Here is an excerpt from the book I have been working on this past year. Feedback is welcome. This book spans over a thirty five year period covering my career in the art of helping. Chapter 12- EMARC Days on The Road- It Was January 2003, I had left the Governor’s office in Late December after a very nice holiday/send- off party and a warm departure from my colleagues. I was about to embark on another human service journey and write a new chapter concerning what turned out be a sorted and one of the most difficult three plus years of my life. I was joining EMARC a well -established agency in Reading Massachusetts that had been founded by families which is most typical of ARC’s in those days, and had been providing services to individuals with a developmental disability and their families for over thirty five years. My job was the new director of all-day services including a rather large and at this point in time, much dated shelter workshop serving almost 90 people daily. The model was obsolete and it would be my job to turn this around and convert so called “slots”, into more meaningful and economically viable jobs and activities for our clients. A small task to say the least, this workshop had been established circa 1980 or so as people were leaving and moving from the state schools to community settings on the first and major wave the returning of people to their home communities throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the rest of the country. As discussed earlier in this book, I worked at the Fernald School in Waltham and was very familiar with the process and what types of supports people may need to be successful in their new life ventures. This challenge was huge and daunting; my commute would add to the daily stress and wear and tear on my health, and most importantly my spirit. My ride began at about 6:30 AM and was seventy five miles each way five days per-week. The total number of miles travelled not including travel once I arrived at work, was 750 miles per week, 3000 miles per month and 36,000 miles per year and over the three years plus, I drove 108,000 miles which is equal to 4.32 full drives around the center of the earth where the equator makes its way. This was also the equivalent of 3 hours per day, 15 hours per week and sixty hours of the month spent in the car driving to work which is the equivalent of sixty hours a month, 720 hours a year, thirty full days per year in the car and 90 full twenty four hour days over the three years. I identify these numbers only to say that driving this much compounded by 9-10 hour work days, traffic jams on a regular basis, one six hour commute in a major snow storm which at one point I had no choice but to continue on to Reading. The work in human services is so difficult, stressful and yes exhausting at times, when compounded by all this driving it took its toll. I needed to amuse myself, books on tape, Howard Stern, Sirius Left Radio, and NPR. All the media was helpful and in addition I had a CD player so I could listen to my favorite records. I also started to recognize people on the highway each morning to the point that I was in a somewhat delusional sense in feeling part of a community of people sharing my daily nightmare with me. I also decide that I needed to amuse myself further and developed a set of bizarre but routine type behaviors such as Tourette’s type tics and dystonic muscle movement so I could intrude on people’s quiet riding solitude by acting in a totally immature way to grab attention, great and rude as well as insensitive behavior for a fifty three year old adolescent. The new job was big, I was adjusting to a new culture, a new group of personalities and behaviors to learn and I now had to work with the DD system in Massachusetts as member of the provider community side of the fence which I hadn’t participated for a good number years since leaving IPP in 1996. All this newness raining down on me, by choice and the incentive of more money which was a greater amount than I have received for working up until this point in my career. In addition to this our oldest child, Emily had just started college at Wentworth so I had to also wear the hat of a worried parent who also had to pay over $3000 per month for tuition. And so it went and it goes. This was going to be Joel’s equivalent to Pee Wees big adventure without the humor and fun. The obligation was huge, the work serious and meaningful and the daily ride not fit for most humans.

Is Carl Rogers still relevant? I find that people in our current culture of tearing people down and not offering much in terms of building people up, the climate for respect and dignity is needed more than ever. In the heated political climate is a great illustration of the lack of civility and disrespect we seem to have with people we or others perceive to be lesser than ourselves. So given the climate and the time of devaluation of others the concept of Unconditional Positive Regard, is needed in our daily practice of helping those individuals and their families who are struggling to maintain their small territory on the edge of the so called mainstream. Let us not judge, but also let us be true to ourselves as we acknowledge our biases and clearly define from the outset who we can and who can not work with before we do damage to them and ourselves. We need to help with authenticity to use another old but I believe relevant Roger's term. So keep on helping in the free world and know doing good takes many forma and is often not recognized. JB3G

It's been awhile but felt like getting back into it. Still working in the helping profession and I 'm trying to pave a way out gracefully without leaving too much dust behind. I'm writing a book entitled " Under The Radar Screen" My life in the Art of Helping, An Instructional Memoir. I have written 12 plus chapters that span a timeframe from 1976- to present and it amazed me how clearly the memories of each stop along the way arrive as I sit down to write. This process has been therapeutic and also quite enlightening in terms of the effect a lifetime of helping people in need can stamp it's memory into ones life and psychic soul. I am still working and have been for the past two years helping people with a broad range of needs and it seems that there are no simple issues but people seem to be dealing with multi-layer challenges that are primarily driven by low economic status that in my opinion pushes people to the edges and more so than ever before. I also have been doing a fair amount of reading on the idea and notion of, parallel trauma that is quite common in the social work world as there are many things we see that we can't emotionally deal with in the moment and so we put them away some where, only to arise when least expected and at times we don't plan for. I will be writing more about the long term effects as well as the long term joy of doing great and meaningful work over a lifetime. I also plan to post excerpts from the book in future blogs. Until the next time, remember this if were are all on the same page, first we couldn't fit and the novel of one's life would be quite boring. so honor the differences in all the people you help and in yourself, it's a good thing.

Construct,Conflict and Context

We are often told by our funding agecnies these are the rules, follow them. Yet it's the very constructs developed by the policy makers that develop into a service delivery conflict. The policies although mostly well intended, are not well conceptualized and they tend to hurt those we serve more than they help them become more free of formalized services. We have to adhere to policy that is developed outside of a realistc context, that does not have the individual at the focal point and in the center. They become an after thought as we try to fit them into program and service models that are aresult of misguided thinking, designed to serve the mighty larger service systems rules, than what is productive, helpful, caring and hopefully more meaningful to the invidividuals and their families.

We as providers need to stand up for those we serve, and offer civil protest to policies that drive individuals to walk endlessly in circles at malls, be out in community settings under the delusion of social intergration or contribute to enourmous amount of time wasting. It's important to realize why and for whom we provide services for. Individual needs to be more than ever, capitilized in the ISP, to assure that all the work we do is about that Individual and not the political well being of those who make policy for public consumption instead of for good solid reasons.

Serve On

JBG

What Business Model?

The other day a person who was cleaning our her office as we get to do some downsizing, or as the corporate wonks would call it right sizing,found a document that was from 1989. It listed salaries and rates of pay that our organization had developed. In 1989 we were paying the direct service staff at the most 8.69 dollars per hour to serve and support people who have a variety of very challenging needs. Dial the clock forward it is now 2010 and we are paying direct service staff at the high end of the scale, 10.00 per hour. By my calculation that means in 21 years we have given a 1.31 an hour raise to people dedicated to helping individuals to assit them in improving their qaulity of life. I ask you what other industry, profession or any type of employment for that matter would give their employees a 1.31 raise over 21 years? The answer is noone and nowhere.

The question is do we value the work that people do everyday in support of those who live with life challenges? The answer is no. If it were not the case, the people we serve would not have been locked away in institutions for so many years by a society that did want them as members. Now it seems we don't want those that provide direct services to amongst us either. How could they be living on these wages which don't quite gain you much beyond the crack in the door to our capitalist playground. In fact many direct service individuals qualify to recieve the govern benefits that those we serve do. Our staff and the individuals we serve for the most part, live in poverty and so the declared war continues.

We as leaders like to humor direct support staff by first calling them DSP's direct support professionals and yet we pay them lower wages than fastfood professionals. We honor them as we should, with a day, bumper stickers, a conference and then continue to pay them an unliveable wage. Even if we as executives took a 50% cut we could not pay direct support professionals a liveable wage, as our contracts with the funders has not increased very much at all for over fifteen years.

So what do we do? First tell the stories of great things that happen everyday for those we serve, and then let the media know who is making these great stories. We must be persistent and define what's really going on.

Spread the word this is an outrage.

JBG

Please Don't Waste My Time

Its nine A.M Monday anytime of the year. The program particpants have just arrived at day a program anywhere in the USA and the first thing on the schedule that is typically ignored most of the time, is BREAK. Break from what? A long weekend,the rigourous arrival, the job that most of the people coming to the program don't have. A break from the lack of imagination and respect we don't have for the people who we are here to serve? Hell I don't know, yet it is more common than not that the people we serve have a significant amount of their time wasted in meaningless activity or the waiting game. Waiting for something really cool to happen that usually doesn't arrive. The obligatory craft project,the current events that aren't so current and certainly not an even in the minds of those we serve.

I visited a sheltered workshop many years ago that hosted about 200 people a day. I walked in with my collegue and we observed about fifty people with alleged disabilities reading magazines, well so much for work. But it got worse when the the staff person at the front of the large cold univiting room said, " OK everyone take a break ", we all know how exhausting reading magazines can be and we need coffee to fuel the energy needed to complete the task.

I apoplogize for my easily detectable cynicism. I think we have created a service system that with some great exceptions, wastes those we serve's time way too often. We ask people to wait for things that often don't happen or as a means of control over their day to day lives and a lock on our own creativity. Money is not always the reason that this happens, though we often use it as an excuse to justify time wasting in our programs that are not hitting the note. If I was one of the people allegedly receiving "quality services", I'd be pissed.

We need to rise up to the occasion and in spite of a challenging climate do exeptional work and deliver engaging services that are respectful of the time those we serve have. Create new models. We can do better and we have no reason not to, as this is why we are here,to serve.

Serve well and throw out the magazines,crayons and puzzles, it's a start.

JBG

An Education Proposal

The field of human services is currently at a crossroad. The service delivery challenges are becoming greater, more complex and the population more diverse. Financial resources are at a minimum and shrinking. Yet, as we prepare those who choose a future in human services, real pay has and continues to decrease, the educational preparation of skills of those applying for entry level positions, has dipped into an abyss that requires rethinking how education will prepare people for a career in human services.

At the management level we are identifying new managers from a conservative era that promoted status quo services or less than that. The human service field has been maintaining empires rather than the development of progressive services, which actually serve those, identified to have a real need and this has become the accepted norm.

The KOAN Institute for Applied Human Services as a concept proposes radical change in the educational experience for those seeking a career in the field. It is believed that the most effective education occurs in a contextual way when theory is applied to real life situations. People learn best through doing, and most educational programs at the college and graduate levels do not provide students enough opportunity to apply deeply profound theory to the real life challenges consumers face in the delivery of services.

Through a collaborative effort, born out of the belief that we cannot function alone in the delivery of service, we will call on a variety of organizations including, but not limited to, colleges, human service providers, government funding sources, consumers of service and local community and education leaders. They will be asked to form an educational alliance that is designed to meet the prioritized needs of all the players. Most importantly the student will experience a hands on and highly practical education.

The Institute promises to be a dynamic entity that will literally change the way people are prepared to work in the human service field. It will provide an atmosphere based in critical thinking and creative problem-
solving as the prime component of the course of study. Traditional courses will also be offered to assure that the Institute will meet traditional academic standards and cover major theories in psychology, sociology, community organization, and planned social change.



Program Components
1. Classroom Study: Participants in the IFAHS program will be exposed to ample classroom time taught by college level faculty. Courses will include, but not be limited to:

Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Social Problems
Introduction to Human Services
Interviewing and Counseling Techniques
Crisis Intervention
Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving
Technical Writing
Psychology of Self
Abnormal Psychology
Special Topics in Mental Health
Special Topics in Developmental Disabilities
Service Delivery Systems
Working with Families



2. Live Instruction: The primary purpose of the Institute is to expose the student to as much hands on experience and instruction as possible. The need to apply classroom learning to actual service delivery systems is the underlying strength of this educational model. Therefore, each student will experience steady and almost daily movement from class to live settings to solidify classroom discussion and learning. Students will receive immediate feedback, instruction and support for their applied portion of the program. Real time instructors will be supplied by host agencies and university affiliated staff, as well as experienced others working in a variety of human service settings with a diverse population.

3. Mentoring: Each student will be assigned to an experienced human service professional for the purposes of developing a mentor relationship. This person will be available for hands on instruction, discussion, counseling and career guidance.

4. Competency Testing: Throughout the program at agreed fixed times the students will be tested in the competency areas they’re trying to build. Their classroom work and applied work will be evaluated and scored, as it would be in a paid human service setting. There will be acceptable levels of scoring as a standard for the student’s performance to be measured by.

5. Standards of Performance: Faculty, students, hosts and mentors will collectively develop standards that measure performance against the competencies each student is working on and as defined by the host providers. Standards for quality, service delivery, human rights, values implementation, paperwork, writing and communication will be developed that incorporate universal and specific elements used to define what an excellent performance should look like.

6. Host Agencies: In order for the Institute to have economic and program viability, provider agencies will join for a fee, define what competencies staff need in their organization, and offer their programs as the applied learning environment for their staff and others to learn in. They in turn will have well trained staff who can apply their learning to actual agency needs and save money in the short and long run by not having a high turnover rate or the need to develop and maintain a large and expensive training program.

7. University/College Affiliation: It is essential that the Institute affiliate with a college to help develop and implement a variety of courses of study. Also the university or college will be the component of the Institute that grants certification and credit for course work that may lead to the continuation of a participants’ personal education.

8. Long Term Project: Each student will be assigned to a study group. The group will examine social problems and decide on one that they would like to address. With guidance from faculty they will collectively develop a formal human service response to the social problem by building a human service from the ground up. This project will help the student to understand the level of work that goes into program development and the kind of intensive thinking and problem solving skills it requires.

9. Additional Seminars: From time to time the Institute will hold seminars, discussions, book reading groups, lead by experts in their particular field of human service delivery.

10. Career Planning/ Job Development: The Institute will develop a career development component, that will have computer access to available databases of jobs, opportunities, trends in hiring and growth areas and provide guidance and counseling when appropriate.

If anybody thinks this is viable training model let me know. Maybe we could form a working community to further develop the model.

Until Then, Serve On.

JBG