Employee Beat - Catholic Social Services

March 2014
Employee Beat
Walk For Warmth 2014!
Susan Bomalaski & Archbishop Schwietz show their support for PickClickGive
March 2014
What’s Happenin’ at CSS?
Thank you to all the CSS employees who attended the all-staff meeting on Friday February 7th. A special thanks to the
Employee Wellness Committee, Brigette Guzy (Admin), Cheri Race (FDS), David Rittenberg (BFS), Linda Bond
(SFH), Tami Jo Watson (PSAS) and Pam Driessen (HFS) for organizing the meeting and the delicious potato bar!
Thank you to Cheri for arranging for Barbara Dick, from Adult Protective Services, to speak at the meeting. It is very
important that all CSS employees know how to recognize and report elder abuse. Thank you also to Karen Ferguson,
RAIS Program Director, for her very interesting and engaging presentation on the Stages of Change. This is one component of the Motivational Interviewing training that Karen and Stephanie Smithson, HFS Program Director, are conducting with all the case management staff across CSS. The joint training is one way that we are “removing the silos”
between CSS programs. Another way we have been doing this is through the seating arrangements at the quarterly allstaff meetings. It is great to see staff from different programs and Admin sitting together and getting to know each
other. When Karen got us moving up on stage to demonstrate the stages of change it was gratifying to see everyone
mixing it up!
Last Thursday CSS was invited to lead the discussion at a UAA “Think Tank.” This event is part of the UAA Center
for Community Engagement and Learning (CCEL). I am on their Advisory Council and the Director asked for ideas
on community concerns that we could use the help of UAA students in addressing. The topic I posed for the discussion was, “Serving the Homeless: Walking the Ethical Tightrope between Compassion and Enabling.” Balancing
compassionate service with “doing too much” is a topic that is wrestled with in all CSS programs on a daily basis. The
CSS Ethics Committee had recently spent many hours discussing the need for accountability and structure at BFS and
the fact that not everyone in need of shelter is willing and able to make good decisions about coming in out of the
cold.
We had a great discussion at UAA with all of the groups really diving in to the topic. A participant asked me a question at the end, “How do you decide what the client’s goal should be.” Having just been through the training at our all
-staff meeting, I responded that it isn’t up to the “helper” to decide on the goal; that is the client’s decision. We can
assist with setting objectives and steps based on where they are in the stages of change to maximize the chances of
success. Someone else in the group made the comment that they “…understand the difference between giving someone fish and teaching them to fish, but what if the person doesn’t want to learn to fish?” I responded (again using the
stages of change and extending the fishing metaphor) that it is up to those of us in the “helping professions” to provide
the maximum variety of fishing poles so that the individual we are working with can choose the type of pole they want
to use and also to make sure there is room on the river bank for them to fish. Maybe with those options someone will
choose a “hand-up over a handout.” Thank you to Mary Beth Bragiel for helping to facilitate the session and to Stephanie Smithson, Wes Hoskins, and Katrielle Rios for attending.
At the all-staff meeting everyone was asked to complete a brief survey on our new cross agency database. The “survey
said”: 34% of respondents are excited about the new database, 34% are both excited and nervous, 10% are nervous,
and 22% have no idea what database we are talking about. If you fall in the last category, please speak with your program director or another member of the “Superusers” group (Karen Ferguson, Kjersti Langnes, Brigette Guzy, Linda
Bond, Tami Watson, Stephanie Smithson, Cheri Race, Wes Hoskins, David Rittenberg, Mary Beth Bragiel, and Tasha
Kahele). This is a very exciting project for all of us at CSS and we all need to be knowledgeable and invested for it to
be successful!
If you have questions on any of the topics in this column, anything else going on at CSS, or ideas of topics you would
like to hear about please let me know through email at [email protected], call me at 222-7351 or write me a
note.
Susan Bomalaski
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March 2014
March 2014
March 6th:
Dentist Day
March 7th:
Employee Appreciation Day
March 9th:
Daylight Savings Time Begins
March 10th:
International Day of
Awesomeness
March 17th:
St. Patrick’s Day
March 20th:
First Day of Spring
March 25th:
National Agriculture Day
March 30th:
National Doctor’s Day
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March 2014
On behalf of the many volunteers
and paid employees who comprise
the CSS “family” we’d like to thank
you for joining us in working to
fulfill the mission of Catholic Social
Services. Your work with CSS will
require commitment, compassion,
flexibility, and integrity.
Mission
To compassionately serve the
poor and those in need,
strengthen individuals and
families, and advocate for
social justice.
NEW EMPLOYEES:
Sadio Abdi - FDS
Lonny Gransbury - HFS/BFS
Jennifer Wellner - FDS
Lauren DeMarco - BFS
Our human compassion binds us the one to the other not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who
have learnt how to turn our common suffering into
hope for the future.
Nelson Mandela
March Birthdays
Jaclyn LaBuen (CH): March 1st
Charles Mackey (FDS): March 10th
Sherab Tenzin (FDS): March 10th
Heather Gallatin-Baker (PSAS): March 13th
Heather Jeffords (FDS): March 15th
Solimar Ledesma (FDS): March 26th
Pamela Driessen (HFS): March 27th
Gloria Hubb (ADMIN): March 29th
March Anniversaries
Sara Sefford (Teen Home): 1 Year
Anita Haube (CH): 2 Years
Tammera Wagner—Loomis (BFS): 7 Years
Roslyn Sims (FDS): 7 Years
Susan Bomalaski (ADMIN): 8 Years
Ousman Fattyhydara (FDS): 8 Years
Brian Kuzel (ADMIN): 9 Years
42 Years
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