This article by Liz Sauchelli was first published Aug. 28 in the Valley News.
THETFORD — Town leaders are asking for residents’ input on hiring a part-time social worker.
The Selectboard took up the idea after hearing from town officials, including Police Chief Michael Scruggs, town service officer Jessica Eaton, community nurse Sunny Martinson and members of the Thetford Elder Network, Selectboard member Steven Tofel said.
“There’s a lot of support from different areas,” Tofel said.
Tofel, Selectboard Chairwoman Sharon Harkay and Town Manager Brian Story stressed that it is too early in the process to say how much it would cost the town to hire a part-time social worker.
“We want to hear from the broader public, who may have families, friends, neighbors who are struggling,” Harkay said. “What we’re going to do with the ideas then is to take those and use those to help us put together the best job description we can.”
Currently, they are seeking input from residents about the community’s needs and putting together a job description. Once the job description is set, a salary can be attached to it, Story said.
“We’re still pretty early in the process so there are a lot of questions that need to be answered,” he said. “We very much want people to participate in the process and weigh in.”
The Selectboard will take up the topic during its Sept. 18, meeting which begins at 7 p.m. at Thetford Town Hall. The meeting also can be watched via Zoom.
The idea is that people will engage in the discussion now before voting on it at Town Meeting in March.
As of now, the position would be for 10 hours a week, which could be increased to 20 hours depending on demand.
“We don’t want to have somebody sitting there in the early stages of this looking for work to do,” Tofel said. “We’d rather see them be overloaded and then add hours then to be under-loaded … and be looking for something to do.”
Town officials often aren’t able to follow up with residents or to walk them through applying for federal or state programs that can help them with long-term needs.
As the town’s social services officer, Eaton helps distribute funds from the town’s Farm Trust, which was established to help residents in need. She regularly sees requests from people who have gotten behind on rent or a utilities bill.
“Usually it’s a one-shot deal,” said Eaton, who volunteers for the role in addition to working full-time driving a fuel truck. “We help them out of the hole and they move on from there.”
Over her roughly five years in the role, Eaton has noticed that some residents need more help than the town can provide. While she gives out forms for programs like fuel assistance, she doesn’t have the time to follow up to make sure those forms are filled out.
“There’s a lot of funds or different entities that Thetford donates to as a town and we’re not making the best use of that,” Eaton said, citing the nonprofit organizations that voters allocate funds for each year at Town Meeting. “At the same time, there’s people who can’t seem to get out of their own way. Some of them are really in need of someone to keep poking them.”
Tofel said the social worker would serve different needs than that of the community nurse.
“The community nurse would be more medically oriented worrying about diet issues or accessibility issues, whereas a social worker … there’s a lot of paperwork that’s involved in things that somebody needs to do. People need to get pointed in a direction,” Tofel said. “Most people don’t need a social worker, honestly, but the ones who do really do.”
