A note from Kate: The Overlap

Last October I wrote to you about planting bulbs. I was a few months into this role, the days were getting shorter, and the letter was about preparing: putting something in the ground and trusting it would be there in spring.

A year later, I can tell you some of what came up. This fall we welcomed one of our largest groups of new volunteers, licensed clinicians alongside graduate students in supervised placements. We have a Director of Clinical Supervision who is beginning to build out a program of support around the complexity and acuity inherent in our model. Spanish-language services are back, with a team of its own. And the planning conversations so many of you joined are close to giving us a clear direction for 2027 through 2030.

Growth brings transitions, and one deserves its own word. Last month Gary Schoener shared that at the end of this year he will move from paid staff to volunteer. What I want to honor is how he is doing it. He told us early, but offered me as a new executive director a year of stability first. He has been open-handed with everything he knows about this place. And he remains connected and curious about where Walk-In goes next and wants to help us get there. That is generous, and it is a kind of leadership I’m so grateful to be learning from. Gary, we’re so glad you’re staying and will be better for it. 

I used to think of a transition as the moment one thing ends and another begins. This year has taught me it’s more of an overlap, a stretch where both are true at once. October is like that: leaves still on the trees, light already going. Walk-In is like that right now too. People who have shaped this place for decades are working alongside people who walked in for the first time last month. Wisdom moves in both directions in this organization. Long experience steadies the newer counselors, and fresh eyes keep the rest of us honest about what we’ve stopped noticing. We’re all learning. Nothing is being handed off in a single day. It’s being passed along shift by shift, and I think that is how an organization stays resilient across generations: each one learns from the others.

I hope you get some overlap of your own this season, with time to hold what’s ending and what’s starting together.

With gratitude,

Kate