A Harbor Close to Home Healing Safety and Community in Johnston County

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Our guest is Kay Johnson, the Executive Director of Harbor and Johnston County. Harbor is our very on local Johnston County based domestic violence shelter and counseling center. We talked to her a little bit about, what Harbor is? What is domestic violence?

How Harbor helps people with domestic violence, their thrift store pizazz, and how you can get involved and help Harbor help your neighbors. So you’re interested in domestic violence and how it impacts your community and how you can get involved to make a difference for domestic violence victims.

Listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, [00:01:00] Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode we have the executive director of Harbor, which is our domestic violence shelter program, all kinds of stuff, Kay Johnson, and we’ve talked about Harbor many, many times over the a hundred plus episodes of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, and we’re happy to have her here.

We’re gonna tie some of the strings together. We’ve had some of her board members and stuff like that, but we’re gonna go a complete overview of what they do and how you and your business can help them. But before we get to that, I’d like to ask you to like follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, or any of the other social media channels of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for over two years. So you can go back and list some of the previous guests. We’ve had the vast majority of the county commissioners, we’ve had the [00:02:00] county manager, Rick Hester. We’ve had county economic economic development director, Chris Johnson.

We’ve had a lot of great guests. We’ve had Congressman Brad Knott. So if this. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you and we got a lot more great guests coming up. We’re going into the primary filing series and we’re gonna have some of the primary candidates on as well. So keep listening back for future episodes. Welcome, Kay.

Kay Johnson: Thank you.

Jonathan Breeden: I get all that out so everybody knows they need to like, follow, subscribe. And leave a five star review down below of the podcast so we can keep this podcast free, as they say or whatever. So anyway, so state your name and what you do.

Kay Johnson: I am Kay Johnson. I am the Executive Director of Harbor of Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: And you have been in that role for how long?

Kay Johnson: Almost 10 years.

Jonathan Breeden: Golly, that’s a long time.

Kay Johnson: It’s a long time.

Jonathan Breeden: We were just talking before we started this like, I gave a car to Harbor that I didn’t need anymore. And I gave it to you. And this was like about 10 years ago.

Kay Johnson: It was about 10 years ago,

Jonathan Breeden: right? That’s right.

Kay Johnson: It was,

Jonathan Breeden: it was right. And you, y’all [00:03:00] got it fixed up and gave it to somebody and that was, that was great. But, so what is Harbor?

Kay Johnson: Harbor is the domestic violence organization here in Johnston County. It is our mission to provide comprehensive services for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And where does its funding come from? Is it a non-profit, is it the feds, the state? What is it?

Kay Johnson: So Harbor is a not-for-profit organization. We have been in existence now since 1984. And our funding, we have a variety of resources. We receive state funding, federal also support from our County funding as well, and then from the community.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And, let’s talk about some of the things that, some of the, we’ll start with the programs.

Kay Johnson: Okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Well talk about domestic violence in general. You know what it looks like common misconceptions about it and how y’all help.

Kay Johnson: Okay. So domestic violence is, I would say in a nutshell, it is [00:04:00] really about power and control. It is one individual exercising power over another individual. Oftentimes people think of domestic violence as just been physical abuse, but we know that is emotional, psychological, economical abuse as well.

For domestic violence. When you talk about what does it look like, who does it impact? Unfortunately it impacts everyone. It crosses all race, gender, socioeconomic backgrounds. So any and everyone can be impacted by domestic violence.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. You’re absolutely right. And having been doing this 25 years and working with Harbor for 25 years, I mean, we’ve, we’ve seen it all.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You know what I mean? And

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And you know, I’ve been involved in. You know, my share of murder suicides.

Kay Johnson: Oh,

I know you have too.

Jonathan Breeden: I have. You and I have been together on a couple of those. It’s really it’s unfortunate that that can happen and it is really about power and control and, and you know, and the thing I’ve learned about it is I’ve represented people from all over the world.

I’ve represented people [00:05:00] from about every race there is. I’ve represented people from every religion. It is, it’s the same.

Kay Johnson: It’s the same.

Jonathan Breeden: It’s the same. It doesn’t matter. It, it’s, these are personality disorders.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Narcissism control, sociopaths, all that type stuff. It’s the same. And, and that’s been probably the most surprising to me.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, this is an international community we have here.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: We have people from all over the world. I mean, literally before I started recording this, we were doing a consult with people going back to China. We’re gonna do it. The child who’s gonna stay here and go to school. Like, so, I mean, it is, but like, it’s, it’s the same.

Kay Johnson: It’s the same.

Jonathan Breeden: I don’t care. Christian, Jewish, Muslim. White, black, Asian. It is, it is the same. It looks the same. It develops the same way.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Why is that?

Kay Johnson: One thing, and I, I was having this conversation a couple of days this week. You can’t predict behavior. And so we all have behavior and we all handle our behavior differently, but what I am [00:06:00] finding in the past 10 years is there is something that’s triggering that behavior.

It could be someone may have grew, grew up in the, a domestic violence home where they they saw violence being facilitated over and over again. And unfortunately as they begin, as they grew up and became adults. Either they precipitated that violence upon someone else or they attracted other people that, knew that there was something there was missing because of the trauma that domestic violence causes. That’s why we’re, you can’t put a specific you can’t pinpoint it. That’s why it, it crosses so many variables because it is trauma. And trauma impacts people differently and they respond to that differently.

And so, for us, it’s important for us to be able to meet people where they are. And provide services for them to help them to be able to move forward.

Jonathan Breeden:What brought you into doing this?[00:07:00]

Kay Johnson: Oh wow.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, you did some other stuff before this.

Kay Johnson: I did.

Jonathan Breeden: Right? I mean, I met you long before you became the executive director, but like

Kay Johnson: I did

Jonathan Breeden: Like why this job? Why nine and a half years later?

Kay Johnson: Oh wow.

Jonathan Breeden: Are you still doing.

Kay Johnson: Well, I’ve actually been in a non-profit industry now for 30 years and I can recall I would say 12 years prior. I saw him and continue to see him as my mentor. His name was Lee Hudson. Lee is no longer with us. Lee, was the owner of Hudson Hardware in Clayton and Garner.

And I started working with Lee and Willie Henderson at the time in the Clayton community working with at risk Youth. And during that time, Lee had wrote a grant and the grant was successful in providing services in the Clayton community. He wrote a second grant and it expanded throughout Johnston County and he asked me if I was willing to or wanted to walk into that executive director position and I said yes.

I was at DSS Johnston County DSS at the [00:08:00] time.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, you and I.

Kay Johnson: That’s how we met.

Jonathan Breeden: Yes. We met when you were DSS. Oh my gosh. Me, you, Robert Taree.

Kay Johnson: That’s it.

Jonathan Breeden: Those were the days we were a lot younger. I was a little skinnier. Oh, I had a little more hair.

Kay Johnson: We’re not gonna talk about that.

Jonathan Breeden: But anyway. Joe Inger. Yeah. Oh yeah. Earl Merri. I mean, it was, those, those were the days those,

Kay Johnson: yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I, I grew up in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kay Johnson: So, I attended school at UNC Charlotte with a degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice.

For me, it was important to come back home to be able to provide services back home to the community. And again fast forward Metley. I was at Johnston County Youth Services which is another nonprofit that still exists here in Johnston County for about 10 years. I left there had my two sons and, and Lee.

Lee and I were having a conversation one day and he knew that Harbor was looking for an executive director. He said, I really think you need to apply 4K. And I am like [00:09:00] Lee. I haven’t worked in this industry before. He said, yes, but you have ran a nonprofit before. And so I applied for it and, and, and received the position in April of 19, oh, excuse me, of 2016.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well I did not know the whole story.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, we were When you did juvenile services

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You run the turnaround program. And some of the community service for juveniles were getting in trouble. Yes. You helped many of my young juvenile clients. I mean, so anyway,

Kay Johnson: I didn’t realize you had that history anyway.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, we do, but I didn’t realize that that’s how you got, I knew you became the, but I didn’t know exactly how you got there.

Kay Johnson: Yeah,

Jonathan Breeden: that’s why I asked the question. A lot of the people that are in this field are victims of it and they’ve recovered from it.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s not your background, does that hinder you in running this non-profit because you’re not a victim like a lot of the people in it.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: A lot of your counselors are victims. Some of your board are victims. Just curious.

Kay Johnson: It doesn’t hinder me from operating because domestic violence has occurred in [00:10:00] my, I would say in my family, extended family at some point. So no one is immune to it.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s for sure.

Kay Johnson: And so I’m not immune to domestic violence. Unfortunately, so I bring again, from what I’ve seen within my personal community, within my network of friends.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Kay Johnson: I bring that knowledge base but also it is my hope that I bring some compassion right and understanding to this position as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And one of the things I want people to get out of this, and when we talk about Harbor domestic violence on this podcast is the verbal abuse. Is this bad as or worse than the physical abuse? Because we talk to so many people here at the Breeden Law Office that are victims, but they don’t realize it because they’ve never actually been hit or struck.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: But the verbal abuse is terrible. The belittling, the cussing, I mean, all of the things. And it’s like, no, you’re a victim of domestic violence.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: But he’s never hit [00:11:00] me. It doesn’t matter.

Kay Johnson: It doesn’t matter.

Jonathan Breeden: You’re still a victim.

Talk a little bit about that

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Talk a little bit about that.

Kay Johnson: Oftentimes when people think of domestic violence, they do think of just the physical and one thing. Often with the physical abuse, you can see the scars are evident, the bruising is evident. But with verbal abuse, which is what we consider to be emotional and psychological, you cannot see those scars, but those scars are there.

And if you are hearing someone, if someone, if you’re in a relationship and someone is what we consider to be gaslighting you, calling you, making you feel ashamed of making you feel, that you’re not a good parent, a mother that you’re not a good wife or a significant other. If you’re hearing that on a daily basis then that’s gonna impact your self-esteem.

That’s gonna impact your value and your worth. And as you just indicated, people think, oh, well, I’m not being abused. Well we find that well first of all, you are being abused.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

Kay Johnson: It is domestic violence.

Jonathan Breeden: Absolutely.

Kay Johnson: It is domestic violence.

Jonathan Breeden: Absolutely.

Kay Johnson: It’s [00:12:00] domestic violence, so, yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: No, you’re right. And, and that’s always sometimes hard to, we’re like, no, it really is.

Kay Johnson: It is.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, the other thing, and you know, we is a YouTube, but I either draw with one thing that I like to do, and your predecessor, Carrie did this at a continuing education class. I was in golly, probably. Oh my gosh, we’re talking like 20 13, 20 14.

You know, you talk about the, you know, y’all used to give out the, the circle of, of power and the circle of abuse and it had all the, it had all the different ways they did it.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And it was fascinating. So what I did was I made up my own little. Make up one. So what I would do is I would take a sheet of paper and I think Carrie still last, I showed her one of these.

But basically I would draw a circle for people in my office and I’m like, look, okay, this is how this works. And I didn’t have, you know, the circle of power had like 20 spokes. I made like four or five make it real simple, right? I would draw a circle on a sheet of paper and I would draw lines, you know, and I’d say, this is your brain and these are, [00:13:00] these are folks that make up who you are.

And one is your spouse, one is your career, one is your family, one is your God, one is your children, and what the abusers want to do. Women too. Women can be abusers too.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Is eliminate all the other spokes except for them

Kay Johnson: mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: to where they play all the roles.

Kay Johnson: Exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: So if somebody says, you’re a dog, you have nobody else to tell you, you’re not a dog, you don’t have a boss, you don’t have coworkers, you don’t have, you’re alienated from your family.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You’re alienated from your friends. Right. You know, you, you, you have your kids, but your kids can’t. They can only do what they can do. They’re kids and then all of a sudden you’re kind of trapped and, you know, and, and when I would do that for people, and I’ve done that over a hundred times since I saw her do this 15 years ago with my basic one.

Like you would watch people just melt in my office. They’re like, oh my gosh, you get it? I’m like, well, I don’t get it. Like, this is just what it is. Right. You know, and, and Harbor can help. Or if if, or a [00:14:00] safe house in Harnett County or interact in Wake or wherever they were at, I’m like, you know, this is what it is.

Like what, ’cause what people believe is that this is unique. That this is only happened to them. It’s never happened to anybody else.

Kay Johnson: Exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: But we started this podcast by saying. I literally have represented people from all over the world, every religion, every race. And it’s the same. You’ve helped people from all over the world.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Every religion, every race. And it’s the same. Yes. And that’s the one thing we have to try to convey is this looks the same, regardless.

Kay Johnson: Regardless.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, it just is what it is. Right. You know? And we don’t have time today to get into narcissism, borderline personality disorder and sociopath and all the personality disorders that sort of lead to this abuse.

And then there’s also a part of from the victims. I, you know, I believe victims are raised, you know, and I think children are, are really a disadvantaged, which I’m glad, you know, we talk about that a lot, that children really do absorb this. They do. And it’s really, it’s really, really unfortunate. And you know, there, there’s a part of the victim that believes what they’re being told.

Kay Johnson: Exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: ‘Cause they’re lacking some [00:15:00] self-confidence from something in their background, something in their childhood.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Maybe their relationship with their father that was not good or didn’t exist or, or whatever. If, if it’s a woman, you know, and then the man the same way.

And what I used to always say to people is, and you probably would agree with this, is the perpetrator sees themself as here and they see their partner is here. Even the perpetrator’s a pretty good person. But they don’t have self-confidence either.

Kay Johnson: Right, exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: And they have to break this person down.

Kay Johnson: Exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: So that they won’t leave when it’s just not necessary because the perpetrator’s usually a good person. They just, I have some issues.

Kay Johnson: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: But I don’t know like I know that’s a lot of talking, but what, I mean, what do you think about that? About the circle of power and stuff like that?

Kay Johnson: Well, the power control wheel is a excellent way of describing, because it does talk about the dynamics of that individual. It does talk about the perpetrator, it talks about the children, which is very important because oftentimes and even when you look at the data, the data tells us that it takes a person [00:16:00] about seven times to leave before they make a decision to leave that relationship. And so because of the recidivism that’s occurring in the home oftentimes individuals stay because of the children.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Kay Johnson: They believe that domestic violence is not impacting their children. They believe that they’re not aware, that they’re not seeing anything, but the reality is. It is impacting and they are seeing and they are aware. And I often tell a story there was a family where it was a young child and the young child became so angry that they pulled the water, found out of the wall.

And when I say young, I’m talking school age because of that anger, because of what they have seen. So I share that story with those individuals that we serve, particularly in our support groups to help them to understand it is impacting. And so if it’s impact, if it impacted that young child, then can you imagine a 12, 13-year-old male child who [00:17:00] now is seeing the abuse occurring and feel as though that he needs to protect his parent, his mom how that, what does that look like? Because mom has decided, okay, I’m gonna stay because it’s not impacting. So the goal is for us as that organization throughout support group, is to be able to provide that awareness to those that participate to talk about the impact of domestic violence, to talk about the various types of domestic violence as well, and then to, to just to provide individuals with resources and information so that they can begin to see themselves as valuable so they can begin to see themselves as having purpose because they have heard, they’ve been isolated oftentimes they, they’ve not, are not able to work.

And so, there’s a, that’s that economic abuse. And if you’re, again, the gaslighting that may be occurring, so how can, how can we as an organization, empower someone? So that when they make that decision that they can move forward and not return to that relationship.

Have [00:18:00] family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well let’s talk about some of the services you do provide. You do provide a 24 hour safe shelter if somebody needs a place to go.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct. Where they can stay for some period of time.

Kay Johnson: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: Tell me a little bit about that and how that works.

Kay Johnson: So we do have a temporary shelter. When I started working at Harbor in 2016, I noticed that the focus in the community was on the shelter. And yes someone who is in imminent danger, they can contact our crisis line, which is available 24/7 in order to connect to our advocate. The advocate is gonna do a safety assessment. The advocate is gonna do a lethality assessment because [00:19:00] we need to determine what that imminent danger look like.

If they meet the criteria, then we will let them know what the eligibility requirements in order to come into our facility, our shelter. But also too, one of our largest programs is our court advocacy program. We have court advocates. We have a satellite office at the courthouse, Johnston County Courthouse, and there are advocates that are there to assist individuals in completing a domestic violence protective order.

We know that I think it’s probably been three years now that Johnston County moved to  e-file and serve. . We were fortunate Harbor was fortunate enough to have someone to come in. And for the past, I would say three months, we’ve been trained on e-file and serve. So now individuals that are coming in needing that assistance, we are able to assist them in completing those orders.

’cause we were strictly paper. And now we have gone electronic. So, I know the clerks are very happy about that. We also have a victim advocate program service. We understand that not everyone is gonna leave. Some [00:20:00] people are gonna stay. And that’s why it is important to connect those individuals to the support group so that when they have what they need, they have the information that they need.

They have information regarding resources and we have also assisted them with a safety plan. So when they are ready to leave those, there are certain things that need to be in place to help them to be able to move forward. Another project which is, is not new, but it’s been in existence now, it’s six for six years.

We not only provide services for individuals impacted by dome domestic violence, but also sexual assault as well. So we have a collaborate collaboration with Johnston UNC Health here in Johnston County and also now in Wayne as well as Johnston County Public Health, the District Attorney’s office and the local law enforcement municipalities, and that’s called the Sahari Center.

The Sahari Center project was implemented because we knew that sexual assault was occurring within our community, but there was a disconnect. We were [00:21:00] not being notified of those victims that needed to be served. Oftentimes, they were crossing county lines. They were going to Wake County, which is great that they were receiving services, but when they came back to Johnston County, there was no connection to our organization.

So the Sahari Center currently has a medical director. A forensic nurse director and we have 10 what we call SANE or forensic nurses. And that particular project assists in collecting forensic evidence for someone who’s been sexually assaulted, but also because we have seen in the past two years an increase in strangulation within our community.

They also assist in touch DNA for those strangulation victims.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s really good. I didn’t know about the Sahari project.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I really didn’t. So I’ve learned something new here today. Yes. So one of the things you do offer that I refer people to here in our office every week are your classes. They are remote now since COVID.

It’s a rotating 10 weeks, so you can [00:22:00] come in at any point.

Kay Johnson: Exactly.

Jonathan Breeden: And there’s 10 lessons. They’re free.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Tell me a little bit about that. How people get signed up and what will they learn in those classes.

Kay Johnson: The only thing people need to do is contact our office and ask to speak with our survivor advocate. The survivor advocate facilitates those 10 week courses, and again, as you stated, they can come at any time. And I would say the main goal is helping individuals to understand the impact of domestic violence. Upon themselves and their family. We talk about the impact of domestic violence upon their children.

We talk about how what economic abuse looks like. We help them in determining what short and long-term goals look like for them. And then we also connect them to resources within the community. One thing about Harbor, and this is what I love about being here in Johnston County is we do not operate in a silo.

It really does take other collaborative [00:23:00] partners in order for those that we serve to be able to move forth in a successful way. So a part of the classes is introducing them and making them aware of services that are in the community and how to connect to those services.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. And you know, it talks about, well one of the things is by putting people in touch with community services, it helps them develop a plan on how to get out.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And it also lets them know that they’re not alone. Everybody there is going through the same thing. And you have Rich, you have poor, you have black, you have white, there are all these classes.

It used to be in personal before COVID. Now I, I know they’re online, but like. It’s all the same. It, it doesn’t matter. You’re not alone. You know, and the other thing I always felt like he did a decent job of was sort of building people up and helping with their self-confidence.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You know what I mean? Like, yes. Like I, I went and I saw the play water for Elephants the other night. And one of the main [00:24:00] songs near the end you know, the, the, the theme of the play is it’s a traveling circus in the early 1930s. And, and it’s a struggling circus and it’s got all types of characters and the, it’s a sort of an overbearing ring master, and he treats the employees bad. Everybody bad.

Kay Johnson: Wow.

Jonathan Breeden: But one of the songs was, I Am Nothing. and ’cause that’s what he’s telling, right? The people that are working for him. Right. That you are nothing. You are nothing without me.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s exactly what happens in a messy violence situation.

Kay Johnson: Yes. Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And you know, ever since I watched that play, you know, and there’s some dramatic scenes that happen during that song, I’m not gonna ruin the play if wants to see it.

Go watch the movie from, I think 2011, the movie’s out there. It was a really good play. But it’s like. Song has been going in my head since they, you know, they sang it. Yes. And it’s like, I am nothing. And I’m like, no, you’re not you. You know what I mean? But that’s what, that’s what they’ve been told. Right. And so, so that’s the thing.

Kay Johnson: Wow.

Jonathan Breeden: And that’s what, that’s what [00:25:00] these vi that’s what these victims are being told.

Kay Johnson: Exactly. Exactly. Oh, wow. Wow. That’s, that’s. Wow, that’s powerful in, in so many ways. And, and hearing that, because you’re right, they are being told every day, all day sometimes that they have no value.

And even though you indicated earlier in the show that domestic violence does impact males as well. The majority of the clients that we see are female. And being a female I know I, I’ve been there as a, as a young person, when you’re trying to find your way, a young adult, I should say, you’re trying to find your way.

And you don’t have anyone encouraging you. And that’s where those individuals are. They don’t have anyone encouraging them. I’ve been fortunate that I have a, a network of individuals that pour into me often. And our role as advocates is to pour into those that we, that we work with. And so what do I mean by that is first of all, we listen.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Kay Johnson: We listen to their [00:26:00] story. We want to hear their story. We want them to share their story because it really relieves them of all of that anxiety of all some of that trauma. We, we, you know, it’s temporary, so we can’t address it all, but we can

Jonathan Breeden: correct

Kay Johnson: at least at least let them know as you indicated, that you’re not alone, right? That there is someone here that is, that is willing to listen, that believe you. That’s important as well. Right. So, and then to validate, to let them know that they can move forward to share with them stories of other individuals that we have assisted that have moved forward. That is so important. So, the advocacy piece is just, not just talking about the domestic violence, but just letting someone know that they are important and they are being heard.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and, and in the nonprofit world. You need money to do what you’re doing to provide these great services. You have the pizazz, the high-end thrift shop

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: On Main Street in Clayton. People can donate to that, but you can’t just show up, you gotta have an appointment. [00:27:00] It drives me a little crazy, but that is true. But anyway tell me a little bit about that. When it’s open, how people can contribute.

Kay Johnson: So pizazz is open Tuesday through Saturday Tuesday through Friday from 11 to four and Saturday’s from 10 to two.

And as you indicated, no, you, it, we, I would say this, we ask that individuals call to make an appointment. And the reason why is ’cause sometimes people may have several bags to donate and we have a small sort area and we wanna make sure one. We stay in compliance with fire code, that’s number one. And then two, we wanna make sure that we are able to process those donations so we can get ’em out on the, on the floor.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And if you’re interested in sometimes clothes with tags on ’em

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Go by pizazz, please do. I, I have donated closer tags on it to pizazz more times than I want to count. Won’t go exactly how that happened, but it does happen. And, mean [00:28:00] all kinds of stuff, so I, I really appreciate that. You also have a big, your really big fundraiser. Is it the black and white Gala? Is that what it’s called?

Kay Johnson: It is called the Black and White Gala.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s what it’s called. I went last year, had a great time.

Kay Johnson: Yes. That is occurring February the 21st. 2026. It’s gonna be at the farm at 42 beginning at I believe 6:00 PM Tickets will go on sale January the 15th. So we ask that. Please, please, please follow us on our Facebook page as well as LinkedIn website, all social media platforms. This is what we call our signature fundraiser. So this, this is the only fundraiser that Harbor facilitates our board of directors facilitate this particular fundraiser. So, we are looking last year exceeded all expectations since I’ve been here. And so we are looking for a steadily year for 2026.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, it sells out.

Kay Johnson: It does sell out.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean, it absolutely sells out.

Kay Johnson: It sells out. Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Like I don’t how many, it was like 300 people.

Kay Johnson: It was close to 250 people.

Jonathan Breeden: I year two people. Yeah. Yeah. It sold out. I [00:29:00] was there. Yeah. Great food band dancing. Lots of, games and

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Contest.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, going on a ton of fun. You need sponsors for that as well.

Kay Johnson: We are, yes, sponsorships, go on. Will be available January the sixth, so anytime after that. Timeframe. Please. Please. ’cause we definitely need sponsors this year.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, well it was a ton of fun. Usually there’s a survivor talk.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, and that’s always pretty intense. Last year, Marcy Armstrong, she did the attorney at Smithfield. Former state bar president gave a talk.

Kay Johnson: Yes, she did.

Jonathan Breeden: That was unbelievable. I’d known her for 25 years and had no idea.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: The year before I was not there. But Butch Lawter

Kay Johnson: Yes

Jonathan Breeden: gave a talk. was our chairman of our county commissioners. Now the vice chairman of our county commissioners, who will be a guest on this podcast in just a few weeks and was a guest about a year ago. You listen to that?

Kay Johnson: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: He gave a talk. I was not there. I think Raena was our social media [00:30:00] coordinator.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And I heard that was pretty powerful as well. And these are pretty important people in Johnston County. These people are extremely successful and they got stories to tell.

Kay Johnson: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And it’s not, it’s not what you think. And, I’ll never forget that story. Like I still think about what she said and, and what she went through.

Kay Johnson: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And all of that stuff. And you know, it’s tremendous. So, like I said, it affects everybody. Rich, poor, black, white. It’s, it’s all the same.

Kay Johnson: It is.

Jonathan Breeden: It is bad. I don’t care who you are, where it is, it’s bad. So how can people reach out to you, your organization are We can, can come to the black and white gala. I’ll buy a ticket February 21st. They can donate to pizazz. There’s a Southern Women’s Show in the fall. Yes, I know y’all don’t do it, but you’re the beneficiaries over there that’s at the Deuce. You can attend that or sponsor that.

I know. I always try to do that. I try to sponsor the black and white gala as well. Any other ways people can reach out and help y’all?

Kay Johnson: They can contact us. We always need in kind donations. Okay. So for us, [00:31:00] that is you can imagine it is toiletries toilet paper, toilet tissue food non-perishable.

Food because people have to prepare their meals. It’s also monetary donations. Many not not-for-profit organizations unfortunately, did see a change in funding streams this year. And so Harbor was one of those that was impacted. So monetary donations are always welcome. You can be specific on how you would like for those monetary donations to go. If you want to focus on just a shelter or focus on the Sahari Center or focus on just working with youth and that’s the opportunity for individuals to do that as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, so harborshelter.org is the website, is that right?

Kay Johnson: harborshelter.org. Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And the phone numbers?

Kay Johnson: No. For our crisis line, which is 24/7 is 919-631 5478. And then our office number is 919-938 3566.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright, well we’ve got all the information, all the, I put it all together finally. ’cause we’ve had so many people, we’ve had board members and stuff. Now we’ve got all in one [00:32:00] podcast that we could send people to about Harbor. Last question I ask everybody, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Kay Johnson: I was born and reared here, so one thing I can say is Johnston County is truly a community that’s concerned about those, those that live here. And for me that’s very important. I have never not met anyone whether it is speaking to the county commissioners, our county manager some of our you know, department heads.

They are always willing to collaborate with Harbor. For me, that is important. This is a community that believes in giving in kind donations, as I just indicated before, if there’s a need and we put it out there, we have it. Not all communities are like that, and that’s what I enjoy about living in this county, even though we are growing very rapidly.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Kay Johnson: There’s still a, a down home feel here and having grown up here. High school here at Smithville, San Senior High. And then to be able to come back [00:33:00] and, and to work and to give back in my community yeah, it’s a special place to live.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, there’s no doubt about that. No doubt about it. Well, we’d like to thank Kay Johnson, the executive director of Harbor here in Johnston County, for being our guest on this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Reach out to them at harborshelter.org. Sponsor the black and white Gala as we do here at the Breeden Law Office. Attend. I guarantee you’ll have a great time. See some really dressed up people in Johnston County. The most dressed up people I think I’ve ever seen in Johnston County go the black and white Gala February 21st, 2026.

Kay Johnson: Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the [00:34:00] corner at www. breedenfirm. com.