Fabiola Hamdan Promoted to Dane County Community Programs Manager: Giving Support to Children and Families in Need
Fabiola Hamdan was hired by Dane County as a social worker for Joining Forces for Families when she graduated from UW-Madison
by Jonathan Gramling
Ever since Fabiola Hamdan earned her master’s in 1997 from the UW-Madison School of Social Work, she has worked for Dane County Human Services. She was recruited by Ron Chance to work in Joining Forces for Families back then. And now Hamdan replaced Chance — who retired — as Dane County’s Community Programs Manager, overseeing the county’s Joining Forces for Families, Community Restorative Courts and Immigration Affairs Office.
Ever since Hamdan joined Dane County, it’s been about community.
“I did 18 years with Joining Forces for Families in the Darbo-Worthington area,” Hamdan said. “I learned a lot by doing community social work. It was a time for me to really use my skills, my Spanish-speaking skills, to communicate with people in the neighborhood, the community and really see the needs and the gaps in services. Not only pointing out those services to my department or other entities, I learned how to also come up with initiatives that could help to narrow the gaps, but also create initiatives for housing assistance to Día de los Niños to advocacy to connecting people with resources. We also had the advocacy piece when we had the Latino Children and Families Council.”
When Dane County created the Immigration Affairs social work position, it was a natural step up for Hamdan.
“After the 2018 ICE raid, community leadership and local authorities really saw the need that we have a community with a lot of needs and not too many organizations were offering services,” Hamdan said. “So then we created the Immigration Affairs Office. It was only myself in the office. I advocated for staff and a little bit of a budget. Basically our office is to connect immigrants with immigration resources. We’re not immigration attorneys, so we cannot give any advice. But we’re social workers. And families come with immigration needs and we connect them with immigration legal services. We cannot pay immigration attorneys because we are a government entity. So by doing the connection and by talking and working with the families, we also see the basic needs like housing, employment and all of that. We really try to connect them in a holistic way with all of these services. We work a lot nowadays with Centro Hispano, Catholic Multicultural Center, Jewish Social Services and the Community Immigration Law Center. They have an immigration department in these non-profit agencies. They refer people to us for some social services and we refer them for immigration services.
It’s back and forth. We collaborate very well. And this is a positive partnership that we have. Also we have a list with all of the immigration law firms in town that is comprehensive and we provide to our clients. We still do social work and our main goal is to make these connections with agencies that assist the immigrant community.”
The Community Restorative Courts is the only program that Hamdan did not directly work in but she is getting up to speed.
“CRC works with people from 15-17-years-old,” Hamdan said. “It’s for first time offenders. They come to this program. They do circles. If they successfully complete this program, they can get their ticket or charge dismissed. It’s very interesting. And it is voluntary. Ron Johnson was the creator of that.”
Hamdan learned a lot from Chance with whom she has worked her entire Dane County career.
“He’s really been a mentor not only for myself, but also other social workers in JFF that also provides a very holistic approach to the needs of the community,” Hamdan said. “As a manager, one thing that I learned from Ron is that you should be humble. You might have this big title, but at the same time, you need to be humble and not have the title go to your head. We see that with some people out there. It’s just the pride that I have that I am doing this job because I love it. I’m passionate. And then just moving up, it’s also a really cool thing. Ron has always been there for us. And obviously, those are big shoes to fill. But I think I have my other qualities that I envision and hopefully implement that.”
The three programs that Hamdan oversees are voluntary programs that are preventive in nature.
“I think if we don’t have services like these programs, we will have people getting into the system, in Child Protective Services, delinquency, domestic abuse,” Hamdan said. “Once you get inside the system, it is very hard for you to get out because now you have tickets. You have a record. It’s like a snowball effect. But having preventive programs that do prevention, we let families and individuals avoid the system of corrections.”
These Community Programs are often the difference between families falling backwards and moving forward.
“Even if they know how to resolve the issues and problems, sometimes you don’t have the means. I got sick. I couldn’t pay my rent. I know I have to work to do that. But how am I going to do this if right now something happens in my home? That’s why you have programs like JFF or a program where they say, ‘We understand this is a bad time for you and your family. We are going to assist you so that you can keep moving on.’ It’s the same thing with a lot of the services. We are really try to prevent anything worse from happening. Child neglect and abuse happens to families that are totally stressed out. Maybe they don’t have the mental health assistance. Before anything happened to this child, we want to be able to be there and maybe do some referring, work with them and hopefully alleviate that issue.”
And these programs are making a difference for a lot of youth and families.
“For what I am seeing, I think JFF serves over 1,500 clients a year,” Hamdan observed. “I think CRC is up to over 500 a year. Immigration affairs served 807 families. The volume is there. We know that because we do intakes and we have a data system. There are a lot of people who come from all walks of life, not just Latinx, but people from all over the world, people who are struggling.”
And they get the work done with a little help from their friends.
“I think our programs are very self-sufficient because we work in collaboration with so many agencies,” Hamdan said. “It really helps us. It’s not only the county’s job to do what we do. We do it with assistance from other agencies. We collaborate in partnerships. All of that helps keep us in the shape we are. They are allies and we have donations from private people who want to assist. That also helps.”
While Hamdan did not set her sights on becoming community programs manager, looking back, she now sees it at the ultimate achievement of the hard work she has put in for over 25 years.
“You never know what you are going to have in your future,” Hamdan reflected. “But I think at this moment, with all of the work that I did in the past with the grassroots and a lot of collaborations and I think little by little, destiny got me to where I am. And I think it really is because I am passionate about the work that I do and social work and social work with JFF and Immigration Affairs and now I am learning from CRC. I think it is really fulfilling. And there is not one day where I will go home and say, ‘I hate my job.’ It’s something that sometimes keeps me up at night when we cannot address some challenges with people. But some days, I am super happy that something that we did helped this family or individual. The other thing that I wanted to say about moving up the ladder — social worker, supervisor and now manager — it is very important to leave this legacy to especially women of color. I think we should not have limitations to move up, especially for those new social workers and women of color who are out there. I want to be a role model to say if someone who immigrated from Bolivia can do this, then anyone can do this.”
As the new community programs manager, Fabiola Hamdan knows that having an impact on children and families in Dane County who are struggling is a team effort. With her staff, program partners and community financial supporters, Hamdan knows they will make a difference.
JFF is located in different areas in Dane County. That was a great opportunity. I was very lucky to meet Ron and then work all these areas. When I was an immigration affairs specialist, he was still my supervisor/manager.