Live Better by Centric CU
Monthly Podcast featuring financial tips from Centric Credit Union
Live Better by Centric CU
Stronger Families, Brighter Holidays
Some holidays feel bright on the outside and heavy on the inside. We sit down with Liz Gaught from the Center for Children and Families to show what hope looks like when it’s built on everyday actions: a single recorded interview that spares a child from retelling trauma, a counselor stepping into a living room to spot strengths and needs, a wish list that becomes new clothes and a toy to open on Christmas morning.
Starting with CASA and growing across 48 parishes in Louisiana and seven counties in Mississippi, the Center pairs advocacy, education, and prevention with direct services that meet families where they are. Liz walks us through the Children’s Advocacy Center approach, why prevention trainings matter, and how the new Hope Center in West Monroe adds counseling and medication management for kids who need both therapy and clinical care. The thread running through it all is trust: families see the same team before and after the holidays, and donors know gifts reach specific children already in services.
We also talk about the Christmas Project—how it began with 50 soccer balls and now mobilizes businesses, churches, and neighbors to adopt wish lists, host collection sites, and fund essentials you won’t find under a tree. One powerful example: a partner donation purchased six mattresses for siblings who had been sleeping on air beds and the floor. That’s what local support can do when relationships are in place and needs are verified.
Behind these programs is a culture that protects the protectors. Liz shares how leadership builds a workplace where heavy stories meet real recovery—puzzles on the table, shared meals, short walks, and benefits that help teams stay grounded. We close with a reminder that the tunnel isn’t the end; there is light, and community keeps it burning. If you’re ready to help or need help, visit standforhope.org. If this conversation moved you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who believes hope should last longer than a season.
Welcome to Centric Live Better Podcast, where we share real stories, practical tips, and community conversations to help you live better financially and together. I'm Kelli Green with Centric, and as the holidays approach, many families experience both joys and challenges. That's why today we're highlighting an organization that embodies the spirit of hope and support, the Center for Children and Families. Joining us is Liz Gaught, the public relations and marketing manager at the Center for Children and Families. She's here to share how their team is making a difference of hope for children and families during the Christmas season and throughout the year. Well, good morning, Liz. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Yeah, we're super excited to have you with us. So for our Live Better podcast, this is great. We always love to bring in community partners who are making major change in our communities. And so just for our listeners, tell us a little bit about yourself and Center for Children and Families.
Liz Gaught:Yeah, well, we're big fans of Centric. So I'm very excited to be here. The Center for Children and Families is a nonprofit in this local region, but we actually serve 48 parishes in Louisiana, both in north and south central, and then seven counties in central Mississippi. And so we are all over. But our main mission is just to promote safe, healthy environments through advocacy, counseling, education, and prevention. We show up with our families. We really want to instill hope in their situations because some of them are coming from just really dire situations. Um, children that are really seeking stability. And so the center has been here for over 25 years, uh, providing hope to families in our community.
Kelli Green:I love it. Hope. Um, when we're talking about your website, standforhope.org. I love that because it really speaks to the mission of what you guys stand for and your values of serving and being that hope to those children and families who are in need. I love that. So, you know, you guys provide vital support uh year-round. And so let's talk about your programs that help strengthen families kind of beyond the holiday season.
Liz Gaught:Absolutely. So a lot of people are very familiar with CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. So that is our kind of flagship program. That's what the center really started as back in 1999. Um, from there, we really just saw a need. And so where we saw a need, we expanded to meet the need. And so um, we have the Children's Advocacy Center that sees victims of um physical sexual abuse, human trafficking. You know, kids get to come into the center and share their story one time. We record that so that way it doesn't have to get retold to every investigator. Um, a lot of the Children's Advocacy Center provides education to our community. They'll go and do trainings um about awareness, prevention so that way we can try to stop further abuse in our community. Um, we provide counseling services to children and their families. We see zero to 18. Uh, we can do a lot of that in the home. So a lot of times we are going into the homes of places that other places won't go. So we're going to them. We're seeing kind of real life being lived out and stepping in place where we can really identify the need, but also the strengths and the resources that they have that maybe they don't even know that they have. Um, what else? I'm like medication management. We have kids that have different kinds of mental behavioral health issues that maybe medication is a need. So we recently opened the Hope Center in West Monroe. And so we've been seeing um kids with medication, with counseling out of that clinic. So that's kind of opened up a whole new realm of not only are we going in the home, but we have families coming to us as well.
Kelli Green:Wow. So not only do you see a need, you say something, but you become that solution. And that is really amazing that you you guys have expanded over the past 25 years and you just shared a few different areas of where not only just expanded here locally, but moved on into Mississippi. You guys are very actionable and you you speak out your values of serving and being that hope. It's it's some of the things that we maybe every day don't really know that kids are battling or families are going through.
Liz Gaught:Absolutely.
Kelli Green:I love that you guys always come through and you have a solution and you create those opportunities, whether it's in the home or like the addition of these new centers. It's it's just fantastic. So I appreciate you walking this through. So, you know, the holidays are a real special time, but they can also be added stress for family. So kind of tell us how are you guys bringing hope and joy to families this Christmas season?
Liz Gaught:Christmas is my favorite time. I love, I love the Christmas project. Um, that is what we do. We, oh man, it's been for about 20 years now that we've been doing this project. And what it started as is, you know, our our CASA advocates, they're seeing families and they're in the home and kind of seeing how this family is going to experience Christmas and how different that was from their own families really preparing for Christmas. And so together we were like, we we want to do something to help these families. And so it started really small. We had a donation of like 50 soccer balls to help make these kids Christmas like a little something special. And it has just grown into um we pull in the community members, we have businesses, individuals, groups um come together and say, Hey, we want to be part of making a child's Christmas extra special. And so through the Christmas project, we're able to provide new clothing and new toys to kids to open on Christmas morning that they really might not have otherwise.
Kelli Green:Oh, I love that. So tell us a little bit more. How can um, if you know that there may be families that are in need that would really benefit from the Christmas project? How does someone maybe register or become, you know, as a part, could be a recipient of your good words?
Liz Gaught:So a lot of what makes our Christmas project different from other places is um it's specifically for children that are currently in our services. So they are already involved with one of the programs at the center. They um we're actually seeing them on a regular basis throughout the year. So it's not just at Christmas time, like we're already in the homes and established relationship with them. So our clinicians, our advocates, our staff that are in the home present this knee closer to Christmas and say, Hey, we do a Christmas project. This is what we pre we're able to help. Is that something that you feel like your family needs? And we do have some families that say, like, oh no, we're good. And then we have other families that are like, this is a miracle. And this is an answer to prayer because we my kids, I don't know how they were gonna have Christmas otherwise. And so not only are we established in relationship, we're seeing them face to face. So we can 100% guarantee you that every gift we get in is gonna go to that child. Oh wow. And so that's the main difference there is like we're so established already. And after Christmas, we're gonna continue to see them.
Kelli Green:Yes.
Liz Gaught:Like we're still involved in that family even after the holidays.
Kelli Green:Oh my gosh, that's so wonderful. So if any of our listeners are wanting to contribute, what are some ways that they might be able to contribute to the Christmas project?
Liz Gaught:Absolutely. So we've got three different ways, actually. Um, so every child completes a wish list. So it has their clothing sizes, it has their gift ideas that they might like, even like a little about me. My favorite colors pink. I really like Spider-Man. You know, it helps it kind of make a little bit more personal. So I have a wish list. So I an individual, a family, a group, your church, your business, civic group, whatever, can request a wish list. I send it to you, you shop. Because that's the funnest thing. All right. You shop and then you bring it back to our office in December, and then we'll deliver it to the families. Um businesses or churches or groups can be collection sites. So um centric has been a big one in the past of um collecting toys and gifts items for us. So that really helps us with kids we get last minute because you know, we're constantly adding kids to our caseload. So in December, closer to Christmas, we have some extra gifts we can pull from. Um, we also get monetary donations from the community. And so they can do that on our website, standforhope.org. That helps us provide like very specific needs. Um, one really cool one is we had a family of, I think like six. We ended up needing we needed to purchase six mattresses because they did not have actual mattresses at their home. They were sleeping, maybe air mattresses or sleeping bags. And so through a huge donation that we got from um a corporate sponsor, we were able to go and buy six mattresses for their Christmas. And so I was like, how incredible.
Kelli Green:It's so wild. You know, you think about whenever you speak of a need, our community has always been so good to respond. And that is that's the benefit, I think, of always staying a little more local and in the communities that we have right around us because almost always, if there's a need, someone is gonna stand up to fill in the gap and be that hope, similar to the way that you guys are year in and and out. Absolutely. We have such a generous community, too. Yes, it's great to be a part of that. I love it. And I appreciate you mentioning we enjoy being a collection site. We'll have the little collection bins at the front of the offices when you walk in. So we're super excited about doing that. So, you know, I want to just kind of talk about a few different things too, because we are a community partner. We love working with your team, and um, part of the things that your team does going in and out a day and out, day in and day out, whether that's in the office or serving the community in the homes, um, it's important to take care of the staff. And you guys do a wonderful job of ensuring that your team is very well prepared. And but only that too, it's heavy emotionally, physically, you know, the things that they're dealing with day in and day out. And um, we're just excited to be a small partnership of offering financial education to Center for Children and Families. So, in talking about that, I want you to, if you wouldn't mind, just expand on the good, this is the good work that you guys do, not only externally, but how well you guys take care of your staff at Center for Children and Families.
Liz Gaught:Oh yeah, that's we like to say it's probably the best place to work ever. We might be a little biased. Um, but our staff, our leadership really take control over what benefits we have to because it is meaningful work and it is hard work and it is heavy when you're you're seeing and you're reading and you're the the hardness that is happening to children and in our community. It is hard. Yes. And so they really strive to bring things in to help um maybe alleviate some of that stress. Um, we have a big culture of play. We have uh we have some departments that really like to do puzzles. So you might see a puzzle on the table that you know you can kind of take a mental break, go do a little few pieces of the puzzle, and then you can kind of get back into the to the work. Um, we're big on community, so we may be eating lunch or breakfast together, walking away from the computer and saying, like, hey, I need to walk a lap around the office, let's go. So it's it's very community oriented and promoting like take care of yourself. Yes, however, that looks.
Kelli Green:It goes back to what I've always admired about you guys is we've partnered for several years now, but you see a need, you create that solution. You create a level of hope for the community, and that starts internally. And I think that is just such a wonderful quality of a local employer taking care of your people, and they will take care of everything else. And I just really admire that about Center for Children and Families. It's always been a pleasure to work with you guys. Um, so you know, thinking about this too, I know that community partnerships and different organizations are really critical to survey meeting the needs of not only the Christmas project, but other things that you may have going on. So tell us a little bit about, you know, why it's so important that you have these organizations to partner with Center for Children and Families.
Liz Gaught:Well, I mean, honestly, collaboration is key. I feel like I think um, you know, we're doing a great work, but we can't do that by ourselves. And none of it is done by ourselves. We need other organizations, we need other community partners to come and walk alongside us, um, support that work, spread that work. Um, because I mean, we're only one organization. We can't change the world by ourselves. Like that's gonna have to be a collaboration and really leaning on the support of others, and whether that is through people promoting our messages, promoting our events, maybe they are making donations throughout the year because I mean that's that keeps us up and running, honestly. And so um providing needs to families and covering different needs throughout the year.
Kelli Green:So it's it's pivotal. We all have to work together. And I think that's the thing we were used sharing earlier is just how important it is for us to recognize those particular needs and then let's be that solution. And I just I think it's very important that we do that. If there's an opportunity for you listeners as an organ, if you have a part of an organization or if you want to donate um your money, you can certainly do that, even time and get to know what's happening at Center for Children and Families and ways in which you can become involved. The best way to do that is standforhope.org to learn more because there's several projects that you guys have throughout the year, not just the Christmas project, although it may be one of your favorite, but there's so many things that they're doing throughout the year that would really be beneficial. I I just I think it's outstanding. So um the final thing is we're just kind of coming to a close. You know, what's one message of hope that you'd like to share with families who may be struggling this holiday season?
Liz Gaught:It's not the end. Yeah. This is not the end. There's there is always hope and there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and how long and dark that tunnel may feel. There's still light on the other side. And there are people that are here and that see you and see that value, and they they can help offer some hope in the moment.
Kelli Green:Thank you so much for sharing that. It's a it's been a pleasure list to get to know you over all of these years that we've served. Um, just to give you guys an idea. I know we've talked a little bit about our financial wellness program that we have here, but it's important when we say it's centric, we want to help our members live better. But again, we can't do that without the partnerships that we have with community partners like Center for Children and Families. And um, it's it's just an honor to know what you guys do each and every day and the fact that we can be a simple teeny tiny piece of that of supporting your staff through financial education and support during their time of need because everybody I think has a struggle, you know, throughout the holidays. It may bring about grief, a financial insecurity, food insecurity. There's lots of things. And I think as an institution for us to stand on that we help members live better, if we didn't partner and share your part of your story uh with the community, I don't think that we would be doing our part. So it's an honor to have you here. And we just thank you so much for this continued partnership. Listeners, I want to just invite you to visit standfore.org and visit any one of our locations to drop off donations for the Christmas project. Yes. Thanks so much, Liz. We appreciate you being here. Thanks, Kelly. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you. At Centric, we believe that when one family thrives, our whole community grows together. You can learn more about the Center for Children and Families by visiting standfore.org. From all of us at Centric, we wish you a joyful, meaningful holiday season. Thanks for tuning in to Centric's Live Better Podcast. Until next time.