Episode 22: Investing in Communities, Transforming Lives: The Leadership Story of Christamore House CEO La'Toya Pitts

Join Host Sarah Hempstead and Christamore House CEO La’Toya Pitts for an enlightening conversation on creative leadership. 

A driving force in the Haughville and Near Westside neighborhoods of Indianapolis,  La’Toya has spearheaded efforts to provide child and youth educational services, senior programming, and life skills training to shape residents into community contributors. Learn how Christamore House professionally shaped La’Toya and how it has added to her leadership track and strategic approach. Finally, hear how she is paying it forward as an empathetic leader focused on community development. 

Transcript

Sarah:                              Welcome to Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership. I'm Sarah Hempstead, a leader in creative problem solving, principal in charge at Schmidt Associates. Today I'm joined by La’Toya Pitts, the creative CEO of Christamore House Family and Community Center in Indianapolis. A lifelong resident of the Haughville neighborhood, La’Toya was introduced to Christamore House around the age of seven.

Benefiting from programs such as homework assistance, arts and crafts, ballet, college visits and taking in the city's museums, Latoya credits Christamore House with giving her the solid foundation that led her to where she is today. In her adult years, she joined the board of directors and in 2018, she became Christamore House's executive director and CEO.

In this episode, we’ll discuss La’Toya’s experience building strong communities, her leadership perspective, and her path to leading this important institution. Thanks for joining us today. 

La’Toya:                           Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. 

Sarah:                              This is going to be great. So, it is rare that a leader of an institution grew up in the neighborhood and experiencing the institution. Can you start by giving us a little bit of background and context of little baby La’Toya and how you first experienced that space and place? 

La’Toya:                           Great question. So, I grew up in Haughville. My grandmother lived directly across the street from Christamore House my entire life. My family still owns that house and then the house directly next door that my uncle lives in.

A little bit of history about me. My mom was a teen parent, so I'm the product of a teenage mom. And although statistics say that I should not be successful, I should not be a leader, I should not have gone to college and graduated, my family and Christamore House helped me break all those barriers.

After school, my bus would pull up, I would get off the bus, go to my grandmother's house, have my snack, watch a little bit of Channel 8 News, watch a little bit of the stories, and then I would go across the street to Christamore House where I would get homework help because you did not hear me say I did homework at my grandma's house.

We ate snacks. And we watched TV. And then I went to the Christamore House where I got help with my homework. And I got to hang out with friends and people my own age. Some of my best childhood friendships were developed at Christamore House. My childhood friend group and I met when I was in third grade.

Eight years old. Those women and I are still friends. We're well into our forties. We've experienced marriages together. We've lost parents together. We've got college degrees, master's, and doctoral degrees. We run businesses. And so those foundations and those friendships were made right at Christamore House.

So, it's full circle for me. 

Sarah:                 So having a cohort like that of friends and supporters, that and I think that, were all successful and moved on to higher education and important things would lead me to believe that there were strong advocates and mentors at Christamore House for you.

La’Toya:             Absolutely. When you're a kid, you don't necessarily realize the things that are building you for the future. You don't realize oh, this is difficult. This is teaching me resilience. This is teaching me advocacy. And so, when I was a kid, I didn't realize those things.

Christamore House was a fun place for me to be. But really what I was learning was resilience. I was learning what it means to pour back into a community that’s poured into you. I was learning what friendship means. I was learning just what grant writing was and didn't know that I was learning what grant writing was.

For me, I feel like that cohort was important. And I feel like the friend group and my family making sure that I had that safe space to hang out and be a kid and go on college tours. Those are the types of things that Christamore House taught me at an early age.

My first college tour experience. Now my family always talked about college. It was never, ‘are you going?’ It was always a conversation of ‘where are you going?’ And what are you majoring in?’ Christamore House took me on college tours. Once my feet stepped foot onto a college campus, I knew this is real and this is where I'm going to be. I didn't necessarily know how I would learn all those things and then be able to come back and pour them into Christamore House.

But those are the things that I learned, and they are a foundation of who I am as a person and how I am as a leader. 

Sarah:                 I want to get into college and Indiana State in particular, but before we do that, for people who don't know the neighborhood of Haughville and Christamore House, can you give a little bit of context in your experience in the last 30 years about that place?

La’Toya:             Yeah. So that place is a place in a very low-income area in the city of Indianapolis. Haughville has high crime rates. Haughville has low graduation rates. Haughville has now evolved into a more mixed community. But when I grew up, there were the working class African American Black families.

There were no Hispanic families. There were very few Caucasian families. I lived in a Black neighborhood that was mixed with my grandparents who were both married. My mom grew up in a two-parent household. Both of my grandparents worked and many of the neighbors on their street did as well.

So, they were homeowners in that block of the neighborhood. But then on the very next street, there were families that were renting houses, they were receiving Section 8, they were on food stamps, and so my neighborhood was definitely considered a low-income, poor neighborhood, low education, which is why Christamore House held the special place in my heart that it did, because it gave you the resources to combat all of those things.

It leveled the playing field during that time, 

Sarah:                              What do you think led your parents to flip the script to say, ‘when you go to college? Where are you going to college?’ 

When are you going to college?’

La’Toya:              So, I am not a first-generation college student. A lot of people   think that because I grew up in a low-income, poor neighborhood and my mom was a teen parent that I am a first-generation college student, and I wasn't.

My family had college degrees. I had great aunts that taught at HBCUs, Jackson State University. So, I grew up in a family where education was always important. So that is the foundational piece that I think a lot of people misunderstand because I lived in a poor neighborhood I lived in a low educated neighborhood.

My family did not meet that typical stereotype. We weren't rich, but we weren't necessarily struggling every day either. That was just my surroundings and that was my group of where we lived. That's where we resided. That's what most of my life for the most part looked like, but education was never not an option in my family. It was a priority. 

Sarah:                You’re going on college tours with your Christamore House friends. What makes Indiana State stand out as the right place to be? Think back to your 17-year-old self. 

La’Toya:             Originally, I was at the teenage stage and my mom and I, no, I was a daddy's girl.

So, my dad would let me do whatever I wanted to do. My mom, because she was a teen parent, was stricter. And so, my rules were strict. And so, I was on the, ‘I'm going far out for school. I'm going to Jackson State University. I'm going to Grambling State University. I am going outside of Indiana.

And then a switch happened. And so probably from 13 to 16, my mom and I had the typical teenage mother-daughter relationship. We argued all the time. I turned 16-17 and I started to like her again. And I'm assuming at some point, she started to like me again too because then we got close again and I was just like, yeah, no, I'm not going 10 hours. I don't want my mom to have to drive 10 hours. I don't want my dad to have to drive 10 hours to get to me. So, I started looking at schools in Indiana and all my friends are making other decisions about, ‘oh, I'm going to IU in Bloomington. I'm going to Ball State. I'm going to Butler.’ I knew Butler was too close to home.

                           I didn't want to live at home. I wanted a full college experience and I wanted somewhere where our dollars could stretch. And so that’s how I decided on Indiana State. At the time, they had one of the best accounting programs in the state of Indiana. That’s how I decided. 

Sarah:                 So, talk about what led you to accounting and business in general.

La’Toya:             So, I was a cool nerd. If that even makes sense to you. I was one of the cool kids in school. Everybody wanted to hang around me. My friend group was popular, but I was really book smart, especially when it came to numbers. So, while most teenagers spent their weekends hanging out, I did that too. But I also was in BPA, which is Business Professionals of America. So, at 16-17. I spent my weekends doing spreadsheets and competing against other kids in the state because I love numbers so much. So that’s how I got to become an accounting major.

Sarah:                               And then you went on to get your MBA, right? In healthcare. So, then you went on to get your MBA. Did you go directly into not for profit with the skills or you went into the private sector first?

La’Toya:             I worked in the private sector first and realized because I was a cool nerd, accounting might not have been for me. I had this whole plan. I'm going to major in accounting, right? My accounting advisor was like, you should pick up finance. You should double major. I should because I was blowing through my accounting classes. I loved it so much. Everything came easy to me except for tax accounting. Lord be with those people. Cause that is like serious. The laws change all the time. So typically, if you learn accounting principles, the principles don't change some of the rules change, but not very often. Tax accounting changes I feel like now quarterly, depends on whose office dictates what the tax rules are. So anyway, I'm blowing through my accounting classes and my advisor was like, you should major in finance too, just because you like numbers. Accounting and finance were the beginning to the end. So, the finance is the beginning piece.

The accounting is the end piece. So, you understand at the beginning to the end. Terrible advice. Because I decided that is what I was going to do and decided halfway into the finance part of the major that I didn't want that to be my major anymore. I declared accounting. I got my associate degree and then I double majored in accounting again and business management.

So, my bachelor’s degree is in management and accounting. So, I have an associate in accounting. A bachelor’s in accounting and a bachelor’s in business management. I went to go work in the private sector. I went to go work for the public sector. I went to go work for a company called KYB Manufacturing. They make struts.

I was one of their accountants and realized there that my personality is way too big for daily accounting. I do not know if you guys know your accountants in this building. They have quirky personalities. I speak their language. We love them. Do you know what I mean? And you could not do what you do without them.

But they are different. I look out my window, I like my spreadsheets. I want my door closed. They are not. The individuals in this building that we will be walking through and speaking to everybody, asking everybody how they're doing. That is just not their typical personality. And so, because that is my typical personality, what I was good at and what I loved at 17 didn’t translate into what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

So, then I started exploring. I have all these business degrees and where will they best align? And so, I started volunteering at various places and that’s how I got into the work of social services and realized there’s a place for this. I haven’t figured it out yet, but there’s a place where my accounting, my leadership skills and my bubbly personality can all come together and I will love my job.

Sarah:                              So, what brought you back home to Christamore House? What brought me back home? 

La’Toya                            There was a need. I started volunteering and when I went to Christamore House, it was so full lively. The hallways always had tons of kids and it felt like so big to me. And then when I came back and volunteered, there were like eight kids in our after-school program and Haughville hadn't changed that much.

The dynamic and the demographics were still the same. The same. It was still a low-income neighborhood, still a low-education neighborhood, but instead of just being Black students, now they’re brown students because we have Black families, and we have Hispanic families. And so now you have a different dynamic of who needs the services at the house.

And I felt like those needs weren't being met. And I wasn’t sure why. And I felt like for me, the disconnect may have been that they don't know this neighborhood and that’s fair. You can’t get mad. Like you only know what you know and when you know better, you do better. And I was just like, okay, ‘I cannot complain, and I have a solution.’

So, I joined our board because I felt like that was the way to make an impact. So not only am I going to volunteer. I’m now going to hold myself accountable. I’m going to join this board. I’m going to place votes that matter. And then it just kept snowballing and I went from being a board member to being the deputy director and from the deputy director to becoming the executive director and CEO.

Sarah:                              They just pulled you deeper and deeper in. So, one of the things I'm interested in is the changes that you’ve implemented at Christamore House. But before we get to what the changes physically are in different partnerships, let’s take it back to the reason why you’re there, which is the kids. What are the changes that you’ve seen with the population that you’ve served? You talked about knowing the neighborhood and a different mix of kids. You’ve had the pandemic too. So, what do you see as the challenges and changes in this next generation? 

La’Toya:                           The next generation is a little different. The neighborhood is becoming more gentrified now. And so, because of that, I wanted to make sure that as we adapt and change, the founders of Christamore House, he, as was founded in 1905, had a vision that it will always be a staple in that neighborhood, and in that community. To do that, you must be willing to change. You must meet the neighborhood where the neighborhood is. And so I went at a time that Tutoring was necessary. After school homework was necessary. And now I'm in an era where technology is necessary. My students can’t be equipped. They can't be on level playing fields if I don't have good Wi-Fi in our building.

If I don’t have access to the highest and the newest computers because that’s what they do. That’s school now. I need to make sure that if they’re going to game, there's people that game for a living. let me teach my students how to make sure they have access. That if that’s what you’re going to do, if you’re going to sit around and play video games all day, let me teach you how to make money. Let me teach you how to make this a viable, livable option so that you can be a contributing member of society. And so, I feel like with this generation, you must constantly be willing to change. You must meet the neighborhood and the community where they are. Our neighborhood center now, I'm big on health and wellness because I don't want my neighbors to have to drive 20 minutes to go work out.

I have a building. I have space. Now, it's not your Lifetime Fitness, but you can get everything that you need. We have treadmills. We have free weights. And so, it’s making small changes and adapting like that so that the neighbors feel like this is our community center. 

Sarah:                 That’s a great point. The mission of Christamore House isn't just the littles, right? It's not just the kids. So, you're serving the whole neighborhood in a variety of ways. 

La’Toya:             Absolutely. From three to 99 is what I always say. We have an early child education, which is our preschoolers. We have our afterschool kiddos.

We have our boxing program. Boxers are from eight to 26. So, we have some young adults that box as well that are hoping to turn into major boxes or go pro as they would say. We have family strengthening. So that’s helping our families find jobs, get better jobs, go back to school, create family life plans on what it looks like for their family life to be successful.

We take a two generational approach because I’ve always been taught that a kid’s voice matters. They’re living this life, too. And so, they should be able to have some skin in the game or some stake in what’s happening in their life and what their life looks like. How to prepare them and get them to the next level.

So that's important. And then our lovely senior citizens who give me a run for my money daily. Definitely. But we make sure that they can be able to have socialization. We make sure that they can get back and forth to doctor’s appointments and make sure that they have access to healthy meals.

Those things are important because all ages live in the community, not just kids. Even though my fondest memories of Christamore House was when I was a kid, I want to make sure that no matter what the age group is, if this is your neighborhood, this is your center, and you can relate to it in some way.

Sarah:                 So, the way you make all that possible really is partnerships with all sorts of entities some of which might be unexpected. So, one of the coolest ones in recent memory is working with the NBA. You want to tell a little bit about that story? 

La’Toya:             That was fun. It was work. Everybody saw the like glitz and glamour, but behind the scenes, like it was work. And so, we apply for a grant to be the NBA’s legacy project. Every time the NBA does an All-Star game in whatever state that they’re doing that game in, they pick a legacy project where they invest money.

And of course everybody wants to be the legacy project. So, you have schools applying, you have other neighborhood community centers. My colleagues were applying. Just a different array of people. And so, through a very rigorous application process, Christamore House was selected based off our, and it was like three or four visits.

Every time they would come for a visit, I'd be like, ‘okay, this is the visit that they’re  going to decide. And they were like, ‘oh, we need, we love it here, but we’re going to bring four more people out to see them. We need to, so yes, it was like a long process. But at the end, it was worth it for my community center, just because we got our gym refurbished.

Our gym was built in about 1917. Our original building, the auditorium was built in 1905. The auditorium was our second, our gym was our second building that was built. So that got new floors. We got two new scoreboards. We got new padding. It’s amazing. Now my baseboards go up and down. So those three-year-olds can play and feel like they can dunk as well.

And then they go all the way up. to, standard so that my big kiddos can feel like they're in a nice gym. So, the gym was redone. We got a new wellness room. Our wellness room was remodeled completely. So, we have new rubber floors. We have new free weights. We have state-of-the-art equipment.

We have a bathroom that was built downstairs for our boxers. We also got an upgrade to our technology lab. And the most important thing was our STEAM lab. So, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Because by spirit, I’m a creative. Like I love to create. That’s my thing. Crafting is my jam. It just wasn’t going to pay my bills. That’s why I only do it on the side for fun. But I may, I wanted to make sure that students had a space where they felt like they could be creative. And so, there are, there is space to be creative in our new STEAM lab, and that’s the kids’ best part of the project. Even though everybody thinks the gym is the coolest.

Sarah:                 And what’s the coolest is that you could pull off both, right? The creative side and the health and wellness side and as we all know, they all work together, right? To make and build a better person. That NBA  project was awesome, but you have community partners that you work with all day long every year, too.

La’Toya:                           Yeah, absolutely. 

A lot of people may think that my colleagues, the community centers, and I don't collaborate. We work together all the time. We meet monthly. We share ideas. We go after funding together. We’re working on some cool projects. We took care of the city of Indianapolis.

I’m proud of that project. When we were doing the rental assistance program during the pandemic, it took all 12 community centers plus the Urban League. So ,13 of us came together to make sure that families that were facing eviction and homelessness during the pandemic, were getting those rent funds out immediately.

It was a proud project in a proud moment and a big partnership that took place. Not one center could have done it without being able to be a collaboration. So those types of things are important. We partner with the Indiana Diaper Bank because Christamore House has a diaper boutique where families in the neighborhood who are struggling to get diapers, wipes, WIC, and anything an infant would need to have access to that for free.

And so, without the Indiana Diaper Bank’s partnership, we wouldn't be able to do that. There’s all types of different collaborations and partnerships. 

Sarah:                So, I don't think that Kind of partnership happens everywhere. Can you talk a little bit about as a leader, how do you lean in and collaborate with organizations where sometimes you are going to go after the same, they all wanted your MBA grant, right? Talk a little bit about how you manage effective collaboration to achieve a better result. 

La’Toya:             For me, I think it's about honesty, and I am always honest with my partners. Meaning, I'm like, ‘okay, this is what I’m going to get out of it, and I’m not going to try to give you rainbows and butterflies, that it’s all about you there is some self- serving in us working together as well, and just be upfront and tell me what are you hoping to get out of this deal, so that we can collaborate together. It’s not about competition for me. I feel like there are some things that Christamore House does extremely well, and I’m ok with bragging about those. And there are some things that Christamore House struggles with and some of my colleagues or the other centers are better at, and I’m ok with reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, this is really your lane. You do this a lot better than I do. So, let’s collaborate. I’ll bring this to the table because I’m good at this. And if you bring this to the table, we can dominate the west side of Indianapolis. And that’s how the conversations go. They’re like, ‘It's a good thought. If I stay in my lane, you stay in your lane, we come together, and all the lanes are full.

Sarah:                 So how do you effectively communicate with the west side of Indianapolis? You have stakeholders that are broad, 99 to babies, right? How do you communicate with them to make sure that you’re serving them in the way they want to be served?

La’Toya:             All different types of ways. It gets interesting. So, for my people that are social   media, we have a big social media page. We  use Instagram and Facebook. We send out flyers to my old school people that like to have the paper in their hands. Because believe it or not, like I’m in that cross between like I understand social media, I use social media, but I'm more a pen and paper type of girl.

My staff always laughs about my office supply order. We order completely different. What they order versus what I order. They’re like, ‘you still use Post-it notes? Just pin it in your phone. I'm like no. I need to see it written down.’ I want to be able to write a line through that and check that off that I accomplished that.

And just knowing that different people learn different ways and making sure that I’m trying to tap in all the avenues. I attend meetings when I can. If I'm not personally able to attend, I make sure that a Christamore House staff member is able to attend neighborhood and community meetings. I respond to emails, so yes, I just communicate in all different types of ways. I sometimes over communicate, but communication is the key. It doesn’t leave really much room for misinterpretation. If you’re communicating your intentions and you’re being very intentional with how you communicate with people, sure. 

Sarah:                 So, what’s next for Christamore House?

La’Toya:              There’s so many good things coming up. So many good things brewing. In February 2023, we closed on a new building at 2621 West 16th street. I’m very proud of that building because Christamore House went from an organization that did not have a reserve fund to being in a position where we could financially purchase a building. And now we are diligently working to raise the rest of the funds to remodel that building. That building will be specifically for my senior citizen population so they can have somewhere that’s their own that they can call home. And then our health and wellness department will use the building sometimes in the afternoon when my senior citizens aren’t in the building.

It's close to a $3M project and we are more than halfway there to raising what we need to make sure that project happens. I hope to break ground on construction in October and ready to open it to the public at the end of first quarter of 2025. So that is meaningful right now.

Sarah:                So, if people want to help, how should they? 

La’Toya:             That’s a great question. If you would like to help me with a financial donation, we are always willing to take those. You can donate specifically to our new project, our senior annex project. You can always donate to any of our other initiatives, like our diaper boutique. Another way that you can give, if you're just not in a financial position, we understand that. It's a gift. It's a priceless gift that once you give it to us, you can't ever get that back. We’re always looking for volunteers to come in and tutor our afterschool kids, help our senior citizens by planting gardens or cleaning up their yards. You can also volunteer by coming to help us clean up the Christamore House yard or get involved if you are creative and you’re an artist and want to teach young people. There is always space for you to be able to donate your time and or your money.

Sarah:                 You'll take either. All right. So, I’ve got two questions that I ask everybody to close out. One, because I’m trying to figure it out myself. And the other because I’m just building out my book list. So, the first question is how do you how do you take time to take care of yourself?

Secondly, what are the keys to continuing to be able to do this for the next 20 years? 

La’Toya:             So, two things that I do. One is travel. You may run into me at the airport. You may run into me on a road trip. I love to travel and go. It’s sometimes just small, little weekend getaways. My travel is based on food. I'm a foodie. So, where I go is dictated by restaurants a lot of the time, and food trucks. So yeah. My traveling food thing, and then my next is crafting. I like to create things. I am that mom that has the Cricut. And I am, even though I'm a CEO and executive director, I will craft my daughter’s cheer team gifts in a heartbeat. I will whip out that Cricut and my press machine. That’s my thing. I’ll put my music on, and by the time I'm done, I'm like, ‘wow, I did not know I had it in me, but it clears my mind and it gives me time to come up with ideas on how I’m moving forward next and in different areas of my life.

Sarah:                 All right. And then my last question I'm always looking for people’s favorite books or the book they’re reading right now. Now I should caveat for our listeners that Christamore House runs one of my favorite events every single year, which is the Book and Authors Luncheon which is just a fabulous event with more than 800 people where authors from around the world talk about what they’re working on and their new books. It's a fabulous event. So, it’s maybe not fair to ask what you’re reading now, but I’m going to put you on the spot anyway and say, what would you recommend that people pick up and read?

La’Toya:             Okay. So, two. The last book that I read and is the Gift of Imperfection. I liked that book for several different reasons. Birth orders matter. People say that they don't, but they do. If you have siblings or if you have a child, pay attention to their birth order and what they go on to achieve in life because they sometimes align way more than we think. I'm a firstborn, I'm a type A personality. So, if you read that book, you’ll understand like why it spoke to me. And my favorite book, of all time is a twist. I am very I'm grounded in my faith. I believe in God. This book is called The King’s Daughter: Becoming a Woman of God by Diana Hagee. She’s also a great speaker. If you’ve never heard of her, you should watch some of her YouTube videos. That was instrumental when I was transitioning from a college kid to becoming an adult, a wife, a mother, and a working world person. So, The King’s Daughter was a good one and The Gift of Imperfection is on my top 10 list. 

Sarah:                 Awesome. Those are brand new suggestions to the list. We’ll add them in. Thank you so much for sharing.

And to all our listeners, thank you for listening to Luminate: Navigating the Unknown Through Creative Leadership. La’Toya, thank you for spending time with me today. It’s a joy, as always, to learn more about Christamore House and the impact it carries in central Indiana. Visit KristaMooreHouse.org to learn more. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss an episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn @SchmidtAssociates. And until next time, keep navigating the unknown with creativity and confidence.