Sharane Knibbs-Rhone, CBHCMS

I attribute my success to wanting to be independent and self-sufficient. I come from an island background - I was raised in Jamaica with my dad who had his own business, but I felt like there was just a lot more for me than just being in his store. He always talked about being independent, being an independent woman, and I saw from him and my grandmother how much they worked. But I didn't want to do something that was just about money - I wanted to do something that I enjoyed. Even though my dad didn't initially encourage school, I was very passionate about going out there and doing what I had to do, whether I had that support or not. As a matter of fact, going away to college, I packed up and told him I am going to school whether you want me to or not. I took that journey by myself, and eventually he supported me financially. My drive was just, I want to be self-sufficient. And then when my son came on board, it was like, okay, we have to do what we have to do. But everything was not always about money - it's a balance of life and enjoying life, enjoying this journey that we're on, which I take seriously. My grandmother used to always send me returns, and when she died in 2023, people said I have a lot of her characteristics - she was always working, always embracing a new challenge, and nothing was too hard for her. I tell people, tough times don't last, tough people do. You gotta push through the storm, and no matter what situation you're in, there's always somebody worse than you.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is to stay focused, remain determined, and continue learning no matter where I am in my journey. I believe consistency, resilience, and maintaining strong support systems are essential to achieving long-term success, both personally and professionally.

You could do anything that you put your mind to. Even when I first came into this role, it wasn't exactly what I thought it was, but I'm determined. I tell my son all the time, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. The market's going to be hard out there, you are going to get a lot of rejection, but it's okay. You have to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and if this is what you want, you can do it. You will fail, and failure is okay - you learn from those failures. So for me, it's stay motivated. If this is what you want, keep pushing through. And if you have support, embrace the support system. Just keep trying.

One of the biggest challenges in nonprofit and youth services is ensuring consistent funding, maintaining compliance, and securing the resources necessary to meet the growing needs of young people and families. At the same time, I believe there are tremendous opportunities to strengthen programs through staff development, improved project management systems, and more innovative approaches to delivering community support services.

Being honest and being very transparent - transparency is so important to me. Not everybody is transparent, and sometimes people tell me that's my downfall, but later on they say they appreciate it, because people just can't sometimes deal with the truth. Being truthful is critical - even raising my son, his friends used to ask if he was going to tell me when he broke something, and he'd say anytime, because she's going to be less angry if you tell the truth, but if you lie she's going to be more angry. Honesty and being transparent are very important values to me. And just being human - humanity, where one is not better than the other. We have different roles to play. Accepting people for who they are, meeting everyone where they are, and just listening, because everybody has a different upbringing. I'm never one to say, oh my god, she doesn't know this? Well, I don't know your upbringing - you weren't exposed to that, so I feel like my job is going to be to educate you. I meet people where they are, I don't respond reactively. It's just understanding human beings and where everybody is. We might not agree on the same things, but it's okay - let's try to understand where that person's coming from.