Name: Vicky Valentine
Title: Senior Director, Huckleberry Wellness Academies
Organization: Huckleberry Youth Programs
Organization’s Mission: Huckleberry's missionis to educate, inspire, and support underserved youth to develop healthy life choices, to maximize their potential, and to realize their dreams. Since 1967, we have accomplished this by providing San Francisco and Marin youth and their families with a network of services and opportunities by caring peers and adults.
Years in the sector: 16
1. What was your first nonprofit job?
Education Coordinator at a therapeutic afterschool program in Boston for mentally ill teens.
2. Why do you do the work you do / what motivates you to keep at it?
I benefitted so much from the care and guidance of service providers as a teenager growing up in Oakland. I would not be who I am without having had their support. I am deeply fulfilled by giving back to generations of youth who face institutional and internalized hurdles similar to those that I overcame.
3. What part of your job do you most enjoy?
I love supporting young people to find their voice and nurture their passions. The transformative potential of people who are going through this process is inspiring to watch and an honor to be a part of.
4. What is your favorite nonprofit organization (beside the organization you work for)?
That’s a tough one…I would say Inner City Outings, the agency that I worked with as a teen and young adult that helped me to realize how big the world was.
5. What is the reform you admire most?
Abolition movement
6. Who is your favorite real life hero/heroine?
Nelson Mandela
7. Who is your favorite nonprofit sector hero/heroine?
Reverend Cecil Williams
8.What did you learn from the person who has most influenced you?
To remember where I come from; to never forget that I am standing on the shoulders of so many who have sacrificed so that I may have the life I am leading.
9. What is your connection to CompassPoint?
I was a participant in the inaugural class of the Leadership Development Program for Next Generation Leaders of Color.
10. What is your favorite thing about CompassPoint?
The talented staff who are so deeply committed to providing quality, cutting edge trainings and support.
11. What is the most important quality in a leader?
Integrity
12. What is your current state of mind?
Groggy; happy.
13. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Feeling love and fulfillment each day
14. What does the world need now?
More women in leadership at every level, from the family to heads of state.
15. What is the quality you most like in a person?
Kindness
16. What is the trait you most dislike in others?
Brutality
17. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Evidently
18. What is your most treasured possession?
A vintage scrabble board
19. What is your favorite food or drink?
Mango lassi