We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Scott Hess a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Scott , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you manage your own social media?

Over the past several years we have increased our use of social media, sharing about our services for survivors of domestic violence with disabilities. Using imagery, stories and film, we have broadened our reach greatly. We have seen a major jump with people interested in making a difference and supporting our mission, both financially and in-kind, particularly with volunteering. We currently have multiple volunteer projects – including an artist painting a mural at our domestic violence shelter and two volunteer designers who renovated our kids learning center at our supportive housing program in the Bronx.

Scott , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began working with Barrier Free Living as an admin support member and was drawn to the incredible work being done with people with disabilities, and survivors of domestic violence with disabilities at the programs. The agency encourages internal growth, outside of the box thinking and innovation (I helped develop our first staff innovation award). I soon channeled my creative thinking skills and communication experience into a series of new roles, eventually taking on the position of Director of Communications. Several years back, we began to develop a fund raising vision for the agency creating a solid foundation (a donor database and online event planning platform) before launching our first fund raiser. In line with this shift, I became the Director of Communication & Development. I am grateful to be able to share our mission with the world and with new supporters, and also to be able to share so many success stories from the survivors we work with on our blog and social media as well as during events.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect is collaborating creatively with our entire team and the survivors we work with on everything from events (both internal staff celebrations, tenant community events and external fund raising events). While fund raising events (like our recent 40 years of firsts celebrating our 40 years as an agency) have been a great way to connect with colleagues and supporters, smaller events at our programs have been equally amazing. One group I helped create was our tenant garden club at our supportive housing program in the Bronx. I worked with a small group of tenants on transforming the 6th floor roof area into a beautiful “healing” garden area. The tenants also worked with our occupational therapy team, growing vegetables in the garden and using these in a healthy cooking group.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Regarding our fund raising journey, we found that investing in tools like a bloomerang database system and the givebutter event planning page have made a huge difference in the ability of our very small team to stay focused, organized and to really accomplish a lot.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bflnyc.org
• Instagram: bfl_newyork
• Facebook: barrierfreeliving
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrier-free-living/
• Twitter: @barrierfreel
• Youtube: @barrierfreeful
• Other: Vimeo https://vimeo.com/user9812417