By Lawrence Smith
Kentucky Today
For more than 20 years, Terry Brooks has fought for Kentucky’s children as the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, helping push more than 85 bills through the legislature designed to make life better for kids.
Now, Brooks — respected as a leading voice for children in the Commonwealth — is stepping aside from his role at KYA. But, as he puts it, “I’m not retiring but rewiring.”
Beginning July 1, Brooks will join the staff of Sunrise Children’s Services in the new position of Executive Vice President and Ambassador.
“I am simultaneously humbled and inspired,” Brooks told Kentucky Today. “It is nothing but renewing, refreshing and challenging.”
Brooks has worked closely with Sunrise on children’s issues for more than a decade, and as he neared the end of his time at Kentucky Youth Advocates, he approached Sunrise President Dale Suttles about making that partnership formal.
“Sunrise, and specifically Dale, is always accused of being innovative and imaginative. I like innovative and imaginative,” said Brooks.
“No one can be satisfied with the outcomes we’re getting for kids and child welfare — no one can. So, if we’re going to change that landscape, we’ve got to do innovative, imaginative, even revolutionary kinds of activities, and Sunrise seems to be a place that embraces that approach.”
Suttles said he was “surprised but not shocked” when Brooks approached him about joining the Sunrise team.
“I was flattered because I have watched him work tirelessly, and I knew where his heart was at for kids and that he is a man of Jesus.”
Brooks said he came to faith in Christ while sitting “in the third pew to the left” every Sunday in a rural Methodist Church. He has served as a deacon, elder and Sunday School teacher — and is excited that, at Sunrise, he can now freely express that faith in his work.
“The first time I walked into the Ministry Support Center, you could feel Jesus. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s almost mystical,” he said. “I love the fact that when I’m in a senior staff meeting, we open with a prayer. That’s powerful to me.”
Suttles said Brooks’ expertise, reputation and connections in state government and beyond will help advance the welfare of Kentucky’s children by giving Sunrise a seat at the table.
“With the work that he has done, he has had to really develop good partnerships and relationships. Certainly, that’s going to help us,” said Suttles. “We’ve done good work. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t be at the table.”
The two men said they have a vision to not only grow Sunrise but to transform a child welfare system that too often fails the children it is supposed to help.
“It would be great if the catalyst for a child welfare revolution came from Sunrise,” said Brooks.
One goal is to put the care of vulnerable children front and center of the political conversation in Kentucky.
“It’s trying to think about how can kids enter the 2027 gubernatorial race? Can we make child welfare a focus rather than battery plants and bourbon? Can we work with the General Assembly to pass smart bills and make appropriate investments for kids?” said Brooks.
“Can we bring that kind of leadership to the table to make a difference, not just for Sunrise Kids, but for every little boy and girl in Kentucky?”
In 2021, Gov. Andy Beshear unsuccessfully attempted to cancel the state contract with Sunrise because of its sincerely held religious beliefs on LGBTQ+ issues. Brooks said he wants to help make sure faith-based organizations such as Sunrise are always valued.
“Imagine an environment where you’re at the table because you’re a faith-based group, not despite your being a faith-based group. That’s really what the tone has always been,” said Brooks.
“What if we moved to an environment where we want you at the table because you are faith-based? That’s a pretty significant change, and I think we’re on the cusp of being able to make that change.”
But Brooks said he wants to impact the lives of Sunrise children not only in the halls of the State Capitol but also in the residential centers where the kids are cared for.
“Can we think about how to make their education program better? Can we think about different ways to feed them? Are there ways that we can provide enrichment in the afternoons, whether that’s athletics or music. It’s making their day-to-day lives important.”
Suttles said he is excited to see what God is doing at Sunrise.
“It’s a chapter of reinvention. It’s a chapter of really creating something profound that can really make a difference,” he said. “It really takes a special group of people who are uninhibited and unafraid and driven by something greater than them to change a system that’s been around for so long, and so I know the Lord’s been at work.”
And Terry Brooks will be a big part of that work.
“It was really important for me to find that next chapter, and I think I found it with the Lord’s guidance and Dale’s support.”