Leading Through Partnerships

In this episode of IgniteCast, Judd Wilson sits down with Kim Rushing, Community Development & Outreach Coordinator for the City of Tupelo, and Captains Michael and Schelika Chisolm of The Salvation Army in Tupelo, to talk about what it means to lead through partnerships. Each guest shares practical leadership insight centered on presence, readiness, humility, and stepping up when you see a need. The conversation makes it clear that strong leadership often begins with simply showing up and working together.

Kim Rushing explains how the City of Tupelo brings nonprofits, churches, and community organizations together to share resources and solve problems collaboratively. Captains Michael and Schelika Chisolm discuss how partnerships help remove barriers such as housing instability, transportation challenges, and lack of documentation, giving people the opportunity to move forward. This episode highlights how real impact happens when leaders align their strengths, support one another, and commit to serving the community as one team.

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Transcript

S7 E2 Salvation Army City Tupelo
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[00:00:00] Taylor Tutor: Welcome to Ignite Cast, where ideas Spark action brought. To you by the Community Development Foundation, your Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Engine for Tupelo and Lee County, thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia for powering this season of Ignite Cast. I'm Taylor. 

[00:00:35] Judd Wilson: I'm Judd, 

[00:00:36] Taylor Tutor: and welcome to Ignite 

[00:00:38] Judd Wilson: Cast.

[00:00:41] Judd Wilson: All right, we're here for another episode of at Nightcast. I love the at Nightcast podcast. I really love season seven because. This is the season that follows at night 2026, and we had a wonderful conference. So I know that we're already planning for at night [00:01:00] 2027. I know that y'all out in the audience are looking forward to the at night leadership com conference coming up in 2027.

[00:01:07] Judd Wilson: It'll be right around the corner. Another reason I love the at Night Leadership podcast is we have great guests that come and te speak to us about leadership. And today is no different. I get to have three guests today. That's fun. I was getting a little lonely up here by myself, but now I got three guests with me.

[00:01:24] Judd Wilson: Uh, we have Kim Rushing with the community development and outreach with the City of Tupelo, along with Salvation Army Captains, Michael and Sheika. Chisholm, welcome. Thank y'all so much for being here today. 

[00:01:35] Kim Rushing: Thank you for having us. 

[00:01:37] Judd Wilson: Yeah, yeah. So one of the things we wanna uncover about leadership in this episode is, is how we can be a leader in our community and.

[00:01:45] Judd Wilson: Y'all do such a great job of that, but it is the Ignite Leadership Podcast. So I'm gonna ask, the question we always ask on the Ignite Leadership Podcast is, what's the best leadership tip you've ever been given? And whoever wants to start. Can [00:02:00] Michael, we'll let you go first to the ladies, kind of a little extra time to think about it.

[00:02:05] Michael Chisolm: You know, as a pastor, one of the greatest quotes I ever heard was in the Bible and it talks about. God speaking to us. I say, I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, and to give you a hope in the future. And so to me, that motivates me to just keep moving forward.

[00:02:25] Judd Wilson: Yeah. What a, what a great quote. What a. Great place to get a quote. The Bible. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a, that's a good one. That's a good one. Ika, what would you say your best leadership tip you've ever been given? 

[00:02:37] Schelika Chisolm: Well, the best leadership tip I've been given, um, was given by, um, one of our former commissioners of the Salvation Army in the Southern Territory.

[00:02:46] Schelika Chisolm: And she said, regardless of where you are appointed, always be present. People need to know that you care about what's happening to them. Um, not just. Passing out, [00:03:00] um, services to them, but that you care about their situation and sometimes your presence does that for them. 

[00:03:08] Judd Wilson: You know, sometimes as leaders we're thinking, well, I don't, I don't have the right answer on this.

[00:03:12] Judd Wilson: I don't have the right answer on that, but really what that person needs is showing up. 

[00:03:17] Schelika Chisolm: Yes. 

[00:03:18] Judd Wilson: Yeah. So what a great tip. Love that Kim. 

[00:03:21] Kim Rushing: Uh, all the things that they said, they're good. 'cause goodness, hunt have went first. Um, so my favorite quote, I don't know exactly if it's something that a leader has told me, but is if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.

[00:03:34] Kim Rushing: But Justin said during Ignite yes, that there's a difference between being prepared and being ready. So now I've had to rethink my whole leadership quote. Yeah. But I do think leadership is a lot about trust. And humility and service. So, 

[00:03:51] Judd Wilson: and, and y'all's role fits that. I mean, to do what y'all do, you gotta have a servant heart, right?

[00:03:57] Judd Wilson: Um, and we've heard that term before about [00:04:00] being a servant leader. What would you think a servant leader, what would that, what would that entail? Kim, I'll let you start. Since Michael, he took all the good answers before everybody else. 

[00:04:11] Kim Rushing: For sure. Just feeling the need that you see. Just don't wait for someone else to do it.

[00:04:16] Kim Rushing: You be the person that does it. If you see something that needs to be done, do it. Ask if anybody else is doing it. If they are, help them do it. It's just something. See the need in your community and ask how can you help to do better on 

[00:04:29] Judd Wilson: that? Yeah. Yeah. Servant leader, Sheika, what would you say is a good quality of a servant leader?

[00:04:35] Schelika Chisolm: Um, I would say that, um, being able to, um, have compassion for those that are in need right in front of you. Um, it's one thing to, um, be able to serve the masses, but um, those that are in our care, we need to, um, serve them with quality. 

[00:04:54] Justin Forsett: Yeah. 

[00:04:55] Schelika Chisolm: Um, just letting them know that it's more than about the service [00:05:00] that I'm giving you.

[00:05:01] Schelika Chisolm: I need to give you Jesus at the same time. Right. I need to serve like Jesus does. 

[00:05:06] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. Um, servant leader, Michael. I mean, you, you kind of think about it. You've, you've already quoted scripture for us, you are a pastor. Um, you know, and you've heard this term before. I mean, is it a natural born leader or can you train to be a leader?

[00:05:21] Judd Wilson: Can you train to be a servant leader? 

[00:05:25] Michael Chisolm: I think God gives you that gift. And so it's up to us to bring that forward in our leadership roles. But I've always kinda quoted one of my other mentors when he stated, you know, when you look around and say, well, somebody should do that. He kinda looked at me and said, you are that somebody.

[00:05:47] Michael Chisolm: And so do that. But also to be a great listener and be compassionate and let people know that you see them. 

[00:05:55] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. That's powerful. You know? 'cause we always say, Hey, [00:06:00] if somebody, but somebody already do that, somebody already do that. But then we look and say. Well, well that's somebody's beat, you know?

[00:06:06] Judd Wilson: So I think as a good leader is to understand that and see that. So, you know, as we look at those in the community and how they can serve others, and, you know, I think that helps us train to be good leaders. Y'all are really on the front line of that. Um, Kim, I'll go back to you. I know, um, your background a little bit.

[00:06:24] Judd Wilson: You used to be with United Way and, and kind of help with the volunteerism on that. Kind of tell us a little bit different about your role with the city and kind of engaging those nonprofits and engaging those, uh, in our area to, to be a service to, to us here in the city of Tupelo. 

[00:06:38] Kim Rushing: Yes. So part of my outreach role, um, is we have a monthly meeting where all the nonprofits, our neighborhood associations, our church leaders, just anybody that wants to do or does good things in our community get together and we bounce off ideas off each other.

[00:06:53] Kim Rushing: You know, there's been a lot of times where somebody says, I really need. Stationary paper for this project and somebody [00:07:00] else was like, I just got donated more than that than I can ever use. So we help with that as far as the nonprofits helping each other, but then we also hear what the needs are in the community and try to connect the people together that can help them and connect the people that need the help to those people.

[00:07:16] Judd Wilson: And that's an important thing because you think about it in our area, a lot of people are always doing good work, but. If everybody's doing good work but doesn't know what the other one's doing. 

[00:07:26] Kim Rushing: Yes. And there's strength in numbers. You know, we can, what is it? If you want, if you wanna go fast, go along. But if you wanna go far, have others with you.

[00:07:34] Kim Rushing: And if we are all working towards the same goal, it's a lot easier and a lot smoother than if five different people are doing it. But there it's, you know, it's never going anywhere. 

[00:07:43] Judd Wilson: Yeah. 

[00:07:44] Kim Rushing: So it's always better to have partners in the area. Working together. 

[00:07:48] Judd Wilson: So one of the reasons when we kind of looked at saying, Hey, how can we serve in our community and be leaders together?

[00:07:54] Judd Wilson: And we thought about looking for guests and brought y'all in together because, um, the OLS here, [00:08:00] captain, both of them here, the Salvation Army, you're seeing that in Tupelo kind of being able to go to Kim's meetings and, and doing that. Y'all served in many, many areas 'cause y'all both been with the Salvation Army for so long.

[00:08:12] Judd Wilson: Um. When you think about Tupelo and everybody kinda working together, is that the same? I'm every, I'm not telling you to talk bad about where you've been in the past, but um, do you see a difference when a community kinda works together? Where do, where do you see the positives in that? And then maybe if you wanna tell us a story and we'll bleep out the name of the city, or No, I'm joking, but you know what I'm saying, why that works together and then sometimes it doesn't in, in other areas, maybe.

[00:08:38] Schelika Chisolm: I think for us, because we've been to so many different, um, areas, we've been to urban cities, we've been to college towns, and now, um, we're here in Tupelo and this is like a smaller town in between the big cities. Um, I think each community, um, does, uh, partners with other [00:09:00] agencies. Um. In a way that works for their city.

[00:09:05] Schelika Chisolm: Um, not every city has, um, a way to connect, um, when it comes to technology. Maybe, um, maybe technology is a little bit better in urban areas. Um, maybe resources. Are better in urban areas because there's multiple streams of, of resources. But, um, in every city that we've been in, um, there has always been a way for organizations profit and nonprofit to be able to come together and serve the community.

[00:09:38] Schelika Chisolm: They've always created and developed their system. And for Mike and I, what we've, um, had to do in each city that we've gone to is just figure out how the Salvation Army fits into those, um, different groups and how we can be a part of helping to continue to keep the connection, keep [00:10:00] um, uh. Resources for people to have housing or, um, when we were in Baltimore, we had a Boys and Girls Club.

[00:10:07] Schelika Chisolm: So how can we work with the school system to make sure that we're drawing in those kids? So, um, based upon the services that we provide in each location, we have found a way to connect with our partner agencies. 

[00:10:21] Judd Wilson: Love that. Love that. I wanna stick, stick to the theme of partnerships. I mean, we kind of talked about it with what y'all do on the community outreach side.

[00:10:29] Judd Wilson: And, um, you know, I think any leadership role, whether it's, uh, through a volunteer or even with a large company, I think it's good when people partner together. Um, and so Mike, I'm gonna ask you this question. It's kind of neat because, you know, we've, we've gotten to know the captains that have come through the Salvation Army, and I see this all the time.

[00:10:49] Judd Wilson: Um. It's a husband and wife team. Talk a little bit about how needed is to, to lead together with your spouse and, and having that partnership there. [00:11:00] And if, uh, we, if we need to mute her mic, we can, when you answer this question, Michael, but uh, kind of talk about partnerships, you know, that you get to do that, you know, with your job, but also sort of at home and how that kinda works together.

[00:11:13] Judd Wilson: That's always fascinating to me. 

[00:11:15] Michael Chisolm: It is a big commitment. And so when you were talking about a commitment with your spouse and especially with my lovely wife, which is my heart and soul, and, but she's also my best. He's 

[00:11:27] Judd Wilson: laying it on thick there right before Valentine's Day where we're actually recording that.

[00:11:30] Judd Wilson: You're doing well, 

[00:11:31] Michael Chisolm: Mike. It is so awesome to be able to work with her, to minister with her, and. You know, it brings joy and more excitement into it because you know, you know that you're not in this alone, that you have someone that is committed to stay beside you, but also, you know, there is a bond of.

[00:11:51] Michael Chisolm: Togetherness is like no other. And so even when, so when we meet new people out into the community, it is always an opportunity to bond with [00:12:00] another agency, to bond with another church or bond with another committee to show that same compassion of we can do this together. I don't have to walk alone and I have someone beside me of not only walking with me, but someone to also nudge me that, Hey, you need to take care of this.

[00:12:19] Michael Chisolm: Oh, okay, let's go do this. And the excitement in it is watching the outcome. Oh my grace, that it blows your mind when you can see a wonderful outcome of committees working together for a common goal. And then when you achieve that, you're like, yes, where's the next challenge? Yeah, let's move forward.

[00:12:37] Judd Wilson: That's awesome. You know, I, I, I get to, uh, at being on the Chamber of Commerce side, I get to spend time a lot of times with small business owners, and we have several members that are members of CDF, that where it's a husband and wife that actually. Work together on the business and it's, it's just neat to see the synergy they have together.

[00:12:54] Judd Wilson: But it's also neat, even, you know, other companies that partner together and, and kind of, you know, you [00:13:00] can see that on the business side, but also on the nonprofit side as well. So I've always been so fascinated with what y'all do at the Salvation Army and seeing how y'all come together to do that. So 

[00:13:10] Schelika Chisolm: well, what he didn't tell you, 

[00:13:12] Judd Wilson: oh, here we go.

[00:13:13] Judd Wilson: Michael, it would've been the same thing if my wife was here. 

[00:13:16] Schelika Chisolm: What he didn't tell you is we really do rely on each other strengths and weaknesses, so every, every city that we go to, Mike knows that, like I'm the shy person, so he never meets a stranger. So I call him Mr. Community Relations. He gets out, he meets the partners and everything, and I'm the type of person I'll handle the paperwork and things like that.

[00:13:39] Schelika Chisolm: That's my strength. And so I really like the fact that we can depend on each other for the things that, um, we might find ourselves weak in. Um, we can depend on each other, and that's the same thing that we do. With community partners, things that we might not be able to, uh, have a resource for, or we [00:14:00] depend on community partners or find those community partners that do have the resource that our, um, residents or, um, the clients that we serve needs.

[00:14:11] Schelika Chisolm: So, yeah. Yeah, that's the same concept. 

[00:14:13] Judd Wilson: And Kim, you see that on an everyday basis 'cause you're helping bring these nonprofits together. What are some examples where you've seen leaders coming together to. To kind of forge together to do that 

[00:14:25] Kim Rushing: Well, goodness. Um, actually we meet every week with the captains and uh, with our homeless task force.

[00:14:32] Kim Rushing: Leader and some city people and with Mute, and we go over all of our unsheltered people just keeping track of who has gotten what services and all that stuff. And this past Thursday, Hannah and I were at the Red Cross warming shelter, reconnecting people to family members to other housing, getting them to other shelters.

[00:14:50] Kim Rushing: Just getting, finding them a place to go from that. So that's always good when you have people that you can just, I can just text and say, Hey. Can, is there room for one [00:15:00] more? You know, things like that. Um, uh, we've been working a lot with the Red Cross and the shelters with all of that. And um, like I said, just, you know, one thing that I remember from one of our outreach meetings was Katina wear it well.

[00:15:12] Kim Rushing: I had an ask and one of the other nonprofits just immediately, like, actually several of them were like, oh, we've got that. We can do that. How much of that do you need? And I just, I love when that stuff comes together. 'cause that's really, should, you know, the point of us getting together is to help each other.

[00:15:26] Judd Wilson: It's, there's no territory. It's everybody, everybody's territory. 

[00:15:30] Kim Rushing: Yes, 

[00:15:31] Judd Wilson: which is good. One thing we love to do on the show is we love to play clips from past at night, uh, leadership conferences, actually playing one for just a few weeks ago with Justin for, and I wanna play this clip and then just talk a little bit about that.

[00:15:43] Justin Forsett: I grew up in a family that was also financially unstable. We bounced around from one place to the next, never owned a home. Constant change. I remember times when I had to take baths with bottled waters because we couldn't afford to pay our water bill. There was times in which I had to do my homework by candlelight because we couldn't afford to [00:16:00] pay our light bill.

[00:16:00] Justin Forsett: And there was times when we had to run from the repo man. See, I don't know if they had a repo man here in Tupelo, but these are the people that come to repossess your car where you can't afford to pay your car. No, but I could recall as a young man, my, my parents and I parking our car blocks down the street and walking home because we couldn't afford to pay our cardinal.

[00:16:16] Justin Forsett: But we also couldn't afford to lose our only form of transportation. Then I recall, remember, I, I remember at, at, at a young age, us being homeless, hitting rock bottle, living out of a motel at the edge of town. I could still see it like it was yesterday. I could still see the room number 1 0 8 etched inside of the door.

[00:16:33] Justin Forsett: Could still see the blue green, vomit looking carpet on the floor, the two full sized beds to fit all five of us. Me turning and begging and pleading with my dad to please park our car in the back because I didn't want my classmates to see me in this condition, you see, as a 12-year-old, I couldn't control those things.

[00:16:48] Justin Forsett: But what I could control is how I thought about those things and how I would use those things to motivate me and push me closer towards my dreams. You see that in that moment of change, in that moment of uncertainty, I made a decision that adversity would never define [00:17:00] me, but it'll refine me and propel me forward in the middle of it.

[00:17:05] Judd Wilson: So, so let me ask y'all this. You're on the front lines. We got to hear Justin's story about he couldn't control his circumstances, but he could control the desire to say, Hey, I'm gonna get out of this. I know you've seen that through your years of, of ministry and your works with Salvation Army. What, what propels that person when you give them the tools they need?

[00:17:28] Judd Wilson: 'cause that's what you're doing. You're giving 'em the tools to say, Hey, you're in this situation. Let's give you this to help you get outta that situation. Now it's, it's up to you. What, what do you see with those people that say, Hey, yeah, I'm making that change. Where does that come from? 

[00:17:42] Schelika Chisolm: I think when, um, you are able to eliminate some of the barriers that threaten housing instability for a person, I think that gives them the inspiration and the courage to like, take a step because then they [00:18:00] know they're not alone in, in.

[00:18:02] Schelika Chisolm: Trying to overcome their obstacles. Like there's someone that's going to help them with that. Um, and one of the things that, um. That people really need, who have housing instability, um, they need someone to help them overcome those barriers. Yeah. They really, they really do. They, whether that is employment, whether it's an id, whether it is documents that maybe they, um, no longer have, whether it's transportation.

[00:18:38] Schelika Chisolm: It could be anything. But when you start to do that for a person, um, I think they, their courage, their spirits are lifted and then their self-esteem just starts to build really good. And they can make changes. They can make steps forward. 

[00:18:56] Judd Wilson: Yeah. So it, it helps them be leaders. 

[00:18:58] Schelika Chisolm: Mm-hmm. 

[00:18:58] Judd Wilson: But it takes us as [00:19:00] leaders to, to actually provide that.

[00:19:02] Judd Wilson: So let me ask you this. How do us as leaders get involved? What can we do, Kim? What can we do to help out with our folks in our area? So 

[00:19:14] Kim Rushing: just ask if you see a need ask, you can call me at the city, ask if there's somebody already fulfilling that need. Um, you can follow our team Tupelo Facebook page. I share any volunteer opportunities that come by through red in all of our events.

[00:19:28] Kim Rushing: There are so, so many events going on that involve our nonprofits and um, you can just. I mean, go talk to the Salvation Army captain, see what their need is. There, there, there are needs all over our city. And there are people that, that's what they do. That's their niche. So 

[00:19:45] Judd Wilson: yeah, 

[00:19:45] Kim Rushing: let us help you find your place.

[00:19:48] Judd Wilson: Shale and Michael, I know next couple, actually next month and or when this airs we'll also, um, talk about, um, you know, uh, empty bowls coming up so, you know, [00:20:00] people can kind of help out with that. Um. You got that coming up in, in March, is that right? 

[00:20:04] Schelika Chisolm: Yes, we, that's, um, our big, big fundraiser for, um, the Salvation Army, the Women's Auxiliary, um, for Salvation Army.

[00:20:13] Schelika Chisolm: They usually sponsor it and, um, it, all the proceeds go to our shelter, the services that we have, our food pantry, things of that nature. Um, and so we're really looking forward to it. The community can help by either a company, um, being a sponsor, or either buying individual tickets to the event. 

[00:20:37] Justin Forsett: Yeah. 

[00:20:37] Schelika Chisolm: Um, we usually have over probably 20 to 30, um, restaurants that participate and we're really happy that this community, um, and blessed that this community really supports the Salvation Army efforts.

[00:20:53] Schelika Chisolm: Um, and it helps us to be able to, um, house people in our shelter at no charge. Um, it [00:21:00] helps us to be able to feed, um, people lunch, breakfast, lunch and dinner, um, and provide hygiene kits and clothing from our thrift store. And so we just really, um, hope that people will come out, support the Salvation Army and the efforts that we, um, make to, um, help those that are without housing.

[00:21:23] Judd Wilson: That's great. And like Michael you said, I mean, it's a servant leader so they can come to the empty bowls, but I mean, they can get boots on the ground. I'm sure you could put 'em to work that way too, couldn't you? I 

[00:21:34] Michael Chisolm: sure could. Um, it is so good to see a great event like gift bowls because it touches so many people's lives, and it's not only this, the people that receive, you know, the.

[00:21:46] Michael Chisolm: Donation gifts, but it's the people it gives to because it blesses their heart to know that they're given to something to make a difference in a person's life. And so when you make a difference like that, it impacts both the [00:22:00] person that gives and the ones that receive also. But it also shows that there's a community together that's for a common cause to bless others that are standing in the need.

[00:22:11] Judd Wilson: That's right. That's right. 

[00:22:12] Kim Rushing: Yeah. 'cause like you said, you are the more the paperwork and you're more the worker. So everybody that wants to volunteer, there's something for everybody. You could be somebody that wants to go to stuff like this. You can be somebody that just wants to stamp envelopes. In an office somewhere, or you can just order something off somebody's Amazon wishlist.

[00:22:27] Kim Rushing: Like there's all these all 

[00:22:28] Judd Wilson: kinds of stuff, stuff you can serve time for Tupelos coming up in March, right? 

[00:22:32] Kim Rushing: Tulo is coming up. 

[00:22:32] Judd Wilson: So a lot of ways to serve, you know, if somebody said, if you're too small to serve, you're too small to lead, right? Or something like that. But I mean, if you can't, if you're not gonna serve, you can't lead.

[00:22:44] Kim Rushing: That's 

[00:22:44] Judd Wilson: true. So I think a, a good leadership tip is, is to serve and y'all do such a great job of that, but you also help us as leaders. To get motivated to do that. So thank y'all so much for what you do in our community. We couldn't do what we do without great partners [00:23:00] like y'all, and we appreciate the good work that you do to help us become even better servant leaders.

[00:23:05] Judd Wilson: It's been a great time having you on the show and uh, we look forward to seeing the great work that y'all continue to do in our area. 

[00:23:12] Schelika Chisolm: Thank you for house. Thank you. 

[00:23:14] Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Ignite Cast, presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe.

[00:23:24] Taylor Tutor: And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review and remember, go for and do good things.