SNOHOMISH — Velvet Franz is the city’s new community navigator.
What is Franz’s job as the community navigator?
Franz describes it as the “point person” in the city that deals with human health and human services.
“So on one hand, it's looking at programs and figuring out what the city can do, just kind of that higher level, you know, planning piece. And then at the time, it’s working directly with clients and finding resources and connecting people with those resources,” said Franz.
In her six months of being the community navigator, Franz has organized and helped plan community building events. One was National Night Out, the annual community-building campaign that looks to promote community ties with the police department.
Franz also helped witha personal preparedness for city employees.
“It's basically lots of different resources for how to prepare your family for emergencies, how to put together a to-do kit, how to put together a communications plan,” said Shari Ireton, the city’s director of Community Engagement and Strategic Initiatives.
Franz attended the University of Washington and received a degree in psychology. Franz also has an extensive background in social services and has experience with crisis intervention, support groups and nonprofit organizations.
Franz has had experience with multiple different job opportunities that make her suited for the role of community navigator. Such as being an overnight advocate at the Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, children’s social worker at the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families, claims adjuster at Progressive Insurance, relief advocate at Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, landing young adult shelter coordinator at Friends of Youth and more.
After working in social services since 2003, Franz decided to apply for Snohomish’s role of community navigator.
“Well, I was looking for work and I saw this position and I just felt like there was this opportunity to do something new and different and really serve people in this different way,” said Franz.
Franz does a lot of work with organizing and coordinating events but she also works on projects to help individuals in need of services like mental health, housing, food, medical and financial resources. One of these projects is the household grant process.
“The program is over now, but we were able to use some American Rescue Plan Act dollars to do direct household grants to folks so that they could catch up on bills or get car repairs or pay for, you know, a mobility scooter in one case or just different things that folks kind of needed to catch up on it after the pandemic,” said Franz.
The community navigator comes with a lot of responsibilities and requires a certain type of person.
Franz’s coworkers also agree that she has the necessary skills and attributes for the role of community navigator.
“One of the talents and traits that I appreciate the most about Velvet is she's an amazing listener, and she has incredible patience,” said Ireton.
If you or someone else is a Snohomish resident and in need of human services and would like to contact Velvet Franz you can call 360-913-4524.
Editor's note- Wednesday, Aug. 16, 4:20 p.m.:
This story has been updated from the version in print with the removal of a statement and modifications to remove potentially confusing quoted material.
