South Central Community Action Programs
What does it take to lead with heart, challenge assumptions, and create real transformation in the fight against poverty? In this powerful episode of the Thinking CAAP podcast, Beck and Heather sit down with Megan Shreve, CEO of South Central Community Action Programs (SCCAP) and board chair of CAAP, to explore the bold strategies and deep empathy behind her leadership journey.
Megan shares how programs like Support Circles are helping families not just survive but thrive by creating safe, intentional spaces where people can rewrite their stories. From navigating the benefits cliff to launching art therapy and cognitive restructuring initiatives, she offers a vision for how Community Action can be both practical and deeply human.
Listeners will also get a candid look at Megan’s own path, from early childhood education to private-sector change management to nonprofit CEO. She opens up about overcoming imposter syndrome, serving on boards, and the satisfaction of both policy-level impact and hands-on home repair. Through it all, Megan’s unwavering belief in the power of people—and the importance of listening—shines through.
If you’re looking for fresh ideas on leadership, resilience, and building stronger communities, this episode is full of insight, inspiration, and the kind of honesty that moves the work forward.
Thinking CAAP Talking Points
[0:00] Introduction to the Podcast
Beck Moore and Heather Holloway welcome Megan Shreve as the special guest.
They introduce South Central Community Action Programs (SCCAP) and touch on Megan's leadership journey.
[1:30] Overview of SCCAP Programs
Megan provides an overview of key SCCAP programs.
She highlights the importance of building a culture of care and introduces the Support Circles program as a transformative economic mobility initiative.
[5:08] Impact of Support Circles Program
Megan explains how Support Circles help families create future stories and pair them with middle-class volunteers.
The program fosters transformation and educates communities about poverty.
[9:32] Adapting to Local Needs
Megan emphasizes the importance of responsiveness in Community Action, especially during COVID-19.
She stresses the value of creating space for open conversations and healing.
[12:16] Cognitive Restructuring and Thriving
The hosts and Megan discuss cognitive reframing to shift from surviving to thriving.
They share creative methods used to understand and support community needs.
[13:56] Empowerment through Reflection and Art Therapy
Megan discusses the power of reflecting individuals’ strengths back to them.
Art therapy offers a safe space for expression and healing.
[14:41] The Power of Visualization and Self-Belief
Megan underscores the struggle and importance of dreaming big.
Seeing positive examples can help individuals imagine new possibilities.
[17:40] Transformative Success Stories
Megan shares real-life examples of participants earning degrees, becoming advocates, and driving policy changes.
She highlights the immense capability of the people served by SCCAP.
[21:22] Understanding the Benefits Cliff
Megan breaks down the concept of the benefits cliff and how it deters self-sufficiency.
She shares examples of how families face setbacks with small income increases.
[26:14] Challenging Perceptions and Advocacy
Beck and Megan discuss misconceptions around poverty.
They stress empathy, understanding, and the need for legislative change.
[28:18] Creating Intentional Community Spaces
Megan and Beck reflect on the power of spaces that connect people across race and class lines.
These spaces foster deeper friendships and understanding.
[29:30] Fostering Curiosity and Understanding
They discuss the importance of honest conversations and open-mindedness.
Curiosity leads to meaningful dialogue without conflict.
[30:43] The Tripartite Board Structure
Megan explains the unique structure of Community Action boards.
Combining political appointees, low-income individuals, and community members strengthens governance.
[34:24] Adapting to Future Challenges
Megan talks about the need to prepare for evolving challenges like funding changes.
She stresses strategic adaptation and person-centered, outcome-driven work.
[42:07] Finding Purpose in Early Childhood and Family Development
Megan shares how her early work in low-income childcare inspired her career in Community Action.
[44:21] Transitioning to the Private Sector
Megan reflects on her time in the private sector, where she gained skills in business process analysis and change management.
[45:47] Impacting Communities and Systems
Megan describes how integrating Support Circles at SCCAP helped shift the organization toward holistic anti-poverty strategies.
[46:56] Serving on Boards and Challenging Assumptions
Megan discusses serving on boards and challenging who “belongs” in leadership spaces.
She advocates for inclusion and diverse perspectives in decision-making.
[52:50] Emphasizing Listening in Leadership
Megan highlights listening as a core leadership skill.
She ensures SCCAP’s actions reflect the real needs of both staff and families served.
[56:18] Continuous Learning and Leadership Growth
Megan shares her commitment to lifelong learning and closing knowledge gaps.
She credits peer support and working directly with families for personal growth.
[57:40] Finding Balance and Personal Hobbies
Megan finds balance through reading and home repair.
She enjoys fantasy, mystery, and academic books, and values tangible accomplishments.
[58:21] Finding Clarity in Fixing Problems
Beck and Megan connect over their shared love of home repair.
They find satisfaction in fixing what’s broken—both at home and in the world.
[59:36] Recognizing Community Action Heroes
Megan celebrates the quiet heroes in Community Action who support others until they can stand on their own.
She acknowledges the importance of building community within the network.
[1:01:30] Gratitude and Encouragement
Beck and Megan share mutual appreciation.
They affirm the value of supporting one another and empowering communities.
Transcript of Episode 13
00:00:00
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Thinking CAAP. Happy to be here. I'm Beck Moore, our CEO at Community Action Association of Pennsylvania. With me today is my fearless co-host, Heather Holloway from Holloway Media Services.
00:00:13
Yeah, thrilled to be here. Thank you so much, Beck. Absolutely. And then also our special guest today, also someone who I would like to say is my friend. I don't care what she says.
00:00:23
And also CEO of South Central Community Action Programs, Megan Shreve, our board chair of CAAP and CEO of that organization. Thank you, Megan, for being here. So excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.
00:00:36
So we're here to talk about a couple things. We're gonna talk about a little bit about SCCAP, which is how we refer to South Central Community Action Programs. Although a couple days ago, I think I referred to you, Megan, as S-CCAP. I gotta stop doing that. But we're here to talk about your programs and also talk a little bit about your leadership journey.
00:00:55
That's great. I'm so excited. And South Central Community Action Programs is a mouthful, which is why we say SCCAP. It's true. And we have lots of acronyms in the Community Action world that I still sometimes have to remind myself what something means.
00:01:08
So appreciate the. Appreciate the definition. So, Heather, take us away. Thank you for being my co-host today. Let's talk about SCCAP.
00:01:16
Yeah, let's do that. So. So, Megan, first question here is. Is about the agency, is about SCCAP. So can you provide an overview of a key program or programs that you have that your agency offers?
00:01:30
Sure. So we have a wide range of programs. But what I would say is really important is that carry across all of those is creating a culture of care so that it doesn't matter if we're doing weatherization or WIC or family services or shelters, that when people come in, they're cared for, they're treated with respect and dignity. We reflect back to them, their strengths and capabilities, as opposed to what brought them into our office. But a wide range of programs.
00:01:56
Some are working at the micro level, helping families. And then we have a number of programs that work at the macro community level, looking for system solutions or community solutions to really end poverty. I want to talk about a particular program that you really want to highlight. I know that you and I, over the last few years, we've gotten to know each other. There's been a number of programs that we've talked about that, that you do, from your gleaning program to your shelter program to your CIRCLES program.
00:02:27
And I want to remind everybody that's listening, right? You can go to theCAAP.org - C-A-A-P dot org and find Megan's organization, South Central Community Action Programs on our website and look at the details of all of their programs. But Megan, the question that I have for you as a kind of a follow-up is, there a particular program you would really want to highlight today that maybe people aren't aware of that you want to make sure to feature for our listeners? Sure. I think I'd love to talk a little bit about support circles.
00:02:56
It's really an economic mobility program. It's helping families create and then reach their own goals. That program, I think why it's so important to me is it really changed the culture of the way that we do our work. This program, families self-select in. They don't get anything tangible.
00:03:14
We provide dinner, childcare, and then we facilitate really protected time and space for people to create a future story. And it is the most remarkable program because it's long-term. People can stay for as long as they feel it's important to them. Many come back and volunteer in it. But we see this amazing transformation happen.
00:03:37
And so you can see someone who quit school who now has their PhD, or someone who is in our shelter who owns a home. It's so transformative, really, just by getting people out of the tyranny of the moment to have this time and space to think about what do I want for myself and my family. Then we match them with middle-class volunteers. That's great. It provides some great bridging capital for people, but it also educates our community on what poverty is like.
00:04:06
They start to learn about the barriers that exist around someone they care deeply about that they see working hard, playing by the rules and struggling. And so then together we can change systems. Gleaning. Our gleaning program was born from that work because we saw that families struggled with access to have food supports when they were working their way out of poverty. And community members said, I know someone who runs the farmer's market.
00:04:34
I wonder what they do with their produce at the end. And so they started donating it. And another community volunteer started gleaning going out after the harvest. He worked in landscaping and bringing the produce back that was left and eventually gave that program to us. But it was born from this community need.
00:04:51
If we want people to get out of poverty, we need to create a path. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to jump around in some of our questions a little bit. I hate a script, as any of our listeners know, but I think I want to reflect on something you said. The tyranny of the moment.
00:05:08
What a powerful phrase. And so I think. Right. If we can expand on that a little bit. I think one of the things that when I got the opportunity to tour your all's facility and you shared some of the artwork of the clients that have been a part of this program, can you speak a little bit about what that looks like?
00:05:27
I know that I'm not going to do as good of a job explaining what that looks like, but that was so impactful for me and I think speaks to this idea of tyranny of the moment so clearly about literally. Right. How it. How it feels to live in some of these situations and to feel so. So trapped, frankly.
00:05:47
Yeah. So the first part of circles, you know, really, we believe that the families we work with are co investigators with us. They are the experts in this. They are the ones who are facing the barriers every day. And so the first probably, I don't know, six to nine weeks of Circles, we really just been listening to people.
00:06:08
So we say, tell us what housing is like for people who are struggling. And we just have pages. What you saw were pages, sticky notes, all around the room of the experiences that families have. Part of the reason we do it that way. First, they're educating us, but also they're creating this mental model of all of the experiences that they're dealing with on a daily basis.
00:06:33
When we get done, we can look around the room and talk about the magnitude of what it's like being up against all of these barriers. And yet still they're choosing to move forward, like against this headwind. And then from there, they create really a mental model, a picture of what life is like now. And those can be really simple. There's a gentleman who created one.
00:06:55
It's just really two circles and a car. And it's called the Road to Nowhere. And he has on the side his stepson saying, where are we going? He said, nowhere, because it just feels like this is where I'm stuck. And then we have elaborate ones.
00:07:12
A woman drew this amazing neighborhood in this beautiful house, and she's standing there with her kids, a victim of domestic violence. She's from our shelter. She has four kids, including two under the age of five. And she's like, she sees this house that's more than she can pay. And her kids are saying, mommy, why?
00:07:31
Why can't we have this? And she's like, the struggle for her and her. What she wants to give her kids. But those pictures, when we go out and do meetings in the community and we can share those pictures and what we're learning. Like you suddenly start to paint this very vivid picture of what poverty is like.
00:07:50
And it's our friends and neighbors. Yeah. Yeah, we. Yeah. So I thank you for sharing that.
00:07:55
The one with the circles in particular that you mentioned about going nowhere, that's the one that every time I think about this program and I'm, you know, I can feel the tears in my eyes right now. It's just having experienced some of that in my life, you know, that resonates so much with me. Right. Breaking that cycle of whether it's poverty, abuse. Right.
00:08:17
All of those things. It, when you're. When you're in that trauma. Right. When you're in that moment feels just that.
00:08:26
And when I look at that picture, that so much to me I think about that picture so often when I think about our work on the whole. And then the other thing I want to really highlight here for folks that you touched on and sorry Heather, I'm totally going off on a tangent, but I can't help myself is around the need component. So in a prior episode with Jen Wintermeyer and with Erin Lukos, we talked a lot about the community needs assessments that our organizations do on a regular basis. We're required to do those. Right?
00:08:54
You all are required to do those. Those. But I think what you touched on here is something that's really important in terms of how your gleaning program came to be, is that this moment and any moment that you're having with clients is helping to inform how a program evolves or whether or not a program is relevant anymore. And so I just want to really highlight that for people and so that are listening that don't understand the concept of how Community Action really creates hyper-local programs and responses to what we're seeing in our communities. And so is there anything else that you want to share about your.
00:09:32
The things that you're seeing on a regular basis right now, in particular about local needs and sorry, I'm totally stealing some questions here, but I just think it's such an important point to what you just shared. Right. I do think that is the beauty of Community Action. And I think when you're walking so closely to families and so closely to your community through needs assessments and really the ongoing process of listening in your community, you can't help but adapt to the needs. I mean, we saw that during COVID Community Action.
00:10:04
Really we were out there on the front line the entire time. And so you are adapting to the Crisis mitigation needs that you had to for families. I know we did some videos on just how to keep safe because we are a trusted voice and we could help people through that process to being able to get food out and deliver it across our county. Those responses are so important. We're seeing some of that now.
00:10:30
With the cost of living that's existing, with the real crisis that is attainable housing, housing in line with incomes in our counties, we are having to adapt again. I think there's this unique time that exists right now. People ran through COVID. The experiences and trauma that COVID was that we really haven't acknowledged or processed. I'm sure years from now, there's going to be a lot of research about.
00:10:57
This chance to really unpack how we, how we felt about it. And yet now we're in a different moment because now everything is, feels fast-forwarded. Sorry, I mean, interrupt, but I just. That is something that I think we, we talk about within the work of our agencies. Because yes, we went from this moment to now working in an environment where now not only are we meeting in person again, but we're also meeting on Zoom all the time or, you know, whatever platform.
00:11:20
And it just feels like there's no space, there's been no space to process that's right. Or acknowledgement of how hard it was. Right. And to go from that to this time where inflation is high, housing is low, resources have been cut, makes it hard again. And so when we don't acknowledge those pieces or even the difficulties of the path out of poverty, people internalize it as if it's them or someone else.
00:11:45
Right. And we see that a lot right now. So I think creating space and open conversations in our community with our families, with our staff, with our peers, to be able to acknowledge and process those things is all part of the community work that we have to do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:01
I, I love this so much. I, I, I just adore the work that you're doing. Thank you so much. And just the, the how in the intent behind it and how intentional you are. You know, I'm in, I'm in marketing.
00:12:16
So knowing what the consumer, what their needs, hopes and desires are is paramount to serving that audience. And you are doing this by the interviews and the, the Venn diagrams and the artwork that you're doing. How better to know exactly what folks are going through than to ask in a really fun and creative way. But then you don't stop there. I imagine that, you know, it's, it's one thing to Survive, and that's what these folks are doing.
00:12:46
But you're giving them an opportunity and a promise that you're going to help them thrive. Like Beck said, it's like a record scratch. We got to shift the narrative here. We can only do that if we get them to think a little bit and visualize. Is that part of the work?
00:13:01
Totally. Totally part of the work. And we start meetings by what's new and good. So it's kind of cognitive restructuring, which is important, and then we end it by what you appreciate about the person sitting next to you. I facilitated Circles on Wednesday night, and one of the individuals was just talking about how she's seen this dramatic change in one of the families that are coming.
00:13:23
She is one of the circle leaders of family, and she's just reflecting back to her. She said, you just were so shy and so uncomfortable being able to talk about what's going on, and now you're so confident. And she said, I've been able to see myself through someone else's eyes. And so I think in the social services world, if we reflect back to people, what brought them in our door, we're doing this tremendous disservice. People who come into our door are dealing with monumental things.
00:13:56
If we can reflect back to them, their strengths and capabilities and help them to reframe what the community says, what social media says, what television and marketing say about people in poverty, they help translate that to them so that they can see how strong and capable they are. They can take that in other directions. So that's the important part of the work, right. For all. For all of us.
00:14:22
That's the important part of the work. Well, and I think, right. You're also in the artwork piece that. And I just love that so much because there's also this art therapy therapeutic moment for them to express how they feel in a way that I don't even know that you can really explain it when you're living in it. Right.
00:14:41
And so there's this moment that they get to create it in such a way that it manifests so clearly. But then I think the other. Other thing that you just said there that I want to reflect back on a little bit is this idea that right. When. If we can't see it, how can we dream it?
00:14:58
Right. If we can't, if we haven't seen good examples of powerful things, how do we know how to manifest that, you know? And in that we know, right. What it's like to live in these situations. We don't need someone to tell us how it feels.
00:15:16
We need. We need to be able to believe in ourselves. And when it feels like you've been so minimized or so. Right. Condensed to this version, that's a hard thing for somebody.
00:15:31
How do you dream if you've never been able to dream? That's right. Right. When you don't honor the pain or the struggle, then those things just continue on. It is amazing to see the incredible CAAPabilities that people have.
00:15:50
It is part of the beauty of the work that we do. Well, tell us about it. Do you have a case study or a case. Obviously not saving any names, but anything that we can celebrate that's come through your doors? Sure.
00:16:04
You know, I think of a couple of individuals. One is an individual who. She quit, actually kind of fell out of school in third grade, went back later, finished fifth grade, went back in seventh, quit school, got her GED, was coming to circles. And today she has two master's degrees, a PhD and works in county government in a very large county. Like you.
00:16:29
Just. I hear her story and it's funny because we went out to lunch the one day and she said, you know, you know my whole story. Very few people do, because if you were to meet her, you know, she's a doctor. Like, do you know what I mean? She's earned her doctorate and is incredibly capable and skilled, and was that way in third grade, in fifth grade, in seventh grade when she dropped out, when she started going back, like the same person.
00:16:59
I think of Virginia and her husband, who were at our homeless shelter and now own a home. And she is a huge advocate for families with kids with special needs because they have some kids who've had some special needs who are doing great, who are thriving, and is a great community advocate for lots of other issues because she found. I won't even say she found her voice. She found a way to share her voice in a way that people could hear it because she's been trying all along. And she's just amazing what her and her husband do.
00:17:40
And they do a lot of work with other couples because most of our circles families come back, they volunteer with other families or speak to legislators or change policies at the local level. Again, because they have those capabilities and strengths. But Virginia's on our board. A number of families come through circles are on our board. They see the transformative nature of not only the programs, but the way you do the work.
00:18:11
There's a quote that I like to say, “Empowered people empower people.” Thank you, Virginia, for doing that and all the other folks that have the human, excuse me, the human potential. Yes. That you are uplifting and fostering and supporting.
00:18:30
Yes. My goodness gracious. That just makes me feel good. It's the, it's the gift of this work. I mean, it is hard.
00:18:36
It's really hard when you see someone struggling in the beginning of circles and you know, you hear so many difficult pieces that someone is dealing with and you know, it's so hard to hold space for that, to honor those experiences and to not be crushed by the weight of it. But then you see this evolution take place for someone and even the relief of hearing someone say it is as hard as it feels. The system is as broken as it is, which is keeping you stuck. When you could talk about. We all know there are personal choice issues for all of us, but the system level and community barriers that just exist around poverty, like when you can start to acknowledge it and people can feel a little bit of the weight of the self blame and community blame that exists again, frees up space for someone to be able to create a beautiful life.
00:19:35
Supports. Yeah. And I think we talked about this on another recording where for our listeners, the month of May, we're celebrating Community Action Month this year and so doing a number of special episodes with folks that are frontline executive directors, a mix of employees, and we've talked to a couple of case managers to prepare for those episodes. And I think you'll hear or have heard from directly some of them. And I think one of the things that we talk a lot about on a larger scale within Community Action, fairly frequently, about how do we advocate for the work that we do because so few people know about Community Action.
00:20:13
And hopefully we're changing that with this podcast. But I think there's so many myths around, you know, what, what poverty is, the idea that it's about personal choice that people have made, the idea that Community Action is about handouts and connecting people to welfare systems. And one of the things that I love to explore a little bit with you is about the benefits cliff, because you do such a great job of explaining this to people. And so first and foremost want to acknowledge that the clients of Community Action and the folks that we're serving largely are working individuals, have one, two, maybe three jobs, still don't have the means right to necessarily become self-sufficient, so less reliant on those systems. And I'm going to say this again, so for our listeners, I'm sorry, I'm going to repeat myself again and again and again about this, but that also so many folks are one emergency away from being back in a situation or one emergency away from being in poverty.
00:21:11
Right. Because of all of the dynamics of our local economies and what we're seeing in terms of local need. So I'm going to say that first and then go back to the question about. Can you talk a little bit about cliff. Benefits.
00:21:22
Benefits Cliff. And describe that for people? Because I think this is a framework that's really important that people just don't quite understand. Sure. So one of the families in circles we were talking because we educate families on the cliff .
00:21:37
they should understand what's going to happen when they start earning more. Take a second job because you have to do a cost-benefit analysis. So we were talking about this in one of our families this year there was a $26 increase in Social Security that came into their family, which caused them to lose $80 in SNAP benefits and $25 and their housing increased by $25. So this increase of a minuscule amount, she lost four times that in benefits.
00:22:09
And that's the process that happens all the time. And you know, frequently when we go out to do meetings, we do an experience. We kind of, we call it the self-sufficiency process. And we have people tell us what does it cost to live in the community? How much is housing, child care, a car, food, miscellaneous expenses, health.
00:22:28
Health care. I find this so interesting. People's perceptions of what these things are amazing. Because if you say what does it cost to live? They'll say oh, 40,000.
00:22:36
But when you ask for these costs and they, and we add it up together and they see that the cost is 65 or 75,000 and that benefits end for a family of three at about 26,000. Like between there is where all the benefits are lost, and at twice that amount, everything, almost everything is gone. But you can't meet basic living expenses. So what do you do? You know, I think about it often.
00:23:02
I have a daughter, she and her husband and a grandchild. And if she came and said I'm going to take a second job and I won't be able to feed my grandson, what would I say? I would say don't take the job. Right. Which is why it's always so amazing to me as people do these steps that put their life for a period of time in a more difficult place, that's what happens with the benefit cliff.
00:23:24
But it's really amazing when we think about that. Kara was our first family to become self-sufficient. She is amazing. She still volunteers, she serves on my board, but volunteers in circles every week. She started 2007.
00:23:41
She's been volunteering with us once she became self-sufficient. Since then, she's helped so many other families. But she was one of the people who was able to speak to legislators about the cliff effect. She was actually on NPR's All Things Considered, sharing what life is like when you're working your way out of poverty. And there was a cliff effect bill that impacted child care subsidy, and it raised the income guideline to around 300%.
00:24:07
And it had a clause in there that said pending funding availability. And so we really didn't think a lot about it since then. We were thrilled that it passed because, you know, I had a reporter who called and said, How did you get that to pass? You could do a bill saying, Don't kick puppies, and it wouldn't pass. I don't know.
00:24:24
We were just. I mean, she was compelling. The story is meaningful on both sides, but for lots of reasons. But that bill there is. The child care cliff is far above any other program based on that work.
00:24:42
So this mom who started as a waitress in our program, achieved legislative changes because she shared her voice. That's the thing. So we can tell people stories, but when they share their stories, when they see it, when they reflect it, when they have that experience and can share it, it's so unbelievably compelling. Yeah, absolutely. You're talking with some really smart folks here.
00:25:09
You're talking people changing legislation. You're talking from GED to master's degrees. I mean, my goodness gracious, that's phenomenal. Well, I think. I think it goes before you.
00:25:22
Before you. I want to just. I want to speak to that a little bit because. Right. Like, it goes back to this idea about perceptions.
00:25:27
Right. And I think every time we meet somebody, when I do presentations on workplace culture and about. Right. Like trying to create a space where. Where all people can thrive.
00:25:38
Ultimately. When I do that presentation, I talk about perception and reality, and I try to be really intentional about how I speak to that, because regardless of whether or not we want to admit it, when we meet somebody new for the first time, we. We. We make a decision about who they are, about what their hobbies are. We make these snap judgments, right?
00:25:58
And we all. We all do it. And I think particularly in. In this work of Community Action, when we think about clients and the peop. People's perceptions of clients of Community Action, there is all of this perception about.
00:26:14
Right. Like, well, if you didn't want to be in poverty, you wouldn't be in poverty. Oh, you just Work harder. Oh, you pull yourself up by all these phrases like pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Take overtime.
00:26:23
Well, it's not that easy. Right. You know, I reflect on simple things in my life. So I'm walking to school one day with my kids, dropping them off at school for the morning, and suddenly I get a text message that school's closed because they lost electric. Well, let's say I don't have the job that I have right now, and I don't have sick time, and I don't have vacation time, and I'm 15 minutes out from my shift because I'm also walking to work.
00:26:51
And now I have to call and potentially lose my job because it's not within the timeframe that's an allowable time off. What do I do with my kids? What do I do with my job? And now I'm back in a situation. So it's not about.
00:27:07
Right. Like, we talk about this all the time. You know, you can't budget your way out of poverty. People who live in poverty can budget better than anybody. That's clear.
00:27:16
That is clearly very true. Right. And worse yet, there's this perception that they're not. They're not capable. We're not capable people, and that.
00:27:25
That's just. Couldn't be further from the truth either. And I just. It's really unfortunate that more often than not, people are making snap judgments before they ever take the time to really speak to somebody or really speak to one of our agencies. Right.
00:27:40
Or listen to our podcast, you know, about understanding this. And I think that's. It's really. It's really. I don't know, it's just really unfortunate that people don't take the time to better understand.
00:27:51
And here's what I'll say also about perception. And I'm going to get off my soapbox in just a second. When we acknowledge when we make the snap judgment, that's when we can start to make the change. It's just like any other habit. Right.
00:28:02
So, you know, we've got to start getting back to the gym. We don't just start going back to the gym right after the holidays. You've got to be intentional about recognizing these things. I want to change. And so if you can acknowledge when you're making the snap judgment, you can start to change it for yourself.
00:28:18
That's right. And make space for it. I mean, there are not a lot of places where we have folks from different economic class or social status or race. Race, ethnicity. Like, unfortunately, we end up in lots of our own echo chambers.
00:28:37
But we can be intentional about that in community and we can find spaces to do that in circles. When we match people, when we make those connections across race and class lines, it creates this very intentional way for people to get to know each other and create wonderful friendships that last for a long, long time. And you know, you can come to a meeting and you may not know who is an ally, kind of a community volunteer and who is a circle leader, because it's just the experience is like that. And I think we can do that. You don't have to work in Community Action to do that.
00:29:12
You can step out of your experiences and intentionally put yourself in spaces where other people who may think or feel or have different experiences than you do. That's a gift that we can all make for ourselves. Right. And be able to have an honest conversation. We don't have to.
00:29:30
We don't have to agree. That's right. We certainly don't have to fight. Right? Yes.
00:29:34
We can just have a discussion and. Be curious about someone else's experiences. Be curious. Yeah. Well, and before we.
00:29:41
I know we want to kind of start to talk a little bit about your leadership journey, Megan, but I want to just ask one other, one other question, Heather, if you have any other questions about Megan's programs that are in the immediate for you. And this is not really the most sexy thing to talk about, to be clear what I'm about to ask. But one of the intentionalities of how Community Action was created was around the board structure. And so I think what you just said there about. Right.
00:30:05
Like intentionality of people coming together is something that is really created within the structure of who we are. And so can you speak a little bit to the tripartite structure of our boards within our agencies and part of what kind of the. It's a little bit of the secret sauce, if you will, about Community Action in some way. Yeah, totally, because it is very intentional. So, you know, Community Action agencies are required to have a board that has one-third political appointees or elected officials, 1/3 low low-income folks or folks who come from marginalized populations, and then one-third of just general community members.
00:30:43
So you're making that up. But what I love about the way that our board is structured is when you have low-income folks or people who've used your services or who've experiences the complexities that poverty brings, there is an urgency that happens at the board level. Right. We're not going to spend time fighting about where the comma goes in something. Right.
00:31:06
We're going to be focused on the important things so our strategic discussions can be about how do we do this work better thinking through the programs that we're doing, making sure that they are as effective as they can be, thinking through finance, just not finance, but finance, around programming and making sure things are effective. And when we have our elected officials, they're having this chance to be informed not only about the work that we do and the impact of the decisions that they're making on this work, but they get to hear from low-income folks. They get the experience of having a voice right there at the table to be able to express that. The same with our general board members. They bring specific expertise.
00:31:47
We have some flexibility in who we're selecting there. But we are creating this intentional community of folks who have very different lived experience. I think when you create that space and you make sure that everybody has the space to talk and to think through and express those differences, to talk through it, you just come up with such a richer, more effective governance structure. And it definitely takes work because you are, you have power dynamics that have been in existence for a long time around the table that you have to really be intentional about fighting against and making sure that you are making space until people can hold their own space without you kind of holding it for them. But it is magic.
00:32:37
It is amazing. And it is, it can't be done as a checkbox. It can't. Right. And it, it really self-perpetuates then.
00:32:45
Right. The breaking down of these perceptions when done really well, which I'd like to think that our agencies do this really well. Yes. It self, it self perpetuates the change in local community. Right.
00:32:58
It does it through the, through the infrastructure of who we are at our core. That's exactly. I think it's a really. Again, it's that not, it's not, you know, board structure is not the most, you know, not everybody loves governance as much as I do, but I think it's, it's really, when you think about it, from the intentionality component, it's something that's really the magic sauce of who we are and that's, that's created in the, in the infrastructure. Right.
00:33:23
The fair legislation that we have to follow to function as organizations. What you all do, I don't as an association, but I appreciate that you do and help, help, you know, in whatever way I can as an association to make that happen. Well, and it's so critically important because our, you know, the vision organizationally and that governance structure, if they don't understand the work. And this helps ensure that someone can really understand the work and the impact if this work is done. Well, yeah, I can't imagine.
00:33:53
I feel so fortunate that we have such a great board of really good and varied life experience. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for talking about that a little bit again. I know it's not the most exciting thing, but I think it's exciting. It's important.
00:34:08
Yeah, yeah. All good. Well, to round out the last agency sort of question, you know, we talked about the past, talked about the future, or, excuse me, we'll talk about the present. Let's talk a little bit about the future really quickly. And for any other executive directors or CEOs that are listening.
00:34:24
And you talked about governance, Beck, and the current climate we're in right now. It's like, how do you see your agency evolving over the next few years? Yeah, so it's a complex time.
00:34:43
And so I think, you know, it's. It's fortunate that we are used to doing needs assessments. We're used to doing the evaluative work, to be able to look at our own internal processes and programs as well as to do these kind of continuous scans of our community. Because I think there's. I think we are going to see increasing needs.
00:35:04
Like it's, it's inevitable, kind of with the structure it is. And I think it is highly likely that we will have some diminished federal resources, you know. Sure. Right. So the reality is it's going to change.
00:35:18
Right? It's. It is. It's just going to be messy for a while. And so I think it's incumbent on all of us to be able to sit down and do the analysis, to really be thoughtful in the way, you know, if we have cuts that we need to enact or if we have to think differently about funding, that we're really thoughtful in that.
00:35:36
So we have to be really well prepared. You know, we're doing impact, both fiscal and kind of our outcome impact processes now, just doing those assessments so that we have a lot of the good data that helps us as we look at efficiencies and how can we. I mean, and my goodness, Community Action is one of the most efficient programs that I know. We are really good at this through our 60 years of history. I've been in this position for 20 years, and I know I am pulling from some of the work that happened in the, around 2009 when we had some of the same struggles, just trying to think those things through, but not forgetting that we still need to be Looking at things like affordable housing, you know, there's a crisis in child care across the country because their child care doesn't make much money.
00:36:30
And so we've lost slots everywhere. Thinking about workforce-related issues, not only from a job training perspective, but we know there are going to be less workers. Baby boomers are aging out. So how do you, you respond to these? Like, there's a lot of big strategic things.
00:36:48
And so it's balancing all of those pieces. I think certainly it is stressful and can feel overwhelming, but we are good at this piece of adapting and trying to figure out how do we do the best we can in the communities we serve and how do we pull together communities to figure out how do we respond, you know, if funding is cut and there are people who need someone to stand in the gap, how do we respond to that? And I think, you know, pushing politics to the side, our focus is how do we help the families we serve in the communities we live in. Yeah. And that's, you know, part of the purpose of this podcast is really to try to help advocate for, for the work that we do as a network of Community Action agencies, not just in Pennsylvania, but across the country.
00:37:43
You know, there's over a thousand Community Action agencies. We're one of only 15 nationally networked human services providers in the country. Locally, here in Pennsylvania, 42 Community Action agencies that serve every single county. Remind everybody, last year alone we served over 503,000 people collectively as Community Action agencies. That's a remarkable number, I think.
00:38:06
Yeah, I mean, all politics aside, right? It's, it's, this is really about making sure people understand the work and the fact that, you know, there's this again, another myth is that we're not an outcomes-based program. And that couldn't, again, couldn't be further from the truth. Right. Community Action has, is required to collect more outcomes than all.
00:38:24
I think I'm going to say I don't have anything to prove this, but, you know, I'm going to go venture to, say, almost any other nonprofit in the country because of how we were created. Again, the intentionality of what we were tracking and being able to show the economic mobility and impact on a local scale, and how we're able to take the federal dollars that we receive and turn them into bigger impact. That's exactly right. And I think the benefit, I really believe that measuring outcomes, looking at outcomes, being able to identify gaps in services, and continuous improvement is really critical because that's what enables us to make the shifts we need to make in order to better serve the families we serve. If you're not looking at the data, if you can't tell, are we seeing better outcomes for a certain group of the population?
00:39:16
Well, why is that? And is that a community-level issue? Is that a broken system? Is that our own internal services and biases? We have to be looking at that.
00:39:26
And that's, I think, part of what makes us successful. We are so person-centered and outcome-focused. And I think those pieces do help us in moments like this to be able to make effective shifts. None of it will make it easier. These are hard times, but this is what we do.
00:39:49
Yeah. And together you're better. Together you're stronger. Sorry, Beck, 100%. No, absolutely.
00:39:54
That's. That's almost exactly what I was gonna say. So. No, That's, I think 60 years strong, right? 60 years strong.
00:40:01
Yeah. Yeah. We stand on the shoulders of giants. It's true. That's true.
00:40:06
Megan, I just appreciate you so much. I just want to say that out loud. I just, I just do. I just, I love talking to you. I can talk to you.
00:40:13
Right back at you. Let's. So let's, let's shift a little bit to talk about your leadership journey if we can. I mean, again, I could talk to you all day about your programs. I think you all are doing amazing things, but I want to make sure that our listeners understand a little bit about just how remarkable your leadership journey has been.
00:40:29
And I know that, you know, you are a humble individual and it's one of the things I appreciate about you. But I want to toot your horn a little bit on this in terms of, like, the things that you've accomplished and the different work that you've been a part of. So, Heather, I know we have some, some questions we want to ask. Ask me. Yeah, yeah, I love it.
00:40:46
I love talking to other leaders because you inspire me so much. And, you know, we've talked about how stressful this work is, but how impactful it is. So my question to you, Megan, is, you know, what inspired you to pursue this career? Now, you've said you've been in for two decades. There had to be something, a motivating factor that got you in the seat.
00:41:06
Can you, can you let us know why? Sure. You know, I think we do a disservice to youth when we, you know, they're coming out of high school and we think they're going to pick a career path and that's it. Right. Well, that's never the way it.
00:41:21
Nobody knows what they want to be. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. And I'm 43, in case you're wondering. So. Right.
00:41:28
Like, you know, I'm figuring it out along the way. It doesn't work that way. I. We work with a lot of young college students who volunteer with us. And I'm always telling them, don't, don't accept this pressure.
00:41:38
Your career is going to evolve. And that's similar for me. I. When I graduated from high school, my growing up years were complex and faith got me through that part. And so I had every intention of going into the ministry.
00:41:55
Went to a small Bible college. All the things you don't know about me, Beck, I know I didn't know this. I'm learning. I was like, wait a second, we have a longer conversation than we need to have.
00:42:07
But yes, I know, we'll talk more. And so went to this small college. I had to work, I didn't have a car. So I was walking around trying to find a job and I found a low-income child care center that hired me on the spot. I had no past child care experience, which says a lot, but that job really changed the trajectory of my life.
00:42:29
I was working with low-income families, and I knew nothing. So even looking back now, I just shake my head because, you know, we do the best we can with what we know at the, at that time. Amen. But I. I found the work with the kids that I was working with to be really impactful for me, and to be able to make a significant difference in their lives.
00:42:52
And so I then studied early childhood and family development. So that's the background that I came from. And when I graduated, I came back home, and I have an identical twin sister who was working, again. It's actually not Megan talking to us right now. It's actually.
00:43:13
It could be Julie. You'll never know. But she was working at a large child care center for at-risk kids and she was going on maternity leave, and they hired me to fill in for her. Weird, right? I'm sorry, did they hire you?
00:43:31
No, it wasn't her. But it was SCCAP. So it was a SCCAP program back then. Forever ago. So they hired me to fill in because they thought nobody would notice, which is.
00:43:46
I just. Oh, that's. I. I just. Nobody would notice.
00:43:51
But people didn't for a little while. It was confusing. I'd be pregnant in the morning and not in the afternoon. Very strange. But then they kept both of us.
00:44:01
We need to do a whole episode on this I feel like listeners future episode. We're going to unpack this whole situation. We're going to have. We're going to invite a mental health professional to talk about the psychology of this maybe. Go on, I'm listening.
00:44:12
Sorry to interrupt. I just find this. So I didn't know this story and so I just. I'm loving this. Go on.
00:44:18
Sorry. So.
00:44:21
So she. We were then co-directors for quite a while. She left and went into health care working for insurance, which has been a benefit for me in the last part of my career in understanding health care a little bit better. And so I worked there and moved up, worked with the board on some things, moved into child care subsidy and working for quality education across three counties through SCCAP at that time and then started doing some work with Deloitte on designing a software system for child care subsidy across the state. Kind of a weird thing.
00:44:55
Subject matter expert. And then I took a leap into the private sector because this world doesn't always pay a lot. And I had a young family and had an opportunity that looked beneficial. Worked in the private sector for five years doing business process analysis, implementation policy integration around change management initiatives. Really strange kind of a journey that brought me there.
00:45:28
I. I liked that a lot. The strategy work was really fantastic. I learned a lot about how to kind of use the experiences that I've had in a very different way around some software system implementations and other change management across a couple of states. And then the executive director at SCCAP was retiring.
00:45:47
A board member reached out to say, are you interested? And I love this kind of work. So I think threw my name in the hat and went through the interview process, and was hired and came back 20 years ago. Thank you. Yeah, me too.
00:46:05
I am really thankful. It was a pretty big pay cut but. But you know, I remember thinking if I want to, you know, I work pretty similar hours to what I work there, but I remember thinking if I'm going to kill myself working, I really don't want it to be for this. I want it to be in service to my community. The board said when they hired me, we don't want someone who is just going to run programs.
00:46:30
We want someone who can help people move out of poverty. I had spent these five years really, really being, having to be strategic about where a company was, where they wanted to go, what's the processes that we have to get there and how do we make it happen. And so I took it really seriously. We looked all over. We found circles, support circles, kind of the model for that in Ames, Iowa and incorporated that.
00:46:56
And that drastically changed the way that I do this work and our organization. I'm so incredibly thankful that we found that when we did. Because starting your career walking alongside families, there is no way you couldn't not work at the system level. And you couldn't like you would have to change the way you do your work because you're seeing the struggle of families. I mean, it made.
00:47:33
It changed everything about me and our organization. And I am so deeply grateful for that journey because I think it is kind of what brought us here today. And I've been fortunate enough to serve on CAAP's board for a long time. I've been, you know, served on a hospital board, a health systems board. I've served on some national things, but I think all of those.
00:47:54
And I would have never. I sometimes sitting on a health system, chairing a health system board, thinking, I mean, I'm not your typical health system board member, right. I don't have money.
00:48:10
It can be confusing in those moments because it's hard to imagine, you know, those pieces of the journey and how you ended up there. But it is a gift to be in those spaces, to be able to talk about, you know, thinking about strategy a little bit differently because you're being more inclusive because we have the opportunity to be able to walk along so many different folks. Right. Well, and what a. I think again, I'll go back to this kind of, you know, preconceived notion about what and who and what people think.
00:48:42
And I think when you, when someone like yourself, right. Who, first of all, to be clear, a thousand times over, are. Should be in that boardroom and should be on that board.
00:48:54
But then when you're able to unpack and talk about your journey and someone's like, oh, you know, well, that, that's not, that's not what I expected this person to say. You know, I think that's. That's important, right. That you're in that space. And that's also, you know, anybody who's listening and has a board or right.
00:49:10
Is looking for people to serve on boards. I would encourage you to go to some of our agency executive directors. If you want a suggestion, feel free to reach out to me beck@theCAAP.org. Happy to make some suggestions for your particular local area. But I think it's, it's. You all are the epitome of what should be serving in those spaces.
00:49:27
I think, and I'll kind of get to a question here that you and I have talked about this a lot, you know, for those of you who don't know this, Megan was a part of the, the team of folks who went through the recruitment process when I was being hired here at CAAP. And I think we've talked a lot about imposter syndrome. Heather, I think in the episode that you interviewed me for the Thinking CAAP, we talked a little bit about how I feel about this. Anytime on stage, I have these moments where I'm like, what am I even saying? And why is anyone listening to me?
00:49:59
And outside, no one's going to guess that you're feeling that way on the inside. For a lot of our podcast guests, folks get nervous about being on the podcast. But Megan, my question for you is, does that, that still, it sounds like that still resonates with you, right? Like the. Even though you've been doing this work for how many years, you know it, I would argue better than, better than most.
00:50:19
And you've worked in the for-profit industry. Right. In a different space altogether.
00:50:26
How that, how that feels still sometimes. Totally. I mean, and I think probably, I mean, I think probably a lot of it is the stuff we carry. Right. All of us have history that, you know, if we're not careful, can sidetrack us.
00:50:42
We have to always be working against that. But I also think when you're working in a field that most people don't see as valuable, like people don't understand the work that we do. Right. You know, if I say we do anti-poverty work or depending on, there are a couple times when people will be really excited, but most people just have no idea. And, and what they will think is that you are a super nice person, which I hope that I am.
00:51:06
Right. But also I'm incredibly intelligent. Right, Right. I use more strategy in this job than I did at Deloitte. You know, it's just, it's the way that it is.
00:51:18
I mean, you have to be strategic when you are working with so many partners across your communities, trying to impact so many different systems, with many people who think differently and trying to help people have a broad understanding of the important nature of the work that we do and the people that we serve. But yeah, people make assumptions. So I think that sometimes adds to it. I mean, anytime when you're doing it. But I think part of that is human nature too, right?
00:51:50
Yeah, for sure. So I know that we're coming up on our, on our time and I want to be respectful of your time and make sure that, that we also have enough of a chance to ask maybe one or two more questions of you if that's okay with you? When I just got checked. Okay, perfect. And I know that we've tried to keep some of our episodes a little bit shorter in the past, but I just, I'm loving the conversation we have.
00:52:09
But I want to, I don't want to, I don't want it to end. So I just want to make sure we get to a couple more before we, we wrap here. But the other question I, I have for you is just a lot of times, right, we'll ask like, what's your leadership style? I don't like that question. I don't think it's, it's a weird question to ask sometimes, but whatever.
00:52:26
We ask it all the time, even when we're doing interviews. But when you think about what is sort of like your highest and most important thing in terms of how you lead and guide on a day to day basis, what's really the one thing that you think is just the top of your list in terms of how you lead and guide your team and how you lead and guide SCCAP?
00:52:50
I think it is listening to both the people that you serve and the people who do the work. So I think that, you know, certainly when you're a leader, you have to be setting the vision, but you know, working with our staff to understand the complexities that they're dealing with, identifying where we can make efficiencies. I want my staff to be working on client services, right? I want them to be, to be spending their time not doing, of course, we all have to do data entry, we all have to be doing things. But what I want is to find any efficiency that I can so that most of their time is spent serving clients.
00:53:29
And you can't do that unless you hear from them about the complexities they're having or figuring out how to support them through the crazy times that we're having. And then you have to listen to the families you serve. And I think if you are, if you as a leader are focused on, you know, it's really looking at the end goal, right? If I'm wanting to see the success of the families that we serve and the success, success of my staff, that comes from listening to them and hearing them and. Yeah, well, and I want to recognize, you know, the fact that one of the things I talk about often when I talk about management and coaching and talking about how to become a better manager and you know, team leader, is about the further that we get away from the day to day work of the organization, the harder it is to create processes, rules, policies that really are the most thoughtful make it easier to do the work.
00:54:23
Right, or try to refine or continually improve. And I think for you, right, the fact that you're still involved in circles, you're still facilitating those conversations, you're listening to your team, that speaks volumes about how you're able to still stay connected. And for so many of us, you know, you started in this work, but if you're not doing it on the day to day, you become further removed. And there's gaps in our knowledge then. And so listening to folks is really super hypercritical to being, I think, I think, the best leader that we can be in this environment.
00:54:52
I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. And we're pretty administratively flat. There's not a lot of management between. And it's a very open door.
00:55:04
But I think that's who we are. I think that's part of the nature of this work. It's one of the wildest things, I think about you, that how many people that you directly supervise, because. What's that number again, Megan? Well, I hired someone last year, used to be 21 directly.
00:55:17
Heather supervised 21 people directly. I don't know how. I'm not saying that's best practice. It's not best practice. I know.
00:55:25
I'm not saying that either, to be clear. And I have said, Megan, we gotta. We gotta figure this out. But it's. You functioned and you functioned well.
00:55:35
So you made it. You made it work. So I'm happy to hear that you've reduced that number. Thank you. Hired somebody else.
00:55:41
Good job delegating. It's hard. Thank you. So hard as a leader to do all that. Well, we talked about so much.
00:55:48
We talked about your agency, of course, South Central Community Action Programs, and all the, all the beautiful work that you're doing there, the challenges that you're overcoming, the case studies. Right, The. The human potential that you're uplifting and supporting. We talked about leadership and, and all the ways that you've become the amazing, trustful, resourceful leader that you are today. So I want to leave the conversation with this for other executive directors and CEOs and leaders like myself who are always looking to.
00:56:18
To get help and resources. Megan, what do you do to grow as a leader? What, what helps fill your cup up so that you can come in in the morning and serve the way you do? I think there are two things, I think continuously learning, identifying gaps in knowledge and trying to fill those gaps, reorienting at a moment like this in Fiscal analysis and making sure I'm on my game on those pieces.
00:56:49
I think that continuous improvement is really important. Filling your cup. I think there's two pieces. I think for me, being in circles, working with families, being able to have that, still have that, that opportunity to see people changing their lives is just wonderful. And then having good peers, you know, these can be very lonely positions, especially in times like this.
00:57:14
And so we have to find folks who can understand, who we can process with. And, you know, I feel like we're incredibly fortunate in Community Action to have that. I certainly count back as one of those people, feel very fortunate for that. But I think those are the things. And then trying to find some balance in our lives.
00:57:34
Right. We still need to find balance. Yeah. Do you read? Do you listen to music?
00:57:40
Do you go for a walk? I read. I don't sleep very well, so anytime I wake up, I read. What book would you be reading? So it's going to be quite a variety.
00:57:50
Right now I'm reading some of Sarah Mass, I think so she has a lot of fantasy books that are really, really good. But I really like mystery. I like kind of academic stuff. I like studies there. So it really varies.
00:58:03
It depends on what's going on. I also love doing home repair. Beck and I both, like, we bonded about that often as a, you know, nothing we. That's right.
00:58:13
Nothing we do in our day jobs ever really has a clean end. But, you know, you replace a floor and you can see it. That's. That's it. That's.
00:58:21
I've tried to say to people, because I'll say, like, you know, they're like, what are you. What are you up to? Like, how. What are you doing in your free time? Like, I'm remodeling my bathroom because there's a clear start and end.
00:58:30
I can see the progress and I can see what I've done with my own hands has made a difference in the immediate. And in this work, sometimes that feels ambiguous in nature. And so I think that is so much it. I'm writing that down. Yes.
00:58:44
Trying to describe this for somebody and that you've provided a moment of clarity for me. Yeah, yeah. It's that I love fixing computers too, for the same reason. You know, it's got a virus. I got the virus off.
00:58:54
I feel good. Yes. So as fixers, right. We fix the problem, we move on to the next problem and we can. We continue to fill our cup because we fixed a problem for ourselves.
00:59:03
That's right. And better to fix problems and things because we do not fix people. They are in charge of their own life. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Wiser words have never been spoken.
00:59:13
I just want to say one other, one other thing before we officially close out here. Well, Megan, first, is there anything else that you want to share that has come to mind that you didn't have a chance to share? We often will ask the question, like, what myths are you busting? But I think we've busted a bunch of myths along this discussion. But is there anything else you want to make sure to share for our listeners about your work, the work of Community Action?
00:59:36
Anything in particular? Yeah. I would love to say to those who are working Community Action, I just want to say you guys are heroes. You are doing the work. People don't see it frequently.
00:59:50
You're making space for people until they can hold it on their own. And I just am so deeply grateful for the folks that we work with that are really changing the world and supporting the economic infrastructure in our communities. Absolutely. It's why I say all the time I feel so blessed to be a part of this network. And I think one of the things that we've talked about a lot, that was one of my hopes when I first started here, is that we created a sense of community again within our network of agencies.
01:00:17
And when you said about. Right. What's part of helping fill your cup? It's one of the things that I feel so blessed to be able to convene together so many amazing executive directors that help to just give each other best practices, help to fill each other's cups. You know, sometimes we'll go in with the intention of one discussion in a.
01:00:35
In a meeting, and we end up really just helping each other feel seen, heard, and valued in the moment. And that's. That's part of the. What I love about the association and the work that we get to do because we don't get to do direct client work more often. Often than not.
01:00:47
Right. It's really about helping you all. And so thank you for. For leaning in as the board chair over these last few years and, you know, hopefully for a little while longer, if, you know, you don't mind. Shameless plug there.
01:01:00
But I just. I can't say enough amazing things about you, Megan. I'm just so. I'm so appreciative of the time for our listeners to get a little bit of insight into your journey, what you do at SCCAP, and just what an amazing human you are. I appreciate you so much.
01:01:14
Thank you. Appreciate you, too. This was such a pleasure and a privilege to work with you and Beck. You support your clients, which is us. You enable us to do the work.
01:01:23
Thanks for it. That's fair, I guess, a little bit. I'll say. Thank you for that. I appreciate you. People helping people.
01:01:30
That's right. That's right. Heather, thank you for being my amazing co-host today. Thank you to our listeners. Please tune in to a future episode.
01:01:36
Megan, thank you for joining us. If you are interested, folks, please check out SCCAP. You can go to theCAAP.org website. You can find out about Megan's organization, opportunities to volunteer resources or time, please, please check them out. Go to their website.
01:01:54
Megan, thank you again. My pleasure. Look forward to talking again with everybody in a future episode. Thanks everybody. Thank you.
01:02:03
Thank you for being a part of this episode of the Thinking CAAP. Check the show notes for resources and links to other episodes.
01:02:12
And don't forget to subscribe and follow to be notified when new episodes are released. If you have any Community Action questions you'd like Beck or one of our local experts to answer in a future episode, please email your questions about Community Action to info@theCAAP.org subject line - thinking CAAP.