At the Roots, Reaching for the Sky. John Pachak
came from The People’s Republic of China. She was a police officer in her small town. Her work involved teenagers in trouble with the law, visiting them and their families. When she told me, she was a police officer from China, I was concerned. She came to MIDTOWN for her practicum and was open to everything. She proved, by her personality and openness, that her job must have been very different from police in America. She “loved” her experience. Here are some thoughts she wrote to me after she left:
I will always remember my practicum experience at MIDTOWN. MIDTOWN is a place full of care, hope and love. MIDTOWN opened the door for me to understand social work in practice. As time goes on you get more and more of a sense of “mini-collectivism”. …everybody is welcomed. The door is open, the programs are open, the staff respect and cooperate with each other, and clients are respected and get involved in all kinds of activities. The relationship between staff and clients is so active, positive and close.
…from the experience of MIDTOWN, you are learning that for a social worker, the most important thing is not only to apply professional knowledge and skills, but also to work with happiness and hope…everybody’s hard work lets you know that social work might be the most ordinary work but most meaningful in the world.
OUR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
I worked long enough to celebrate our 25- and 30-year anniversaries and just missed the 35th. We grew from a staff of one in 1990 to 14 staff and hundreds of volunteers. Our budget increased from $35,000 to nearly 1 million dollars in 2016. Our programs expanded from youth services and family assistance to programs serving the whole family. Community involvement began as neighbors connected more fully and was evident in City Greens Market, the community garden and Voices of Women Development Corporation. The following article, from The NEIGHBOR, summarizes what we knew by our 25thanniversary and what we hoped to accomplish in the next 25 years.
The NEIGHBOR 25 YEARS OF SERVING OUR NEIGHBORS February 2007
MIDTOWN has been serving neighborhood families for more than 25 years. After such time, staff has witnessed children in the community growing up healthy and starting their own families. They have rejoiced and cried with families at births and deaths, college graduations, new jobs, new homes and new lives. In the tradition of the settlement house, staff has tried to respond to the needs of our neighbors with creative, timely and cutting-edge approaches to their concerns. As we celebrate 25 years, we look forward too many more with our neighbors. What will the services be and what upcoming issues may affect our neighbors? Here are some possible concerns!
Housing, affordable to families living under the federal poverty guidelines, is not being created to meet current needs. Housing affordable for those at 30% of the median income is quickly being replaced by housing affordable to families at 60% of median or higher. In other words, lower income families would need to at least double their income to afford housing currently being built. Families are being forced out of their neighborhoods by such redevelopment.
Urban schools and education continue to decline, producing generation after generation unable to do basic math and read the newspaper. Lack of jobs will lead to more hopelessness and intergenerational poverty. Churches still do not welcome the poor! The underclass this continues to build will become more permanently outside the mainstream.
MIDTOWN serves its neighbors whatever their concerns. The bottom line is we must continue to meet people where they are and be hopeful. We must seek positive opportunities which are uplifting even as people are more oppressed. This happens only as neighbors meet each other and learn to know and trust. We may then work together to build peaceful communities no matter our race or economic status.
OUR WORK
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes, hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
James Oppenheim, “Bread and Roses”
The good we secure for ourselvesis precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.
Jane Addams
THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE MODEL
The model I chose as a foundation for our work was the Settlement House. This was a traditional model in social work. Settlement Houses were found in depressed areas of American cities and opened their doors to the community. They were started by middle-class people who had contacts and resources because of their income and backgrounds. The goal was to teach participants how to access the resources and use the contacts themselves. The settlements did not call the people who came through their doors, clients, consumers or patients, but neighbors. Using this term established a connection. We used the term “neighbors” to describe the people who came to MIDTOWN. We also used only first names, so visitors would feel more comfortable. Even the children called staff by their first names. These two choices were ways we hoped to equalize relationships between everyone.
The most famous Settlement House in America was Hull House in Chicago. Jane Addams, the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, led Hull House. Many of their services and programs helped new immigrants who couldn’t speak English. Through a variety of activities, the people who came had fun, got to know others and heard English phrases--enough that they began to speak a little English. Not only did Hull House serve its neighborhoods, it was open to social action and community organizing. The leaders of the Haymarket strike in Chicago stayed at Hull House. The protest in Haymarket was for an eight-hour work day. This change would have affected many neighbors who came to the settlement. It was called a riot by some historians instead of a protest. The events in Ferguson, Missouri were described similarly. Hull House supported workers and the protest. I wanted a model which would allow us to help our neighbors no matter what they might need.
We do really listen to each other, at least some of the time.
Instead of true dialogue, we carry on two parallel monologues.
I talk, my companion talks. But what we are really concentrating on is how to sound good, how to make points strongly, how to outshine the person with whom we are talking.
God teach us to listen as your Son listened to everyone who spoke with him.
Remind us that, somehow, you are trying to reach us through our partner in conversation.
Your truth, your love, your goodness are seeking us out in the truth, love and goodness being communicated.
When our words are harsh, hostile, angry, we convey the very opposite of those qualities.
Teach us to be still, that we may truly hear our brothers and sisters.
Anonymous
HOME VISITING
A tool I wanted staff to use was home visiting. I had done a few during my practice as a social work student. I had been nervous about them at the time, but found out I was the one who had a problem, not the people I was visiting. When I came to MIDTOWN in 1990, the people in the community had little contact with the organization because staff were not present. I knew the best way we could begin to connect and discover what people wanted us to do was through home visiting.
Home visits let people know you are willing to come to them. So many poorer people spend so much of their time struggling to find the basics for their families. Some days it might require going to food pantries because food stamps have run out. Other days, parents may have to go to school to advocate for their child in circumstances where no one is on the child’s side. Going to the welfare department takes a lot of time and strength. When families have to decide between food, utilities, rent and medicine, it is easy to get behind. People wear themselves out trying to find assistance and solve problems related to their lack of income.
After someone has used their energy to help their family get by, it is wrong to expect them to come to a conference at a social service agency about some program that may be of benefit. Home visits give people a break, let staff communicate about programming, help build relationships and allow the family