I am honored and excited to join the Department of Transitional Assistance team.  Comprised of smart, caring, and dependable staff members, DTA offers a network of linked services to assist low-income households with moving toward self-sufficiency.  Our clients include families with dependent children, youth, survivors of domestic violence, elders, and people with disabilities; our services include meeting basic needs through food and cash assistance, safety and stabilization, and job training.  Providing this safety net requires cross-departmental strategic thinking and cooperation, complex systems, and shared programming.

We recognize that people come to us when they are in crisis, and do our best to respond to each emergency with optimism and hope.  Our staff members listen, provide options, and gather resources to provide meaningful interventions for people in need.  For example, DTA teams recently rushed to the aid of residents of Central and Western Massachusetts who were impacted by the June tornadoes, Hurricane Irene, and the October snowstorm.  In offices and tents, they provided access to critical resources for thousands of individuals and families.    

We understand that the Commonwealth is comprised of urban, suburban, and rural cities and towns and that transportation to our offices can present a challenge for some of our clients.  As a result, we are working to conduct more of our business via phone, fax, and the Internet to ensure that people in need can reach us without leaving their homes or communities.  This streamlining of our business practices allows our staff to efficiently serve clients while building links to community services, creating peer networks of support, and responding to emergencies. 

We know that our strength comes from the Commonwealth’s government, people, and institutions banding together in the tradition of our smallest villages and communities to ensure that basic needs are met.  We leverage federal, state, and local resources through creative partnerships with our fellow state agencies (for example, our work with the Department of Agricultural Resources to expand access to SNAP at farmers’ markets) and nonprofits (for example, our work with the Greater Boston Food Bank to provide food to households not eligible for SNAP).  Working together, we provide resources in caring and efficient, strategic ways to collaboratively achieve our shared goals. 

We appreciate the value of our limited resources.  To ensure these resources are available to people in need and utilized to their advantage, we are committed to designing and administering work practices, oversight, and information-gathering to ensure the integrity of our programs. 

Working in partnership with our clients, our fellow state agencies, federal and municipal government, and community human service and faith-based programs, we can meet our mission to assist low-income individuals and families to meet their basic needs, increase their incomes, and improve their quality of life.