Meet Our Volunteers: Deb Timmons
Every Wednesday, you can find Deborah Timmons at EMBARC’s Access Center at 4801 Franklin Avenue in Des Moines. Since October 2021, Deb has volunteered at the Access Center to support the refugee and immigrant community.
We appreciate the work that Deb and all our volunteers do. And because April is National Volunteer Month, we want to share the crucial support Deb offers the EMBARC community.
For Deb and her husband Dan, volunteering proves key to who they are. Deb roots her volunteering in a sermon she heard in church long ago. The pastor explained the difference between sympathy and empathy—between feeling bad for someone and putting yourself in their shoes.
“I want to walk beside people, not just throw money at a problem, situation or organization. I want to get to know people and be in their lives,” Deb explained.
The pair spend countless hours serving their community. Each week, they might be volunteering with Freedom for Youth, helping inner-city youth in Des Moines; with Joppa, bringing supplies to the homeless; and supporting the immigrants and refugees at Laurel Village, a Karen community adopted by their church. When I asked Deb how much she volunteered every week, she could only respond: “I don’t know. As much time as is needed.”
About ten years ago, their church—Gloria Dei Lutheran Church—adopted a Karen community at Laurel Village Apartment Complex. Gloria Dei set up a mentoring program and many members of the church worked one-on-one with residents to resolve their issues as new arrivals and refugees in the U.S.
“EMBARC’s name kept coming up,” Deb said.
A friend of Deb’s at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Norma Rohn, already volunteered at EMBARC and encouraged Deb to join her.
Due to COVID-19, EMBARC held virtual clinics and there was less need for volunteers at that time. But when EMBARC returned to weekly in-person clinics in October 2021, Deb began volunteering at EMBARC’s clinic.
Deb said the sort of issues she deals with are varied.
“It could be helping clients sign up for [Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program], helping clients sign up for reduced rate internet, helping with health insurance issues, helping clients with green card renewals, helping clients make an appointment to get taxes done. It could be calling [Department of Human Services] with some issues they’re having with benefits. Whatever they present to us is what we try to figure out and solve or explain to them,” she said.
Deb confronts occasional frustrations.
“The challenges aren’t because of the clients,” Deb explained. “You can call, you’re on hold for 40 minutes and then for some unknown reason you get disconnected or you find out you have been waiting for the wrong person or department. Those are the frustrating ones. During the three hour window that I volunteer when I can’t resolve the client’s issue, it is frustrating, when it should be just a simple phone call.”
But usually, the work proves rewarding. In one case, “I helped a client who had been erroneously charged medical expenses that should have been covered under Medicaid because they hadn’t been filed properly by the provider,” Deb said. “I will never forget the look on her face when we solved the issue and I told her, ‘You owe zero dollars.’”
Ultimately, Deb’s reward is knowing she’s eased the burdens of others. At EMBARC, the simple experience of having friends like Deb walk beside us helps every day.