We recently connected with Shannon Low and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

A little over a year ago I took a big risk and packed up and moved to Savannah to be with the man I had been with for several years. Great Heights, the non-profit I founded, was shifting in structure and it gave me the flexibility to operate outside of Atlanta but also meant I needed an additional job. Completely unsure of what I was doing I took another risk and decided to try something new career wise (not necessarily what I thought I would be doing at 33) and enrolled in EMT school. Not all the risks I have taken in life have turned out the way I hoped but I would say these were well worth the fear because here I am today, married, a certified EMT with a brand new job working in EMS while continuing to run Great Heights.

Shannon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In addition to the new things mentioned, I am a Licensed Master of Social Work who ended up working in the Child Welfare field by chance after finishing grad school. I needed a job and since just about everyone wants “two years post-grad experience” I got a job at the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and fell in love with the work. I continued as a Case Manager at DFCS and elsewhere, then ended up starting a non-profit called Great Heights Foster Care.

It all started when I walked away from a job that fulfilled me. I loved the kids and families I worked with and I loved the work I did as a Case Manager. However, I had come to learn that the place I was doing that work expected me to compromise my values and ethics in order to demonstrate my commitment to the company. Instead, I walked away. Submitting my resignation left me without a job, income, or confidence. However, I had passion for the work I had been doing and commitment to protecting the integrity of the field of social work and its ethics so with interest from several others I took steps towards starting Great Heights, towards building a non-profit Child Placement Agency to partner with DFCS in efforts to support children and youth in foster care. Sadly, for various reasons the individuals who started the process with me dropped off and I was left wondering how the heck I ended up as a social worker trying to build a business (luckily there were some incredible individuals who supported me and offered invaluable advice and assistance along the way). Ever stubborn, I kept going and slowly but surely Great Heights met milestones: became a 501(c)(3), garnered donations, got licensed by the state, got a contract with the state, formed partnerships, trained and approved its first foster families, cared for amazing children and saw them reunify with family, held a fundraiser, the list goes on. The growth was slow, but it was growth. Then COVID hit: family interest stalled, donations slowed, and we had to take a hard look at how effective we were in the community. A decision had to be made and it was probably the hardest I have made since starting Great Heights, one I avoided like the plague (or COVID). I felt sick worrying about the people who may feel let down, but as I explained at the time, Great Heights had become available and not useful. The decision was made to transfer our families to other agencies and transition Great Heights to operating solely in its capacity as a 501(c)(3); it meant we could more heavily focus on the needs of children in care, youth aging out, and families of origin either working to keep their kids out of foster care or have them return home, and that is what we continue to do today.

So while it was difficult to make the decision to pivot in such a significant way at Great Heights we are excited and proud to be an organization committed to the goal of foster care: reunification. In my experience as a Case Manager there were not many easily accessible resources for families of origin. We are just as committed to providing for children and youth while they are in care and are available to support foster families, but we like to think that our efforts to reach out to DFCS and other organizations in efforts to support reunification makes us a little unique.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

As a non-profit Great Heights’ version of “sales” is fundraising. Prior to Great Heights, actually prior to my work in Child Welfare, I worked with several non-profits and the fundraising events are some of my favorite memories. The time, effort, and energy that went into planning them were always worth it at the end. My favorite fundraiser was for an organization I worked for that had a yearly golf tournament. There was something about everyone coming out in support of the same cause, greeting old friends, meeting new friends, and enjoying time in the sun that brought me joy. It was my hope that Great Heights would eventually be able to do the same.

In 2019 we held the 1st Annual Great Heights Golf Tournament. We went into the planning with excitement, full confidence that it would be a huge hit, and perhaps visions of what it would be like planning the same tournament years down the road. Reality soon hit that we were an incredibly small organization and that the number of sign-ups we hoped for was perhaps overambitious. However, as the day approached it all came together. We had sponsors, we had golfers, we had golf shirts embroidered with our logo, heck we even had a Lexus parked on one hole as a prize for a hole-in-one (sadly no one won). At the end of the day we may not have had a record-breaking number of golfers, we may have had some chaos at the sign-in table, and the goodie bags were probably a bit goofy for the population of people attending, but we pulled it off! Everyone raved about the lunch, actual engraved trophies were given out at the end, and more people knew our name at the end of the day than at the beginning. I can’t remember exactly how much we made, but I know that we came out on top.

I didn’t think I would ever find myself enjoying fundraising; it’s hard to ask for money. However, with a supportive community and a little creativity you can do just about anything!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Whether it be a phone call to check in on someone, a gift basket to acknowledge foster parent appreciation day, a birthday card to a board member, or a thank you note to a donor, we like to keep in touch with people and let them know they are appreciated in various ways.

Great Heights also has social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) to use as forms of communication. We have been fairly quiet on them recently as we make the concerted effort to listen and learn from others, particularly those with direct experience in and with the child welfare system (i.e. children, youth, former foster children/youth, adult adoptees, parents, etc.). Great Heights is not a brand, we are a mission, a mission ​to join others to encourage, support and provide so that families can soar to great heights, so as we seek to become more active in the social media community again we will take one of the greatest lessons learned and internalized: individuals, even with very similar experiences, interpret, and feel differently about the same topics and we can best support by being open to communication and validating the truths of others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.greatheightsfostercare.org
• Instagram: @greatheightsfostercare
• Facebook: @greatheightsfostercareinc
• Linkedin: Great Heights Foster Care, Inc.