Each month, UMFS recognizes one of our employees as the Unwavering Champion of the Month. This award celebrates the UMFS mission and how our employees bring that mission to life. Our mission: UMFS is an unwavering champion for high-risk children and families, collaborating with communities to help them reach their full potential.
Our Unwavering Champion for January is George Mack, Project LIFE Independent Living Consultant in the Alexandria office.
Project LIFE (Living Independently, Focusing on Empowerment) helps youth in Virginia succeed when they age out of foster care. It does so by helping youth directly and by supporting the professionals who work with them. Project LIFE helps youth in foster care avoid homelessness, helplessness and hopelessness, providing them instead with the knowledge and support they need to get jobs, continue school, live well and give back to their communities.
Supervisor and Project Manager Talia Brown calls George’s electrifying personality a “true gift,” and one that makes it easy for him to connect with colleagues and youth alike.
“He embodies our core value of building relationships with others by focusing on each individual youth and their needs and making each youth feel comfortable,” she said.
Relationships are vital to Project LIFE, and George builds trust by honing in on the strengths of each youth. By doing so, he’s able to unlock their full potential. George also goes the extra mile by introducing youth to resources, pairing them with a mentor, or walking them through a school application process.
George is as invested in his peers as he is the youth he serves. When his supervisor was out on maternity leave, for example, he jumped in and traveled throughout the state to ensure that all regions had what they needed. As a senior team member — he’s nearly seven years into his second stint with UMFS — George has helped train and mentor newer employees, and he continues to serve as a valuable resource to Project LIFE staff.
To top it all off, Talia said, everything George does he does “with a smile on his face.”