|
|
Working yourself out of business is not working Wednesday, January, 27, 2010
Great Non-Profits Deserve A Great Rating System Wednesday, December, 16, 2009
Missing the Mark: Why Business-Mindedness Cannot Solve the Problems of the Non-Profit Sector Tuesday, December, 8, 2009
Too Many Non-Profits? Tuesday, December, 1, 2009
The Poverty Business Tuesday, November, 17, 2009
Poor By Design Monday, November, 16, 2009
The Poverty Landscape Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
We Need Inforum Thursday, November, 5, 2009
Effective Social Investing Wednesday, November, 4, 2009
Social Services Cause Homelessness
Monday, November, 16, 2009
The Poverty Landscape
Michael Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness writes in his recent Inforum featured article that "The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that approximately 25 percent of the homeless population has a serious mental illness, such as major depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia." Therefore, three-quarters of those who are homeless do not suffer from mental illness.
Homelessness, in any form is unconscionable. But as we recognize National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week it is startling to note that 75 percent of the unhoused in America are not mentally ill. As an industry this is an important point for us to highlight to the general public whose image of homelessness is usually that of a mentally ill chronically homeless male.
The general misconception of who is homeless, and who is at risk of homelessness, does a disservice to the majority of the homeless population. I have a lot of conversations with people explaining to them that I work in social services, focused on poverty and homelessness. Invariably I always end up explaining that most of the unhoused are not mentally ill, that one in five children in the U.S. lives in poverty and half of all kids in America will be on Food Stamps at least once in their childhood.
My point is not to downplay the plight of those suffering from mental illness, but rather that as an industry we must do a better job of communicating the reality of the poverty landscape. The more vivid, and accurate a picture of homelessness and poverty we can portray to the wider public, the better we will be able to enlist their assistance.
An effort like last week' HomeWalk, an annual walk in Los Angeles organized by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to raise funds for homeless service providers, is a great example of an event geared toward breaking down misconceptions of homelessness. Along the route of the 5k walk were large banners with vivid statistics and pictures illustrating the point that the homeless can look just like you and me, and fall into homelessness for a myriad of reasons.
Indeed, public opinion, and knowledge, of poverty and homelessness is important. In order for us to be good ambassadors of the realities of poverty and homelessness to the general public, we have to collect and report reliable statistical data. Misconceptions and mistruths are not only borne from lack of data, but from the misuse and misunderstanding of it. So while National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is a call to the wider public to recognize the needs of those who are suffering from hunger and homelessness, it is a reminder to us that as the link between the greater public and those who are invisible in our society, in order for us to represent them well, we must represent them accurately.
(Photo by bogotron)
Further, stigma and misunderstanding of mental illness has to be addressed in young children before they can process information about that 25% of homeless people who also live with mental illness. No percentage of the homeless population should be made invisible for the sake of PR, but empathy and advocacy can only be sparked in children who have accurate information.
Posted 2009-11-24 12:29:48
Taxing Our Way Out of Homelessness? Friday, November 21, 2008
A Third Wave Of Addressing Homelesness Monday, November 13, 2006
705 Missing Homeless People: Where Did They Go? Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Civil Overestimation Friday, January 30, 2009
Unemployment Numbers: I'm Worried...
Linda Rosenberg, MSW Juan was a delivery driver, but his health problems were putting him at risk of losing his job. His diabetes was poorly controlled and had caused foot ulcers that made it difficult for him to walk. He also had bipolar disorder, which was not being controlled. When he joined the Working Well program in Harris County, Texas, Juan worked with a case manager to get orthopedic shoes, to receive support in developing a diabetic diet and exercise plan, and to make an appointment with a psychiatrist to bring his mental health condition under control. As a result, Juan was able to continue working full time as a delivery driver and received a raise for exceptional performance (Bohman, Stoner, & Chimera, 2009). Working Well is part of the....
Homelessness Resource Center "I believe that people who are trained in Motivational Interviewing have a different perspective on building relationships. Many people are trained to view clients in a paternalistic manner, like they are children. This attitude says that providers always know what is best for a client. This attitude makes us think that we must convince clients that we know what is best for them. In this view, success is measured by the provider’s actions, not the client’s." In the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, Alan Pickett, a Mental Health Outreach Nurse at the Project Outreach Team (PORT) for Washtenaw County Community Mental Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan, does not define success this way. He believes his first task to is to make himse
David J. Jefferson “The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.” When William James, ostensible father of American Psychology, penned this line over a century ago, he had embedded the idea in a discussion on religious experience, in which he also extolled the virtues of voluntary poverty. Today, in a totally distinct context, James’ words are imbued with new meaning. Due to economic recession and what many economists have deemed a jobless recovery in contemporary America, people who never before feared poverty—the educated, or middle class—must now confront harsh new realities. The current conditions are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conspiring myriad circumstances....
Jamie Van Leeuwen When Denver’s Road Home began over four years ago, we never could have anticipated a year like we just had. Who could ever imagine that our economy would shift into a global recession unlike anything the country has experienced since the Great Depression? And yet, in the midst of unparalleled economic shifts, there comes great opportunity. We believe there has never been a more important time for Denver to have a plan to end homelessness. During the past year, our homeless plan has been tested and we expect the coming year will continue to pose new challenges for us. Housing foreclosures, unemployment and funding cutbacks will continue to place new demands on our ten-year plan to end homelessness. As a result, we updated our plan so....
Linda Valverde & General Dogon The authors have lived and worked in Central City East—commonly known as Skid Row—for a combined thirty years. During all of our decades of living in Los Angeles, neither of us had ever heard of gentrification until about five years ago, when we became members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN). Now it seems that gentrification has become a common household word in cities throughout the United States, and nowhere more than downtown Los Angeles. When redevelopment really took off in downtown L.A. in 2002, LA CAN and our allies created five principles for fair redevelopment. We wanted to see our neighborhood revitalized, not gentrified. The principles were....
Inforum RSS Feed