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What do you do at Bread for the City?

I’m the Representative Payee Program Supervisor, I train and manage our team of payees here at Bread for the City. Representative Payee is a service we provide via contract with the DC Department of Behavioral Health to provide payee services to 867 clients, which basically means we help them manage their finances in all kinds of ways, from budgeting to paying their bills to keeping them public benefits-eligible, all in the best interest of the client. As the supervisor, I also work closely with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) to equip them with the skills they need to work with clients who have us as payees.

How did you get into this role?

I have been at Bread for the City for 16 years. I wanted to return to the workforce after raising my kids full-time. I started volunteering at Bread for the City as a way to give back to the community that raised me.

“I wanted to have a meaningful impact on my community”

I then became a temporary receptionist, then started full-time on the Rep Payee team as a client liaison and then a senior case manager.

What motivates you to keep doing this work?

I’ve seen firsthand the burden many families take on to ensure that someone in their life who needs financial support gets it. I do this work to take that burden off of family members, I tell them we’re the professionals, and their job is to just be family.

“We’re here as the professionals so families can just be families.”

Are you working on any exciting projects?

I have gotten great opportunities to take on new projects that interest me. One that I’m particularly passionate about is our work ensuring our whole Bread for the City staff is trained on non-violent crisis intervention. I’ve gotten trained as an instructor and we have about 80% of our current staff, front-facing or otherwise, trained so far. I’m looking forward to hosting more training sessions and more closely connecting them to our trauma-informed care work. We want to be able to be there to help our clients, who may be meeting with us on their hardest days. You never know what’s going on in our clients’ lives and all we can do is make sure everyone is comfortable and safe when they come to Bread for the City.