Find a meaningful, transformative career at LSS

This paid piece is sponsored by Lutheran Social Services.

The team at LSS is as diverse as the people and communities they serve.

Employees come from all educational and vocational backgrounds, bringing unique skills and experiences to apply to the wide range of services offered by LSS. What unites these individuals is a heart to transform lives, fulfilling the LSS vision that all South Dakotans will be healthy, safe and accepted.

Jackson Konda works for LSS as a residential counselor with Residential Services for Children and Youth. In his role, Konda helps youth with trauma and mental health conditions work through their thoughts and feelings. This means teaching healthy routines and behaviors, offering emotional support and simply being there to listen.

“So if they’re having a rough day, if they can’t function at the capacity they usually do, I’m there to act as a sounding board for them. Someone to listen and bounce challenges off of when they get stuck in a cycle. A lot of these kids have experienced trauma or are living with an emotional disorder, so their brain needs a little extra time to process. I’m the person to help them take that time,” he said.

Konda has always been interested in psychology, but his own experience with mental health made him passionate about using his knowledge to help others. With a career at LSS, he gets to do just that.

“LSS allows me to pursue my interest in psychology and to provide direct care to the community that I want to serve, which is adolescents,” Konda said. “There are so many kids out there who are underserved, underseen, and aren’t able to get the help they need. LSS has an excellent program that reaches kids who wouldn’t otherwise be able to get help.”

It’s the same heart for serving children and teenagers that brought Kala McDonald to LSS after making the move to Sioux Falls from Rapid City in August.

“I first heard about LSS in grad school,” McDonald said. “I had some people in my cohort who were doing their internship through LSS, so I decided to apply for the JJRI (Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Initiative) program. After I had applied, they said, ‘Actually, we think you would be a great fit for PATH.'”

As a PATH counselor, McDonald works in six schools across the Sioux Falls area. Her job is to create a stable environment for students struggling with their school or home life and who require more in-depth support than a traditional school counselor is equipped to offer.

“I’ve always wanted to work in schools but not as a school counselor,” McDonald said. “So the PATH program was the perfect opportunity for me. And since I really love building relationships with people, being in six different schools allows me to get to know different school staff in addition to all the kids and families I work with.”

But modeling and maintaining healthy relationships can take a lot of work. What makes it possible, according to McDonald, is the overflow of encouragement she receives from her team members at LSS.

“One of the first things I noticed coming into this program was how close everyone was and how no one was afraid to ask any question. It’s so important in this job to have people that you can be real with. Sometimes you just have a bad day, sometimes you hear some really hard things, so having a team to go back to and be like: ‘This is what happened. This was super rough,’ and they’ll see you and hear you — that kind of support is rare to find,” McDonald said.

Social worker LaRae Oberloh said it’s the shared purpose and close communication of her team that drives their work in Foster Care Services.

“Social workers are great team players. We all have the same goal, and that’s to help prepare kids for when they exit our program or leave our agency to be better suited for the next step in their life, whatever that might be,” Oberloh said.

“LSS cares deeply about the well-being of not only the people we serve, but our employees, both professionally and personally. We’re all part of a greater team, one that wants to be a change-maker in the lives of children. Everyone wants to provide the best services possible, and I think we do that best when we all work together.”

Follow this link to learn more about careers at LSS and making a positive impact in people’s lives.