Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My New Job…

Yesterday, I told the world about me getting a new AmeriCorps job and how it is the next step in my work life.  This blog is going to be describing that new job and what I’ll be doing.  Starting September 20, 2010, I’ll be starting my new job as the Center for Financial Stability (CFS) Housing Support Specialist.  That’s a mouth full!  But before I start then, I have a two day training on Monday, August 30, and Tuesday, August 31 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.  Can’t wait for this training.  A blog about this training will be forthcoming next week.  But my hours are basically the same from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.  But since I’ll be going in early, I’ll be starting at 8:00 am until 5:00 pm.  This is an AmeriCorps, which means I’ll be getting a stipend rather than a paycheck but it will be a bigger stipend than what I’m getting now.  It’s basically a $7,400 raise for the year.  Yeah, I know but still.  It’s more money than what I’m currently getting but this isn’t about money for me.  It’s about getting on my feet and staying out of homelessness.  That’s what this current job has given me.  This next job I’m doing gives me more experience to get my work life back on track.  I couldn’t be more happier than I am right now about this opportunity.  So, what will I’ll be doing?  Well, follow me as I tell you.

The position description is that the CFS program seeks to help low-income households achieve greater financial stability through an integrated system of workforce development services, work supports, and financial services.  So, another words, I’ll be responsible for connection families to appropriate housing services, seeking out community housing resources, and providing tenant education/counseling services.  Other responsibility includes:

  • Assess individuals and family needs in order to determine appropriate type of housing services needed
  • Assist customers in applying for appropriate housing services
  • Make appropriate housing service referrals and follow up on referrals
  • Connect families to community resources such as food, clothing, transportation, housing assistance, and utility assistance
  • Jointly develop a housing plan of action with participant to address and meet his/her family’s needs
  • Maintain case notes for each customer to reflect his or her plan of action is being followed according to program procedure and guidelines
  • Administer monthly tenant education classes
  • Provide support to Family Center Case Managers and Resource Advocates
  • Work in collaboration with Financial Stability Navigation Specialist, Center for Employment Training staff and Financial Services staff to ensure effective integration of services and customer referrals
  • In a regular and timely manner, enter services and data into CFS tracking systems and generate monthly reports
  • Participate in trainings and meetings
  • Other tasks as needed

I don’t think there is a single job that doesn’t have that last responsibility that is right above this sentence in their description?  The famous “Other tasks as needed”.  No more saying “that’s not in my job description”.  Guess what?  It is!  It just under “Other tasks as needed”.  Got to love that.  This job is going to be a challenge but I’m up for this challenge.  What I will like most about this job is working with the actual individuals and/or families.  So, I can’t wait until September 20 to start this job but there is also another date I can’t wait for either?  That’s October 23 – 28, 2010!  Anybody want to guess what that date will be?  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s going to be another blog post other than the blog post I said above.  To the person that guess, gets free dinner.  *lol*

So, I’m excited and cant wait!

TL

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Next Step…

Today was not only a great day for me but also a very big step in my life goals.  I learned that I got this other AmeriCorps position that I was hoping for.  So, in the scheme called my life, how does this fit in?  See from day one of working at Brighton Center in September 2009, I had a plan to re-work my life.  One thing I knew was that I didn’t want to be homeless again.  I decided that I was going to take control of my life, of course, with Gods help.  Re-working my life would take a lot of effort but one area that I knew I wanted to make a change in was my work life.  Here I am, a 36 year old single guy with a Master of Science in Technology degree and didn’t have anything to show for it.  I took inventory of my work life and came up with a plan.  To start recover from homelessness is actually where you are starting your life all over again.  Of course, you don’t have to go through all the different life stages.

Working as an AmeriCorps VISTA allowed me the necessary time and patience to implement things.  Working as a VISTA allowed me to at least gain both volunteer status and full time experience.  Up until that point, I didn’t have either.  Yes, I volunteered at school and etc but that isn’t the same.  Not only that, working as a VISTA allowed me at the end of my service year to open another area in the job market.  I will get non-compete status in the government job field.  Meaning that the government job market will be open to me.  Also, after working my year as a VISTA, I was able to start updating my experience.  Up until now, my experience was majorly out of date.  So, just for this one year, I was able to gain volunteer experience, full time experience, open up the government job market area to me, gain non compete status, and start updating my experience.  Not to mention using my passion to not only overcome my homelessness but help fight homelessness as well.  Where can I go from here?

Working as as AmeriCorps VISTA allowed me to build capacity within Brighton Center.  So, I couldn’t do that much direct service like working with individuals and families.  VISTA was about me providing a better system for another person to help that individual or family.  Now, I’m going to actually be that person that helps individuals and families as I will be able to do direct service now as I’m just going to be an AmeriCorps.  In the next couple of days, I’ll be doing a blog post talking more about what I’ll be doing.  But off hand I can tell you that gaining this opportunity is huge because it continues my step in my work life in the right direction.  Not only is this job more money, it’s also more responsibility.  Which means more experience for me.  Experience I’ll be gaining is case management.  Not only do I gain that but I’ll also receive entry level experience as this position will be considered.

But it’s not all fun and dandy though.  Between now and September 20, when I officially start this other AmeriCorps position, I’ll have a lot to do from finishing up my current service year as a VISTA to doing orientation on Monday and Tuesday of next week for the new AmeriCorps position.  Also have to check out things regarding my food stamps and how this position will affect that.  I don’t think it will but just want to be on the safe side.

Now, for this real reason, why today was a huge day for me.  I can start researching about buying a car.  This means a lot for me.  With this job, I know now which way to go with my $1200 end of the year cash stipend that I’ll be getting.  Majority of it will be going into my IDA account where I have nearly $1000 saved up.  When I hit $2000 saved, Brighton Center will match me 100 percent.  So, I’ll have $4000 to either buy a car outright or put down a payment on a new or used car.  This job will allow me to take on another major bill which will be a car insurance.  So, probably around the new year, I’ll be driving again.  Plus, it will allow me a few little bills as well.  So, in the meantime, I’m going to go and relax and be happy.

TL

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Is AmeriCorps in your future…

As the title suggests, is AmeriCorps in your future?  This blog is going to be about my experience as an AmeriCorps and how it changed my life.  But not only that, it will give an overview of AmeriCorps.  The end results is hopefully after reading and looking into the different AmeriCorps program that you, yourself, will sign up to be an AmeriCorps and serve.  AmeriCorps can make a big difference in your life and could help you gain that valuable experience.

What Is AmeriCorps?

According to the AmeriCorps website, “AmeriCorps is an opportunity to make a big difference in your life and in the lives of those around you. It’s a chance to apply your skills and ideals toward helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.”  I must say that AmeriCorps has made a big difference in my life and this is my first year I volunteer.  Before I found this, I was homeless, living with friends and out of a car for a year and half.  It was during my homeless phase that a passion was lit under me.  I was determine more than ever to help fight poverty, homelessness, and many other problems facing America or in my area.  As an AmeriCorps member, I’m able to use my skills to “address critical needs in communities all across America” especially in any of the following areas:

  • Tutor and mentor disadvantaged youth
  • Fight illiteracy
  • Improve health services
  • Build affordable housing
  • Teach computer skills
  • Clean parks and streams
  • Manage or operate after-school programs
  • Help communities respond to disasters
  • Build organizational capacity

With my Master of Science in Technology Degree which has an area of specialization in Technology Management and my Bachelor of Organizational Studies with an area of concentration in Information Systems, I knew that I would have no problems doing this volunteer job.  So, after many months of trying to look for a job, I was able to get my current AmeriCorps position “Housing Support VISTA Volunteer” in the area I lived in.

Besides AmeriCorps helping me, I’m helping people in my community to make a difference by what I have created for the community.  Each time an agency uses my tool, it’s making a connection to the families and/or individuals.  Over the last year, I have helped several homeless individuals and families start getting back on their feel either by working with them closely setting goals or by providing them with housing resource for the Northern Kentucky area.  The following are resources I have created and it is disburse to over 4,085 people per month:  (to read more about this project, read my post on Housing Resource Outreach Report)

Benefits of AmeriCorps

Thanks to AmeriCorps, I’m slowly recovering from homelessness.  Volunteering for AmeriCorps has allow me to get back on my feet.  As an AmeriCorps member you will get the following benefits:

  • Modest Living Stipend – depending on the area you are serving in, you will get a paycheck every two weeks that will be enough to just pay for your basic expenses.
  • Segal AmeriCorps Education Award - $4,725 to pay for college, graduate school, or to pay back qualified student loans.
  • Professional Development – During the year, you will attend trainings, conferences, and gain valuable on the job full-time training
  • Non-competitive clause – after your year, you will open up a whole new job market area in the government sector and gain a non-competitive clause.

AmeriCorps Programs

AmeriCorps is made up of three main programs: AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps VISTA, and AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps).  I’m currently an AmeriCorps VISTA.  To learn more about these programs, follow the program of interest below:

How Do I Join?

Did I convince you to join up and start Volunteering In Service To America (VISTA), for AmeriCorps State/National, or AmeriCorps NCCC?  To search for an AmeriCorps national service opportunity that fits your interests and desired location, click here.  Applications for any position can also be submitted online – all you have to do is create a user profile.

If you need additional assistance or have questions, please:

There are thousands of opportunities to serve in AmeriCorps. Each one provides an incredible opportunity to make a difference in your life and in the lives of those around you.  So, what are you waiting for?  Tell them TL sent you!  Well, not really.  You can for the fun of it but they will just act like they don’t know me.  *lol*

TL

New to Homelessness??? (very long)…

As you leave your house for one last time in the morning, you know that at the end of the day, you won’t be back to this house to sleep.  What are you going to do?  Where you going to sleep?  Can you survive living on the streets, in a car, or on friend’s couches night to night?  Where am I going to eat?  How am I going to eat?  And the questions keep coming and coming.  Everything around you tends to go slow motion as you are only thinking about these questions as you are walking aimlessly around.  To an experience homeless person, they can spot you a mile away.  You have those “deer in headlights look” about yourself.  But you aren’t alone on the streets as the newest homeless person.  According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness:

  • There are 671,859 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States - roughly 22 of every 10,000 people are homeless.
  • Of that number, 37 percent are people in families and 63 percent are individuals,
  • 18 percent of the homeless population is considered "chronic," and
  • 20 percent of the homeless population is made up of veterans.

Welcome to being part of the fast rising statistics in America called homelessness.  Even I, at one point, was part of this statistics.  From here on out, you need a whole new kind of thinking going on.  Remember, the longer you are homeless, the faster you will lose your moral and confident.  If you lose those two things, you will be homeless for the rest of your life.  So, what should you do?  This blog post will talk about things I did throughout my one and half years of homelessness that eventually lead me out of homelessness that I’m going to share with you.  Hopefully this will somewhat be a blueprint for you to start the process of digging out of homelessness.  Here we go.

VERY FIRST NIGHT:

This is a very important night.  You have to decide quickly as possible to find a place to sleep, have in mind a place you want to sleep out, or if you are going to sleep in your car.  I recommend calling a friend first to see if you can spend a night or two on their couch.  Be honest with them.  Let them know what’s going on.  You never know what they will offer.  I got lucky myself when I talked to my best friend.  They allowed me originally two weeks but at the end of the two weeks, I got a lucky surprise as they made a deal I couldn’t refuse basically and was able to stay with them for four months.

*** TIPS TO STAYING WITH FRIENDS ***

You might not have money to offer your friend for staying with them but you do have other stuff you can offer them.  This is where it’s important to do a self inventory of yourself.  Know what you have to offer and make it work for you.  Things to think about when asking a friend to stay with them:

  • If you do have money, offer to pay them a small proportion
  • If they have kids, babysit for them whenever they want to go out
  • Be available to pick up the kids if need be (special arrangement though)
  • Do housework
  • Do dishes
  • If you are an expert in a field and you know your friend wants to learn, be willing to tutor them
  • Mow the grass if you have too
  • Do errands for them
  • Have food stamps?  Offer to buy food monthly or provide for your portion of the food

The whole idea is about making yourself worth more than money.  Doing little things around the friend’s house could be a huge weight of their shoulder.  But most important thing though is that you balance what you want to do to get out of homelessness with the services you provide to your friend.  Communication is very important with your friends especially if they are a family.  Always be mindful and respectful.

*** TIPS STAYING IN YOUR CAR ***

So, you struck out being able to stay with friends?  But you have your car.  You are going to have to sleep in your car.  Sleeping in your car isn’t as bad as sleeping on the streets itself.  It’s all about finding a safe, quiet, but yet somewhat public place to park the car so you can sleep at night.  I slept in my car for six months during the winter.  I was living out of my car from October to March.  Here is what I learned:

  • Best parking lots to sleep in are the 24 hour parking lots like Wal-Mart, Kroger’s, & Meijer's
  • Blend your car in with the employees cars that work the 3rd shift.  Not to close to them that it looks like you are stalking them but at the same time not to far away that you stick out like a sore thumb.
  • Before you go to sleep, take a walk around in the store looking like you are shopping.
  • Be friendly and say hi to the employees as you are walking through if you pass any
  • Notice what the uniforms are or what the the smokers wear coat or sweater wise when they are smoking.  For example, Kroger’s hand out blue fleece or sweaters to employees.
  • If you so happen to have a similar color sweater or jacket, put it on each night before you do your walk around.
  • By doing the above, you are kind of setting a precedent.  These lots are monitored and patrolled by police.  But if police seeing you come out of the store with that jacket on, they will assume you work there and you are going to your car for a break.  I never got bothered by police or asked to move once.
  • Eventually, one of the employees will start striking up conversation with you.  Be honest with them as well.  For example, where I stayed at night, I had a manager that was willing to back me up if a cop came to her asking about me.
  • Eventually, I started “volunteering” in a way at Kroger’s by helping them stock or as we are talking to start helping them put stuff back on shelves.  But don’t do this right away.  The best time to start doing this is maybe after a few times that the person ask you to do them a favor.
  • Park between two barriers if all possible.  This helps especially during the winter months to cut down the wind and chill factor.
  • Have plenty of blankets, clothing, & warm stuff in the car
  • Remember the 15 minutes rule:  Run your heat on full blast for 15 minutes, then turn it off and see how long you can keep warm until you can’t stand it any longer.  For me, basically it was every hour I had to do 15 minutes if I was awake.  When I went to sleep, it would be like 4 to 5 hours later that I would have to turn the hit on.
  • Best night to sleep in your car is when it’s raining.  The rain hitting the roof makes this great soothing sound
  • Move car often.  Makes you look like you are an employee.  If you sleep in the lot, then don’t go back to that lot until you are ready to go to sleep.
  • Leave the car parked as much as possible.
  • Plan your day to day.  Where do you have to go?  Better to stay in a certain area if you have to be back there the following day rather than going all the way back to where you sleep?

Living out of your car can be very simple and easy.  But don’t forget that a car takes gas.  It takes money to get gas.  If you don’t have a job, you have very little money.  So, you can’t waste gas.  One way I got money for gas was taking a person somewhere for reasonable gas money.  Pay very close attention how much gas you are using and how big your gas tank is.

*** TIPS FOR STAYING ON THE STREETS ***

You struck out staying with friends, and you don’t have a car.  The only other alternative is to stay on the streets.  This is the most dangerous of the situations maybe?  Your first night on the streets can be the scariest.   You have your safety to worry about, the weather, not to mention being waken up ever so often to be told to move.  You might not get any sleep at all.  I really don’t have much experience as I got very lucky during my one and half years of homelessness I didn’t have to sleep on the streets.  The closest I have came was actually three days.  So, these tips are what I have seen or heard from various people or might experience from the above two tips:

  • Have very little with you (backpack, book bag size, & etc)
  • Go to the library during the days
  • 24/7 Laundry Mats that are open to take camp baths late at night
  • Greyhound bus stations – they have lockers you can use to store stuff in.
  • Search for place to stay where you think nobody knows about.  If you think you might have found a place, stake it out for a few days to see.
  • Look into shelters (a whole different story apparently which I don’t have any experience on)

I really don’t know much about this but maybe somebody will write in the comment about their experience.  Bottom line is all about staying safe!

*** TIPS FOR GETTING FOOD ***

The most important thing about homelessness.  Where are you going to get your food daily?  Here are some tips:

  • Agencies has food pantry which you possibly can get some food
  • Various churches might offer free supper on different days.  In Covington alone, I was able to have dinner at five different churches every week.
  • Never pass on a free meal.  If somebody offers to buy you a meal, you take it.
  • Free sample trays:  on the weekends, all your major grocery stores have free sampling.  Go into each store and act like a grocery shopper and sample each free sample.  Look interested in them as well by asking questions about what you sampled.  Then most important, buy something very small priced.
  • Go to soup kitchens
  • Apply for food stamps.  Could be a great help in the long run.

As you can see, eating isn’t really a problem if you know where to go.

DAY TWO AND BEYOND:

To survive on the streets, you need to do your homework.  You need to stay ahead of the game.  You need to be aware what’s going on around you.  If you see something that isn’t right or something feels wrong, trust your instinct.  To read more about the things I’ll be mentioning below, please read my post on “Trying to understand homelessness”.

Set up safety measurements.  For example, you might not be able to stay with your friend but you can set up days when you two can talk so that somebody knows if you are ok or not.  That’s what I did with my best friend and my mom.  Each week, I placed a call to them.  It can be for a minute to stay you are alright or an e-mail to them.

Have plans. So, you found a perfect place to sleep or place to eat?  What happens if somebody else beats you to perfect place to sleep?  What now?  Do you have a backup plan?  Always have two or three or maybe four plans just in case something happens.  Have plans for everything.

Self Inventory. After find a reasonable place to stay and you are comfortable, start working on your self inventory.  Be honest with yourself.  What are your weakness and strengths?

Set Goals. How are you going to succeed in digging yourself out of homelessness?  Set goals and milestones.

In conclusion, things that is very important to remember is SAFETY!  You need to be safe!  Also remember that the longer you are homeless, the more you start losing your moral and confidence.  Another key thing is don’t be afraid to ask for help or accept help.  Follow some of these tips I have given you, and before you know it, you could be digging  yourself out of homelessness like I did.

TL

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Trying to understand homelessness…

Can anybody tell me what it takes to understand homelessness?  People that I asked seems to have a grave misunderstanding homelessness.  Besides the obvious answers I hear, “a person without a place to call home night after night”, I also hear “how it’s the person’s decision making process that lands them homeless”.  So, I ask “is it the person’s fault that they are homeless”?  So, is it?  In some cases it might be but very rarely it isn’t.  Becoming homeless is really out of a person’s control.  But don’t get me wrong though.  I also believe that it takes two people to cause a problem and it takes two people to fix a problem.  For example, let’s take me. On April 17, 2008, I was admitted into the hospital with cellulites infection.  I was in the hospital for a week.  It was this event that let me down the path of homelessness.  But I can’t totally blame it on this event.  As I write this blog, what’s in white is my thoughts on my homelessness, and what you see in black, bold, and italicize is what I think it takes to understand homelessness.

For the previous year, I was working at a job as the interim manager where I was averaging 90 hours a week.  Yes, you read that right.  I made $32,000 for that year.  What did I have to show for it?  Just a bunch of possessions.  I didn’t save any money when I had very little bills.  All I did was spent money on stuff no matter what it was.  But it caught up with me.  Once I was put in the hospital, I lost my job, and didn’t have my own place anymore.  I stayed with my mom after I got out of the hospital for two months for my recovery.  Then went on to stay with a friend for three months, in my car for six months, in a semi truck for two and half months, with a friend for one and half months, and then lastly with another great set of friends for four months before I found a job and a place to live shortly follows.  So, yes, my decisions did cause me to become homeless but would it have if it wasn’t for me getting sick?  I’m sure I didn’t make the decision to get cellulites infection?  So, it took two events to put me in an awkward position that I never been in before.  Homeless!

As every other battle I have had previously, I knew I was in a fight with an opponent I never met before.  To understand what I was in, I had to do some research to get my mind wrapped around the situation that I was in.  After understand what I needed to know, I made a plan to not only beat being homeless but get my life back on track and make sure I stay on track.  The first thing I did was took a life inventory.  Life inventory is taking inventory about yourself.  I knew I had to be brutal honest with myself.  I was breaking myself down and building myself back up so I needed to understand myself.  I needed to be as brutal as possible but I also knew I had a chance to give myself a complete makeover if I was able to be the victor.  I wrote all my faults, strengths, weaknesses, problems, friends I could trust, and everything else that I thought was very important.  Like newly diagnosed being a diabetic and had depression since I was 16.  I wrote down everything I had in my arsenal to fight this opponent called homelessness.  One thing I wrote down for myself, is a reminder that this isn’t my first battle with a problem like this.  All my life I had to battle things to get where I was.  This battle just raised the bar higher.  If I could defeat the previous battles, I knew I could defeat this battle.  As a homeless service provider, I think it’s important to understand what the homeless individual or family you are dealing with has available.  It’s all by connecting with them and listening.  Don’t just tell them to get to the point on why they are there.  We already know why they are there.  They need help.  You can learn a lot about them by just listening to what they have to say or explain what is happening. 

Then I made a plan and set goals based on this life inventory.  I knew it was important to stay on top of this.  If I didn’t, then I knew I would lose this battle.  So, at any sign of my moral going down, I knew what I needed to do to give my moral a boost.  I treated me being homeless as a normal part of my life.  Another words, before I was homeless I had depression and other underline problems to deal with.  So, when depression came about I knew there were certain things that would help me get out of my depression phase or when my moral needed a boost, I knew what I needed to do. I ended up going out having fun and let myself stop thinking about that problem or life for a day or so.  When this started to happened to me when I was being homeless, I did what I could do to make myself happy and forget about being homeless and totally change what I was doing to totally something else that would make me happy or give me that boost of moral that I needed.  As a homeless service provider, you are there to help this person understand what they are doing and how you can help them.  Sit down and make a plan and set goals with them.  Then you can hold them to that plan and goals.  Give them that accountability that they need.  Make them feel like they are still part of society.  The longer they are homeless, the more moral they start losing.  So, it’s important that as a provider that you are there to connect them to the right resource.

When I was homeless, the most annoying thing for me was somebody telling me that I had to go here, then I go there, and those people tell me I had to go here, and I go to those people tell me I had to go back to the same place I started this jumping through the hoops begin with.  Nothing frustrated me more.  But I knew I couldn’t get mad or frustrated because that just made the situation worse.  Instead, I killed them with kindness.  That’s what I did.  It threw them for a loop and allowed me to control more of the situation and get down to the bottom of what I needed or was there to get assistance for.  At the end of the day, I knew what my next plan or goal was needed.  As a homeless service provider, you will need to remember one thing when dealing with homeless individuals and/or families and that is “your worse day, is their best day”.  So, you think your having a bad day and yet you have to see homeless people, don’t take your frustrations out on them.  They are there to get help not be belittled.  Then try like heck to give them the best resource based on their situation.  Let them know what they should bring with them when they go there and what the requirements are.  Be thorough.  The person who said “knowledge is power” is so correct.

In conclusion, as a homeless service provider, it’s important to understand the situation that a homeless individual and/or families are in that you are trying to help.  Try connecting with them on their level.  When I provided help to the homeless individuals and/or families, I waited until they told me that I didn’t understand what they are going through.  I knew once I heard that, I was in because then I could share my story with them.  By the time I’m done, I have connected with them.  Then I started working on providing the the best resource I could that tailored to their needs.  Giving them numbers, names of people, what they needed to bring with them, what the requirements are, and etc.  At the end of our meeting I make sure they have the most important resource - MY BUSINESS CARD!

This is just the start of understanding homelessness.  One thing I do hate though is how these agencies care more about quantity than quality.  If they start treating the problem one person at a time, we would be getting somewhere.  When you have to see a certain amount of people in a day, than you lose sight of what’s important – CARING!

TL