On the blog this month, Executive Director Chris Purnell urged us to fight with love and compassion, and we got to know Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Paralegal Kim Smith. We took a close look at our partner, Brookside Community Development Corporation, and the work they're doing to serve their neighborhood. We also introduced you to our Financial Counseling program, run by our Financial Counselor Angie Simmons. And, in honor of National Crime Victims' Rights Week this April, we shared the story of a client we are assisting through our Victim Justice Program.

Although she did not initially seek out a position that corresponded with her Christian faith, Kim finds that part of her work to be especially meaningful. At the end of each intake, Dee Dee asks clients if they would like prayer, and they almost always say yes. “I’ve been here for over four years and I can think of maybe only two people that have said they don’t want prayer,” says Kim. “And when Dee Dee prays for them, that’s when they let it all go. They almost always walk out feeling better.”

Dee Dee Gowan was only 21 years old when she was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy. Her first duty station was the Naval Ocean Processing Facility at Ford Island, a small island inside Pearl Harbor. For three years, she lived and worked in Hawaii, but was assigned to her next duty station at the Pentagon during the First Gulf War. On her last day in Hawaii, Dee Dee looked through the plane window and promised herself that when she had a family of her own, she would return. But three decades passed, life got in the way, and the promise she made to herself went unfulfilled.