Talent Tribute: Jacqueline Braithwaite

Our Talent Tribute Monthly Feature is designed to celebrate the phenomenal staff that serve our Members.

Jacqueline Braithwaite had a heart for helping others long before joining the VALLEYLIFE family in 2019. Growing up, she played a pivotal role in caring for her brother, who was born with a disability. Now, as the Senior Assistant Supervisor of Hana Maui group home, she has the opportunity to channel her love of helping people with her love for the healthcare field to provide quality care to VALLEYLIFE Members. Jacqueline has always taken pride in her work, so much so that she received VALLEYLIFE’s Day Services Employee of the Year in 2021.

Outside of VALLEYLIFE, Jacqueline is the proud mother of three and grandmother to two. Before building a life for herself in Phoenix, she had lived in multiple countries, including Antigua (a country in the Caribbean), Namibia (a country in southern Africa), and the United Kingdom. Throughout her life, Jacqueline has always had a passion for the sport of netball, having won national recognition for the sport in her home country of Antigua and Namibia. Now, she has become involved in the USA National Netball Association and hopes to share her knowledge of the sport with her granddaughter and others. Jacqueline received her bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Business Administration from Western Michigan University and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Health Care Administration from Claremont Lincoln University.

We sat down and asked Jacqueline about her VALLEYLIFE experience as a whole, and this is what she had to say.

1. How would you describe your ideal day at VALLEYLIFE?

My ideal day would involve spending time with the Members and spending my time training, guiding, and making sure staff provide quality care to the Members.

2. What has your time at VALLEYLIFE taught you over the years?

I’ve always had patience, but my time at VALLEYLIFE has really allowed me to practice that patience. I’ve learned to respect Members by giving them choices. There are so many times when we already know what to do and forget to give them choices like "would you like," instead of ‘you’re going to.’ That is the one thing in the back of my mind that I’m always trying to remember because it’s not about what I want at the end of the day, it’s about what the Members want.

3. Can you tell us what you enjoy most about interacting with Members?

All my Members at Hana Maui are nonverbal and I’ve always liked to communicate with them and initiate conversations with them about different things to see if I can get a reaction out of them. I truly believe that they have things to say, but are unable to express it. I’ve learned that if you say or ask the right thing to the Members, the right thing that they have in their mind, they have their own way of answering.

I also enjoy it when Members recognize me. For example, there is a Member whom I’ve worked with when I first started at VALLEYLIFE. Even when I haven’t seen him in months, when he sees me, he’ll always say ‘Hi Jackie! How is your day?’ Things like that pull on my heartstrings.

4. What skills or qualities do you think are most important for success in your position?

I think, in order to be successful in my role, it requires leadership abilities and communication skills while interacting with both the staff and the Members. One of the biggest things in this role is to have empathy and compassion because you have to understand the challenges that the Members face every day. Having empathy helps the Members build trust and allows us to provide support.

Another big thing, I would say, is having cultural competence. This business that we do here at VALLEYLIFE, we have people from all different backgrounds, and having cultural competence allows you to have patience and be able to understand where someone is coming from. For example, I have one employee right now who, when he first started, didn’t know what a stove was. In his culture, he wouldn’t have known how to use one, but he has since learned.

5. Lastly, what do you hope to accomplish or learn in your future at VALLEYLIFE?

Before VALLEYLIFE, I was a Community Manager within the healthcare industry, but that part of the field sits on the social determinants of health. This area of health focuses on long-term care and support services, so I’m still in health care at the end of the day.

I have the qualities and the skillset that I’m transferring from my past work to combine with what I’m doing now, and I still want to learn all the little intricacies and areas of long-term care and the services that we provide to Members with developmental disabilities. I look forward to continuing to advocate for the Members.