ILA Member Spotlight – Pamela Jefferson

A San Diego native, ILA Member Pamela Jefferson is proud to be giving back to her community as the owner of Simply Living Independent House, located in the Lemon Grove neighborhood of San Diego. As a member of the ILA since August 2016, Pamela finds great joy and purpose in providing a stable and safe environment for the women in her home.

Prior to opening her Independent Living, Pamela was in the real estate and construction business when she started to look into opening her own adult daytime home health facility, wanting to provide resources for a sector of the low-income and underserved populations. Her research eventually led her to information about opening an Independent Living, an idea she had considered years ago after a friend who ran several of his own Independent Livings introduced her to the concept and shared his experiences. Lacking a sense of purpose in the real estate and construction industries, Pamela realized that running an Independent Living was the purpose she was looking for, and heard about the ILA from her younger sister whose friend was an IL owner.

Pamela was extremely excited knowing there was an organization like the ILA available to support her as she got to work on opening her home. “It’s been a blessing, it’s been exciting, it’s actually been fulfilling for me in addition to its challenges”, says Pamela. And how does she deal with those challenges? “Live as a family, that’s my motto.” Pamela stresses the importance to her residents of being a support to one another when someone is going through a crisis or a stressful time.

As an owner who has taken advantage of all the ILA has to offer, Pamela hopes the ILA will continue to offer the resources and education that is made available to member owners, and to reach out to IL owners who are not yet members so that they, too, can benefit from ILA trainings and education. Pamela says the ILA gives her the confidence she needs to operate her home: “It’s like I have a big sister overseeing me.”

Similar with many IL owners, it is rare for Pamela to have a lot of free time, but when she does have some time to spare she enjoys relaxing and will often sit down with the women in her home and strike up a conversation. Pamela says that she tries to get to know each of them on a personal basis and find out how they are doing and what she can do to help them.

For more information on Simply Living Independent House, please visit Pamela’s profile on the ILA Directory at: http://ilasd.org/listings/simply-living-independent-house/.