Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK, Mothers’ Day. I was always very close to my mother and it was heart-breaking when she died six years ago. It’s still heart-breaking. There’s s…
Source: Mother’s Love
Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK, Mothers’ Day. I was always very close to my mother and it was heart-breaking when she died six years ago. It’s still heart-breaking. There’s s…
Source: Mother’s Love
At Broken Light Collective, a community of artists thousands strong support one another in using photography to cope with mental illness.
Source: “With Photography There Is No Stigma”: Turning a Lens on the Challenges of Mental Illness
I came into the office the next day and there was a slight under buzz by staff, They were all wondering what I had in store for us all. I called an informal staff meeting more like brainstorming with the team,
“OK I said” now each of you give me your best file of a family in case management ,They looked puzzled and each handed me a file, now came the moment of truth. Who fo these 3 caseloads do you think would agree with getting filmed and share their story.My staff looked at me in astonishment and said “Boss” that is a great idea so we ran with it.
I called a Board member and he happened to be a lawyer, I ask “if I film my clients telling their interaction with us do I need to get a release.As the ED it was my job to see we were not doing anything that could lead to something that could jeopardize our status, He offered to put together a disclaimer that said the film would only be used for the purpose of promotion of the Agency. Great I said saying a silent prayer that I was on to something good.
So I had each case manager contact the families we had chosen and they all agreed to do it but they were all afraid but I assure them it would be just me them and a video camera and they could watch it and if they were not ok with it we would scrap it. But since they had trusted us to nelp them rebuild their lives they all agreed.
The first family was a man and his 2 children.They had come to us in summer they had been sleeping on the streets and would walk around all day, They had been to every place in town and no one would help them or couldn’t.
The 2 little girls faces were sunburned and you could tell they had been out too long in the sun.We were running our summer program so I called my case manager in and said get them some icepops and let them out to enjoy the summer program. With icepops in hand they were led out to my summer staff who were teachers at the local school so I briefly told them and they took over, By the time I got back in my office Dad was in tears of relief.I told him I had an apartment that I would place him and the girls in today but he had to start to look for a job,He agreed to it all.I did the intake and had someone make up a weeks worth of food and got them ready for their new home. With shame he looked at me and said I can not even buy milk. I had a fund that was like petty cash so I handed him $20.Well you would have thought he had just won the lottery.I told him just keep compliant and all would be well.
So off the family went in the van to their new home ,Most of us were MOM’s so we knew how important this was to them.
They were the first case I filmed months later Dad had been working the girls were in Headstart and the local kindergarten and they were on their way to self-sufficieny.
They were my first video in my series for the United Way. I just put him in front of the video camera and he began to tell his story .Well even the staff cried as we watched the video and the power and raw emotion got to us all. That video had the execs from the United Way in awe of what we were doing. Moving homeless broken fellow members of the greatest Country in the World to self sufficiency in 11 months, Unheard of they said but I had proof. A simple honest video that earned us another $30,000 in funding and a video that was effective.Boy I wish I had utube back then.
We all sat in silence reliving the day they came to us sunburned homeless hungry and no one would help, but we did!
I drove home passing the shelter thanking those who helped us in so many ways and grateful I had a home and job I loved. Peace Sandra
After the New Year was my busiest time, I had a weekly meeting with the 7 other ED’s of Agencies in the area ,We called ourselves the magnificent 7.LOL The purpose of a weekly meeting was to share what each Agency was doing and how we could effectively collaborate to ensure that there were no overlap of service. The rationale for this was funding was limited and we all wanted to maximize the monies we had!
We usually did it over lunch because we were all so busy it was the best time to meet. The Boys & Girls Club and I were working on an after school program.They had gotten a donation of 10 new computers and we wanted to introduce the kids to doing school work on the computer ,number 1 rule homework first and then playtime ,it was working out well and we actually saw at risk youth progress go from trouble makers to making good grades,A small step but one that was working. The next matter of business was how we would keep it running and add more programming.
At that time the United Way had their grant proposals coming out so we all were plotting and planning on what our programs would be for the next round of funds.We had a short discussion and everyone hurried back to their prospective offices to make sure all was well.
I got in my car for the short drive to my office my mind set on the hard work I knew was ahead of me.I received monies from 3 different areas in the United way so I needed stats and outcomes that related to the funds I would request. This was a good 3 week project where I stayed locked in my office , depending on my staff to run the day to day while I wrote the proposals . Thank heavens my computer case management program produced the reports i needed but the narrative still had to be written and it was imperative the programs met the requirements that the United Way wanted a proposal with a mission statement and an outcome directly related to the funding, Sounds easy but believe me ,it is not and I had 13 other programs I had to oversee at the same time. The price of being the ED.
My staff knew the drill and I began the undertaking of coming up with something that demonstrated through case management services I could move someone from homeless to self-sufficiency in 11 months. Prior to this and under my direction this was unheard of and I wanted to knock the socks off the United way,Smo after much though and long before utube and commercials on television I decided to film a few success stories.
I warned staff tomorrow was going to be a long day and ask each case manager to select 3 case studies that demonstrates movement to self-sufficiency and have them on my desk I gave then 3 days. They looked at me like i was a mental case or had burned out but said “ok Boss”
By now we were close to closing time I sat in my office watching my team leave one by one some practically running out the door trying to figure out what I was planning???
All the way home my mind was racing. How could I make us stand out above all my competitors. And it hit me like a ton of bricks Video I chuckled to myself and went home and charged up the video camera my plan running through my head like a stream overflowing the local river. Another day in paradise!
Source: Social Service System Broke
I always called Monday Murphy’s Law Day you know everything that could go wrong does and it was always on a Monday. My staff laughed at me because every day was hectic with things that could take hours to solve the system did not work as fast as us.
I called the other site to say Good Morning and always holding my breath because this location was in the ghetto and had constant traffic. Mostly because the woman who was my friend and partner in crime dedicated her life to her clients.Her clients called her MOM because if it were not for her they would be homeless. The vast list of clients were Mental Health so you never knew what was going to happen there. Meltdowns because they needed or did not take their meds, it could be problematic but nothing rattled her and if it did she would throw everyone out of the office until things settled down.
She knew that if she called me the answer would be yes , I had a great deal of faith and trust in her capability. In fact, new hires were sent to her office for a week in the crash course of Case management. My theory there was if they could last a week in Dutchtown they could handle the job! Once a week I would spend a few hours between meetings to visit Dutchtown and make sure all was well and it was.
Then back to my office and on to my work of making sure all of the grants were ok, data was being collected and believe me it was not an easy task, as we had 16 different funding streams all with different reporting forms. Needless to say ,it was no easy task but the team kept the data base current and my grant writing was very successful.
After a couple of hours running to make a food order.doing an intake, and stopping by our Homeless shelter to see if everyone was compliant to the rules. I was ready to call it a day but Murphy’s law hit. A homeless man came in at closing and one of my rules was never turning anyone away so I sent everyone home and he and I tackled his problems.
He was a homeless vet and the VA at that time had no local presence. So I called one of my contacts at the local shelter and begged them to take him in until I could get the VA to make a move and help him. So we got in my car and I dropped him off at the shelter and as I was getting ready to leave he leaned into my car and said “Thank you Maam” I smiled at him and said no problem all the while thinking that this man has defended my liberty and to society is invisable. I could not change the system but I could rattle it a little and somedays that was all I could do!
Everyone returned from the closing of the office all refreshed and ready to start another day and a New Year.Everyone would drift in and whoever got there first put on coffee and booted up the system and got ready for whatever the day would bring. I usually rolled in last privilege of the ED, What a joke I operated on the premise of Murphy’s Law everything that could go wrong did so I eased into my office and called the other site to do my daily check of how they were doing?
It was always busy everyone had spent all their monies on Christmas and food stamps were not issued yet so that meant a run on the Food Banks. Thankfully we were well stocked at both sites and that was a lesson I had learned from previous years when I was a young novice ,But being the warrior I had become we were ready.
Our first client was a homeless family, Oh boy a family big problems especially if I had no room at our program called ROOFOVER , a 6 unit apartment building fully furnished and with a whole set of rules.Before the holidays I had to evict a girl who trashed the place and I had to make the hard decision to get Children and Youth involved because she was a heroin addict and since I knew just about all the addicts in town I had gotten the word on her and managed to get the kids placed with family and her in a rehab.Just another day in paradise LOL
So staff did the intake,set up an appointment for them at the Public Assistance office with which we had a great collaboration and after the intake was done the case hit my desk.I was the one who would make the decision if I would place them in Roofover so I called the family in my office, sent the kids out to color, they had been through enough and didn’t need to hear me give the parents the riot act.Of course they agreed to everything they always did but I went over all of the rules and regs and Mom shed the predictable tear and I decided to put them in the program.
Meanwhile, the phones were ringing off the hook ,we could hardly keep up with the volume. I have no food ,I have no heat,I lost my job,I don’t have diapers and on and on !
Lunchtime came and we worked through it.Thank God for take out and delivery.We all opted for Chinese ,they knew us so well we just put in the call.When we were really busy like this it was the only way to eat at all.
As the day progressed we got busier and busier, food orders flew out of the food bank and we were fueled by endless cups of coffee. Long before Red Bull LOL as the clocked edged toward 4:30pm when we were supposed to close the office was still packed.All of the case managers were busy and the end was not in sight ,Not uncommon on a day like this, My team did not quit no they would stay and finish what could be done. Why because they had all been on the other side of the fence,All been in the same situations that they now helped solve, the very best group I have ever worked ,with a bunch of unsung heroes. I leaned back in my chair and took a few minutes and said OK guys wrap it up and call it a day. I got a bunch of grateful looks and a “Thanks Boss”as they bundled up their belongings and my right hand woman said ya want me to lock up.I said no it’s ok I got it and I watched the group file out the door. I sat in my office it was eerily quiet and reflected about what is is that we do, we change lives one at a time if they want it but they had to want it badly. As I walked to my car in the frigid cold I smiled with satisfaction knowing we did our job and did it well.And wondered what tomorrow would bring?
I am a blogger,social activist,an expert on the Country’s social service system, a mother and a grandmother.I grew up in a generation of real free speech, rebellion and a journey for inner peace and world peace.I do not like politicians and militant cowards who arm themselves with weapons and try and destroy everything our Country Founders believed in. I want to leave my grandchildren a world where everyone is equal no matter what color race or religious beliefs.Now I know that this is not something i can do alone but if everyone woke up each day and said “today I will do some good in the world” we would live a completely different life.
Source: About
Most mornings began with a short staff meeting and an updates or grants that were due soon,Most of the case managers had appointments scheduled all day and one was left with an open day to handle the crisis that would walk through the door.
Since it is near the holidays we were busy, we were always busy either making a food order helping someone get their electric bill paid since of course they came to us because they knew we could do it.
For me the Executive Director it was a time to reflect on how well we had done that year and gathering stats and demographics and all of the necessary info our funder’s required usually on a quarterly basis. There was a festive air we tried to maintain the “Holiday”spirit which at times was hard! The homeless or near homeless were desperate at this time of the year those who were not in our case management program had spent any monies they had on day to day living and quite often had nothing but the clothes on their back.
So a case manager would start the process which was not easy most had no identification except maybe a jail ID and no address had lost ties to families and usually had drug or alcohol problems or even worse mental health issues. Challenging to say the least.
The first step was to locate a shelter to house the individual.We were only 2 places that could shelter families and I only had 6 apt units.I tried to keep one vacant especially in the winter,the others split families up .There were 2 shelters in our town ours and another that has since closed but they could only take single woman or men. Thankfully I had a great relationship with the ED and I could usually get him to take a single man or woman.God bless him. One of our best qualities was the fact that we had great collaboration with all of the providers which was crucial!
We had a program that was County funded to provide seniors who could not travel by the bus line so we provided rides to the Doctor and food shopping and other places, thankful for that van! So off went the case manager and the homeless person to the shelter we managed to get them into!
As the day went on and case managers were busier than usual with appointments and walk ins. Each with their own crisis,much time was spent on the phone reaching out to another provider to attempt to bandage the situation until we could get a man woman or family stabilized enough until we could get them into our case management program.
One of out of 50 children in America has been homeless or experienced a situation where they were homeless. A situation we faced on a daily basis,and made a difference.It is still such a crisis that most families live one paycheck away from the street.Winter is extremely brutal.
At the end of the day we would all get together and discuss those situations that need my attention to call in a favor or make a decision on where to send someone,and as we bundled up to go to our homes for the day. We all said see ya tomorrow,never knowing what tomorrow’s challenges would be but knowing we would be ready!
I used to be the Executive Director of a large Non Profit where I live in a little town called Easton Pa.We managed all the Homeless Assistance monies for our County, we had 16 other programs too all of which were geared toward helping people get self sufficient.And it worked really well I took woman and men who were in the system and gave them jobs. And in return it was the best darn group of people I ever worked with. You know why??? because they had all been there and now they had the opportunity to give back and they did daily.
We never turned anyone away,we always had a solution and they were all grateful. As I continue to blog I will share the stories and the trials and the endless stream of problems. Loss of jobs,sleeping in cars, drug addiction Vets who could not receive local care, A daily stream of those who the system failed and we helped put their lives back together, Each day I will write another story about a client who thanks to my team made it out of the grips of poverty and went on to live a “normal” life. I hope you find it interesting to me it was not a job but a passion and I will be grateful for it for the rest of my life. So the moral of today’s post is,,,,,,,,, There is always someone worse off than you ! peace Sandra