NORTH TONAWANDA: Bank employee earns sabbatical for social work

By Neale Gulley<br><a href="mailto:gulleyn@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Neale</a>

At a time when most people are happy to have one job, a local bank employee counts herself lucky to have found exciting new work without having given up her career.

North Tonawanda resident Lisa Byroads, a senior human resources trainer at Citizens Bank, is putting her financial skills to use at Buffalo Child and Family Services, even as Citizens continues to pay her salary and benefits.

“I don’t lose anything from my employer,” she said. “Basically the only difference is I’m reporting to a different place for work each day.”

But it’s also a completely different world, working with at-risk kids and advocating for other clients in three ongoing projects each drawing on her skills in the financial industry.

For example, Byroads is teaching at the organization’s Stanley B. Falk school, where she helps high school students with what’s known as “financial literacy,” and other life management tools.

Financial literacy is a term that has become popular to describe education designed to help people navigate money management and familiarize themselves with concepts that may sometimes seem simple but can shed light on the goals of personal finance, including the nature of money and fraudulent pitfalls.

When she’s not working one-on-one with the kids, Byroads is also spearheading a project helping clients improve poor credit ratings and obtain loans and also designing a training curriculum for family services employees.

The organization recently won a grant and installed a state-of-the-art telecommunications system. Byroads, using her skills as a personnel training officer, is helping them learn how to use it.

“Basically if a client calls in and there’s some sort of crisis, anybody who picks up that phone needs to be able to (work it),” she said.

When, for instance, a client is calling because some agency is threatening to take their children away, time can be of the essence.

To hear her talk, her excitement is evident. Though her loyalty is to the bank, where she will return to work in January when the three month program comes to an end, social services is a definite passion for Byroads.

This is the first year the bank has offered the sabbatical to employees in New York state.

Getting it wasn’t easy.

“It just blew my mind because I’d never heard of an organization giving someone three months paid to go out and do something else,” she said.

After she submitted an essay-type application outlining her interests there was an interview conducted by a special sabbatical committee. Next, Byroads had to meet personally with the bank’s state president.

Though she isn’t sure how many other applicants she beat out, the Center Avenue resident with more than six years working for the bank was chosen to facilitate an already impressive track-record of continuing education.

Now working on her MBA by taking courses online and elsewhere, Byroads also considers herself lucky the bank has a program to reimburse tuition for skills that pertain to her job there.

After meeting with key managers at Child and Family Services, in what she called a sort of ‘reverse interview,” Byroads, said her skill-set clicked.

“It was just a really warm and welcoming (atmosphere) and it seemed like a good fit,” she said.

Child and Family Services caters to about 20,000 people each year, Director of Public Relations Brian LaValley said. An annual budget of $32 million sustains roughly 10 locations throughout the city.

Most basically, they run the Stanley G. Falk school, Haven House for victims of domestic violence, foster care services, mediation services and mental health counseling, he said.

“I feel blessed to work for an organization that gave me the opportunity to do this,” Byroads said. “Especially in this tough economy.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.