One thing I am sure of, having served in the Oregon House of Representatives as a Legislator has proven invaluable over and over again while serving as Relief Society President. I am certain it was all part of the Lords plan, because sometimes I wasn’t sure why I was there. While I might have volumes to write about my overall experiences, one area that I am asked to draw upon over and over again, is the understanding of state welfare and benefits programs. One of the first things I read just after I was called as Relief Society, was the responsibility to keep a list of community resources.
Each of the bishops I have worked with have had the luxury of just picking up the phone, calling me and reviewing a particular individuals needs and with a little discussion we can come up with a good plan that will bless them and help lead them on a better path (that’s if they will follow it). Generally this approach helps to make better use of sacred fast offering funds when another resource could or should easily provide it instead. (Yes, I’ve known of individuals who wanted the church to pay for their prescription because it was too inconvenient to go sit in line at the VA hospital for it to be filled for free.)
Unfortunately word gets out, bishops talk to one another, I was asked to create a cheat sheet that could be used to reference when meeting with someone without having to call me. It wasn’t to solve their problem, but to have some resources to point an individual to, as either an assignment or as an option. So I created a cheat sheet for the welfare council, generally I have it in MSword but I have recreated here on on blist: http://app.blist.com/#/blist/marygall/Community-Resources
The msword version prints nicely on 2 sides of an 8 1/2 X 11 paper (cardstock is best), I’ll post it here someplace shortly.
