One of Clayton County’s Shero’s
Essie Crawford
Devry University
Abstract
Ms. Johnnie is an Outreach Coordinator of the Clayton Center where she heads several groups for grandparents, parents, and children. Ms. Johnnie goes above and beyond the call of duty in order to help those in her community and never asking for anything in return. The impressions that she leaves on children are ever –lasting, just as the impressions that the children leave on her. That is something that no amount of money can buy. It is simply priceless.
One of Clayton County’s Shero’s
There are people who do so much and never receive the recognition that they deserve. I ran across someone who truly fits this description to the core. She is a very intelligent, warm-hearted woman. People like her should be known about because she is a “silent hero,” and the silent heroes are the people that make the communities better without a second thought.
The woman that I am speaking about is Ms. Johnnie Watkins, known to everyone as “Ms. Johnnie,” with her long time nickname of “Queen.” Ms. Johnnie was born and raised in Georgia. She went to Georgia State University where she received her AS and BS in social work. Ms. Johnnie has a 15-year old son who she has raised as a single parent due to the unfortunate death of her son’s father.
Ms. Johnnie is the type of person who does a lot for the children and parents within the community and never thinks anything about it. She runs several groups for children as well as for parents and grandparents. Ms. Johnnie also feed the homeless, have the children make care packages for the homeless, help families in need, take the children on different excursions, works part time with the board of elections, and to top it all off, she makes time for herself and time to spend with her 15-year old son.
You would never have thought that social work was not Ms. Johnnie’s choice of career. Her passion is working with children. She was actually forced in the career because she did not want to work on the North Side of Georgia because she did not have anyone to assist her with her son. Before social work, Ms. Johnnie worked in the Healthcare and Insurance industry for 22 years. She worked two jobs for 10 years.
Ms. Johnnie’s current position is Outreach Coordinator of the Clayton Center. Her position entails to go out and do health fairs and marketing for the entire agency that consists of five facilities. She also assist clients with community resources such as housing, food, dental care, etc.. Besides that, she also heads several groups which include a parenting group entitled, “Guiding Good Choices”; another group entitled, “Kinship” which is for grandparents who are taking care of their grandchildren; then there is a group entitled, “ PREP” which stands for Personal Responsibility Educational Program. That group is for ages 11-19 which gets in depth about sex education, how dangerous sex can be at a young age, caution of going to the mall with friends because a lot of teens go to the mall to shoplift. Also it focuses on how to teach the youth how to make good choices when it comes to choosing friends, bullying, and making proud choices. Last but not least in the groups that she heads is the Top program which is federally funded for teens ages 11-19 which its main component is to teach life skills and the importance of school. If that isn’t enough, she also assists with grant writing, Coordinator of Health and Safety of her building located in Morrow, and the coordinator of Risk management.
In her spare time, Ms. Johnnie enjoys listening to Jazz, going to plays, and dancing. When asked how does she break it all down and handle everything, she replied, “It’s all about time management and keeping organizational skills.” So of course, I had to ask “How do you balance a healthy life and work?” she replied, “It’s not easy, but my job is flexible enough to where my son is allowed to come and I take time for me at some point. It’s all about balancing. I find time to do things with my son and I also have a God mother who helps and is the closest person in my life besides my son.”
Ms. Johnnie feels that the politics at work is one of her greatest stressors especially when she is unable to access the resources like she should. Besides the politics at work, what stresses her out the most is when there is an issue with a child and she cannot find a resolution. That brings me to what my daughter has told me about Ms. Johnnie. My daughter said, “Ms. Johnnie has a great sense of humor and she really cares about us.” I then asked my daughter, “How do you know she cares?” She replied, “I know that she cares there was one day that a boy was crying and told her why, and she just stopped everything she was doing and fixed the problem.” My daughter then went on to say, “Ms. Johnnie is a fun person, she likes to take us to these interesting places. All of the things that she does for this program and for the kids in T.O.P. is out of her being nice.”
I also spoke to my son because he also goes to her group on a different day than my daughter and he said this about Ms. Johnnie. “Ms. Johnnie is the type of person to give back to the community just because she likes the feeling of everybody being happy. She is one of the most thoughtful persons I know. In all of the groups that she has, she treats them including me and my sister, as if we were her own. She goes out of her way to plan trips and give us prizes. She is such a good-hearted person, she is all about the kids and she always puts them first.”
The most rewarding part of the job for Ms. Johnnie is when she does things for the children and the amount of gratitude that she gets back from the children, such as the hugs that she receives when she does things like when she allowed the children to pick what they wanted or wanted to do for Christmas and she made it happen taking them to the nail salon, the mall, the zoo. Ms. Johnnie said, “The children were so happy.” Ms. Johnnie advised me that when she is at her lowest point, and she thinks about things such as the amount of gratitude that the children have towards her and she comes to the realization that it makes it all worthwhile.
When asked what advice she would offer to someone who was aspiring to be as successful as she is? She stated, “To always have integrity, always strive to do your very best, and be passionate in whatever you are doing.” I finally asked Ms. Johnnie what were her fears and she stated, heights and not being around to experience having a grandchild. I advised Ms. Johnnie that she is around too many children and children make you young so you will be around for a long time.
We need more Ms. Johnnie’s in this world. In all that she does, never asking for anything in return is priceless. Ms. Johnnie is truly a gem and I am so glad that I had the pleasure of meeting her and was allowed a chance to get to know her a little bit better. I am grateful for what she does for my children as I am sure that other parents are too. She is making this county a better place one child, one family at a time.
