Meet Us Monday: Tauchanna, Motherhood Pathway Navigator

Kicking off Meet Us Monday, is Tauchanna Bullock, our Motherhood Pathway Navigator and a former educator of 20 years.

After working in education, Tauchanna moved to Richmond where she worked for the Health Department as a supervisor for the Virginia Family & Fatherhood Initiative. Tauchanna’s work has always involved a passion for helping people and helping expecting families and current parents get on their feet. She has always enjoyed working with women, especially those with children. In addition to Tauchanna’s work at REAL LIFE, she loves to “read, love, and pray.”

Through the Virginia Family & Fatherhood Initiative, Tauchanna taught motherhood classes in the jail to the ladies in the REAL Program. The classes she taught and her work with the ladies was phenomenal. Shortly thereafter, as female programming expanded, Tauchanna was hired as the Female Program Coordinator at the jail.

After REAL LIFE expanded into the community and opened the community center, a woman contacted her looking for assistance as a single, expectant mother as she had nowhere to go. Fortunately, REAL LIFE was able to hire her as the Pathway Navigator for the Expectant Motherhood Program. In her role, she serves as a case manager to women that are pregnant or women with very young children — providing education, resources, and support to this group. Tauchanna says, “we forget that women with addiction may be mothers or expectant mothers — they are often an overlooked population who need support.”

In her role, Tauchanna has led many ladies to a thriving life. The success rate is pretty strong for women in the program — and we couldn’t do it without Tauchanna’s commitment to REAL LIFE.

At times, the work can be emotionally demanding, Tauchanna says, as working with a population who deals with addiction has its ups and downs. Her ladies and their children have been through a lot, and it can be a challenge to balance emotions during a tumultuous job. However, despite the challenges, Tauchanna says that it’s even more rewarding to help her ladies succeed. She also says that she loves working for REAL LIFE as “the best part is the team. We look after each other and we are not just co-workers. We really do care about each other — and not just on the job, but in our personal lives as well.”

Outside of her work at REAL LIFE, Tauchanna loves to learn about dinosaurs. Fun fact – her dream job growing up was to be an archaeologist! She is also an avid fan of barbecue ribs and cheeseburgers, yum!

As for advice to anyone looking to enter this field of work, Tauchanna says that the most important things are to “take care of yourself, think with your head AND your heart, be patient, and expand a lot of grace and mercy.”

It’s a real privilege to have Tauchanna on the REAL LIFE team as she changes the lives of so many clients and co-workers.