This week at work, I was officially assigned my first four clients! As a case manager, I'm responsible for accompanying these women during their time in the WAA shelter. Since an emergency shelter is not meant to be a permanent home for anyone, most of what my job involves is assessing my clients' current needs and then planning for the time when they will leave the shelter. We explore housing options (ranging from independent rentals to city-funded transitional housing programs), file for public benefits as needed, and discuss goals related to employment and education. Despite the 40 hours of training I just completed, this week has been filled with quite a bit of learning on my feet! I've had a crash course on the public benefits and public housing systems in Philadelphia, not to mention having my eyes opened to the tremendous obstacles that the combination of domestic violence and poverty can place in a person's path.

At times I find myself becoming overwhelmed by the multitude of burdens my clients have to carry each day - I can only imagine how they themselves must feel. Sometimes they'll tell me a fraction of it, in measured voices incongruous with the meaning of their words. Other times their pain and frustration finds other outlets, such as acts of aggression towards staff or fellow shelter residents.

It's a challenge to see my clients as whole people - not simply notes in a case file jotted down during a sixty minute intake, or the subject of incident reports written up after altercations with others, or the sum of impressions formed during brief encounters and conversations that can only reveal partial truths. But at the same time, it's such a paradoxically joyous challenge, one that is pushing me to break open the empty casings of appearance and circumstance in the hope of revealing the beauty and dignity within each person who passes through the shelter's doors.

Most of all, this job is deeply humbly. Every day I am confronted with problems I have no means of solving, systems I have no experience navigating, people I too often have no idea how to help. I am fortunate to have the support of my colleagues at the shelter - strong, compassionate individuals who understand the risks and rewards of this line of work, and who know that a team approach provides the best chance of serving the myriad needs of the women and children we are all there to support. Their wisdom helps to compensate for my inexperience. And through it all, I am trying to trust that God will make up the difference when even the best of our human wisdom, compassion, and strength falls short.