Get to know our incredible Director of Programs, Jess Carroll!
0:00: I think one of the most rewarding parts of working at positive images is just truly seeing how people can grow when you show them a little bit of care.
0:09: Hello and welcome to Positively a podcast by positive images.
0:13: It's been a while today.
0:15: We're interviewing our director of programs, Jess Carol, positive images.
0:31: I'm Jess.
0:31: You can use any pronouns for me.
0:33: And my title is the director of programs of positive images.
0:39: What are your top three passions?
0:42: Oh My top three passions are supporting community, loving people real hard and being a badass on the rugby field.
0:52: What's the difference between working at P I and being on a rugby team?
0:56: Interesting managing a team here at positive images and being a part of a team, rugby team are actually really similar.
1:06: My approach to all of it is kind of like, where do I fit in?
1:09: How do I best support the people around me and how do we work as a team towards an objective or a goal if that's running people over and scoring on the rugby field or if it's like, how do we work as a team to make a project or a program here.
1:23: Really, really work for community.
1:25: It's just all about teamwork.
1:26: Oh, I'm tackling people.
1:27: Most weeks.
1:28: At least once a week someone's going to get tackled.
1:31: It doesn't hurt that bad.
1:32: And if they say it does, they're lying.
1:35: How would your friends describe you?
1:38: I think that my friends would probably describe me as silly goofy little guy, but also, like, really caring, compassionate and supportive and hilarious and very good looking.
1:49: And I'm a Leo.
1:50: So I need all of the affirmation I can get.
1:53: Tell us about the first time you heard of P I.
1:57: The first time that I heard about positive images was actually when I was moving back to Sonoma County, I grew up here in Santa Rosa, spent the 1st 18 years of my life here.
2:07: And then I moved away for a long time and I moved to Sacramento.
2:11: So how did you become an employee of P I?
2:14: Yeah.
2:15: So back in 2016, I was freshly back to Sonoma County.
2:20: I was just looking for jobs.
2:22: I googled what type of community jobs were open and out.
2:26: And I saw that there was a job available at positive images.
2:29: I got really excited and I applied, I ended up not getting that position, but it was all for the best because it wasn't the right job at the right time for me.
2:39: But about a year later, the leadership of the org did reach back out to me when a different job was open and it ended up being the right fit at the right time.
2:48: The universe does work in particularly amazing ways.
2:52: Can you tell us a little bit about your career?
2:55: Yeah.
2:56: A lot of the work that I've done previously has been in residential mental health care.
3:00: It's been in suicide prevention programs.
3:02: It has very much been rooted in community care.
3:06: I think especially my very early jobs were all in youth work.
3:12: But as I kind of grew, I was creating a lot of programs for organizations that were similar but mostly working with youth who were in the foster care system or affected by different systems.
3:24: But all kind of creating programs that were aiming to just care for one another.
3:30: That's where the majority of my work has always been.
3:34: What's the most rewarding part of your job?
3:37: The most rewarding part of working with positive images is working with Chase great.
3:43: The most rewarding part of working at positive images is actually getting to see the growth of the community members, especially our very young friends who come and are looking for support, they're looking for belonging, they're looking for people that care, they're looking for community, being able to have a small part in caring for these young people so that they can learn how to care about themselves.
4:09: is truly the most incredible part of working here.
4:12: It is also just so much fun like we are having a good time all of the time here in the center.
4:21: What are you up to when you're in the office?
4:24: When I'm at work?
4:25: I am doing a lot of work that is within the center.
4:28: I'm supporting a lot of the programs.
4:31: I am also facilitating some of our programs like our youth leadership team, even some of our support groups and our social Saturdays and different events that we have going on.
4:40: I am doing a lot of work to support the team that is like the coordinators who are actually facilitating a lot more of this work.
4:50: I'm working with the director's team to kind of lead us in a direction that this organization needs to go.
4:59: I am doing a lot of admin and operations.
5:05: What's one thing that you wish everybody knew about P I?
5:08: One thing that I wish people knew about positive images is just how bad ass we actually are and how deep our programs actually become, how much support we are able to give to community members.
5:22: And just the breadth of all of our services here, there is so much going on that lots of folks in community can find something that's for them.
5:32: I wish that people knew just how much we are actually doing to support this local community.
5:38: Thanks so much Jess.
5:39: It's been a pleasure getting to know you.
5:41: And if you're interested in seeing this video in video format with closed captioning on screen, you can head on over to our Instagram at positive images and see Jess in person kind of.
5:55: Anyway, thanks so much and we'll see you next time.
5:58: All right, y'all hope to see you out in community real soon.
6:04: The future of positive images is looking bright and we hope that you'll join us along our journey.
6:08: You can check out our website, pause images dot org.
6:12: That's P OS images dot org and see our community calendar for fun things coming up in community and opportunities to join our peer support groups.
6:21: You can also drop into the center from noon to six pm.
6:24: Tuesdays through Fridays.
6:26: We would love to see you there.
6:28: Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at positive images to stay up to date with the absolute latest.
6:33: Until next time I have been chase overhaul director of development for positive images and this has been positively positive images.
6:52: What you're still here.
6:54: That must mean that you really love us.
6:56: If you are willing and able, you can always support positive images by making a donation.
7:02: Did you know that by making a donation of only $5 a month?
7:06: You help us out immensely.
7:08: We're using this money to continue to support the LGBT Q I A two S plus community right here in Sonoma County.
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