Teaming Up to Improve Supportive Services for Residents and Staff — January 15, 2025

We’re very pleased that Carmen Tomaš, a former Scattered Site Housing Manager, has returned to Clare Housing as our new Mental Health Program Manager. Carmen brings with her a wealth of experience from her years working at Clare and her time at People Incorporated. Working alongside our Director of Health Programs, Hibo Ibrahim, we’re very excited to see how Carmen and Hibo will improve services and expand resources for our residents and staff.

Carmen started as a Supportive Services Manager at Clare in 2015, working at our Midtown building and then with Scattered Site residents until 2022. During that time she became a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, which then brought her to People Incorporated as the manager of their Intensive Residential Treatment Services, a 24/7 mental health treatment program. As a social worker she was able to see that alongside the excellent supportive services Clare provides, residents could benefit from additional services and support on-site. “Clare has always strived to give good supportive services,” she says “but without the funding [for more internal services] there’s been a lot of external referrals.”

Hibo started at Clare this past summer, following extensive experience working in public health at Hennepin County and the Department of Human Services at the state of Minnesota. Her work at the state was focused on health care policy, ensuring that people facing barriers like immigration status have access to health insurance. “I was getting burnt out at the state, seeing very small steps of progress,” she says “I needed a change and wanted to be more directly working with people, I really missed the outreach aspect of public health… I wanted to work hands on and see progress with a team.”

Hibo has already seen big success in her work at Clare Terrace, our apartment building in Robbinsdale, managing the Chronic Disease Prevention Program funded by a grant from Hennepin County. We were able to begin offering more comprehensive care coordination health-focused services, like helping manage doctor’s appointments and arranging transportation, to our residents at Terrace. In particular, Hibo says “a lot of residents hadn’t been to a dentist in a long time… [this program] was very successful in getting residents dental care.” Having demonstrated how positive these supports can be, we’ve extended this program to residents at Marshall Flats and are seeing similar results.

Now with Carmen on board, Hibo and Carmen are teaming up to improve our mental health support services. “It’s nice to come back to a place and feel like I can get up and running quickly because people know me,” Carmen says.

Hibo agrees, adding “Carmen is a great fit for this role because she already has so much experience here.” Carmen and Hibo have been meeting with staff across the organization and assessing what skills staff would like to improve. With a grant from the Department of Human Services (DHS), they are working with the Training Institute, a program of People Incorporated. Over the next 3 months the Training Institute will lead workshops for direct line staff on understanding our resident’s trauma backgrounds and practicing support skills.

“I really see my role as building staff’s capacity, feeling like our staff can help and support residents,” says Carmen. Over time Hibo and Carmen will continue to grow the mental health program, planning to add continuous monthly trainings for staff and assessing resident interest in additional on-site wellness programs. The goal is to develop a sustainable mental health program for Clare Housing that will provide long-term benefits for both our residents and staff, fostering overall well-being and support.

At Clare we know that it takes a wide variety of skills and relationships to create the optimal environment for our residents, and expanding everyone’s capacity will help us continue to build a community where residents can thrive. We are so glad to have Carmen and Hibo on board as we strengthen the future of Clare Housing.