Connections October 2022 Issue

KELLEY

Young is a housing retention counselor in Evergreen's Housing program, working under the Substance Use Disorder Transitional Housing (SUDTH) grant funded by the Erie County Department of Health. "My job is to help individuals in recovery from substance use find affordable, stable housing," explained Kelley. She is also tasked with being a support for patients, providing linkages to community resources and working on vocational and recovery goals. The SUDTH program is 12 months, giving patients time to secure employment or increase their income and hopefully be able to pay rent on their own or with supports such as DSS or Section 8 in place. After 12 months, there is a reassessment to determine if they're eligible for another 12 months.

Evergreen has long recognized the importance of safe, stable housing, particularly for those struggling with illness or addiction. "The goal of our department is to help individuals across all walks of life find supportive, stable and affordable housing," said Kelley. She started in the Housing program in May, and has already secured housing for five patients, with four more in progress. This impacts every area of a patient's life, from nutrition to medication adherence to their physical safety.

Kelley gets a great deal of satisfaction from seeing our patients happy, safe and feeling supported. "This is a fresh start for these individuals," she said. "We (Evergreen, Erie County and landlords) believe they can be successful when their housing needs are met. Helping patients to connect with their community in a positive way and make the personal changes to help them succeed in their recovery is very satisfying."

As with many marginalized communities, individuals who suffer with SUD face a great deal of stigma. "A lot of landlords don’t want to rent to individuals in recovery or work with programs such as Evergreen's SUDTH because of these strong societal stigmas," noted Kelley. "It’s my hope, goal and job to help the landlords look past the stigma and see a person for their strengths

and positive qualities as a human being, not a disease."

Kelley is relatively new to Evergreen, but she has strong opinions about our culture and her coworkers. "I've been working here almost four months," she said. "It's been a joy to come to work. Everyone here is fighting for the same thing, and that’s helping individuals from all walks of life get the positive support and help they need without judgement or bias. It's refreshing to work for an agency that sees people for who they are and tries to provide them with the help they need."

Born and raised in East Aurora, Kelley graduated from high school in 2004. "Right away I joined the United States Navy and spent four years on the USS Ronald Reagan," she said. "I travelled the world, met a lot of great people and saw a lot of amazing things. However, my mind was always on being a social worker, so I got out (despite my Senior Chiefs pleas for me to stay).

From there, I moved to St. Louis, Missouri for a year and began my education to become a social worker. I moved back to Buffalo in 2010."

During school, Kelley interned with Horizon Health Services and joined their full-time staff after graduation. She was a recovery coach for more than five years. "Then I decided it was time for a change," recalled Kelley. "I heard a lot of wonderful things about Evergreen Health, and I wanted a new experience overall. I wanted to help those in recovery another way, and I thought housing would be a good place to start. I knew housing was difficult for people to find, especially those in recovery."

Kelley said she doesn't have much of a social life, but there's a good reason. "I'm currently in my final year of my MSW at UB. When I do have some free time, I like to fish, go to concerts, take walks and explore the world around me. I've been married for over nine years, and have three cats and a dog."

Thank you for letting us get to know you, Kelley. We're so glad you're part of Team Evergreen!

As a reminder, for the rest of the season, wear your workappropriate Bills apparel on the day of the game. If the Bills play on a weekend, we'll be showing our team spirit on the Friday before the game. Here is the schedule:

Friday, October 7

Friday, October 14 Friday, October 28 Friday, November 4

Friday, November 11 Friday, November 18 Wednesday, November 23 Thursday, December 1 Friday, December 9 Friday, December 23 Monday, January 2

Staff got a sneak preview of Evergreen's new Unconditional marketing campaign at the Huddle, complete with tote bags for everyone. Now we've officially launched the first phase of the campaign. It's out there for all the world to see!

The first phase includes:

- Blink banner and email signatures

- Website (including a new video on the homepage)

Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles

Digital signs in our building lobbies and waiting areas (this will happen gradually) Mission, vision and values document (on Blink and hard copies as well)

In addition, you'll now begin to see our Unconditional campaign in social media ads, billboards, transit shelters and even a TV commercial! This is the first commercial that we’ve ever done. It includes some familiar faces and voices. Click HERE to watch the video, and feel free to share it on your social networks.

This is only the first phase. There's much more to come! Stay tuned for details as we continue the process of rolling out our new brand, and turn the page to see more images from the campaign. >>

The Human Resources team did some teambuilding with a catamaran ride on Lake Erie. Thank you Melissa Delgado for these great photos!

CARING

It's What We Do.

That's the theme for National Case Management Week (NCMW), October 9-15, 2022. NCMW is an opportunity to recognize and appreciate case management and transitions of care professionals across the country. Evergreen joins the American Case Management Association in saluting the dedication, compassion and patient care outcomes achieved by our Care Coordination team. Healthcare professionals have been, and continue to be, challenged by a multitude of obstacles. With each new challenge we've heard countless stories of care coordinators stepping up, not back, to positively impact patients across the care continuum. Thank you for your efforts, your expertise, your dedication and compassion! A

Mark your calendar! The submission

deadline for the November 2022 issue of Connections is October 21.

Be sure to get your content in before the deadline to guarantee placement. Kids, pets, vacations, recipes we want to share it all with Team Evergreen! Email EvergreenConnections via Outlook.

Norma Bocanegra

October 1

De Juan Burnell October 1

William Dimmig October 1

Maygen Mancini October 2

Kathleen Creenan. October 3

Lauren Voelkle

October 3

Kaysha Cruz October 3

Cortney Anderson October 4

Stephanie Green October 4

Angelica Gonzalez October 5

Sarah Ferns

October 5

Meghan Murphy October 7

Kandice Hood October 9

Christina Mihalitsas October 9

Eric Moeller October 10

Courtney Rhines

October 11

Jean Conway October 11

Bianca Morris October 12

Joelle Hochulski October 12

Paris Canty October 13

Christina Cornell

October 14

Stephani Miranda October 14

LaTanya Washington October 14

Jennifer Yiengst October 14

Wolfgar Lobo October 15

Krystal Kwasniewski

October 15

Sean Medina October 16

Andrea Keogh October 17

Sarah Shipston October 17

Erikka Hill October 18

Dawn Trotter........................................... October 20

Pat Sandora-Nastyn October 21

Nicole Coonly October 21

Kayleen O'Halloran October 22

Seara Shams. October 23

Lilkizzy Tell

October 24

Teresa October 26

Kristina Sykes October 27

Kelly Chase October 27

Mistine Keis October 27

Jillian Dagastino

October 28

Heather Lapier October 28

Collin Ranney October 29

Hannah Smith October 30

Juliana Chris

1 Year

Christine Collins 1 Year

Myron Rogers 1 Year

Michaela Brown 1 Year

Heather Munro 1 Year

Ann Reimer 1 Year

Lakisha Montgomery 1 Year

Andrea Keogh

Health Equity Index Trainings

For the past few years, Evergreen has received the designation as Health Equality Leader for our work providing LGBT culturally competent healthcare in the areas of medical, supportive and behavioral health services. In order to continue to receive this designation, we are required to meet training requirements. That's where we need your help! We are required to complete 25 hours of training as an organization. If you have time over the next few weeks, please complete one of the training webinars. To get started follow these steps:

Click HERE

Create an account if you do not already have one. Use the following information when creating your profile:

Facility ID: 65002 | Security Code: HRC

Annual Trainings

Annual trainings are now available on Evergreen University. These trainings will take about 2 hours to complete.

Please contact the Training and Development team with any questions.

1 Year

Laraine Wende 1 Year

Shauntal Fulgham

1 Year

Linda Schmidt 1 Year

Melissa Rothenbueger 1 Year

Jillian Ortwein 1 Year

Maygen Mancini 1 Year

Tiffany Collins 1 Year

Ann Marie Didio-Harbin 1 Year

Jennifer Sander

1 Year

Lydia Ruiz 1 Year

Damaris Medina

1 Year

Shelby Maberry 1 Year

Mistine Keis 1 Year

Nicole Dommer 2 Years

Christopher Patti 3 Years

Collin Ranney 3 Years

Megan Brady 3 Years

Melissa Tice

3 Years

Christine Kemp 4 Years

Jillian Dagastino 5 Years

Kyle Switzer 6 Years

Alex Marranca 6 Years

Robert Moore 6 Years

Mark Wolf 6 Years

Julie Rapp

6 Years

Michael Ludwick 6 Years

Erin Drag

6 Years

Veronica Velazquez 7 Years

Maria Cruz 7 Years

Ian Eastman 7 Years

Mindi Levine 8 Years

Laurie Abbatessa 9 Years

Sheila Marcheson 14 Years

Your valuable feedback is needed! The Information Systems (IS) team is working to expand and mature our data engagement body of knowledge and develop tailored learning pathways to meet everyone’s needs in order to strengthen our skills in reading, working with, analyzing and communicating with data.

To help IS determine and gauge interest in trainings they should develop, please take some time and provide your experience, thoughts and feedback in the Data Engagement and Knowledge Survey.

If learning more and expanding your and your teams’ skills isn’t incentive enough, when you provide your name at the end of the survey (all information will be kept confidential), you will be entered to win 1 of 3 $10 gift cards!

Thank you for your time and feedback! The IS team will be sharing updates on survey results and their future data engagement plans and strategies.

Publisher/Layout

John Carocci

Copy Editor Marketing Team Contributors

Megan Fagyas Melissa Delgado Matthew Iwanski-Jackson

Connections is the monthly newsletter for employees and board members of Evergreen Health and its affilliates, the Pride Center of Western New York and Community Access Services. You can submit photos, comments or a "hello" via Outlook at Evergreen Connections.

Click HERE to take the Data Engagement and Knowledge Survey.

Evergreen Health Foundation held its annual Donor and Volunteer Appreciation Event at the Commons on August 31 to honor and thank the people who support our mission all year round.

Leadership at Community Access Services is dedicated to fostering an environment that acknowledges hard work. Each quarter, an employee who has exhibited a commitment to achieving the essential functions of their role, provides satisfactory customer service and contributes to the efficient functioning of the team is named the CAS Champion. The fourth quarter's CAS Champion is Emmanuel Hudson. Emmanuel is the community linkage specialist under the Criminal Justice Initiative at CAS. His role consists of providing linkage and navigation services to incarcerated individuals living with HIV and their community partners. As a community linkage specialist, Emmanuel provides services to seven correctional facilities in the New York State Department of Corrections WENDE Hub as well as the Buffalo-Niagara Metropolitan area, which is comprised of Erie, Niagara, Allegheny, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. Covering such a large territory can be challenging, however Emmanuel has never wavered in his commitment to ensure accessibility of services for his clients. Emmanuel has been a champion for all of the clients that he has served, advocating for necessary services, benefits and opportunities to lead a healthy life post-incarceration. He has been instrumental in forming necessary relationships with medical, behavioral health and supportive service providers both internally and externally. Emmanuel’s clients share that they appreciate working with him and know that he is there to ensure that they get the support that they need while incarcerated and after their release. In addition to his role as community linkage specialist, Emmanuel can be counted on to lend a helping hand around the office and support the needs of his peers. CAS and the CJI team thank you for your support and dedication to the overall CAS mission.

The Pride Center's annual Trans Wellness Conference returned live for 2022 on September 24. The daylong event, held at the Embassy Suites hotel, featured speakers, workshops and activities focused on the health of transgender, nonbinary and gender non-conforming youth and adults in Western New York.