[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam, Welcome to the Griffith Center's podcast. We could call it the GC Podcast. We could maybe come up with a name. Maybe you come up with the name. But this is our very first one. Here's the fun stuff that we have with the podcast. There are a lot of educational things that we're going to do here, but.
And this is how brand new this is.
Did you know my name's Corey Lopez?
Tanya. I've never actually asked you how to say your last name.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Tanya. Saucy.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Isn't that funny? You and I have known each other now for a couple of years and we've talked and we see it on the website. That's one of the fun things that I love doing with the podcast is because people actually get to hear us talking as opposed to reading about us and seeing all the stuff on social media and maybe the television clips of the things like that. But we're welcoming all these folks in. We get to tell the story of what Emily Griffith started in 1927 and what it's evolved into here at the Griffith Centers. It's amazing. First of all, what do you say to the people that are listening in?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: That she was an amazing lady with a beautiful mission. And it's hard to believe, if you can imagine, a non profit agency. We were actually close to celebrating our 100 years.
Isn't that incredible when you think about 90, I guess we're 99 years ago. A woman that had a vision to go deep into a community, build an opportunity for young boys to get an education and homes to be safe to live in. You know, like, it's just, it's incredible to think back in those times.
You know what it's a really funny part is she actually lied about her age.
No, think about it. A woman.
Oh, you know, to be a career woman 98 years ago or 99 now. Yeah, yeah. She actually lied about her age.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Oh, why would she do that?
To make her seem more evolved, more.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: I just want people to take her seriously. That's what I would say. I was just saying, you know, because I think being a professional woman during that time was, you know, was a hard thing to do.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: You think you have challenges today, right? Think about it. In 1927, huh? But the challenges that she went through, she was thinking of other people.
She was thinking of these young men, these young boys shelter.
That's where it started.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Right?
[00:03:05] Speaker A: What Griffith Centers is today is absolutely amazing. I mean, we could just name off all the services you have, and that's going to take 10 minutes. But it's really amazing.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: It is. And I think, you know, every. I can't tell you, every time we get an award or we help a family or help a child or we expand our services, you know, I can't tell you. I always take just a few minutes to thank, you know, she's in heaven. You know, just.
I thank her and hope that we've made her very proud in terms of the work we're doing today to be able to expand her vision and help, you know, almost 1400 families and individuals on a weekly basis.
Just what a blessing it is for all of us.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Griffith Centers has a giant footprint down in Colorado Springs.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: It started in them, started in Denver. We're actually pretty large. Our two largest areas is Denver and Colorado Springs.
Yeah.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: I think of the campus down there, and I'm like, wow, this is amazing.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: It's a whole ecosystem.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: I know you guys do a lot of services in the metro area, too. I mean, that's so true. But it's one of the first things that I thought when I met you and talked about, you know, and obviously we're talking. We're in Denver. I mean, this is where you are based. But the campus down there is just absolutely amazing. But it's ever growing, and it's huge here in Denver. It really is. People there just isn't brick and mortar right now.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: That's correct. Hopefully one day that might be in the 2027 strategic plan.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: I like it.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I'd really love to put a larger community center out here to support our, you know, to support our children and families out here. But going back to the Colorado Springs campus, you know, it's. It is. It's like a whole. Just a community of resources that we have down there.
You know, we have our opportunity school.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Which is really helping those kids that are struggling, you know, with emotional and behavioral issues and need that additional support in school.
We have a very, like, maybe 1 to 2, 1 to 3 staff ratio there for those kids and to provide that really safe environment. Right. For kids to thrive and be able to get an education.
Also, we're really.
We're big into life skills. You know, how many of our kids that, you know, have been in and out of this. Of foster care or in and out of congregate care and don't know what they want to do with their life. And so one of our homes is dedicated to boys that are trying to figure out what they can do, how. How do they blossom into being an adult and being. And living a healthy life. So we teach them everything from job skills, how to cook, understanding the bus system, you know, so that they can commute back and forth to work. Yeah, GEDs. Maybe they need an alternate education, you know, looking at GEDs or credit recovery programs, they learn how to cook. We have an amazing chef who's been with us over 20, 25 years.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Everybody knows the food down there.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: It's pretty special, right?
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Man, that is.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: It really is. And the funniest part is, is that, you know, even if kids struggle, the one thing they won't do is they do not fight in Chef Page, Chef Paige's Kitchen.
And they will say the food at the Griffith Centers is the best out of any place they've ever been.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: I'd agree.
I absolutely agree with that. Well, it's amazing to have the people like that and the staff down there, and the ratio of the staff down there to the kids that need the help, too. I mean, I think that that's really amazing.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: It really is.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Denver, a lot of help here. You're statewide, though. I mean, there are. You have a footprint that goes statewide, too.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Correct. One of the things that we go back to, Emily Griffith, when we started looking at the expansion of our services, we really wanted to support those rural areas. You know, we realized that, you know, children and family also struggle with mental health issues all over the state, and there's huge gaps in services in those rural areas.
And so over the years, we've sort of strategically, you know, expanded out in Weld county, down south into the Colorado Springs area, Pueblo, Grand Junction. And then, of course, we're really thrilled about our new location in Chaffey County.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: To help support Buena Vista and Salida.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: And those areas out there, it's nice to have that. And in 2018, you guys started. This is before the big pandemic, and everybody started getting online and everybody, you know, doing the meeting.
Telehealth. You guys have telehealth, which is.
That was ahead of its time, I think, because I think it's something that people really take advantage of now, particularly coming out of the pandemic where everybody was locked down in the first place. Now, you don't have to drive to a place in the beginning. You can use that telehealth.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Well, that was incredible. We started looking at telehealth right before the pandemic just because of our rural areas. That's what. Know, that's what was like, okay, let's. How do we make a bigger impact in our rural areas? For families that are struggling to see clinicians and find clinicians in those areas.
But when the pandemic hit, I think one of the things I'm so proud of. Well, I'm so proud of so many of my different. The people that have worked that work for us. But in one of the areas we literally turn telehealth, we rolled it over in a two week time period where we'd be able to expand telehealth in all of our locations. I want you to think about that in a two week time. In two weeks, we were able to take our office model and well, we also do a lot of community based work and completely roll everything over into a full telehealth agency in a short period of time to make sure that we could still service our families, we could support Department of Human Services and just, you know, children and families that have gone through trauma that are trying to find their way back, you know, find each other, find their way back. We do a lot of.
I think I, especially me, I come from the old school when I started with Griffith, where I think our number one goal is to really help children find their way back to their parents and help their parents find their way back to their children and how to build those healthier lives.
And so we. Family reunification is really important for. In terms of our culture at Griffith.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: I'm curious, I want to talk more about you.
See, you have a lot titles, CEO, president.
You do so many things here. You've started, you've been with Griffith Centers for a long time now. You, you really worked your way through. You kind of know what everybody does. I think that's perfect for a CEO.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, thank you. I mean, it's. It came, you know, a lot of people ask me how did I get in the field? And it really started from my childhood. I lived all over the world. I was born in Puerto Rico, lived in South America, Africa, Europe, spent some time in Thailand.
Just fell in love with the world, different cultures.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: How could you not? All those places that you had the chance to experience. That's amazing.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And languages, foods, people. But at the same point in time, I, you know, for me, at a very young age, I knew that psychology, or at least working in human development or, you know, was something that I wanted to do. In fact, my first residential job was working as a mental health technician.
Working in a facility in Houston.
Yeah, Houston and Corpus. I worked in two residential facilities at a very young age.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: That does not sound easy.
And when I say easy, there's challenges to that.
And you jumped right into it.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And absolutely Loved it. I did ropes therapy, had the, you know, I think what's great about working sometimes in a residential setting is that you get to work with so many different types of populations and you get to help so many different people that are struggling in different areas of their life, whether it's, you know, into children, adults, male, female.
And so, you know, I was blessed to have the opportunity just to, you know, to work with so many different types of people, but absolutely love the work.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: So. So when did you get involved with, with Griffith Centers?
[00:12:02] Speaker B: So I started at Griffith in 2012.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So 13 years at the time that we're taping. Like we said, we welcome people that are rolling back and listening to learn more about Griffith centers. But in 2012. So it's been a while and you've seen all of it.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: We've been through a lot actually. 2018 was also another tough year, you know, so, yeah, I've watched even, you know, with the economy changes in, you know, our healthcare system, you know, I've been through the ups and downs.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: For sure.
You know, in fact, actually when I started the company, oh my gosh. Christina Murphy, our previous CEO, was the person that hired me and I had just moved to Denver and it was, it was at the time, I think therapists, we were getting paid as a contractor for. It was like $26 an hour.
And I was driving all over town.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: And you know, because at that point we had a very strong home based model. And so I was laughing at my interview and Christina says, you know, I said, let me just repeat this. So I'm going to be driving all over town helping families, you know, just that are significantly struggling.
And she says, yeah, that's what you're going to be doing. And I said to her, okay, let's do this.
But at the time, she just had this incredible vision to expand our outreach programs across Colorado. She really had a beautiful vision and it was just fun working close side by side.
She left.
She has actually started her own practice now. But. And so I stepped in from, you know, our CEO operations into this role, but just had an amazing time building programs and just helping families all over with, with and building teams of people that were as passionate about the work that she and I are. You know, we're.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: It's interesting. And when you and I sit and talk, you always, you throw a lot of praise to the people of Griffith Centers. I mean, it, it's not just because we turn the mics on and we're talking, but you talk about teams Always. It's a team aspect here at Griffith Centers. Like, you have so many people that are pulling in the same direction here, and you've kind of figured out how to get them all together.
Not that they're not pulling in the same direction, but now it feels like over the last few years and since you've been here and even when you got here and you said, oh, now you're not driving necessarily all over town, now you have a bigger footprint, now you're able to help more people.
Has it been fun? Despite the challenges, despite the struggles with it, has it been fun to watch this team come together?
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. And I think it comes from just a really strong set of values, core values, and a strong mission.
The people that are out there helping every day are the true warriors of this company.
I mean, oh, my gosh. I could just tell you stories. In our direct care residential, during the pandemic, I had mental health technician charged that would sometimes. Because if people came down with COVID they couldn't come into work.
They would sometimes work 2, 3 shifts just to make sure that our kids were taken care of.
We put in a Covid clinic, we took a house and we built turn that into a clinic. My medical team now, Dr. Thomas James, they came together and, you know, helped me put together a Covid clinic so that we made sure that if kids got sick, we did COVID testing, if you can imagine, for our staff, for our, you know, for the children, Chef Paige and Michael. And the team never skipped a day to make sure that meals were prepared. Even if we had a lodge and let's say, a more of a lockdown type setting, you know, because we had maybe multiple kids. You know, with COVID it was absolutely. Unless you've anyone, I mean, it was incredible watching the dedication and passion that.
That they showed during such a difficult time.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: I can hear it in your voice when you talk about Griffith Centers.
And one of the first times I met you, I get to meet a foster family, too.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: And I just.
To give so much of yourself for the team, to give so much of themselves for this. That's what makes Griffith Center's work. I think you have to have those kind of people that are really.
It's a sacrifice, to be honest. It is a sacrifice, but for the rewards come back tenfold, don't they?
[00:16:51] Speaker B: I really can't tell you how much I appreciate you saying that, because that's true. When I, you know, I've probably hired over 300 therapists. I think during my. My time Here.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: That's a lot.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: It's a lot. And one of the things that I really look for is, is the heart. You have to. This isn't an easy job. You're working, you know, you're. You're working with Kit. With kids and families that have faced generational trauma.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: And they may not have the resources, you know, to be able to even get to your office, you know, and. And how do you meet them, where they're at? And, you know, for some folks, it's. I can't even start therapy until I have. I know where I'm going to live or I have a meal. I know that I can feed myself and my family.
Sometimes those basic needs, you know, sometimes we come in and we have to support with. In our community with. And that's what I love, too. Going back to Griffith, too, is just also our collaboration with our community partners.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: You know, we. I think. I think we're really blessed in terms of. There's other nonprofit, other agencies that step in to also help support our families. You know what I mean? That need the additional help. But, you know, hard services, resources.
And so, you know, as a therapist coming in here, it's being able to look at the whole. You have to look at the whole.
All the different systems that this person is facing.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: And being able to not just help them with just maybe their trauma or their presenting issue, but it's also looking at their systems and saying, okay, how can I support you in all these other areas? Well, to help you be successful.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: It's. It's interesting. I want to pick up on the point that you talked about. A lot of times they're worried about where my next meal is going to come from. Do I have shelter?
Maybe. Am I lucky enough to have some kind of transportation so I can actually maybe go look and see. See if I can find a job or look for resources.
10, 20 things they need to check off the list before they even think about therapy. They think about help with trauma and things like that. You guys have a really tough job of just lucky that the resources are there that you can partner with to do that. But I would imagine.
And in this day and age, I'm so happy that people speak out, people talk to other people. I think that's important, but there's still a stigma to it. You guys have a hard job of just getting people to sit down and talk about the challenges that they have and what you can do to help, too. Right, right.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: And building that. And think about a special therapist, you know, Too that really a very caring, caring therapist, you know, that's going to meet, that's going to meet who, you know, their clients, wherever they're at in life, with a genuine desire to figure out how to help them walk their journey.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Yeah. It's that heart that you look for.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: It's very true.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: They have to, they have to have that over the years. And I'm curious, this is, this is one me just throwing out.
And I don't know if you've been asked this before, but the stigma of therapy, as we've said, has gotten a little bit better.
But I'll ask you, you're a professional, has it gotten better? Are more people coming to the Griffith Centers and saying, I need help, or is it still a hard job of really trying to go out and find these people through mediaries of mom, grandparents, uncles, aunts, people in the community saying, let's see if we can go talk to this person. Let's see. Or do you have more people that are going to the website, making that phone call? Is it getting a little bit better?
[00:20:56] Speaker B: That is such a complex question. I think.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: No, I love it and I love that question and. Because it's a very. It's a very thoughtful question. Because, you know, in my experience, I think. Yes. I think particularly, I think even our generation, which is great, the younger, I mean, younger kids, they're learning how to ask for help, they're wanting help. So I think you're definitely seeing a shift in that culture.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: But I also think, you know, I also think you're also still, you know, I think.
And this goes back to my background, living all over the world. Right. We always have to be sensitive to diversity and people's culture. You know, sometimes there can be barriers there. And how do you break through those barriers in order for people to feel comfortable and safe when it's something that maybe not be part of their culture. Right. And so, you know, I think it's really important as therapists, Right. That we, we can understand those factors, because I think it's important.
I also think you may have generational. Right. You might have, you know, you know, if you're coming from my generation. Right.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Our generation.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: Our generation.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Our generation. I know. I know who you're talking about.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, you know, there still might be that stigmatism, negative stigmatism around therapy. Right. And it's. How do you, how do you break those barriers down?
You know, from myself speaking to you as a therapist, which is what I consider myself probably first and foremost is being a therapist is always meeting my clients where they're at and letting them know that it's okay to feel that way, it's okay to question therapy or whatever barriers you have. Let's talk through those. You know, let's. Let's just work through those. That may be what we have to do in the first few sessions.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: You know, so that we can build that rapport and build that safety.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: You have the kind of background, too, having lived all over the world and experienced many different cultures, to understand the barriers that come from the different cultures that we deal with here along the Front Range, around the state of Colorado, in the rural areas, everything's different.
I think that's amazing because those are other challenges as a therapist that people here at the Griffith Centers have to deal with, and deal with it very well, by the way. I would hope that you have clients that. People that come back to you. But I think that's the hard part about people walking. It's not just generational, like you said, and having that background. Has that gotten a little bit better?
And that's a different challenge, right?
[00:23:38] Speaker B: It is a different challenge. And I think, you know, I always make a joke because I've got a workable knowledge in Spanish, but of course, you know, trying to find. I. We're always like. We feel like we hit the landmine when we can find, you know, therapists that speak other languages to come in.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: But to answer that question, it's kind of what you and I were talking a little bit before we started this podcast. I think there's a humbleness and around this, and also, you know, it's. It's also the ability to want to learn and to be curious about different cultures.
And I think, you know, being open to that, you know, and I think, if anything, as a supervisor, you know, or having worked with a lot of therapists, I think it's, you know, let's. Let's talk through those barriers and just, you know, be willing to learn.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Current events. So we're talking. This is 2025. The challenges, the joys that you have. I mean, there's really positive things in the future. We'll talk about later on future podcasts about things that are coming for Griffith Centers.
What's the challenge of going different Congresses, different administrations, which way the wind blows of how much money is going to come from federal, state help and things like that for you guys.
You depend on wonderful stakeholders and donors, and that's a very important part of it. But you Also have to deal with the same thing that all the rest of us have to deal with. And it's like, you know, as we're talking now, the government shut down.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Negotiating all of that has got to be one big quagmire that you're trying to walk through. And I'm not just talking about now. It changes with different policies and things that come up and it's been that way for a long time.
I bet you'd rather sit down and just talk to somebody as a therapist and not have to deal with all that crap. Right.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: It is challenging. And I, and I think when you're talking almost 100 years of history, you know, just not myself and also other previous leaders in this company.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: I, you know, because people, you know, I get that question asked, you know, like, how has Griffith has been open so long or, you know, how are you, how are you navigating all the changes? And I think, you know, I can't. I certainly don't want to speak for, you know, other leaders, but. And for myself, it's always looking into. It's, it's, it's like a. Well, it's a few different things. One is being innovative. It's looking to see where the needs are and also being able to match that with funding, resources.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: You know, looking for that stability with the company.
I think it's also making sure we're getting ahead of things, making sure that we understand policy changes, you know, identifying those as potential risks. Right. We need to. Right. We've got to be able to, you know, identify those as risks and build with my team is build solid solutions and how we're going to navigate changes.
And again, just, you know, that diversity, diversified funding, you know, is just working with a lot of different types of stakeholders and being able to, you know, navigate that as well.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: There's the CEO. I pulled it out of you. We talked so much about it. See people that understand you are a kick ass CEO, president.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. That's kind of you.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: And to understand where your heart's at is in a wonderful place. I think a lot of the people that you meet with Griffith center is the same thing. The heart's in the right place. And I just want people to realize how many different jobs the boss does you and how many different jobs and how many hoops and hurdles that people have to jump over and jump through that work here at Griffith Centers to try to do the good that you do.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I really, I really do. Thank you. Yeah, it's really for taking time to explore that.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Oh, I, I, I think it's amazing. I'm, I'm so looking forward to telling the story here as we go along there. There's so many things that Griffith Centers does.
I think this was a good start.
We certainly didn't talk about everything that Griffith Centers.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Oh, I know. And I can't wait. You know, one of my most, you know, I've got just, I just want to say I would love to, you know, my, one of my biggest projects that I worked on with my current director who's been here for now going on nine years, Asia Roddy was also the development into my mental health and education.
I just, we've expanded it. We have a truancy program, we have a school based program. But mental health and education is a real thing, you know. And so one of these days, hopefully maybe in a different segment we can talk more about that because that's also something that's a need and something I'm very passionate about.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: We'll do a deep dive in that. We really will.
As, as we go along, as the months go along, keep an eye on us on social media. We'll let you know when the new podcasts come out. So you can find us on Spotify, Apple Music.
It may expand more. You can always find us on our
[email protected] and again down the road, there's a new website that's coming eventually.
Right. We're going to revamp things a little bit. So that's exciting.
But you'll always be able to just search for Griffith Center's podcast. And again, whether you use Google or Gemini or Copilot or Grok or whatever it may be, it'll be easy to find. This is fun. You and I are going to talk so much more.
I'm going to tease this for the next time. You have a book coming out pretty soon too.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Yes, I do. On relinquishment counseling.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: And that's what we're going to talk about the next time we get together. So I'm so excited to be able to talk more about that. Great stuff.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Great. And thank you too. I want to take a moment to thank you for all the support with Griffith Centers and just your love for the work we do because that's really what makes a huge difference is people caring and loving the passion.
So thank you.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. Nikki and I think the world with you guys. I'm so happy that we can be involved with you guys to do whatever we can to spread the word. I think that's really, really important. We'll talk to everybody next time.
Whatever, whatever it may be on Apple, on Spotify, make sure you subscribe. You'll know when it's coming out. Or just keep following us on social media. You can learn more. Go to griffithcenters.org you'll learn more about Tanya. You can certainly find out more on the web pages, too. But you can learn more about Tanya as we go along in the podcast down the road. So we'll talk to you next time. We hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Sa.
