ACAC's New Program Director Looks to Give Back

On a blue lanyard that Jan Bowman uses to unlock doors throughout Allied Churches of Alamance County, one small silver key sticks out.

“Take keys for example,” she said. “That means ownership, and we sometimes take that for granted. … I carry this key with me because it’s symbolic of ownership and the little things.”

Bowman, 55, was recently hired as the program director for ACAC, overseeing the shelter, kitchen and food pantry staffs. She’d previously served as the program specialist through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act program, a federal law that “ensures immediate enrollment and educational stability for homeless children,” in the Alamance-Burlington School System.

“We had a young man who came to us who was living in the woods,” she said. “He was 18, and he wanted to go back to school. He had dropped out and wanted to go back, and he had some barriers. He didn’t have access to a computer, so we paid off some fines and got him back up and running at the library. He was not going to leave the camp site, so we got him a nice warm sleeping bag and heavy coat, and got him a way to for him to shower and to do laundry discreetly. And we asked what else he needed, and it was the most telling. He said he needed a foot locker. We asked why, and he paused. He wanted something with a key.”

Originally from Galax, Va., Bowman and her husband, Bruce, moved to Alamance County to raise their family.

“We moved here right before they started school,” she said. “We chose Alamance County to raise our kids.”

Following in her parents footsteps, she was active in a number of education or school-related organizations.

“My parents were always very active community members,” she said. “My mother and my father were both involved, and it never dawned on me that there was any other way. If you take from the community, you’ve got to give back. It’s the natural flow.”

In recent years, Allied Churches has grown, and Bowman is the first to fill this new position.

“I saw it as an opportunity for personal and professional growth,” she said. “And I knew it would be a much faster pace. I knew it was multifaceted and would involve switching gears and thinking on your feet. And I knew it was time to make a change that really challenged me professionally.”

The goal of Allied Churches is to support people and keep them from becoming homeless, and then working to get them back on their feet if they find themselves without a home, she said.

“We want to get people housed and have them be self-sustaining,” Bowman said. “We want to give them the tools and resources they need to be able to support themselves.”

Outside of Allied Churches, Bowman is an active runner and cyclist, and she enjoys photography.

Credit: The Times-News 

April 2015