CharMeck 311, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States: Dr. Raquishela Stewart, Manager

Written answers to the questions

Total 145 words used.

Dr. Raquishela Stewart is a servant leader with a history of making change via customer service. She has held leadership roles in corporate america, in governemtn and in higher education. She found her passion in city government and she saw the need to make impact within the community. She has been a stellar leader focused on the city's strategy of upward mobility and violene prevention so that our youth of today will have a chance for tomorrow. As a leader for the City of Riverside she had an opportunity to create and implement new strategies to help ensure equality of resources and opportunities for all, with a focus on those in communities that are not often thought of first. She went to the city of Charlotte, over 3000 miles away from Riverside to repeat that same success even in the midst of a global pandemic.

Total 209 words used.

Dr. Raquishela Stewart has leverage her innovative thinking to enhance the communities access to resources, in an effor to help reduce violence and create an upward mobility culture.

She has taken her call center which provides services and resources to the community, into the community to meet people where they are. She has placed agents in libraries in the underserved communities to allow for easy access to informatin and resources.

She has created a leadershiip academy that allows the essential employee  the opportunity to access  trainings other employees have acess to. This is important as essential employees have to be in place at all times and can very rarely take time away from their role.

In an effort to help reduce violence within the community she has created a job readiness program that targets the underserved youth ages 14-25, year round versus just in the summer. This program also provides an opportunity for connection with second chance employers for a paid internship.

Finally based on data, she takes her team into local communities to meet them where they are, and even ensures materials are in the language they undersand. Most recently she had a document translated in to two dialects of Aghan to meet the needs of the community.

Total 147 words used.

These achievements are unique as they are no call centers that have taken their work out into the community. Dr. Stewart ensures that the same service and resources that are available when someone calls the contact center, are available each time the step foot in the community.

Other similar contact centers only handle 2-3 specific requests. Dr. Stewart has enhance the scope of work her call center has to include providing information on housing assistance, resources  to break the digital divde, partnering with local spanish radio stations to ensure that , this portin of the populations needs are met.

Also most youth employment programs are not geared to those who need a second chance however she saw the need and created an entirely new program.

She was also recently awarded with the Service to the Citizen award for the outstanding work that she has done within the community.

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Attached you will find the link to see the Service to the Citizen recipeints.

I have also attached the URL for a video done for the organization along with one of the impact reports created for one of her many partners.