Elisa Cartwright
Welcome Baby Visit Coordinator & Family Support Worker, New Parent Services & Families First
written by Julie Ryan, Supervisor and Karen Enns, Program Director
The August 2011 Employee of the Month is a woman who has the amazing skill of making people feel safe and relaxed enough to share information about their lives before they even realize that they have just told her some of the most personal things about themselves! Within Families First and New Parent Services, this skill is extremely necessary to set people at ease to allow us to deliver services.
Our August Employee of the Month is the one and only…Elisa Cartwright! Elisa has been with us almost 5 years, and has served as a Home Visitor, Welcome Baby Coordinator, Parenting Education Assistant, Safety Committee member, and Transition Team member.
She is kind, helpful, encouraging, trustworthy, safe, hardworking, and just downright funny! Elisa gives 110%. She is the picture of a team player, doing extra work to get things done while making it fun for everyone.
As her Supervisor, I can trust that if something needs to be done, Elisa will chime in with an idea of how to get it done and take on a role in completing it. Here is an example: I've wanted to build a better connection between Families First and The Dalles Public Library. After I made numerous unsuccessful attempts at communication, Elisa was able to make contact and arrange for a special family event at the library, including story, art, song, and snack time – all while building a relationship with this important community partner.
Our Healthy Start work is a credentialed program requiring us to meet benchmarks and quality standards. As our Welcome Baby Coordinator, Elisa continually lifts our program well above average state levels. She works diligently to build connections with the many different doctors and social service providers in the Gorge, encouraging them to refer all first-birth families. Her success in creating and maintaining this network has resulted in many referrals, and in addition, our Wasco County Home Visiting Network is now held up as a model for the state.
The most valuable of all her qualities is Elisa’s care for the people she works with. She truly listens to what families have to say, then makes every effort to support them in reaching their goals, reducing stress, and equipping them to be the best parents they can be, with love and respect for their child. In fact, she has had a 100% family retention rate this year! As you read in one of Janet’s recent emails, even after families leave the program, they still come around to share life’s highlights with her. Thank you, Elisa, for being the person you are and the difference you make every day in our lives!!!
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We are very happy to present to you our very own Elisa Cartwright, Employee of the Month for January 2010! Elisa is the “Welcome Baby Visit” Coordinator for our three-county Healthy Start program, and she is also a home visitor in both Wasco and Hood River counties.
Elisa has a wonderful attitude of “can do” that she has exhibited throughout her employment with NDI. She has been asked to take on new and challenging jobs and to be flexible about both location and duties. She works particularly hard to build and improve connections with community partners.
When we were asked to increase the number of Welcome Baby Visits in Hood River County, Elisa started attending the evening childbirth classes at Providence. Elisa has also motivated community partners to increase referrals by facilitating a Dutch Brothers coffee dollars donation, offering coffee rewards to partners for each referral. Elisa hand delivers those coupons each month.
Elisa has recently felt a particular passion for teen mothers in both The Dalles and Hood River communities and has made contact with school and health department officials to see how New Parent Services and Families First can fill in the gaps. We know it is an effort that will make a huge impact on both communities. This kind of creative initiative is a wonderful attribute of hers.
If driving back and forth and between and all over two counties to “get the job done” isn’t enough, Elisa just took on being part of the Safety Committee to help ensure that at NDI we have the safest working environments possible.
Lastly, one of Elisa’s greatest contributions to NDI is her wonderful sense of humor that lights up any difficult, awkward or already fun situation! She keeps us all in the right frame of mind: “Everything is going to be fine.”
Congratulations, Elisa!
Elisa wrote this poem to express her hopes and experience, helping families learn new parenting skills:
The Gift
by Elisa Cartwright
A fragile babe is born today
Hopeful parents light the way.
Building skills with education and praise
Helping families through the maze.
I watch amazed as strong families appear
And to think all I did was support and cheer.
What a precious gift for me to show
It’s love that makes their children grow.