blog

a shout of joy

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 07:59

As a Jubilee Women’s Center care manager, I have the honor of working with residents to develop their Individual Success Plans.  These plans allow residents to identify short and long-term goals in such areas as permanent housing, physical and mental health, spiritual well-being, employment, education, financial freedom, and healthy relationships.  The Individual Success Plan also provides the opportunity for residents and care managers to work collaboratively to develop achievable action steps for attaining life goals.

The work of identifying life goals and action steps is one that can be challenging for Jubilee residents because sometimes, the harshness of life’s realities have not afforded these truly resilient women with a safe and inviting space to seriously contemplate the direction of their lives.  Sometimes, the harshness of life’s realities strip residents of belief that the dreams dearest to their heart are within their reach.  And sometimes, residents struggle to maintain a belief in themselves—to maintain a belief in their inner capacity to not just survive adversity, but to create full and vibrant lives.

But this is what is so wonderful about Jubilee Women’s Center:  volunteers, donors, neighbors, human service providers, area businesses, and Jubilee staff come together as a community to support each resident’s efforts to bring her life goals to fruition.  Poet David Whyte writes, “Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.”  It is thrilling to know that the residents of Jubilee have a community passionately committed to the amazing act of birthing the new lives of Jubilee residents.

Dannette Allen
Care Manager