Stacey Smith’s Story

Stacey Smith grew up in Southeast DC, just two blocks from where Bread for the City’s Southeast Center is today. The oldest of ten siblings, Stacey’s responsibilities growing up included cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his younger brothers and sister. His mother struggled with drug addiction, and his family was partially supported by his grandparents. Even though Stacey’s family didn’t have much money, they would always help out other people in the neighborhood who had even less. Stacey credits this outlook on life with laying the foundation for his desire today to do social work.

As a young adult, however, Stacey never dreamed that some day he would be working towards a Masters in Social Work at Howard University. “I didn’t ask myself what I was going to do when I grew up. The focus was more on taking care of your family, making sure you finished high school. I never planned on going to college – we just couldn’t afford it.”

This mentality shifted at the age of 26, when a counselor at an education center convinced Stacey to go on a tour of colleges. “The counselor kept going at me: ‘You need to do something with your life.’ So I finally said ‘All right! I’ll go!’” Stacey ended up being accepted to three colleges.

In 1993 Stacey started attending St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina. For a year at college he was homeless, sleeping at various friends’ apartments. His family would tell him to come home to DC, but Stacey said: “No, I’m finishing this. I’ll see you when I’m done.”

Three years later, Stacey graduated with two degrees: in sociology and criminology. He returned to DC, where he worked at an elementary school before working as a legislative research assistant for Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). “I learned how things happen. I was part of the system that impacts my community on a macro level. It was an eye-opener. It inspired me to dive deeper, to get in the trenches.”

In 2003, Stacey came to BFC to drop off a clothing donation, and ended up in a long discussion with Stacey Long (at that time the Deputy Director of the Southeast Center), who eventually offered him a job as a Social Services Case Manager.

“The fact that my mom was an addict contributes to my ability to reach out and to be in tune with the people I serve. Whether it’s incarceration, addiction, death— I can tell them: ‘I understand. I’ve been there. I can relate to what you’re going through.’”

Stacey is also responsible for running BFC’s Pre Employment Program (PEP). “PEP is the basic training before the game,” Stacey says. “It gives our clients the necessary tools to become self sufficient. The program isn’t just about finding a job, but about making a career—getting somewhere and staying somewhere for the long term.”

Stacey says that, in his job, he lives for the “A-ha!” moment that clients have; the moment when his clients achieve clarity as to their own insufficiencies and strengths, and are able to build off of them—achieving greater strength in their personal lives as well as their professional lives.

Stacey sometimes brings his six-year-old son, Solace, to Bread for the City with him. “He understands what we’re doing. When he outgrows his clothes, he wants to bring them here. When he outgrew his first bike, he brought it here. Although we struggle sometimes, other people are less fortunate than we are.”

“I don’t see myself as a social worker,” Stacey says. “My work is a humbling, heartfelt, spiritual thing for me. I have the power to move people forward. What I put in to what I do—it comes from my heart.” Stacey adds: “This is my community. To be working right here in it means a lot.”