Unlocking Pathways to Housing: Meet Sidney
Sidney Thomas was recently promoted to Assistant Team Leader for Team 3, and has been with Pathways for two years. He always has an engaging smile ready for participants and staff alike. Sid is currently in a Master’s program at Eastern University for Social Work. During the following visits, he was a Service Coordinator on Team 10.
Service Coordinators at Pathways to Housing PA are members of non-fidelity Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams and work together to provide recovery-oriented services in a flexible, compassionate, and responsible manner to formerly homeless individuals who have psychiatric disabilities and/or substance use disorder. Service Coordinators work together with their fellow team members to develop service plans for the participants on their team.
Our team had the opportunity to follow along with Sidney while he visited with two participants on a chilly but sunny March day. While it was early for us, for Sidney it was already mid-day. He started the day at seven that morning, meeting with a participant before they went to work, and then attended a team meeting to review the shared case load before heading out into the field.
We met Ariadne in West Philly; Sidney was picking her up to view a potential new apartment in North Philly. She was excited to view the apartment and have a place of her own again.
The viewing took a little while to start, there were several key boxes and Sid had to call the Housing department to find out the correct box and code. While that was happening, I spoke to Ariadne about the neighborhood. I grew up a few blocks away from the apartment.
Once inside, Ariadne walked around the space, taking it all in. The apartment had great natural lighting and a built-in closet. Sid spoke with her about whether this was what she wanted or if she wanted to wait for another apartment to open up. After viewing the apartment and speaking about the upstairs neighbor, Ariadne was pleased. The apartment was near ample public transit, which was very important to her, and a park. Sid discussed the next steps, which would be ensuring the utilities were turned on and what to expect from him and the team.
After a round of congratulations, Sid drove her back to the temporary shelter.
Our team then met Sid at another Pathways participant’s apartment in Cobbs Creek for a home visit. After we arrived, Sid knocked on Alfred’s window to get to let him know we were there. He joked about the participant never having his phone nearby. This was the quickest way to let him know that we were there.
Alfred invited us in and Sid sat with him for a little bit to catch up and just see how things were going. The apartment was great; Alfred apologized for not straightening up before we arrived. He had a new television but needed better reception. Which lead to him mentioning needing to go to a Comcast location to pick up his new modem. Sid offered to take him to save him some time. Getting to the Comcast store on public transit was possible, but a little complicated. Sid and Alfred made a plan to run a few errands and off they went.
Sid returned to the office later that afternoon to catch up on paperwork and write up the visits he made that day. It’s a perfect example of the variety in each Service Coordinator’s day: when meeting participants where they are and supporting them in whatever their goals are, you can end up doing a wide variety of activities with each person. Grocery shopping, cleaning, and laundry are popular things that participants need support with, but Service Coordinators can also help with visiting a new library for the first time, setting up utilities, accessing benefits, or even signing up to volunteer. Sidney and his fellow Service Coordinators are providing high-quality services while centering the participant’s needs, which is ultimately what makes the Housing First model a success.
