This month Easterseals UCP (ESUCP) is celebrating three of our team members. Each has a different background but their culture and bilingual Spanish-speaking abilities have led to many positive outcomes.
Jessica joined ESUCP four years ago. She was born in Brooklyn, New York to Puerto Rican parents. “I bring my Latina values to work every day. My strong cultural upbringing taught me to work as if I own the company.” says Jessica, HR Specialist with a big smile. Jessica works behind the scenes in Human Resources and brings great value to our organization. In her job, Jessica is responsible for credentialing and confirming the education, training, job experience and/or other qualifications for potential new hires. She is able to translate forms sent to her in Spanish, which significantly simplifies the process. Jessica is a great asset to our Human Resources team and her ability to communicate with Spanish-speaking job candidates makes the team even stronger.
Meet Rolando, LCMHC, NCC who was born to Cuban and Costa Rican parents. Nine years ago, Rolando joined ESUCP as a Multisystemic Therapist, where he tirelessly supported teens with antisocial, aggressive and violent behaviors. Later, as an Outpatient Therapy team supervisor, his focus shifted to trauma treatment. Last year, Rolando accepted an internal opportunity that completely changed the trajectory of his career. Today, he uses his lens as a licensed clinician to leverage data, analytics and an innate sensitivity of marginalized communities to create better outcomes for those we support. “I love my job! I’m still a licensed therapist and now I actually support even more people. I’m able to help ESUCP prioritize services for Spanish-speaking families through data that proves the business case for what we already knew was the right thing to do,” said Rolando.
Jamilet Rou is Puerto Rican and joined ESUCP two years ago as a Bilingual Administrative Assistant. Since this time, she has used her voice and understanding of Spanish-speaking cultures to help ESUCP better support our clients. In her role, she translates documents, interprets conversations with parents and advocates for Spanish-speaking families. Parents are generally more trusting of Jamilet because of their shared cultural experiences. “I love watching our team communicate with families like never before. By having me in the room, parents feel free to ask questions and share their concerns. This has led to better outcomes in meeting the parents’ expectations and helping the kiddos in our program,” says Jamilet.
Easterseals UCP is mission-driven. We serve as a therapist, a social worker, a job counselor, a caregiver, a nurse, a teacher, a psychologist, and a compassionate friend all rolled into one. We help our neighbors in need live their best possible life. We strive to attract and engage team members with diverse lived experiences. We intentionally seek out and value uniqueness across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, personality, disability and age.
We are so proud of the work that is done by Jessica, Rolando and Jamilet. They are great examples of how we bring our mission to life through our great team members.
About Easterseals UCP
Easterseals UCP North Carolina & Virginia is a trustworthy, compassionate partner providing exceptional disability and behavioral health services to help our neighbors live their best lives. Purpose, dedication and empathy drive our service delivery. Our diverse and inclusive 2,300 member team provides more than 9 million hours of meaningful support to 22,000 kids, adults and families in 11,000 home and community locations.