group home
So I'm reading posts and thinking about the desperation in so many people's comments that I have to do something. Well, I have to do something in my mind because I am not a mover and a shaker. I don't have the energy to shake much.
I always want to fix things. I know that. I also know that I can't fix some things, or a lot of things. However, I can think about how to fix things and that sometimes helps.
My latest solution is a group home for people who are destitute because of their illness. I hear so many people say they do not know what they are going to do, but they must be doing something because they are typing on a computer somewhere, somehow. It's hard for me to accept that there isn't anything that can be done to help.
Why don't people in a community get together and pool their resources and live together? They would need help. There are church youth groups that meet around here - one meets on Wednesdays after school (I've seen their signs), and other service groups could come in a few times a week to help out with household chores.
I've been told that I see things as they should be (perhaps even can be) and I know that I can be idealistic. I just see that people can help each other instead of suffering alone and it bothers me. Say what you will. I can already hear the opposition and all the reasons how it won't work, etc.
I have family to help me if I needed it. If something happened to my husband, my children, my brothers and sister, my in-laws (4 brothers-in-law, a sister-in-law), about 30 nieces and nephews, people from my church, and my dad (he is 89 years old so that might be a short-lived situation if I had to live with him), but the point is that I would feel sad having to ask for help, it would be hard, I would feel weird, but it is there if I was desperate. For all of the people who don't have anyone to help them.... (insert a sort of frustrated scream-like sound here).
There has to be something. I have such a hard time reading and feeling their situations. I wish I had the energy to do something because I believe there is a way to help. Okay, so now you can list all of the reasons why it wouldn't work. You know, how people helping people is a stupid idea.
Dang! I wish I had energy to get something like this going. There are group homes for people with special needs (emotional problems, Downs Syndrome, etc.), addictions, juvenile delinquents, and all kinds of "labeled" people. There are hospices for people with terminal illnesses and residences for Alzheimer's patients. Some of these take more money than others and I could really let out a scream when I think about how much these kinds of things cost. I know these are the programs that are getting slashed with budget cuts, and money is the biggest hurdle. It is also the biggest reason people need this kind of help. Duh.
How do we make noise when we are too sick to get ourselves heard by the "big guys"? I'm done for now. But, I will keep thinking about it. I see pink all over the place this month and I understand breast cancer is no fun and serious stuff, but I wish we had some of their noise, support, and energized advocates - not to take away from them, but to add to ours.
carry on,
katy
I always want to fix things. I know that. I also know that I can't fix some things, or a lot of things. However, I can think about how to fix things and that sometimes helps.
My latest solution is a group home for people who are destitute because of their illness. I hear so many people say they do not know what they are going to do, but they must be doing something because they are typing on a computer somewhere, somehow. It's hard for me to accept that there isn't anything that can be done to help.
Why don't people in a community get together and pool their resources and live together? They would need help. There are church youth groups that meet around here - one meets on Wednesdays after school (I've seen their signs), and other service groups could come in a few times a week to help out with household chores.
I've been told that I see things as they should be (perhaps even can be) and I know that I can be idealistic. I just see that people can help each other instead of suffering alone and it bothers me. Say what you will. I can already hear the opposition and all the reasons how it won't work, etc.
I have family to help me if I needed it. If something happened to my husband, my children, my brothers and sister, my in-laws (4 brothers-in-law, a sister-in-law), about 30 nieces and nephews, people from my church, and my dad (he is 89 years old so that might be a short-lived situation if I had to live with him), but the point is that I would feel sad having to ask for help, it would be hard, I would feel weird, but it is there if I was desperate. For all of the people who don't have anyone to help them.... (insert a sort of frustrated scream-like sound here).
There has to be something. I have such a hard time reading and feeling their situations. I wish I had the energy to do something because I believe there is a way to help. Okay, so now you can list all of the reasons why it wouldn't work. You know, how people helping people is a stupid idea.
Dang! I wish I had energy to get something like this going. There are group homes for people with special needs (emotional problems, Downs Syndrome, etc.), addictions, juvenile delinquents, and all kinds of "labeled" people. There are hospices for people with terminal illnesses and residences for Alzheimer's patients. Some of these take more money than others and I could really let out a scream when I think about how much these kinds of things cost. I know these are the programs that are getting slashed with budget cuts, and money is the biggest hurdle. It is also the biggest reason people need this kind of help. Duh.
How do we make noise when we are too sick to get ourselves heard by the "big guys"? I'm done for now. But, I will keep thinking about it. I see pink all over the place this month and I understand breast cancer is no fun and serious stuff, but I wish we had some of their noise, support, and energized advocates - not to take away from them, but to add to ours.
carry on,
katy
Replies
It does feel strange to see the support for cancer patients, while we just get laughed at.
It\'s just like you to want to help, Katy. But you need to be aware of the \"need forest\" out there. What I mean is that it\'s not just a few trees here and there, it\'s a forest. In my community, unemployment has been around twelve percent for a really long time....can\'t remember how long.
Charities are tapped out, struggling to keep going here. If you are a member of an affluent church community, you have a good chance of getting help from your congregation.
But if you are not affiliated with a group that has resources, if you have no family willing to help, and especially if you are old or have an unpopular illness, forget it. The priority is families with children, and there is not much left after the great numbers of those are helped.
Some of our statistics here in Florida are worse than they were in the Great Depression, and it is one of the worst areas in the country for poverty. I am considering myself fortunate that I have a little dry ground to grow some vegetables.
The newest crime wave is cardboard. People are stealing flattened cardboard from behind supermarkets trying to raise cash, and police are after them. It\'s all so strange.
There was something on the news about a woman who was trying to sell her baby and got arrested. I mean, who sells babies? One of the presidential candidates said in answer to a question that if you don\'t have a job, you have no one to blame but yourself. We are in the Twilight Zone of denial.
Katy, I feel your idealism..I do because I have wished for things like this for a long time now. I even wrote a poem inspired by a homeless man that I used to see everyday...can not show you the poem because it is not here..but back then, in my 20\'s I started wanting to open a shelter for people like him. There should be MORE of these places and not just for people to eat and sleep and leave during the day but centers that really try to HELP and perhaps even rehabilitate people! The sad thing, our Salvation Army here was going to start charging people to stay there! I think it was like $3/day but am not sure they were allowed to do that.
There is so much red tape and so many issues involved in these things and we do need more advocates to help.
You know, I have been burned in the past when I have opened my home to people who were in a bad way..no money no job no place to live and sadly I was used and taken advantage of and that hurts..and makes me want to think twice about opening MY home to the next person. Not all people are well intentioned people and we do have to remember that.
I do agree there should be more programs for people to get help to become better and more productive members of society again....in an ideal world we would have these things.