Maryann quickly discovered that her clients weren’t able to access. She recalls an experience working with a family to secure housing. “For three months I worked with a single mother searching for a landlord who would accept her Section 8 housing voucher. She lived in an apartment infested with rodents, without heat and in an environment that was dangerous for her children. Despite our desperate attempts to find more suitable housing, she was denied by one landlord after another (even though at the time it was illegal to deny someone solely based on the fact that they possessed a Section 8 voucher). For us, it was a frustrating battle. In the end, she did secure an apartment, but only after a four-month long process that should have taken several weeks.”
After several other exasperating experiences with voucher programs and long waits at the food stamps office, Maryann decided to join LIFT-The Bronx’s leadership team as Community Partnerships Manager in order to coordinate firmer, stronger relationships with service providers in the Bronx so that LIFT volunteers could help their clients better navigate the web of social services available. She also wanted the social safety net to actually work for her clients with a whole community of advocates working together for them.
She tirelessly devoted her time to her role, saying, “I knew that my time at LIFT would go beyond the three or four hours I volunteered a week. My experience influenced the way I further understand my community and how I can shape my role in my community.”
LIFT-The Bronx Site Coordinator Katie Eddins, says, “Maryann routinely devotes six hours a week. She constantly impresses me with her level of engagement to LIFT’s mission. She never hesitates to dig deep and ask questions about the social services world to better advocate for her clients and ensure they are getting the best support services they can. I can always count on Maryann to engage in important discussions that reflect on the client service experience, whether it be about transparency in government agencies, social, economic, and racial inequalities, or the daily barriers our clients face. Her participation in these meetings and leadership efforts is something other volunteers yearn to emulate.” To that end, Maryann credits her mentors for shaping her LIFT experience and has since started a mentorship program for members of LIFT-The Bronx’s leadership team to shadow leaders in the Bronx community.
