Intake Matters: Screening

By Intake and Resident Specialist Holly Gardner

I love what I do at Community LINC, I have varied responsibilities and a nice balance between interacting with people and helping to take care of our lovely old buildings here on Troost. One of my primary functions is to screen / interview new families and work with staff to determine acceptance into our program or referrals to other programs that may serve that family better. 

It is interesting to me to see the families face to face and listen to their words as they describe the different issues that have contributed to their current situation and what has led them to our door.  Of course there are commonalities such as lack of sufficient income or loss of all income, unreliable childcare or none at all. Untreated health issues or treated health issues flaring up.  Loss of significant relationships including death and divorce.  For many families violence.  There are education deficiencies too and changes of plans as families survive day to day.  Many times a combination of all these things may be in one application to sort through and discuss.  All too often our screenings are weighed down with these challenges, but what also comes through in our conversations are how individuals reacted and responded to their hardships.  How and when they took initiative to ask for help, who they turned to in the community and the paths they are on now due to that strength and courage to reach out and where their journey may take them now.

I see that strength a lot in the faces of our prospective families, the ones we accept in and get to know better and the ones that will have a different journey.  There is a grace in loss, I see that and have experienced it many times too.  We lose, we have set backs, we have heart ache and we rebuild one relationship at a time, one step at a time.  It is such an honor to work for an organization that sees these strengths in homeless families, the most vulnerable populations in our community, vests with them and in so doing provides a sturdy stone or two on their housing journey’s path.