How This Service Coordinator Makes All the Difference to Our Spanish Speaking Families

When Service Coordinator Specialist, Jesus Gutierrez, joined AZA almost four years ago, he started in Clinical Family Coaching. After a year, he moved into the service coordinator role supporting home services for the ABA program and now has 68 families he currently supports!  When asked what his role entails, Jesus answers with a smile, “Keeping an eye on our clients” but it’s obvious his job is incredibly varied, high-pressured and meaningful to him. To excel in this position, Jesus must keep on top of numerous spinning plates, be super-organized and most of all, be happy and willing to serve our clients.  

One group of clients who are under-served in the autism community is the Spanish-speaking families. According to Jesus, they are desperate for services and don’t understand what autism is. Barriers in communication slow down their progress in the system.  

Jesus, like most of Team AZA, takes his responsibility to his clients seriously and being the support person for Spanish-speaking families is especially rewarding. He sets aside up to 45 minutes to help them walk through securing DDD services or to help the parents understand what might be causing their DDD declinations. Through this dedicated support and communication, Jesus can help clients feel more secure. It’s not uncommon for a family to say, “You’re the first person to call me back” or “You’re the only person to speak Spanish and the first one to give me any information.”  

Due to lack of autism education in their community, Spanish-speaking families need encouragement and someone to convey the meaning of all the new language they must learn. The process is, for all families, overwhelming and draining but especially for the families who feel left out in the cold. And it hurts Jesus in his heart, he explains, that he speaks to families who have gotten nowhere for months because no one was willing to guide them or get back to them.  

What keeps Jesus motivated, especially when he feels the enormous pressure of his job, is the culture and people of AZA, “I love the people at AZA and haven’t run into anyone here who isn’t here for the right reason. From technicians all the way up to management, everyone wants to be part of a greater cause and not just working to get a paycheck.”  

We are passionate about serving our client families, but we also recognize our most important asset: our people. If this speaks to you, go to our careers page to see our openings.

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