Which brings me to the next announcement; I have been hired by the Center For Social Innovation (C4SI), located just outside of Boston MA in Newton Centre, as a part-time Recovery Specialist and I will be engaged in policy and research related to outreach, homelessness and case management at the national level. It is a wonderful opportunity to expand my own knowledge while helping set best practices through lived experience as a consumer/provider.
I'm hoping this will help outreach practices around the country by providing provider personnel with information straight from the horses mouth, if you will. C4SI is setting the standard for consumer integration and to that end is utilizing the lived experiences of those of us who've endured homelessness, addiction, and/or mental illness in our lifetimes. I'm really honored to be part of their team but want to also point out that I will continue on in my current position as Veteran Services Coordinator with Operation Stand Down Nashville, since the vast majority of the work I will do for C4SI will be during times that don't conflict with my current position, which is why I was able to accept their offer of employment.
It's tempting to think I am so great at what I do that I blazed a trail with my smallbore bigshotedness. But the truth of the matter is that I owe my success not to "the self" but rather to the people who brought me here initially, took a chance on a recovering addict, and allowed me enough freedom to figure out what it was I was supposed to do with the 40 years of pain, suffering and misery I'd accumulated over my lifetime of bad choices, homelessness and addiction-generated behavior.
I will forever be indebted to Park Center and BigWillyC (Mr. William Connelly, as he's now called up in Albany, New York where he works as a bigshot for the SOAR program! :-) ) and they will remain in my heart and soul as the catalyst to my passion (but he will always be BWC to me and I've got the dirt on him from our trip to the French Quarter, so he'll be forever indebted to me, as well! *evil grin*).A very special thanks to John Lozier and Heather Rippetoe, with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, who introduced me to Ken Kraybill and training and research opportunities. It was the opportunities they provided me last year that illustrated my worth in assisting others with understanding what best practice behaviors and policy actually meant to those being served by the providers.
Frankly, it's a bit embarrassing to talk about myself and I've had to do a bit of it over the past several months because I've had some very cool opportunities put in my lap. But trust me, working with folks on the street every day, even though I may not be right out in the gutter with them, keeps me tied very tightly to where it is I've come from, and I know how tenuous the hold on "normal" existence is for many of us. I'm just really humbled that there are people who value what I've got to say and I'm hoping I can be a strong voice for a segment of our society that rarely gets heard, let alone heard with any credibility attached to it.
To the folks still struggling on the street, I'll do my best to get it done for you. It's a damned tough road, I know, and I'll keep reminding those who have impact, good or bad, about that toughness just what it's like to have to live it. Maybe now we'll get some folks in high places to actually listen before they act, for our own good, dontchaknow....
