Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Carissa Bouse
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2021-062
Carissa Bouse, Family Development Specialist at Family Core in Peoria, Illinois, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: November 24, 2021 Location: Bouse Home, Pekin, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Amanda Riggenbach, Tumultuous 2020 project manager ALPLM
Transcription by: _________________________
Edited by: _______________________________
Total Pages: ______ Total Time: 1:51 / 1.85 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on January 6, 2022.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2021 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Carissa Bouse, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2021-062
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: Carissa Vaughn Bouse as born in Danville, Illinois, in December of 1995. She attended Hoopeston Area High School where she met her husband, Chase Bouse. She graduated in 2014 and began attending Danville Area Community College. She studied family and consumer sciences and transferred to the University of Central Arkansas where she graduated in 2018. The pandemic caused Bouse to lose her job at Full Potential in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she worked as a early childhood development specialist. Bouse was able to receive unemployment and her financial uncertainty was eased with the COVID-19 supplement in unemployment checks. Bouse and her husband stayed in Arkansas until July of 2020, when Chase completed his military service. They decided to move back to Illinois and moved to Bloomington so Chase could begin college.
Bouse details the difficult nature of trying to sell a house at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the difficultly of moving in the middle of a pandemic. She describes the difference between Illinois and Arkansas’s COVID-19 mitigations. Bouse found work as a social worker at FamilyCore, a family support service in Peoria, Illinois. There, she experienced social work in a virtual capacity since a majority of parent visits as well as court sessions were virtual. Because she often worked from home, Bouse describes how the lines between work and home life became increasingly blurred. This came to a head when she received an emergency phone call from a parent during Christmas dinner, which is an especially important holiday in Bouse’s family. She was able to apply for another job in the agency in January of 2021, though she did not transfer over until June of 2021. Bouse and her husband were infected with COVID-19 and Bouse describes how different both of their symptoms were. Since FamilyCore eased COVID-19 restrictions in the summer of 2021, Bouse has continued to work in-person, in the office, at the time of the interview.
Subject Headings/Key Words: FamilyCore; Peoria, Illinois; Little Rock, Arkansas; COVID-19; COVID-19 mitigations; pandemic; social work;
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955