GivingGovtAPieceOfOurMinds
Introduction/Definition/etc
You can probably see where this is going,
but by all means, click the link above to see
WTF he's talking about now...
20091111 6.45 am Jerry
20091119 8.04 am Jerry Some typo corrections,
followup, etc.
20100114 9.54 am See FFX County's versions
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rha/fiveyearconsolidated5.htm
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rha/fiveyearconsolidated4.htm
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rha/fiveyearconsolidated3.htm
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rha/fiveyearconsolidated2.htm
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/rha/fiveyearconsolidated1.htm
but mostly #4 and other peoples comments...
Interesting they think they need a wiki...
Body
Backstory
Well, now after the Virginia and other state elections
and a Republican Governor was elected,
plus a NVRPP/ RMG/ Regional Projects Office
and then Fairfax County Housing Forum,
it might be time to catchup on what the life
is like for us little people, i.e. those not
paid after 5 years of efforts giving back to
the community, while outside people are
brought in, paid, RRWG office opened,
staff hired, and now money almost
if not completely gone.
Recommendation: Fire Koshotka
If the RPO is saying there is no region,
why is there a RPO? So recommendation,
nasty abusive government personnel
working counter to volunteer efforts
at recovery should be fired.
And continue to do that until the message
of respect is heard in the provider community.
There is your recommendation for
the inappropraite laughing government person
at the discomfort and pain of
this individual reporting difficulties
with RRWG at the end of the NVRPP
meeting.
Hiring and Lying Practices
So in the end of the preceeding RMG meeting,
I pointed out that the Govt has a problem,
if they could not keep the Regional Coordinator
position, how did they get funding for
hiring a new Office of Consumer Affairs
from the Richmond area?
It was claimed that it was a separate
decision and without Regional money,
but there seems to be a two faced
rule, government exists (and even grows) and others
lose funding, so see recommendation
above. The individual hired may be
well respected in the consumer community
but as you may see below, having someone
on the government payroll is not the same
as having an outside Ombuds/ OIG
office, especially when the conflict
is with Govt in the first place...
Proposal / Idears
So I put in JerrySpaceIdea
as a peer housing/ tech/ hackerspace
and peer transportation idea,
and the older Website proposal grant
was funded but diverted to a provider
controlled Network of Care, which has
not been widely accepted, as it doesn't
speak to the consumer, consumers
don't have control over it, and now the
supposed provider controlled Newsletter
(from the last NVRPP meeting, sharing
information is not the same as the
consumer website originally proposed
by this author...)
Years of Service
So years ago, I appear in front of the state
Subcommittee and advocate
for money for consumer projects,
it ends up being $1.51 million / year
for 2 years, providers take huge chunks
of that money for their own purposes,
hospital seculsion and restraint/ trauma
informed services, overhead and administrative
fees, years of meetings, etc and of the persons who
also advocated for that money,
one (DavidOBrien has passed away)
with supporting letters presumably from NVMHCA
(I never really saw what was being handed
to the state subcommittee) and another who
has gone back to paid work after retiring.
As perhaps the remaining captain of a
sinking ship (we used to use the Titanic
analogy of trying to steer a huge provider
bureaucracy towards strengths based,
consumer driven and recovery model
putting ideas forward for using the remaining
money after providers took control
(anti thetical to consumer driven, btw)
without even consulting those on the
grant proposal and workgroup,
seems like business as usual
and no real transformation.
Others Claiming Success
We can point to Drop In Centers in
Prince William (RRWG Provider chair
was from PW), and now in Arlington
(RMG Chair is Arlington Provider),
which the RRWG funded, plus lots
of smaller projects (which don't list RRWG's
work in making it happen), but as far as sustainability
most of the people involved have left
are burned out, or dead with your's truely
still pissed off about it all.
FFX Housing Forum
The Fairfax County Housing Forum, since others
who got money from the RRWG
are claiming success but not helping
or even supporting this author,
("We can't do anything about housing"
as if it is too complex, another supporting
person says "You gave $50k to Brain Foundation"
or very similar, and now children are
supposedly the forced focus of the
NVRPP/ RMG/ RPO, with a repeated
non hearing chair, saying that the
July meeting we talked about/ decided/
whatever (one meeting over the years
I didn't get to, as still mourning the
abuse from RPO/ RMG on the FundingInput
JerrySpaceIdea, RRWG issues, etc...
What I Really Said
I said "It's sickening what you are doing"
not considering the past work.
Rushing a provider controlled meeting
in a direction that even the providers
didn't think it would go,
people angrily pitted against each
other, priorities vs. priorities,
(It's all important, only the order in which
we try tackling the issues) and pretending
that the last three or more years of efffort
on the RRWG and predecessors
(some working on Ombuds and others
for decades) don't exist,
this website, and [collectively] thousands of hours
of meetings, writing after meetings,
posting a funding notice and having
it taken down (IT WAS PUBLIC MONEY,
SHOULD BE PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED),
transportation, all un reimbursed [to me] are nothing,
and somehow a Newsletter that
a paid nasty provider is going to
edit, has any relation to what is really
needed, true respect from the people
in government who are paid to provide
services, have an ethical and moral
responsibility to respect the people
they supposedly are caring for [& representing]???
These are the Times of War and Desparation
You can look at the news to see the
results of conflicts that have not been
resolved. Years into the [oil/terrorism] war, a
major is firing upon other troops
in the Ft. Hood Army base,
and Ft. Belvior and oher military
is not that far from here in SouthEast.
[Locally] this follows SH Cho and Virginia
Tech and follows Michael Kennedy
and Sully Police station violence.
Make It Personal
And the Fairfax county Chairwoman
of the Board of Supervisors gave
a little 5 minute speech of meeting
some people after discovering over
time they were living in the woods
near her home, seen while out jogging,
[she then] I made it personal, and perhaps humanizing...
More Housing Feedback
I pointed out later housing for college students,
not all will graduate, some parents may be
punitive, if not successful in college,
many will probably have issues,
most people know the onset of
schizophrenia [& depression] related disorders
is in the college/ military/ similar times,
like Mr S.H. Cho and Mr Kennedy
originally from the same Western Fairfax high school
up here in Northern Virginia, and I told the Housing
forum about the transition issues in
getting someone from Homeless to Harvard,
peers talking to peers about homelessness,
"do the people in the system help those coming in"
or similar [peer approach], and they asked about
dental and transportation,
and I tried to ignore the likely controversial
immigration flamefest that someone [Sharon?] was
trying to start.
Segregate That Guy
I first broke up into a subgroup with too few people,
started talking with a Crisis Care Link employee
about her Blackberry/ cell phone with wireless
plan (RRWG AT tech does not allow it, which was one
of the original goals, bridging the REAL digital divide)
and a Area Agency on Aging, (I showed her the OLPC
XO) and it was mostly providers, several from
the MH staff, Mary Kudless takling about Beeman
Commission, ARS staff present, and Sharon Jones
somewhere in the MH system and seen before
with Drop In Center development work
only a few people not paid by the
system they were giving feedback on,
not unlike most provider controlled meetings
of the NVRPP, RMG, and even RRWG
you never really get the feedback necessary,
the posterboard sheets were in provider
speak, translated to meaningless to those who volunteered
a full day (or evening hours in previous Homeless
events) where the end of the Forum exhausted,
and I was feeling unheard and frustrated,
provider facilitators tried to boil it down to one over
simplistic paragraph,
I'm sure I said a lot more than one paragraph
and there were lots of other people,
many in wheel chairs, and just a few mental health,
mostly physical disabilities (including visual impairments
preventing from seeing what was handwritten
on the other side of the room, no microphone
recording of the actual transcript of the event,
no computer technology used to type at a faster speed than
handwriting on a board will allow, nor using
big character fonts for visual impairments,
myself across the room on the side
she asked "did I get that right?" most of the first group was
never put even on the board, and ignored all that
I had to say, and left that split group at lunch break,
going to a more hearing facilitator in the second
half, but even other participant (or staff?)
then "you have not recognized
this guy with his hand up for a while"
to which I responded jokingly "you don't
want to encourage me to speak"
after ranting some early in the morning,
mornings being so painful, up hours before
just to get cross county to Taj, even with the late
night and insane week schedule before...
Safety? Gangs? Retribution?
I spoke of feeling unsafe in the housing I do
have. I spoke of a success to still be housed
after over 10-15 years. I spoke of people
not understanding what was being asked
of the focus group.
Employment?
I spoke of homelessness only preparing
me to work for pay in a seasonal shelter,
when they asked about employment.
Neighbors?
I spoke of training people [residents & providers]
on how to deal with neighbors
when the community sees someone
moving in with a trash bag and
how will they get along?
Forcing Faith For Food &/or Shelter
I spoke of "don't tell me what to believe"
when a religious person tried
to say they create programs, and
referencing Lamb Center
[dropping off personal copies of Street Sense
is where the taxi ran over my feet,
police did nothing, and on to the RRWG
office in the area, ER doc says
"you're gonig to need a cab"
as I was trying to leave,
and MetroAccess sent the taxi
that ran over my feet originally,
other times stranding me for hours
at RRWG/ Pathways office building,
probably not wanting to do cross county
trips for little pay, and the where's my ride
just repeatedly transfers to nothing,
basically perpetual hold or hangups...].
I said people can have issues with
religion, (there really should be separation
of church and state, especially with public
money), mental health, and treating
homeless like people instead
of categorizing them as sick/ [crazy,
the C word], drug addicts, and retarded.
A Systems Approach
I spoke of how they could create
a flow chart of how people come
into the homeless system.
I spoke of "no wrong door"
for entry into the system.
And of [documenting]
how people are categorized.
I spoke of how when the 222 number
gets called and it doesn't help,
one ends up calling 911,
and what response would police
have with a person with mental
health issues?
Training Police & Homeless Diversion
[I spoke of a homeless diversion
program like Substance Abuse
and MH Courts and homeless
and MH training by people who are/
have been homeless &/or MH
in the Police Academy like I know
DC has (first vendor manager
Jesse Smith from StreetSense
article)..]
Taj & Dress Code
And out of sequence, going back
to the beginning, I've lost track
off all that even I said over many hours,
frustrated and feeling different
and stigmatized in the Taj
with bags. [usual Help The Homeless T Shirt,
a National Coalition for the Homeless
"Kick the Real Bums Out" underneath,
but never shown] and jeans,
and packed breakfast and lunch...
Moving WheelChairs
I spoke of "let the wheel chair people
stay in this room, instead of moving them"
when originally splitting up into groups in different
rooms.
WTF?
I spoke that I didn't understand the questions
when asked to vote/ choose which room/
subgroup we were going towards.
Was the choice vote for all that we
want, or have to choose one only?
Making Reasonable Accommodations
[I later asked for the questions in writing
and got a facilitators sheet emailed
to me, not sure if appropirate to
redistribute up here...]
Definitions of Homeless and 222
I spoke that homelessness is defined
as not having the ability to come and
go as you wish in response to someone
who said someone called the 222 number
and was told they were not homeless...
And the systems person (responsible
for answering 222 number calls) was leading/
facilitating that subgroup.
Morning Growling as Disabled + Transit
I said I was tired and that depressed
people mornings are not good
for all people with disabilities,
and said I'd probably be growling
most of the AM, after joking about
"Sleeping In Place" and asking the
well dressed people if they know
what it's like to be/ have been homeless.
And I said I'm talkative
with little sleep, and tried raising my hand
to share the air in the first subgroup....
Southern Fried Homeless
I spoke that the homeless people also
have problems in summer time with
heat as well as hypothermia...
Focus Group Process Lacking
The process by which government
tries to get information from the public
and many publicly funded employees
are stressed and annoyed at having
to do public meetings,
But the process speaks so loudly to the
disconnect between the appearantly rich
overdressed employed Fairfax County
and other employees trying to get feedback
from those without houses, jobs, cars, and futures.
I spoke of the need for more outreach
people, like the one guy I remember
meeting in previous years.
I spoke of the Outreach center
in Mt Vernon MH Tia Breeding,
who used to run a homeless
outreach program in the gym of the
CMHC (Community Mental Health
Center), and was that still funded?
Elections
And the rest of the public has voted in
a Republican Governor, so what positive
changes do you think are possible now
5 years or decades after some of these
initiatives for recovery, consumer driven
and person with ADA and other inclusion
processes have after not being heard
for the last 3 years, and providers taking
all giving next to nothing but to themselves?
Safety Net? What Safety Net?
And one CSB Exec said "there used to be
a safety net, now there isn't" or very similar.
So budget cuts have removed most
of what we even barely had before...
Conclusion
Summary of experience or similar
Discussion
A place for feedback on the page presented
Page History
20100114 Jerry
- Slice it up from a large blob of text into something with subheadings for general topics, but reading between the lines and how they are related (systems level) are left to the educated consumer...
-
20091111 Jerry
- Jerry created this page to catchup and celebrate Veterans Day, with reprisals being felt in current housing, pest removal, and feeling like they want to kill and/or harass this resident, as the pest....
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