How Do You Adequately Describe a Superstar?
 

Jamilah Dalton with longtime MOW driver, Joan Wiley

Jamilah Dalton is a native of Alexandria and busy mother to two girls, aged 7 and 3. She's been working for the Fairfax County's Sheriff's office for 19 years – initially in the jails, then, courts and currently, as a lieutenant in the Finance and Budget office.

She is the dedicated volunteer President of Soroptimist International of Manassas, an organization whose focus is the social and economic empowerment of women and girls living in domestic violence shelters. Those descriptors alone would be impressive enough; however, her list of volunteer credentials is far from done.

Seven years ago, Jamilah was inspired by reading about Fairfax County's V-16 initiative – an employee volunteer leave benefit – and Volunteer Solutions got to be the lucky recipient of her time and talents! She signed up to be a Driver Coordinator with Meals on Wheels for the Little River Glen route which covers a 5 mile radius in Fairfax. For several years, she has been dedicated to managing routes in Fairfax, Franconia and McLean and is well-versed in the Driver and Group Coordinator positions.

When asked what her favorite parts of her leadership roles are, Jamilah answered, "Interacting with volunteers who are so invested in their roles. They really care about clients. I like being a part of this experience and providing this service."

Here's a brief overview to get a "taste" of what these positions entail.

As a Driver Coordinator (D.C.), Jamilah creates monthly schedules and places volunteer drivers in calendar slots according to their availability. She assigns new drivers to veteran drivers so that they can shadow and learn from them. She is also the liaison between the county workers whose clients receive the meals and the volunteer drivers. If the client isn't home at the time of the delivery, or if the client is exhibiting concerning behavior, the driver will call the driver coordinator and Jamilah will then contact the assigned county worker to update them. There are times when a driver can't deliver at the last minute and Jamilah will step in.

When asked about what makes someone a strong coordinator, Jamilah said, "good communication and organization" is important. She explained that she receives emails, calls or texts (mostly emails) from drivers and that she keeps running notes. For the driver coordinator position, it is important to be available between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the weekdays that the deliveries run and to stay on top of updating the calendar schedule.

As Jamilah explained, the Group Coordinator (G.C.) role is totally different, yet still requires the same traits mentioned above. The G.C. tracks meals, updates client information in route books and updates the route maps/stops when clients are added or taken off. Jamilah created her own database to keep track of the routes! She said that's certainly not a requirement for people who don't have that level of I.T. knowledge, and that they should be comfortable with programs such as Word in order to create their own ways of tracking meal recipients and addresses/map routes.

On some routes, volunteers split tasks. For instance, one person updates the route maps online and another person prints it out and takes it to the meal delivery location for drivers to look at while delivering. One duty that both the D.C. and G.C. coordinator roles have in common is that they communicate with county nutrition staff. The former emails the monthly driver calendar and the latter emails a monthly report with meal counts.

Fairfax County is very grateful to Jamilah Dalton for her dedication, time and talents! The Meals on Wheels program wouldn't be able to operate without its invaluable volunteer drivers and leaders. A Meals on Wheels recipient recently expressed her deep gratitude to all involved in the preparation, coordination and delivery of meals, "I send my thanks to you all! You make it possible for me to age in place."

If you're interested in further enriching your life/volunteer experience by possibly taking on a Meals on Wheels leadership role in one of the 48 routes with an opening, please email VolunteerSolutions@FairfaxCounty.gov or call 703-324-5406, TTY 711 for more information. There are several routes in urgent need of coordinators.