Meet SJHP Intake Coordinator Teresa Snoddy
By Carole Hawkins
Teresa Snoddy knew as a young person, she’d never want to be a waitress or have a job answering phones. Today, she answers phones. And likes it.
“It can be hard to deal with clients who’re going through dire straits, but I feel like I’m making a difference,” said Snoddy, who does intake for St. Johns Housing Partnership (SJHP).
Snoddy is the first point of contact for vulnerable people who can’t afford home repairs.
“They may start by telling you minor things. But when you start listening, you find out their homes have a whole lot of issues,” she said.
After getting the client in the queue for home repair services, the SJHP team triages problems beyond their scope through a network of outside agencies.
“We’re not going to tell them we can’t help them,” Snoddy said.
Snoddy’s roots with SJHP go back to the late 1980s, when she worked for Jacksonville’s Lutheran Social Services doing home visits for seniors. Bill Lazar joined the nonprofit a year later to start a program that did home repairs. She joined his team.
“She was my first intake coordinator. Her mother was a driving force in helping people through community action and we all connected in Jacksonville at the beginning of my career,” noted Lazar.
Lazar would go on to launch SJHP as a separate nonprofit, while Snoddy completed her training as a paralegal and began working at law firms. Five years ago, tired of corporate world stress, Snoddy called Lazar and asked if she could help him instead.
Her wish for SJHP’s future? “If everyone gave a little bit, it could make a big change. There’s a whole community that needs help.”
