“One Day I Want to do Your Job!” A Ten-Year Retrospective
Ten years ago, I sat with my Wraparound team in a Child and Family Team Meeting as they talked about how well our family was doing. Right then, something inside me lit up.
After the meeting, I was talking to my Family Partner, Ebony Chambers.
“One day I want to do your job,” I told her. “I want to help caregivers in the same way you have helped me!”
Soon after (in 2013), my family was discharged from Wraparound, which had been provided through Stanford Sierria Youth and Families, formally known as Stanford Youth Solutions.
Even though we discharged ten years ago, things like the skills that my family and I were taught, the compassion that was shown, and the confidence that was given, are all fresh in my mind even to this day.
When I think back to the services my family received, there are many different things that come to mind. We had days that were great and days that I wasn’t sure how we were ever going to be okay. All throughout, my Wraparound team was so amazing—especially my Family Partner, Ebony. I have no words that could explain the gratitude I have for her. I don’t know if she will ever be able to understand how much her help positively impacted me forever! I continue to use what Wraparound gave me and my family to grow personally, as have all my family members.
Let’s fast forward to today, as I am writing this at my desk in the very place that changed my life a decade ago. I too am now a Family Partner with Stanford Sierria Youth and Families Wraparound programs. I am now able to give back to other families in the exact way that was given to me. I get to work every day with caregivers and parents in many ways that can be summed up to helping the family connect and thrive! I can use my firsthand experiences with Wraparound to help families move forward.
While the work is never easy and the challenges can sometimes seem overwhelming, I continue to learn through others on my team, and with every family I encounter I ask, “How can I make a difference?”
On days when families feel like there is no light, I get to share my lived experience to show them that there is indeed a light at the end of that journey!
I once had a caregiver ask me, “Is that light a train?”
Sometimes, yes, that light may be a train; but, together, we can build skills that even a train can’t take down. Together we can build something that will last a lifetime. That is what Wraparound has helped build for me, and it is my honor to carry that work forward.
Read additional articles from this issue of the Wraparound Connections Newsletter!