Meet Xenia

Xenia is a homegrown Santa Cruzan who truly values making a tangible difference working within her community. 

She’s a UC Santa Barbara alumnus with a degree in Sociology and an emphasis on law. Later, while working with incarcerated youth, she became aware of the cyclical connection between injustice, discrimination, and homelessness.

She understands the frustrations of clients dealing low wages, high living costs, aging, and limited housing.  Xenia finds it inspiring however, that the AFC can truly work as a community partner, not only providing needed services, but fostering supportive relationships between individuals.  She appreciates this very humanizing approach. 

Xenia’s not afraid to go above and beyond to help her clients, including taking a day trip to San Francisco. Being frustrated with the bureaucracy of obtaining a birth certificate needed to receive a housing voucher, she and her 80-year old client hopped aboard public transportation, and headed straight to City Hall. This out-of-the-box support meant a great deal to her client, in addition to offering a fun adventure for the pair.

Xenia says that she feels lucky to learn so much from her clients, and appreciates hearing about their life stories and the wisdom they bring. She says her role as case manager is less about “giving back” to her community, and more about being a helpful advocate for change. Xenia says that professionally, she is exactly where she is supposed to be right now. And for the AFC, it is truly our privilege to have her. 
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Written by Nicole Donovan