“You can come back.”

Employee Spotlight: Lucille Overton, Care Coordinator

CaringWorks Care Coordinator Lucille Overton not only has the professional expertise to work with those who have experienced homelessness, but she also brings a unique personal experience. Her passion for this work comes from years spent serving others—but also from a time when she herself experienced homelessness.

Lucille’s path began in the United States Army, where she spent nearly seven years serving in the mental health field. After leaving the military, she worked in human services roles in the foster care and adoption systems, and with the Department of Family and Children’s Services. But in 2013, life took a difficult turn and Lucille ended up in a homeless shelter with her children.

“People do have a misperception of the homeless,” Lucille said. “They don’t think it can be a person like me who had a job, was working every day with a career, but after a divorce and losing a job, my savings only went so far and I had no choice but to find another avenue to survive.”

With help from a Veteran’s program, Lucille and her children found housing and stability, and her journey ignited a desire to work in homeless services. Today, Lucille works in a program at CaringWorks that serves single mothers, and her lived experience helps her build trust with clients.

“That really honed in on my desire to work in this space.” she said. “It’s been very rewarding for me; I can show my clients that you can come back from it.”

Lucille works with her clients to set goals, and she encourages them to approach goals one day at a time, recognizing that progress looks different for everyone.

“You’re going to have setbacks and disappointments, but you have to keep moving forward. You make some plans to fail, and you have a plan to get back up.”

Using this approach, Lucille recently celebrated a client who had long dreamed of earning her GED, but who had faced roadblocks along the way.

“When I met with her, she had stopped working toward it,” Lucille said. “I told her, ‘No, this is something that you’ve been saying you want to do so let’s get to it. What are some things in real time you can do to make this happen?’”

A few months later, her client earned her diploma, and with honors.

“I was so proud of her for staying the course.”

For Lucille, stories like this are why she does the work.

“I want clients to be proud of themselves,” she said. “I’m big on supporting them, to hype them up. My main focus is that they keep hope—if I see even a twinkle of hope, then I know they can get it done.”

September 2025