A teacher with years of experience under her belt, Susan was a natural fit for our volunteer team. Upon retirement, she wasn’t quite ready to let go of her passion for education, so she began volunteering with a local nonprofit that allowed her to work with high school youth in a tutoring capacity. Armed with a background in teaching Spanish, she then took to the internet to find opportunities where she could volunteer and use her Spanish skillset. She then found her match at Chrysalis.
Susan first joined our team facilitating our job-readiness curriculum on a weekly basis at our Downtown Los Angeles center. “If I weren’t learning while I was teaching, it wouldn’t be worth teaching,” she says. Every day she volunteers, she learns something from our clients and is humbled by the immense gratitude they show. When the pandemic began, she had no doubt in her mind that she wanted to continue volunteering.
After retiring and moving to California years ago, Susan was offered a position to teach Spanish to individuals over 50 at UCLA. Flash forward to the start of the pandemic last year, at which point she had to learn to become a virtual teacher quickly. So, when Chrysalis adapted and was able to begin a virtual program model, Susan was ready and well versed in providing remote services. Now, she volunteers twice a week conducting practice interviews with clients and has found new joy in focusing on these one-on-one services.
In speaking with clients during the pandemic, Susan gained another perspective on the population she sought out to help. “It has really opened my eyes to what is really going on and what people are going through,” she shares. Living near those experiencing homelessness, she realized how imperative it was for her to do something to work toward solutions. Although Chrysalis’ programs and services have been offered virtually for the past year, Susan feels that providing individualized support as a remote volunteer has helped her to feel closer to her community. She finds herself doing more to be aware of homelessness across Los Angeles and more involved in her role in helping who she can.
In contrast, one of the aspects of this new service model that Susan enjoys is getting to utilize more of her Spanish while virtually meeting with clients across our five centers and locations. She has learned that many times just speaking to a client can have such an impact. “[Our clients] need somebody to listen to them,” she shares.
One of her fondest memories of volunteering at our center was of a Success Bell ringing that she was able to witness at our Downtown center. As staff, volunteers, and clients gathered around our lobby to celebrate the success of this client securing a job, Susan remembers him saying, “I had two convictions. Now I have two jobs!” And she shared this story with her class every time she had a client who believed a conviction would hinder them from finding a job. As a volunteer and ardent supporter of our program, Susan has learned that there is no hurdle too high for a client with the help of our team. “Chrysalis will do their best for you,” she shares and she could not be more grateful to be a part of the team that is changing lives through jobs.
We are currently recruiting volunteers to support clients virtually – please click here to learn more.