Leola Jenkins—a clinical social worker in the District of Columbia for over 30 years—realized years ago how stereotypes about mental illness prevent individuals’ recovery and stifle their ability to succeed. She has dedicated her career to promoting confidence in D.C. residents who suffer from mental and behavioral health problems.

Jenkins’s belief that all people can succeed with support and encouragement led her to establish the Office of Consumer and Family Affairs program under the D. C. Commission on Mental Health Services in 1994. She worked tirelessly to secure a $335,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that enabled her to develop and implement the commission’s policies and procedures and support the District’s mental health consumers. Through the Commission on Mental Health Services, D.C. residents and mental health consumers participate in empowering workshops and trainings.

In 1995, while still working at the Commission on Mental Health Services, Jenkins started a new initiative to create a sense of community among mental and behavioral health professionals and the individuals they work with. She emboldened mental health consumers being treated at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital to revive the staff cafeteria at the hospital, creating a new sense of accomplishment among her patients while providing an environment where patients and the clinical staff can mingle.

Since 2000 Jenkins has been a program manager at the Northwest Family Center where she supervises 15 employees from interdisciplinary backgrounds, who work together to counsel individuals with mental difficulties and reassure their families. Jenkins has successfully established multiple programs at the Center, including the Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADH) clinic. If not for Jenkins’s tireless efforts in establishing the first ADHD clinic in the District, her colleague, former Cafritz award winner, Dr. Tedla Giorgis, says, “a number of minority children would not have been able to go through testing and diagnostic assessments by experts.”

Jenkins has also created alliances to improve consumer care, established an advisory board to advocate for children and adolescents with mental and behavioral disorders, and instituted a summer camp for children treated at the Northwest Family Center.

In 2005, Jenkins played an instrumental role in founding the D.C. chapter of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. She volunteers her time to lead this support group and uses her own resources to purchase refreshments for the participants. Jenkins feels satisfied when giving to others and plans to share the funds that she receives from the Cafritz Awards with the children and families she serves. “What I do in life in helping others is a reward in itself, so I will use the funds that I get to support my program here.”

Jenkins’s resolve to transform the relationship between mental health consumers and the broader D.C. community extends beyond her work with patients. She is also an advocate for social workers and has chaired the National Association of Social Workers Political Action for Candidate Election Committee. Through this post she promoted policies to advance the cause of social work and protect social workers in the District.

Jenkins believes “there is a time in our lives to let things happen, and there is a time to make things happen,” and feels grateful to have had the opportunity to “make things happen” to improve her community. Through all her efforts, Jenkins has formed unity among stakeholders and empowered people through support and understanding. She has opened the world to countless D.C. residents who are affected by mental health disorders. “People can succeed in life,” says Jenkins, “no matter what obstacles they face or what challenges they may have.”

Jenkins enjoys singing and dancing, and would like to acknowledge the love and support of her husband and two children.