A Day in the Life

Recent collage graduate Kate Waters is an Outreach Case Manager at Hearth. This is her typical day.

9:15 am

Kate’s phone rings, but she’s busy gathering files for her weekly visit to the Pine Street Inn shelter and doesn’t answer.

The next several hours are spent with elderly homeless men and women at the Pine Street Inn shelter, each one needing help with different tasks. Juan needs help filling out the application for food stamps. Bill needs help obtaining healthcare, and Steven needs help applying for a photo ID and a copy of his birth certificate. Each one of these services that Kate performs brings these men one step closer to leaving the shelter system and into their own apartments.

1:00 pm

Kate grabs lunch on her way back to Hearth. Before heading out to her next meeting, she calls the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless to schedule an appointment for Susan to obtain furniture for her new apartment.
 

1:30 pm

Kate accompanies Linda to a housing interview. They wait an hour before being called, Kate attempting to keep her client calm. It will be two weeks before Linda finds out if the management company will offer her a unit.
 

4:00 pm

Kate returns to the office to find Marc waiting for her. Marc recently moved into an apartment but doesn’t have any money for food. She fills a plastic bag with items from Hearth’s small food pantry which he gratefully takes home.

Kate spends the rest of her afternoon meeting with her supervisor, discussing her difficult cases and addressing her clients’ needs.