Our Founder

---

Executive Director & Founder, KKYO

I'm Danielle Smith-Brent — a Registered Behavior Technician, Social Worker, and MSW candidate at Cleveland State University. I'm also a proud first-generation college graduate and an autism parent with over five years of lived experience navigating my son's spectrum diagnosis.

My work with individuals and families experiencing homelessness started long before KKYO was formally launched. But it was my BSW field placement at Sojourner Truth House in Gary, Indiana, that brought me full circle back to my roots, back to the work that called me into this field in the first place.

At STH, I witnessed firsthand the resilience of families navigating crisis and the critical importance of wraparound support. It reminded me of my very first event! Providing hope, clothing, and resources to individuals and families in need on the north side of Chicago. That simple act of showing up, of saying "I see you," became the foundation for everything KKYO is today.

 Beyond direct service delivery, I lead mentorship, education, advocacy, and community-based initiatives designed to equip youth, parents, families, and the people who support them with practical tools, stronger connections, and opportunities to thrive. My work is grounded in the belief that meaningful change happens when we meet people where they are while helping them build toward where they want to be.

Through KKYO’s Restore • Rebuild • Rise framework, I am expanding that work through initiatives including KKYO Youth RISE, which helps young people navigate real-life choices and build critical thinking and life skills; KKYO PTA — Parents • Teachers • Advocates, which creates education and support for the adults surrounding our youth; and The Comeback Queen | by KKYO, a platform centered on transformation, resilience, healing, and what it means to rise after life’s difficult chapters.

 The Comeback Queen | by KKYO is especially personal to me. It was created from my belief that some of the most difficult chapters of our lives do not have to become the end of our stories. The platform explores grief, healing, resilience, identity, purpose, rebuilding, and what it looks like to rise after life changes you.

The Comeback Queen also carries the legacy of my mother, whose life and passing profoundly shaped the woman I am becoming and the work I feel called to continue. Losing her reminded me that legacy is not only what someone leaves behind; it is what the people they loved choose to carry forward. I honor her through the way I love my family, serve my community, pursue my purpose, and continue building even through grief.

Through honest conversations and storytelling, The Comeback Queen will create space for women who have survived difficult seasons, lost pieces of themselves, started over, or simply realized that the life they once imagined no longer fits the woman they are becoming. It is not about pretending the hard chapters never happened. It is about honoring them, healing through them, and deciding that your story still has more pages to be written.

My comeback carries her legacy. My rise makes room for someone else’s.

My work extends beyond any one population or challenge. KKYO exists for youth finding their way, parents searching for support, families rebuilding after difficult seasons, educators and advocates working to make a difference, and community members who simply need someone to see them, hear them, and help connect them to what comes next.

My mission is simple: Restore hope. Rebuild possibilities. Help people RISE.

Continue reading below to learn MORE about my journey.