Kathy Manis Findley*

As a survivor of child abuse, Kathy Manis Findley promised herself that part of her life’s work “would be spent helping children and young people who were in abusive environments.” To that end, she founded Safe Places of Little Rock in 2002.
Despite the numerous child protective service programs that exist, still “children have virtually no voice and no rights. The systems that are in place to protect them are woefully inadequate, and that informs my personal mission every day,” said Findley, executive director of Safe Places.
She noted that, in a community with many worthy nonprofit organizations, starting another “has been a sheer feat of dogged perseverance.”
Her biggest challenge in the last year, Findley said, has been staying optimistic, seeing the glass as half-full. Safe Places runs on a shoestring — $400,000 in revenue in 2009 helping support six full-time staff members — and “it’s not like if I don’t perform, we will survive.” She scrambles for grants and other funding because “if I don’t get them, we’re not there anymore.”
Findley said that the Safe Places staff were “people of faith,” though of different faiths, “and that’s what keeps them there.” The nonprofit doesn’t make a point of hiring such people, “but it turns out that those are the kind of people attracted to that kind of work.” It’s work that’s strenuous, emotionally difficult and not particularly well paid.
One constant challenge, Findley said, is that in addition to the work of providing counseling and aid to domestic abuse victims, she and the staff are themselves responsible for everything from printing brochures to making copies to filing. “Nobody has any assistant. Everything we do is homemade. I had to teach myself how to do a Web site.”
Despite the distractions, Findley said, she works to maintain focus. “I lead my staff to make the safety and protection of children in our community our first priority.”

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