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Let’s face it. For too many, applying for food stamps, child care support or other government services means floundering in a complicated and uncaring system where the process trumps the person. Call her naïve (she frequently does), but Ann Silverberg Williamson is determined to shake up that entrenched culture by doing the unthinkable: putting a little love in government.

Serving as Louisiana’s secretary of social services for four years under Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and then rehired to the post in January by Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Thibodaux native has overhauled her department from head to toe to foster an environment where her clients-first policy can thrive. Referred to either as No Wrong Door, or All Right Doors, Williamson’s policy follows her unwavering belief that individuals and families in crisis should not be expected to navigate a fragmented, complex and intimidating system. Instead, she has trained her staff to reach across programs and individual budgets; to blend, braid and coordinate their responses to a client from the moment he or she walks through the door.

Williamson’s $1.2 billion budget and 5,000 employees respond to a broad swath of children’s needs: child abuse and neglect, adoption, foster parenting, child care assistance, child support, child welfare, and Head Start. And then there are programs for independent living; food stamps; disability; deaf, blind and visually impaired; hurricane recovery; and more.

In each case, Williamson wants to know this: “Is the person better off after being served by us? If we only plug temporary needs with temporary services, we never deal with the deep-end crisis. I believe a family wants to care for themselves. A parent wants to care for their own child.” It’s about pride and self-worth, Williamson says.

She stresses that everyone at DSS shares a common mission. “There used to be a great separation,” she says. “People would say, ‘I’m responsible for child-care assistance. I’m not responsible for asking if they need help with food.’ We’ve got to blend together child care, child support, food stamp assistance. The demand for social services can seem overwhelming given the resources we have to address it.”

But great leverage can be gained through service integration, she insists. A client may come through the department applying for food stamps. But after a comprehensive evaluation, she might also receive help with child care or employment. Williamson pointed to the case of two young twins in state custody a few years ago. The mother had no interest in regaining custody. Though the department hoped a family member would step forward to provide a safe and nurturing home, only a distant cousin stepped forward. She showed great interest in the children, but she had not finished her education, and financially could not serve as a responsible parent, says Williamson, who has twins of her own and was pregnant with her third child at the time.

“I watched the staff work the case. Bringing in not just the courts, but the CASA volunteers. The Job Placement program. Child-care assistance. Temporary financial assistance,” Williamson says. “I kept stepping in saying, ‘Don’t forget, she’s going to need this, she’s going to need that.’ The placement was made. The children are well cared for,” she adds.

“Life as a parent is not simple or easy,” Williamson says. “I marvel every day at the people we serve who don’t have the benefit of an education, the family support I’ve had, the role models. I’m driven by a passion to make a positive difference. In my little Thibodaux community, I’d hear, ‘Give away love, you’ll get more in return.’ Maybe it’s silly and naïve, but I believed that. When Grandma said, ‘Leave the world a better place than you found it,’ I’d ask, ‘Did I?’ Lots of days I answer no. I try to learn, learn, learn. I have a great desire to have merit, and there are opportunities here and now to be of value.”