DECATUR - Rachel Joy, director of supportive services for seven years for the Decatur Housing Authority's Wabash Crossing development, has been named to the new position of supportive services director at Dove Inc.

Her appointment is part of the creation of a management team at the agency, one that reports to Executive Director Ray Batman.

"We're very excited to have Rachel back on staff again," Batman said.

Joy, who was a children's specialist and domestic violence case manager for Dove from 1994 to 1999, now oversees the agency's domestic violence, diversity and Homeward Bound programs, as well as its employment training initiatives.

"I'll be looking at work force development and trying to find more creative ways to serve people with multiple barriers to employment," she said.

She also must hire a part-time diversity coordinator to replace Linda Reed-Thompson, who resigned May 31 to take a job with Archer Daniels Midland Co., and a new Homeward Bound director to replace Lore Baker, who resigned Aug. 1.

Baker, who joined Dove in 1997 and directed Homeward Bound since 2000, starts a new job Monday as communications and outreach director for the Supportive Housing Providers Association of Illinois.

She also has resigned her position as chairwoman of the Decatur Jobs Council, a coalition of social service agencies working to remove barriers to employment for their clients, and Joy said she will be replaced by the council.

Client coordinator Annette Lane is serving as interim director of Homeward Bound.

A Decatur native, Joy has a master's degree in human services from the University of Illinois at Springfield. She previously volunteered with Dove's Beginning Awareness Basic Education Studies, or BABES, program and more recently volunteered with the domestic violence program.

Dove staffers receiving promotions to the management team are Barbara Blakey, now director of community relations and volunteers, and Tamara Wilcox, now director of finance and operations.

Blakey has been with Dove for 16 years and Wilcox 10.

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