Watertown’s first Human Services Director came to town after working for more than four years in Newton, but it was a homecoming of sorts. In her first several months on the job she has been in charge of not only establishing a brand new City department, but also creating a new home for the Watertown Food Pantry.
In Newton, Bancroft served as the assistant director of Social Services, and became the director of that program. Those were her first jobs on the municipal side. Immediately prior to that she worked at the Wayside Multi-Services Center in Watertown, where she worked as a Social Services Resource Specialist (SSRS) for four years.
Bancroft said she enjoyed her work in Newton, helping to build the Social Services division of the Health and Human Services Department, and she liked the team she worked with there. However, when she saw that the City of Watertown was seeking someone to run a new Human Services Department, it appealed to Bancroft.
“When this opportunity opened up, it just felt so cool to come back to Watertown, knowing a lot of the community, especially the community-based providers, already, and knowing that this job would need to really interface with those people a lot was exciting,” Bancroft said.
Watertown’s Human Services Department looks different than Newton, and other communities.
“I’m learning more and more about what other communities do for human services, and it looks different everywhere,” Bancroft said. “There are a lot of models of health and human services under one department, and that’s what Newton had, but they also had case management support that Wayside provides to Watertown.”
Somerville has a group of City employees focused on housing stability, which Bancroft said Watertown does not have the capacity to do, but she is looking for ways to deliver those services.
“We don’t have that capacity right now to create a whole new department that’s going to focus on that,” Bancroft said. “But I do think that we have the ability to look at what’s that kind of menu of resources and supports that those kind of programs offer, and how can we mirror that through the existing resources that are in the community, maybe some new programs, but and creating new partnerships to be able to say to residents, well, here’s where you can get those things.”
While Bancroft has experience in providing some services offered by the Human Services Department, she also oversees the Live Well Watertown Community Wellness program, Veterans Services, and American Disability Act (ADA) Coordination.
“I haven’t felt like on an island myself as the new director, and then promoting Stephanie (Venizelos) to Assistant Director of Human Services has really been great, too,” Bancroft said. “She’s been able to join me on some of that strategic planning,”
When she returned to Watertown, Bancroft had a roadmap of sorts to follow with the report created from the City’s Human Services Study. One of the goals from the study was to close the gap between the many social services agencies serving Watertown, and create a group to coordinate the services.
‘The relationship building, connections with the community based organizations those are already doing work in different spaces, and they connect with one one another in different ways too. But there hasn’t been that entity for the City that can really bring everyone together,” Bancroft said. “So, I think that’s where, and the report noted this too, that that’s where a lot of the gap is; either community organizations not really knowing how to connect with one another, or just residents in the community to not knowing what resources are here.”
Bancroft co-hosts a Direct Services Meeting with Maysa Ramos from Wayside’s Social Services Resources Specialist Program, and includes other entities providing direct help to people: the City’s Senior Services Department, Watertown Housing Authority, the Watertown Public School’s outreach counselors, and the Watertown Police Department’s clinicians.
“They were already meeting and connecting and sharing resources, but now I’m joining them and trying to think of ways to bring the same consistent professional development opportunities for them, same resource sharing and things like that,” Bancroft said.
The biggest issues facing Watertown today, Bancroft said, are housing stability, food access, and then mental health and substance use.
“We’re planning to convene some smaller groups to get providers that are working in that space together,” Bancroft said.
Another area of focus from the Human Services Study was creating a front door for people, both physically and virtually.
The virtual part is underway.
“We have started. I will say it’s been a slow rollout to have it on the Human Services website, but we do have food access, housing stability and seek support — to note those direct service providers — on the Human Services website under a resource tab,” Bancroft said. “And my hope is that as a department, we can build that out to have it be really more of like a resource database for various needs.”
Another way people can contact the Human Services Department, or to get services, is calling, texting or emailing the City’s 311 Service Center.
“They’re starting to get more and more calls because, you know, the need is out there related to things like housing and food supports,” Bancroft said. “They get every call that you could get, and they’re really great at directing the call where it needs to go. But we also want to equip them with some really easy resource guides too, and to encourage them to be referring out to the Wayside, Senior Services and the direct providers who can help residents.”
Currently, Bancroft and the Human Services Department are located in City Hall, but eventually they will move to the Parker Annex, the former school turned office building at 124 Watertown St.
“The most important thing is that Human Services will all be in one suite,” she said. “So whether it’s Veterans Services that you need, or you’re coming to check in about the food pantry, we’ll all be in one space.”
The Watertown Food Pantry has already made the move to the Parker Building from its previous home at the former Methodist Church on Mt. Auburn Street. The space is still an interim spot, but will be in the same building as the final location.
“Our DPW was amazing along with the Buildings Department to set us up with an interim space at Parker that wasn’t being used. It was one of the old childcare spaces,” Bancroft said. “So it’s not it’s not ideal right now, but it is a great plan B until the new space is ready, and it should be ready very soon. They’re able to now, since they’re in the same building, to slowly start to move some things over.”
When the City first announced plans to move the Food Pantry due to the Church being put up for sale, some were concerned that users would not know where to go, or have trouble accessing it, because it is not on a MBTA bus line.
“I heard a lot of those concerns when I started, and tried to think through preemptively with (Food Pantry Coordinator) Kathy (Cunningham) about what we would do about that,” Bancroft said. “And I will say Kathy’s been talking with pantry visitors and her numbers have gone right back to what they were at the church.”
Although they have not heard about people having trouble getting to the Food Pantry, Bancroft said the Human Services Department recently received an Essential Needs Grant from the Watertown Community Foundation for gift cards essential needs.
“One way we can use them is to provide transportation gift cards to people who might need them for the pantry,” Bancroft said.
With the Food Pantry’s new location, and the Human Services Department in the same location, Bancroft said there will be an opportunity to open the Pantry more often, and provide more service.
“It is currently still Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the space that they’re in, but when we have access to the new space five days, seven days a week really, we can make some changes,” Bancroft said.