Join Us in Celebrating the Providence House Maintenance Team!
In the pursuit of making real sustainable change in housing and legal system reform, there are countless unsung heroes working behind the scenes, ensuring that the systems supporting it run seamlessly. With this in mind, there is a particular group of individuals who deserve our heartfelt appreciation: the Providence House maintenance team. Providence House would like to celebrate their dedication and hard work in all of our housing buildings, but particularly for the work done to prepare our women's justice program building for renovation, and revitalizing our community room at our other women’s justice program location.
Each day, Providence House relies on our maintenance team to keep each of our properties clean, safe, and efficiently operating. From daily repairs to preventative servicing, spring landscaping to winter snow removal, painting to pest control, ongoing cleaning to annual building certifications, assembling furniture to preparing for renovations- our wonderful maintenance team does it all! Perhaps even more important than their incredible handiwork skills is their unwavering kindness and patience. Working with resilient populations, our team is equipped with trauma-informed practice training that allows each interaction with staff or residents to be therapeutic and meaningful.
Emmanuel Agbodza, our Director of Maintenance and Building Operations, is a critical leader guiding the maintenance team towards successful and orderly operations. Over the course of his almost eight years working at Providence House, Emmanuel has spearheaded many critical projects helping to expand our housing and services. Emmanuel works to continuously improve the quality of life for our residents and staff- his work ethic and motivation to help are limitless.
“Emmanuel’s commitment to Providence House is deeply rooted in his commitment to our residents. He routinely responds to building and maintenance priorities across all of our sites, at all hours of the day with a warm smile on his face. He quietly goes about his work but when asked about his usually extremely busy role, he will tell you he is happy to do it for our residents.” – Danielle Minelli Pagnotta, Executive Director
Emmanuel Agbodza, purchasing flowers for an event
Each time our maintenance team comes together, something beautiful happens. This past month, our team worked collectively to revitalize the community room for the residents in our Women's Justice Program. This renovation helped create dedicated space within the building for women to breathe, feel safe, and relax in their home. The space was designed with intentionality to foster tranquility and community with a meditation space, reading nook, board game table, and everything needed for a fun movie night. While the job at hand may appear to be a simple room refresh, in actuality this project significantly contributed to integrating our trauma-informed beliefs into our living space.
The renovated Community Room at our Women’s Justice Program
The expertise and insight of our maintenance and operations units is invaluable, providing practical guidance and offering solutions that consider the unique needs of the building and its occupants. Effective communication and teamwork ensure that each person living and working in Providence House spaces feels our team’s care and compassion. Whether it’s renovating a space or managing the weekly trash pickup- the members of our maintenance team put their heart and soul into every facet of their work. Chris, Derrick, Edwin, Jose, Justo, Keaun, Kenny, Nero, and Sherene- we are grateful for everything you do and the people that you are!
