Trauma-informed Care: A Call to Arms

Trauma-informed Care: A Call to Arms “During every incarceration, every institutionalization, every court-ordered drug treatment program, it was always the same: I was always treated like a hopeless case. All people could see was the way I looked or the way I smelled. It wasn’t until I finally entered a recovery-oriented, trauma-informed treatment program a little more than four years ago, where I felt safe and respected, that I could begin to heal…Someone finally asked me ‘What happened to you?’ instead of ‘What’s wrong with you?’” Tonier Cain Tonier Cain is a success story. Today, she is a team leader with SAMHSA’s National Center for Trauma Informed Care and was a featured “In My Own Words” speaker at the 2010 National Council Conference. But for every Tonier Cain, there are hundreds of thousands of women and men who pass through our programs every day with painful histories of personal trauma — including sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, and witnessing interpersonal violence — that we all too often ignore. The good news is that people with behavioral health conditions and trauma histories can and do recover. Your work is testament to that fact. But we can and must do more. This letter is a call to arms. I’d like to begin by telling you why I think it’s so important that we shift our focus from asking the people who seek our help what is wrong with them to asking what happened to them. Our success in helping to improve their health, the health of our organizations, and the health of the nation depends on it. Why is a focus on trauma important? First, we know that violence is pervasive. In the United States, a woman is beaten every 15 seconds; a forcible rape occurs every 6 minutes. Trauma is now considered to be a near universal experience of individuals with behavioral health problems. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, from 55 to 99 percent of women in substance use treatment and from 85 to 95 percent of women in the public mental health system report a history of trauma, with the abuse most commonly having occurred in childhood. More than 92 percent of women who are homeless have experienced severe physical and/or sexual abuse during their lifetime. Significant numbers of women in the criminal justice system report physical and sexual abuse, and national surveys suggest that as many as one-third of women veterans have experienced rape during their military service. Second, we know the physical and psychological consequences of violence are highly disabling. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study, a general population study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente, is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and wellbeing. Almost two-thirds of the study participants reported at least one adverse childhood experience of physical or sexual abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction, and more than one of five reported three or more such experiences. ACE researchers discovered that the greater the number of adverse experiences, the greater the risk for negative outcomes. These include alcoholism and alcohol abuse, depression, illicit drug use, risk for intimate partner violence, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide attempts, and unintended pregnancies. Heart disease, liver disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are also affected by adverse childhood experiences. We can’t begin to address the totality of an individual’s healthcare, or focus on promoting health and preventing disease — both tenets of healthcare reform — unless we address the trauma that precipitates many chronic diseases. Nor can we begin to bring down the spiraling costs of healthcare. The ACE Study revealed that the economic costs of untreated trauma-related alcohol and drug abuse alone were estimated at $161 billion in 2000. The human costs are incalculable. Finally, we know that trauma is shrouded in secrecy and denial and is often ignored. Nobody wants to talk about interpersonal violence. Both women and men who have been physically or sexually assaulted are afraid to talk about their experiences for fear that they will be mislabeled, mistreated, or simply not believed. In some cases, their fears are well founded. We don’t talk about trauma because often we aren’t prepared to hear it or address it. But when we don’t ask, we do harm. We may pathologize an abuse survivor’s coping mechanisms. Or worse, we may unintentionally recreate the abuse by the use of forced medication, seclusion, or restraints. We must offer trauma-informed services and supports. What does it mean to be trauma informed? There is emerging evidence that trauma treatment is effective. As part of SAMHSA’s Women, Co-occurring Disorders, and Violence study, several clinical approaches have been manualized and guidelines have been developed. These include the Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM) developed by National Council member Community Connections in Washington, DC, which has become one of the major trauma recovery interventions for women. A good resource for learning about trauma-specific services is the report Models for Developing Trauma-Informed Behavioral Health Systems and Trauma-Specific Services. Trauma-specific interventions are one piece of the puzzle, but I am talking about something much broader. We must adopt a systemic approach which ensures that all people who come into contact with the behavioral health system will receive services that are sensitive to the impact of trauma. They must be able to receive such services regardless of which “door” they enter or whether they ever find their way to a trauma-specific treatment program. We can begin by recognizing the primacy of trauma as an overarching principle. Being trauma informed means realizing that the vast majority of people we come in contact have trauma histories. Trauma must be seen as the expectation, not the exception, in behavioral health treatment systems. Trauma-informed care means that regardless of the reasons an individual comes to our door, clinical staff asks them about their trauma history. We must ask respectfully, and we must be prepared to listen. In a trauma-informed system, services are designed to accommodate the needs of trauma survivors. Roger Fallot, clinical psychologist and Director of Research and Evaluation at Community Connections, tells us that trauma-informed services: Incorporate knowledge about trauma in all aspects of service delivery. Are hospitable and engaging for survivors. Minimize revictimization. Facilitate recovery. As Roger and others have noted, in a trauma-informed human services system: Repeated trauma is viewed as a core life event around which subsequent development organizes. Symptoms are understood not merely as complaints but as attempts to cope and survive. Treatment for individuals who have been traumatized recognizes both their vulnerabilities and their strengths. By the very fact that the people we serve have experienced violence or the threat of violence and have come out on the other side, they are survivors, not victims. Services for trauma survivors are based on the principles of safety, voice, and choice as defined by the people we serve. Our primary goals as helpers and healers must be the individual’s empowerment and recovery. The consumer must be an active planner and participant in services. Peer support can be lifesaving. Trauma services are ethnically, racially, and spirituality relevant to the individual and gender-specific. Cultural competence is more than the latest buzzword in our field. It is the best way to ensure that the people we serve receive treatment that is meaningful to them. Finally, trauma treatment is coordinated across multiple service systems. The problems engendered by violence cut across emergency services, mental health care, primary healthcare, substance abuse treatment, and domestic violence. But all too often trauma survivors cycle in and out of these various systems without ever receiving appropriate services. We can’t let that continue. How can National Council members do more? The Kent Center, a National Council member in Warwick, RI, has been working to increase awareness about the impact of trauma throughout Rhode Island. They are partners with the state in a SAMHSA grant to develop the Jail Diversion and Trauma Recovery Program, which aims to create trauma-informed criminal justice and behavioral health care systems. As President and CEO David Lauterbach points out, “Becoming trauma informed is an ongoing process. We are all in the process of becoming more trauma informed each day, if we work at it.” Many of you are already far down the road in offering trauma-informed services and others are starting to think about how you step up. Here are some things you can do, beginning today, to make your services and systems more trauma informed: Engage leadership at the top. You must have top-down recognition of the importance of trauma for it to become embedded in the system. Make trauma recovery consumer-driven. The voice and participation of consumer/survivors should be at the core of all activities, from service development and delivery to evaluation. Emphasize early screening. Make early screening for trauma, assessment of the impact of trauma, and referral for integrated trauma services common practice. Develop your workforce. Create workforce orientation, training, support, competencies, and job standards related to trauma. Don’t just train clinical staff — train and educate everyone who comes into contact with consumers, from the receptionist to the maintenance staff. Institute practice guidelines. Centralize clinical practice guidelines for working with people with trauma histories. Develop rules, regulations, and standards to support access to evidence-based and emerging best practices in trauma treatment. Avoid recurrence. Implement procedures to avoid retraumatization and reduce impacts of trauma. How will the National Council support you? We believe we have much to contribute to leadership in the area of trauma-informed care and will work with you to raise awareness, educate our members and the general public, and, ultimately, improve client outcomes. We are starting by: Developing a Learning Collaborative, with funding from SAMSHA. This competitive program will allow 15 providers to participate in a year-long, high-intensity collaborative learning process that involves virtual and face-to-face meetings, online communities, webinars, consultation with experts, and sharing of lessons learned. Offering a robust array of workshops on trauma-informed care at the National Council Conference, May 2-4, 2011 in San Diego, CA along with a full-day preconference university, “Shining Light on the Secret: Bringing Trauma-Informed Care to Behavioral Health” on May 1, offered in collaboration with the SAMHSA-funded National Center for Trauma-informed Care. Thank you for taking the time to read this important letter and to think about how you can take trauma-informed care in your organizations and systems to a new level. Please share with us your successes and challenges in implementing trauma-informed care. We are especially looking for stories of lives you’ve touched and transformed, simply by asking those you serve “What happened to you?” not “What’s wrong with you.” We would like to share your case studies and stories through the National Council media and marketing channels so the world knows how you are making a difference. Please send your stories to our Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Meena Dayak at MeenaD@thenationalcouncil.org. As always, I look forward to hearing from you at LindaR@thenationalcouncil.org or at 202.684.7457. Best Regards, Linda Rosenberg, MSW President and CEO National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare www.TheNationalCouncil.org

Blair Griffith - Miss Colorado - Injecting Hope Into Homelessness

Blair Griffith's story is absolutely typical of how people spiral down into homelessness.  Bread-winning family member gets ill or dies from illness and plunges family into economic disarray, menial jobs that barely keep surviving family members on their feet end for some reason, the family runs out of any meager savings they might have, and one morning they're waking up on the curb or under the viaduct wondering how the hell this happened to them.  

That scenario not only should scare the shit out of every American in this country, it ought to also impel us the action that makes housing a basic human right and provides a way to ensure that every single American has a place to call home.

Don't for a second think it can't happen to you because I don't care how rich, famous, connected, liked, loved or respected you are today.  Trust me, I've worked with enough folks over the years to be able to tell you, homelessness can happen to anyone, and it can happen to you. 

The only difference for Blair is that she was able to keep going in the face of incredible hardship, and she had something she could hold onto that provided her with some hope; her ability to participate successfully in beauty pageants and parlay that into something that she could then begin rebuilding her life with.  

Natures been good to Blair, real real good to her and that is most definitely a blessing for her.  But not everyone is as fortunate as Blair and finding hope in the face of this kind of adversity is difficult for most people.

It's why, as a service providers for people experiencing homelessness, we need to remember that we're often providing them the hope when they've got none themselves.  Good luck Blair, and I hope your experience with homelessness will make you a champion of the  cause.  

What a perfect cause for you, Blair: Housing is a human right...

Authorities told Nashville's News 2 the seized heroin is estimated to be valued at $500,000.

While the supposed "net worth" of this heroin bust equated to a gram of the "chiva" going for 2 grand (500 bags X 1/2 gram=250 grams, $500,000/500 1/2 gram bags= $1000 for a 1/2 gram.) - which is beyond reeeedikkulusss - that's a lot of dope heading up the highway here, in an area that doesn't see a lot of junk.  

I've been out of the heroin scene for 12 years now, but from what I know of my time on the streets here and our local methadone clinic's ratio of heroin users to prescription pill abusers, true junkies like myself are a pretty rare breed in these parts.  Which makes me think these two pillars of the community were on their way to someplace else with a little higher demand and cops got lucky.

Which of course then makes me wonder whether two Hispanic dudes rolling through a rural county in Ten-oh-see with Tejas plates were doing something illegal to warrant the actual traffic stop or were just....a little darker brown than the cops' coffee that morning.....

In any event, I gotta say congratulations to the police in Hickman County for taking these bags of misery out of the hands of idiots like me who think they keep the monkey from lodging itself firmly onto one's back.... 

THP Troopers seize 2 pounds of heroin during traffic stop

Posted: Feb 24, 2011 2:47 PM CST

HICKMAN CO., Tenn. – Tennessee State Troopers seized two pounds of heroin during a traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Hickman County on Tuesday morning.

Officers stopped the vehicle with a Texas license plate around 9 a.m. on Tuesday for speeding at mile marker 158 eastbound on I-40.

While searching the vehicle, authorities found several bags filled with 500 small plastic bags with approximately a half a gram of heroin in each bag.

Authorities told Nashville's News 2 the seized heroin is estimated to be valued at $500,000.

Ricardo Ernesto Gutierrez-Resendiz, 22, and Jorge Miguel Derramadero-Gerrero, 21, both of Texas are charged with possession of schedule one for resale.

"The homeless people down there are the ones I feel like I am seeing more aggression out of,"

Not exactly sure what is driving this report, but as spring nears, this is usually the time that local law enforcement begins stepping up their efforts to target people experiencing homelessness in the downtown area.  It's been a pattern of "raise awareness, make lots of allegations and assumptions that "those homeless people" are behind the problems, then start banging the drum to have something done about those "homeless people."

It is good to see that Metro PD hasn't fully jumped onto the NIMBY wagon yet, but the year is still young.  

And by the way, I wonder whether the enforced closing of Tent City behind Inner City Ministries has played a role in the perceived increase in "those homeless people" in the downtown area.  

Newton's third law comes to mind here... "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Just thinking out loud here....

Police calls on Nashville's honky-tonk strip jump

Crime on tourist destinations Lower Broadway, Second Avenue rises; some people say homeless problem is partly to blame

5:19 AM, Feb. 22, 2011

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Police talk to a homeless man after an altercation with a ticket reseller at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Broadway. / SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS / THE TENNESSEAN

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Brian Haas

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Pedestrians cross Broadway at Fifth Avenue in downtown Nashville. Police calls to the area have gone up in recent years. / SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS / THE TENNESSEAN

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Chuck Baril makes an appearance outside of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. The 400 block of Broadway is a popular tourist destination. / SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS / THE TENNESSEAN

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It's about 6:30 p.m. at Broadway and Fifth Avenue South, and a homeless man has his dukes up, ready to punch Calvin Crump.

"You wanna go, dude?" the man shouts.

"We're all right," Crump says, keeping his cool.

The standoff ends peacefully, with Metro police sending the aggressive stranger on his way. To Crump, a ticket reseller for some 20 years along Lower Broadway, it's a sign of the times. It's the second such encounter he's had with someone around here in the last two months.

"You've got a lot of street people coming out now,'' Crump said. "They're creating a lot of the havoc out here.''

Metro police statistics over the last five years show that calls for police help in the 400 block of Broadway, home to some of Nashville's best-known honky-tonks, bars and restaurants, have risen by about 53 percent from 2008 through 2010. Not counting police-initiated actions such as checking up on businesses, officers responded to about 700 calls in 2010, compared with about 460 calls two years earlier. Another popular tourist destination, Second Avenue South near Broadway, has been labeled by Metro police as the county's top violent crime intersection over the past several months.
It's not clear whether the increases are temporary blips or part of an emerging trend.

Police and bar owners dispute the idea that there might be growing problems along the famous block.

"That area was not problematic. It was exactly what you want in your downtown tourist area," said Deputy Chief Damian Huggins, who was in charge of Metro's Central Precinct in those years before being promoted in October. "We didn't see a pattern or a trend of problems. That area wasn't anything that was a problem for us to contend with."

But statistics show that fights, drunk and disorderly people, and some property crimes rose between Fourth and Fifth avenues during that time. Patrons, workers and bar owners along the strip say a creeping homeless problem in the area could be to blame for some of the trouble.

"The homeless people down there are the ones I feel like I am seeing more aggression out of," said Melinda Curtis, 36, who has tended bar and sung at the Full Moon Saloon for about five years. "I've witnessed the confrontations between them and the police right at the front door of the bar."

From bust to boom

Lower Broadway wasn't always the thriving tourist destination it is today. When the Grand Ole Opry moved from Ryman Auditorium to Briley Parkway in 1974, Lower Broadway suffered an economic vacuum. Tourists went elsewhere. Crime rose. Adult businesses moved in. The homeless harassed patrons. Drugs were common. One bar owner at the time recalled having to clean up hypodermic needles every morning in an adjacent alley.

"When they called it 'Lower Broad', it was more of a demographic than a geographic location," said Metro Councilman Mike Jameson, whose council district includes Lower Broadway. "There were peep shows, prostitutes and drug use evident everywhere. It was a tough place, and it was not a place you wanted to go after hours.

It's evolved into something we're very proud of."

It wasn't until about 20 years later that Lower Broadway began its recovery. Business owners teamed up to buy buildings and boot peep shows and pawnshops in favor of restaurants and entertainment venues.

By 2000, the bust was a boom, with sports teams bringing in fresh money and customers to restaurant and bars that kept sprouting up.

Today, the street is a thriving tourist destination, a jewel of the city, Jameson and bar owners said.

"It was rough then. It was real rough back in the '80s,'' said Steve Smith, owner of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. "Now it's not. Now it's just a big tourist attraction."

On Thursday, Lower Broadway was buzzing with tourists, families and young people out for a beer or listening to music. Marcel and Diane Eegin, visiting from Toronto, said they felt safe and were impressed with the police presence.

"It's nice, and it's clean" Marcel Eegin said. "I think what helps is there's a lot of police officers around here. It's a good deterrent."

Still, the couple stared wide-eyed as a young man who had gotten into a dispute breezed past them with an open gash on the bridge of his nose dripping blood.
 
A sampling of incidents along Broadway pointed to no real root cause of increased police calls, though many of the public intoxication and disorderly conduct cases appeared to involve the homeless. Some of the incidents were violent.

In a 2008 case, a dispute between sidewalk performers led to one man smashing his guitar over the shoulder of another man. Last year, a man inside Legends Gift Shop smacked a woman in the face with a package of guitar strings.

Smith, owner of Tootsie's, said the increase in calls is probably an outgrowth of downtown's increasing popularity. He couldn't say the same for another downtown area.

"The whole city is growing, and that's just how it is,'' Smith said. "We've been very fortunate that we don't have the problems Second Avenue has."

Another hot spot

Second Avenue, while not as well known as Lower Broadway, also is host to scores of bars and nightclubs. In crime reports, Metro police have noted that the intersection of that street and Lower Broadway remains one of the worst in the county in terms of violent crime in recent weeks.

Last month, a bartender at Decades nightclub was shot in the leg and stomach after a dispute with a stranger over his girlfriend. The shooter was arrested on an attempted homicide charge.

Curtis, the Full Moon Saloon bartender, said she briefly worked at a club along Second Avenue about a year ago. "After three months I knew I didn't want to be there," she said. "You would see people there fighting outside the bar. You would see just people literally fighting with each other on the streets, you'd see knives pulled. You'd just see it all. And then you'd have these people walking into the bar."

But police disputed that there was a significant problem along Second Avenue.

"It was indicative of just where crowds funnel together," Huggins said. "I would say that anywhere you have that many people are areas we pay special attention to."
Police plan to pay even more attention to the area. The department recently put up for bid a contract to install several new surveillance cameras in downtown. Two would be along Second Avenue, with two more along Broadway's 400 block, according to the request for proposal documents.

Comfortable with cops

Ruble Sanderson, owner of another well-known honky-tonk, Legends Corner, said businesses are far more comfortable reaching out to police today than just a few years ago.

Police have worked to build relationships by more than tripling in 2010 the number of times patrol officers check in with local businesses to make sure things are going well.
"The police have been really good to work with," Sanderson said, adding that they've helped address some of the homeless problems. "Most of it is vagrants, street vagrants, at least what I've experienced. As far as our regular patrons, we almost never have any problems."

No one fears a crisis is looming. But Curtis worried that if problems along that famous stretch of Broadway and Second Avenue persist, the area could slip into the problems of the past.

"Things need to be gotten under control," she said. "If something doesn't happen, it's going to get worse and worse, and people are going to be afraid to walk the strip at all."

Contact Brian Haas at 615-726-8968 or bhaas@tennessean.com.

Food prices are expected to continue to increase driven by increased costs of production

I took a family to the store recently after they'd received their monthly food stamp allotment of $148.00 in order to provide them with transportation from the store back to their apartment with their groceries.

Turns out they really didn't need me because frankly, for what $148 was able to buy, they could have damn near crammed their purchases into the pockets of their jeans and jogged home.

It's been more than ten years since I've had to watch every single penny I've spent, each and every month, but I still live on a very strict budget.  The Better Half and I are nearing those golden years - a scenario I honestly never thought would be in my future, given my proclivity for hard drug use and the dangerous crap that accompanies that lifestyle - but lo and behold, common sense finally trumped stoned days and here I am, preparing for retirement.  I still have 15 years of work in front of me and for that I'm grateful, since my current retirement package consists of a Christmas club account and a keen amount of praying every Wednesday and Saturday evening, right before the lottery numbers are picked. 

But as usual, I slip off the main topic.  My point was supposed to be that we know what impact food has on our monthly budget and not only is it big, it's been steadily growing. t costs us an arm and a leg to eat each week and we both eat like birds.

I cannot imagine the costs associated with trying to feed a family, or just as bad, trying to feed myself without having the capability of freezing or cooking in such a way that I could make large meals that I could then break into portions and freeze for later use.

As just about all of you know, folks on the street have little ability to do either of these things and they are also highly restricted as to where they can shop and how much they can carry when they are able to shop.  To add insult to injury, because they are so limited on their ability to cook, much of what they must purchase is processed, "ready to eat" crap that often has half the nutrition of fresh food one prepares in their kitchen and it's loaded with chemicals and preservatives.  Yum.

Now that we're also seeing fuel prices higher than they've also been in last two years and likely to climb to almost $4 a gallon this summer, we'll see even more price increases in foodstuffs.  The misery has no end for those who lay claim to the lowest tax bracket, and it's getting much worse for those in the other brackets as well...

Food prices increase the most in two years

Posted: Feb 17, 2011 9:59 PM CST

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Shoppers at grocery stores are shelling out more money for every day food items.

The Consumer Price Indexes  produce monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.

The CPI increased 0.4% in January on a seasonally adjusted basis.  Increases in indexes for energy commodities and for food accounted for more than two thirds of the increase.

The index for food at home posted its largest increase in over two years with all six major grocery store food group indexes rising. Those include the indexes for meats, poultry, fish, eggs, cereals and bakery products.

Thursday Nashville's News 2 did comparison shopping to see where the cheapest milk and bread could be found among four grocery stores and a discount wholesale store.

News 2 visited Kroger, Publix, Aldi, Walmart and Sam's Club. At each store we selected the store brand of one gallon of whole milk and the store brand of one loaf of white sandwich bread.

The Milk cost $2.89 at Publix, $2.79 at Kroger, $2.79 at Sam's Club, $2.68 at Walmart and $2.59 at Aldi.

Bread cost $1.29 at Kroger without using the Kroger plus card. With the card the loaf of bread coast $1.00.

Walmart's bread cost $1.18, Publix cost $1.17 and Aldi cost $.79.  Sam's club had a mix and match for two loaves of bread. It cost $3.89.

Food prices are expected to continue to increase driven by increased costs of production. The cost of fuel is increasing as is the price of corn.

Grocery stores suggest shoppers use loyalty programs to take advantage of special promotions on commonly purchased items. Also clipping coupons can save shoppers money at the register.

The consumer price index on groceries is expected to increase by at least two to three percent in 2011.

"The 21-year-old man had been living in the barn on Old Bon Air Road."

I hate reading stories like this because if someone is sleeping in a barn, you can almost bet that the person was either homeless or as close to homeless as one can be.

Look, housing is a basic human right.  Period. 

Think about the days of the cave men and women, or of anyone who may be lost in the woods or stranded; pretty much the second thing you're instructed to do by those who teach survival skills, after regaining your composure and not running full-speed to nowhere in a blind panic, is to find/construct some form of shelter .  The faster we as a community recognize shelter is necessity and not a luxury the sooner we'll begin to really tackle the scourge of homelessness in our country. 

Until that time, we will continue reading about people who die in barns, or pass out over creosote-fueled campfires expire from smoke inhalation, or die from exposure to the elements. 

There are always some who argue that they don't want their tax dollars to shoulder the responsibility of providing housing for another individual.  They feel the burden is on the individual to get their own act together, that one should "grab themselves by the bootstraps" and make their own situation better.  Now, there's nothing wrong with promoting self-reliance. the problem with this thinking when applied to the situation of chronic homelessness however, is that while tenacity, determination, ambition and perseverance are all great traits in accomplishing what one sets out to do, if you have no skills, no resources, and no established base of operations (for lack of a better term), then you can persevere all damned day and still be sitting under a viadock come sundown with not a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

Living homeless for an extended period is not only difficult, dangerous and hazardous to one's health, the cost to the rest of us has incredible potential to be enormous as a direct result.  The true story of "Million Dollar Murray" will provide even the most cynical "tough-love hard-asses" with pause because after all, it is their tax dollars, just as much as it's my/your tax dollars, that end up paying for folks like MDM.  

So the dilemma, if we want to bring it to that level and see it in a simple financial sense, really boils down to cost effectiveness for the "hands-off" group.   Which then brings up that ever-popular public administration quandary of providing the biggest benefit for the greater good versus respecting an individual's right to autonomy and self-rule. 

Do we step in and, rather than allow other Million Dollar Murphys to suck up precious and increasingly scarce resources in the public domain, head off the major expenses of the future by spending modest sums on programs like Housing First and rental subsidies today?   Do we pay now to ensure someone is sheltered, thereby staving off the bigger expenses associated with long-term homelessness, or do we turn a blind eye and allow "chronic homelessness" to continue for thousands, and really pay later?

Hey, it's YOUR money.  You decide - pay now, or pay later....

Fire crews find man's body in burning barn

Posted: Feb 12, 2011 2:26 PM CST Updated: Feb 12, 2011 03:11 PM CST

Photo courtesy of The Expositor

Photo courtesy of The Expositor

SPARTA, Tenn. – Fire crews found a man's body in a barn that caught on fire early Friday morning.

Authorities said the 21-year-old man had been living in the barn on Old Bon Air Road.

TBI and arson officials are continuing their investigation, though it appears the fire was accidental.

The identity of the man was not immediately released.

Franklin church has previously held food giveaways in Nashville and Franklin

One of the very impressive things about Tennessee is the manner in which volunteers help their community.  I don't think I've lived anywhere else in the US where the volunteer spirit was so ingrained, so powerful and so completely giving in nature.

I first witnessed the Tennessee version of volunteerism when I was wandering the various faith-based day shelters and soup kitchens in the area.  The folks there for the most part were working on a strictly volunteer basis and the amazing thing about it was that they were not simply working, they were really working, like someone who was being paid and being watched closely by their boss! 

They returned every day, worked their buns off, and smiled all the way through it!  Granted, a lot of the folks were strong in their faith and working as service for their respective religious views, but even so, the level of commitment and energy was really something I'd not ever seen before in a group of volunteers.

Then I began working w the great folks at Operation Stand Down Nashville Inc., (OSDN)and it was there that I witnessed probably the most incredible level of volunteer commitment I'd ever seen.  I know it has something to do with the fact that many veterans feel very much part of the "family"  of the military, but I think there is something else at play in an organization like OSDN; it's a commitment to helping "one of your own" in ways that you may not have been able to do at any other time in your, or their, lives. 

If you've ever been to an Operation Stand Down event, you may have an idea of what I'm talking about.  Last year's event here in Nashville was put together by some 20 employees of OSDN, but the event itself was staffed, set up, worked, and torn down by more than 700 volunteers.  And the majority of those volunteers were veterans of the annual event themselves, some for the past 12 years.  It ain't easy setting up and caring for 500 men, women and children who come through the gate with nothing and need damned near everything, nor is it easy to work together with 700+ people you see only once or twice a year.  These challenges, and the ability for the volunteers to come together to meet them not just effectively, but with smiles on their faces, compassion in their hearts and hope in their eyes, forever changed my understanding of the true volunteer spirit. 

I've said it before here and I'll say it again; if it wasn't for the faith-based communities in and around the city of Nashville, the population of human beings experiencing homelessness would be suffering far worse than they already do.  The work, the sheer giving that comes from the faith-based community here, provides meals, clothing, shelter, prescriptions, phones, bus passes, friendship, fellowship, dignity, courage, hope, respect and the strength to face another day on the streets or in poverty. 

If you can help, by all means, please do so.  The organization below could sure use it, as can so many others around our city. 

Church continues donating food to those in need

Posted: Feb 05, 2011 11:09 AM CST Updated: Feb 5, 2011 02:59 PM CST

COLUMBIA, Tenn. – A local church is continuing to provide food to those in need by organizing food giveaways where thousands of pounds of food are distributed to families.

Nashville Family Church partnered with One Generation Away and Second Harvest Food Bank to distribute 20,000 pounds of free food to families in Columbia on Saturday morning.

The food distribution began at 10:30 a.m. at the Highland Park Baptist Church and was expected to serve around 400 families.

Lory Brooks received food through the giveaway.

"I'm unemployed. I've been trying to get work and jobs are just hard to come by," Brooks said.

Pastor Chris Whitney helped organize Saturday's food giveaway.

He told Nashville's News 2 that volunteering for those in need is a humbling experience.

"Our motto is to teach people to love one another through service and there is just nothing better than being able to serve a human being the way I look at it," Whitney said.

Whitney said that his goal for 2011 is to continuing working with One Generation Away to feed a million people throughout the nation in one day.

The Franklin church has previously held food giveaways in Nashville and Franklin.
For more information on upcoming food giveaways or the Nashville Family Church, visit their Web site.

Previous Stories:

• Nov. 19, 2010: Franklin church to giveaway 15,000 lbs. of food
• Oct. 30, 2010: Local church continues food giveaways
• Sept. 25, 2010: Local church distributes 17,000 pounds of food to those in need