Jo Freeman

Serve as a bridge between the community, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, and other human and social service organizations by approaching mental health topics with a culture-specific lens.

Services Provided:

• Outreach and Engagement
• Educational Workshops
• Linkage and Referrals
• Provide services in the community they reside to bring culturally and linguistically appropriate education and information to their communities through workshops, group discussions, support groups, advocacy, peer support, outreach and linkages to resources.
• Reduce stigma by engaging in dialogue with community members to normalize the experience of individuals living with mental health conditions and serves as role models to battle community biases.
• Assess needs of individuals, families, and communities; utilizes training and shared lived experiences to recognize risk factors and protective factors. Communicates to immediate supervisor when situations of abuse or neglect is observed or suspected in vulnerable populations such as children, disabled persons, and senior citizens.
• Advocate for the underserved, marginalized, and vulnerable populations within the mental health system and community at large.
• Assist community members in understanding and securing available resources, and/or completing applications for health screenings, housing, temporary shelter, benefits application, and other social services. Translates health information material and applications to benefits as needed. Follow up with the individuals they serve to ensure that linkage to mental health and wellness services has been successful.
• Attend community meetings in order to maintain, improve, and develop community
  partnerships (e.g. School Based Meetings, Clergy Breakfast, Health Neighborhood,
  Regional Center, etc.) also be knowledgeable about updated resources and community events. Communicate and share ideas from community voices to inform program. Provide outreach services to improve the community understanding of mental health and social systems. Outreach settings may include online, the street, participant’s home, religious settings, health fairs, hospitals, senior centers, shelters, community recreational sites and other formal and informal settings.
• Document monthly activities including the location of presentations, type of settings,
  and basic demographic data of participants. Maintain a binder of updated community resources and programs policies. Collect assessment and outcome data as required by the program. Participate in community needs assessment and outcomes evaluation to support program involvement.
• Participates in on-going professional development, program trainings, and meetings.

As a community outreach worker, I organize, develop, and implement public programs for the CAP organization. For this job, you work with your organization to determine and analyze community needs and set sustainable goals.

I attended 3 workshops and the meetings were very interesting. You would choose which topic(s) you want to focus on or have a passion for. Promote projects, and engage with the community. My duties include acting as a representative for LADMH.

community worker (WoW). Also serving as both an organizer and spokesperson that aids in developing achievable community goals, while promoting the overall mission of Dmh organization. Depending on the DMH departments I participated and overseen several projects simultaneously or many throughout the year.

While working/volunteering at Safe Refuge I learned everything from data entry to interacting with clients by upholding the standards of living that were listed on the weekly chore sheets. I assisted the Sober Living Manager in maintaining all sober living homes up and running by thoroughly checking and grading each home based on cleanliness, organization, and efficiency. By doing this, we held all homes accountable for their spaces and also individually with the assigned chores. The interaction between the manager and myself allowed me to build confidence in the requirements that we expect the clients to have for themselves. The hardest part of the job was approaching people individually when the criteria of the homes where not met and redirecting towards a solution to successfully hit the mark the next visit. Overall, great experience as a volunteer and previous clien