Happy Friday!

By Colleen Sinsky

Just sharing a cute picture of Outreach Worker Liz, on a new family's move-in day!  Have a great weekend!

Broken Bootstraps

By Colleen Sinsky

Acknowledging generational poverty isn't popular in America, where we emphasize the ‘can-do’ independent, rugged individualism that liberated our forefathers from the British and Manifest Destiny-ed our way across the Great Plains. We love “rags to riches” stories that tell us that anyone who puts in enough effort can climb up the economic ladder.

The sad reality is that 20% of children in Oregon live in families that earn below the federal poverty line, and of these families, over half have at least one working parent, according to a study by the National Center for Children in Poverty. And, ironically for a nation that so strongly believes in an individual’s ability to be upwardly mobile, the US has the second-highest correlation between parent-child income levels across generations. For a more detailed look at intergenerational mobility in the US, check out this 2006 paper for the Center for American Progress.

Today I talked on the phone to one of our families who just gave birth the other day to a baby who was immediately put on detoxification for the methadone treatment his mother is on. I should let the reader know that multiple agencies and a hospital social worker are involved, and the baby is healthy, the parents are loving and they will all be out of the hospital soon. But what a way to start life. The parents have pretty limited resources and are staying in a temporary hotel situation. We’re working on them getting into a more stable apartment. It’s hard for me not to project forward the life this child statistically may end up living. Yes, it’s possible to pull oneself up by the bootstraps, but sometimes the odds seem depressingly weighted against people.

Funding Woes

By Colleen Sinsky

This will not be a political post. But I need to express somewhere how much I wish that more people in our community could be involved in the implementation of how public money is allocated. It’s often easy to report statistics of success, and talk about the number of clients served. What’s more difficult to track and therefore often overlooked is the number of times our House staff has to tell people that we aren’t able to help them. I want more people to experience having to sit at my desk in the center of downstairs JOIN and become an unwitting fly on the wall, hearing conversations between Outreach workers and our folks-our friends sleeping outside every night who don’t make it into the data reports because we don’t have the funding to bother filling out an intake form. I want those people who walk into JOIN with hope and are turned away empty-handed to be acknowledged. I want to apologize to each of them, on behalf of the funding limitations above both of us, and send them off with more than just a vague recommendation to try another local agency that I know doesn’t have resources either.

It’s easier to write a blog post on something like moving a family off the streets, but I think it’s also important to paint a realistic picture of our limitations as a social service agency. It’s not just JOIN obviously- organizations across the board are strapped for funding. We’re kept afloat, and are able to stay in the fight because of the motivated individuals who run organizations focused on social or ecological justice. I’m amazed every day by the resiliency of people who have dedicated their careers, and often lives, to working an underpaid niche job, knowing that the funding of their program is often arbitrary and beyond their control. I hate that these difficult budget conversations have to happen every day in our office. And that the end result of budget cuts is having to tell someone with zero income that we can no longer support their Honored Citizen bus pass check- often their only link to resources and their community.

José, one of our Retention Workers supports the Portland Safety Net.

Bedbugs!

By Colleen Sinsky

JOIN is unique in many glamorous and exciting ways. We do outreach in Forest Park and Thousand Acres, and areas where other social service agencies wouldn't go. We're flexible and put relationships first. I wear jeans every day. We always have kombucha on tap in the break room, and a beautiful community garden reclaimed from what was a parking lot. It's all very wonderful.

We're also unique in a far less fun way- doing the dirty work. It doesn't make for a very good blog post or touching story to share at a fundraiser, but many of my daily experiences that have the most impact are just that: the unglamorous dirty work. It's often takes more than vouchers or utility assistance for some to maintain housing. Moving furniture, dealing with bed bugs and hoarding, moves to a new apartment, muck outs, dump runs, storage units and preparing for building inspections are some of those common tasks that were probably not mentioned on anyone's job description. We do really really unpleasant chores sometimes! And everyone just takes it in stride, jokes about bed bugs and terrible smells, and still wakes up early to do some job that requires protective booties, gloves, and a sense of humor. I'm still constantly amazed by and proud of my coworkers who have been doing this for so long.

This post has (obviously) been inspired by my day today- which consisted of cleaning out an apartment with a severe bed bug infestation, and an afternoon of moving furniture. Bill and I knew the infestation would be bad, but I really couldn't have prepared myself for the volume of creepy crawlies in this place. The poor resident is a wonderfully kind guy who's been living with these for too long and is finally getting his room treated so he can pass inspection and avoid eviction. We had to bag up or throw away all of his possessions; there were bed bugs crawling in DVD cases, on the walls, nested in shoes, and completely overrunning the furniture- all of which we condemned to the dump. Knowing how easily these spread, we took what precautions we could, but it was still a mental challenge for me to deal with having so many bugs around me. I'm still pretty overwhelmed and almost jittery thinking about it. The clothes I was wearing are now sealed in a plastic bag under my desk- on their way to a very hot cycle in the washer and dryer. And hopefully our friend will be able to sleep without bed bugs soon!

(This image should inspire fear.)

I'm a bit relieved that tomorrow is our monthly staff meeting. The staff spends so much time out of the office doing chores like this that it's nice to sit down at a potluck of yummy food and connect and share work news. I'm also going to advocate that JOIN invests in some HAZ-MAT suits :)

JOIN Lore

By Colleen Sinsky

The culture I’ve grown up in relies almost entirely on the written word for communication. E-mail, annual reports, Twitter, Power Point and case files are tools of a world that has forgotten oral tradition. Most of the information I’ve digested throughout my education was read off of a screen or page. I don’t believe this is a bad thing, but there is some magic to storytelling that has been lost somewhere along the way. In this way, JOIN is countercultural in the value we place on storytelling.

Friday afternoons long been the space to connect outside the office, to talk informally about what’s going on in our work and personal lives. When the House closes, staff migrates to a local restaurant and closes out the week with a laid back experience of just spending time together, often passing on stories of “old JOIN” and what it was like in the office on 17^th street or at St. Francis. Hearing long-time employees tell stories from the olden days of JOIN is invaluable to people like me who are new to staff. We keep JOIN’s roots relevant by having a space for passing along our stories- some funny, some terrifying, an occasional legendary disaster, and all making me proud to play a role in this tradition. Better than any binder of “employee information,” learning from these organic gatherings has taught me so much about JOIN’s philosophy and how to do the work. We learn from each other’s experiences and have a safe place to vent or to solicit advice. Hearing Mike laugh about a minor crisis ten years ago puts whatever I’m dealing with this week into perspective. In the past 20 years JOIN has grown and changed and survived a huge array of hurdles. We keep those years, and the people who made them memorable, alive in our collective memory.

JOIN’s organizational culture revitalizes face to face communication. Everything from how we prioritize monthly retreats, to how our downstairs office space is designed, to the almost total lack of email communication between staff members is geared towards promoting conversation. JOIN is so fortunate to have had the influence of Lio’s Samoan culture that, for thousands of years, has had a rich history of oral tradition and verbal communication. From my desk, I can hear Lio begin meetings with our folks, “So, tell me what is going on.” He creates space for a conversation, not an interview to fill in the blanks on an intake sheet. From the big blue armchair, our folks are asked to tell their story. This is the foundation of building a relationship, and storytelling the first step towards empowerment.

Cleaning Out

By Colleen Sinsky

I’ve been meaning to do a “day in the life of the Outreach Assistant” blog post. To be honest, I was going to wait for a day with a long list of exciting activities to report on, but I realized that even today’s ordinary morning merits a reflection.

I met Quinn at the office just a little past our 8:45 meeting time. While the coffee brewed in Cafe Join, we chatted with Joe and Jose about last night’s dreams and weekend plans. Procrastination over, Quinn and I grabbed gloves and heavy duty trashbags and headed out for an apartment clean out.

(I should mention here that an “apartment clean out” is about as fun as it sounds. Not every time, but sometimes, when someone whom we’ve housed gets evicted or moves out, the responsibility to clear the unit falls to us. The state of the apartment when we get there ranges widely... but it’s almost always a half-day job I’d never wish upon anyone.)

Quinn and I arrived at the apartment, which had been home for a few squatters since our person moved out. “Melissa,” whom Quinn has known for years chose to enter in-patient treatment and has been meth-free for nearly three months. We’re extremely proud of how well she’s doing, and happy to help her tie up loose ends, like her old studio apartment.

Happy to help, yes. But that doesn’t make dealing with endless piles of junk much easier. It’s difficult to describe what inhabits an apartment like this if you haven’t seen one. Melissa’s was far from the worst I’ve seen, but imagine several trashbags full of dirty laundry, broken electronics, old pictures, a deflated air mattress, some sad stuffed animals, dirty dishes, a fridge of putrid food, blankets, a deflated bike tire, tools, etc. (“etc” in the most literal sense). It’s overwhelming. We salvaged and recycled what we could, but overall the process of clearing an apartment feels wasteful and depressing. Melissa was a huge help and worked alongside us tirelessly, taking loads to the compactor downstairs and cleaning the bathroom.

Used syringes are something I’m always cautious of, and Quinn and I quickly realized that today we had to move slowly and be extremely careful of old “rigs” and razors forgotten in the piles of stuff. In a makeshift “sharps” container, we collected a dozen or so artifacts from Melissa’s previous life as a meth addict.

It felt good to lock the door to the now empty studio and leave with Melissa for the last time. Yes, JOIN allows people to open doors, but just as important is providing the support for closing the door against destructive lifestyles.

Last Minute Christmas at JOIN

By Colleen Sinsky

Happy Holidays JOIN friends!

This morning I saw an email from our Executive Director Marc Jolin- who’s going to be very embarrassed for me writing this. Marc, at 6:30am sounded chipper and upbeat, letting the staff and board know that JOIN would be open for families today- Christmas Day.

Because of some scheduling conflict, the space that homeless families had been planning on spending their Christmas afternoon and evening had to close- leaving them all without a warm place today. In his email, Marc welcomed the company if anyone wanted to stop by this evening- but was mostly after those leftover holiday treats so many of us have lying around so he could put them out for the kids.

What a simple, yet profound gesture; changing personal Christmas plans at the last minute to create a safe and warm place for a few homeless families. This is what service is about. This is why we do immersions, and why we choose to emphasize solidarity and relationships over statistical measures of success. This, (shamelessly quoting myself in another recent blog post) is the JOIN Way, and this is the epitome of the organization that I am so fortunate to volunteer for.

I’m saving Marc's email forever- as yet another small reminder of how truly wonderful an organization can be when soulful and selfless people are at the helm. I’m proud of JOIN for bucking some traditional social service rules and having the flexibility to do something as counter cultural yet human as suddenly

deciding to be open on Christmas.

Earlier this week I went out to East County to deliver some Holiday food boxes donated by our friends at TAZO. I visited one of our families who was homeless until last month. Knowing where they came from, it's impossible for me to get into words how happy it makes me to get to see them with their Christmas tree and presents. And when I'm trying to not break into "proud-of-you" tears in front of the kids.. sometimes it's easier to make this face when they're playing with my camera in their living room:

(this is me.)

So thanks for reading and Happy Holidays to all of our friends and supporters wherever you are. This season, hug your family extra tight and tell those you love that you do. We're all in this wonderful chaos together.

In loving memory of Jessica Chyrek.