“It’s about the connections,” says Casey Peters, Community Prevention Coordinator with Lewis County Public Health and Social Services. Soft spoken and always smiling, you can tell Casey really loves her job – and it’s the community and her role in bringing community members together that drives her love of her work.
Casey’s first foray into public service was working for Lewis County in 2007, her first job right out of college. “I worked on the Rural Prevention Grant in White Pass,” she explains. “Then I moved to Eastern Washington and in 2014 moved back. I think a lot of people move back to Lewis County to raise their kids,” she says.
She enjoyed working for Lewis County the first time around, so when she saw a job opening for a Community Prevention Coordinator in the newspaper, she quickly applied. “I love that I get to do something different all the time. There are different challenges – event planning, meeting coordination, making sure people are there, making sure we have relative topics on the agenda, getting people engaged.”
One of Casey’s duties is as facilitator for the Morton Up! Coalition. The goal of the group is to create a community environment for the area youth that helps them grow into healthy adults. Casey says that in 2015, they started really rebuilding the coalition and she is happy with the results they are seeing. “We celebrate the small successes,” she says. “More people know about the coalition and what we are doing and are showing up to our meetings and events.”
Recently the coalition participated in the National Take Back Day where people could turn in unused or old medication, and also receive lock boxes to store current medications. It was a great success as they collected eight pounds of medications, gave out 40 lock boxes and fed 75 people who showed up.
“I think it’s an important aspect of my job, bringing community members together,” she says. “Whether it’s community education, creating parenting classes, connecting people with resources or informing them about Nurse Family Partnership or Parents as Teachers [in-home parent education programs]. One of our big focuses this year has been the Healthy Community Series. It’s inspiring to have a group focus on one goal.”
Morton students also serve on the coalition and some of their work has been quite impressive. As part of the Youth Prevention Team at the high school, they have been very successful with their prevention projects. The students’ project is called Project Culture Change and is a creative and innovative idea. It includes a school-wide “social norms” campaign, letting kids know that it really isn’t all that common for their peers to use drugs or alcohol, so they don’t need to feel like they aren’t fitting in if they’re not using.
Most of Casey’s work involves connecting community agencies and resources, but another part of her job that she talks passionately about is direct client service, where she gets to work directly with members of the public. She is the Child Passenger Safety Coordinator and she works with parents, presenting information on car seats.
“I really love direct client service,” she says. “I get to provide education on how to properly install car seats in a vehicle and we keep practicing until they feel comfortable. Then if they qualify financially, they get to keep the seat. I get thanked a lot for providing the free car seats, they are really something that so many parents appreciate because they are so expensive,” she says. “I don’t get to do a lot of direct services so when I do it’s very satisfying. Even just connecting families to resources is very satisfying.”
Casey also loves that her public sector job has brought other opportunities her way. “I’m on the Morton Chamber Board and have participated in our events like Clean-Up Day and a Chili Cook Off. Those are really fun,” she reports.
Casey lives in Onalaska with her husband Kory, six-year-old daughter Madalyn, and three-year-old twins Hazen and Avery. They like to camp, fish, clam and attend community events as a family. “I love taking my kids to things like the community dinner in Onalaska.”
“This position has also helped me become a leader in the Onalaska community. I get to be more involved, I get to make connections with other community members and groups such as the Onalaska Alliance. That rural community connectedness is so important,” she says. “It’s just the most fun making connections with people. That’s what makes my job truly enjoyable.”
This article is one of a cross-platform series about the contributions of public employees to our community with articles also on ThurstonTalk and SouthSoundTalk. The series is sponsored by WSECU, in part to support Public Service Recognition Week, which runs May 7 – 13, 2017.
