A shock of dark hair pokes out from a bundle of blankets. Little Kimberly Jackson Hussein is surrounded by a group of family members and is held by her namesake, a tall formidable woman with masses of dark curly hair framing her pale face.

Kimberly Jackson worked with Kimberly’s Somali family at a homeless shelter in Seattle. She helped them improve their English, and find housing and work; now the family lives together comfortably under one roof.

In exchange for her help, the Hussein family named their newborn daughter after Jackson — first name and last.

Jackson is the executive director of the Elizabeth Gregory Home (EGH) for single, homeless women in the University District.

The home is located in a nondescript apartment building on Northeast 50th Street and houses college students as well as the program’s residents. The students are the rowdier ones, said program administrator Jamie Lee, during a tour of the building. Signs on everything from job skills to neighborly manners to food banks line the walls. The apartments are like any others found in the U-District, but neater. A sense of the preciousness of these small, heated spaces is palpable.

Its doors have not been open for long, but already the home is forming connections with the University. Jackson appreciates those connections, she said, as many volunteers have come from the UW to keep the home running smoothly, as well as the homeless drop-in center across the street.

For the University’s Day of Service during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, volunteers helped at the home and center. Volunteers do administrative tasks, clean and cook meals for the people who seek a full stomach, respite from the elements, and a chance to get themselves off the street.

“My experience has been good,” said Hope Hunderfund, a business student who has worked there for two months. She is volunteering at the home for a women studies class.

“It has really helped me to connect class material to actual life situations,” she said, adding that the staff members are fun to work with, but they take their jobs seriously.

Hunderfund said, “[The staff] love seeing the clients at the EGH making successes for themselves.” She said the program is run by “good hearted people.”

One of those people is Jackson. She has worked for more than a decade in what she called “a very sad field.”

“It can be a discouraging field at times. I’ve had several clients pass away, and I have to remind myself why I’m here,” she said.

However, the Somali family is a bright spot in more than a decade of working with the homeless, the abused and the addicted.

“It was an honor,” she said of the family naming their daughter after her. “There have been many more successes than not.”

To keep herself grounded within her work, Jackson said she strives to “acknowledge the importance of each person,” because so often the people she assists are not seen as complete human beings.

Jackson tries to remember the first name of each client that passes through the home’s doors and each person that she has served during her many years in the field.

Being the executive director of the EGH carries challenges unique to the management position — some different than the ones she faced as an employee of other services catering to the homeless and domestic violence victims.

“The buck stops with you,” she said, adding that keeping everyone pleased is also difficult.

Jackson runs the home with a small budget and smaller staff of four people — including her — and about a hundred volunteers. “Everyone wears a lot of hats because we’re so small,” she said.

Single homeless women are accepted as residents of the EGH only after an extensive application and interview process. Counseling services, job training and life skills workshops are made available to the residents, and staff members are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; the night staff members sleep on thin cots in the small downstairs office.

Jackson is one of the few staff members who carry cell phones, and consequently, she is on call all the time.

“It’s important to separate work and life,” she said. “I’m trying to pass that onto my staff. The field has a high burnout rate. … You have to implement good self-care.”

When asked what she does for fun, Jackson paused and looked confused. She turned to Lee as if to ask for assistance. “Oh, I like to go swimming,” she remembered. Road trips, Disney movies and an extensive support system of friends and family also help reduce the stress inherent in her work.

Lee has worked with Jackson since the home opened in 2006.

“She recognizes that we [staff members] each have our own goals [within the program],” she said. “She comes with a lot of experience clinically. I’ve seen her interact with clients on a stern level and a compassionate level.”

Compassion and discipline are both necessary in this line of work, she added. “Sometimes it’s like us against the world.”

Carol Bridges, the chair of the EGH’s board of directors, helped hire Jackson. “It was really delightful,” she said. “She was one of the last candidates we interviewed. … It couldn’t have been a better match.”

Jackson holds a prominent position within the organization, though Joan Overland, a member of the home’s board of directors, said Jackson isn’t the type of director to just tell others what to do.

“She makes time for the women. The residents feel free to talk to her,” she said.

Jackson began working with the homeless when she was 12 years old. Her church youth group went to a Seattle shelter and served spaghetti to homeless men.

The men she served were so appreciative and grateful. “To break bread with them … was a turning point for me,” she said.

[Reach reporter Erinn Unger at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]