I work for the Public Benefits Hotline at Georgia Legal Services. With the Benefits Hotline, I am considered the supervising paralegal. I assist clients with their benefit application matters, whether it’s to renew a program, determine eligibility, or providing new applications.
Public benefits would include Medicaid, Food Stamps, TANF, home repair programs, and more.
My personal philosophy in dealing with clients, and even with my coworkers and my personal life, is to always be kind.
It’s the simplest thing. When you talk to someone with a soft tone, and your words are clear and specific.
A friend told me this about my son: “When he leaves for school, give him something that gives him life.” So even if I’m not saying those words to my clients, I try to give them life with my tone of voice and with my demeanor when I’m over the phone. I try to be as kind as possible.
That is because of the multitude of complaints I hear about our clients being treated rudely by welfare agencies. If a person is suffering hardship and illness, and they live alone, and they may be elderly, with all these dominoes… the least we can do is be kind to them. I don’t think that mistreating someone on top of their hardship will enhance anything.
The bottom line is to be kind.
104 Marietta Street, Oficina 250
Atlanta, GA 30303
404-206-5175 ó 1-800-498-9469
Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP, por sus siglas en inglés) es una sociedad anónima sin fines de lucro de la categoría 501(c)(3) que se financia, en parte, por la entidad Legal Services Corporation (LSC, por sus siglas en inglés). Por una condición de la financiación de LSC, se le restringe a GLSP llevar a cabo ciertas actividades en su trabajo legal incluso si el trabajo es apoyado por otras fuentes financiadoras. No se le permite a GLSP gastar fondos en relacionados con actividades prohibidas de acuerdo con el código 42 U.S.C. § 2996 et seq. de la ley Legal Services Corporation Act o de la ley Public Law 104-134. El párrafo §504(d) de la ley Public Law 104-134 exige que se le notifique a todos los financiadores de los programas subvencionados por LSC de estas restricciones.
