BROWN WITH WIFE KELLY, DAUGHTER HANNAH AND SON FORD
How has being director of DHS impacted you as a dad? My family and I had a lot of conversations leading up to my accepting this role, knowing it would be an emotional position for me. I’ve been able to share with my kids what’s happening in the world around them more directly. We are involved in various nonprofits and take our kids to volunteer at the food bank once a month to pack back packs for kids, but it’s wholly different when you are in a job where you carry a personal weight. There’s a burden and I go home and include my family in that conversation. Many of us have sheltered lives, and I hope removing some of that shelter is positive for my own kids. What does the general community not know about OKDHS? It’s like an iceberg. What you see is so small compared to the whole truth. We are doing everything we can as an agency to start to change our narrative. Candidly, nine months ago my impression of the agency was purely driven based on what I saw on the evening news. Just like my impression of state employees was wrong, my impression of the [agency] was wrong. There are a thousand incredible stories happening inside our agency every day. Lives are being changed for the better. These stories aren’t often told and definitely don’t get social media likes, but our people are simply doing the right things. They deserve more recognition. We have not been great at telling those stories and that is not acceptable; we’re going to do better.
What’s your vision for the future of OKDHS? We are literally changing the world out of OKDHS. We’re going to be a catalyst for world change, not just state change, doing things that have never been done. We investigated just over 81,000 cases of abuse and neglect last year, with 90 percent related to neglect and 70 percent related to poverty. If we can think about poverty in a different way, work with the programs we operate within our agency, then we can address poverty in a massive and material way. Those world-changing initiatives are going to be helping families lift themselves out of poverty so we have eight cases to investigate instead of 81,000. As we recognize National Foster Care Month, what can metro families to do help? We need partnerships, not just with organizations but with individuals on the ground level. If you aren’t ready to be a foster family, help out a foster family. Sign up to provide respite care so they can have a night out or bring them a meal. The reason we have so much need [for foster families] is because it’s hard, it’s complicated and it requires a different way of thinking. The agency is working to become more supportive of our foster families, who need tools and resources, transitioning to an agency that is really serving those who are serving our kids.
CLICK FOR MOBILE-FRIENDLY VERSION
18 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / MAY 2020
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker