Credit Nikkita Smith’s husband with a super suggestion.
Nikkita and her husband were watching television when a Home Instead® commercial came on. Nikkita’s husband told his wife, “Baby, you would be good at that job because you love helping people.” Nikkita, who was between jobs at the time, applied the next day at the award-winning Home Instead franchise that serves Houston and other cities such as Bellaire, Fresno, Missouri City, Pearland, Stafford and Sugar Land.
That was five months ago. On April 20, Scheduling Coordinator Rebecca Garcia announced that Nikkita had been honored as CAREGiver of the Month by the franchise owned by Greg Gomez-Mira, and where the client care coordinator and office manager is Destiny Wesley. Margi Kenny is the recruitment and engagement coordinator.
Rebecca said, “One of the big reasons Nikkita was selected as CAREGiver of the Month was because she went through a lot with one of our clients, and she handled it like the true professional that she is. Most people don’t know that Nikkita was courageously dealing with her brother passing away from the COVID-19 virus. Nikkita is a very special person and a very kind and loving person. Nikkita’s clients are benefiting from Nikkita’s family caregiving experience with a senior loved one.”
Nikkita noted: “I didn’t have a professional background in caregiving before I joined Home Instead, but I have always considered myself a caregiver. I was a family caregiver for my grandmother, and I am currently a family caregiver for my great-aunt who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.”
For Nikkita, touching lives impacts her soul, whether she’s providing physical help such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders or personal care or if she is offering emotional support in a companionship role. In addition to Nikkita’s God-given instincts and compassion, focusing on Home Instead’s training, processes and procedures of successful caregiving helped Nikkita achieve CAREGiver of the Month status.
“I love being a bright spot in a person’s day. I love the fact that my job helps people stay in their homes. I help keep families together in a sense. That is very rewarding,” Nikkita said. “I had a client and after only a couple of days of service, he and the entire family would greet me in the morning, including the dog. That made me smile!”
Nikkita loves being a part of the CAREGiver team for the Greg’s Houston-area franchise, a member of a highly successful network founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, by Paul and Lori Hogan. The Home Instead network is the world’s leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 80 million hours of care annually throughout the U.S. and 13 other countries.
Nikkita is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers, and she has helped add to those numbers because of her strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose. It isn’t hard to see Nikkita lives the Home Instead® principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
“I would like to thank everyone on the franchise office staff for recognizing me with this CAREGiver of the Month. It feels great when you get confirmation that you are doing things right and that everything is going all right with clients and their families. Being recognized is what so many of us work so hard for because it is an indication of our dedication. The office staff, including owner Greg Gomez-Mira, showed me with this honor they appreciate my efforts. I always have thought the company and the staff at Home Instead are simply amazing.”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (713) 774-2215 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
