Met with Jim Stevenson who is the assistant to the Director of Cleveland’s “Department on Aging.” He said the Department has recently developed a “Senior Strides Program” for people over 55 who are looking for work. And that’s a good number in Cleveland these days. (Cleveland has recently been rated the “poorest city” in America.) The program helps seniors learn to do resume writing, there is coaching to hone interview skills, and so on. Mr. Stevenson also told me about the Department’s SHAP (Senior Housing Assistance Program) initiative. Seniors, who are eligible because of low income, can apply for assistance in home repair. And, there is also an Elder Abuse wing. Mr. Stevenson said one of the biggest problems in this category is youth stealing their parent’s, or grandparent’s, social security checks. Note: Our platform calls for much more help for the elderly, both through programs like these, and initiatives like “Little Brothers and Sisters.” This is a program we researched in the Upper Penininsula of Michigan (although it’s in a number of locations around the country). A non-profit, the agency matches people in the community who, in essence, become friends with an elderly citizen in the community. This friendship includes weekly visits, rides to the store, help with house cleaning… “Social security” should not just be about a Federal fund, it should be about all of us reaching out so all elderly feel “secure” in their community.
Earth Day. A Cleveland National Public Radio show today featured a representative of the Ohio EPA, and a couple other guests, to talk about the ‘environmental state of Ohio.’ At one point, it was explained one of the biggest sources of “non-point” pollution were Ohio farms. One guest suggested farmers be assessed a fee (to help subsidize OEPA efforts) in relation to how much pollution each farm generates. I called in and said that idea is like: “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” Farmers these days are pumping exorbitant amounts of chemicals into their land, which is destroying valuable top soil and leaching into groundwater, which in turn is eventually polluting waterways, not only all over Ohio, but the country. What should be done, I said, is the inspiring of a tremendously stepped up program to encourage organic farming, across the board, in Ohio. I said as a parent, it’s unconscionable to think we’re leaving this environmental mess for our children. [My prayer this morning at Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in Cleveland was that on this Earth Day, we start to look at the environment as, not just a social issue — but a moral one.]
Our family toured the Catholic Worker House on the near west side of Cleveland today. Four volunteers live in community with 15 people who would otherwise be: homeless. They live in a converted convent on St. Patrick Church property here and take Jesus’s continual exhortation to help the poor in a meaningful way: seriously. One volunteer, Chris Knestrick, said living together, and sharing most everything in kind, has made it affordable enough that many people in the community work only part time. Consequently, there is much more time for active community building within the members. He added that in our modern, fast paced society, we seldom take time (in the family, in church communities…) to work on developing deeper, quality relationships. Author M. Scott Peck, who wrote a book on community building, called: A Different Drum, wrote that these quasi relationships, if you will, mean we live most of our lives in “psuedo community,” not deep, lasting community. The kind of community God apparently intended for us.
Met this week with Bob McCauliff who is the volunteer coordinator for a project to turn an old, vacant convent on Cleveland’s near west side into a long-term living facility for those recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. If it works, said McCauliff, it could be used as a model across the country. The building has room for about 24 people, including live in volunteers to supervise. In addition, laisons are being set up to some area businesses to help find residents work and so on. In addition, there will be tutoring programs and other supplemental help from the community. McCauliff added the community has accepted the facility with “open arms” and it should be open within the next month.
My wife Liz and our daughter Sarah helped with an after-school tutoring program with a group of Liberian refugee children who have recently come to Cleveland. Liz, who home schools our children, worked one on one with one of the Liberian youth, a 4th grader. They worked on math fractions. Meanwhile, our Sarah, 9, helped with some of the younger children on basic reading skills. A number of other parishioners at St. Patrick’s on Cleveland’s near west side, meet twice a week to volunteer with these Liberian youth for tutoring sessions in the church’s Rectory. Without this supplemental help, assimilation into the school system would be extremely hard, at best.
Met with Mark Pestak, who has lived on the near west side of Cleveland with his family for the past 15 years. For this man who has a Ph.D. in physics and is working on a NASA space station project, it was a conscious decision to live in this depressed area. He said the city needed his time and energy, much more than a suburb did. While here, Mark has been involved with the “Church in the City Project,” a Cleveland Diocese initiative to connect suburban parishes with city ones and get more resources to the urban poor. Conversely, parishioners in the city churches share their time and talent with the suburban parishes as well. Besides this volunteer work, Mark advocated for the poor by helping organize a successful effort to get a hazardous waste site removed from the area. He said it was tragically typical that such a plant would be located near the heart of a densely populated “poor” city area. (Something a more well off suburban area would almost never have to contend with.)
Met with Deacon Bill Merrimen and Fr. Mark Dinardo at St. Patrick’s Church on the near west side of Cleveland. They have helped establish an extremely creative “Urban Plunge Program.” Fr. Dinardo has freed up a number of bedrooms in his rectory to house college students, deacons in training, church social action coordinators… for week long “emersion experiences” on the inner city streets. Tours are given to meet the homeless, and others, here. They sit across the lunch table from the homeless at St. Herman’s Shelter. They volunteer throughout the area, rubbing elbows with the working poor. They see the hard edge of the city, first hand… And in all that, some come back down to volunteer more; others go back to their suburbs, small towns, schools… to set up “Sister Church,” and the like, projects. Everybody wins.
Our family volunteered at the Catholic Worker “Storefront” on Lorain Ave. in Cleveland today. It was a Saturday morning breakfast for the poor and homeless of the area. The Catholic Worker charism is one of hospitality to the poor. Some 50, both ‘down and out’ folks, as well as good number of “working poor,” came. My wife Liz cooked, our Sarah, 9, served up the sausage at the counter, and Joseph, 7, went from table to table bringing milk, fruit… There were 10 volunteers in all. I talked with “Angelo” who said while he had a job in the factory district, he still couldn’t make rent and was currently staying at a nearby homeless shelter. Paul, one of the Catholic Worker volunteers who has been helping here the past 11 years, said the people who come for the meal are a quite diverse mix between those with drug and alcohol problems, to those who might be considered “modern hobos,” to those with mental disorders… Paul also said he’s seeing an increasing number of families with children. And he said he finds that quite disturbing in the scheme of how more of society is spiralling down.
Met with a seminarian from the East Side of Cleveland today. He said he subscribes to the social theory: “Pay it Forward.” He said a short time ago, a diocesan priest gave him some gas money to get back to his seminary. The seminarian offered to pay it back, but the priest said: “No. Pay it forward.” That is, when the seminarian was able, he could do a good turn (or two, or three…) for someone else. What a better society it would be, huh… Note: And speaking of ‘paying it forward,’ our “web guy” Ed Novick, who has donated countless hours to the voteforjoe.com site, could use some ‘pay it forward’ capital. He is participating in the March of Dimes “WalkAmerica” event this April 24, and he needs sponsors. To help Ed (and help with research on infant mortality and birth defects), log onto: http://www.walkamerica.org/help_Ed_help_babies
Met with Bill Merriman, who is a deacon at St. Patrick’s Church on the near west side of Cleveland. He has been a lynchpin in helping refugees transition into Cleveland. The most recent arrivals to the city’s near west side have been families from violence racked Liberia. The Migrant Refugee Office here, working in tandem with a number of non-profit agencies, helps connect the new arrivals with such social services as: Medicaid, food stamps, language classes… Bill also said he, and a number of other regular citizens, have rallied as well, helping the Liberians (Somalians, Rwandans…) with shelter, furniture, food, tutoring… although they’re having a hard time getting any of them to become Cleveland Indian fans. (No mystery there, given the team’s last couple seasons.) Bill said helping the refugees is the essence of what the Gospel calls for: “…to welcome strangers.” (There are 13 million refugees worldwide. For more on this subject, see: Refugees International.)