Jill interview

Hey!

Vianey C.

West Valley's one and only....

Jill hendricks

From Ram Landing

EHEHE

Ram Landing

What's Ram landing? Ram Landing is a small orginzation located here in the West Valley Innovation Center that helps the homless, here in West Valley. It helps people in need from the smallest things like clothes, to even finding a new home.

YAY!

Now, lets find out what got her into the role of helping others, what inspired her and more!

Meet Our interviewee

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Being one of the kindest and most caring person you will ever meet, jill took on the role of helping the homless of West Valley. At first it was going to be somthing small where people could go donate to the ones in need, but it turned into somthing great that helps over 30 different familys, every week!

Jill Hendricks

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So, They’re limited to the little 8-cent grocery bags, they can fill up an 8-cent grocery bag for each person in their family, so I guess that's kind of a limit. I do also limit coats, they can only have one per person, they can only have one pair of shoes per family member, so if there's 5 family members they can each have one. So coats, shoes limited, 8-cent bag full, 1 blanket so that's kind of a limit, other than that no.

Is there a limit to what you offer to the people who come?

So I try to keep a super great attitude because the people that come into this room usually have a lot of sadness, or one sad thing is going on, so it doesn’t happen very often. People are usually pretty nice to me because I have a lot of things they need and want, so I haven't really run into many people who are rude to me, I'm pretty lucky.

Have you ever encountered a dilemma (Rude people,ect.) at work? If so, how did you handle it?

To Help Families of the West Valley Community.

Why do you complete these responsibilities? What's the main Purpose?

My main responsibility is to remove barriers for families. That means things they can’t afford on their own, like clothing, food, and those kinds of things so they can pay their rent, electricity and those kinds of things to keep them in their house. So getting them the things that they need is my main responsibility.

What are the main responsibilities associated with your job?

I work with the school, definitely. I’m hired by the school, I work with the school, i have to follow the school rules. Like I can't take money, I can't give away car seats or anything that has to do with any kind of safety issues. So I definitely have to follow the school rules and I also have to follow the school schedule too.

Do you work for the school, or do you just use the building?

Jill: So I saw a need for the homeless people of West Valley, and at first i was just going to put Ram Landing in a storage unit, try to rent out a storage unit for a cheap price and then just have people bring stuff and them families could go there, but then an opening for a room at the Innovation center opened up. So I asked for it and went in front of the school board and I cut a petition for it and told them what we could do and what was possible, and it just lucked out that there was a room. So the first year I was in a room That was more in the middle of the building, and then they moved me, and now I have my own outside doors because I have like 20-30 families that come a week. So it's a lot of in and out, and a lot of clothes coming in and out so i have my own door now. So I pretty much created my own job, there's nobody else who really has a job like this, and that gives to the whole family. Some schools have it where they just have it in their high school and just give it to their highschool students, but at Ram Landing we help everyone.

What got you involved in the role of helping people with Ram Landing, or How did you create it?

What is your job?

Interview 1/4

Jill: My job is to work with the homeless of the west valley. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are in a motorhome or tent, it can mean that or they can just be doubled up. It is my job to help the 110 kids in the west valley that are homeless, they are my number 1 job. My priority is to make sure that they have the things they need; the clothing and the food

Once in a while I get a feeling like that, but I’m really lucky because I've decided not to let that bother me, and I just serve them like I would anybody else. Usually they don't end up coming back, so I'm super friendly, and I give them more than they probably expected and talk about families that need it. So I'm probably overly gracious just in case they need it.

If they take too much, normally that's not a big problem because we have so much, and they're pretty respectful, most people are very respectful, but sometimes i'll sometimes move them out of the room and ill like say “ Okay i guess it’s time to go,” and move them along, but in a nice way

Vroom

What if you or Have you encountered a person who doesn’t really need the things you provide for them and are “Faking” It? What would you/ or have you done?

What if someone takes too much or too little? What would you do in that situation?

Interview 2/4

With Jill

How do you communicate with a person who doesn’t speak the same language as you?

So I have people that I can call, like a guy called michael. He is our dual language person for the west valley. Although if he isn't available there are a couple other options like sometimes when he's not available I use a translating app, that's worked really great. When they come back the second time after we used the translating app, they have an idea of what to do and not do, and if they have any questions we just use the app.

They message me either on my cell phone or through ram landing and just ask if they can help, or how they can help. I get that all the time, like “ What kind of drive do you need, do you need a food drive, hygiene drive” you know, they’re asking me what i need like clothing or coat drive, a sock drive, ect. We’ve done them all. And it also depends on what it is like right now. We could use a coat drive, and I just tell them and they make it happen.

How do others who aren't in a business or in a big organization get personally involved with you to help out with Ram landing?

: I feel like I have a couple ways to do this. One is my facebook. I have a Ram landing facebook and I put it out there and just word of mouth and people will share it and then a lot of times people just send me a message. Like Catholic Charities, and I just got a message and I got together with Marsel, and now every two weeks she comes and gets a bunch of baby clothes, cause I don't really do a lot with newborn clothes and they do. Word to mouth I'm going to say is the main part of the resources that i have, Treetop, i called them, and now we have a thing going on where they give us food. Northwest Harvest I approached them, and now they give us food, and I love networking with resources to help lots of families. So I’m always on the lookout.

How do you get other companies to get involved with Ram Landing, to help with donations and other resources?

I feel like I do that every single day. So an example today, we got thousands of pieces of food dumped on us today. So we collaborated, there were probably 4 of us in there and we had some of the students from the school also come in and help us put it away. It was a big job and we collaborate on a daily basis to get things done. Ram landing takes 3-5 volunteers a day to keep things organized.

Can you provide an example of a time you had to collaborate with others to solve a problem at work?

Interview 3/4

So how I normally help them is that I get someone who has a need and I start researching, like I know Yakima neighboring connections is a great one so I send a lot of people there for housing situations, and I just found that from searching “ how to find housing in Yakima.”. So research, sometimes people will come in and tell me about a resource, and a lot of times it's the people who come in that tell me “ this helped mor find a house,” or “ Hey, this helped me find a job” and i just wright it down and research it. So basically word-to mouth or just me researching.

You mentioned you helped people in various situations like housing, ect. How do you find those organizations to help that person or family, and how do you make sure it actually helps them?

Sometimes people have really sad stories, right? And I’m going to say sensors like they need housing, and sometimes there's not a lot that I can do about that and that really makes me sad, so I dislike that. I wish we could have more housing for people that are homeless, more housing that is inexpensive and more affordable to them because we don’t and that makes me sad when people have to live in inadequate housing.

What is a thing you dislike about your work?

Helping others. I love to get hugs and smiles when people really get what they need.

what do you enjoy most about your work?

Interview 4/4

I got a lot of amazing responses from Jill, like her responsibilities in her job. Jill stated that her main responsibilities for her job include removing barriers for families. What does that exactly mean though? This means helping families with things that they can’t afford on their own. This includes food, clothing and those kinds of needs so they can afford to pay their bills like rent and electricity to keep them in their house. So in short, getting families of the West Valley community is her main goal. Although there are limits to certain items at Ram Landing like “So a coats, a pair of shoes, 8-cent bag full, are limited to one per family member, and 1 blanket so that's kind of a limit, other than that no,” as Jill says, but this is because they only have so much. At Ram Landing she never tries to limit things, unless when there's a shortage in various recourse/or product.s She always tries to help out in the most possible ways she can, if it bills like electricity, rent, ect. Or even finding housing options, she can even find you a fridge if you really need one. Jill, as she says “ I love networking with resources to help lots of families.” She posts on facebook what items Ram Landing needs or If a family needs a certain item she posts about it to see if anyone has one to spare. On her Facebook she usually has businesses contact her about how they can collaborate to help the West Valley Families with various resources, or someone personally messages her to see what they can do to also help out. Other times she just contacts other companies like Treetop or Northwest Harvest, and then they make arrangements for them to contribute to help Ram Landing Why did she choose to complete these responsibilities, what is the main purpose to why she chose to complete them? In short, Jill wanted to help families of the west valley community. She saw a need for the homeless people, here and in the West Valley, and wanted to try and help them. At first she was going to make it a small thing people could donate to, but it ended up being a huge thing that helps families everyday, here at West Valley.

During This interview with Jill, from Ram landing here at the Innovation Center, I learned a lot about what Ram Landing is, how it helps our family here in the West Valley, why she does what she does and a lot more. It’s very interesting how she organized ram landing and how it became what it is today.

Reflection

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In summary it's very amazing how Jill made it her goal to help the people in need here in the west valley. From simple items like food or clothing to even helping them find cheaper housing options, she helps people out with any kind of situation everyday. It saddens Jill the many sad situations people have to go through, but she tries her best to help out in any way possible. Always keeping a positive attitude, Jill loves to receive all the hugs and smiles of people getting the things in need everyday.

End of Reflection

Jill interview