"One of Us"- Day 26

In working with a family the past two weeks I have been trying to help "Mom A" get linked with services via "Mom B"; it is proving to be a challenge and exemplifies all that is wrong with certain systems and protocols. "Mom A" pretty much trusts no one and has limited time given she is a bus driver with three children and a grandchild, and just lost her mother who was also living with them; the father of at least two of the children is incarcerated. She is not in a place to make calls and figure out what to do, but she is close with "Mom B" and trusts her, and has allowed her to reach out to me because Mom B trusts me. I in turn, with permission of Mom A, whom I've never met, reach out to the people who we are told will support students, and get kickback because none of the children go to our school any longer (irrelevant, they support cluster schools, and I'm not sorry the parent of former students trusts me over teachers where her children have been for four-five weeks). End result? Tell her she needs to call the counselor at one one of the schools. I told Mom B that this is what I was told, and she doesn't think Mom A will reach out...just getting Mom A to say please give my number to the appropriate people was a huge step. End result? It will be another family going without available and highly needed services all because of alleged protocol (you can't tell me the call couldn't have been made and they couldn't have filled out the paperwork together). Yet another reason I may not last until that 30 year retirement date, growing more disgusted by the day. In the meantime all I can do is give Mom A's son as much as I can, which will never meet the needs they have, as she doesn't know where they will live without her mother's income. I feel like I'm losing another one. At the end of the day they are a part of our community, whether they are still in our school or not, and she is a mother with hopes, dreams, fears and limitations, just like the rest of us. Sometimes the paperwork needs to be put aside until that much is remembered.