Partnerships for Prosperity

Thanks to my lovely friend, Brenda, I am able to watch video on my computer againJ . So I watched installment 3 of the 8^th FIRE series by CBC, not as uplifting as the previous episode but it was still very informative and positive about the future of Canada. It is titled, “Whose Land is It Anyway”.  It shows us models of good and bad faith economic development as it impacts our Native Brothers and Sisters. I used to be smug about Canada’s diamond industry (no blood diamonds here) but DeBeers is an example of old school bottom-line business practices which no longer fit contemporary models of corporate citizenship. These kinds of businesses will evolve eventually or die out… just as the auto industry is changing and pulp & papermakers moved into recycled products; so too other industries will need to become civically responsible members of the global /local community.

The Native model of custodial responsibility fits very nicely with the emerging corporate consciousness. The documentary shows us very clear examples of how incredibly successful collaborations between established industries and Native bands have actually been. NO GOVERNMENT INTEREFERENCE REQUIRED.  When Natives are taken into the process as a fully participating partner amazing things can happen. The old model of worry only about this quarter’s stock report (or this 4 year term in political office) is being rejected by the current and coming generations. We want to know, “What is your legacy?” By focusing our business activities (as Natives do) on the next 7 generations we can create long-term sustainable prosperity for all.  

This is one of those times when spiritualism meets advocacy, so this post will appear on both of my blog sites today. If you haven’t done so I urge you to watch the whole 8^th FIRE series (don’t let the 1^st one put you off) they are well worth the time.

Have a joyous day.

The Flow of Abundance

          This short note is simply an apology to all my Brothers and Sisters for being away from my blog site for so long; and I hope you will be patient a little longer. My world has been opening up so rapidly over the past few weeks I am having trouble keeping up LOL. Just sorting through this explosion of opportunity with so many options has been a fulltime job. The more we open to the energetic flow the more abundance comes to us. God/ Universe/ Source/ Quantum can be very generous when we are willing to receive.  

          Two weeks ago I release the Report of Finding from Angels of the Road and last week it was a feature in the CanadianSocialResearch.net weekly newsletter thank you Gilles Sequin ;-). The paper has been well received with about 30% response (most academic papers get 3% response. This opens me up to write two books; a human services industry handbook, “OUT  REACHING: A Streetwise Guide to Social Work”. All the things I learned on the street that never made it into the textbooks. Then of course there is the autobiographical account of my experiences during the Angels of the Road journey.

          I decided to moved to a smaller town; found a perfect little apartment and made an appointment to go up island to view it. Then out of the blue (I had applied but thought I had been passed over again) I get a phone call from Our Place to interview for a residential support worker. These people do amazing work and I would be so fortunate to be a part of such a caring team of professionals. This position is so perfect for me because, it would leave time for other pursuits (writing, building my consulting practice and establishing the Spirit of the 8^th Fire Centre) everybody send energy for me on this one. As if that isn’t enough don’t I find just the most darling little bachelor apartment 3 blocks from Our Place.  How great is that… I love this life.

           So my friends please indulge me for just a couple of more weeks… I’m sure things will get back to normal by then. Migwetch 

Have a joyous day.

After the Apocalypse

Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone whose property and lives have been impacted by the Alberta flooding this week… especially those who lost loved ones in the High River flood. A man was on Facebook yesterday seeking word on his father an elderly man in a wheelchair who had refuse to evacuate his home. This presents me with something of a quandary; I support the individual’s right of self determinations up to and including the right to assisted suicide. I suppose that reasonably would include making stupid decisions which put your life at risk (all plummeting sports come to mind). Here comes the, “but” an evacuation is much easier to do then a rescue operation which could actually jeopardize the lives of rescue workers and would unnecessarily divert resources. Also the person refusing evacuation is not acting from a full understanding of the risks, in as much as the Flood of the Century could only be experienced twice by someone well over 100. Guess I’m just saying at times like this it should be illegal to refuse evacuation and anyone who won’t go willingly should be charged with interference and removed by force. Sorry ACLU but they can come home and die on their own time.

The devastation in Calgary effected the city’s richest and the city’s poorest without prejudice.  With everything in downtown Calgary hit by the flood 3000 or more homeless people have been displaced from shelters. Calgary had a unique situation which evolve from the rapid boom and bust economic cycles. The shelter providers operate independently and in competition with each other; a friend from the CHF (Calgary Homeless Foundation) referred to them as empire builders. Perhaps with all the rebuilding which needs to be done we will also see some rethinking on the part of the 3 major providers of shelter services. Perhaps it is time for a merging of the kingdoms. Working in collaboration could provide a much better and more productive system for all the stakeholders in Calgary’s shelter industry.

Working with the downtown homeless for so many years leaves one the impression that Calgarians hated the homeless. This is clearly a misperception as witnessed by my friends who were moved to the DI’s as yet unfinished location on motel row. It seemed like everyone one with means to travel, rushed over to aid our homeless friends; bring food, water, blankets, clothes and man power. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people caring and sharing in this time of crisis.

Bless you all and thank you.

 

 

Get your very own copy of the report of findings for Angels of the Road.

Good morning,

Special thx to Gilles Sequin, you can link onto the summary of my report through here http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/summary.pdf

As you all know, few years ago I set out to observe the Canadian shelter system from the perspective of our clients. I am not going to say the system was failing, but there was missing information. Information that may make our job easier…as I see it our job is to help people move forward with their lives and get out of the shelters. The project was 16 months long, covered all regions of Canada except the far north and Quebec. I lived every minute of every day as a homeless person; ate what they ate, slept where they slept, spent my days with them hanging out and being a part of their world.  Now I share what I have learned with you.

There are two PDF documents which I will be happy to email to you. Just send your request to blcameron51@gmail.com. One is a 28 page report of my findings, a quasi academic style paper with observations, conclusions and recommendations for 8 different parameters of the shelter experience. The other is a 3 page summary of those findings.

Please feel free to forward this information when you get it to anyone in the human services field who has an interest in homelessness or contact with marginalized populations; or anyone studying or teaching in human services. Perhaps one day I will write about the actual experience of being “out there” but, this report is more important to the industry and my client friends; then is regaling the world with personal anecdotes. Thank you for your interest and your help in sharing this knowledge with the world.

Have a joyous day

Bonny

Statistics; Truth and Dare.

Recently I have noticed people misusing and misrepresenting statistical information. This is nothing new and I guess my current awareness is just god’s way of telling me it is time to offer a brief course in statistics for the everyman (or woman). The numbers in and of themselves have very little meaning…it is like a quote taken out of context. So what do you as a reader, need to consider before making an assessment of a given situation from statistics?

a. Who’s interests are being served. The people paying for the study (data collection) have an agenda try to figure out what that is and look at the results with consideration to that. This does not affect the numbers themselves it affects the way the numbers are presented. ex: Agency X offers and addiction recovery program. If the actual numbers are for every 100 people who enter the program… 50 complete the program… 40 stay clean for 1 year, eventually 20 of those relapse. What is their success rate?  They will tell you they have an 80% success rate. How can that be, they started with 100 and only 20 stayed clean isn’t that an 80% failure rate? First they don’t count anyone who doesn’t complete (graduate) the full program.  Then they include anyone who lasts a specified follow-up period, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Actually from these numbers our Agency X is having a good deal of success with their recovery program. The dropout rate is lower than average and they are using a longer recovery baseline then most. I would support this program. Unless you are informed about industry standards it is hard to judge what these numbers mean. This is true of any study you are reading for any industry or project. If a study produces results that cannot be spun to favour the desired outcome for the funding parties then it would simply be scrapped and you would never see it. An example of spin is… Labrador’s seal hunt culls 20% of seal population, or Labrador sanctions the slaughter of 1000 baby seals. The statistic may have been provided by an impartial 3^rd party (like the department of fisheries) but the report you are reading carries an agenda. The truth usually falls somewhere in the middle, if you care about the issue, get informed before blindly repeating a statistic like it is written in stone.  

b. The illusory correlation is one of my favourite analytical problems.  The example my professor used was. Babies have no teeth, and babies cannot talk, this is true 100% of the time; therefore we can conclude that without teeth one cannot talk. This is an obvious and easily refuted example but let’s look at a real world statistic.  In my work it shows up as things like, 80% of homeless suffer from mental health disorders. The statistic is not a lie but it is misleading. The illusion is that MH issues cause homelessness. The true statistic is that homelessness will almost certainly cause (situational) depression; a mental health issue.Another good example of the illusory correlation, long ago dispelled by science and statisticians was; Black Americans consistently scored more than 10% below Whites on standardized IQ tests… this statistic was held for a long time as proof that, Blacks were genetically inferior to Whites. But one day someone looked at the actually test questions; a test written by white people for white cultural norms. The test was rewritten from Black cultural references and white people failed miserably. This crosses into the next problem with statistical information.

c. The size and nature of the sample being used for the study. Whether it is people or micro-organisms, a small or narrow sample leads to less reliable results. For example a survey on the desirability of a particular city funded project should reflect the ethnic diversity of that city’s population. A broad sample of 10,000 white people in Thunder Bay is not going to lead to an accurate result of public opinion when 30% of that city’s population is Native. And a small sample of 7 White people and 3 Natives will not truly reflect the community’s position. The larger the sample and the more closely it reflects the population demographic the more accurate the result.

d. Once you have examined the above three factors then, you may still have to question why you want this to be true/false. Using the 80% of homeless are mentally ill stat as an example… it is comforting it makes us feel like homelessness can never happen to us. Statistics can give us scapegoats and absolve us of responsibility…often for our own lives and our own happiness.

e. Lastly we need to consider the issue of falling data or the inability to follow-up with subjects leading to misperceptions. You will find sources that say the vast majority of child abusers were abused themselves as children. This is not saying that the majority of abused children grow-up to be abusers. Just as most Muslims are not terrorists, most middle-aged white males are not pedophiles, most young people are not gang bangers, nor are most abuse survivors, abusers. We as a culture do not collect statistics on what is right, good and working well. So maybe we have to in our own minds ask,“What about the rest?” What went right (but that is another blog)?

The only thing I can do is to urge you to be cautious when reading (or embracing) a statistical fact… and if the issue really matters to you learn more. Find different sources on both sides of the argument. Try looking objectively from outside of the issue and be honest with yourself. Does this feel right to you?…REALLY.

Have a joyous day.   

Report of Finding: Summary

          Anyone who tells you that they can eradicate homelessness is deluding themselves. There will always be street people; those among us whose addictions outweigh any other consideration in their lives; a perfect society will build communities with room for everyone, even street people. It is however possible to reduce homelessness by 70% through affordable home ownership initiatives and supportive housing programs. Priority needs to be given to keeping medicals and working poor in the homes they have.
          As for the shelter industry …the single most important step is the diversification of shelters and services. Within 24 hours of checking into a shelter the person should be assessed as medical (needs) or poverty (financially unstable) or addict. Then the subject should be immediately channeled into a separate facility with protocols and staffing specific to their needs.
          For large organization like the Calgary Drop-In, or Shepherds of Good Hope, it would involve repurposing of the facilities which are already owned by them, much like Victoria Cool Aid has done with their housing model. Smaller organizations need a co-operative series of programs with each agency providing service to different groups. To achieve this kind of collaboration funding models would have to change to remove competition between agencies. I recommend funding by the BED not by the head which is our current practice. This new found financial stability would allow agencies to focus on outcomes (appropriate to their mandate).
          Diversification must exist in all parts of the shelter’s mandate and staffing. A transitional shelter should focus on skills training and reintegration services, psychological supports, guidance and encouragement in a structured environment. Autonomy and self-care (personal responsibility) must be re-enforced in all areas of the clients functioning. Staffing these Transitional shelters with specialists during daytime (program hours) would be optimal and night staff would be simply custodial to deal with any situations which may arise.
          Facilities functioning as Refuge Shelters would require a high level of vigilance and control over client behaviours. All medications must be dispensed by staff… searches done entering or leaving the building… zero tolerance for drugs & alcohol; anything necessary to prevent harm coming to any client. These are people trying to take a break from addiction or prostitution or just hiding from a threat real or imagined. There should be no requirement that they intend to move forward from this place. Refuge Shelters provide clients with a safe place to recoup and hopefully rethink. Staffing here should be done by generalists… staff who can be teachers, counselors, nurses, referees and bouncers, whatever the situation requires.
          With recovering addicts in either Refuge or Transitional shelters depending on their progress, Harm Reduction shelters can be less structured. No alcohol/drugs on site is a necessary only because clients will fight over such things when it is are there. It might be a good policy (in winter at least) to bag and tag anything seized and return to the client in the morning.  Again these facilities need to be staffed by generalists with priority given to skilled referees, nurses, bouncers and counselors in that order. When a street person wants to share or seek guidance they cannot wait to see the counselor (tomorrow or next week when an appointment is available) they live in this moment. If in this moment they want to make a connection; we have to provide staff that can make that connection. Trust is hard won in this population and limiting the ability of staff to build on trust relationships, means opportunity lost.  True we will always have street people but it doesn’t have to be a lifelong condition due to neglect. I know many recovered addicts and most of them recovered because they connected with someone (usually an adult care worker or volunteer) who could see past the addictions to the person.
            The diversified housing model also would allow for better nutritional options specific to each groups needs. Transitional clients should be taking responsibility for all functions; shopping, preparing meals, building cleaning and maintenance in accordance with their ability and under staff supervision.  Refuge shelters would need to provide well balanced highly nutritious meals and snacks. Fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and meat protein are in limited supply at soup kitchens. So for the short time we have someone in a refuge shelter we need to do what we can to restore their health. The current soup kitchen fare is actual nutritionally acceptable for street people. The high carb diet provide the energy store necessary to go days without eating while binge drinking or on a crack run.
          Needless to say Drop-in programs are not affected by the need for diversification. Job search, literacy and life skills training are important but it won’t change anything until that person believes they deserve a better life. It is important to provide esteem building and self awareness programming. 
          I hear what you are thinking…BUT HOW DO WE FUND ALL THIS?  Short answer by making better use of the money you have. Working backwards through this summery. Drop-Ins  make better use of your volunteers. Staff supervision is not required for volunteers beyond once to train and one more time to view them in action. Allow volunteers to do more then fold sheets and hand out shampoo. I can’t begin to list the number of different programs I could provide. Allow a volunteer, who has raised her children into happy healthy adulthood to teach parenting or infant care. Let people who have lived come into your agencies to teach life skills.  
           Under the diversified model transitional and refuge client would receive at least 2 meals in-house. Because the need is finite it will be easier to solicit donations of food from local grocers, farmers and businesses. Start a recognition campaign… issue bumper sticker and window tags to the businesses that support you (the effect of this is they will want to live up to their new reputation for generosity); ongoing support gets you an annual certificate as a gold or platinum supporter. Brain storm your own campaign.
           Under the diversified model staffing levels would be reduced.  Transitional shelters would require less client supervision and administration. Clients are responsible for cooking, cleaning and maintenance. Staff only needs to supervise and handle minor emergencies. In refuge shelters slightly higher staff client ratio is required because the potential for medical emergency is slightly with this group and they are not invested enough to participate in cooking, cleaning etc. The harm reduction facilities need the highest level of staffing because of the unpredictable nature of client reactions and behaviour. Optimum numbers would be 1/6 but no less than 2 staff to any position (building location) at any time. I have found most shelters juggling staff and unable to provide adequate coverage for the areas with the greatest need.
          Reintegration from the current shelter system is not easy. It took me 1 year of medical care and 2 1/2 years of reintegration before I recovered to the point where I could write this report.  The changes I have proposed here would minimize physical and emotional damage for the 70% of non addicted clients and free up resources to help our street people with their recovery and reintegration.    

Reflection

          As I began to write the Summary for my Report of Findings yesterday, I found myself reflecting on, why it took me so very long to do this. The physical research was finished in October 2010, I haven’t spent the night in a shelter since and any time I have spent at soup kitchens and drop-in was about outreach, there was no information gathering. So why did it take to 2½ years to report on 16 months of research? Each section probably took a day to write and it will probably only take a week of rewrites to get to the final draft. So why not do this 1½ years ago? In a nutshell, I wasn’t ready.
           After spending so much time living an impermanent life, I could not really settle into living normal routines. Even in Hamilton from Dec 2010 – Aug 2012, when I was working as a childcare provider… my hours fluctuated sometimes from day to day. Until recently I had no sense of what was supposed to come next, so no particular need to close off the past. There were of course times when I didn’t think anyone would care about what I had learned… that the only value of this project was in what it has taught me as a social worker and a person.  
          The Angels of the Road study into homelessness is unique in several ways, which is why I felt the need to do it. The most significant difference is in the scope of the study, a broad sampling of shelters and services from all across Canada were assessed by the researcher (me). The few observer/participant studies into homelessness have been limited to one city, sometimes one facility and usually lasted only for a few weeks time.  There have been journalist reporting of staying several months within the homeless population; these reports while truthful are skewed by the writers need to produce saleable material. This makes the finished product a selection of dramatic high points taken out of context to the whole shelter experience. Many other authors have recorded the shelter experience through biographical accounts from the lives of street people; one of the best of these being, “Radical Compassion” by Father Gary Smith.
         Every city does reporting (many have censes data) on homelessness and often share information to create a national picture. This kind quantitative information is essential for projecting costs, allocating funding and planning service needs.        
          Surveys are taken of homeless population with a myriad of focuses; but data from these can be tainted by several factors. Clients will often try to give you the answers they think you want; this kind of compliance is a survival instinct which is prevalent in institutional environments. Assuring them they are free to speak without consequence is of little use because this is an unconscious response. Also client observations of services and shelters is coloured by their personal drama and limited exposure (usually 1 or 2 facilities) objective assessment is not really possible from client surveys without an extremely broad (100-1000s) sampling.  
            I felt there was a real need for an objective assessment of programs and services by someone with both knowledge and experience of the shelter system. Angels of the Road was a qualitative analysis of the shelter system and services to the homeless in Canada. With no outside funding I was free to be entirely truthful about my findings. Where we have succeeded, where we have failed and how to create better outcomes for our clients in the future.
          As always the most important thing we can do is to create affordable home ownership initiatives and develop supportive housing systems to get the poor and the medicals out of the shelters entirely. Regardless of the cost… housing is infinitely less expensive to taxpayers then shelters, prisons and all their support systems. Until that perfect future, I hope that my Report of Findings for Angels of the Road will guide the shelter industry, policy makers, politician and social planners into the most productive models for client care.
         Back to me! and why am I finally wrapping up Angels of the Road. It is because I am feeling settled again. A few months ago I moved permanently to the west coast and a new chapter of my life is opening up. It is time to end Angels of the Road as a project and a website (which expires in Aug 2013) ; the blog will continue as an op/ed vehicle for me to address social justice and anti-poverty issues. I will always be involved with serving street people in their journey to their best life; I imagine from here forward that will come through volunteer work.  My new role is to serve all of humankind through spiritual teaching and healing. The Spirit of the 8^th Fire website is the beginning of that journey and I hope some of you will choose to join me there.

Have a joyous day.