On waiting....
Here I am, another Friday, another day to just sort of wait. Applications were due on Wednesday to enter our program. We reviewed them yesterday and made first decisions. One thing I learned yesterday is that this is hard. I am given a short summary of someone's life and hardships thus far, and from that we have to make a decision to interview them or not. I've spent a lot of my time running background checks, making sure that applications are complete, listening to people explain to me why they aren't, etc. It isn't easy to do. And it isn't emotionally easy to go through the applications and see what all comes out of them.All sorts of emotions come through with it, anger, frustration, shock, sympathy, and no matter what, we can only do so much.
We've requested drug tests of the ones that we are choosing to interview and that is turning out to be a problem. See it is hard to have an ID when you've been through terrible and horrible things. Sometimes the police take them away, sometimes you get them stolen or even never had one in the first place. To take a drug test, you need an ID. So we're fighting those battles right now, trying to see our options. And well, there just aren't many. You have to have an address to have an ID. You have to have documents saying you are who you say you are, often they don't have those. So what can a person do to get an ID? Sometimes I get frustrated with the "system". Things that are in place in order to keep us "safe" almost always end up keeping people from getting help. I just think there has got to be a better way, or process for obtaining identification.
Needless to say, there are really good resources in the city for people who find themselves without homes. I'm proud to be part of that network of people, and am excited to continue to find out more about services in the area that may help us out.
Well the day is done for me for now, I've gotten all of the calls I was expecting so I think it is time to run some errands and see if I can find something interesting to do tonight.
Here I am, another Friday, another day to just sort of wait. Applications were due on Wednesday to enter our program. We reviewed them yesterday and made first decisions. One thing I learned yesterday is that this is hard. I am given a short summary of someone's life and hardships thus far, and from that we have to make a decision to interview them or not. I've spent a lot of my time running background checks, making sure that applications are complete, listening to people explain to me why they aren't, etc. It isn't easy to do. And it isn't emotionally easy to go through the applications and see what all comes out of them.All sorts of emotions come through with it, anger, frustration, shock, sympathy, and no matter what, we can only do so much.
We've requested drug tests of the ones that we are choosing to interview and that is turning out to be a problem. See it is hard to have an ID when you've been through terrible and horrible things. Sometimes the police take them away, sometimes you get them stolen or even never had one in the first place. To take a drug test, you need an ID. So we're fighting those battles right now, trying to see our options. And well, there just aren't many. You have to have an address to have an ID. You have to have documents saying you are who you say you are, often they don't have those. So what can a person do to get an ID? Sometimes I get frustrated with the "system". Things that are in place in order to keep us "safe" almost always end up keeping people from getting help. I just think there has got to be a better way, or process for obtaining identification.
Needless to say, there are really good resources in the city for people who find themselves without homes. I'm proud to be part of that network of people, and am excited to continue to find out more about services in the area that may help us out.
Well the day is done for me for now, I've gotten all of the calls I was expecting so I think it is time to run some errands and see if I can find something interesting to do tonight.
This entry was posted
on Friday, August 19, 2005 at 11:09 AM.
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1 Comments:
Laura,
thanks a bunch for the hlep with my links! I took a couple of ours I hope you sont mind! I am glad to hear that your site is going well! mine is off to a great start! lotsa love!
Mary
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Mary, at
11:06 PM
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