Interview with Dustin Gent, November

Claire Faulkenberry Interview with Dustin Gent Wednesday November 28, 2017 @ 3:45

Gent: Hey this is Dustin Gent. We finally got ahold of each other! Feel free to take the lead, guide our conversation.

Faulkenberry: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. I don't know if you read about the interview but, I was supposed to interview someone who is respected and viewed as an effective leader in an organization or community and I am really interested to know more about how you got to where you are in your organization and, did you? I think she something like you worked in the Philippines>

G: I do. I, lived there for a few years and was kidnapped in 2000. And wasn't allowed to return until 2009 and then started a facility, a home, for trafficked kids. Starting in January 2010 until present.

F: Wow, that's amazing.

G: Yeah, I love it.

F: So is that part of your personal, biography that led you to where you are?

G: Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. Yeah, I would say my, experiences in the Philippines have greatly shaped who I am today, my world view, absolutely.

F: Okay. So what are you doing with the, is it the Florence Crittenton Agency? G: Yes, Florence Crittenton, that organization, that is a pretty interesting history. It's been around for over a hundred years, started in New York. We, there's like 26 in the US and I became the Vice President of the Knoxville Florence Crittenton nine years ago in March.

F: Wow. And what do they do? G: So, it is a non-profit that has two residential facilities for children who are in state custody. One is 32 beds, all female, teenagers from 12-17. Those kids can be, so I am not sure how familiar you are with the state system but there is JJ and social service. So JJ Juvenile Justice means the kids have committed crimes, maybe they are gang members, they're violent, they've been in fights, they've stolen property, they have at least one felony. Social services means that they are dependently neglect. That they're victims of circumstances, so these kids their parents may not have provided food, clothing shelter. Parents may have raped them or sold them or abused them in some form or fashion. And the state has placed the youth in for their own protection and good and to receive services. So our 32 kids, are from all over the state, so from Memphis to Bristol, the whole state. And they're from really rural communities where they could've used meth, learned how to make moonshine {{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}} to very urban gang members, used to violence, parents shooting up. And they are all under one roof and one school. And we have our own private school. And then our other residential facility is 24 kids, they are considered level three, the others level two, so these kids have more than one felony, they've had a history of substance abuse problems. They've failed outpatient programs, and we are a 60 day intensive program where they have around 8 hours of group a day on top of 8 hours of school. So it is very very intensive, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, RNs , you name it we provide it for those at risk youth. There is twelve males and twelve females, again all across the state. {{{{{}}}}}}}} F: Wow, that's amazing. G: Yeah, and then we do foster care. We have our own outpatient program. F: Is it a private organization or do you work with the government? G: Yes. We are a private nonprofit but we contract with the state of Tennessee and insurances to provide care for adolescents who are in need of our services. F: Okay, wow. That's awesome. G: Yeah, so we receive federal funding, state funding, insurance funding, private pay. {{{}}}}} F: So what led you to that position nine years ago? G: Again, you'll probably hear this reoccurring theme. After I was kidnapped and wasn't allowed to be in the Philippines. That caused some trauma and some frustration for me because I felt like I was called to be a career missionary. And I told my parents that, my goal in life was to work with the very least of those who {{}} ***unknown***, the system, whomever has given up hope with. I wanted to be an advocate in someone who helps and encourages to those who have been given up on. So that led me down a fairly long road of going and working at a place called Mountain View, it's like a prison for adolescents and that was not a very positive experience for me. So I wanted to work in prevention to keep kids from going there. {{{}}}} So I did homework for about five years and that was a very positive experience, I really enjoyed that. Then I got into foster care. I was the director of foster care for Holston Home, I don't know if you have ever heard of Holston Home. They're a nonprofit in Greenville and they have a Knoxville office. I was over there in their Knoxville office for years. And I was recruited by Florence Crittenton to basically help run their day to day operation, based on my success and passion from my work with the foster kids. {{}} F: Wow, that's awesome. So what brought you to, how did you get to the Philippines? G: How did I get to the Philippines? I should give you brief answers for this. So in 96' I graduated from college and I worked at a homeless shelter in Morristown and **unknown** and I was a student minister at the church.{{{{{}}}} So I held out two jobs and there was a church that recruited me because I knew Spanish fairly well and they were going to Santiago, Chile and needed someone that could help them communicate. And so I went on this month long trip and there was an evening that I was out and just sharing my faith and there was a young college girl who in broken Spanish, communicated that she had dedicated her life to christ through our conversation. God called me in Santiago, Chile to be a missionary to those who have never heard the Gospel. F: Wow. G: And, yeah. So I went to the IMB, the International Mission Board {{{{}}}} through their journey program and basically in 1997/98 I asked them what their greatest need was and it was to be a church planter in Taboo, Philippines and I said okay, I have never heard of the Philippines, let's go.{{{}}}} F: That's amazing. G: Ha! I guess it's amazing, a little foolish, I don't know. F: I think it's a God thing. Like He takes you where He needs you and you take that leap of faith. G: Yeah, you should. F: So definitely an obstacle or challenge would be when you were kidnapped. How long were you working in the Philippines before that happened? G: Right at two years. F: Okay. Okay. What were you doing in the Philippines? You were planting churches? G: Yes. I ended up, that was my official job. But I ended up working with street kids, trafficked kids, probably within three or four months being there. {{{}}}} F: Yeah. So since my class is global leadership, and I am just going to ask a few things about what leadership means to you. G: Okay. F: How would you categorize your leadership style? G: I would say I am a servant leader. F: What do you think your professional strengths and weaknesses are? G: Professional strengths, I would say my empathy, I would say empowering others ,developing others, helping them to identify their life goals. Not necessarily their career goals but their life goals. And giving them concrete realistic steps to achieve and meet those goals. {{{}}}}} I've been very fortunate to see people under me advance, a lot of that meant leaving where they were working but I consider that a success. I would say my weaknesses are organizational skills. I am not the most organized person in the world, pretty messy. I would say, even though I have hired and fired, I don't know how many people, four or five hundred people, at least at this point. I still don't enjoy confrontation. Confrontation is, I don't know if it would be a weakness, but it is something that I try to avoid {{{{}}}}. I try my best to help people develop alternative solutions versus ending someones employment. But yeah I would say that it is a weakness. I would say that there are times that I should confront an issue and fire someone but I give them another chance and 9 times out of 10 it blows up in my face. F: Right. But it sounds like that comes with the servant leader, extending grace. Which is definitely a strength and a weakness. G: Yeah, absolutely. F: So has there been anyone who, like who or what, has been your greatest influence in your professional and personal life? {{{{{}}}}} G: I would say there is a lady named ***unknown*** and my current boss. Both of those people when I was in high school, I had no plans to go to college. And this lady out of Walter State, she somehow saw my potential and didn't see who I was but who I could be. And she was able to articulate that to me and it instilled a lot of confidence and she just invested a lot in me. She honestly changed my life. And then my current boss, Mindy Christian, she pretty much did the same thing several years later. Having the ability to see someone for who they can be versus just seeing them for who they currently are. They were willing to invest and equip, to help develop. That is something that I have tried to do for others because it was done for me. F: Right. You talked about how one of your strengths is empowering others, and that's what you try to do for others. So leaders help turn ideas into action, how do you as a leader make ideas happen and through that empower people? G: Sure! And this is a very type A answer, and I am a very type B person. But, systems and processes, there are a lot of people who have a lot of ideas. But are unable to execute and they are normally not able to execute because they get overwhelmed. Like the way we started our trafficking {{{{}}}}} in Knoxville, there is not a trafficking program for adolescents in the state of Tennessee. Only for adults. So being willing to take realistic small steps, education yourself, going to trainings, purchasing resources, visiting multiple states that have trafficking programs, and learning from them, not reinvent the wheel. SO out of that you take the positives and the things you like from different programs and you develop processes for them. Once the processes are in place, the resources are in place and the education is in place {{{{}}}}, you then don't keep any of that to yourself. You find people that are smarter than you, better than you and you just pour into them to where it is hard for them to mess up. If x y z happens, they know what to do and know how to handle it and just provide that re-education. And if there is a struggle, be accessible, I try to be on the floors with the kids and staff every single day for several hours and not hide in my office. So processes, systems, people only do what they are held accountable for. Even an overachiever, if they're not held accountable for something, 99% of the time they are not going to do it. Again, processes and systems, accountability, a very type A answer. But it is the only effective way I have seen to develop and give birth to the life of ministry in the Philippines. That was a year long, very slow process. {{{}}} F: How did you get that started? G: Well there were 12 of us that went in 2009, six of them were college students. We were in the trash, handing out teddy bears and crackers. We had been hanging out with these kids for four or five days and there was a bunch missing and a few bleeding and bruised. They had shared that they had been raped by a whole bunch of men that came in that night and others were kidnapped and taken. Our perception of being Christian {{{}}} handing out teddy bears and food, came to a screeching halt. Then the twelve of us said we are going to develop a ministry to get you out of this environment and not just put a bandaid on it. So when we came back we developed a board of directors. The whole principle behind the nonprofit is getting your status of your bylaws, to be accredited as a state non profit certified, there are all of these accreditation that you have to receive. {{}}} It is a very very long painful process that 11 others helped me complete. I would say, not only processes but having people with the same mindset and goals to walk along side of you is critical. I don't know anybody that can do things by themselves. There is definitely a difference when having like minded people with the same passions and goals. I would say that's true for the orphanage and what I do at work. It took us right at a year but we were able to legally be formed as a nonprofit and then took another team in January of 2010 and we had to form a nonprofit in the Philippines. We rented a facility and then we developed a criteria in our home{{{}}}. Our two main things for the orphanage is, we will have bible studies, biblical teaching every day and weekly church attendance. And the opportunity to know Christ and be disciplines. The other is we believe that a education is used so every single child that we rescue, regardless of age we guarantee them a college education. {{}} So far just about everyone of our kids have walked through with a diploma in their hand and become leaders in their community. F: That's incredible. So you think that delegation is a key to successful leadership? G: Absolutely. Knowing who to delegate to. And empowering them, because a lot of people can sit and delegate but if you don't know how to be that support person without being a control freak, a lot of people will be like "ah they told me to do this but didn't give me the tools or knowledge to know how to actually do it".{{{}}} That balance. F: Yeah. How do you measure success? And how do you learn from failures, because that is inevitable and what comes with being a leader? G: I measure, for the orphanage or for where I work in Knoxville? F: {{{}} Either one. G: For the orphanage, success is if a child has been introduced to christ and has had an opportunity to respond to the Gospel and has been clearly communicated, regardless of their response. In Knoxville, success is creating a safe, trauma-informed environment. Where youth can be able to share the trauma that they have experienced and receive love, healing and help. For failures, I do that everyday, often, several times a day. {{}}}. There is a book called 'failing forward' basically teaching you how to deal with mistakes and use that as an opportunity to learn and grow versus to regret or have remorse. Very good book. That is just what I try to do, identify whenever a mistake occurs, I 100% of the time take responsibility for it. I do not blame others. {{{}}} One of my pet peeves is people trying to blame others for a mistake, even if its not fully their responsibility. I would rather someone take full responsibility I can work with that person ten times greater than I can with someone who is like "well I didn't do x y and z but so and so didn't do this," Let's make a plan. Again, systems of processes. How can we prevent and learn not to make the same mistake again. And sometimes you don't, and sometimes you have to fall down three or four times before you figure it out. F: {{{}}}} Did you experience devastation or failures in the Philippines? G: Yeah, one of the biggest mistakes we made. Was when we rescued kids out of the trafficking environment, the parents would just take another sibling and sell them. So we actually caused greater damage than good, by rescuing children from being trafficked. SO that was a big turning point in our ministry where we told the parents that in order for us to care for their child, you have to go to parenting classes, you have to learn different job skills, and you have to find another source of income. So all of our kids parents or grandparents or whoever was selling them {{{{}}} they learn how to cut hair, bake bread, work on cars, weld, farm and they use those skills to supplement and take care of their family versus selling another child. That was a horrible mistake. We definitely learned from that. F: Yeah, that's crazy. So the mission of your ministry changed? Is it altering as you go? G: Oh absolutely. Because we were very child focused and we realized we couldn't just be child focused we had to be family focused. F: Right. What is your opinion--on short term missions? How do you find the balance between helping and giving everything? Us being the superhero and 'saving the day'. How do you balance that with rehabilitating and keeping that country's integrity held? G: Yeah this is probably not something your professors are going to want to hear but my pastor is kind of frustrated with me because I am very much against short term missions for the most part. Just because of what you said, our ministry, we don't hire any Americans, including myself. I lose tens of thousands of dollars a year in the ministry and I have never been given any. The people that we employ are all Philippino. The family, culture, the program, everything is Philippino based, driven again, teaching parents those skills.{{{}}}} You know the kids get an education so that they can get good jobs. So we have seen our college graduates, what they have done, like Emily. Her aunt who sold her, once she got her job, after two or three paychecks, she bought her aunt ten chickens. And we didn't even tel her to do that, that was something that she wanted to do. And she told her aunt you need to raise chickens and then sell these eggs. So she taught her aunt how to develop a business of selling eggs and now she is one of the richest community leaders in where she lives. And she is teaching others how to do chicken farming and it was all from a trafficked child who got a college education, impacting her family which impacted a community. {{{}}} F: That is crazy. Going from selling children to selling eggs. G: Yeah. So these countries do not need Americans to come in and save the day. I would say they need people to see who they can be and what they can do and equip and empower them. So we did provide a college education. We did provide a safe environment but I would say that the Philippino really did that and we just sourced it. {{{}}} F: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I completely agree. I didn't know that your organization only employed Philippino people , I think that is amazing. G: Yeah, I don't want any of the money. F: I think the problem a lot of times is self-glorification, where in doing short term missions. G: Well, let's be honest. Even career missionaries. They go and walk around in African or phillipino clothing and they are trying to be something they are not. Like it is clearly all about them and not the people they are serving. It drives me nuts. {{{}}} I despise it. F: Yeah, I stayed in Rwanda for six months and I felt the same way. What are two or three action steps that you would say are essential to leadership, specific steps that you have experienced? I know delegation was a big thing you said but are there any other actions that you believe are essential? {{{}}} G: I mean it is very cliche but high standards. As a leader, if your relying on your own skills and own knowledge and abilities and it is out by the realm of Christ leadership and guidance from the Holy Spirit. Then it is not going to end well, I don't care how rich you are or how smart you are. I think making decisions that are not covered in prayer. Other Christians say and agree, I think affirmation and it is hard for people to get affirmation from others. If they disagree with them but I love it when I have friends and mentors to disagree with me. Because I feel like God speaks through them and uses them to help me know His will and purpose. I think it is very foolish to not be Christ centered. {{{{}}} F: So you think that there is a distinct difference between a leader who lives through Christ? G: Absolutely! Well just look at all of our leaders who are on the news. Who have all these accusations of all of this stuff and they are senators and business owners, billionaires. It is falling apart for them. And some it may not fall apart for, are there may be some Christ centered folks who it falls apart for. But I would say that is a good thing, if Christ doesn't want something to be established and it is taken away from you you should be thankful. Be happy with whatever situation you are put in. So yeah, very christ centered, delegation, like-minded people, integrity. Again, if you mess up, own it. If it is unethical, don't do it. It shouldn't have to be said. But if you are a person without integrity good luck with your leadership. F: Speaking of integrity and things like that what advice to you have for building relationships and trust in an organization {{{{}}}}} Because with money in general, it gets messy and with organizations you need money, support and resources. What advice do you have for trust and relationships? G: To be extremely careful. As I told you, I have been in my current position in Knoxville for nine years and in that time other than my boss, I have one person that I would say that I fully trust and would consider a friend. Which is a very horrible, maybe not a very leadership-friendly thing to say. The way that I go about it now is that I in confidence will share with people who are in leadership positions. Like my principle at my school {{{{}}}}, I told him that this Monday we were going to have the drug dogs come and not to tell anyone in the organization. And come Monday I talked to different people to see if they acted different, talked different, to put out feelers and to my knowledge and my understanding he did not tell anyone that the drug dogs were coming. So if he had, would that have really harmed my organization? No. Would that have really endangered anyone? No. But it was a small step to establishing a bond. {{{{36:0.9}}}}} I would say as you are building trust with those you are leading, don't lead with something that is mission critical. Don't lead with something that is going to harm the people that you serve or your mission. Lead with something that you're going to know whether or not they shared it and betrayed the trust, but it is not operation critical. Really just incremental steps so you can bring them into the inner circle of trust. Go slow with it. {{{}}} It is horrible, I should trust more people but there are probably five people in this world that I trust. F: I think as a leader you can never be too careful. So you have people in the Philippines? How have you established people that you know are continuing your vision and all of that while you are not there? G: Sure, so my best friend is a business owner, a millionaire by American standards. He is our director. He manages all of the money, he gives me all of the receipts for the money. He shows me payroll. Because the biggest temptation is physical for pretty much anyone in third world countries. There are different reports that I receive, grades, child participation, church participation. I will talk with our kids or social workers just to make sure that what our director is telling me matches up with what the kids and others tell me. {{{}}} It's not that I believe after nine years he would suddenly start lying to me. But again, I think everyone performs better with a certain amount of accountability. F: Definitely. Is there anything else that you would like to mention? Or have we covered most things? G: These are really good questions. I can't think of anything, I am trying to be an open book and honest. I should say something really profound but. I hope it is helpful. F: I have one last question, and that is what do you want your legacy to be?{{}}} G: That I helped the least of these. That would be good. Glory in Christ, that would be another one. F: Thank you so much for talking with me and answering all of my questions. G: Sure! It was fun. If you ever want to go to the Philippines, give me a holler, I will put you on a plane.