James Traglia is one of our longtime providers – he will be celebrating ten years with the IPA this July! He recently took some time to share why he decided this was the work for him and how helping others allows him to feel fulfilled and successful in his career.

No more 9-5! A full 180 leads to a new career path.

James started his career journey with an associates degree in business from Herkimer County Community College and then went on to graduate with a Bachelors from SUNY Polytechnic. He landed a couple corporate jobs after college and after experiencing that career path, he felt unfilled and realized that he needed a change.

Back in 2015, his cousin and his good friend both told him about ICAN’s IPA (ICAN at the time was named Kids Oneida) he started as a part time mentor with us and soon after began working full time. He started providing Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) services, which means helping people learn daily living skills, social skills, and vocational skills. It includes helping them build connections with their community to help alleviate feelings of loneliness AND build a social network they can rely on.

He quickly began making a real difference in people's lives. And it felt awesome. It was a complete 180 from where he was in his career path, but in this new role, he realized how making a difference in other’s lives could make a huge difference in your own.

Learning a new field through peers and support

James dove in! He started learning everything he could about providing PSR, how to be a good mentor and how to expand his skill set within the IPA. He is grateful that the ICAN’s IPA has given him a knowledgeable and extensive network to reach out to for advice and guidance when he needs it – both staff and other IPA providers. He currently has a caseload of 11-12 clients of varying ages but mostly middle and high school youth. He has even been able to help out in our school based programs in Herkimer County, at Poland and Madison Central Schools, when the social workers and counselors needed assistance to handle their caseload. The ability to choose what assignments he takes allows him flexibility in his work schedule and to create a nice work life balance. It also allows him to not only have a fulfilling and meaningful career, but also build lasting professional relationships in his community.

It all starts with rapport!

When James meets new clients, he doesn’t start out on day one working towards their goals. It’s about creating a relationship first. Building trust. Creating rapport.

He incorporates things they enjoy to help with this process. It could be as simple as a game of catch or a walk – anything to help clients relax. It’s never the same process from client-to-client. He gets to know them and utilizes different public spaces like libraries, colleges and parks to fit each person's personality. An activity rooted in exercise can assist with showing them that physical activity can help them right from the start manage anger and big emotions.

Once clients are to a level of comfort to start opening up to him, the real work of reaching their goals starts. For a child to share, acknowledge, learn and be able to adopt new skills and mindsets, it may take a LOT of work. He stresses that it takes everyone to help achieve those goals – family members, himself, other workers in the child’s life, even teachers. He likes to not only focus on his clients' needs but to also try to repair some of the family dynamics that may have contributed to what he is addressing with his client.

Success takes time. Sow the seeds now!

PSR and mentoring work is sowing seeds for the future. Sometimes it takes months or even years for the work he does to click with the client and many times he may not see the results in the time the client is working with him.

Over the past decade, he’s had many former clients reach out or see him out and about in public and express how much the guidance and skills he gave them stuck. Those are rewarding moments!

But getting to be a meaningful part of a child's life as a positive role model is ALWAYS worth the work! Sometimes children are not surrounded by positive role models. He feels lucky to be able to be one for so many!

A little about James outside of work

He loves and collects retro video games and hopes someday to travel to Italy!
He credits his faith for allowing him to be able to help others and he is truly thankful for being put in a position where he can do that every day.
He is very close to his parents and his sisters and wouldn’t be able to do this work without their support.

About ICAN’s IPA

Our Independent Practice Association (IPA) is a network of individual providers and agencies, working alongside ICAN staff and programs, who are committed to streamlining access to services to improve health and wellness.They ensure that every child, youth and adult is given the highest level of care and all of the tools they need to excel at life.

Check out more about how you can make a difference in a child's life and help strengthen your community with our IPA here https://www.icanipa.com/