My Job
If our identity lies in the nature of our work, I suppose I would be considered a saint by the affluent that care, an idiot by the affluent who don't give a shit, and mostly the embodiment of evil bureaucracy by those who come in need of our help. The latter group is the one that really only matters and it's really not a lot of fun being a big meanie.
I am a case worker for the Family and Emergency Services program at the Christian Service Center here in downtown Orlando. We provide food from our food pantry, free clothing vouchers for our on-site thrift store, bus passes, and assistance for utilities and rent. The Christian Service Center also has Daily Bread - a hot meal at noon 6 days a week, and Fresh Start - a residential and rehab program for men who work and are committed to getting their lives back on track. The problem lies in the process leading up to the decision on whether or not the people qualify for our services.
We have a limited number of bus passes per month therefore you have to have proof of a job, a job interview, or a medical appointment to get access to the passes. We have a limited amount of food, so you have to provide proof of residence, picture ID, social security cards for all in the household, and not have an open food stamp account in order to get food. We receive only a certain amount of monetary funding we can access, so people have to be rigorously screened, provide us with copies of document after document to prove that they had a crisis in the past 30 days which caused them to be X dollars short, and that this is not an on-going crisis that would cause the same problem next month. We use United Way funding for utilities bills which also requires proof of a crisis within the last 30 days proving this is why they were unable to pay last month's utilities, they can not have a history of their service getting cut off, and they can not be in the system for receiving help from other social service agencies for the same problem within the last year.
The problem lies here: most people, myself included, would access any savings, any relatives, try and utilizes all other strategies to pay the bills, rent, utilities, etc before coming to a social service agency to ask for help. By that time they are usually 2 or 3 months past the immediate crisis and we can't help them.
I made a 59 year old woman cry silently today when it was my responsibility to tell her we couldn't help pay her utility bill, for what seemed like ludicrous reasons. One tear silently streaming down her right cheek as she nodded and got up to leave. I also had to leave the room to compose myself. I would much rather have people yelling and cussing me out than to see them walk away from me visibly defeated.
I am a case worker for the Family and Emergency Services program at the Christian Service Center here in downtown Orlando. We provide food from our food pantry, free clothing vouchers for our on-site thrift store, bus passes, and assistance for utilities and rent. The Christian Service Center also has Daily Bread - a hot meal at noon 6 days a week, and Fresh Start - a residential and rehab program for men who work and are committed to getting their lives back on track. The problem lies in the process leading up to the decision on whether or not the people qualify for our services.
We have a limited number of bus passes per month therefore you have to have proof of a job, a job interview, or a medical appointment to get access to the passes. We have a limited amount of food, so you have to provide proof of residence, picture ID, social security cards for all in the household, and not have an open food stamp account in order to get food. We receive only a certain amount of monetary funding we can access, so people have to be rigorously screened, provide us with copies of document after document to prove that they had a crisis in the past 30 days which caused them to be X dollars short, and that this is not an on-going crisis that would cause the same problem next month. We use United Way funding for utilities bills which also requires proof of a crisis within the last 30 days proving this is why they were unable to pay last month's utilities, they can not have a history of their service getting cut off, and they can not be in the system for receiving help from other social service agencies for the same problem within the last year.
The problem lies here: most people, myself included, would access any savings, any relatives, try and utilizes all other strategies to pay the bills, rent, utilities, etc before coming to a social service agency to ask for help. By that time they are usually 2 or 3 months past the immediate crisis and we can't help them.
I made a 59 year old woman cry silently today when it was my responsibility to tell her we couldn't help pay her utility bill, for what seemed like ludicrous reasons. One tear silently streaming down her right cheek as she nodded and got up to leave. I also had to leave the room to compose myself. I would much rather have people yelling and cussing me out than to see them walk away from me visibly defeated.
posted by Gade at 10:56 AM
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