Staff Spotlight

Supporting Connecticut Families as Part of the Connection “Family”

Sheila Kristofak, Program Manager, Supportive Housing for Families
Supporting families in need while working in a supportive environment where co-workers treat one another like family is a perfect professional and personal fit for Sheila Kristofak. “This agency is a special place to work. Helping our clients reach their goals is inspiring to me, and I’ve never felt so supported in a job before,” says Sheila, a Program Manager who works at the Hartford office of The Connection’s Supportive Housing for Families (SHF) program. Sheila is also an Agency Rep, a new role that involves representing The Connection in the Hartford area and acting as a liaison between the Agency and community.  Sheila has been with The Connection since October 2002, when she was hired to work as a Housing Coordinator in Hartford. In 2004, Sheila was promoted to Program Manager in Waterbury, later transferring back to Hartford.

Choosing a Life of Service

Sheila was “bitten by human services bug” soon after graduating from Fairfield University, where she earned a degree in English with a minor in Education. “I wanted to teach, but I decided to first devote a year to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which is similar to the Peace Corps but works exclusively within the United States,” she explains. “I did a year of service work in what was the second-poorest county in the nation—Prichard
County, Alabama.”  In Mobile, Sheila worked with hearing-impaired children at a preschool. She also ran an after-school program at a community center, and an emergency food service, and helped to oversee menus in home day cares in the area. These experiences helping people in need revealed to Sheila her true calling. When she returned to Connecticut, rather than seeking a position as a teacher, she took a job as a case manager at a domestic violence shelter in Enfield, which she later managed for several years.  “I loved the job, but after a while I began to feel burned out,” she recalls. “I had my beeper on 24/7, and it was often very challenging to get women into the house.” Sheila knew it was time to move on, but she was determined to remain in the human-services field.

Connecting with The Connection

Sheila’s search for a new place to do meaningful work led her to The Connection, which had a well-established Supportive Housing for Families program in New Haven and was expanding the program into the Hartford and Waterbury areas. She and her colleagues in SHF assist clients who have been referred to The Connection by the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF). Clients are either in a “preservation mode,” trying to stay together, or “reunification mode,” trying to get back together.
“Housing is a barrier for these families—either stopping the process of children being reunified with their parents, or creating the possibility that children will have be separated from their parents,” Sheila explains. Families referred by DCF to the SHF program are usually already engaged in needed services such as substance-abuse and/or mental-health treatments. What they need is a safe, secure roof over their heads, which Sheila is committed to helping them obtain and maintain.
Families accepted into the SHF program are provided with housing subsidies—either state RAP (Rental Assistance Program) certificates or federally funded Section 8 vouchers as well as direct subsidies from The Connection. Once housing is in place, a family is assigned a case manager, who collects a thorough case history, and documents that the family is fully compliant with the treatment plan prescribed by DCF.

After this assessment, the case manager meets with the parent or parents; usually a single mother. “We bring together all the service providers who are working with the family, along with the family members, to create a service plan. It’s critical that families help establish the goals for what they must do in order to graduate successfully from our program,” Sheila stresses. Case managers then visit with families in their homes regularly to help keep the families on track. The service plans are reviewed every three months with the relevant providers to make sure everyone is on the same page. “This is a big part of our success rate,” Sheila notes.
“It’s a tough job, but it’s also tremendously rewarding. Many of our clients have gone to Hartford to advocate for the program; it’s poignant and powerful to hear them tell their stories. We see lots of sad situations—especially when domestic violence affects small children. But no matter how sad a client’s past story has been, we know we can make the future story better.”

A Job That Feels Like Home

Working in SHF program has provided Sheila herself with a home of sorts. “I love the people I work with. We are like a supportive family. Everyone is there when you need them, always willing to help one another. Of course, there are days when you feel like pulling your hair out,” Sheila acknowledges. “This isn’t the kind of job where you can set up your schedule for the week and think everything’s going to happen just like that; it never goes that way. But no matter what happens, I always know there is support—I always have someone to go to if there is a crisis.”

The support is strong not only when clients have crises, but when colleagues face crises as well. Last summer, a co-worker passed away after a long battle with cancer. The SHF team pulled together and supported the young case manager and single mother of two as her illness progressed to its ultimate, untimely end. “That was really difficult to deal with, but a lot of beauty came out of it,” Sheila says. “People at work helped her with shopping, laundry, and other needs. We did a lot of laughing, crying, and praying together. Our folks have a closeness that I don’t think every office has. It is truly inspirational.”


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