Helping people help themselves
Abby Taylor works with 23 familiesBy ANGELA BURCH Messenger staff writer
Abby Taylor's job allows her to help people help themselves.
A family development specialist for Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc., Taylor works with the Family Development and Self-Sufficiency program. She currently works with 23 families throughout Webster County who are receiving Family Investment Program - formerly known as Welfare - benefits.
"Anyone that receives a FIP check has to go to Promise Jobs and come up with a plan as to what they're going to do to try to get themselves off of FIP," Taylor said. "When they're discussing some of the things that are going on in their lives, (Promise Jobs) may refer them on to us if they feel like they need a little bit of extra assistance."
The extra assistance the families receive depends on individual needs. She spends between an hour to an hour and a half with her families in their home each visit. She meets with some of her families once a week if they need it.
Typically the families Upper Des Moines Opportunity works with have quite a few barriers she said. Some of the obstacles the families face are lack of education, the desire to go back to college, not having a drivers license, mental health issues or domestic violence issues. She also said the lack of jobs in the area makes it hard for families to get on their feet, especially if they haven't had any kind of education.
"Any of those different kinds of barriers are ones that people may come across in their lives that keep them from being self-sufficient. They come and they truly want to better themselves, but they can't because they just have so many things going on," she said. As far as mental health issues, "probably 75 percent of the case load is either dealing with anxiety, depression and a lot are bipolar. We see ADHD in kids as well."
Taylor said goal setting is one way she works with families to overcome their obstacles.
"It's their goals that they say they want to work on," she said. "It's not me going in with my agenda, but (I ask) how can we partner together to help reach your goals?"
The goals are not only for the parent(s) in the household, but she also works with the kids and teenagers in the family to get them involved in the goal-setting process.
"Sometimes it's making sure they keep their room clean or doing their homework," she said. "It's a way to get them involved and understand that you want to continue to work forward toward something and the way you do that is by setting a goal for yourself."
Once the goals are set, Taylor helps her families through the process of achieving their goals. She serves to connect them with different kinds of resources or referrals throughout the community. If they're job searching, she will sit down and help them write out a resume and search for jobs through newspapers and the Internet. When transportation is an obstacle, Taylor said she will actually take them places to pick up an application or to go in and interview.
"I do a lot of mock interviews with my families. We talk about what kind of attire they are going to wear - making sure they know what is presentable and what is not acceptable for a job interview," she said.
For Taylor, working with the families is a great part of the job. However, educating other people about her job is equally as rewarding.
"I always like to take the opportunity to kind of be an advocate for low-income families and say 'it's not that easy, they're not just collecting a welfare check,'" she said. "You're either doing 20 hours of job search every week or going to school full time or you are disabled and applying for disability. It's not that easy."
Taylor has worked with one family at least two and a half years.
"When I first met with her, she was severely depressed, using meth, marijuana, neglecting her children, not working and very defiant with the Department of Human Services," she said. "She gave the kids away to their dad and when she wanted them back, DHS got back involved. And one day she was like 'I have to figure something out.' She put herself in rehab, completed, got her drivers license back, paid off a bunch of fines, and has just really cleaned up her life.
"Now she's working full-time, has a good job, has a car, is paying her bills, doing everything she can. She is overcoming a lot of barriers and has a really good attitude about everything."
Taylor has worked with Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc. since 2002 after she graduated from Buena Vista with an elementary education degree. In addition to helping other families, she is also busy raising her own three boys.
"I can't imagine doing anything else now," she said. "I went to school to be a teacher but things just happened to work out where I got this job and I can't imagine going back to teaching now."
Contact Angela Burch at (515) 573-2141 or aburch@messengernews.net
