Navigator Notes: We've Only Just Begun!
When Topeka/Shawnee County navigator Ashley arrived at the public library for her regular shift, people were already waiting. She’s only had regular hours at the library for a few weeks, but clearly the word had gotten out. She saw six unscheduled clients in the three hours she was there. (See the Community Resource Navigator schedule for April)
Our Community Resource Navigators never know what challenges a client will bring to them. Their job is to be a presence in the community, to listen when people tell them about their needs, and then connect them with local resources.
Since the program expanded in early 2026, our United Way of Kaw Valley community resource navigators, who work in both Shawnee and Douglas counties, have:
• helped a 95-year-old couple sign up for Meals on Wheels
• worked with a young couple and their new baby to sign up for health insurance and find pediatric care
• helped a new custodial grandma find affordable diapers and formula
• helped the family of an international student find affordable dental care
• filled out LIEAP (utility assistance) and Medicaid applications
• helped a client get a birth certificate and Social Security card
• connected a homeless vet with the VA for help with housing and employment
• helped a recently unhoused family enroll in a program that offered them immediate transitional housing, working towards a more permanent home
This is just a sampling of what they have done in their first month out in their communities. In addition to working with clients, the navigators have spent many hours learning the landscape of resources in their communities. They have met with social service agencies and helpers all over town. That groundwork is paying off daily in the form of referrals from all over.
Ashley doesn’t know who referred her first client that day at the library. And she certainly didn’t know that the work they would ask her to do was to help them contact the 3 credit reporting bureaus to put a freeze on his credit report. She’d actually never done this before. But hearing his need, they figured out the process and were successful in freezing the reports. As he was leaving, he thanked her and asked how much he owed for her service. She told him her service was free. To this he responded, “That’s great! I am going to tell everyone about you!”