Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith is the CEO of New River Community Action, a nonprofit serving the New River Valley through programs like Head Start, housing assistance, and food pantries. A Navy veteran and attorney who has worked with international nonprofits focused on breaking the cycle of poverty, Jennifer was named a 2025 Person of Distinction by the United Way of Southwest Virginia for her leadership and commitment to helping communities thrive.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey everyone, and welcome to Voices of Hope. I'm Ross Wilsie. And I'm Mike Wade. Each episode, we sit down to talk about what it means to live well, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and beyond.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

We'll look at how wellness shapes us as individuals, families, communities, and even the wider world around us.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Through real stories and honest conversations, we'll explore what hope looks like and how it grows, right here in the New River Valley. Thanks for joining us. This is Voices of Hope. Jennifer Smith is the CEO of New River Community Action, a nonprofit serving the New River Valley through programs like Head Start, Housing Assistance, and Food Pantries. A Navy veteran and attorney who has worked with international nonprofits focused on breaking the cycle of poverty, Jennifer was named a 2025 person of distinction by the United Way of Southwest Virginia for her leadership and commitment to helping communities thrive.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Well, Jennifer, welcome to the Voices of Hope podcast. We're so glad to have you with us today.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

I love that it's called Voices of Hope, and I hope that I am a Voice of Hope.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Well, you uh you certainly are, and we're glad to have you with us today. So we're going to jump right into the questions and uh get started with one that uh I think has kind of been a recurring issue for the 26 plus years that I've been around. So our agencies, probably for the most part, because they do have similar names, often get confused with one another. New River Valley Community Services, New River Community Action. So to help clear this up for our listeners, can you give us a brief overview of New River Community Action and some of the programs that your organization provides to the community?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Sure. Uh I think it's funny because not being from the area, people kept asking me if I was working for NRVCS when I first started, and I said yes. Even I got it confused. Um, but community action, first of all, 60-year history, uh, founded in 1967 with the Civil Rights Act uh signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. So that's pretty exceptional. And with that comes uh we we operate the Head Start program throughout the New River Valley. Also uh CHIP, which is a maternal and child health program. Housing, we run all of the housing programs, including the entire uh spectrum from the shelter to our house uh all the way to permanent supportive housing in partnership with NRVCS. Probably another reason we get confused. We collaborate a lot and to make sure we're not duplicating each other's services. But uh, you know, the Virginia Cares is our uh offender re-entry program. Uh we also run um food pantries in every jurisdiction. We uh the baby shop uh few for moms um for car seats and clothing. So I say that we're the safety net services for the New River Valley, and what we don't do, you do.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Yeah, yeah. I think that's a fair assessment.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

So, Jennifer, you've now been the executive director at community action for about two years at this point. Um if you wouldn't mind, tell us a little bit about your background and how you wound up here in the New River Valley.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I came, uh I grew up I hate to say in poverty because it we didn't feel like it. I grew up on a small farm in South Georgia. And uh as a farmer's daughter, we used a lot of services that comedian action provides growing up. I I left uh Georgia um in my teens and joined the military, the way a lot of people do, to get an education and see the world. And so proud veteran of the US Navy. And um, when I got out of the service, I uh came to Virginia. I was I was primarily stationed in San Diego, California. And another big base on the East Coast that was closer to my family is Norfolk, Virginia. And believe it or not, I I thought they would kind of be the same, San Diego and Norfolk. Um they're not. Uh but that's how I got to Virginia. I lived in Northern Virginia. My um ex-husband was also in the Navy and he got a job with a military contractor there. My daughter, Caitlin, was born in San Diego. Um, and she was diagnosed with autism when she was uh about three years old. And that journey really shaped my professional life, uh, being her mom. And, you know, it's one thing to um be determined and pull yourself up by your bootstraps until you just hit something that's too big for you and your family. And that's when I really realized that being part of the community, uh faith community, larger community, and is is what happens whenever you don't have your family, when it's just too big for your family, right? It's just too big for your family. And so I started working in a nonprofit uh in 2003 when I was in law school. Um, I I went to law school because of my daughter. Um, most people don't realize that you know there are a lot of programs that help people with disabilities in school and in the community, but there's also a lot of advocacy that parents have to do to actually access those programs. And right um, it it just uh I went to law school because navigating that system, and mainly it was insurance, um trying to get insurance coverage for for some of the everything from speech to oh my goodness. Um but anyway, I encountered in northern, I was just living in northern Virginia. It was just really difficult to find educational programs for her. She's on the profound end of the autism spectrum. And even when she was five and six years old, you know, people were pretty much telling us as parents that we should find a support group and like just recognize that she was going to end up in an institution. And um, and so I um my family started a school for kids with autism. That's how I got into the nonprofit arena uh with the Ark of Loudoun. The ARC is a national disability organization. We have it here too.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

And so uh that was the Aurora School, and Caitlin was its first student. And so that's how I got introduced to nonprofits as a as a as a help, as another source of support for the community. And with the ARC, uh, we've not only built the Aurora School, but a preschool that served children with and without disabilities, a a supportive employment program, and an advocacy center because I went to law school. Lawyers love to work with other lawyers, and we had an advocacy center that helped families have the support that I wished I had when Caitlin, you know, when I found out about Caitlin. So um I stayed with the Ark of Louden all the way until Caitlin graduated in 2017. And then her adult part in life meant that, you know, my I needed to take a different turn to. So I ended up in the NRV to get all the way back around to your question because um, you know, it's the kind of community that I want to live in is one where people care about each other, not just, you know, the people that we know and the people in our church, but like our whole community. And it's really hard to do, and I'm not saying they don't do it in northern Virginia, but it's much bigger. Like I was in Loudoun County, and there's 500,000 people just in Loudoun County. Most of them aren't from there, most of them work in DC. You know, it's just a whole different type of community. And so when I thought about like where Caitlin was going to live and where we were going to, what we wanted to be part of, I was looking for a smaller community um that that cares about each other. So when I got this interview with um community action and I came to visit, wow, like let's not love, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, yeah. I would agree.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So that's how we ended up here.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Wow, what a great story. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Definitely want to come back and talk a little bit more about um life and experiences with Caitlin a little later on in the interview. And also want to thank you, Jennifer, for your service to our country.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Um I do want to circle back though to um your role with community action and um just based on the programs that you're responsible for, your agency, where do you currently see the greatest needs or demands in our community?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

You know, it has to be with housing. Um, I I say that um that I think as a philosophy, most people agree that housing is the the primary need. If it's met, then any other problems are easier to address. And if it's not met, if you're unhoused, everything else is harder. So if you're looking for a job, if you're having trouble with childcare, like how do how do any of those compare to not being housed? And even the other services that we offer, like um, I think about 21% of the children in our Head Start program are unhoused. And, you know, that that struggle definitely shows up in the classroom, definitely shows up in our parent education. I mean, Head Start is far more than just preschool. Like we really are a support service for families with that, and we help with medical care and screenings and all of those things. And all of that is so much harder if they're not housed. And so, and it has just become a growing problem since 2020. And, you know, with prices going up and housing shortage and all the things that are contributing to that, uh, everything from well, right now we're facing record low temperatures for several weeks. Like we're looking at at it for several weeks, and like how how can you be unhoused in that scenario? And how do we work with each locality, which is such a challenge? Every locality is its own personality and its own strengths, and um, and they all have their different solutions. So, how do we work within a locality to make sure that everybody is taken care of in that very basic way? Um, and then because we, you know, we have crisis programs and then we have prevention programs, community action. So, you know, and they're like, you can't really teach someone to fish if they're drowning right now, right? You know, with that whole teach someone to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime kind of thing. So, you know, some of our programs are crisis intervention, like the food pantries and emergency assistance and rental assistance, like let's let's help you where you're at right now so that you're not drowning anymore. Um, and housing is the ultimate prevention program, truly. If we can keep people housed, then you can get on a path to breaking that cycle of being unstable or insecure. So that's housing is definitely it's just the hardest one too, though. It really is. There's a lot of factors that play.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah. I just want to revisit that data point that you shared. Was it 21% of students enrolled in Head Start are considered unhoused at this point?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, that is. Uh I mean, and it it fluctuates, but I think that's our last data point in December. 21%.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Wow. Staggering. Yes. Well You already mentioned uh you know rising costs, and we hear a lot about affordability being uh, you know, a word that is thrown around a lot these days. Um cost of living seems to be rising pretty steadily for just about everyone in in our country. So I'm curious to hear how that might be impacting the work you do.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

I think I think affordability uh it's it's you know it's a slippery term, right? Because it's it's relative. Because what is affordable for someone making$30,000 a year is not affordable for someone making$18,000 a year.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

And usually when we're talking about affordable housing, most people are talking about um, you know, uh firefighters, teachers, um, you know, people who may be just starting out. But that's a there's completely different kind of crisis for people who are our food service workers or even our childcare workers in, you know, making minimum wage, that's not$40,000 a year. The problem that we're seeing with the increasing cost of living with the work that we do is that because prices are going up and wages are not really keeping pace, or even if they are keeping pace, any one thing can throw them off their stability trajectory, right? And so, you know, we hear this often when people say they're making$40,000 a year. Like, why can't you keep your apartment with that? Well, hypothetically they are making that, but then he got hurt at work and he was out of work for six weeks. Three weeks of that it took for workers' comp or whatever to kick in. Three weeks of mispay meant he couldn't make his rent, meant that like all of the like this cascading effect.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Snowball, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah, yes. And so now we're not talking about somebody making 40,000 a year again, and like now if they're on the cusp of homelessness, and you know, most of the funds that we get have these caveats, like it can't be for back rent, it can't be, you know, and so like trying to find the help that people need in individual situations is probably the most, the biggest struggle that we have. Um, because we're not just talking about people, you know, vets with PTSD. Everybody thinks about that whenever you're thinking about a house population. That's not just who we're talking about anymore. We're talking about people who are working, working regularly, good jobs, but not sustainably um safe and stable if anything happens. And usually injuries, illness, and car repairs are some of the three big things. Um and it might not even be the worker's illness, it could be a child's illness or maybe their parent lives with them. And too many people are on the edge of crisis. Yeah. And it just doesn't take much. And that that's really where I think we see it, the rising numbers coming into play.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

I mean, life happens to all of us, right? Yes. And sooner or later we we all run into what seems to be a stroke of bad luck or misfortune or whatever. And sometimes those uh those situations can lead to uh a real spiral for folks, not necessarily because they've made bad decisions, but maybe bad things have just happened to them. I think it's important to keep that in perspective.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

And you know what? I mean, in fairness, uh sometimes sometimes we are a product of all our bad decisions, right? Sure. But at the right. Um, but at the same time, we have two kids. And because we blew our tax check instead of saving it, um now we're in a crisis and at the end of February, do our kids now not, are they not gonna eat because because of that bad decision? So that's where the prevention programs come in, right? Where we do talk about financial independence and smart money and that those kinds of things. But it's it's I think a I think most uh people who aren't impacted by it would love to think that it's people just doing the wrong thing or not working hard enough or and uh that's just not the case. Yeah. Most of the clearly.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Um tell us a little bit more about Caitlin. We'd love to hear more about her.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

You know, um it's hard to believe for me, but Caitlin's 30 years old now. Um, and it's hard to believe because I think I'm like 38, so I don't know what happened, but um but you know, um being Caitlin's mom changed my whole worldview, right? Um, in the way that any big life event can prevailingly impact you, right? But um, I was 25 when I had her. Uh I was in California, I was away from my family. I didn't know what normal child development really was. Whatever she was doing was normal for me. Right. Um the intervention that we received, uh, that she received at her preschool in California, because I was still uh a veteran and I was using uh the base, the base child care center, they were they they just kept flagging things for me, like she should be talking by now and things like that. But whenever I I mentioned before, when you hit something that's way bigger than your family can handle, and by that I meant she needed all these things, right? The doctor was telling us, the school was telling us, like, and and her behavior is very impactful. She really doesn't communicate in the way that we communicate. Um, she can talk, it took her a long time to talk, but now she communicates um in Disney script. Uh so if you're not familiar with uh Disney, especially like circa 1995, Pocahontas, Blind King, like I am an expert. Um, because she will she will tell me things using the scripts from these Disney movies. And it's not just the word, it's she's taking the context and how that character felt in the movie at that time. So I'm a huge fan of the jungle book because whenever she's talking like Baloo the Bear or Mowgli, um, she's talking about friendship and having a good time. Uh same thing with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Like that's how she defines those concepts. I absolutely detest the movie Bambi because when she's upset with me, she will watch the scene where Bambi's mom gets shot.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

I know it's terrible. That's wrong. She does the same thing. It's wrong. She does the same thing with her dad, with the Lion King, Mufasa, uh, falling off the cliff. Um, but the thing is though, like um when she can't communicate, like she can hurt herself, she can hurt other people, she can, you know, and so that led to a whole world of things. Um, you know, at the campus that I worked at in Loudoun, we had uh police uh training for interacting with individuals with disabilities and crisis because oftentimes it does look like drug use or it may look like mental health issues. And in fact, like Kate, this this is what happened. Um, uh we had a chimney fire at my house in Loudoun, and the police the fire department came and uh as at first of all, I couldn't get Caitlin to leave the house. Um she does not like change, she doesn't like change in her schedule. I I couldn't communicate the emergency. When the fire department showed up, they saw that she had bites on her arms, which she does when she gets frustrated and upset and can't communicate. They were concerned that maybe she was in an abusive situation. So they called the sheriff's office. The sheriff separated me and Caitlin. They wanted to find out from Caitlin if I was hurting her. They couldn't find out, they like she couldn't communicate with them. Um, the only way it didn't turn into like a situation where she was tasered and perhaps even arrested because she will hit, she will hit if she gets scared and she'll lash out. Was that um she did say, uh, want mom, mom, mom hug? Like those were the things she was telling. So they knew that she wanted me and they brought me in and we were able to figure this out. And the the fire department was able to put out the chimney fire because she never left her room. Like this was just a whole crisis situation on 44 levels, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

And and from that, I learned a lot of things. Uh, from the sheriff's office, I learned like that I needed to give them a fact sheet about Caitlin living in that house so that it was in their files if they ever called there, um, so that we didn't ever have to go through that again. They learned that there uh from me and from uh that you know I worked at this school and that we could help them learn how to talk with kids like Caitlin in these situations. I mean, so new programs came out of that. It could have been a it could have been awful, but yeah, um, but good things came out of it. And so the thing that makes the difference in any of these situations, because like Caitlin has been aggressive with me in a Michaels craft store, and people wanted to call the police, or um at the doctor's office, you know, she tried to hit the poor lady that was just trying to weigh her to get her vital signs and stuff. Yeah, you know, the difference has been that we encountered someone who cared enough to figure out what was really going on and to try to make it work. Like she has a dentist that she's seen since she was six years old because they let us come and visit the office until she got comfortable enough to sit in the chair and let the dentist just count her teeth, right? I mean, it's the people that we interact with every day. Now, if that's bad, then it's really bad, right? I mean, if if if if we encounter one person that is that's going to press charges or whatever, then everything goes a different way, which is why the community that we live in is so important. The bigger the place was, the more, the less likely they were to know who we were, you know, it the harder all of that became.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

So, you know, um, and because she doesn't like going to new places, she doesn't even like going to church if they changed the schedule. Right. People with autism are routine driven and all of that. So vacations, holidays, the cat in the hat day at school, all those things were really hard for her. Um, and so, you know, it just it's changed the way I look at everything. And so at work, Caitlin comes to the office with me sometimes. Um, she enjoys being there. Uh, and they have all gotten to know her. And they think it's funny when she says things, you know, like. Or they hear she's watching Bambi. Like they all know what that means. And they all know that Caitlin's the real boss in my house. Um, but you know, it does mean though, it's just changed my whole heart when I meet someone different or in a hard situation. My first thought is not to judge at all, because thank God I haven't had that experience too often. And it changes everything when you're in a service organization like community action. Yeah. Right. Instead of thinking transactionally, like what let's write the check and keep them from being homeless. Like, I want to know how'd you get here? What else is happening? How can we help your family? Because thank God I've had people that ask my family that.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Yeah. Um, aside from just, you know, half more empathy, what is one thing someone can do to maybe educate their themselves a little bit better?

SPEAKER_00 22:55

You know, that's a tough one, especially with autism, because like Caitlin's, I mean, I'm sure that you you already know people with autism. They're not like Caitlin, right? And goodness knows shows like the good doctor and all of that. Like it gives people a whole different perspective. But usually when I I love to talk to businesses because there's an army of people, of families like mine. Um, I mean, autism and just people with disabilities in general so prevalent that if you can just make a few accommodations, then they will come to you and you and uh and you will learn. Like churches that have a ministry that helps, like if if you if a church wanted to do that and would just have a few people that would be willing to hang out with people with disabilities so they could have their own experience with worship and their parents could too. Wow. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's books you can read and you can certainly attend meetings of like the ARC or um in the the ID, the Individuals with Disabilities Association here. Um, I start with fundraisers because God knows they always need help, right? Because I always want to meet other families and see what they're doing and where they go, where they go to church, if they have it go to a gym, because those businesses have already, they've already interacted with someone different and are willing, they're willing to give it a try. Because that uh that's the tough part. Are people willing? Because, you know, it's one thing to be empathetic in a personal situation and and say, you know, I'd like to get to know better and how can I help? But in a in a public situation, is your church willing to have kids in there that may make different noises? Is your business willing to have a quiet area that people can go, they just need to step away for a minute? Like that, and when I find businesses like that, man, I become their best customer and I tell everybody that dentist that Caitlin goes to, um, she's she's in Loudoun, and I still take her, even though she's a pediatric dentist and she's 30 years old. Um, and I told everybody, and her entire business now really is um accepting of any any kind of kid with any kind of uh because she's good at it and she's been super successful with it. So it's smart business. Yeah, yeah, but it's also not easy.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Right. Yeah, thank you. Um I guess. I don't know if I answered your question. No, you did. That was great. Thank you so much. Um, getting back a little bit to uh community action, what are your goals for New Ver Community Action as you look ahead to the future?

SPEAKER_00 25:30

So um it's January, right? So our team's been meeting and talking about this very thing quite a bit. But our main focus this year is to become um more of a community resource center where we are located. Because uh so NRVCS has this terrific peer center model where it's uh you're making intentional space where you're trying to make sure it's okay for people to do what they need to do. Well, community action already has spaces in all the jurisdictions. We have area offices, we have Head Start spaces. And so we're trying to morph into a community resource model where you don't have to just come to our office to come to a renter's workshop or you know, you can come because it's an intentional space where if it's cool, like when it was 98 degrees outside, we had popsicles. Whenever it's 24 degrees, come sit in and use our internet. Um and just there are resources there if you are looking for that, but it's also just um a welcoming place if you don't need anything. And so we call it uh improving family and community outcomes. That's our goal, but it really is being more of that place for the community.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Yeah, great. Yeah, I love that. So let's talk about um how you maintain your own personal wellness. How do you go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

You know, um, you have to, as a caregiver, you have to be serious about wellness. You have to be very intentional because it's 24-7. And um, so I am very serious about it. I'm serious about it for everybody at community action, work-life balance. But um I um I'm a person of fate and that means everything to me. So that's how I start my day and I'm grounded in that. But then I also make sure we do things throughout the day to take that mental break. Um at at work, we um in in my office, we walk twice a day, uh, once at 11 and once at three. Um, but I think whenever you your focus is making sure you're taking care of yourself, then that's the biggest, um, that's the biggest hurdle to overcome. Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Um, because then you'll find ways. They and I think it's better if it's fun. You know, for some people, it's like massages and all of that. Like that would be hard for me to find that schedule, the time of my schedule. So I just make little things all throughout every day.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Right. Yeah. Little things add up.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Little things are the big things.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

So can you tell us a little bit about hope? What gives you hope in your personal life, um, work life? You know, what's hope look like to you?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Well, I am a person of faith, and and God is faith, hope, and love, right? Um, so my faith gives me the hope of things unseen. But what that looks like in the day-to-day, honestly, are the people that I meet every day, the people I work with, they believe. They believe we can be better. They could, they believe, they believe our agency can do better, and they're always looking for ways to do that. They believe in the people that we serve. Um, they believe in each other. And you know, that that is the essence of hope for me, is just the knowing that if we do our part, then the universe does show up for us, and and what we do matters. If we do that enough, don't you have to believe that things are going to get better?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah. Love that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Jennifer, as we wrap up our conversation, do you have any final words of wisdom to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Wisdom. Ooh, I don't think so. That's a tough word, wisdom. Yeah. But I think if I were going to offer any advice, I think that's the greatest gift in my life has been this gift of service and seeing like doing things for others and loving that. It it's just it makes all these bad situations, these hard situations not just bearable, but like I can even like thrive in it, you know? And so anytime I'm feeling down, if I can help someone else, then we're both better off. So I I would encourage people to find something, to find that passion, the thing that they care about and help help in that way.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Well, I think those are very some some very wise words. I do too. So yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Putting that on my resume, wisdom. Uh thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

For listening.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Well, thanks so much for your time. Thanks for all the great work that you and your community action, your team is doing as the uh son of a former Head Start uh employee. I truly appreciate what uh happens with that program in particular. So uh just thanks for all the great stuff you're doing, and uh thanks again for your time. Thanks for listening to Voices of Hope.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

If you enjoyed today's conversation, we'd love for you to rate and review the podcast and help us spread the word. Voices of Hope is a production of New River Valley Community Services. To learn more or listen to past episodes, visit nrvcs.org slash podcast. And remember, hope grows when we share it. So keep the conversation going, and we'll talk to you next time on Voices of Hope.