Providing Excellent Service to Residents
We’re periodically featuring the hardworking staff members who provide excellent service to residents and exemplify NYCHA’s core values. In this installment, meet Sarah Figuereo, Community Coordinator in the Family Partnerships Department, who’s been with NYCHA for six years:
“I am responsible for screening and visiting the homes of residents who want their loved ones to reside with them as part of the NYCHA Family Re-entry Program. NYCHA has reunited 151 families so far, finding unprecedented success with the program. I’m also responsible for the emergency NYC Human Resources Administration furniture grant, which connects families to emergency furniture in their most desperate time of need.
“The most meaningful part of my job is when a Family Re-entry Program participant calls me to say, ‘Thank you for allowing me to return home. Without your support or guidance, I would be in a shelter, on the streets, or back in prison.’
“My bond with the families I assist starts with the first phone call to them. If the family is having any difficulties with rent arrears, child care, home care, etc., I connect them with my Family Partnerships colleagues. We also connect them to REES for employment, financial literacy, and education services. Helping a family become stable and being able to reunite them with a loved one coming back home is the most gratifying feeling.
“I get phone calls, texts, emails, and even personal visits from our participants or their families thanking us for allowing them to return home. They show us certificates of completion from various programs, High School Equivalency diplomas, paystubs from their first job after coming home, and pictures of their first holidays back home. They tell us how this would not be possible without the NYCHA Family Re-entry Program.
“I’d also like to say that my co-workers are truly amazing, and I am blessed to work with this team every day!”
