Hi – I’m Jim!
I grew up in northern Vermont near the Richford area. I started working with Pathways Vermont in May 2023. I am the Team Lead for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and our Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program. I would describe myself as someone who is committed to social justice. When I believe in something, I feel a deep commitment to it, and that is how I think about the work we are doing at Pathways.
In my role as team lead, I have various responsibilities. Typically, that looks like following up with service coordinators who are working with program participants, ensuring we are in compliance with everything we need to be for our programs, following through with our values, and making sure the work we are doing embodies the values we hold at Pathways. I also have a caseload myself. It is gratifying to go out and meet people where they are, see their situation, and see how we can support them in changing it.
My role can look very different on a day-to-day basis. Every week, I attend a meeting with community partners and lead agencies who work with coordinated entry. It feels good to have those meetings and know we are all working together to help those in our communities. On other days, I meet with service coordinators and program participants. I love that we can be out in the community and meet people where they are. There is a real value in that.
What inspires me about Pathways mission to end homelessness and provide innovative mental health alternatives is how important our mental health alternatives work is. I have done a lot of work with Veterans coming home from the Iraq war, and I have a brother who was there. He absolutely struggled when he came home, and seeing that effect on him made me want to change things. A lot of the time, people need to have conversations with people who have lived experiences of the same thing, and sometimes, people need to be able to yell at stuff and have someone validate the yelling.
It is also so important that someone has a private space to come back to and work through their mental health challenges. I once had a client say when they are having an episode, they need to talk to the voices in their head, but it is much more dangerous to do that in public than in private. I don’t think people understand that.
My most memorable experience at Pathways so far was with one client we housed who was having issues with their landlord. He got his eviction notice, and we had one month to find him a new place. As it was coming down to it, we were trying to coordinate with shelters, and at the last minute, we got the call that one of the applications we had out went through, and he was offered the apartment. That feeling of being there to help someone is so great. A lot of us call that feeling a “housing high.” Being there for program participants and showing up every day for those relationships motivates me to come to work every day.
