July 2016- July 2017 I participated in a national service program called Americorps VISTA. I was stationed at Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri here in Springfield and worked to improve disaster resilience for limited English speakers in Greene County. I partnered with several helping and community organizations, public entities, and churches; even started a “Task Force on Inclusion” as part of the local Community Organizations Active in Disaster. At the same time, I worked on strengthening CCSOMO policies and procedures in regards to disaster, as well as data quality, performance measures, and development of outcomes. At the end of my term, I had personally facilitated disaster preparedness workshops for over 440 at-risk individuals and reached out to over 1,200!
As of July 28th, I am now the Disaster Case Management Program Manager for CCSOMO, covering our disaster services across the 39 southernmost counties in Missouri. My main focus is to engage the community, strengthen the disaster organizational structure, empower supervisors, and equip staff to provide efficient, effective, and compassionate services. This is accomplished primarily through coordinating and managing data quality, evaluating and implementing performance measures, overseeing the budget, hiring and training staff, working with state and agency partners, and proposing and advocating for avenues to increase program effectiveness.