Phoenix Residence Recognizes August Employees of the Month

The Phoenix Residence would like to recognize Lizzy Anderson from Douglas House, Michelle Tinsely from Howard House, and Catherine Sobota from Ludden House as the August Employees of the Month!

Lizzy Anderson has been working at Douglas House since it opened - she is one of our most senior staff.  When the individuals come to the door to load their busses, it is apparent which two worked with Lizzy that day. They are put together with a neat and dignified appearance.

She completes every part of her job and takes great pride in the quality of her work. Lizzy has a keen eye for medical issues especially skin integrity that others may have missed. She has also been an excellent trainer and brings up concerns to her co-workers which at times has put her in uncomfortable situations. Still she shows up every day, year-after-year to see the guys and Karen off to their day program.

 It is apparent that Liz has an emotional investment to the individuals at Douglas House and they know that she is someone they can count on. Congratulations Lizzy!

I would like to nominate Michelle Tinsley for the employee of the month for many reasons! When Michelle accepted the position as House Supervisor at Howard House, she jumped right in and got right to work. She makes sure individuals are out in the community doing activities of their choice, ordered supplies for the house, and made sure all dinner times were family-style, with each individual involved in meal time. 

Michelle’s willingness to help out her co-workers when they need it is much appreciated! She is always willing to come in at the last moment and willing to change her schedule to fit the needs of the house. 

Michelle knows the individuals at Howard House very well and she is an outstanding advocate. We are truly blessed to have Michelle as our House Supervisor at Howard. Congratulations Michelle!

From the day Catherine Sobota started, I knew she would be a great addition to the Ludden/Phoenix family.  She comes in every day and says hello to everyone who is home and asks how their day was.  She takes the time to see what everyone wants to do and is open to helping others and listens to what everyone has to say.  She doesn’t decide for the individual’s what they are going to do, she finds out what everyone wants to do and then figures out times to get to the activity, according to the individual’s time.  Catherine has also bought little trinkets for each person along with board games that she knows the individuals will enjoy. 

Catherine took it upon herself to oversee the Ludden garden this summer with starting most plants by seed.  Every day she helped them water the plants and talked about how things were growing.  When they were first planning the garden, she walked down the road with some of the guys where flowers were being sold. She then purchased and donated the plants the individuals had picked out. She started the task from a list they made with seeds or potted plants, resulting in a beautiful garden. She also purchased a special nozzle for the hoze that would spray a light mist so even if it rained, they could still water the plants.  

Once the strawberries were ripe enough, each person got to try some, even Lynne who is NPO.  Catherine mashed up the strawberries and put it on Lynne’s lips like lip gloss so Lynne could taste her hard work she spent in the garden. She smashed some up for Joanna and put it on yogurt for a healthy snack.  

We now have a fish tank at Ludden and Catherine helped everyone name one fish each and then they came up with a feeding schedule so they all could help with the feeding. Currently every night they are reading out of a book with Catherine after supper.

Not only does she assure the individuals at Ludden are active daily with activities they want to do, she assures when they are ill and not able to be at home she goes to visit them in the hospital. Catherine also has helped out the house by picking up open shifts and has come in on short notice to assure the individual’s needs could be met and outings could still happen as planned.

Thank you Catherine for everything you do!