Sta. Ines de Bohemia

Almost exactly a month ago, I began working at Taller de José’s second office site at St. Agnes of Bohemia, which is still in the Little Village neighborhood, about a mile west of our main office. My official job title is now “St. Agnes Site Coordinator,” which I think makes me sound much more grown up and managerial than I feel :) Essentially, most of my job duties are the same, I just happen to do them at another location 3 days a week in order to help Taller de José reach out to more clients in a different part of the neighborhood. But there are a few differences, and in the past month I’ve also learned a lot about what a wonderful place St. Agnes is!

The parish’s name, Santa Inés de Bohemia, is very telling of the history of the parish and neighborhood. Founded in 1904, the church (then Blessed Agnes of Bohemia) was built to serve a growing Czech population in the neighborhood, but in the early 1970s it became clear that an increasing Latino population required masses (and a myriad of other services) in Spanish. Now, the parish offers 9 masses each Sunday, 7 of which are in Spanish, and the pastor points out that the majority of people at the English masses would understand the Spanish just as well. But beyond the masses and other sacraments the church provides, it is also involved in the community in so many other ways (The parish website says there are 40 different clubs and groups within the parish!). In the same way that Taller de José was founded by listening and responding to the needs of the community, our staff has tried to partner with St. Agnes to support the programs they are already doing well and fill in where they see any gaps in their services.

One of the ways I do this is by assisting with the “Fussy Baby” group, also known as “Little Explorers.” The group is open to parents with children age 0-3, and provides an opportunity for the children to play and the parents to chat with specialists trained in child development. My favorite part, of course, is the end, when we get to sing and then eat the snack I’ve prepared. The group is one aspect of the parish’s effort to educate parents and decrease the rates of infant mortality, which are extremely high, even compared to other neighborhoods of similar socioeconomic status. My coworker, the previous St. Agnes Site Coordinator, is heavily involved in research being conducted by Masters of Public Health students from UIC in which they’re trying to find the causes of these high rates. Preparing snack is definitely different than our typical ways of companioning those in the community, but as one of my coworkers pointed out, “playmate” is one of the definitions of “compañera” (our job title)!

We also partner with another group that is researching ways to educate Latinos about diabetes by hosting classes through the churches in the neighborhood. I learned at the staff meeting a few weeks ago that St. Agnes also offers senior groups (including Zumba classes! I was definitely surprised to come upon a group of zumbaing seniors in the social hall one morning), a mentoring program for at risk youth, a food pantry, and they are undergoing the process of “parish transformation,” a program through the Archdiocese which seeks to help parishes revitalize their mission and stabilize their finances. From what I have seen so far, St. Agnes is a parish that truly seeks to “practice what it preaches” and really engage the community beyond the four walls of the church. I’m really looking forward to learning more about the parish and finding ways that Taller de José can continue to respond to the community. And I'm so grateful that the generous donations from my family and friends in support of my running will support my participation in the mission of both St. Agnes and Taller de José. Though my marathon training will be done in just two weeks (!), I've learned a lot during the process that I know will stick with me for a long time. In much the same way, the over $1150 I've received in donations and pledges so far will have a lasting impact on the people with whom I get to work every day.

What is a Typical Day LIke?

When people ask me about what I do at work, it's tough to say what a "typical day" is at Taller de José, but I was told once that "there is no typical day" isn't a very satisfying answer to that question (and I'd have to agree!). So in an attempt to describe what the day-to-day is like and give a taste of the variety of circumstances we see, I'm going to summarize what my work was actually like last week:

Monday (Labor Day)
Ok, so obviously it isn't typical to have Monday off work, but my running partner and I did use it as an opportunity to complete the weekly "long run" that's part of our training plan. This week it was 18 miles, so we rode the bus to the north side and ran the entirety of the Lakefront Path! While not "work," I still look at it as part of my fundraising efforts and therefore an important commitment to the mission of Taller de José.

Tuesday
On Tuesday, the office is open noon-7pm in an effort to provide appointment times in the evening for those clients who work until 5pm. It's a great idea in theory, but many of our clients who show up as walk-ins aren't expecting us to open so late; it's nearly impossible to come into the office early to get any work done because clients always somehow find their way in. Last Tuesday a coworker had come in just a little early, and despite having her door closed, several clients did come in, and the office was already hectic by the time I came in at noon. I wasn't scheduled to see anyone until 1:30pm, but I ended up seeing clients right away. By the end of the day I'd seen 4 clients total in between working at the front desk because we're currently without our part time receptionist:

• A woman who I had seen the previous week, and showed up on Tuesday without an appointment. She had questions about finding special education services for her son, and expressed frustrations that she wasn't able to express herself fully during his IEP meetings due to the language barrier. It seemed like what she needed most wasn't referrals, but moral support and the opportunity to share her story and vent her frustrations with the system.
• A man who needed help reading and filling out some basic court forms asking about his income and expenses. In situations like these, we can't give legal advice and aren't supposed to fill out the forms for them, but we can help translate so they can hopefully understand them. If they need actual legal advice we can connect them with legal aid agencies that provide advice or representation.
• A woman who needed to apply for Child Support Services from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (they will help with the court process of getting court ordered child support and with enforcement and modification once the order is in place). The website says you can go in person to their offices in the Loop, but my experience is that wait times can be 1-4 hours just to be told to fill out a form and wait for an appointment in 6-8 weeks. I had seen this woman previously in April, and we had found the form on the department's website, with instructions to send it in and avoid the long wait times in the office. We did that, but the client still had not heard from them 5 months later. We picked a date when I could accompany her to the office in the Loop to apply for the services in person. 
• A man who came in as a walk-in and wanted assistance calling the electric company because he received a shut-off notice. He said that he was able to make the payments, he just needed a payment plan to give him a little more time to do so. Unfortunately they said he was not eligible for a payment plan, but suggested he try calling another organization to help him pay the bill. He preferred to call that agency on his own.
• A woman who was very worried about her 20 year-old-daughter and needed to find counseling for her based on the recommendation of the daughter's psychologist. She is a single mother trying to support her two children, so it was important to find agencies near her home that would provide low-cost services.

Wednesday
We started the day early with a staff meeting, where we began with prayer as we normally do. The majority of our time was spent discussing the new client evaluation we're starting to implement. The staff has been working for quite a while to develop a way to ask our clients how they feel about the services we offer and how we offer them; based on what we hear informally from our clients, we believe that we are living up to our mission, but we recognize the importance of taking a more systematic approach to evaluation to make sure we're serving out clients as best we can.

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon accompanying two clients to the offices of Healthcare and Family Services to apply for Child Support Services (see description of the second client from Tuesday... we were there 10am-1:30pm). As usual, the wait was incredibly long. When I returned to the office in late afternoon I received a call from a client I had seen previously who was requesting rental assistance. Her hours had been cut back so she was behind on one month's rent; luckily her hours were increased again, but it was barely enough to pay the current rent, let alone the past due. I was able to call another agency we've worked with in the past and was so grateful to hear that they actually had the funding available to assist her.

Thursday
On Thursdays the office is "closed," but that really means that we're not open to see walk-ins; if a client has court or an appointment that day, there are still several of us available to accompany them. The full time staff members work on Thursdays to keep client paperwork up to date and take care of the other administrative tasks that allow us to stay up and running. In addition to working on my own client files and following up with clients via phone, I spent time on our upcoming newsletter and annual report.

I also accompanied a client to the police department to request a special certification needed to apply for a U-Visa or VAWA. These are special visas available to individuals who are survivors of domestic violence or some type of violent crime; if they can prove that they cooperated with law enforcement and government officials to report and/or prosecute the crime, the are eligible to apply for the visa. Catholic Charities' Immigration and Naturalization Services has a special program designed to help clients apply for these visas, and they partner with Taller de José to provide accompaniment to clients who may be nervous or worried about collecting all the necessary documentation.

Then, in the afternoon, a client made his way in without an appointment and said he needed help finding shelter for the evening. And while our sign says we're closed, it doesn't feel right to refuse to help someone in that situation. Luckily, we were able to find a shelter that would accept him, even though he'd lost his photo ID. Then another client of mine came in an needed assistance filling out court forms. I could have asked her to come back, but they did need to be filled out on a strict time line and I was worried about finding time the following week.

Friday
The morning started off in court at the Daley Center, where I accompanied a client to help make sure she understood what was happening and was able to communicate effectively with her lawyer (we had helped her get a lawyer from a legal aid agency that took on her very complicated case free of charge). On my way back to the office in the afternoon I stopped by Best Buy to order a refrigerator for a client who was approved for WRAP funds, a program through the Department of Children and Family Services (which suspended due to state budget cuts shortly after this client was approved). I'd applied for the funding several months ago and had just received the check; I was very excited that she and her children will now have a working refrigerator! Then the rest of the afternoon flew by while I returned phone calls and scheduled appointments for the following week. One last client stopped by to receive assistance understanding and filling out forms she'd received about her medicare coverage for she and her husband, and by the time we finished I looked at the clock to see that it was already past 5pm.


And that's a pretty good example of a "typical" week on the job! Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far (the sad thing is that I tried to leave out details in order to keep it short-- being succinct isn't one of my gifts :)). As the weeks fly by, I'm realizing how quickly the marathon is approaching-- just 4 weeks from yesterday! So let me know if there's anything you'd like to hear about on the blog before then. Thank you again to everyone who has donated, and if you're considering but haven't already, there's still time left! Just click on the link to the right or contact me if you'd prefer to donate by check. Thanks for reading and for all the support!