JCGF Ambassador PALS Sheila Williams

Over the last two years, I have been fortunate to share a wonderful volunteer opportunity as a Village Connector Experience-Ambassador. As a representative of the Juanita C. Grant Foundation, serving in this role has lived up to the standards of fulfilling the mission of the organization.

My role as an Ambassador to the three clients being serviced has presented an opportunity to assist those seeking out caring individuals with listening, compassion and other valuable skills to hear their stories of loneliness, hardship, lost, grief, personal crisis, etc. The volunteers provide the services they seek providing care, resources and professional skills and the satisfaction requirement which the program encourages us all that we are doing the right thing to support our clients. 

The women I happily serve have grown and made remarkable changes in their lives and still look forward to the weekly calls. If I miss a call, they are quick to check on me. The dutiful commitment to checking on them weekly has turned into something more than Ambassador and client. All of them consider our relationship as “a friendship”, that has grown continuously and we all seem to be a special part of each other’s lives as we chat weekly about what’s happening within our surroundings. There is a lot of positive energy, fascinating weekly stories, daily activities, shared family relations, outside events and general life experiences shared regularly. The conversations go on anywhere from five minutes to 45 minutes. All of them (including me) look forward to the calls.

It’s been a wonderful life changing experience for all of us and I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to be a glitter of encouragement to the women who have sought out the Juanita C. Grant Foundation. They have embraced this service and it has served all of us very well. We have been empowered by each other and will continue to move forward as long as they want to continue. It will be hard to end these sessions because they are friends now and we share a greater bond than just talking, it has become something very special that none of us expected.

Providing this wonderful service to individuals seeking assistance has been rewarding especially during the pandemic. Although the country is getting back to some normalcy this program has made such a difference to the clients’ we serve that caring and sharing with each other during a crisis has been proven to be just what was needed. Thank you to all that serve in these roles.