At the end of last year, NEW named Antoinette Norris NEW’s new Director of Programs. Norris oversees NEW’s seven programs that serve as many as 200 women and children a year. For the past six years, Norris has served as Program Manager of two of NEW’s programs, Rachael’s House and New Hope.
“Antoinette is extremely competent and organized, and I love her approach to problem-solving,” said Wanda Steptoe, NEW’s Executive Director. “She is also very caring and wants to ensure the women are served in the best way possible.”
In her new role, Norris hopes to expand the way that NEW serves clients. “I would like to enhance NEW’s partnerships in the community,” said Norris, “Especially with mental and physical health consultants and more programming for the women.”
Norris has been in social services for 20 years. It’s the “connectedness of our stories,” she said, that keeps her in the field. “We are all connected in struggles and challenges. The stories might be different, but there are some central themes that connect us,” she said. “Once you find that connectedness, it makes the work not seem like work. It just seems like you are helping a friend or a neighbor.”
Antoinette earned an undergraduate degree in psychology and then a Master's in counseling, both from Trinity University. When she graduated, she was determined that she did NOT want to work with adults. She took an internship with Rachael's House in any case because she needed it to graduate. In true optimistic Antoinette form, she ended up connecting to her clients. "I was already very women-centric in my thinking, but I didn't know it at the time," she said. "These were women. I'm a woman. That right there is a very powerful connection," she said.
A DC native and the youngest of seven children, growing up, Antoinette was always fascinated with human behavior. "I wanted to know why people do what they do and why they think what they think," she said. Antoinette's brother went through some life challenges, and she remembers asking her parents, "Why can't he just get it together?" It was this desire to know and understand that led her to social work. "I wanted to find out how I could help people change their behavior," she said. “For the most part, people just want to be heard. Just listening to someone can be medicine for the soul.”