Credential

EDUCATIONAL DEGREES AND COURSES

Degree:    Political Science/Master of Arts from CUNY Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. 

Degree :    Hispanic Studies/Sociology/Bachelor of Arts CUNY Brooklyn College.

Other Education:      Over 250 Credits from the North Carolina Social Worker Learning Program

through UNC at Chapel Hill School of Social Work [2004 to 2010]

SKILLS

    • Expertise in working with special populations (mental health, substance abuse, etc.).

    • High level of computer expertise also was a programmer (Word, Excel, websites, etc.).   

    • Team builder and superb experience operating office equipment.

    • Bilingual:  English and Spanish conversant and literate on moderate level.     

VOLUNTEER AND EMPLOYMENT

12/2013 to Present     Universal House of Prayer of North Carolina

Minister and Outreach Ministry Worker

We call it The Center.  We help you get the services you need and access community based services and resources.  Sometimes it is just faxing or sending an email on your behalf or just information on the next step in a process.  Other times it is helping with applications like employment, disability, Medicaid, Food Stamps, hardship withdraws, and mental health and children’s advocacy. Educate, develop, support and link individuals and families to a network of community and government services for people, to include people with disabilities, based on best practices and develop community-based resources for information and referral. Continued forensic work.

Provide short-term crisis intervention and counseling and referrals to local community resources. Counsels on parent-child conflicts, martial and family issues, suicide, pregnancy, runaway youth, physical and sexual abuse, and other issues.

For this year, we will continue with advocacy and networking with religious/faith based organizations to help shed light on the problems and  issues and challenges facing our local communities, with the primary focus areas Eastern North Carolina. 

09/2016  to 12/2023 Lyft and Uber Driver  

Eastern North Carolina: I completed about three years full-time, and provided about 2000 rides at night doing this work.  As you should know, it is dealing with a very DIVERSE population. 80% of the rides are at night between the hours of 7PM and 7AM.  And yes, a significant portion of riders are under the influence of some type of substance.  The drives are to all parts in our surround counties in North Carolina.  It was helping people get to work at night, making sure people are not DWI and DUI.  It was rewarding for me but COVID collapsed much of the work.  In December 2023, I will stop working and registering for them.

 03/2007 - 01/2010  Durham County Social Services

Durham, North Carolina

Social Worker II, Foster Home Licensing

Latino Couples Group Facilitator

Crisis and Group Team member for CFT’s and Treatment Team Meetings for Children and Parents. Site visits for home inspections and compliance with NC State Foster Home Licensing  Standards. Licensing forms and paperwork review and submission to the state for home approval. Ensured ongoing  compliance with licensing standards for foster parents.

Collaborated with mental health and child and family teams to make sure children had the services they needed (tutoring, mental health therapy,  visitations, IEPs, and early intervention) and were appropriated assessed  with reference to their level of functioning and needs. 

Worked weekends and evenings as needed especially to assists with MAPP training for potential foster parents and set up rooms, provided food, and set up presentation equipment. 

Lateral transfer from part-time to full-time employment.

Group facilitation and presentation of Love’s Cradle curriculum for couples with newborns [while working part-time for NC Cooperative Extension and UNC School of Social Work from 03/2007 until 08/2008].

04/2008 – 06/2008 Visions of Hope, LLC

Raleigh, North Carolina

Qualified Professional (Mental Health Case Manager)

Supervised Para-Professionals and Associate Professionals while helping  consumers achieve and work on their case plan. That included assisting  PPs and APs with  writing their progress notes and guided them with service delivery for consumers for billable services.  Sought and received authorization for mental health and case planning services from Wake County Human Services and the LME.  All qualified professionals were independently contracted mental health case managers that acted also as social workers. Worked in conjunction with our licensed physicians. 

09/2007 – 10/2007 Triumph, LLC

Raleigh, North Carolina

Qualified Professional (Mental Health Case Manager)

Supervised Para-Professionals and Associate Professionals while helping consumers achieve and work on their case plan. That included assisting PPs and APs with  writing their progress notes and guided them with service delivery for consumers for billable services.  Sought and received authorization for mental health and case planning services from Wake County Human Services and the LME.  All qualified professionals were independently  contracted mental health case managers that acted also as social workers.  Worked in conjunction with our licensed physicians. 

07/2007 – 08/2007 A+ Absolute Care

Henderson, North Carolina

Qualified Professional (Mental Health Case Manager)

Supervised Para-Professionals and Associate Professionals while helping  consumers achieve and work on their case plan. That included assisting PPs and APs with  writing their progress notes and guided them with  service delivery for consumers for billable services.  Sought and received  authorization for mental health and case planning services from Wake  County Human Services and the LME.  All qualified professionals were  independently contracted mental health case managers that acted also as social workers.  Worked in conjunction with our licensed physicians. 

This position was a lead position in an attempt to establish a consumer base for the company. 

12/2006 – 07/2007 Therapeutic Strategies

Garner, North Carolina

Qualified Professional

Lead of the Hispanic Division (Mental Health Case Manager)

Supervised Para-Professionals and Associate Professionals while helping  consumers achieve and work on their case plan. That included assisting PPs and APs with  writing their progress notes and guided them with service delivery for consumers for billable services.  Sought and received authorization for mental health and case planning services from Wake County Human Services and the LME.  All qualified professionals were independently  contracted mental health case managers that acted also as social workers.  Worked in conjunction with our licensed physicians. 

This position was also a temporary lead position because the company needed to hire another QP Lead for the Hispanic Division. 

08/2006 – 03/2007 Empowered Counseling Services, LLC

Raleigh, North Carolina

Qualified Professional (Mental Health Case Manager)

Quality Assurance Committee Member

Supervised Para-Professionals and Associate Professionals while helping  consumers achieve and work on their case plan. That included assisting PPs and APs with  writing their progress notes and guided them with  service delivery for consumers for billable services.  Sought and received  authorization for mental health and case planning services from Wake  County Human Services and the LME.  All qualified professionals were independently  contracted mental health case managers that acted also as  social workers.  Worked in conjunction with our licensed physicians.

As a quality assurance committee member, we reviewed cases and services to ensure we were provided the best services for consumers while complying with state and federal policies.

 06/2006 – 01/2007 Blockbuster Video

Raleigh, North Carolina

Customer Service Representative

Retail sales, rental, and exchange person whom also assisted with stocking  and store maintenance.  A lot of cashier and front desk work. 

09/2006  Motel 6

Raleigh, North Carolina

Front Desk Reception

Registration and Check-In/Check-Out processing for guests. Payment processing and reconciliation of accounts.

07/2006 – 10/2006  ADA Independent Contractor  

Surveyor of commercial properties for compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Surveying includes pictures, measurements, and meeting with administrative staff of facilities to assess accessibility.  Drafted building reports for contracted companies. This was a sub-contract employment with the Alliance Center for Independent Living.

03/2002 - 11/2005 Wake County Government

Raleigh, North Carolina

Human Services Senior Practitioner for Child Placement Services  ITAP Unit (10/20/03-11/2005)

Case management services for families and individuals in foster care. Court appearances, home visits, visitations, home studies, safety assessments, risk assessments, strength and needs assessments, dictations,  court reports, field work and travel, information and referral services, and other like duties.  

Economic Self Sufficiency Case Manager (3/25/2002 – 7/31/2003):  determine eligibility for many State, Federal, and County programs inclusive of Family and Children’s Medicaid and Food Stamps.  Experience using Lotus Notes and County and State databases. North Carolina Department of Labor designee for signing work permits.  Medicaid billing and payment facilitation, sent notices of coverage periods to hospitals, provided Medicaid Identification information to providers, requested invoices and medical records, verified medical needs for program purposes, and a host of similar duties. 

Clinic Assistant (07/03 - 10/03):  triage incoming calls from parents of patients.  Schedule appointments, bill encounters, print labels, organize charts, requests medical records, interact and meet the needs of medical personnel inclusive of doctors and nurses, and patient registration using AS400.  Provided intake and reception coverage inclusive of greeting visitors and directing patients to appropriate clincs and services.      

8/2001 -  01/2004 Urban Ministries of Raleigh

Raleigh, North Carolina

Relief Worker (04/2001 to 01/2004 Harrington Place)

Monitor residents in a supportive transitional housing facility for safety and progress.  Assist in providing case management services, inclusive of daily living skills, symptom management, health services, community integration, rehabilitation counseling, medication management, and socialization. 

Clinic Assistant (9/03 to 10/03 at the Open Door Clinic)

Patient registration, setting appointments, financial eligibility assessments, interpret between patients and medical personnel, information and referral services, telephone patients to answer questions and provide information concerning lab results, compilation of statistics on patient visits using Excel to develop appropriate charts and tables.

Bilingual Intake Manager (8/1/2001 to 6/2002)

Ensured safety of homeless men at the South Wilmington Shelter for Men.  Interact with the mentally ill and homeless population. Intake duties including recording overnight guest names and statistics, interpreting materials for Spanish speaking guests, supervising the cleaning of the facilities by guests, serving meals, making rounds, and assisting case managers with random drug testing and other assigned duties.   

01/2001 – 06/2009 J N L Latina Distributors, Inc

Cary, North Carolina 

Office Manager

Database setup and maintenance for inventory, sales, accounts receivable and accounts payable.  Order tracking and direct customer support.  Supplies ordering for general office needs.  Uploading and downing information from database using Microsoft Access and Excel Applications.  Advertising and design duties inclusive of catalog preparations and sending information to press.  

11/98 - 01/2001  New Dimensions Family Center

Queens, New York

Mental Health and Family Case Manager/Administrative Assistant

Provided counseling to families and individuals in need of assistance.  On a daily basis met with MICA, domestic violence victims, abused children (Administration for Children Services), persons with HIV/AIDS,  psychiatric and mentally ill people, and people with various disabilities.  Data-entry of client list.  Setup and maintained all computer equipment--and repaired them when systems malfunction.  Requested information regarding grants and write proposals.  Provided information and referral services, and actively sought information to help educate clients about diseases and services available.  Made up flyers, forms, and brochures.   Wrote and edited typed case notes.  Intake and foster parent screening. Home visits for clients requiring them.  Taught parenting skills classes in Spanish for the child welfare cases.  

10/99 -  12/2001 Justice For All Social Services:  Christian Community Development

Corporation, Inc.

Brooklyn, New York

Director

Assisted individuals with dual diagnosis’ of Schizophrenia and Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers with daily living skills, symptom management, health services, community integration, rehabilitation counseling, medication management, and socialization. Supervised volunteers and employees. Trained community residents on computers using our  computer lab. Provided assistance to families involved in New York State Family Courts proceedings. Provided assistance to individuals involved in the New York State Criminal Courts proceedings. Advocacy for persons with physical, developmental, and learning disabilities. 

01/98 – 09/99   New York City Board of Education 

Brooklyn, New York

Preparatory Provisional Teacher/Occasional Per Diem Teacher

Taught at various high schools and junior high schools through out the New York City Metropolitan areas inclusive of the five boroughs  (Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, etc.). Taught a Dual Literacy Class (pilot project) at Harry Van Arsdale Jr. High School. Taught Social Studies at West Side High School. Substitute teacher at various schools.  Licensed for grades 7  through 12 in the subject area of social studies. Obtained Certificate of Child  Abuse Detection (State Mandated). Completed new teacher education program, and obtained special education credits to fulfill licensing requirements.

1998 Post Graduate Center for Mental Health

LaSalle Street Residence

New York, New York

Facility Manager and Mental Health Case Manager

Many of the duties are similar to the mental health case managers listed  aforementioned.  But this position included upper administration functions like facilities management and Medicaid Billing and Utilization Reviews of services being provided to the participants in this Supportive House multi apartment facility.  Provided oversight and supervision of other social workers and mental health case managers.

1997 Queens Independent Living Center

Supported Housing Social Worker

Provided mental health case manager for participants in their supported  housing program.  Duties included rapid response to consumer whom decompensated and summoned crisis teams to have participants evaluated  during mental health emergencies.  Community site visits to apartments housing participants.  Progress notes completion and making sure services meet billing guidelines.  Participated in discharge planning to return participants into the community.