Alright!!!

Well, the end of the semester has come, and while I can't say I'm certain of the fate of this blog, I can say I was very excited to see all of the blogs and videos in our last class session, and even though I have to be honest about how happy I am to be just about done with this semester (one more assignment... so close), I will say that it was one heck of a ride and I can't wait to see what happens next semester. Adios until then.

One More Reason to Love Them...

          So, this is something I never really got to blogging about, but it's one of the reasons I believe groups like Humboldt Roller Derby and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence can be so effective. The other day we did a community needs assessment in class, and we talked about things like assets in the community and motivation for change. But what really got me thinking was how many of us were able to identify assets that were not directly in support of our change, and perhaps even acted as an obstacle, but that could be harnessed to our advantage. I mean, it's not exactly a great thing that a lot of people don't care about helping the homeless because they don't want to "waste" money on them, but that can be harnessed to one's benefit, for instance when writing a grant for a program that shows how spending money to prevent homelessness can cost far less, in the end, then paying for the consequences of homelessness, (I personally believe this is a large part of why California received such an amazing amount of HPRP funds for homelessness prevention).
          I believe this is something that the Sisters and HRD both take advantage of. I mean, I really do believe many people in the community choose to support these groups because of the good work they do, and in fact there must be these sorts of people around or these groups never would've made it off the ground, but what I also know is that many people love and attend derby events without even knowing that local agencies are benefiting from the proceeds, and the same goes for many of the Sister events. These groups are raising money by getting people to attend events they probably would've gone to anyway, and they are taking advantage, not just of the groups of people interested in giving to a good cause, but also the large amounts of students with some financial aid money to spend on having a good time, amongst others. I think this is not only effective, but also offers people an opportunity to experience the Joy and Fun involved in helping others, and to remember that it doesn't have to be some dour, problem-focused, guilt-ridden event, and that, in the end, encourages people to give all the more.

Harrumph...

          The idea of America being a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" sort of country is not new, in fact I believe that it has long contributed to many things, from a lack of funding for the homeless and mentally ill, to a desire to have African Americans, Native Americans and other groups to just "get over" the numerous wrongs committed against them in our country. I think it still effects us to this day, and the hardest part is that it seems many of our arguments to get help for folks who are struggling may also be contributing to the myth of the "worthy poor". It seems I never see an agency, grant, or foundation that does not in some way "excuse" the need for help that their clients have. I've really started to realize the difficulty with this in trying to help someone close to me seek help for an anxiety disorder. I've found that you can't get TANF unless you have children, you can't get into programs if you don't have children or a serious AOD problem, and you can't get other free or low-income mental health services unless you are considered to be very much in need, which basically means trying to tell the government "no, I'm really crazy, So crazy that you need to help me", which can be detrimental to a citizen's personal freedoms. It seems like the classic ethical dilemma for social workers...Do you try to be strengths-based, and possibly lose access to services, or do you play up the problems, and get services at the risk of stigma and the restriction of freedoms? I just know that, as much as I can see the nobility in trying to do the whole "women and children to the lifeboats first" thing, I can't help but wonder... Can't we just get some more frickin' lifeboats?

And now nobody gets a lifeboat, see?

Getting Involved

           So, as many people know I have recently gotten involved in a couple of local groups that donate to various local agencies and causes. The first is Humboldt Roller Derby, and here is a video from HRD giving some background and encouragement to get involved:



          I've been to a few practice thus far, following a trip to the last home game of the season with some pals from the social work program, and these girls are Amazing. Girls do not make money doing roller derby, in fact they pay dues to rent the practice space and cover minimal bout insurance, and they are on the way to becoming a registered non-profit in the next year or so. Until then, they continue to benefit various organizations in the community with each home game and they work to keep their events family friendly, including a budding Saplings junior league  for young girls to feel empowered and learn teamwork while studying basic derby skills.

          I have also been increasingly involved as a volunteer at events for the Eureka chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (our chapter is the Abbey of the Big Red Wood). This is a chapter of a San-Francisco based non-profit group which plans and runs fundraisers to benefit local agencies, including The Emma Center this past October and Arcata House at an upcoming event.

          I believe both of these groups are a great example of what our text, Community Practice, would call "Individual Leadership Assets", and ones that led to the building of even greater assets. As the text states, "Sparkplug individuals, "even idiosyncratic ones," are more likely than plans or ideologies to yield change". Both HRD and the Eureka Sisters began with a handful of dedicated individuals, who attracted more of the same, dedicated to a goal that, to others, would have likely seemed impossible, starting from the ground up organizations that manage to constantly give while still growing stronger. To me it is the very essence of synergy, that these groups can manage to do so much for other community agencies and still stay afloat, and I can't wait to continue to involve myself as much as possible with these amazing groups.
    

Woohoo! YouTube video..

          So, I've been ruminating on this YouTube video since the beginning of the semester, and I've always known the topic I wanted to do, but I finally found a decent way to organize it and cover as much info as I could in the short time available, so here it is, my video on BDSM Discrimination:



          I really became interested in this issue way back when I started reading a UK magazine called Bizarre. I think this magazine is a great example of community organizing in unexpected places. Bizarre has long been an advocate of personal and sexual freedom, and has been covering developments in the Spanner trials since the very beginning. These trials occurred when a police raid turned up a violent sexual video originally believed to possibly be a snuff film. When all of the participants stepped forward to state that the video was, in fact, depicting consensual sex acts between adults who all remained alive and well, they were arrested none-the-less. In a landmark ruling it was declared that BDSM is not legal, and all "tops" were arrested for assault while "bottoms" were arrested for aiding and abetting their own assaults, (nevermind that activities such as boxing can utilize consent to bypass assault laws). Additionally, the UK has passed an extreme pornography ban, also reported on multiple times by Bizarre magazine, which outlaws images of a sexual nature depicting (either real or fake) activities that could cause death or grave damage to the genitals, anus or breasts. The only exception would be those immediately involved in image production, (the photographer and the model specifically). In addition to speaking out about the discrimination involved in these laws, Bizzare magazine has also launched the Proud to Be Different campaign in response to the brutal beating death of Sophy Lancaster, who was attacked and kicked to death due to the gothic appearance of herself and her partner in early 2008. The campaign offers a place for community members to share stories, ideas, and a sense of solidarity, and can be accessed through Bizarre's article on the campaign.

Well That Didn't Last Long...

          So, it looks like the City finally decided to dismantle the homeless encampment at Eureka City Hall. So yeah, they made sure there were shelter beds standing by, and they gave people some warning that they would be arresting anyone left soon, but when someone is there as a form of activism, like Kim Starr form the People's Project, this is less a sign of trying to compromise, and more a last ditch effort at intimidation and convincing someone to settle for less than what they are fighting for before just plain strong-arming them into stopping their protest. I'm disappointed that this happened this way, and particularly that, as I've heard many times before, valuable camping supplies belonging to destitute campers were destroyed when the site was vacated, (this has happened many times behind the MAC/Target, without even warning to those camping there). Between anti-homeless laws, the expense of eating without a kitchen, the wear and tear on clothes and shoes, the destruction of camping equipment, and much, much more, I'm starting to think even I, when working full-time at an entry level position, could have afforded to be homeless. I'm just going to keep repeating to myself, in the hopes of stirring continued optimism: Baby steps...baby steps... it's all baby steps...

Joining with a Community

          I have to say something I really appreciate seeing in one of our texts, and something we have discussed in multiple courses, is the idea of "joining" with others, and how to understand and work with a community from a social work standout, which may be quite different than a more distant, objective or anthropological approach. I believe this is one of the hardest skills to impart verbally, how to work with the community in this way while maintaining ethical boundaries, and it is one that has come up in my work at the MAC, (the Multiple Assistance Center, a transitional living program for homeless families), quite often. It can be particularly difficult in a situation such as the MAC, where you aren't simply studying or joining with the community, but are also responsible for enforcing certain rules and standards. I think what is most valuable in this text is the idea of treatment community members as "valued human beings". The idea of doing what you would do with any other member of community, like accepting a glass of water, or learning the names of their children, goes a long way to making people feel valued as people, not just demographics or clients. This is a phenomenon I experienced when I first shared dinner with participants at the MAC, sitting at their table and asking how there day was going, not just asking how there program was going, or housing, or MAC requirements, but just what I would ask any other person I might be having a meal with. I started realizing that the more I tried to balance my tense interactions, (enforcing rules, broaching uncomfortable topics), with these genuine attempts at joining with the community, the more effective I was, and so long as I was being truly genuine, there was no need for this to negatively effect my ability to enforce rules. There is a difference between attempting to gain entry into a community to make one's job easier, perhaps to even manipulate community members into helping achieve your own goals, and to truly seek to do so in order to join with the community, better understand it's needs, and be as efficacious as possible in supporting those needs being met.

Well This is a Surprise...

          OK, I know I can be a bit of a pessimist sometimes, but I think a lot of people were surprised by the story that the Eureka City Hall was choosing to allow a homeless encampment to continue to set up each night (and disband each day) in the city hall parking lot, (click this link for the full story per Eureka-Times Standard). What made me happiest is that it's not as if those campers just found a loophole, or put law enforcement in a position where they could not removed them easily, but rather the city has laws in place that state people can not sleep in public places and are choosing not to enforce them since, they say, the people are causing no problems. Now, does this undue the danger of laws like this? No. I, for one, think there are all sorts of laws that primarily target homeless people, including not only laws against sleeping in public places, but even leash laws, (which would not be enforced in suburbia unless your dog attacked someone), as well as the ease with which businesses may discriminate against someone for their perceived socio-economic status, often without reproach. However, I do believe that when a law is willfully ignored, soon it can be purposefully ignored, and then, hopefully, dismantled. But first, baby steps.

The Salt of the Earth

          This is without a doubt one of my favorite resources from our class, in part because I am always happy to be reminded that our generation, in fact even the 60's and 70's do not have a monopoly on activist media. From Salt of the Earth, to women's suffrage, to the fight to end slavery people have accomplished many acts of activism, even at times when it was perfectly legal for people of their particular demographic to be treated as though they were not even, by legal standards, human. This is not to say that this does not still occur today, but I do believe that we constantly have more and more legal protections, methods of exposing maltreatment, and opportunities for individual and collective dissent. This film depicted how workers and their families were able to come together to demand better treatment from their employers, and to defy their attempts at manipulating unfair laws to stop them from peaceful protest. I also believe that this was a great example of how those being stepped on by the people above them, may also be stepping on other people below. This reminds me of our conversations in class on horizontal hostility, in which oppressed groups victimize and vilify each other, even when they may have in common the same group oppressing them. I used to wonder at this, but I realized some time ago that it is, truly, a failsafe built in to the system to keep people from directing their ire further up the food chain. After all, if you make it difficult enough to attack the person above you, but don't give people enough of their own resources to survive without taking from others, who will they take from? Well, from people it is easiest to take from, (a prime example of this is how much harder and more dangerous it is to steal a more expensive, alarm-protected car in a nicer neighborhood than a busted old car in a neighborhood similar to your own). This isn't to say that people can't obviously work past this, and, as evidenced in this film, do the harder, better thing, but it is important to work to identify what it is that can help raise people's awareness of their ability to band together and combat the tyrannies of even the most powerful, and seemingly invincible of oppressors.

I'd Like to Give a Shout Out...

          So, I'm really proud of one of my close friends who is doing exactly the type of thing I thought she'd be doing some day. I've been friends with Rochelle for the entirety of our Bachelor's program, and stay in touch with her now that I'm doing the Master's program and she is taking time off to work on the development of the Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaboration, HCTAYC. This organization is seeking to improve systems of care for transition age youth in Humboldt County, according to the recommendations and needs of youth who have experienced these systems, including former foster youth and youth who have struggled with homelessness, mental health issues, and other issues. HCTAYC is a collaboration of individuals and agencies working toward this goal, including... well, let me just use one of their images to show you:

          I was so excited to see their youth council present at this year's Beyond the Bench 2009, (see my earlier post on the event), especially since I saw youth who had been involved in other systems getting an opportunity to effect those systems, rather than just being effected by them. Having interned previously at YSB's youth shelter and transitional living program I have come into contact with many youth who have great ideas for how to improve these systems, and, as I've seen evidenced by HCTAYC, it's not just the youth who are easiest to work with, or having the smoothest time in the program. While it is important to ensure that all council members are safe, and that youth on trips down south to do advocacy work won't endanger themselves or others, I am proud to be hearing that youth from our New Horizons facility and on probation, (where I intern currently), are being invited to take part in these activities, so that we make sure we are hearing from the youth most involved in these systems, not just those skimming the service and performing well. Rock on, Rochelle.

Beyond the Bench 2009

          So, I recently had the opportunity to attend Humboldt County's Beyond the Bench 2009: Our Youth - Creating the Future, (follow this link for a local story on the workshop). At first it was a bit nerve-wracking as one of their attempts at encouraging collaboration was to have different county departments have a specific color tag, and for no two tags of the same color to be at any one table. I understand why it's a cool idea, but I am an awkward human being and was happy to find a bit of a loophole by sitting with interns from other agencies and with my friend Rochelle, from HCTAYC. By far the best parts of the day for me were, firstly, "In Their Own Words", a video comprising of various former foster youth telling the story of their time in the system, what worked and what didn't, and what they think the system needs to better help future foster youth. The only aspect of this I struggled with was the way it was followed up by one of the speakers saying something along the lines of that it was important to hear the opinions of these youth, even if we know they just don't understand. She basically compared it to her daughter thinking she was mean for being strict about something, and later down the line realizing mom was right all along.

Empowering, right?

          Really, I think I understand where the speaker was coming from. We had some foster parents in the room who would be presenting soon, and it was important to not make them feel like they were there to be accused of being abusive, or greedy, or whatever else many of the foster youth had experienced, but this is one of those uncomfortable moments that will stem from attempts at honest airing of grievances with the system, and it's important to not take this personally, but to take it as a challenge to improve, without invalidating the complaints of others with "Well, I don't do that", nor to invalidate the good works of others with a simple "Well, no one's ever done that for me". As HCTAYC presented later, and gave many simple, valuable, tips and tricks for incorporating and valuing the input of youth, Rochelle said it best: Don't tokenize. Don't bring in other groups just to pat yourself on the back and say "we're so open-minded", because having an open door is Not the same as having an open mind.

Day 1...The Journey Begins...

          So, this is the first post of many to come. Here is some context: I am a Master's level Social Work student at HSU, I'm in the Advanced Standing program, (which means I did a semester this past summer before jumping into the second year of the program), and my current courseload includes a class on Community Work. I am currently being a good girl and starting a blog to process what we will discuss and read in this course, as well as events and issues related to this course, such as activism and community organizing. In the future I will be looking at readings, videos and discussions from this course but we didn't have any for the first week (whoot!), so let me give you a little breakdown, instead. 

          I'm 21 years old, (soon to be 22), and I work at a transitional living program for homeless families and will be interning at Juvenile Probation this coming year, and I also interned at a youth shelter and transitional living program last year. I've long had an interest in social work, ever since I realized that my Psychology courses were lacking a social element that I was really interested in looking at, but rather seemed to point the finger at the individual as the root of mental health issues and the party in need of treatment in almost all cases. What's funny is even though I moved on to Sociology, (because it was real fun getting credit for taking courses on Human Sexuality and Modern Social Problems), and from there to Social Work, (where I felt Sociology went to work for people), I was still most interested in direct service, just with a broader systems oriented view. Now, though, as I actually work with homeless families, shelters struggling not to get kicked out of neighborhoods, youth being denied aid because they're 'too close to adulthood' to try to combat the emotional abuse they're suffering, and as I even have family and friends struggling with the stigma of substance use and mental illness I can't help but get... pissed off!

from http://mikehelmsmusic.com/about_us

 

           It's true what they say, direct service or not, you'll end up running into policy, societal norms and other macro level issues, and you'll do it head first at full speed if you don't have at least some awareness of where the brick walls are and how to dismantle or reorganize them.

           So, that's really it for now, stay tuned for some rip roaring talk about social work literature, activism, social justice issues, and hopefully I can find some interesting events to throw my 2 cents in on.

PS:   I was trying to find a picture that would capture frustration for me, and I'm happy with the one I found because it really is a struggle to be angry, to advocate, and to still be taken seriously instead of just exploding all over people so they have an excuse to not listen to you...But I'm still not happy that the men's images seemed to be powerful, whereas the women's were all fear-based, which is why I ended up finding an appropriate men's image far more easily...Just a note...