2. Guest Speaker Jasmine Clark, Optimism Place 35th year of providing service to women and children in Perth County Jasmine started at OP as a student in 2010 in the third year of her undergraduate program The shelter provides services across Perth County on an outreach basis as well. There is a children’s worker, a family court support program, transition and outreach counselling The Residential Program runs 24/7 Jasmine’s role is to manage all of the Shelter’s Operations. Makes sure that the Shelter’s vision is operationalized After graduating, Jasmine stayed connected with the ED of the shelter, would volunteer, help with groups, do grant writing, etc. to stay involved. Eventually, she moved into a counselling role. Jasmine took lots of opportunities so she moved to several different jobs. She wanted to be outside her comfort zone. She then went and worked at the Huron Women’s Shelter in Goderich and eventually moved into a management role. *Mentors *Opportunity *Hard Work *A bit of luck She managed people twice her age and had to navigate how to effectively do this. The key was to do what she said she was going to do. Integrity –And meeting with staff people and truly hearing what they had to say. The ED there left and Jasmine moved into that role in an interim basis. She did this for 3 months and then the opportunity came up in Stratford. There was a 2 month Transition period and she has now been solo in the role for 4 months. The most important aspect of a human services organization is the people doing the work. It is crucial to take care of the people doing the work. Jasmine tries to be very hands on and tries to figure out what her staff needs to be resilient in the work Jasmine did her BSW in school. You aren’t taught to be an ED in a school program. You learn the skills from the people you look up to, your mentors, etc. Self Awareness is key The shelter has a lot of students come through. They currently have 5 young female students. Jasmine thinks it is so important for young people to be in leadership roles. Jasmine feels like her involvement in team sports and her supportive family were big influences on her. | 
