We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tarah Carnahan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tarah below.
Alright, Tarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
My first day as Executive Director of the organization I had co-founded 3 years prior was on the first day of the stay at home order of the COVID-19 pandemic. Already I was stepping into a role I was wary of. I had found my footing after a season of burn out and an international adoption and did not want to find myself fully consumed and worn by my work – I wanted to keep healthy boundaries. Also, despite having always found myself leading things, I didn’t see myself as a buttoned up leader or the face of an organization. I liked getting things done, making connections, and felt a bit insecure, wondering if my style would cut it, or if the role would kill my creative spark. All of these things I was already carrying, and then add a new crisis on my very first day. We found our way through, making sure our program members stayed connected to services and community resources, but I couldn’t shake a nagging question – “Is this sustainable?” I saw refugee community leaders being burned out because they were called upon to respond to the mounting needs of their language communities when barriers around transportation or language were persistent, often not being paid for the work they were rising up to do in the face of emergency. I realized that our core program would stay small, serving 15-20 women per year, and inevitably create a network that we were unable to serve. That’s when I began pursuing an idea of multiplying New American women leaders to better serve the community long-term, open up more spots for women to learn how to navigate America’s complex systems, and increase the visibility and connectedness of women leaders with refugee backgrounds so other organizations who deliver services locally would be informed by their experience when hired. This was a risky move growing our model by 10x in the midst of so many unknowns, but 2 years later after launching this program and seeing over 100 women gain new support, and 25 women be seen as leaders with confidence, experience, and a trusted community I can say it was worth the leap of faith!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have always been geared toward service, my mind always curious about solving social problems and filled with a hopeful imagination about what is possible when a community brings their unique strengths to the table. This curiosity led me after college to the slums of Asuncion working with women living and working near the city garbage dump – bringing together a community of women pursuing their own entrepreneurial ventures through sewing and saving together. Ultimately this is a part of a failure story – I was so afraid of failing people with money that I didn’t ask for help. I was eager to ask for insight on global trade and import/export laws, or critiques on products, but I tried to self-fund the whole venture for years holding multiple jobs in nonprofits after I returned to the US. I ended up getting a Master’s in Sustainable Business with the hopes of working within a social enterprise in the developing world or doing social impact work inside a large corporation. When I became a mother I was equally in love with my son and enamored with motherhood AND lost at what I thought I should be doing by now and wondering what my experience and passion would amount to. I was new to my community, lacking connections, and felt useless to the world around me outside my home. That is when I was introduced to a woman who was also new to my community, a woman who boldly moved to my city as a refugee, toting 2 little girls and one in her womb. We became fast friends despite our language gap, her speaking Swahili and me English, but smiles, listening and enthusiasm go far to create bridges across cultures. Our friendship provided us both with things we needed. I shared my knowledge of how to get things done in our city, and I proved to be a decent English and driver’s ed instructor as well as helpful when a baby needed to go to the emergency room with an ear infection or when a smoke detector wouldn’t stop beeping because of its need for new batteries. And she gave me the greatest gift of presence, love, purpose, and an open door to share meals and laughs – showing me what it looks like to be a strong mother and fight for the good of your children. Her resilient joy and hopefulness as she waited on her family to join her stirred up my own hope. These years had me questioning our refugee resettlement system and just how impossible of a task it seems to bring someone to our country, give them support for 90 days, and basically hope they make it long term despite obstacles around language, housing, transportation, work, and isolation. After the birth of my second son I got together with another woman who was passionate about the same thing, and we created Treetops after much listening to the community – imagining a world where anyone who has experienced the pain of displacement, might live a vibrant, full life in connection with their neighbors. Today we have programs around women’s leadership, cross-cultural friendship, a newly developed cross-cultural community center that acts as a hub of connections, a culturally informed mental health program led by language leaders, a teen social enterprise internship, a teen mentorship program, and a retail line celebrating the work of new neighbors and spreading a message of welcome. I often reflect on the timing of this organization’s start and how it coincides with the birth of babies, and how this idea was also birthed – reminding myself that there is never a perfect time to begin.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I think when managing a team you have to be people focused and see each team member not as just a means to achieving a business goal, but as a whole, complex person. I want our organization to be a place where people grow – not just in their pursuit of excellent work, but in pursuit of their own healing and living into the values that we ascribe. Keeping our values at the center of what we do is essential in creating cohesion and shared language. Twice a year I have our team members name the ways they will intentionally live out the values of Treetops in their personal lives – these values cannot be things that only apply at work, they must be embedded into each of us for them to be fully alive. I think a way we keep our morale high is through personal engagement, a sense of humor and fun, and celebration – one of our values is to take note of our small wins as we work toward the future we hope for. That value of celebration is seen as team members recognize the achievements of each other or the ways they were supported and that keeps a certain positive energy around!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We have always tried to be authentic and light-hearted, to shine a light on the hopeful parts of our community and the strengths of our neighbors. As an organization it is sometimes encouraged to present the need and the problem more than the solution, and often that leads people to be motivated to give, but we have felt that one of our role’s is to change the narrative around refugees and immigration and to paint the honest picture that we have encountered as to the beauty and strengths of the communities arriving to ours. We are so in need of their hospitality and collective values to inform our culture and cure us to some extent of our isolation and individualism. We are so much better together.
Contact Info:
- Website: treetopscollective.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/treetopscollective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treetopscollective/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/treetopscollective/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPzdenapRjbs36Owpm7C00A
- Other: https://vimeo.com/326642680