:04):
That's the wrong way to thinkabout this position.
And we're here in a public reccenter, right, so we're always
community-facing.
I'm always in the park, I'malways in this building, someone
can always come talk to meabout anything.
I really don't have anyboundaries there.
And part of that might begenerational and just the way I
think about work and folks mightjust think about work.
(25:24):
But I just try to be accessibleand open and honest and
receptive to things that weshould do differently.
Ellington Brown (25:31):
That are my blind spots I would say one
thing that your power lies inthe fact that you do listen, and
I think that is extremelyimportant in order to get your
point across, you beingauthentic, without having to
(25:52):
give up something of yourself inorder to get something that you
want.
I know that you're having, Iwon't say, financial problems,
but, boy, it'd be nice if youcould get a couple more bucks
under your belt.
I'm sure, sure.
Ryan Downey (26:23):
Always Do people have to pay money to come into
the kids club or what happens topeople who don't have money?
Pay is like a really a tokenamount.
So for after school it might be$50 a week, for summer camp
$250 a week.
Those are like below marketrate for profit or even other
nonprofit programs, becausewe're not trying to make our
money on the back of familiesand kids in need.
(26:43):
That doesn't make sense.
Ellington Brown (26:45):
I agree with you on that.
The reason I'm asking thequestion is I just want to make
sure that people see the EastAtlanta Kids Club as inclusive.
Summer camp that you go to,which is, I think, very cool, is
150 bucks, which is nothingcompared to what a lot of people
(27:06):
have to pay to go to summercamp and go camping.
So what happens to individuals?
Let's say, my mom comes to theEast Atlanta Kids Club and I'm
the toddler and I want to go tocamp, but my mom doesn't have
the money to send me to camp.
(27:27):
So what happens to the kidsthat don't have the money?
Ryan Downey (27:31):
Sure.
So again, it's free for 95% ofour kids pay nothing.
So the ones that pay that tokenamount as families that are
earning above 300% of thefederal poverty line based on
household size.
So for I, have a family of fourright Two kids and a wife.
That level is like 90 somethingthousand, I think in 2025,
which is none of our.
Most of our families arenowhere near that.
(27:52):
Typically, the folks that areabove it are way above it Dual
income households making$150,000, $200,000 a year.
Those folks might pay the amountto subsidize other folks, but
everyone else is free.
The way that they're free, orno cost, as I said before, is I
raise a ton of money Like my jobis to raise the better part of
$842,000 this year and we'realmost halfway there, which is
pretty great in a hard year andI do that through family
(28:16):
foundations, through corporatefoundations and corporate giving
, through, in better times,government grants at all levels
of government, federal down tomunicipal and from individual
donors that give gifts of allsizes, as small as $5 and as big
as $50,000.
And that's how we pay for this.
It really should come from thefolks that have the margin and
(28:38):
the capital to do that and notfrom folks who need to get all
their other needs met and willlet child care be the thing that
goes unfulfilled, because itsomehow ends up being like a
tertiary need relative tohousing and food and health care
.
Families don't deserve that andkids don't deserve that.
Rita Burke (28:50):
And kids don't deserve that.
To speak up internationally, weseek to inform, educate and
inspire, and we're currentlydoing that by listening to the
story of Ryan Downey.
Mr Ryan Downey share with ouraudience something that puts a
smile on your face, somethingthat makes your heart sing.
Ryan Downey (29:15):
Yeah, work-related or anything.
Rita Burke (29:20):
Entirely up to you.
Ryan Downey (29:21):
But you're smiling right now.
Yeah, look.
So I never want any interviewto go by without really naming
the joy that is my children,particularly because I decided
late in the game to have them.
My wife and I, as you know frombefore then, if you have a
three and a one-year-old Arlo,our son, and Sabine, my daughter
and we were together almost 20years before we made the
(29:44):
decision to have children and Ihad worked with children and
worked with young adults for mywhole career before we made that
decision.
So it was an informed decisionin every way, and we talk about
lifelong learning.
There's nothing that will makeyou realize how dumb you are and
how little more than havingkids.
(30:06):
They have, I think, expanded mycapacity for knowledge, for love
, for empathy, for my sense ofduty, my endurance and stamina
and ability to resolve, to beresilient, and they just make me
happy.
They make me exhausted.
My three-year-old makes mefrustrated.
He hit me this morning andgrowled no at me because he
can't figure out how toverbalize what he wants, and
(30:28):
that's sad, but also it's likeamazing to watch him start
expressing himself and sayingthis is something I'm not happy
about and I gotta let you know.
That's awesome.
We made that.
So my children and then thekids here, like it's not the
same as having your own kids,but the kids here when they come
in and want to run up to me andhug my leg or give me a fist
bump or ask me to come throw aball with them, like I think
(30:48):
that's really powerful too andhelps make all the adult work
that you do in the back end tomake an organization like this
thrive more palatable.
Ellington Brown (30:56):
If I may say so myself, I would think they
probably see you as thecommunity's dad where all the
kids come to be, with dad numbertwo, and I think that's a good
thing.
Kids need someone that they canlook up to outside of their
parents.
Sometimes at home things maynot be as pleasant as we would
(31:18):
like it to be, but somehow oranother, individuals like you
help the individuals that needhelp the most.
So what advice would you giveto someone looking to start or
grow a non-profit that serveskids?
Ryan Downey (31:38):
Yeah, I think common advice that you hear from
folks, whether they beexecutive directors or founders
or maybe program staff, whensomeone says they want to start
a non-profit, is don't startwith the idea that you have to
start.
Something like look to see whatexists already first, because
we've talked.
So look, there's not a scarcityof resources.
It's artificial and yet itstill feels very real when we're
(32:02):
out here trying to raise money,we can believe in a spouse that
there is abundance, but if itis, it's locked in silos and
there's only so much we can dowith that.
And sometimes people startsomething because they're
passionate about being ofservice but they really don't
want the smoke to be colloquialof running an organization and
doing all the operations andworking on the annual audit and
(32:24):
like dealing with monitoring andcompliance and all the fun
stuff that comes with running abusiness or an organization
building a board and working tomaintain your vision, hiring
folks, legal, all that stuff andso don't do it.
Don't start a nonprofit as yourfirst step.
See what's in the communitywhere you can lend your talent,
your time and your testimonialand your ties, right your
(32:44):
relationships.
And if that doesn't fulfill theneed or if what you have is a
vision that is like separatefrom anything that exists.
Then start going down that road, but do it with mentorship and
folks that are willing to opentheir networks to you and don't
don't go it alone.
And I'll say this, particularlylooking in this community here
in atlanta, I see a lot oforganizations that serve women
(33:07):
and children, particularly themost vulnerable women and
children, folks living on thestreets, folks living in
extended stays, in the deepthroes and trappings of poverty.
I see them led by women, andprimarily Black women, who lead
with passion and authenticityand all the heart you can
imagine, but get stuck, really,in a cycle of honestly suffering
(33:32):
and struggling themselves tomeet this mission and this need
in the community without thesupport, without all that other
stuff I named.
And it's just, it's painful.
It's painful to see people careso much and to let their own
health and let their ownwellness fall to the wayside
along the way.
So I think there's other waysto figure out, like how you
might be of service before youdo this, and if you do it,
(33:52):
you've got to have people inyour corner.
Yeah, absolutely.
Rita Burke (33:57):
Tell us three things that you like, that you admire
about Ryan.
Ryan Downey (34:04):
Yeah, I've never been a fan of public feedback,
when people give it to me, andso I probably don't like giving
it to myself either.
But I knew you were going toask me because you've prepped me
a little bit right.
So I've always kind of anchoredmy core skill, my core strength
, competency, whatever you wantto call it is resilience.
I'm not.
Nothing keeps me down, nothingsets me off my path, and I'm
(34:28):
able to see opportunity in mostchallenges and to communicate it
thusly, sometimes to convincemyself, which is performative,
and sometimes because I trulybelieve it.
I have internalized that, andso I think that's important.
Resilience, I think duty.
I think duty is the better wordand not obligation.
I think a sense of duty isimportant.
(34:50):
I think a sense of duty isimportant.
If something doesn't servesomeone or something other than
myself, I'm not terriblyinterested, and if something
does serve other folks, then I'mgoing to honor that commitment.
Even if it causes me pain or amissed opportunity in the short
term, I'm going to do what I sayI'm going to do.
And then we've talked abouttransparency and authenticity.
(35:13):
I think that's a power, that'sa skill, that's something that I
might take for granted andexpect from folks you don't
always get.
Ellington Brown (35:23):
Of course not.
You can't expect something likethat.
The kids are very important toyou.
Ryan Downey (35:33):
I can tell what key skills or qualities do you
think young people need in orderto thrive in today's world?
Yeah, so we find ourselves, aswe're serving kids and teens,
(35:57):
often hiring young adults toserve as camp counselors or
instructors, and too often Ifall into the same trap that any
employer or older adult mightfall into of lamenting some of
the skills or competencies thatyoung adults don't have, which
is just a losing position to sitand vent about what folks don't
have.
It's better to help them buildthat.
So I think the key skills thatI hope our young people are
(36:17):
learning here, that they'll thencarry on to their young
adulthood and eventuallyadulthood, are some of the
things I just named.
It really is like the ability toturn challenges into
opportunities and reframe anykind of context, to see yourself
with agency and with theability to change the situation
versus being acted upon.
(36:38):
Primarily, I think it is like acuriosity to learn for the
remainder of your life and toacknowledge when you don't know
something, you don't know whatyou don't know.
I think the ability tocommunicate yourself, your
interests, your needs, yourhurts and injuries, your
successes is really important.
(37:00):
Too many young people struggleto tell their own story, so I
think the ability to communicateacross any audience with
confidence and to know that yourvoice is powerful is what I
wish for our young people.
Ellington Brown (37:15):
I want to thank you, ryan Downey, from Atlanta.
I almost forgot I need morecoffee.
I tell you, I just needed onemore cup, I'll be okay.
Ryan Downey (37:26):
That's where I'm headed right after this ends.
Ellington Brown (37:30):
So I'm really glad that we got to talk to you.
I know we didn't start on theactual date we were supposed to,
but important because that'swhere you do a lot of your good
work.
We talked about leadership andadvocacy and personal life.
(38:00):
You have two beautiful kidsthat you adore.
What else could we possibly askfor in such a positive
interview?
I'm going to steal one ofRita's questions.
I'm going to ask you, rita, youdon't mind if I steal one of
your questions to you.
Rita Burke (38:21):
Feel free.
Feel free to go for it.
Ellington Brown (38:26):
You're always giving advice, always.
That's your job.
Your job is to advise people togive you money.
You're advising kids to helpthem along the way.
Then you have your family,especially the two kids that
you've got to advise to makesure that, especially those two,
(38:48):
that they're going in the rightdirection.
What was the best advicesomeone gave?
Gave you and that could beanybody, from the day that you
were born until today.
But who was the individual orindividuals that gave you a
piece of advice that you'vecarried since they've given it
(39:11):
to you?
Rita Burke (39:12):
Sure.
Ryan Downey (39:13):
Yeah, there's a number of folks that if they
didn't exist and they didn'thave a positive influence on my
life, I wouldn't sit in thisseat today and have the
opportunity to do the work thatI do and to have the family that
I have and to speak withconfidence.
So certainly there's a lot offolks along the way.
I'll highlight when I wasworking at Year Up because,
again, I went straight fromgraduate school.
(39:34):
I went straight fromundergraduate to graduate school
and then straight into theworkforce.
In the heart of the GreatRecession, I had a hard time to
come into a workforce,particularly as someone from a
working class background who wasentering professional arena.
I felt in those first coupleyears, like many people do, like
I was fraud or I wasn'tsupposed to be there.
(39:54):
I remember riding the train inChicago to work every day with
my suit that I had piecedtogether from thrift stores and
my little ratty ties and shirtsthat were pit-stained and stank
because it was hot on the trainand I probably didn't clean them
as often as I needed to becauseI didn't have a washer and
dryer in my apartment and allthe fun things when you're young
and poor and feeling likeseeing people wearing coveralls
(40:16):
and the clothes of workingpeople.
I was like that's what I shouldlook like.
That's what I should look like,that's what I should be doing.
What am I doing?
And I felt like I shouldn'tprobably be where I was, even at
(40:36):
the same time as I was showingup every day to teach young
people how they might EuropeAtlanta as a program manager,
and there was a senior directorof program who I still maintain
relationship with as a supporterof East Atlanta Kids Club.
Her name is Faye Dresner I'mstill here in Atlanta who
reinforced for me.
She said you know what you're,what you experience here are
rapid growth, are scaling, orhow we communicate with all
(40:57):
these stakeholders, how we'releveraging all these different
resources.
You're getting a bettereducation than any MBA, any
master's in businessadministration, any business
education could ever provide.
And she would keep reiteratingthat.
And I went to school for poetryand comparative literature.
So I went to school the firstperson in my family to do that
(41:17):
but I studied the things thatfolks would have you believe are
useless and don't have, don'tprepare you for the world,
particularly a professionalworking world, which I obviously
know is untrue now.
But she gave me the confidencethat we've talked about lifelong
learning, that, like I have theability to learn and to grow
and to I deserve to be where Iam based on the experiences I'm
(41:41):
having along the way and notpurely based on any one specific
credential that folks might sayyou need to have to be in the
room.
So that's a long-winded way ofanswering that, but I think it's
really important for folks thatachieve mobility that someone
along the way tells them, likeyou deserve to be here and you
deserve it more every day.
And there's, you've earned,deserve to be here and you
(42:01):
deserve it more every day.
Ellington Brown (42:01):
And there's you've earned it, and here's how
I think there's power in that Ido too.
I think there's power in thatas well.
Thank you so much for beingwith us early this morning.
After I've only had one cup ofcoffee, I'm hurting.
I tell you I need emergencytreatment now.
But thank you, all jokes aside,I really appreciate this
(42:24):
conversation, and as soon as itis ready, we will send you an
email so that you can get yourhands on it and you can do
whatever you feel is necessarywith the podcast.
We try not to put anyrestraints whatsoever, I'm sorry
(42:44):
.
Oh, go ahead.
Ryan Downey (42:45):
I just wanted to thank you both as well, elton
and Rita.
I've done a couple of theseinterviews and I spend all my
work speaking publicly andinterfacing with folks.
That's how this works.
But folks seldom ask memeaningful, thought-provoking
questions about myself or myfamily or my values, and I'm
glad this wasn't just acommercial for east atlanta kids
(43:07):
club but to the extent thatit's like an inextricable part
of my identity, what I do.
We talked about it a lot, but Ireally appreciate your
thoughtful questions and reallypushing me to be exploratory on
this rainy Wednesday mornings.
What a great way to move intothe middle of a week refreshing
conversation.
Ellington Brown (43:25):
Rita, do you have something?
Rita Burke (43:27):
you want to add to this.
Thank you, ryan.
Chatting with you wasrefreshing, and also, at the end
of our conversations, I willsay to people that you've added
to my life, and I sincerely meanthat, that everything you say,
when you tell your story andyour experiences.
(43:48):
It enriches my life and Icertainly thank you.
But something that you saidthat will stay with me forever
is the fact that people,sometimes young people, struggle
to tell their own stories.
And do you know what?
There's an African proverb thatsays until the lion or the
(44:11):
tiger begins to tell his or herown story, the hunter will tell
the story from his or herperspective.
And so, yes, that's somethingthat we do need to instill in
our young people.
It is challenging, but try yourvery best to tell your own
story.
I spoke to a group of youngpeople at a college yesterday,
(44:34):
as I said earlier, and that'swhat I shared with them, and
that's what I shared with themthe importance of telling your
story.
In what a form or shape.
It doesn't have to be eloquentand articulate at the beginning,
but tell your story.
So thank you for being on SpeakUp International and telling
your story.
Ellington Brown (45:04):
Thank you, rita .
I hear that we might have moreof our kids roaring.
Yeah, thank you for tuning into Speak Up International.
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prepared to submit your name,your email address.
Please be prepared to submityour name, your email address
(45:37):
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change.
We'd love to hear your storyinfluence and ignite change.
(46:03):
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(47:33):
you.
Welcome to Speak Up International with Rita
Burke and Elton Brown.
Rita Burke (00:22):
Today we are in National Laboratory.
We speak of international.
We'll be having our usualconversation with Ryan Downey
and, because of his childhoodexperiences, our guest today
says that he learned a lot aboutself-direction.
(00:43):
That he learned a lot aboutself-direction.
Currently, ryan leads a strongyouth development program in
Atlanta.
However, at one point in hislife he taught poetry and
writing in the public, schools,correctional facilities,
shelters and restorative justiceprograms.
(01:05):
According to Ryan, all he wantsis for people to have access to
opportunities that wouldnurture their talents.
Let me introduce you to RyanDonnelly and you'll hear the
remainder of his story.
Welcome to Speak UpInternational, ryan.
Ryan Downey (01:28):
Thank you, Rita, and thank you Elton.
It's a pleasure to be here withyou today, from an abnormally
rainy morning in Atlanta.
Ellington Brown (01:34):
In other words, it's raining cats and dogs.
Ryan Downey (01:38):
Certainly, certainly.
At least cats Dogs might comelater if we hear the thunder
Cats.
Ellington Brown (01:43):
Dogs might come later if we hear the thunder.
Oh God, you have such aninteresting background, I must
admit, ryan, so I'm going to tryto start here at the beginning.
What inspired you to pursue acareer in youth development and
non-profit leadership?
Ryan Downey (02:03):
Youth development is a space that I've been
working in for the last fiveyears I'd say prior to that I
was more in workforcedevelopment, higher education
though ultimately they'reinextricably linked, because
when we think about workforcedevelopment, we're talking about
young adults oftentimes atleast that's what I did and
connecting the dots between theexperiences that our youth, our
(02:23):
kids, our teens have and theexperiences and access to
opportunity that young adultshave is like a pretty obvious
connection to me.
Ultimately, I do what I do nowrunning a no-cost after-school
summer camp, counseling, fooddistribution program here in
Atlanta, because it's the thingthat I needed and I think that's
probably a pretty common answerfor folks that work in the
(02:44):
nonprofit space that I neededand I think that's probably a
pretty common answer for folksthat work in the non-profit
space.
We seek to fill a need andfulfill a need or a service that
that would have been valuableto us or folks in our orbit and
that, in return, fulfills us andprovides us with a sense of a
value to our community.
Rita Burke (02:58):
Yeah, you are meeting a need and I believe
that sometimes, when we serveothers, it fulfills something
inside of us.
Ryan, tell us the story behindyour becoming a self-directed
(03:19):
individual.
Sure.
Ryan Downey (03:23):
Yeah, so when we think about learning, and
particularly when we think aboutself-directed learning or some
folks might talk about beingautodidactic, right?
Or there's differentterminology you use Oftentimes
we ascribe it to adult learners.
So we think adults are moreself-directed because they enter
into any experience with acertain set of lived experiences
(03:44):
and knowledge and expertise,and so they don't all enter as a
blank slate, right, that'sseeking for an expert to fill
them up with knowledge or withhow they might do the thing
they're attempting to learn.
That's a transmission method.
Right, that's the traditionalclassroom, with someone at a
chalkboard or a projector ortransparency and kids sitting in
a row listening and learning.
(04:04):
But I would argue that's notonly the domain of adult
learners and that certainly manychildren are self-directed
learners in their own ways, andwe can see that in sports.
So for me, when I was young, wecouldn't afford really expensive
sports leagues and so I wasn'tlearning from a coach and an
(04:26):
academy.
Right, when I played soccer inmy earliest years, I was in a
breezeway in the apartments thatI lived in with my best friend,
amish Patel, using the stairsand the walls, the goal, and
developing our own skills andour own sense of touch for the
ball and passion and interestand goals, and that extended to
everything.
That extended to writing.
I wasn't looking for writingexercises because that's the
thing we were doing for 10minutes in class.
(04:47):
I was writing silly littlemystery stories about vegetables
that committed silly crimes andthen reading them aloud to my
classrooms.
That second part is critical.
So the teacher provided thatspace right and adults provided
some of those spaces for me tolearn and experiment and fail
and set goals.
And that's critical forself-direction is that folks who
(05:08):
have experienced servicefacilitators and not always as
experts, and I think that'simportant for young people and
adults alike.
Ellington Brown (05:16):
I would definitely agree with that.
I don't have any reason not toat this point.
Talk to us a little bit about alatchkey kid.
Ryan Downey (05:29):
Sure, it's not a term that we hear as often
anymore for myriad reasons.
So I think, generationally, alot of folks, either whether
they be Gen X or eldermillennials like myself, will
have had the experience ofcoming home to a house where
working parents were at work andwhere oftentimes I wore a key
on a necklace.
Because I lost my key so often,my mom eventually made me start
(05:52):
wearing down necklace versusputting it on the doorframe or
under a rug or something obvious.
But that feeds intoself-direction, right Like I
came home, I would often preparemy own dinner.
I would either do my homeworkor, more often, probably not do
my prescribed homework and focuson something I was passionate
about Wander around in the woodsif I had lost my key and just
(06:14):
build things and make wreathsout of vines or build a fort.
So it was really.
Those two concepts areinterrelated and it's obviously
not what we want for our kidshere.
Rita Burke (06:38):
That's why I provide an after-school program,
because it's decidedly less safeto wander around a city or even
the suburbs nowadays than itprobably was in the 90s, which
is unfortunate, I think, forkids.
That I find intriguing.
You said that the term latchkeykids is not being used much
anymore.
Talk to us about why you thinkthat is the case, please.
Ryan Downey (06:52):
I think culturally we probably as adults, at least
institutionally, have found itless acceptable to leave kids to
their own devices duringunstructured hours, so outside
of school time or during thesummer during breaks.
There was a story in the newshere recently of a mother here
in Georgia who let her kid likeride his bike into town in a
rural area and the police showedup and arrested her.
(07:15):
The things that we define asneglect or as doing harm to
children nowadays have changed,so we don't leave kids to their
own devices and there is againsome real value to that, because
terrible things do happen toyoung people who are wandering
around without someone lookingout for them.
I live in Atlanta.
Atlanta is a hub fortrafficking, right Like.
(07:35):
We can't ignore that.
There's real risk out on thestreets for folks that wander
around, for kids in particular.
So I just don't.
I don't think it's part of thecommon vernacular because it
just doesn't happen as often orwe don't talk about it for fear
of being judged or penalized.
Ellington Brown (07:49):
What does your organization do and what does
your clientele look like?
Ryan Downey (07:57):
Yeah.
So we provide, by design, nocost.
We could say free, but freefeels a little bit, feels a
little bit more loaded than nocost.
No cost after school, summercamp, individual and group
therapy.
So counseling programming,weekly food security support
that serves families and seniorsand multi-generational
households.
And then community engagementprogramming because we run a
(08:19):
city of Atlanta rec centerthrough an operating agreement
lease, so my staff are managingthis asset for the whole
community in the middle of arobust and highly active public
park.
So that's what we do and forwhom do we do it?
We've been here since 1998.
And the young folks whom weserve and their families are
traditionally black, indigenouspeople of color.
(08:40):
They would often come from lowto moderate income households.
So here in the zip code we'rein, like the median household
income is, I want to say,somewhere in the 80 to 90
thousand dollar range, right,and typically our families are
in the 20 to 40 thousand dollarrange, so well below that mark,
and often have multiplegenerations of family members
(09:02):
living in the house and aretrying to hang on to space in a
community that has activelydisplaced legacy residents.
So that's who we seek to serve.
Rita Burke (09:13):
Quite a worthy task, quite a worthy venture, and I'm
sure that the people that youserve benefit tremendously from
what you do Now.
Ryan, in your bio you mentionedthat youth are assets to your
(09:38):
community.
I need to get my head aroundthat notion, that concept of
youth being an asset.
Can you talk to us about thatplease?
Ryan Downey (09:47):
Sure, look, it's a stance that is in direct
opposition to one that manyfolks, particularly affluent
folks and often affluent whitefolks in urban areas like
Atlanta, might hold, whetherthey name it or not, which is
that poor people, andparticularly poor black and
brown children, pose a risk orsomehow create a deficit in the
(10:11):
community.
Young people, regardless oftheir background, are not
inherently positioned toexperience adverse impacts.
Right, everyone arrives in theworld with the same potential
and the same possibilities, butthe doors get closed really
quickly for a lot of folks basedon the zip code they're born in
(10:31):
, the income of their parents,the color of their skin, and we
want to position our youngpeople as potential solutions to
the challenges that we see forour community, as any parent
would for their own kids.
Like.
We shouldn't just feel that wayabout the kids we make.
Right, we should think thatabout any young person and any
person in general, but I focuson youth because that's
primarily who we work with, andour young people are only
(10:53):
deficits insofar as we placethem at a deficit, and we're
very good at that.
For what it's worth.
We do that well in the States.
Ellington Brown (11:01):
What lessons have you learned from where you
work?
I should say at year up,presently club, yeah, yeah, okay
, you talk a little bit abouteurope yeah, I'll talk about
europe.
Ryan Downey (11:16):
So I spent nine years at europe now europe
united prior to east atlantakids club, and so europe works
with these feel like politicalterms nowadays to say things
like opportunity, youth, right,it's like a coded language.
What that definition means is 16to 24 year olds who are not
working full-time, earning aliving wage and not enrolled in
(11:36):
school full-time.
So it goes back to the previousanswer about assets, deficits,
trajectories.
So what we did there wasprovided workforce development,
so IT training, customer servicetraining, business skills
training to young people whowere not matriculating through
college and who had a need toachieve some mobility for
themselves and their family,financially and in terms of
(11:57):
their career pathways.
And I learned a lot therebecause I started there being a
little bit younger than some ofthe students who I taught I had
just graduated from graduateschool and I was 24, and I had a
couple students who were olderthan me and we had all come from
pretty similar backgrounds butobviously had landed in
different places based on theopportunities that presented
(12:17):
themselves to us along the way,and so it was a coming-of-age
experience for me as well forthat decade really learning
about myself in a professionalenvironment and sharing so many
successes and so many setbackswith amazing and talented young
adults.
Rita Burke (12:33):
Based on what you just said about supporting and
helping young adults, share withus one of your super success
stories.
Ryan Downey (12:46):
Yeah, so many at Year Up.
And then I'll share a littlebit about East Atlanta Kids Club
.
It's easier sometimes tomeasure success for young adults
than it is for kids, and that'sunfortunate, I think, because
we measure success in terms ofthings like how much money you
earn or the kind of job you canland, or buying a home or
graduating from college, and weshould probably look at all
(13:07):
growth and transformation at allinflection points as equally
valuable.
Right, it all leads us there.
But for the young adults thatyear up we had so many success
stories.
I was an instructor, I was aprogram manager and then I
worked in enrollment andadmissions and so I got to see
it from every end of the process.
And so I heard, especially inadmissions, folks' stories as we
(13:32):
interviewed them for theprogram and heard the setbacks
they had going to college andhaving to leave to take care of
an ill family member and be acaregiver, maybe having run-ins
with the law and having a recordthat needed to be restricted or
expunged and not knowing how toproceed.
And what we would have is youngpeople then making $60,000 or
$70,000 a year later working forsome of the biggest
corporations here in Atlanta andin Chicago when I worked there,
(13:53):
I've been buying their firsthomes and helping their younger
siblings go to college andhelping their mom with bills and
I think that those were amazingglow-ups for one year on
LinkedIn.
And in real life is these youngpeople that are in their 30s,
who are taking on positions ofleadership, who are joining
(14:14):
boards, who are raising theirhands to have influence and
leadership in their communityand taking power in a way that
is really useful and that'sreally necessary if we want to
keep this on, not keep this ontrack.
Get this nation on track.
And then Kids Club.
If you'll allow me just a realbrief, like I have an eighth
grader right now who's been withus for five years and she's
(14:34):
tremendous.
She should be the next mayor ofAtlanta right.
And she, in the same podcaststudio, has interviewed city
council members andentrepreneurs and activists.
She's run 5Ks through ourpartnership with Girls on the
Run.
She's helped make a filmthrough a film camp that we run
that had a premiere at the PlazaTheater with nearly 300 people
in attendance.
She's spoken at the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference
(14:56):
Conference on Women.
She's amazing.
She's an eighth grader.
She's doing more than manyadults do to shape her city and
her community.
Ellington Brown (15:04):
I was just getting ready to ask you about
that, ryan.
I'm sure you have many storiesand thanks Rita for bringing
that up and asking him to giveus an example of the good things
that are coming out of hisorganization, the current
organization that Ryan's workingin.
How do you feel working withBlack and Brown kids through
(15:29):
these programs that yourorganization offer?
How does that make you feel?
Ryan Downey (15:37):
Yeah, it is true.
If you look at my experience atEurope Chicago, europe, atlanta
, then Northern Virginia sitesthere, and then now my
experience at East Atlanta KidsClub I'm often one of the only
white people present, and thatwas true when I was a poet in
residence in the Chicago publicschools as well.
I would sometimes be the onlywhite person that went into a
lot of the schools in South andWest sides of Chicago that I
(15:57):
taught in, and so that does feelthat feels strange.
But it feels strange almostlike externally, like watching
it like from outside of myselfand seeing like why are there
not more folks like me presenthere?
Because nothing about doing thework feels strange.
This is the work that I'vealways done.
It's the community that I'vealways been in, and I grew up in
(16:18):
Atlanta and in the southsuburbs of Atlanta in a diverse
community.
I feel more isolated and moreout of place, like in a room
full of white folks, because wejust don't always have a lot of
shared experiences and or valuesor interests or beliefs,
although it's not always true.
I live in an awesome communityhere in East Atlanta that is
both diverse and where peoplehave different kind of paths.
(16:41):
But yeah, I mean, it's alwaysbeen my work.
I've never really tried tointellectualize it too much.
It feels good to do it becauseit creates opportunity for folks
that deserve opportunity,because everyone does.
It's that simple sometimes.
Rita Burke (16:56):
I so agree with you that everyone deserves
opportunity.
Wouldn't the world be awonderful place if everyone in
this world walked into that idea, that concept, that philosophy
of everyone deservingopportunity.
So you were relativelycomfortable being the only white
(17:21):
guy working with these folks.
How do they respond to you how?
How do they treat you?
Are they accepting?
Are they embracing?
Do they see you as one of them?
Talk to us about that, please.
Ryan Downey (17:38):
Yeah, I've had, so it's funny when I lived in
Chicago my answer would bedifferent than now.
Living back in Atlanta, I'venever had students whether they
be the young people we work withnow or the young adults that I
worked with at my previousorganization in Atlanta really
give me too much grief or lookat me as anything other than
(17:58):
just a member of a sharedlearning community or shared
just community in general.
I did have some students inChicago who were uncomfortable
with a white man being a coachor a mentor or an advisor in an
academic setting and that wasunsettling for me.
But I can actually I couldunderstand it pretty quickly
(18:19):
After being in Chicago for awhile and recognizing the ways
in which really deep, insidioushypersegregation that is largely
the result of steering andredlining and lots of practices
that still suddenly happen allaround this country had created
a community where there was justvery little change of any kind
of shared experience betweenblack and white folks.
(18:41):
Right Like folks might show upto a financial district in the
loop and work side by side tosome extent, but they didn't go
home to communities near eachother.
They didn't play on the samesports teams or join the same
social clubs.
It just wasn't how it workedreally there, and Atlanta feels
a little bit different in thatrespect.
So I've not faced the same kindof jarring disconnect that I had
(19:02):
there sometimes.
Ellington Brown (19:05):
So you are the executive director of East
Atlanta Kids Club, which I guessit started in 2020?
Ryan Downey (19:15):
I started in 2020.
Ellington Brown (19:16):
You started in 2020.
Okay, so you started in 2020and you have a car.
Anyway, talk to us about beingthe executive director at East
Atlanta Kids Club, where it isdiverse and, at least looking at
Google Maps, it appears to bevery diverse in that area.
(19:40):
Do you drive to work or do youwalk?
Ryan Downey (19:45):
I could do either one.
I live a mile away.
I live in Ormwood Park, whichis just the other side of
Moreland, so the state routeright here, next to the
neighborhood, and we servestudents from all across
Southeast Atlanta.
We had kids from 37 schoolslast year.
So further west and south of me, further east, north of here,
this whole quadrant of the citywe have students and families
from and more.
(20:05):
When you ask about beingexecutive director, it has less
to do with the folks whom weserve and our staff and our
community, and more just thepressure of being an executive
director of a small nonprofitamid a turbulent time in terms
of resources, particularlygovernment resources.
Right, like, honestly, like oneof the advantages I think I
(20:28):
have in engaging withphilanthropy is, even though I
serve a diverse discomfort, andI think there's power in that
(20:51):
that we should acknowledge.
And too seldom organizationslike this are led by white men,
like white men are executivedirectors at arts organizations
or conservation organizations,often not in youth and family
organizations, which is, I think, a shame and something we can
do better at.
Ellington Brown (21:10):
You talk about our.
How do you use your power inorder to motivate individuals
that are going through the stepsthat your organization provides
for success?
Ryan Downey (21:26):
As an executive director without a development
team because we don't have anystaff dedicated to fundraising,
it's like me and the board right, the most powerful thing I can
do.
I hate this.
I'm out here shaking all themoney trees and seeing which
leaves fall off and trying togrow opportunities like this
podcast studio.
I'm sitting in right.
It was funded with corporatefunding and community foundation
(21:59):
funding, building a film studio, creating a maker space with
t-shirt presses and lasercutters, doing weekly food
distributions and gettingcorporate and family foundation
support to do that.
We're trying to provideresources so that folks aren't
worried about just getting basicneeds met and instead can
nurture their interests, andthat's what money allows us to
do.
And money doesn't justnaturally flow into all
(22:21):
communities and householdsequitably right, so you have to
go make it move the way you wantit to move make it move the way
you want it to move.
Rita Burke (22:34):
Ryan Downey, who obviously is the community
builder, and those are thepeople we have conversations
with and speak of, internationalpeople who are making a
difference in their communities.
I believe that for people, fora community of black and brown
people, to embrace and to valueand to benefit from what you're
(23:00):
doing, you have to have specialleadership skills.
As a white man, as youdescribed it, to what special do
you bring, to what specialleadership approaches do you
bring to the groups that youwork with?
Ryan Downey (23:15):
Yeah, it'd be better to interview them than
not me, right, because I'd hateto put words in any in like
staff's mouths or in mystudents' mouths or family's
mouths a little bit in the sensethat I don't see.
So I both do and don't see.
My pathway is fundamentallydifferent, right?
So I identify the ways in whichwe have some shared experiences
financially, economically, interms of going from a working
(23:38):
class background to where I amnow, which is much more
comfortable for me and my kidsand my wife and I'm willing to
name where our experiencesdiverge and what I don't know,
and I think that's probablyuseful.
Right, I'm accessible.
I'm transparent, probably to afault.
I'm unwilling to playlinguistic games about what we
(24:02):
do to appease folks and to waterdown the work.
I think those are certainlysome of the leadership skills
that work at this organization.
They're probably also, if we'rebeing honest, like the limiting
factors for whether I can workat a much larger organization.
Rita Burke (24:18):
I want to hear more about that transparency.
Ryan Downey (24:22):
Yeah, no, I'm pretty open about everything.
So if we think about my staff,for example, because a lot of
times at nonprofits we thinkabout the folks whom we serve,
but the staff are equallyimportant and, frankly, are from
the same communities and arehaving the same kind of
experience and have dedicatedtheir life to this work at a
significant cost to themselves,because this work is not
financially remunerative in theway that a lot of other career
(24:44):
pathways are.
So if I think about them, likethe transparency, like I'm very
honest about the pressures thatthe organization faces, what
we're going to do to relievethem.
Where we are financiallyWanting to know, like where my
program team wants to grow, whatthey want to do, like my job,
is to get resources for them,it's not to establish guardrails
for them.
(25:04):
That's the wrong way to thinkabout this position.
And we're here in a public reccenter, right, so we're always
community-facing.
I'm always in the park, I'malways in this building, someone
can always come talk to meabout anything.
I really don't have anyboundaries there.
And part of that might begenerational and just the way I
think about work and folks mightjust think about work.
(25:24):
But I just try to be accessibleand open and honest and
receptive to things that weshould do differently.
Ellington Brown (25:31):
That are my blind spots I would say one
thing that your power lies inthe fact that you do listen, and
I think that is extremelyimportant in order to get your
point across, you beingauthentic, without having to
(25:52):
give up something of yourself inorder to get something that you
want.
I know that you're having, Iwon't say, financial problems,
but, boy, it'd be nice if youcould get a couple more bucks
under your belt.
I'm sure, sure.
Ryan Downey (26:23):
Always Do people have to pay money to come into
the kids club or what happens topeople who don't have money?
Pay is like a really a tokenamount.
So for after school it might be$50 a week, for summer camp
$250 a week.
Those are like below marketrate for profit or even other
nonprofit programs, becausewe're not trying to make our
money on the back of familiesand kids in need.
(26:43):
That doesn't make sense.
Ellington Brown (26:45):
I agree with you on that.
The reason I'm asking thequestion is I just want to make
sure that people see the EastAtlanta Kids Club as inclusive.
Summer camp that you go to,which is, I think, very cool, is
150 bucks, which is nothingcompared to what a lot of people
(27:06):
have to pay to go to summercamp and go camping.
So what happens to individuals?
Let's say, my mom comes to theEast Atlanta Kids Club and I'm
the toddler and I want to go tocamp, but my mom doesn't have
the money to send me to camp.
(27:27):
So what happens to the kidsthat don't have the money?
Ryan Downey (27:31):
Sure.
So again, it's free for 95% ofour kids pay nothing.
So the ones that pay that tokenamount as families that are
earning above 300% of thefederal poverty line based on
household size.
So for I, have a family of fourright Two kids and a wife.
That level is like 90 somethingthousand, I think in 2025,
which is none of our.
Most of our families arenowhere near that.
(27:52):
Typically, the folks that areabove it are way above it Dual
income households making$150,000, $200,000 a year.
Those folks might pay the amountto subsidize other folks, but
everyone else is free.
The way that they're free, orno cost, as I said before, is I
raise a ton of money Like my jobis to raise the better part of
$842,000 this year and we'realmost halfway there, which is
pretty great in a hard year andI do that through family
(28:16):
foundations, through corporatefoundations and corporate giving
, through, in better times,government grants at all levels
of government, federal down tomunicipal and from individual
donors that give gifts of allsizes, as small as $5 and as big
as $50,000.
And that's how we pay for this.
It really should come from thefolks that have the margin and
(28:38):
the capital to do that and notfrom folks who need to get all
their other needs met and willlet child care be the thing that
goes unfulfilled, because itsomehow ends up being like a
tertiary need relative tohousing and food and health care
.
Families don't deserve that andkids don't deserve that.
Rita Burke (28:50):
And kids don't deserve that.
To speak up internationally, weseek to inform, educate and
inspire, and we're currentlydoing that by listening to the
story of Ryan Downey.
Mr Ryan Downey share with ouraudience something that puts a
smile on your face, somethingthat makes your heart sing.
Ryan Downey (29:15):
Yeah, work-related or anything.
Rita Burke (29:20):
Entirely up to you.
Ryan Downey (29:21):
But you're smiling right now.
Yeah, look.
So I never want any interviewto go by without really naming
the joy that is my children,particularly because I decided
late in the game to have them.
My wife and I, as you know frombefore then, if you have a
three and a one-year-old Arlo,our son, and Sabine, my daughter
and we were together almost 20years before we made the
(29:44):
decision to have children and Ihad worked with children and
worked with young adults for mywhole career before we made that
decision.
So it was an informed decisionin every way, and we talk about
lifelong learning.
There's nothing that will makeyou realize how dumb you are and
how little more than havingkids.
(30:06):
They have, I think, expanded mycapacity for knowledge, for love
, for empathy, for my sense ofduty, my endurance and stamina
and ability to resolve, to beresilient, and they just make me
happy.
They make me exhausted.
My three-year-old makes mefrustrated.
He hit me this morning andgrowled no at me because he
can't figure out how toverbalize what he wants, and
(30:28):
that's sad, but also it's likeamazing to watch him start
expressing himself and sayingthis is something I'm not happy
about and I gotta let you know.
That's awesome.
We made that.
So my children and then thekids here, like it's not the
same as having your own kids,but the kids here when they come
in and want to run up to me andhug my leg or give me a fist
bump or ask me to come throw aball with them, like I think
(30:48):
that's really powerful too andhelps make all the adult work
that you do in the back end tomake an organization like this
thrive more palatable.
Ellington Brown (30:56):
If I may say so myself, I would think they
probably see you as thecommunity's dad where all the
kids come to be, with dad numbertwo, and I think that's a good
thing.
Kids need someone that they canlook up to outside of their
parents.
Sometimes at home things maynot be as pleasant as we would
(31:18):
like it to be, but somehow oranother, individuals like you
help the individuals that needhelp the most.
So what advice would you giveto someone looking to start or
grow a non-profit that serveskids?
Ryan Downey (31:38):
Yeah, I think common advice that you hear from
folks, whether they beexecutive directors or founders
or maybe program staff, whensomeone says they want to start
a non-profit, is don't startwith the idea that you have to
start.
Something like look to see whatexists already first, because
we've talked.
So look, there's not a scarcityof resources.
It's artificial and yet itstill feels very real when we're
(32:02):
out here trying to raise money,we can believe in a spouse that
there is abundance, but if itis, it's locked in silos and
there's only so much we can dowith that.
And sometimes people startsomething because they're
passionate about being ofservice but they really don't
want the smoke to be colloquialof running an organization and
doing all the operations andworking on the annual audit and
(32:24):
like dealing with monitoring andcompliance and all the fun
stuff that comes with running abusiness or an organization
building a board and working tomaintain your vision, hiring
folks, legal, all that stuff andso don't do it.
Don't start a nonprofit as yourfirst step.
See what's in the communitywhere you can lend your talent,
your time and your testimonialand your ties, right your
(32:44):
relationships.
And if that doesn't fulfill theneed or if what you have is a
vision that is like separatefrom anything that exists.
Then start going down that road, but do it with mentorship and
folks that are willing to opentheir networks to you and don't
don't go it alone.
And I'll say this, particularlylooking in this community here
in atlanta, I see a lot oforganizations that serve women
(33:07):
and children, particularly themost vulnerable women and
children, folks living on thestreets, folks living in
extended stays, in the deepthroes and trappings of poverty.
I see them led by women, andprimarily Black women, who lead
with passion and authenticityand all the heart you can
imagine, but get stuck, really,in a cycle of honestly suffering
(33:32):
and struggling themselves tomeet this mission and this need
in the community without thesupport, without all that other
stuff I named.
And it's just, it's painful.
It's painful to see people careso much and to let their own
health and let their ownwellness fall to the wayside
along the way.
So I think there's other waysto figure out, like how you
might be of service before youdo this, and if you do it,
(33:52):
you've got to have people inyour corner.
Yeah, absolutely.
Rita Burke (33:57):
Tell us three things that you like, that you admire
about Ryan.
Ryan Downey (34:04):
Yeah, I've never been a fan of public feedback,
when people give it to me, andso I probably don't like giving
it to myself either.
But I knew you were going toask me because you've prepped me
a little bit right.
So I've always kind of anchoredmy core skill, my core strength
, competency, whatever you wantto call it is resilience.
I'm not.
Nothing keeps me down, nothingsets me off my path, and I'm
(34:28):
able to see opportunity in mostchallenges and to communicate it
thusly, sometimes to convincemyself, which is performative,
and sometimes because I trulybelieve it.
I have internalized that, andso I think that's important.
Resilience, I think duty.
I think duty is the better wordand not obligation.
I think a sense of duty isimportant.
(34:50):
I think a sense of duty isimportant.
If something doesn't servesomeone or something other than
myself, I'm not terriblyinterested, and if something
does serve other folks, then I'mgoing to honor that commitment.
Even if it causes me pain or amissed opportunity in the short
term, I'm going to do what I sayI'm going to do.
And then we've talked abouttransparency and authenticity.
(35:13):
I think that's a power, that'sa skill, that's something that I
might take for granted andexpect from folks you don't
always get.
Ellington Brown (35:23):
Of course not.
You can't expect something likethat.
The kids are very important toyou.
Ryan Downey (35:33):
I can tell what key skills or qualities do you
think young people need in orderto thrive in today's world?
Yeah, so we find ourselves, aswe're serving kids and teens,
(35:57):
often hiring young adults toserve as camp counselors or
instructors, and too often Ifall into the same trap that any
employer or older adult mightfall into of lamenting some of
the skills or competencies thatyoung adults don't have, which
is just a losing position to sitand vent about what folks don't
have.
It's better to help them buildthat.
So I think the key skills thatI hope our young people are
(36:17):
learning here, that they'll thencarry on to their young
adulthood and eventuallyadulthood, are some of the
things I just named.
It really is like the ability toturn challenges into
opportunities and reframe anykind of context, to see yourself
with agency and with theability to change the situation
versus being acted upon.
(36:38):
Primarily, I think it is like acuriosity to learn for the
remainder of your life and toacknowledge when you don't know
something, you don't know whatyou don't know.
I think the ability tocommunicate yourself, your
interests, your needs, yourhurts and injuries, your
successes is really important.
(37:00):
Too many young people struggleto tell their own story, so I
think the ability to communicateacross any audience with
confidence and to know that yourvoice is powerful is what I
wish for our young people.
Ellington Brown (37:15):
I want to thank you, ryan Downey, from Atlanta.
I almost forgot I need morecoffee.
I tell you, I just needed onemore cup, I'll be okay.
Ryan Downey (37:26):
That's where I'm headed right after this ends.
Ellington Brown (37:30):
So I'm really glad that we got to talk to you.
I know we didn't start on theactual date we were supposed to,
but important because that'swhere you do a lot of your good
work.
We talked about leadership andadvocacy and personal life.
(38:00):
You have two beautiful kidsthat you adore.
What else could we possibly askfor in such a positive
interview?
I'm going to steal one ofRita's questions.
I'm going to ask you, rita, youdon't mind if I steal one of
your questions to you.
Rita Burke (38:21):
Feel free.
Feel free to go for it.
Ellington Brown (38:26):
You're always giving advice, always.
That's your job.
Your job is to advise people togive you money.
You're advising kids to helpthem along the way.
Then you have your family,especially the two kids that
you've got to advise to makesure that, especially those two,
(38:48):
that they're going in the rightdirection.
What was the best advicesomeone gave?
Gave you and that could beanybody, from the day that you
were born until today.
But who was the individual orindividuals that gave you a
piece of advice that you'vecarried since they've given it
(39:11):
to you?
Rita Burke (39:12):
Sure.
Ryan Downey (39:13):
Yeah, there's a number of folks that if they
didn't exist and they didn'thave a positive influence on my
life, I wouldn't sit in thisseat today and have the
opportunity to do the work thatI do and to have the family that
I have and to speak withconfidence.
So certainly there's a lot offolks along the way.
I'll highlight when I wasworking at Year Up because,
again, I went straight fromgraduate school.
(39:34):
I went straight fromundergraduate to graduate school
and then straight into theworkforce.
In the heart of the GreatRecession, I had a hard time to
come into a workforce,particularly as someone from a
working class background who wasentering professional arena.
I felt in those first coupleyears, like many people do, like
I was fraud or I wasn'tsupposed to be there.
(39:54):
I remember riding the train inChicago to work every day with
my suit that I had piecedtogether from thrift stores and
my little ratty ties and shirtsthat were pit-stained and stank
because it was hot on the trainand I probably didn't clean them
as often as I needed to becauseI didn't have a washer and
dryer in my apartment and allthe fun things when you're young
and poor and feeling likeseeing people wearing coveralls
(40:16):
and the clothes of workingpeople.
I was like that's what I shouldlook like.
That's what I should look like,that's what I should be doing.
What am I doing?
And I felt like I shouldn'tprobably be where I was, even at
(40:36):
the same time as I was showingup every day to teach young
people how they might EuropeAtlanta as a program manager,
and there was a senior directorof program who I still maintain
relationship with as a supporterof East Atlanta Kids Club.
Her name is Faye Dresner I'mstill here in Atlanta who
reinforced for me.
She said you know what you're,what you experience here are
rapid growth, are scaling, orhow we communicate with all
(40:57):
these stakeholders, how we'releveraging all these different
resources.
You're getting a bettereducation than any MBA, any
master's in businessadministration, any business
education could ever provide.
And she would keep reiteratingthat.
And I went to school for poetryand comparative literature.
So I went to school the firstperson in my family to do that
(41:17):
but I studied the things thatfolks would have you believe are
useless and don't have, don'tprepare you for the world,
particularly a professionalworking world, which I obviously
know is untrue now.
But she gave me the confidencethat we've talked about lifelong
learning, that, like I have theability to learn and to grow
and to I deserve to be where Iam based on the experiences I'm
(41:41):
having along the way and notpurely based on any one specific
credential that folks might sayyou need to have to be in the
room.
So that's a long-winded way ofanswering that, but I think it's
really important for folks thatachieve mobility that someone
along the way tells them, likeyou deserve to be here and you
deserve it more every day.
And there's, you've earned,deserve to be here and you
(42:01):
deserve it more every day.
Ellington Brown (42:01):
And there's you've earned it, and here's how
I think there's power in that Ido too.
I think there's power in thatas well.
Thank you so much for beingwith us early this morning.
After I've only had one cup ofcoffee, I'm hurting.
I tell you I need emergencytreatment now.
But thank you, all jokes aside,I really appreciate this
(42:24):
conversation, and as soon as itis ready, we will send you an
email so that you can get yourhands on it and you can do
whatever you feel is necessarywith the podcast.
We try not to put anyrestraints whatsoever, I'm sorry
(42:44):
.
Oh, go ahead.
Ryan Downey (42:45):
I just wanted to thank you both as well, elton
and Rita.
I've done a couple of theseinterviews and I spend all my
work speaking publicly andinterfacing with folks.
That's how this works.
But folks seldom ask memeaningful, thought-provoking
questions about myself or myfamily or my values, and I'm
glad this wasn't just acommercial for east atlanta kids
(43:07):
club but to the extent thatit's like an inextricable part
of my identity, what I do.
We talked about it a lot, but Ireally appreciate your
thoughtful questions and reallypushing me to be exploratory on
this rainy Wednesday mornings.
What a great way to move intothe middle of a week refreshing
conversation.
Ellington Brown (43:25):
Rita, do you have something?
Rita Burke (43:27):
you want to add to this.
Thank you, ryan.
Chatting with you wasrefreshing, and also, at the end
of our conversations, I willsay to people that you've added
to my life, and I sincerely meanthat, that everything you say,
when you tell your story andyour experiences.
(43:48):
It enriches my life and Icertainly thank you.
But something that you saidthat will stay with me forever
is the fact that people,sometimes young people, struggle
to tell their own stories.
And do you know what?
There's an African proverb thatsays until the lion or the
(44:11):
tiger begins to tell his or herown story, the hunter will tell
the story from his or herperspective.
And so, yes, that's somethingthat we do need to instill in
our young people.
It is challenging, but try yourvery best to tell your own
story.
I spoke to a group of youngpeople at a college yesterday,
(44:34):
as I said earlier, and that'swhat I shared with them, and
that's what I shared with themthe importance of telling your
story.
In what a form or shape.
It doesn't have to be eloquentand articulate at the beginning,
but tell your story.
So thank you for being on SpeakUp International and telling
your story.
Ellington Brown (45:04):
Thank you, rita .
I hear that we might have moreof our kids roaring.
Yeah, thank you for tuning into Speak Up International.
If you wish to contact ourguest, mr Ryan Downey, please be
prepared to submit your name,your email address.
Please be prepared to submityour name, your email address
(45:37):
and the reason why you wish tocontact Mr Downey at https//
media platforms you can use toconnect to him, which will be
listed in the descriptionsection on Spotify and other
social media platforms.
Your voice has the power toinspire, influence and ignite
change.
We'd love to hear your storyinfluence and ignite change.
(46:03):
We'd love to hear your story.
We invite you to connect to usby sending your message that
includes your name, company ororganization name, the valuable
service you offer to yourcommunity and your email address
to info at speakuppodcastca.
To connect to our podcast, useSpotify or your favorite podcast
platform and search for SpeakUp International.
(46:26):
You can also find our podcastusing our web address,
wwwspeakuppodcastca.
Our logo has the woman with herfinger pointing up, mouth open,
speaking up.
As a member of our Patreon group, you will gain access to a wide
range of exciting benefits.
(46:48):
We are working on providing youwith early access to new
episodes and the opportunity tosuggest topics or guests for
future episodes.
To suggest topics or guests forfuture episodes your
contribution will not only helpsustain the continuity of the
podcast, but will allow us toenhance the overall listening
(47:09):
experience for all of ourdedicated followers.
Help us, help you.
Wwwpatreoncom.
Forward slashspeakupinternational.
Don't miss our next episode.
Wwwpatreoncom forward slashspeak up international.
Don't miss our next episode.
Join us again on speak upexclamation point international,
where we aim to inspire, toinform, educate and entertain
(47:33):
you.
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