K imberly Thomas is the Chief Operating Officer at Mary Hall Freedom Village. When asked what she does, she laughs. “A little bit of everything. I show up every day, dressed to do whatever may come my way.” She really does a little bit—actually, a whole lot—of everything. “I love it; no day is the same. . . It's very interesting and challenging.” Kimberly Thomas is the chairperson of the CQI committee—Continuous Quality Improvement. She sees that services are in line and that staff can deliver those services without many bottlenecks. She provides surveys and looks at the results and responses, making changes for the better. “Knowing what’s working well is one of my favorite things.” She is very detail-oriented—
Kimberly left for a while and returned in 2005 to stay. In the beginning, “We did everything. I don’t even know what my title was; you showed up to work, and whatever needed to be done got done, trial and error. If you dropped the ball, you knew what to do the next time. Initially, the participants just lived at Mary Hall, and Lucy transported them downtown to services. . . Then Lucy got the first building not too far from the apartments.” Quickly outgrowing the initial building, “The next building was quite a leap. God continues to provide as the program grows. As soon as we have a need, it's literally already met. We had a group room, but we didn’t have chairs. ‘What about the chairs?’ we asked. Lucy said, ‘The chairs will come.’ the next day or so, someone had donated chairs and left them outside the building.
she has to be. “Every three years, we must get reaccredited by the CARF (Commission of Accreditation for Rehabilitation Facilities) . . . Each time we do it, we try to make the needle go a little higher, do better.” When asked about recent projects: “We just acquired four new units for the veterans’ program, so each woman doesn’t have to share a room—she has her own bed and bath.” The units must pass VA inspection: “That’s where I come in.” She makes sure everything is ADA compliant. Regarding childcare: “We need to be Bright from the Start compliant [Bright from the Start is Georgia's
“Even the building we’re in right now. We rented spaces from local churches for the daycare services but couldn't license them because the building wasn’t ours. We kept moving from space to space. So, Lucy said, ‘We need to find somewhere for the daycare.’ We got in the car, started driving, came upon this building, and here we are.”
Whoa!
Kimberly laughs and agrees. “We have a lot of Whoa!” What message would Kimberly like to share? “We’re here. Once upon a time, people didn’t know MHFV was here. We were the best- kept secret, but there is such a need for the services we deliver, whether it's to the moms or to the children.”
Department of Early Care and Learning]. Make sure outlet plugs are there, we have the right kind of crib— ensure all compliance is in place and that we have the right quality control.” Kimberly Thomas saw the very beginnings of MHFV. “Lucy Hall started in June 1996, and I came in August.”
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