Staff-First Leadership: Serving 1200 Youth Without Burning Out | Liz Matthews, Covenant House Alaska

[0:00]  my client is [music] not the actual youth that I'm serving. My client is my staff. Um, and that's who I'm here to take care of so that they can then take care of the youth in front of them. We served over 1,200 youth last year uh last fiscal year. So, our fiscal year runs uh we're in the middle of fiscal year 26 right now, but um a little over,200 youth last year, and we're on trajectory to serve even more [music] than that this year. The second I started using things like chat GBT, my life got so much easier. Uh, I can throw a resume in and be like, "Write me a short bio so that I can throw that into my grant application." Right? It takes the AI 30 seconds to do that where if I had to do it, it takes it takes time, right? Like it's a resource that we can utilize to be able to

[0:46]  better use our time and resource, if that makes sense. The other pieces in the nonprofit world are you got to be really careful what you use AI for. Uh because you've got a lot of personal client information that is protected and [music] once you put it into a system, do you get it back? Where does it store? We want homelessness to be [music] brief uh and non-reoccurring. We don't want you to be here. Uh as much as we love serving our youth, we would love it to end if we could make it all stop. [music] Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart and Hustle Podcast. Been a long time. We spent Christmas away. We spent uh New Year's away, but we're back here with another founder in Liz. How are you doing today, madam?

[1:41]  I am wonderful. Thank you for asking. How are you?

[1:44]  Oh, I'm excited. I mean, 2026 is here. I feel like time is definitely flying by. And um I'm just getting a little older. I'm turning 36 or fearless. Isn't that old?

[1:54]  No. No.

[1:55]  No. Still young. [laughter]

[1:57]  Nope. I got you beat. And I don't feel old. So, if I don't feel old, you can't be old either.

[2:02]  I don't. I definitely try to take care of myself. So, Liz, tell people what organization do you represent? What is the title?

[2:07]  Yeah, absolutely. So, uh I work for Covenant House Alaska. Uh we are a homeless services provider. um but do so much more than just that. Um founded as a a just uh emergency shelter but we have expanded through the years and our uh reach really goes way beyond goes from prevention through uh restoration on the back end. Really just ensuring uh success for our young people here in Anchorage, Alaska.

[2:34]  I love that. Alaska born and raised like how did you get there?

[2:38]  Yeah, so I uh Nope. I was born in a small town in Wisconsin. lived there until I was about four. My mom uh was she's retired now, but a pediatrics nurse, and she was recruited uh by one of the hospitals here and brought up uh and they said they'd stay for two-year commitment and then never left.

[2:57]  Uh so, here we are.

[2:58]  Yeah.

[2:59]  I love it. And is there like something that people say about Alaska that is not true?

[3:05]  Uh I mean, you hear all the stereotypes of people live in igloos and we all have a dog sled. I live in Anchorage. We have like 350,000 people in the city and I have a house on the west side. Like it's it's a city like any other city. Um we call it kind of the big small town. Uh everybody knows everybody for the most part. If you've lived here for a while, somebody there's a connection somewhere. Um but we're a great community of people who help each other out and look out for each other and uh make sure that we're all safe and happy and successful. So

[3:38]  I think this is where you your location like you guys have like dark so many months. Is that correct? Am I clipping here?

[3:45]  Sort of. So it depends the farther up north you get into Alaska. Yeah. The sun will set um in in one of the fall uh winter months. Winter for us. I know winter in most places starts in December. We are long into winter by December. Uh but here in Anchorage um at the shortest days we get six, seven hours of daylight. Um, but in the reality of that is if you work in an office building with no windows, you go to work when it's dark and you leave when it's dark.

[4:12]  So you gota you got to get outside and enjoy the sunshine when you can. But the flip is true for the summers. The most beautiful place in the world to live. We have pretty much daylight 24/7 uh right around summer solstice. Um sun sets but it's not dark. It's like that kind [clears throat] of twilighty. Um and it stays see it over the mountains. So it's beautiful.

[4:35]  Wow. Yeah. You know, it's crazy that people So is it still Oh, probably cold for you guys. So when I was in South Africa, their Christmas was actually during summertime.

[4:45]  Yep.

[4:45]  You know, their summertime at least. And [snorts] I'm like, so weird. So you guys really don't have a Christmas. So everything you seen on American TV Home Alone, you don't even know what that really is because when it's cold, when it's winter for you, it's hot.

[4:58]  Yeah. Yeah. But I think that about places like Florida. Like I don't know what it's like to not have snow at Christmas time. We always It's always been snowy everywhere I've been. So

[5:08]  it's okay.

[5:09]  You know, Christmas time for us and I think it was maybe this year was a beautiful day like in in the 80s. I mean, you go definitely go out in some shorts and a shirt. And even when it's like cold, it's cold, but I also went up to New York and realized what code was.

[5:25]  Oh my god, it's not cold here. [laughter]

[5:28]  It's It's all relative depending on what you're used to, right? Like

[5:30]  Yeah. Yeah. Um, so let's kind of go back. How did your early uh experiences with family caregiving after your father's um death? You kind of mentioned that to me on the first conversation. I think your grandfather's stroke as well, if I'm not mistaken, shape your your view of healthcare.

[5:44]  Uh, yeah. So, my father is not dead. My father had a lot of medical challenges. Oh god. But where did I get that from?

[5:50]  Um, you know, I I grew up in a really wonderful intact family um who really raised me and my sisters with very selfless values. um really trying to uh give back, connect to community and figure out how we care for each other. Um again, my mother was a pediatrics nurse, my father uh worked in a factory uh in manufacturing um pretty much his whole career. Um but I watch them work tirelessly, one to provide for us, um but then also to give back to the people around them um and just make sure that that we're caring for others. You know, I my some of my earliest memories is my dad, you know, going out when uh he'll shovel our driveway or use a snowblower for our driveway and doing the next door neighbor's driveway, not because he had to, but because he was already out there.

[6:38]  Um and making sure that the little things to create that community and to care for others um was really instilled. It was uh it was wonderful, right? Like

[6:47]  um it it really shaped me and guided me into the career path I had taken um in my adult life.

[6:53]  And that's not what you always started, right? I'm going to imagine there was other things you were doing prior to that. Is there any work that you were doing prior to this?

[6:59]  Yeah, so I uh so interesting enough, I started in restaurant management um while I was getting my bachelor's degree. Um I got my bachelor's degree in criminal justice and thought for sure I was going into law enforcement. Um but my senior year in college, I took a job uh as a relief worker at a domestic violence shelter here in Anchorage and fell in love with the work. Um, I fell in love with being able uh to make impact and change um with the clients. I was a ch and then went on to take a full-time position at that same agency as a children's advocate and it's where I really learned that that's that's my area, right? Like it it is children and youth. Um I it shaped everything. Um you know and then my I met my amazing husband. we got married and a few days after our wedding, we moved to Tennessee so that he could pursue uh his uh degree. Um and so I I jumped into another domestic violence shelter and it's um it's that agency that really taught me uh that who you work for matters. Uh again, the community that you create, making sure that you have a strong foundation of leadership um to make sure that you are creating a culture that people want to be in. Uh, so unfortunately that job did not work out so well. I I burnt out real quick. Um, but amazingly it led me into working um in the foster care system in Tennessee.

[8:26]  Um, and that was just an immense passion for me.

[8:30]  Um, traveled from Tennessee to New York City uh, where we lived for the better part of a decade. um and started again in the foster care uh world and worked uh in a therapeutic foster care agency and then moved on to um working in a prevention agency. So they do preventive foster care services. Um so working with the most high-risk population um in the New York City foster care system. So those with mental health, substance use disorder um within the family. either the the children or youth or the parents. Um, and really engaging hard with that uh community to ensure that their children weren't removed and placed into the foster care system. Um,

[9:12]  it it's funny when you said you learned that uh who you work for matters. I thought you were going to tell me like a positive, but then you end up with like and I left there really quickly and I'm like, wait a minute. Like

[9:24]  I thought we're this was a good thing, but no, for real, it does. Who you work for does matter. like you could really be really passionate and and have this you mentioned passion so many times, right? Um I could imagine have this purpose, but if there's a wrong leader, you the values don't align that you just doesn't feel good to come to work anymore. It feels like more of of a job. It feels more of a headache.

[9:45]  So when you can align with people that just have that same mindset, 100%. It's it's a good thing. I'm kind of in the space of building that around my organization. you know, it's an organization that's been around for so long and the people have been doing the same exact things for so long and they don't want to change and it's like pulling teeth, you know, at times and it's like wait a minute, I don't need to be dealing with this like

[10:07]  I need to go do so that's cool.

[10:09]  It's interesting though because um it helped to shape me well a negative sorry to throw the negative out there but it helped to shape me into the leader I am at my my kind of place in life, right? Um, I went on in New York, um, to run that that intervention program, the early intervention program there. Um, and it it mattered. You have to show up. You have to be present every day. Uh, they have to see your face. You can't just be somebody who sends the email and dictates what to do. Uh, it matters the kind of leader you are and the culture you create within the department to keep amazing staff, right? The work is hard. It is hard work every day. Um, and it's hard work every day, right? like you're invested in it. So, if you don't have a team um from top down that is supporting you and really there to ensure that your needs are being met, uh you'll fail out. Um I had a supervisor uh early in my career in New York who taught me that uh my client is not the actual youth that I'm serving. My client is my staff. Um, and that's who I'm here to take care of so that they can then take care of the youth in front of them. Um, and I've lived that mentality ever since.

[11:22]  Um, I have my team.

[11:24]  It's like having the internal and the external client. Your internal client obviously is a staff. Um, not [snorts] that you don't help the external, but correct. It's that definitely. Yeah, there's an internal and external. The way that we communicate. What does that look like communication wise for your team internal? Like how many of you guys are actually internal?

[11:40]  Yeah. So, uh, my I I oversee, uh, five different programs in our agency. So, a wide range of staffing structures from our transitional living programs, uh, to all the way through our independent housing programs within our continuum here at Covenant House Alaska. Um, I h I don't have that that many, I would say, direct reports. I only have three direct reports, but um, I I treat their team as well just the same as it is my direct team. Um, I make a point to try to work from each of my sites at least once a week so that I'm present and there uh so that you're not so disconnected from the daytoday and you're able to help out where needed.

[12:22]  That's a good leader. You don't just find one home and stick there. H how far away from each other are they?

[12:27]  Fortunately, Anchorage is not that big. Uh, so it's not uh and well, you know, I chuckled because again, I lived in New York City uh for a while and while New York City isn't technically that big mile distance, it takes you forever to get places. Uh, Anchorage is not that way. Uh, so fortunately, my farthest program will take me about a 15 20 minute drive on a bad day.

[12:49]  My closest is like four blocks down the road. So, we're we're all just right together. Yeah,

[12:55]  we have a main campus in downtown Anchorage that holds our emergency shelter and then two of the programs that I oversee.

[13:01]  So, that is kind of where I try to spend a chunk of my time because there's two of them there. But, um, I love our satellite offices. I love our teams that we've created. There's kind of individual culture in each building. Um, so it's it's fun.

[13:15]  Well, so in a space of communication like and and and there's resources and knowledge because Liz, you've been in so many different spaces. you kind of gave us a trajectory of your your career and it was always helping people. It was always getting people the resources, always getting that knowledge. Where are we today on sharing knowledge? Do do you think that we're still in a space where resources, especially with AI, it is at our fingertips and maybe not utilized the way that we need to? Like what does that look like? I feel like the help is there. People just don't know where to receive it.

[13:46]  Yeah. You know, it's it's interesting. And I think that for a long time there was a almost competition mindset of this is my resource and I don't want to share it and I don't want to give it to others because if I do I'll run out. Uh and I think where the shift for me in the last I don't know five years or so here in Anchorage is has really been this community uh feel of resource where it's like yeah this is my resource but if you need it I can share it with you because at the end of the day we're not in competition with each other right we are all trying to serve somebody whether that is us serving the population you know the 13 to 24 year olds whether it's an adult homeless services provider we're all here to do the same work. We're not in competition with each other. Um I mean on paper we might be in competition with each other because we're all going after the same funding streams, but uh I do think that there is some whether it is uh a lack of knowledge or understanding of the community resource. I think AI specifically scares people at times um and trying to figure out how to navigate that in a way that doesn't feel like it's taking away from the human interaction or the human experience. Um, the other pieces in the nonprofit world are you got to be really careful what you use AI for. Uh, because you've got a lot of personal client information that is protected and once you put it into a system, do you get it back? Where does it store? All of those things to make sure that we're we're being responsible with the information for the the young people that we serve.

[15:15]  If you enjoyed the podcast, we first want to say thank you. And we also just want to give you a little insight of what we're up to at Francis. Some don't even realize that we're working with organizations to help them use AI to create that real human communication experiences. Whether that's actually supporting your your families, those patients or the entire community, we're actually creating tech that connects. Check it out. Francis.ai. Have you tapped in? Are you are you specifically tapped into AI? What are your thoughts on that?

[15:46]  You know, I I'm not uh the expert in any of that, I will admittedly say. However, the second I started using things like chat GBT, my life got so much easier. Uh, [laughter] I can throw a resume in and be like, write me a short bio so that I can throw that into my grant application, right? It takes the AI 30 seconds to do that where if I had to do it, it takes it takes time, right? Like it's a resource that we can utilize to be able to better use our time and resource if that makes sense. I was literally just telling before I jumped on this call um I was telling one of my uh team members that I was like listen this is your best friend to be quite frank just learn how to use him because garbage in garbage out as well. Um and it's not cheating it's allowing you to be more creative. It's allow you to be more efficient and to me I think do more the things that you love right because now you're buying back time

[16:41]  and the things that you do not like. something as having to sit here and create a bio like we don't love writing about ourselves but we can you know sit here and here here give us a bio oh it looks good I I I'll take that right it saves us so much time and saves a headache so I love that you guys are in the space of of um or you at least specifically is the organization using AI at any level or

[17:02]  um you know not not as much as I I shouldn't say that I don't know that so well um but probably know more than I am trying to make sure that we are being being cautious in what we plug into some systems

[17:15]  and and so there's Covenant House. Is this just something that's local to you guys? Is this global?

[17:20]  Oh, yeah. So, Covenant House is part of a Covenant House Alaska is part of a federation uh Covenant House International. Uh there are a little over 30, I think 34 sites um across North America, so Canada, United States, and then into Latin America as well. Uh Coven House as a federation was founded uh in the 70s, 1971. Uh we opened here in Anchorage in 1988 um and have just continued to grow and uh expand what we're doing in the world of homeless services.

[17:51]  So do you still kind of connect with those that are in the

[17:54]  Yeah, absolutely. So we're because we're part of a federation, we are all connected. Um and what that means is well Coven House International is sort of the parent agency if you want to look at it that way. Um it is the umbrella where all the other Covenant House sites fall underneath it. Got it. So we all have kind of guiding philosophies that we uh are aligned with. Um we are we have a set kind of uh core treatment model that uh every federation or every um Covenant House across the federation follows. um we all are reporting back to Covenant House International on what we're doing, what we're accomplishing, what our challenges are, and not in a way of, you know, they're trying to watch you to make sure you're doing things correct, but really in a uh community and how do we better what we're doing? Um our international team is always wanting feedback, always wanting to know, you know, the things that we've implemented, are they working? Does this system work for you? Does this data collection work for you? What are the glitches that you're follow you're finding? uh to make the practice better. Um it's a really great collaborative relationship um not even just with the international team but um across the federation. So we have tapped into resources that our Covenant House California um location has. They've got a trainer that is based out of South Africa. So she works uh during her normal daytime, but it's overnight hours for us, which is perfect because then we've got a trainer that comes on and is doing training for our overnight staff. And it's never been a competition. And it's always been, "Yeah, you want to tap into that? Here's her name and email. I bet she'd do that for you." Um, and it's been, it's just really great to have that collaborative um, atmosphere that that international um, creates for us.

[19:33]  I love that. What is a dayto-day look like for you?

[19:36]  Oh, goodness gracious. Uh, it really depends. Um, you know, a lot of my day Yeah, a lot of my day is email and is managing uh, situations, people. Um, you know, the other side to it is is that at the level that I am within the organization, it is managing budgets. It is managing grant applications. It is making sure that we are responsible stewards of the resource that's been given to us and that we're utilizing those resources appropriately. Um, it's making sure that, you know, the the resources that our youth need are available to them. It is a lot of cross collaboration uh between our senior leadership team and making sure that we are all um on the right track that we are hitting our goals and targets um and just making sure that we're we're doing the best for the young people that ultimately we are serving as a whole. Um, you know, I love I love when my day-to-day gets thrown off slightly and I walk through either a situation somewhere and or walk into a room uh and there's youth there that recognize me and they want to tell me all about their great day or the thing that happened to them or um you know the positive that's going on. Those are always my favorites because I don't get those as much now in the role that I'm in. So,

[20:52]  no, that that is definitely the um what fills your cup, right? Those moments they they get to fill your cup. No, for sure. Um, that's always cool to to be able to be in that space of just helping others. And when you talk about just them gathering or getting the resources they need, like how are they getting the resources? You mean like just home? Is it something that you guys give them pamphlets? Is it emails? Like how how are we getting kids now the information that they need?

[21:17]  Yeah. So, we uh we have kind of different areas of focus here. So, we have our emergency shelter where any youth in our age bracket can walk into um and be able to access services on site right away. But we also have our street outreach team who is going out to try to find youth in our community who might either not know about the resources available to them or might need just a little bit of help to get to them. They're providing uh basic hygiene items, they're providing food, they're providing clothing, um all of those things to the youth where they are. They're meeting them where they are. Um, additionally, uh, our shelter services, if you walk in, you can get all of those services right there as well. We have on-site education and employment services where youth in our age bracket, whether experiencing homelessness or not, can walk into and gain access and be able to help be set onto a career pathway um to really start that trajectory in the right direction for them. Um when it comes to resource uh delivery essentially for our our teams here it is one sizefits one is our mentality. We don't know what you need until you tell us what you need and we will find a way to provide for what you need. Um a lot of times that is uh at at a transitional living level which is what I start to oversee is learning how to live independently. Um, we take for granted, uh, that if you've raised in a home with somebody who has taught you these independent living skills, uh, we take for granted that some people don't have those. Um, so it is learning how to do laundry, learning how to keep your room clean, learning how to cook, uh, learning how to manage your finances, um, and and really start them on the right trajectory. Um, on my level, what that looks like is what grant management do I need to do? What grants am I writing? What foundations am I approaching? what relationships are we building so that our community understands the work we're doing and making sure that we are connecting um our mission to the work that we do um

[23:16]  I'll tell you a crazy story so you being that grant person right I um and just a person that really just understands where the what's best for business comes into play I would say um I was you work at a science center met this guy never really seen him but I seen that he was kind dressed down and we had a cleaning crew. So, for some apparent reason, I thought, "Okay, maybe he might be a part of the cleaning crew." Just cuz I'd never seen him. He just looked a little dressed down. So, he laughs and he's like, "No, I'm actually the reason you're here." And he was also the Grant guy. And he's like, "I write Grant and I do this and I do that." And I'm like, "Man, you can never judge a book by his cover because you don't know what someone does." And then I got to see him in a board meeting really suited up, really nice and sharp. And I'm like, oh my god. So moving, you know, it goes back to you just never know where someone's at in their life until you ask questions or they tell you. So why not just have a conversation? It's okay to ask questions. That's how we we learn.

[24:11]  So now I'm having a little bit more understanding on what role you play a huge role within the organization and where it kind of goes ups and downs scaling rise. So

[24:19]  our grant writers are amazing because I'll tell again talk about AI. I'll tell you like I I couldn't do it. I'd be I'd be utilizing AI like constantly. Um, but they are phenomenal people. I'm grateful for what they can do because then it makes my job on the back end of managing that and making sure that I'm meeting the deliverables so much easier. Um,

[24:39]  oh yeah.

[24:40]  But yeah, it's

[24:41]  Oh yeah. Um, [snorts] how many youth are you guys serving? Like 2025. Did you guys get that number on what you guys served for the year?

[24:46]  We served over,200 youth last year uh last fiscal year. So our fiscal year runs uh we're in the middle of fiscal year 26 right now but um a little over,200 youth last year and we're on trajectory to serve even more than that this year. Um the the kind of environment or the climate of youth homeless services continues to increase uh the demand continues to increase. We see that in our adult population as well. Um to kind of put some perspective on it, Anchorage, Alaska has the same roughly the same uh unhoused population as Houston, Texas, but a fraction of the size of that the population as a whole. So when you think about that, over 3,000 uh homeless or unhoused individuals here in Anchorage. Um so for us to say we've served for roughly 1,200 we're on trajectory for 1400 this fiscal year uh in our age bracket of 13 to 24 is pretty uh it's a pretty staggering statistic. Uh and it's why uh Covenant House International and as well as every other Covenant House across the federation have really focused on uh kind of our strategic plan of how are we minimizing um and reducing homelessness. Right? We want homelessness to be brief uh and non-reoccurring. We don't want you to be here uh as much as we love serving our youth. We would love it to end if we could make it all stop. Um and it's really investment. It's investment in uh what we reference as the journey home. And it talks about prevention services. So preventing homelessness from starting at all uh to intervention and then to restoration and making sure that uh youth don't reenter homeless services. Liz, as you you got so much more years ahead of you, but as you know that at some point you have to hang up your boots, you got to let someone else do the work, right? Pass the baton, per se,

[26:41]  what what do you want to leave behind when you know that this is all said and done for you at least?

[26:46]  Yeah. you know, I um again I have a a strong I have a strong uh faith background and I have stuck with the belief and kind of the the hope that when I when I leave this world and I walk away, you know, that I get to to meet my maker and he is proud of me for taking care of his children,

[27:08]  right? I want to leave behind a legacy that giving back and taking care of others is the right path. Um I am a firm believer that our youth are the leaders of tomorrow and it's all of our responsibility to make sure that they're successful. Otherwise, our community, our society will pay the consequence for that.

[27:30]  Yeah. And and it's just

[27:32]  it's been amazing to watch the journey of some of these youth and watch them come through some really difficult situations and experiences and not only come out stronger on the other side, but come out as a thriving individual, a thriving adult. Um it's been really

[27:49]  I love it. You know, obviously, you know, I think we probably spoke a little bit of story, but that was me, an adopted child that statistically shouldn't be here, you know, but I'd love to go back and say even though my mom had 10 kids and didn't raise her own kids, and my father had eight and didn't raise his kids, like look where I end up today because one person decided she wanted to give back, which was my aunt. Four kids and adopted three, became a single mom of seven at a 28 years old.

[28:13]  Like, when you talk about giving back, it doesn't always have to be at an organization level, right? It's those things. So when we talk about when people are still listening and people think it's a monetary thing that I got to give give give maybe financially Liz what other ways could they actually be giving back?

[28:28]  Yeah. You know I my husband has a favorite saying that says uh everything in life costs you something. Time talent or a financial resource. And the time and the talent is just as valuable especially to your local organizations. If you're not here in Alaska, trust me, there is somebody out there, some resource that needs your time or your talent. And so I think about our development team does such an amazing job of recruiting talent. So we have people that are uh in the graphic design industry that volunteer to make our pamphlets and our handouts, right? Because they can do that so much better than us. That's a talent they have and it's a passion they have. I tell people, find the passion you have and then volunteer your time in that. um whatever that m might look like. Uh that could be coming in. We have a a chef from a local restaurant that comes in and teaches knife skills and cooking skills in in our uh in our transitional living programs or in our education services. Like where is your talent? You can donate your talent. That's what's there. Uh financial support is always great, but the other really huge is the advocacy component, right? We are always advocating for uh you know change whether that is at a local, state or federal level. Um whether that is changing you know outdated laws or fighting back against um systemic barriers that might be put in place that might be a challenge for our youth. Advocacy is key and we we can't do it alone in any industry. We need the community support um to be able to stand up and say this feels wrong to me or this feels really right. Let's make sure it continues.

[30:07]  Where can people find more about your organization uh specifically? What is the website? Are you guys on socials?

[30:12]  Yeah, absolutely. Uh yes to both of those. Uh so Covenant House uh Alaska Coventh HouseK.org um or if you just go coventhouse.org, you will get to the Coven House International website. Um that website will give you links and resources to every Covenant House across our federation. So if you're looking for one in your local area, you can easily connect and find them that way as well. Um on Facebook and Instagram and all of the things as well. If you hit if you look uh at Covenant House Alaska AK, sorry, I should say AK because uh sometimes people get Arkansas and Alaska confused in our acronyms. Uh and there is not one in Arkansas. So, uh, Covenant House AK, uh, you will find us on there as well.

[30:57]  Love it. I leave you with this last question before we start wrap it up, Liz. You've given us so much insight and, um, just kudos to you, man, for just

[31:05]  I would say doing God's work,

[31:08]  right? Living in passion and purpose and not paychecks. And that's what allowed you to get to these places that you have is that a lot of times people chase paychecks and um, it's not it's not the right thing to be chasing. you know when you you mentioned I was doing something I found passion you know you found purpose and that's what allowed you to be where you're at today and have a beautiful family XYZ so I love that so I'll leave you this last question though when you when you look at the residents who inspire you the most what do you they teach you about what matters in life

[31:37]  oh that's a good one uh community uh community matters in life uh we're not meant to do life alone um and the young people that we serve are looking for a connection um a positive connection, right? Um they have taught so much as far as resiliency to me and that like you can go through really difficult times, really hard times and come out on the [clears throat] other side. Um as a a thriving uh adult. Um but it it you want to see they want to be seen, I guess, is a better way to put it too, right? Um and we talked about that like just having that conversation, getting to know somebody, figuring out what their story is. I think that there is stigma and fear in seeing somebody who appears to be homeless and people don't always engage. That small engagement, that recognition that they are human and that you see them is really valuable.

[32:33]  I love that. And that's very true. So, so true. Uh Liz, I wish we could do more of this, but we got to go because you got things to do. I got things to do. For those that are watching, make sure that you guys go ahead and check out Covenant House uh Alaska, not Arkansas. Make sure you guys go ahead and connect with Liz Matthews over on LinkedIn. It has been a pleasure. My name is Erain. This is Liz. We'll catch you guys in the next one. Lers. Bye.