[Grovenet] News Times Article

[Vickie Madeoneup]

All of these issues are so muti-faceted
  it's very difficult to know what the right thing to do is.
  
  I used to do clothing and personal item (shampoo etc) drives for Project Greenhouse, but one of the conclusions I came to was that we are helping many of these kids to be able to stay on the streets when some of them have perfectly good homes but just don't want to follow the house rules.
  
  Then also for  six years I organised an Adopt A Family program for  Thanksgiving and Christmas. The very 1st year we "adopted" 23 families,  by the 6th year we "adopted" over 100. What was provided varied by  whoever the adopter was but many adopters provided Thanksgiving &  Christmas dinner, a tree & gifts for all the family members, paying  some of their bills.
  What discouraged me about that project was seeing many of the same  names all 6 years and having the school district tell me that some of  the families were on more than one Adopt A Family list.
  
  How do you help people who truly do need help, how do you prevent fraud without invading peoples privacy, rights & dignity?
  
  How do you help the children???? 
  
  There are 2 volunteer organizations that I was impressed with and thought that when I retired I would like to join
  One is where the volunteer is assigned to be a mentor to a parent in  trouble, gently helping them to learn to make better choices in their  lives and also as parents. Kind of a freind mentor.  I believe the  mentor program required a one year committment and visits every week to  the parent. Change the parent, change the dynamic of the entire house.
  
  The other is a childs legal advocate.    (COSTA    COLA  something like that) where you help  the attorney by helping with the leg work & investigative work for  the child. 
  
  I can not remember the name of either one of these, does someone on GroveNet know the names?

  Vickie
  
  
Steven <NoSpam03 at comcast.net> wrote:  It is also in the article that the mother of this child is a drug addict.
How do you help the child without supporting the parent's drug habit?
Another couple of years and this child will be sexually abused by the mom's
drug friends.
To pull yourself out of homelessness, you have to not be in a downward
spiral. If the family is homeless due to bills or job loss, they've known
about it a while. You don't become homeless the day you loose a job. Is the
job loss or medical bill due to their own problem?
Many of the homeless prefer their lifestyle. If you gave them a place to
stay, they would bring all their friends too. And with it, all their
problems.
Don't get me wrong. There are people with homes that prefer the drug/alcohol
life. You can often spot them by just driving by.
And there are homeless people with jobs that are responsible people.
I can not help any homeless persons. They have to help themselves. Get rid
of the people who pull them down and find a new network of friends.
You want to help this girl? Get her to a lawyer who will help her become
emancipated. Or find her father or family that is acceptable, or a guardian.
I've yet to meet a recovered meth addict.

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com]On
Behalf Of Eric Canon
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 7:57 AM
To: grovenet
Subject: [Grovenet] News Times Article


I want to call attention to the front page
article in the News Times, now on news stands,
about homeless kids in our school district.
Specifically, the story is about an 11 year old
girl who does not have a home, or a bedroom, or
even her own bed to sleep in. She washes her
clothes at a gas station.

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