Where will we find our new apprentices?

Apprentices are those who are learning a craft, usually in the construction industry: plumbing, carpentry, painting, etc. They come in looking to get a start in a very competitive industry. This type of work takes its toll on your body so it’s a young person’s game. The journeymen workers who entered the industry back in the 60s are probably planning their retirements. Some of these jobs pay very well. Shh.

I am hoping. Thinking. Wondering. Don’t you even whisper about prayer. But I think I may have a couple of guys who could become apprentices. This is complete speculation on my part. There are many rivers to cross, as the song said. I hope to provide a boat but it will be up to these young people to start paddling as fast as possible.  There’s no time for Donald Trump and his show. We’re talking about real life.

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• Apprenticeships (construction97.wordpress.com)
• Through the eyes of an apprentice – interview with Chris Alavi (ratedpeople.com)
• National Apprenticeship Week 2013 – connecting tradesmen & apprentices (ratedpeople.com)
• National Apprenticeship Week – hiring an apprentice (ratedpeople.com)

 

For those who celebrate, this is one of your big holidays

The title of this blog entry is very specific. If you are a very new reader let me explain that I am an atheist and have been so for most of my life. In grammar school I decided I had no use for concepts such as original sin. It didn’t make sense that my siblings and me had been into a life of sin. This idea of sinful children would have condemned our parents who were responsible for our having been born and who wants parents that bring them into sin?

Furthermore I was not impressed with the story of Jesus and I soon learned that there were hundreds of different equally unimpressive religions. So although I have felt a need for companionship and some of the other benefits of religion I have held steadfast to my belief that there is no afterlife. In addition, having overcome long periods of depression tro achieve a life worth living, I intend to live as long as possible.

If you meet with atheists you will find that some of us love to join online religious groups and make snarky comments. That’s not me. I simply hide the religious based comments of some of my religious Facebook friends and agree to disagree. I have fun in the atheist groups I belong to and exchange all kinds of jokes and puns.

So today is March 31, Easter, which floats around the calendar according to some bizarre formula. If you celebrate it, I hope you have a good time and that your belief brings some comfort. I hope you believe with your eyes open, however. I have read comments about believers that make me worry that they are unquestioning sheep. Belief with your eyes open means that you also hold science in high regard. You understand that there are contradictions in almost any holy book you read. Some of the stories make no sense at all. My favorite example being Noah and the ark filled with all of those animals.  Beyond that is the question of whether what you are being told and what you observe about your faith are aligned with your everyday life. Say for instance, you are part of a religion that condemns homosexuality but you have relatives, co-workers or other close friends who confide in you that they are gays, lesbians or transgendered? Who are you to judge them?

Ask yourself whether you can accept the idea that your government treats these people you care about as second class citizens, actively discriminating against them? Finally, what about the question of separating church and state? Have you heard the  myth about how wonderful things were when public school students could pray in school? I was one of those students and no one asked me whether I wanted to pray. I was simply brought to a church one afternoon per week for religion until I stood up one day and refused to go. Separating church and state protects the minority from the tyranny of the beliefs of the majority. Our government is led by the constitution, not the Bible, the Koran or any other book. And the First Amendment to the constitution serves a very specific purpose in protecting your ability to enjoy your holiday and my ability not to share it.

Related articles

• Care and feeding of your atheist Pagan, by Rhett Aultman (humanisticpaganism.com)
• Why I Am An Atheist (patheos.com)
• Teresa MacBain, a Pastor-Turned-Atheist, Celebrates Her One Year ‘Coming Out’ Anniversary (patheos.com)

 

Need more flexibility here, brain

The video we had at work did not include any time for a discussion period, which is the drawback of these types of activities. You go someplace, listen to someone drone on and then leave. The few times that you may ask a question, the lecturer gives you this look like you know you’re preventing me from completing my presentation so just shut up.

Discussion periods help you engage your brain as you absorb the information you’ve just heard. I remember that I often became restless or bored when I had to sit through classes where very little interaction was permitted between classmates. So discussions are often derided as so called rap sessions. Ideally, in an hour presentation, there ought to be room for 15 minutes worth of questions and answers interspersed.

That way, we no longer feel as though we’re being treated as empty bowls to be filled up. My gauge of listening versus not listening moves very quickly. Is the object of the presentations to prove to some outside agencies that we learned something or to have actual learning experiences? In a non-interactive presentation, I was there, I received my attendance certificate, but I probably couldn’t tell you half of what I was told.

 

 

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Outcomes, part deux

Milwaukee Area Technical College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

In our report to Milwaukee County regarding the impact of peer support on our agency, we mostly counted numbers. I had worked with X # of people and made referrals in certain areas. In the next phase they will look at the number of people being assisted but equally important will be the results. I ran around and got people excited about DVR, but now, we some some who are coming off the waiting list. I will be working on higher level activities like working with vendors. I would like to see some people get jobs with my assistance by June. And we will be able to look at what resources they were able to access. Milwaukee County made give us more resources, too, that make an impact on our work.

 

Education is another major area where we should begin seeing some results. There could be a new category: number of students enrolled in various programs. Ideally we will have people at more than one MATC based program. And they will probably consider retention at some point, as well. Do the people who started during the winter engaged in serious recovery efforts continue into the spring and summer? And do those efforts deepen? Quantity and quality of effort. These are things I will be looking forward to measuring. I must be a nerd.

 

Small city, big man

I have scouring the city looking for adult basic education programs that offered convenience, free services and a connection to Milwaukee Area Technical College. Although I got 1 person into MATC, I have a few more who would like to start this spring. I found that some places did not return calls, others worked primarily in their own neighborhoods and were full and one very nice place was not convenient to enroll in the program. Out of the blue, I called Career Youth Development last week. And lo and behold, they returned my call. So I called back  and someone answered and invited me to stop over this afternoon.

 

Wouldn’t you know? The Director, James Ferguson, was a student in an after school program where I worked “a few years ago.” He’s as big as a linebacker. And under Ferguson is a man who was part of the church where the after school program was located. I shook hands, amazed that I had this connection to CYD but excited that I was in a position to help people.

 

I did some networking, checked out the facilities and got a sense that this was what I had been seeking. I also received a list of the adult basic education programs affiliated with MATC. A list that I had been seeking on the college website. I told my supervisor when I got back to the office and called my consumers. This could be the re-start of a wonderful friendship. You can go round and round in Milwaukee and often meet the same people that you saw in the beginning of your journey so treat them as you would wish to be treated.

 

Milwaukee Area Technical College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

It’s time to leave the Africa museum

 

Let’s say you are a proud African-American, you know of leaders including Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah and my namesake Jomo Kenyatta. So let’s have a pop quiz. How many leaders of present day African nations do you know? What do you know of how this person came to power? Was it through election, military coup or other violent means? What is the status of HIV and AIDS? For instance, what about the percentage of people between 16 and 60 who are living with HIV or AIDS? Is it on the increase or decrease? What is happening in terms of violence? We know that America is a very violent nation but is that also true of Gabon, Angola, Zimbabwe or Egypt?

Do you know that there are serious people who get paid to know these things and will swear that the presence of fewer than 500 terrorists in Mali poses an imminent threat to the United States and therefore we must intervene? Most people couldn’t find Mali on a map and yet it is the latest pawn in game of international politics.

How many African nations have American bases on their soil? If you are a free and independent nation, why is some foreign power using you as a launching pad for an enemy you don’t know and could care less about?

Africa is a vast and varied continent facing many difficult challenges. As we watch the Olympics, we can see the uneven bars and the balance beams and we ask ourselves, where are the African swimmers? We can marvel at the beauty and strength of Gabby Douglass yet also wish that there was a sister from Algeria on the podium with her.

Africa is not a museum to be worshiped and studied for its past glory. We can salute Lucy, the first ancestor, but we need to pay attention to her descendants in the Congo. I am speaking as one who once admired Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who has long outlived his usefulness as an African freedom fighter. It is time for a new generation of Africans to arise and they need the help of those of us in the Diaspora. Let us light the way for our brown brothers and sisters.

Related articles

• Africa’s Development Hindered by Disease (theepochtimes.com)
• France would back Mali intervention (moroccotomorrow.org)

 

Bully!

It Gets Better Project: 2011 NYC Pride (Photo credit: Jason Pier in DC)

J. Reuben Clark Law School (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

bullying (Photo credit: annavanna)

I just wrote about and shared the video that Brigham Young University students did for the series It Gets Better. And I realized that an important part of the struggle young people face is bullying and I’m here to say you can overcome bullies because I did. I was bullied in my old mostly African-American neighborhood and in the white community where my family moved. I was a small, skinny dark boy with glasses and acne and I was definitely a target. I didn’t sound or act like anyone else.

Some guys boasted about girls, smoked and wore the right clothes. I preferred going to the library, finding a book and reading. I identified with the character in the book Loneliness of a long distance runner.

So what did I do to survive and how can my experience help anyone else?

1. I had an involved mother. She recognized that I was having trouble with the kids in my neighborhood and even took  them to court to force them to leave me alone. Eventually she moved us to protect me from them.
2. I had a younger brother to whom I was a role model. I helped him fight his battles and that meant I had to stay strong.
3. I recognized that I had talent. Despite the discouraging comments of teachers and other students I discovered that I was smart, a good writer and athletic. Later on I became a listener.  Listening became especially important when it came time t develop a career.
4. I learned as Gordon Parks said that I had a choice of weapons. I could stand my ground and fight, run away get help from the American Civil Liberties Union or seek out people whose ideas were similar to mine.
5. I was not always available. We had just one house phone when I was growing up and I didn’t give out my number to a lot of kids.  It’s hard to imagine the days before facebook, twitter and cell phones which keep us connected to friends and may make us vulnerable to enemies. Today I ask people who seem vulnerable why they gave out their phone numbers to so many who mean to harm them.
6. We had fights where we made our points but we didn’t go out to kill one another. The one time that I was pounding a kid’s head into  the ground surprised and frightened me.
7. I developed allies. I have written a few times about the importance of my first white friend in school. When you are lonely and small you are more likely to be cornered and beat up. So even if you are “a nerd,” someone who likes to study, read books, write poetry and go for walks, there’s  probably someone else in your school who likes doing those same things. It’s a matter of picking up on the subtle things they may say or do. In my case, I discovered that my friend’s sense of humor resulted from memorizing several Bill Cosby albums.
8. Start dating. I think that there are some many positives from dating they outweigh almost any negatives. For me, it meant that a girl had found me attractive. Even though I was not good looking to the kids who disliked me, I met a wonderful Irish catholic school student  at a political campaign headquarters not far from where I lived. She played guitar, sang and was a wonderful girl. She liked the features tat my detractors found so repulsive. While some people prefer the small thin lips that a lot of white people have, she enjoyed kissing my dark, full African-American lips. Trust me on this, because it’s part of self acceptance. As you learn to develop who you are and what you believe, you will find romantic opportunities available.

My advice is to use all of these techniques so that you can get beyond the point where you have to fight people on the street because you can defeat them with your mind.

Related articles

• What Should I Do If I’m Bullied? (education.com)
• What are the signs of a “bully-victim”? (education.com)
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Look Out World, My Niece Grace Has Come to Read!

Image via Wikipedia

By this time on Thursday I will be back in my home town of Buffalo and seeing my family. As a Baby Boomer, I was a child of integration. Thanks to the United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education, the Buffalo public school system was invalid because it maintained two separate and unequal education systems.

Flash forward to 2011 and my niece Grace and I was talking with my older sister about possible gifts for this young girl who is the daughter of my nephew John and his wife. Coincidentally, John was born in 1969, the year I graduated from high school. John’s mother Chris was telling me about the way that he had loved Dr. Seuss books. She had thought about getting a collection of those books and ended up buying them for her grandson Brandon. Unfortunately he is on the autism spectrum.

I recently wrote a blog entry declaring that I would rather write than have sex. So you can imagine how I felt listening to Chris tell me how Grace likes to sit there at the kitchen table and read the newspaper. She’s 2 and she’s requesting that the adults make room for her as a reader.

What better tradition to start in a family than having the father read to his daughter. I remember hearing some story on public radio about this. So my first appearance as a character in my niece’s life may be as the one who helps her to discover the same books that her father read, Dr. Seuss. And the Grinch better not say a bleeping word about it.

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Do Private Clinicians Use Peer Specialists?

Image via Wikipedia

Image by Feggy Art via Flickr

At work tonight I discussed this idea about the role of peer specialists. I have  seen and heard about peer specialists in hospital settings. The Veterans Administration and Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex have been using peers. A number of mental health non-profit groups have peer specialists. And  I have seen information indicating that peer support is a recognized effective means of assisting clients with mental problems.  We have experiences that may allow us to communicate with people in ways that complement the work being performed by clinicians.

In some states I believe that Medicaid will accept billing for services performed by peer specialists. I am planning to take the Wisconsin State Certification Test in February. This is in addition to the Human Services Associate degree that I earned from Milwaukee Area Technical College. I also attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. After thinking that I should become a librarian, I have found my true calling in helping to facilitate programs such as Wellness Recovery Action Plans developed by Mary Ellen Copeland.

I have been writing my blog for 2 years but only now am I starting to see clinicians, people with those extra letters  behind their names, starting to read me. Things have changed in mental health since the 1960s when my younger brother was prescribed a medication to help him. Recovery was not even on the table although the movement had begun towards helping people live less restrictive independent lives in the community.

People like me overcome diagnoses such as severe depression, mania and even schizophrenia. We are making a difference with people much like ourselves. The day is coming. This  is a recognized practice. Please tell us, that we would be welcome to join your staff and work alongside you.

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles

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I’d Rather Write Than Have Sex

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I just spent the afternoon blogging, reading about emotional intelligence and anger management  and I feel great. Among the comments I made I said that the happiest moments of my life have been when I was writing and reading. I cannot remember a time when I was unable to read. One of my life challenges has been tearing myself away from my writing to be able to communicate with a partner.

I am one of those who awakens in the middle of the night thinking about something to write. We keep some kind of writing instrument available at all times. What better way to spend one’s time than learning about Dr. Albert Ellis? I studied him in school but I was frustrated by the way I learned about Dr. Ellis, Sigmund Freud, the bio-psychosocial model and almost anything else I learned about psychology. I really felt connected to certain ideas like person-centered thinking. And yet as an undergraduate I could not study these things in the depth that I desired.

That is why blogging and its connection to lifelong learning has been such a revelation. I can decide for myself what is or is not important. I can think about these ideas when I meet with peers. The words of famous or even obscure people are a click or two away. And best of all there is no cost.

I am fairly certain I will seek out a companion at some point next year, but she will have to share me with my true love, writing. Power  to the imagination!