What kind of agency was WRC? What was Carla Hudson’s job at the WRC?

Question

Carla Hudson, a Black social worker with the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), had worked with Maria Velasquez, a Mexican immigrant and mother of two children, for several years as she struggled to escape a violent home situation. Maria was Carla’s first Spanish-speaking client. Maria’s spoken English was easily understandable, but she could not read or write English well. As Carla assisted Maria in acquiring mainstream services, including Head Start, TANF, Food Stamps, and WIC, she noticed barriers to services that she began to suspect were related to discrimination against Spanish-speaking clients. When two White Head Start caseworkers refused to help Maria attain educational support that she needed in order to gain English literacy, Carla faced the challenge of addressing discrimination issues in another agency and perhaps throughout the service delivery system in Jasper, Alabama.

Answer 1

The WRC served women in violent domestic situations. It began in 1975 as a volunteer organization and had grown to nine offices serving twelve counties. The executive director, Sonya Vickers, supervised a staff of twenty professionals.
Most of the workers were baccalaureate level caseworkers. Funding for the agency came from a variety of federal and state grants, United Way, and private donations. Services offered by WRC were free to clients. In 2002, WRC responded to about 10,000 crisis calls and served approximately 4,000 women and their children. The agency served mostly Black or White clients, and the staff was balanced between these same two ethnic groups. The agency had very few clients of other racial or ethnic groups.
Carla was a caseworker with WRC and the facilitator of a support group for clients of the agency.