Connection is the key to thriving families and communities, said Kody Suanny, executive director of Great Plains Youth & Family Services.
From her office in Hobart, she has a bird’s-eye view of how the recent pandemic has affected southwest Oklahoma over the last two years, and she doesn’t like what she sees.
“A lot of families are in crisis mode right now,” Suanny said in a recent podcast posted at liveinpowered.com by Garland McWatters. “I do feel like the pandemic has caused children to have a little bit of trauma based off of family crisis. It’s what’s going on in their family unit that’s causing stress.”
Suanny listed factors such as job loss, death and struggling with change in the educational process – going from in-person to virtual and then back to in-person. That situation encompasses the issue of socialization versus isolation. Suanny noted that these are all things that families can’t really control.
“Some kids lost family members. I feel like there are a lot of adverse childhood effects going on. They need hope,” she said. “Overall, Great Plains Youth and Family Services is here to here to help families thrive. We want families to be at their very best, so we offer a lot of services.”
Suanny was raised in Hobart “surrounded by family, friends and fellowship amongst the community members,” she told McWatters. “I was born and raised here. It’s a very tight-knit community. It’s just real humbling to be surrounded by people that truly care. Whether that was a neighbor or somebody visiting with you down on the local Main Street, they are just super encouraging and just all-around good people to be raised amongst. It’s just an all-around positive place.”
Serving the community is an important legacy handed down to Suanny from her family, she told Southwest Ledger in a July 2020 interview. She noticed her family was always actively supportive and so giving back to the community became second nature to her. It’s also a trait she strives to instill in her children.
Her grandfather, Fred Gray, is among those memorialized on a plaque in the Great Plains office. Hobart Public Schools’ Fred Gray Memorial baseball field is also a tribute to his community contributions.
“I’ve shown my kids that their great-granddad’s name is on the wall, and they know it means a lot to me,” she said.
After graduating from Hobart High School in 2001, Suanny received her bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Sciences from Oklahoma State University. Shortly after beginning her career with GPY&FS as a child care resources and referral specialist 17 years ago, she earned her Master of Education degree with an emphasis on Community Counseling from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She was named executive director in 2015.
GPY&FS opened in 1978 and celebrated its 44th anniversary on May 31. Suanny said on the liveinpowered.com podcast that the center serves multiple counties and operates on a little over $1.5 million dollars that comes from state and local funds. She also said that in her years with the organization she has seen a huge shift in needs and, partly due to the pandemic, the biggest need right now is in the area of mental health. At one time, the waiting list for mental health services was at three to six months long.
“This agency was put here to solve community needs. The needs of my community now are different than they were two years ago,” Suanny told McWatters. “A lot of things changed through the pandemic. We were not allowed to go into homes. We were not allowed to see children face-to-face because of safety concerns related to COVID. We had to change and upgrade a lot of technology to be able to offer a lot of virtual services – telehealth services.
“We adapted really well,” said Suanny. “We went back to our service mission of helping families in immediate need. We were able to find grants and foundations that were willing to support us. It’s all about partnerships and connecting with the right leaders and the people that we consider key champions in our community.”