Streeter is a clinical psychologist and the executive director of Ascensions Community Services in Anacostia. She was one of 10 winners nationwide to get a $125,000 award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for providing mental health care to the underserved.
What kind of work to you do at Ascensions?
I provide mental health services to families east of the Anacostia River. And those services include therapy, psychoeducation, support and any other innovative services we can give to help families.
What kind of change have you seen since you started?
Since we opened in 2004 we’ve been able to work with 500 families. And we’ve been able to see those families make better choices and better decisions, and work with mothers and help them heal themselves so that they can provide more healing for the children so their children can be more functional and be positive members of the community instead of destructive members.
How did you wind up in Anacostia?
I moved to Washington in 2001 … and my first step was I wanted to find a job working with the children [in Anacostia]. And there were no community organizations that provided the kinds of mental health services that I wanted to provide, so I decided to come there myself. … There’s no way to heal a child and send them back into a dysfunctional environment and think those changes are going to last.
You’re a Girl Scout leader, a volunteer psychologist at an elementary school, and help members at your church with parenting and marriage problems. That seems like a full plate.
Whenever you’re passionate about something, you’ll make time to do what you need to do.
You also worked without a salary for two years. How did you make ends meet?
I lived well below my means during that time.
– rman
