Meet Samantha Hill, Bellwether's Lead Resident Services Coordinator
Helping Bellwether Housing residents achieve housing stability, live with independence, and stay in good health is a job that requires compassion, adaptability, and creativity. It’s a job that Lead Resident Services Coordinator (RSC) Samantha Hill excels at.
Samantha has worked as an RSC at Bellwether’s Security House, a building for low-income seniors in Belltown, since fall 2013. She describes some of her job as “performing granddaughter tasks” - helping residents without a close-knit support network with the small things that a family member or friend would typically do. She will help residents figure out a bus route, sort out confusing medical bills, and complete paperwork for public benefits like Medicare and food stamps.
Samantha finds that by learning about residents’ pasts, families, and interests she is better prepared to help them when they go through a rough patch or face tough decisions that come with aging. Samantha assists residents with everything from ensuring they have the right level of caregiving after returning home from a hospital stay to finding resources to help them modify their homes and daily routines to be safer as they age.
“Our services in Seattle are vast, however, they are constantly changing due to funding and man-power,” Samantha said.
As a result, much of Samantha’s job revolves around identifying community resources useful to residents and then connecting residents to the services that can help them. It’s an important function since navigating the social service system can be a daunting task for residents, especially for those with limited English proficiency and other barriers.
Samantha not only links residents to resources out in the community. She brings them right to Security House. For example, Samantha was instrumental in bringing onsite medication management coaching with Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group to Bellwether’s senior buildings. This program offers residents monthly guidance in how to safely and most effectively take and store their medicines.
Over the last year, RSC's have helped residents nearly 1,600 times. You can learn more about the program, hear from Samantha and meet some Bellwether Housing residents in this short video.