CARITAS President and CEO Karen O’Brien (Jay Paul)
CARITAS, which provides a path forward from homelessness and substance abuse, has a new president and CEO for the first time in 22 years. Karen O’Brien, previously the nonprofit’s chief operating officer, succeeded CEO Karen Stanley in April to lead the largest homelessness and recovery services organization in the metro Richmond area, which currently serves 3,300 people each year. In an interview, O’Brien offered insight into CARITAS and its work in Richmond, and the significance of her new role.
Richmond magazine: What does it mean to you to be leading CARITAS?
Karen O’Brien: I think it’s my calling. I love people, and I love the thought that people can restart, reset, rebuild their lives with the help and the space and the tools that we give them. I love seeing people reach their potential. I want to be at the helm here, not only to help our participants but our staff as well.
RM: How does CARITAS assist the Richmond community?
O’Brien: We have a reputation for quality, for caring and for loving people. We create space for them to heal, provide tools, connections, time to build and ways to find another pathway forward to reset lives, and we try to do it without judgment.
Currently, we have space for 450 people. Sometimes it takes longer than one time through our program, and we are able to hold that space for that participant. Our footprint in the region is big, and we’re looking to continue to do what we do with excellence, with love, caring and compassion.
RM: What are the challenges facing Richmond concerning homelessness?
O’Brien: The biggest and most evident is the lack of affordable housing. When somebody is living on a fixed amount of income and a one-bedroom apartments costs $1,100 a month and you get $700 a month, there’s a big disconnect.
I think we just need a broader pipeline. We have an emergency shelter in Richmond, and I think the players, including us, do it well, but we just don’t have enough. An emergency shelter is only one piece of the whole system.
We need more creative affordable housing for people to live in. People who are struggling and live below the poverty line are always going to be with us, and we need to figure out how we can help people have their God-given right to have a place to be sheltered and to live.
RM: What do you hope for CARITAS to achieve in the coming years?
O’Brien: My goal is that CARITAS will be strong and robust. And that, long after I’m gone, it will be still thriving and still helping people to achieve those things that we talked about.
I’d also like to do more of what we’re already doing, do it well and fill gaps in the system. We’re good at figuring out what needs to be done, and we’re good at creating new opportunities if need be. But we’re also good at collaborating with existing partners. So I want to do what we do with quality.
This work is important, and it’s also hard and exhausting. People who are here choose to do this work. It’s in their heart, it’s part of their makeup, and they show up every day, which is just huge. We show up every day and hold the space for people who are poor and suffering or who have met challenges along the way.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
