There’s a phrase our newest Family Promise team member used when talking about the work she loves that immediately sounded familiar to us: “Walking alongside someone.”

Not deciding what their journey should look like. Not assuming we know the answer. But helping someone recognize the resources, possibilities, and potential that may be hard to see when they’re in the middle of a crisis.

That’s exactly the kind of approach Edith Bernal brings to her new role as a Family Navigator at Family Promise of Greater Wichita.

Edith is joining our team as part of an exciting new partnership designed to make it easier for families experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness to find the right help. Working closely with a fellow Navigator housed at United Way of the Plains, Edith will help families navigate Wichita’s newly launched central access point for families – connecting them with resources and next steps through a process built around dignity, care, and personal support.

And for Edith, that work feels like a natural next chapter in a career that has always centered around people.

A Career Built Around People

Edith jokes that she started working officially at 14 – although she could probably make the case that it started closer to age three.

She comes from a family of entrepreneurs and grew up helping her parents sell at swap meets. After moving to Wichita, she worked at Felipe’s and spent years in the food and hospitality industry, including nine years at the Petroleum Club.

There, she worked her way through roles as a waitress, bartender, and evening event manager. More importantly, she learned what it meant to take care of a team.

If everyone else was staying late, Edith was staying late. If the dishwasher needed help breaking down equipment so he could get home, she learned how to do it.

Eventually, as her children grew and family life changed, Edith transitioned out of hospitality and into recruiting and human resources. She loved recruiting and the opportunity to work with people, but another transition eventually led her toward work that became much more personal.

As a survivor of domestic violence herself, Edith joined the Women’s Network, where she had the opportunity to work alongside other women and connect them with resources she wished she had known about during difficult seasons of her own life.

“This was my way to heal what I hadn’t healed.”

She later became a facilitator and trainer with Getting Ahead, and continues to walk alongside both men and women as they work toward their goals.

And through all of those experiences, Edith discovered her sweet spot: helping people in real, tangible ways.

“This Is Not It for You.”

After taking some time away from work this summer, Edith had the opportunity to think intentionally about what she wanted next.

The answer kept coming back to people.

She loves problem-solving with someone. She loves recognizing potential that another person may not currently see in themselves and being able to say, essentially, “You have a lot of potential. Let’s dig into that.”

She also understands something deeply important to the way we work at Family Promise: success can’t simply be defined for someone else.

A person in crisis may need accountability and support – but those things have to recognize the circumstances they are navigating and the goals they are working toward. Even housing itself isn’t necessarily the finish line.

What is the family’s end goal? What does stability mean to them? What are they trying to build?

Those are the questions Edith naturally asks.

And sometimes, what a person needs most is someone beside them who knows there are possibilities they can’t see yet.

As Edith puts it: “This is not it for you. I promise this is not it for you.”

We can think of few better sentiments for a Family Navigator.

We’re incredibly excited to welcome Edith to Family Promise and to watch her help shape this new way of connecting Wichita families with resources, relationships, and pathways forward.

Edith grew up in Long Beach, California, and moved to Wichita with her family in December 1999. She’ll readily admit that Kansas wasn’t exactly where she wanted to be at first.

But now? Kansas is home.

It’s where Edith built her career, created a family of her own, and raised her children. She and her husband have five boys between them ranging from 10 to 18, a daughter-in-law, and a brand new grandson! One of her sons recently graduated from Army basic training. Her family also includes Santana, their dog – and plenty of extended family who also made Wichita home after that original move from California. 

Edith is a fan of Adelita’s and Bill’s Charcoal Grill, loves her big family, and still makes it back to California about once a year.

We’re very glad Family Promise is now part of Edith’s story and have been excited to welcome her to the FPGW team!