Karen White, Cobble Hill Health Center’s director of volunteers, was the recipient of the Worksite Supervisor of the Year Award from the Department for the Aging’s Intergenerational Work Study Program.
Hundreds of guests attended the gala luncheon at New York University (NYU), Four Washington Place when White received the award.
White was chosen for this honor because of her dedication to the high school students she supervises as well as her meticulous record keeping and on-time document submission. She has been Cobble Hill’s Director of Volunteers since 2003 and has successfully expanded the general volunteer program to include 135 teenagers and 60 adults throughout the year.
White is now embarking on a new outreach to the community program to increase the number of volunteers who serve Cobble Hill residents.
The Intergenerational Work Study Program (IWSP) is one of Cobble Hill’s most successful volunteer programs with 40 students participating. The program requires a detailed quarterly report and accurate time sheets submitted to the Department for the Aging so students can receive the high school credits they are working to earn.
The purpose of the IWSP program is to integrate academic study with work experience for high school students who want to earn credits to graduate. The students deliver needed services to older people in senior centers, nursing homes and home care settings while drawing on the skills of senior citizens in all settings as mentors. In exchange, students need not attend the classes necessary for graduation that they have failed.
“I’d rather be out here, helping the old people and the nurses than sitting in class all day learning math — a subject I hate,” said one 16-year-old in the program.
Students are strictly supervised by Cobble Hill personnel as they help transport the elderly in wheelchairs to therapy sessions, help at mealtimes, change linen and generally act as assistants to the nursing assistants.
“I like the way I can sit and talk to the older people when they are eating their meals,” said one volunteer. “It’s a very good feeling knowing I’m doing something so useful.”
The choice of White as the Worksite Supervisor of the Year was, in a sense, the culmination of many years of struggle. She came to Cobble Hill in 1998, as a newly divorced mother with four young children. Part of the WEP (Welfare to Work) Program, White chose to work as a volunteer at Cobble Hill because of her strong feeling of attachment to the elderly.
“I was the oldest of seven, but I was the only one brought up by my grandmother,” she says. “She instilled a strong work ethic in me and taught me to behave like a lady. I wanted to give something back to the older people who still have a lot to offer the younger generation despite their age and infirmity.”
Several years before the end of her grandmother’s life, White brought her to Cobble Hill, where she passed away in 2003.
White married her childhood sweetheart right after finishing Clara Barton High School, 901 Classon Avenue. Her husband joined the army and, after being married for 12 years, moved out, leaving her with four children to raise and support.
On welfare, White wanted to give her children a better childhood than she had experienced. A friend suggested she join the WEP program which gave her the option of working at Cobble Hill. “As soon as I got here, I knew this was where I belonged. I was all over the place, upstairs on the units, downstairs helping in the dining room; wherever I could find something to do I was there,” said White.
Eventually, she became the assistant director of volunteers and, five years ago, the director.
Her children are almost all grown, with one son in college; one works with children who have cerebral palsy; one daughter works for an attorney; and her daughter Ebony, started out as a volunteer and works as the assistant to the director of nursing at Cobble Hill.
The best part of her job, says White, is being able to talk to the teens she supervises and encouraging them to go to college and secure their future.
“Working with people; helping people. That’s what I really like about this job,” says White. “I’m proud of this recognition and hope to continue to live up to the trust placed in me by Cobble Hill and the Department for the Aging.”
The Cobble Hill Health Center is located at 380 Henry Street.
