#Feed Homeless Pasadena

[siansfashion]

The 1980s

The first year of the decade was memorable for political drama, cable TV, and games people couldn't keep their hands off of. Arcades were jammed with people playing a new video game called Pac-Man.

By 1981, homes and offices were beginning to adapt to new technologies. If you had cable a TV you probably were watching, MTV after it began broadcasting in August. At work, typewriters began making way for something called a personal computer from IBM.

In 1982, Michael Jackson released his best-selling album “Thriller”. The Walt Disney (1901-1966) Company opens EPCOT Center (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), its second theme park in Florida after Walt Disney Wold.

1983 was the year that saw birth of the Internet also saw volcanic eruptions and aircraft tragedies; the first woman in space and that holiday season craze of the Cabbage Patch Kids.

The Olympics in Sarajevo, the murder of the prime minister in India and Michael Jackson moonwalking for the first time at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium are among the events that happened in 1984.

1985, the R&B single “We Are The World” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and recorded by more than 45 American singers, will go on to raise $75 million to feed people in Africa. The Coca-Cola Company introduced “New Coke”, a sweeter replacement of the original 99 year-old soda and it proved a popular failure. The Nintendo Entertainment System debuts in the US.

1986, the deadliest nuclear power plant accident to date occurred outside the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl, scattering radioactive material across Europe. Hands across America attempted to form a human chain from New York to California to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness.

1987, British pop singer George Michael released “Faith,” his debut solo studio album. The first episode of “Star Treck: The Next Generation,” the second sequel to the original series, aired on independent stations throughout the U.S.

1988, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” opens on Broadway, with Michael Crawford in the title role.

1989, the Berlin Wall falls, after an announcement by the East German government that the border checkpoints were open. The impromptu celebration was televised around the world.

Harvard Referencing

THOUGHTCO. (N/A) Go Back In Time With This 1980s History Timeline. [Online]. Available from: https://www.thoughtco.com/1980s-timeline-1779955. [Accessed: 12th December 2022].

[entertainment]

Black Excellence 365 Spotlight: Jay Reeves

New Jersey's Jay Reeves is a multi-talented actor, producer, and musician currently starring in Safety on Disney+. Growing up, Jay ranked #9 out of 100 in the Western Region of Underclassmen and went on to play at Pasadena City College before leaving to pursue a career in acting. After experiencing homelessness, Jay went home to regroup, eventually studying acting in New York, and debuting as Shawn Scott on The CW's All-American. Jay took the time to chat with us about the making of Safety, his music, and Black Excellence. Check it out:

Which scene from Safety had the most impact on you as you were filming it, and which do you hope viewers pay the most attention to?

The most impactful scene for me was the scene about the custody of my little brother. I mean, I grew up with a single mother most of my childhood, and placing myself in that circumstance, as Ray, was hard for me. A young man who has to rise to the occasion and take custody of his little brother is a difficult situation on its own. But when you add the stakes of having such a life-altering conversation with your mother, now that is difficult. It took me to a level of vulnerability that I haven’t been able to showcase thus far.

You’ve said that “as content creators [we] have the obligation to hold a mirror up to the world.” What do you hope to reflect?

I hope to reflect honesty at all times. That’s whether I’m playing a fictional character or someone who lives on this earth, because people gravitate towards that, people love to feel. Most importantly, there’s always someone who can relate to the truth, and that’s whether it’s my truth or the truth I live through on the big screen. There’s always someone who can relate to the story at hand, so I just hope to reflect enough honesty so the audience can organically connect.

How does your experience playing football impact your approach to acting roles?

My past experience in athletics helps me keep a level of discipline when it comes to acting. Just like any professional level player, in the NFL or elsewhere, we have to work every day and treat our bodies well. That looks like eating clean, being prepared, and knowing when to rest, and that all starts with self-discipline. You have to wake up every morning and want these things for yourself before the world can see it for you. I wake up at 5 AM every day just like I’m in high school or college again playing ball. I truly believe that’s the level of intensity you should bring as an entertainer, athlete, or whatever your dream is to be.

What music are you working on right now, and can you give us a sneak peek or hint about what you have coming up?

I’m working on an EP between acting gigs, so it’s early on in the process—a hint would be too much of a giveaway. But I am working with the same folks I have in the past, Ashton McCreight and Spencer Nezey. It’s early in the developmental process, but I trust these guys, and I can’t wait to see what we can collaborate on and put together. However, I did drop two EPs on SoundCloud this week, so be sure to tune in!

If your life was a choose-your-own-adventure, what decisions would viewers have to make on an average day?

Luckily, I do have a career where I can choose my adventure daily. Being an actor, I find myself studying and always learning about so many different careers and life decisions. What’s also cool about being a filmmaker is you get to play around with different periods, so I’m not confined to a box or any kind of structure. We get to imagine and break any form of limitation.

When you hear the phrase “Black Excellence,” what or who comes to mind?

When I hear Black excellence, I can’t help but think of Issa Rae and her infamous speech of saying, “I’m rooting for everyone Black,” because that is how I feel. Black excellence goes so deep, and there’s enough success on this earth for us all to be excellent. As a Black man, I hope to one day no longer be confined to just having the label of Black Excellence, but reaching higher and achieving overall human excellence as a Black man. My mother’s side of my family came from Monrovia, Liberia. I am my ancestors’ wildest dream!

How did you find your voice?

I found my voice falling flat on my face. I moved to Los Angeles, but things didn’t work out on my first go-around. I didn’t have money, and I lost my support by making dumb decisions, so I went back home and scraped up every single dollar and sent off the most prayers I think I’ve ever had in my life. Doing so allowed me to dig deep within myself and realize my true potential—but without that moment of failure, I wouldn’t have had my back against the wall to do so. If you’re dealing with fear, I encourage you to face it with faith because that is how I found my voice, and I’m pretty sure it’s how you’ll find yours.

You have the opportunity to ask an all-knowing genie one question. What do you ask?

If I had the opportunity to ask a genie a question, I would ask him what stock is going to short through the roof because then I would just dump all of my investments and savings into that and ride the wave. But that might be illegal for the genie to tell me that. As young people, I believe we need to no longer be consumers of a product but be producers and makers of products.

What advice would you give to young Black talent looking to get their first break in the entertainment industry?

Shoot your shot, reach out to these CEOs and ask them for advice. Don’t be afraid to ask questions…look for information, look for a mentor and work hard. Nothing worth it is easy. And you wouldn’t want it to be easy anyway. The person we become as we follow our dreams and hit the ground or backs against the wall is the true blessing. The success is the cherry on top.

How do you practice self-care?

I take good care of myself, and it’s as simple as that. I eat clean, I work out, and most importantly, I feed my spirit daily. Even if I’m not feeling in the mood, I’ll pray, and I take time to give thanks. I do whatever it takes for me to feel 100% because health is wealth.

Thanks for taking the time, Jay! Safety is now streaming on Disney+.

[natturnersrevenge1831]

Reposted from @cnn The latest addition of 65 exoplanets to the NASA Exoplanet Archive contributed to the scientific milestone marked on Monday. This archive is the home to exoplanet discoveries from peer-reviewed scientific papers that have been confirmed using multiple methods of detecting the planets.⁠ ⁠ "It's not just a number," said Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the archive and a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. "Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don't know anything about them."⁠ ⁠________ Me: Some of us already came to this conclusion considering SPACE DONT STOP, but I know there are some of us arrogant enough to believe that we are the only life in the entire universe. And I get that your bible suggest such but by now you should know that's some bullshit. I personally believe humans are an invading alien entity on this planet but thats a story for another day. And fuck NASA by the way this information is NOT feeding the homeless 😐 https://www.instagram.com/p/CbgjCQ-OBC7/?utm_medium=tumblr

[2021laxteentour]

Day Three (Reflection and Departure)

Thank you so much for this opportunity, I’ve learned so much more than I thought I ever would. This trip showed me how differently the two extremes of the United States live. Seeing all of the different kinds of people was very interesting and was a truly unique experience. On the last day we visited Bruce Beach which was absolutely beautiful. I would have never heard about his story or the beach without Dr.Mike.I am so grateful that I was able to attend the trip to LA and meet everyone else. -Ariyana L.

This whole trip has been amazing for me. I got to see Hollywood as it seems like on tv. I also really enjoyed seeing the parts that aren’t televised. This helped show how everything always isn’t glam as it is made out. Also with learning the history of Bruce Beach it made me appreciate the trip even more. It was truly a eye open ring experience and I can’t wait to travel with Dr.Mike again. -Paris B.

Dr. Mike, I thoroughly enjoyed this year's WECCAN! We had an amazing group and the energy was just right! The reflection time on Manhattan beach was great, I loved to hear the teens and young adults share their feelings about this weekend and how Skid row volunteering event impacted them, how they will share with their friends and family their experiences and how this is and will shape their future/lives. THIS IS what it's all about! So thank you for another successful year, love love love our WeCCAN family. -Rania A.

The morning circles were always times of reflection.  Dr. Weaver would leave us with a history tidbit and outline the routine for that day.  Today we were going to Bruce’s Beach (Manhattan Beach) for a time of reflection.  This beach was condemned through eminent domain proceedings in 1924 from several minority families.  The beach is my favorite place of refuge & reflection.  After arriving, we formed our normal circle and Dr. Weaver gave the history as we stood directly in front of the land. The beach is absolutely beautiful.  I think I saw a few minorities wandering about, whether walking, running or riding bikes.  We were instructed to go separately and reflect on events that transpired during the tour, what are we thankful for.  I think experiencing skid row was most impactful for me.  I’m so thankful & grateful for my life, the opportunities & freedoms I have.  To see the “super rich & famous” across town and in this area, those that could possibly die because of the decisions made. To see people not knowing where the next meal was coming from or even asking for water, was touching.  The most populated homeless area in America….touching! I reflected on having family that care enough to see about my well being.  After the reflection period alone, we gathered again in our circle and each person was given the opportunity to share his/her experiences.  I can definitely go out & share with others the impact this organization has on others.  -Pamela F.

Wow! What a awesome weekend we had. This was definitely one for the books. This service learning experience was well organized from start to finish. As I reflect over the entire experience I was touched by the way all of the teens conducted themselves and served willingly without complaints. I loved that the entire group bonded so quickly like we were all family. That made the experience even more rewarding. All of the places that were toured was worth the effort put into the planning. The entire weekend was very impactful! I look forward to continuing volunteering with this group. -Stephanie L.

Skid row, one of the most populated homelessness sections in America was quite an eye opener.  Being able to help provide community service in this area was uplifting. The group was divided into smaller groups and we picked up trash and cleaned the area the homeless where the homeless people lived.  It was difficult determining what was trash.  The saying “one man’s trash is another’s mans treasure” goes a long way here.  I learned that most homeless people are hoarders.  They think they will never have enough. You can also see the “classes” of homelessness, better texts or better looking tents we ran across a gentleman who is now a minister.  He used to be homeless as well.  He came back to skid row and feed the hungry. He talked with us for a while and mentioned that he’s unified some family members.  He also stated that women come looking pretty when they get off the bus, then a couple of weeks later, after the drug dealers have gotten to them, they are unrecognizable.  He said many will die on skid row.  It’s up to the individual to decide his/her fate. He encourage us to keep doing what we doing — it’s making an impact, it can change lives. He’s been recognized by LA with many certificates for helping the homeless and is part owner in a seafood restaurant around the corner from skid row.  Our next stop was the Rose Bowl stadium which was very nice to see where all the games are played.  One of the chaperones, Steven actually played in the Rose Bowl in 2019 while at University of GA. UCLA was a huge campus.  We had the opportunity to see the swim team area walk the campus.  Any campus that have an Amazon store on-site — well, you’re doing a lot of business! Venice Beach had so many activities - tennis, basketball, skate park, vendors, etc.  A fun yet relaxing place to enjoy.  The condolas neighborhood was awesome with the paddle boats to mimic Venice, Italy.  The Sacramento Pier was a nice board walk with plenty of eateries and fun stuff to do. -Pamela F.

I’m very grateful to have experienced this trip, not with just the amazing people who were on it but going places and realizing and opening the minds of I and others about how things truly are in the world. I loved every part of it. I wish to go on MANY more with this group and see the world. And learn so much more things about what goes on in the world and other cities and countries etc. Thank you for this trip Dr. Mike!  -Ashleigh F.

This was a morning of reflection. Looking back over the weekend I had some really exciting moments and some emotional ones also. I was emotional because I started to compare the places we visited. From visiting Hollywood and Rodeo Drive to experiencing Skid-Row and seeing the different social classes and life choices that people have made. But visiting Skid-Row made me confirm that I want to do more hands-on community service. Visiting Manhattan Beach, which was once owned by a black family and now after 100 years they regain their property was heartbreaking. Being there, made me reflect on the Juneteenth holiday and everything that it stood for. I loved the group that I met and the new relationships that formed and now consider everyone family. I can’t wait for more opportunities to explore the world and expand my knowledge. I thought the trip was overall a fun and learning experience. On the way back home I felt more inspired, thankful and energized as I share back home the memories, experiences and knowledge I received from this trip. Hopefully those who I speak to about what I learned gets inspired and want to join on the next trip that’s planned. -Morgan F.

Yesterday evening while on Venice Beach some of us got in the Pacific ocean. Yes it was as cool as it sounds. There's nothing quite feeling the crisp refreshment of being in an ocean. I slept like a baby when we got back to the hotel. This morning we went to Manhattan Beach and observed the land that will be returned to the people whom it was stolen from over a hundred years ago. This makes my heart joyous and reminds me to continue believing the world can constantly improve by the voices and acts of those who turn energy into action. Who translate their passion in progress in the world around us. That's the impact of SSA; to galvanize the volunteers to channel the energy gained from the tour into action within their own community. To inspire the next generation to continue to pay it forward. I'm honored to be a part of SSA and grateful for all the volunteers in the past and in the future; and incredibly grateful for the philanthropy of our donors who make this enlightening tour a reality. Counting down until next time. -Giovan B.

Being able to break the beautiful shell of Los Angeles and explore its “light and dark” sides showed me the importance of community. Skid Row is a community of people who may have or have not made the right decisions in life at one point in time. It exemplifies how even though you may be down or not as capable as the the next person with the support of people around you, you can still keep moving forward. The residents of Skid Row have developed their own form of civilization. What stood out to me the most from visiting this community was the inspirational people from those that still lived their to those that had found a way out, it was all inspirational. To be able to see one of Skid Row’s own people mural placed on his street was a show of how they uplift each other. Pastor Blue , a resident of Skid Row, showed us that nothing can stop you from your faith. You personally have to be willing to motivate yourself to higher heights. Since a child, I’ve always been told that “being able to talk amongst others is one thing but being able to liberate those that are listening is better.” Overall, being able to have the chance to Skid Row even more pretty than what it already was brought a sense of joy not only to my heart but to my soul because my life purpose is to serve,advocate, and grow. Alongside, going to Skid Row to do community service, I was also granted with the opportunity of visiting the beautiful campus of University of Southern California. While at USC I got to see how money is able to influence a lot on a college campus. This includes what amenities you may have, how the campus looks, and the opportunities that can be granted to you when their is more funds. Before going to USC I had the opportunity to visit the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena and catch an amazing photo with the Hollywood Sign. Later in the night we had the chance of not only visiting Venice Beach better known as “Muscle Beach” but also got the chance to explore the Santa Monica pier. Be able to explore gave me the chance to try new foods and see mew things. While at Venice Beach I was granted the opportunity of tasting Birria Tacos but I also tried Elote. Trying new foods allowed me to be able to explore the foods of a different culture and ethnic group of people. Lastly when visiting Santa Monica I was able to walk the pier and see the different rides and attractions that the pier had to offer. -Roderick T.

[savingourvets-org]

Is this genocide in America?

Now it is illegal to feed the homeless! Here is a list of the cities that have made it illegal to feed the homeless:

Birmingham, AL

Phoenix, AZ

Chico, CA

Costa Mesa, CA

Hayward, CA

Los Angeles, CA

Malibu, CA

Ocean Beach, CA

Pasadena, CA

Santa Monica, CA

Sacramento, CA

Ventura, CA

Daytona Beach, FL

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Lake Worth, FL

Melbourne, FL

Miami, FL

St. Augustine, FL

St. Petersburg, FL

Lafayette, IN

Kansas City, MO

St. Louis, MO

Springfield, MO

Charlotte, NC

Raleigh, NC

Manchester, NH

Las Vegas, NV

Shawnee, OK

Medford, OR

Harrisburg, PN

Philadelphia, PN

Columbia, SC

Myrtle Beach, SC

Corpus Christie, TX

Dallas, TX

Houston,TX

Salt Lake City, UT

Olympia, WA

Seattle, WA

These cities presently restrict food-sharing:

Baltimore, MD

Cedar Rapids, IA

Covington, KY

Davenport, IA

Dayton, OH

Denver, CO

Gainesville, FL

Indianapolis, IN

Jacksonville, FL

Orlando, FL

Palm Beach, FL

Tampa, FL Is this Genocide in America? It is now illegal to feed the homeless in 39 cities and spreading across America! More cities are making it illegal to feed the homeless…Is this Genocide in America?

39 cities have already outlawed feeding the homeless, 12 more already have restrictions on feeding the homeless and are attempting to pass the same law. These cities are doing this because Dr. Richard Marbuthas developed a plan for all communities in the US called “The Seven Guiding Principles of Transformation” to reduce homelessness in each community.

Dr. Richard Marbut’s mission statement is:

Our mission is to create and implement strategic action plans, cutomized to each community, which provide holistic solutions that dramatically reduce homelessness.

Cities across the US are banning food-sharing in public places. As well as begging, sitting, lying down, sleeping, loitering, camping and living in cars. These city officials are implementing these laws under the illusion that “Feeding homeless people encourages them to be homeless!”

If we can’t feed them, how will they eat? Why is it ok to feed the ducks in the city park but not people?

The homeless shelter in Orlando charges $9.00 per night per person.

That’s $270 per person or $1,080 for a family of 4 for 30 days.

It is now illegal to be homeless.

Is this American’s form of Genocide? 49,933 Homeless Veterans, 18% are Women Veterans.

380,000 Homeless Children.

109,132 Chronically Homeless Individuals, a Large Percentage of Them are Disabled and/or Over 60 Years Old.

Dr. Richard Marbut said, “Street-feeding is bad and it is wrong, but the best way to do it is to encourage street-feeders to change their location and their time to align with holistic services, rather than trying to outlaw them”, he said. He suggested churches and charities be permitted to move their meal programs to shelters or other places that addresses mental health issues and substance abuse, instead of just imposing restrictions on them.

Yet, these cities chose to pass ordinances that make it illegal to feed the homeless.

The David Parker Show “Feeding The Homeless Illegal In Many Cities!” It is extremely important that homeless shelters get the support necessary to help these homeless people. Our services are all they have now. And there are not enough homeless shelters for all the homeless people.

The American Homeless Families Foundation (AHFF) is committed to Permanently “Ending Homelessness In America!”

Love Thy Neighbor…donate to save lives

Before these laws, 30% of all homeless people died from starvation, dehydration, and extreme weather conditions. Winter is on its way, an arctic blast of northern extremely low temperatures arriving next week.

With these new laws in effect, I think the number of homeless people that will die this winter will double to 60%.

Please don’t delay, donate today!

Please donate! Saving Our Vets

30% of all homeless die from extreme weather conditions, starvation, dehydration, unsanitary conditions and exhaustion. Maybe this is their plan for depopulating America!

Where are the homeless supposed to go? We cannot allow the officials to treat our own people like this. It is obvious they have no heart!!!

[nancygduarteus]

Medieval Diseases Are Infecting California’s Homeless

Jennifer Millar keeps trash bags and hand sanitizer near her tent, and she regularly pours water mixed with hydrogen peroxide on the sidewalk nearby. Keeping herself and the patch of concrete she calls home clean is a top priority.

But this homeless encampment off a Hollywood freeway ramp is often littered with needles and trash and soaked in urine. Rats occasionally scamper through, and Millar fears the consequences.

“I worry about all those diseases,” said Millar, 43, who has been homeless most of her life.

Infectious diseases—some that ravaged populations in the Middle Ages—are resurging in California and around the country, and are hitting homeless populations especially hard.

Los Angeles recently experienced an outbreak of typhus—a disease spread by infected fleas on rats and other animals—in downtown streets. Officials briefly closed part of City Hall after reporting that rodents had invaded the building.

People in Washington State have been infected with the diarrheal disease shigella, spread through feces, as well as Bartonella quintana, or trench fever, which spreads through body lice.

Hepatitis A, also spread primarily through feces, infected more than 1,000 people in Southern California in the past two years. The disease also has erupted in New Mexico, Ohio, and Kentucky, primarily among people who are homeless or use drugs.

Public-health officials and politicians are using terms like disaster and public-health crisis to describe the outbreaks, and they are warning that these diseases can easily jump beyond the homeless population.

[Read: The next plague is coming. Is America ready? ]

“Our homeless crisis is increasingly becoming a public-health crisis,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in his State of the State speech in February, citing outbreaks of hepatitis A in San Diego County, syphilis in Sonoma County, and typhus in Los Angeles County.

“Typhus,” he said. “A medieval disease. In California. In 2019.”

The diseases have flared as the nation’s homeless population has grown in the past two years: About 553,000 people were homeless at the end of 2018, and nearly one-quarter of homeless people live in California.

The diseases spread quickly and widely among people living outside or in shelters, helped along by sidewalks contaminated with human feces, crowded living conditions, weakened immune systems, and limited access to health care.

“The hygiene situation is just horrendous” for people living on the streets, says Glenn Lopez, a physician with St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, who treats homeless patients in Los Angeles County. “It becomes just like a Third World environment, where their human feces contaminate the areas where they are eating and sleeping.”

Those infectious diseases are not limited to homeless populations, Lopez warns: “Even someone who believes they are protected from these infections [is] not.”

At least one Los Angeles city staffer said she contracted typhus in City Hall last fall. And San Diego County officials warned in 2017 that diners at a well-known restaurant were at risk of hepatitis A.

There were 167 cases of typhus from January 1, 2018, through February 1 of this year, up from 125 in 2013 and 13 in 2008, according to the California Public Health Department.

Typhus is a bacterial infection that can cause a high fever, stomach pain, and chills but can be treated with antibiotics. Outbreaks are more common in overcrowded and trash-filled areas that attract rats.

The recent typhus outbreak began last fall, when health officials reported clusters of the flea-borne disease in downtown Los Angeles and Compton. They also have occurred in Pasadena, where the problems are likely due to people feeding stray cats carrying fleas.

Last month, the county announced another outbreak in downtown Los Angeles that infected nine people, six of whom were homeless. After city workers said they saw rodent droppings in City Hall, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson briefly shut down his office to rip up the rugs, and he also called for an investigation and more cleaning.

Hepatitis A is caused by a virus usually transmitted when people come in contact with the feces of infected people. Most people recover on their own, but the disease can be very serious for those with underlying liver conditions. There were 948 cases of hepatitis A in 2017 and 178 in 2018 and 2019, the state public-health department said. Twenty-one people have died as a result of the 2017–18 outbreak.

The infections are not a surprise, given the lack of attention to housing and health care for the homeless and the dearth of bathrooms and places to wash hands, says Jeffrey Duchin, the health officer for Seattle and King County, Washington, which has seen shigella, trench fever, and skin infections among homeless populations.

“It’s a public-health disaster,” Duchin says.

New York City, where the majority of the homeless population lives in shelters rather than on the streets, has not experienced the same outbreaks of hepatitis A and typhus, says Kelly Duran, an emergency-medicine physician and assistant professor at New York University. But Duran says different infections occur in shelters, including tuberculosis, a disease that spreads through the air and typically infects the lungs.

[Read: How health and homelessness are connected—medically]

The diseases sometimes get the “medieval” moniker because people in that era lived in squalid conditions without clean water or sewage treatment, says Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA.

People living on the streets or in homeless shelters are vulnerable to such outbreaks because their weakened immune systems are worsened by stress, malnutrition, and sleep deprivation. Many also have mental illness and substance-abuse disorders, which can make it harder for them to stay healthy or get health care.

On one recent February afternoon, the Saban Community Clinic physician assistant Negeen Farmand walked through homeless encampments in Hollywood carrying a backpack with medical supplies. She stopped to talk to a man sweeping the sidewalks. He said he sees “everything and anything” in the gutters and hopes he doesn’t get sick.

She introduced herself to a few others and asked if they had any health issues that needed checking. When she saw Millar, Farmand checked her blood pressure, asked about her asthma, and urged her to come see a doctor for treatment of her hepatitis C, a viral infection spread through contaminated blood that can lead to serious liver damage.

“To get these people to come into a clinic is a big thing,” she said. “A lot of them are distrustful of the health-care system.”

On another day, 53-year-old Karen Mitchell waited to get treated for a persistent cough by St. John’s Well Child & Family Center’s mobile health clinic. She also needed a tuberculosis test, as required by the shelter where she was living in Bellflower, California.

Mitchell, who said she developed alcoholism after a career in pharmaceutical sales, said she has contracted pneumonia from germs from other shelter residents. “Everyone is always sick, no matter what precautions they take.”

During the hepatitis-A outbreak, public-health officials administered widespread vaccinations, cleaned the streets with bleach and water, and installed hand-washing stations and bathrooms near high concentrations of homeless people.

But health officials and homeless advocates said more needs to be done, including helping people access medical and behavioral health care and affordable housing.

“It really is unconscionable,” says Bobby Watts, the CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a policy and advocacy organization. “These are all preventable diseases.”

This post appears courtesy of  Kaiser Health News.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/typhus-tuberculosis-medieval-diseases-spreading-homeless/584380/?utm_source=feed

[ionecoffman]

Medieval Diseases Are Infecting California’s Homeless

Jennifer Millar keeps trash bags and hand sanitizer near her tent, and she regularly pours water mixed with hydrogen peroxide on the sidewalk nearby. Keeping herself and the patch of concrete she calls home clean is a top priority.

But this homeless encampment off a Hollywood freeway ramp is often littered with needles and trash and soaked in urine. Rats occasionally scamper through, and Millar fears the consequences.

“I worry about all those diseases,” said Millar, 43, who has been homeless most of her life.

Infectious diseases—some that ravaged populations in the Middle Ages—are resurging in California and around the country, and are hitting homeless populations especially hard.

Los Angeles recently experienced an outbreak of typhus—a disease spread by infected fleas on rats and other animals—in downtown streets. Officials briefly closed part of City Hall after reporting that rodents had invaded the building.

People in Washington State have been infected with the diarrheal disease shigella, spread through feces, as well as Bartonella quintana, or trench fever, which spreads through body lice.

Hepatitis A, also spread primarily through feces, infected more than 1,000 people in Southern California in the past two years. The disease also has erupted in New Mexico, Ohio, and Kentucky, primarily among people who are homeless or use drugs.

Public-health officials and politicians are using terms like disaster and public-health crisis to describe the outbreaks, and they are warning that these diseases can easily jump beyond the homeless population.

[Read: The next plague is coming. Is America ready? ]

“Our homeless crisis is increasingly becoming a public-health crisis,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in his State of the State speech in February, citing outbreaks of hepatitis A in San Diego County, syphilis in Sonoma County, and typhus in Los Angeles County.

“Typhus,” he said. “A medieval disease. In California. In 2019.”

The diseases have flared as the nation’s homeless population has grown in the past two years: About 553,000 people were homeless at the end of 2018, and nearly one-quarter of homeless people live in California.

The diseases spread quickly and widely among people living outside or in shelters, helped along by sidewalks contaminated with human feces, crowded living conditions, weakened immune systems, and limited access to health care.

“The hygiene situation is just horrendous” for people living on the streets, says Glenn Lopez, a physician with St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, who treats homeless patients in Los Angeles County. “It becomes just like a Third World environment, where their human feces contaminate the areas where they are eating and sleeping.”

Those infectious diseases are not limited to homeless populations, Lopez warns: “Even someone who believes they are protected from these infections [is] not.”

At least one Los Angeles city staffer said she contracted typhus in City Hall last fall. And San Diego County officials warned in 2017 that diners at a well-known restaurant were at risk of hepatitis A.

There were 167 cases of typhus from January 1, 2018, through February 1 of this year, up from 125 in 2013 and 13 in 2008, according to the California Public Health Department.

Typhus is a bacterial infection that can cause a high fever, stomach pain, and chills but can be treated with antibiotics. Outbreaks are more common in overcrowded and trash-filled areas that attract rats.

The recent typhus outbreak began last fall, when health officials reported clusters of the flea-borne disease in downtown Los Angeles and Compton. They also have occurred in Pasadena, where the problems are likely due to people feeding stray cats carrying fleas.

Last month, the county announced another outbreak in downtown Los Angeles that infected nine people, six of whom were homeless. After city workers said they saw rodent droppings in City Hall, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson briefly shut down his office to rip up the rugs, and he also called for an investigation and more cleaning.

Hepatitis A is caused by a virus usually transmitted when people come in contact with the feces of infected people. Most people recover on their own, but the disease can be very serious for those with underlying liver conditions. There were 948 cases of hepatitis A in 2017 and 178 in 2018 and 2019, the state public-health department said. Twenty-one people have died as a result of the 2017–18 outbreak.

The infections are not a surprise, given the lack of attention to housing and health care for the homeless and the dearth of bathrooms and places to wash hands, says Jeffrey Duchin, the health officer for Seattle and King County, Washington, which has seen shigella, trench fever, and skin infections among homeless populations.

“It’s a public-health disaster,” Duchin says.

New York City, where the majority of the homeless population lives in shelters rather than on the streets, has not experienced the same outbreaks of hepatitis A and typhus, says Kelly Duran, an emergency-medicine physician and assistant professor at New York University. But Duran says different infections occur in shelters, including tuberculosis, a disease that spreads through the air and typically infects the lungs.

[Read: How health and homelessness are connected—medically]

The diseases sometimes get the “medieval” moniker because people in that era lived in squalid conditions without clean water or sewage treatment, says Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA.

People living on the streets or in homeless shelters are vulnerable to such outbreaks because their weakened immune systems are worsened by stress, malnutrition, and sleep deprivation. Many also have mental illness and substance-abuse disorders, which can make it harder for them to stay healthy or get health care.

On one recent February afternoon, the Saban Community Clinic physician assistant Negeen Farmand walked through homeless encampments in Hollywood carrying a backpack with medical supplies. She stopped to talk to a man sweeping the sidewalks. He said he sees “everything and anything” in the gutters and hopes he doesn’t get sick.

She introduced herself to a few others and asked if they had any health issues that needed checking. When she saw Millar, Farmand checked her blood pressure, asked about her asthma, and urged her to come see a doctor for treatment of her hepatitis C, a viral infection spread through contaminated blood that can lead to serious liver damage.

“To get these people to come into a clinic is a big thing,” she said. “A lot of them are distrustful of the health-care system.”

On another day, 53-year-old Karen Mitchell waited to get treated for a persistent cough by St. John’s Well Child & Family Center’s mobile health clinic. She also needed a tuberculosis test, as required by the shelter where she was living in Bellflower, California.

Mitchell, who said she developed alcoholism after a career in pharmaceutical sales, said she has contracted pneumonia from germs from other shelter residents. “Everyone is always sick, no matter what precautions they take.”

During the hepatitis-A outbreak, public-health officials administered widespread vaccinations, cleaned the streets with bleach and water, and installed hand-washing stations and bathrooms near high concentrations of homeless people.

But health officials and homeless advocates said more needs to be done, including helping people access medical and behavioral health care and affordable housing.

“It really is unconscionable,” says Bobby Watts, the CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a policy and advocacy organization. “These are all preventable diseases.”

This post appears courtesy of  Kaiser Health News.

Article source here:The Atlantic

[grbands-blog]

Today we served Macaroni and Beef with potato salad and dessert. Union Station Homeless Services. Feeding those in need in Pasadena. #grbands #unionstation #eventprofessionals #livemusicLA #boomers #babcaterer #caterers #food #MYILEA

[dippedanddripped]

A chance encounter with a homeless woman sent apparel manufacturer Jodie Dolan on a path to connecting her 13-year-old manufacturing business with doing social good. Dolan is the president and founder of the Dolan Group, a company with several brands—including Dolan, 34°N118°W and Guest Editor—that sell atAnthropologie, Nordstrom, Shopbop and boutique retailers. Her latest project is The Laundry Truck LA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit she founded this month.

The truck will be outfitted with washing machines and dryers as well as a supply of donated clothing and shoes. The Laundry Truck LA will work in tandem with another nonprofit, the Shower of Hope, a mobile shower truck that began operations earlier this year. “We realized we could directly serve people who are invisible yet exist in the very heart of the fashion community in LA,” Dolan said. “We will help bring some much-needed services to the community and help restore dignity to our neighbors.”

Dolan has begun raising funds for the nonprofit with the goal of purchasing a mobile laundry trailer and funding operations for one year.

The goal is to raise $150,000, which will include $75,000 for the laundry truck and $75,000 for operations for the first year. As part of their research, Dolan and her team have found several companies in the U.S. that can build the truck. They’re currently reviewing several proposals.

She plans to have the laundry truck running by early 2018. “My hope is we can encourage the fashion community as a whole to also jump in and get involved so we can all take better care of our community,” Dolan said.

When Dolan first approached attorney Jeffrey H. Kapor, a partner with the Los Angeles law firm Buchalter, with the idea, the longtime apparel attorney thought it was a unique idea with a direct connection to the apparel industry.

“The idea of putting together a truck that has washers and dryers on it that gives people the opportunity to clean their clothes is just a terrific idea,” he said. “And here this is in our backyard. It touches our community and the businesspeople [we] work with. It just seems like why didn’t anybody think of this before?”

Mimi Haddon leads a natural-dye class at Dolan headquarters.

Kapor’s firm is working pro bono to set up a nonprofit corporation and file all the paperwork with the California Secretary of State and the Internal Revenue Service. A board of directors has been named. The next step is to set up an advisory group and begin fund-raising.

“What a unique opportunity for people in the apparel industry to be able to give small dollar amounts to try to help the neighborhood,” Kapor said. “We’ll raise some money for the first truck. If the fund-raising goes well, perhaps we can get another truck. There are a lot of homeless people and there are a lot of clothes that need to be washed. Maybe this will become a model for other communities.” Dolan’s accounting firm, Cohn Handler, is also working pro bono on the effort.

“We’re facing a crisis right now,” said Mel Tillekeratne, founder of the Monday Night Mission and the Shower of Hope. “We have officially 58,000 in this county who are homeless. Unofficially, we think it’s upwards of 120,000 because there are so many people who are sleeping in their cars that are not counted in the homeless census. This is the crisis of our time. We can get involved now, when we can fix this. We have to make sure our generation is the one that doesn’t let it pass over to the next one.” Tillekeratne founded the Monday Night Mission nearly seven years ago and launched the Shower of Hope in March. Living without access to showers or clean clothing can be very isolating, he said.

“[If] I’m in the gym and I’ve got all my sweat on me, when I get into the elevator I’m very conscious of myself and I try not to talk to people. It’s embarrassing,” Tillekeratne said. “For a person that doesn’t have regular access to showers, this is their everyday life. And they isolate themselves because of not having access to cleanliness.” Shower of Hope currently operates a truck and shower trailer that makes stops in two locations in Southern California—All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Highland Park and Holy Family Churchin South Pasadena.

“We offer, on average, 30 to 40 showers on Saturday mornings,” Tillekeratne said. “It’s really important that people have access to showers, and it’s also equally important that once they have access to showers they have access to clean clothes so they don’t have to worry about the smell coming from those clothes.”

Craft and charity

To help raise money and awareness for The Laundry Truck LA, Dolan has launched Dolan Handmade, a monthly series of craft events at her 26,000-square-foot factory in Vernon, Calif. Dolan is working with Mimi Haddon, an M.F.A. candidate in fiber art at California State University, Long Beach who teaches textile art and natural dyeing classes at the Craft & Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.

Two of Haddon’s fiber-art pieces were recently installed in the lunchroom at Dolan Group. The oversized macramé pieces, made from brightly colored knit fabric from Dolan’s surplus fabric inventory, are suspended from the ceiling.

Haddon, who was named Dolan Group’s artist in residence, has led classes in natural dyeing and macramé at the apparel factory. The next workshop, set for Sept. 28, will focus on marble dyeing on Turkish towels. Future events will include block printing, sashiko (Japanese embroidery) and eco-dyeing using pressed flowers on silk. Tickets for Dolan Handmade are $45, which includes supplies, and all proceeds benefit The Laundry Truck LA.

The Dolan Group will also donate a portion of sales from its direct-to-consumer website for the Dolan brand, shopdolan.com, which will launch on Oct. 1. A portion of sales from Dolan clothing sold at retailers will also fund The Laundry Truck.

Path to The Laundry Truck

In recent years, Dolan has been looking for ways to make her business more environmentally and socially responsible. She researched renewable alternatives to the ubiquitous poly bags used to ship garments to retailers. She looked into recycling resources for all the excess fabric scraps left over after cutting. Her daily commute took her through Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, located right next door to LA’s Fashion District. She began listening to podcasts about homelessness, looking for ways that she could help. “But I didn’t know where to start,” she said.

Then Dolan stumbled—literally—across a homeless woman who had ducked into a mid-city business to get out of the cold. The woman ran off when Dolan screamed, but the apparel manufacturer went after her to try to give her money to apologize for frightening her.

Dolan said she knew simply giving one person money wasn’t the right response. A week or two later, she overheard someone talking about the Monday Night Mission and its group of volunteers who feed people on Skid Row every night of the week. Dolan began volunteering with the group, making sandwiches and handing them out in front of the Midnight Mission on South San Pedro Street in downtown Los Angeles. The first time, Dolan went alone. Soon she was going weekly and many coworkers were joining her.

“Jodie was walking out of the office one night and said, ‘I’m going down to Skid Row. Do you want to come?’” said Christine Moore, who works in product development for Dolan. “I’d never known anyone who would go to Skid Row. It was nothing at all what I envisioned. I thought it would be like a soup kitchen. It was an eyeopener.”

Before handing out food, volunteers are given frank advice about staying safe while volunteering on Skid Row.

“I almost turned around and left after the safety briefing. I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’” Moore said. “But I trust Jodie. I’m so glad I stayed. This group is organized. It’s a well-ordered machine.”

Dolan and her employees have volunteered their time for other organizations as well. A group joined a march in support of Measure HHH, the Homelessness Reduction and Prevention Housing, and Facilities Bond Issue initiative that was approved by Los Angeles voters in November.

The entire Dolan team volunteered at the Downtown Women’s Center, working in the kitchen at the main campus on San Pedro Street and in the DWC’s retail store, MADE by DWC, on Los Angeles Street.

It took longer for Kate Anylan, Dolan’s brand director, to join the group at the Monday Night Mission.

“I’m happy to help people and contribute, but I was scared to go the first time,” Anylan said. “While we were making sandwiches I was thinking I’m not really sure what will happen next.” By the end of the night, Anylan’s impression had changed. “When I left I had so much energy and wanted to talk about it,” she said.

Recently, Anylan returned to the Monday Night Mission with 100 hard-boiled eggs, which turned out to be a big hit. Word got out on Skid Row, and more people began arriving, asking if there were more.

Dolan said the turnout for the Monday Night Mission ranges from about a dozen volunteers to upwards of 40. Many are college students. And most heard about the organization the way Dolan did—through word of mouth.

“It’s very cool how people hear about it,” Anylan said. “And they make sure to squeeze it into their schedule.”

Moore said there’s a feeling of commitment—not just among the regular volunteers but among the Skid Row residents.

“I feel like I have friends down there,” she said. “It warms the heart to see these people as people every week and know their names. You see past the problems. It makes it more meaningful.”

Dolan designer Greta Gunther was another early volunteer at the Monday Night Mission. The first time she went, she was asked to greet people as they arrived.

“My first experience was physical contact,” Gunther said. “I looked them in the eye and shook their hand and interacted with them. I wasn’t expecting the intensity. But Jodie made it so casual sounding. It’s amazing that our boss was involved.”

That direct contact with the people living on the streets is what keeps Dolan coming back.

“That’s why Skid Row is so powerful,” she said. “You’re handing someone a sandwich and shaking their hand and talking to them. You have a little picture of what’s going on. You see all of it. You’re getting out of your world.”

For more information about The Laundry Truck LA, fund-raising efforts and the Dolan Handmade workshops, visit shopdolan.com.

[suburbanmen]

A gentleman came by and gave me these stickers and asked for a donation to help feed the homeless. How could I say no? . #SuburbanMen #experience #u2 #u2thejoshuatree2017 #rosebowl #concert #rockandroll #joshuatree #joshuatreetour2017 #bono #theedge #pasadena #music #rockmusic #ireland #agameoftones #experiencelife #liveconcert #livemusic #lovemyjob #goodvibes #musicislife #thelumineers #wanderlust #guitar #guitarplayer (at Rose Bowl Stadium)

[lineageblog]

Stories of Skid Row

Street Symphony players set the tone for a novel look at homelessness.

While living on Skid Row, Pamela Walls had a realization: “Homeless people are like flowers and need to be watered with encouragement.” Her encouragement came from supportive programs including the Urban Voices Project, led by Leeav Sofer.

In Spring, 2017, this group was invited by Lineage Performing Arts Center and Street Symphony to participate in a joint venture called “Stories of Skid Row.” Lineage dancers, led by Hilary Thomas, interpreted the original stories of homeless and formerly homeless men and women, accompanied by musicians who brought the compositions of David Stern, John Guth, and Reena Esmail to life.

This moving exploration of homelessness took audience members, including Avi, by surprise. “Whatever struggles you have in life,” Avi realized, “you don’t have them” after hearing these stories. “It makes you appreciate what you have.”

Another audience member named Erica was happy to see “so many smiles.” She said, “I feed off other people’s emotions. This was so inspiring.”

Pamela and fellow performers echoed the sentiment. By performing with Lineage, Pamela said, “we not only sing, we have dance too. It’s such a privilege to bring this artistic picture to an audience, and it helps us open up more about our lives. It helps therapeutically,” and it lessens the stigma of homelessness. On Skid Row, she explained, “people get master’s degrees and find their dream jobs. Like Monarch butterflies emerging from cocoons, Skid Row has many butterflies that fly up and away, reclaiming goals.” With supportive programs on Skid Row, Pamela wrote a thesis entitled “A Dream Deferred Dreams Bigger,” and she reclaimed her dream of being an actress.

A fellow Urban Voices performer named Simone Neal said that the support she gets “helps me to continue on in my music. It keeps me going. I love these guys.”

The Urban Voices Project began as a partnership of the John Wesley Community Health Institute and the Colburn School of Music. Lineage Performing Arts Center and Street Symphony hosted an entire series of “Stories that Move Us,” made possible in part by the City of Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division. 

In addition to featuring “Stories of Skid Row” and “Stories of Parenthood,” this series concludes with “Stories of Refugees” on Saturday, May 20, and “Stories of Identity: Gender and Sexuality” on Sunday, May 21, 2017. Tickets are sold at https://www.lineagepac.org/.

—H.P. Bhaskaran, May 2017

[yes-dal456]

My Mom Is My Hero

My mom was always there. From the very beginning of my life, to the darkest days of my addiction, she believed in me. Whether things were good or they were horrible, she was with me. She was the one who took me to my first political rally, when I was only 10. She was my first photographer at public events: the photo credit to “Barbara Hampton” is my mom. When I was homeless, she’d find me wherever I was and bring me a home cooked meal so that I wouldn’t be hungry. This Mother’s Day weekend, I’m reflecting on the incredible gift of my mom’s love. I don’t believe that I would have survived heroin addiction without her.

After my dad died in 2001, my mom raised my sisters and me by herself. When my prescription pill addiction upped the ante and suddenly the Oxycontin wasn’t enough, my mother watched me descend into IV heroin use. I was an active user for over a decade. In that time, I lost jobs, burned the bridges I’d built in my career, and was always broke. I ended up homeless and begging friends to let me stay on their couches. I was a mess. My mental illness, substance use disorder, completely controlled me. Through it all, my mother continued to show up for me, sometimes when I least expected it.

She’s been a public school teacher for more than three decades, and she’s still working. She’s tough, for sure, but I tested all of her limits. Fortunately, my mom is a really spiritual, grounded person, and she was able to draw strength from her faith. She had no road map for what my addiction put us through. She was my social worker, my case manager, and my mental health advocate. I’m lucky she did that for me. “Tough love” is supposed to be the way to deal with people who struggle with addiction. What does that mean? “Tough love” to me sounds like “brutal honesty.” It’s a contradiction. How can you be tough and still turn your only son away? For someone like me, that approach wouldn’t work, and my mom knew it. She wasn’t a doormat, though. My mother had boundaries, like not giving me money when she knew I was going to buy drugs with it. I wasn’t allowed in the house. She sometimes took breaks from me. She didn’t answer the phone every time, or cosign my long, rambling conspiracy theories. But she never shut me out. Even when she didn’t know what to do, she’d pray with me. She was tough, and she loved me, but she never stopped being there for me.

Of all the people in my life, my mom knows me best. She knew that there was more to me than my addiction, and she knew that there was hope for my recovery – even when I doubted it myself.

Other people advised my mother to use “tough love” to try to get me to shape up. I’m so glad she didn’t take that advice. Anyone who’s dealt with people whose substance use disorder is advanced as mine was knows that threats, hard limits, and ultimatums don’t always have the desired effect. In fact, they can actually drive people further into isolation. In a time when less than 10% of people with substance use disorder actually seek treatment, shutting the door isn’t the way to help someone. I can’t imagine how much my mother suffered, watching me struggle with this illness. What I do know is that, when I needed her most, she was by my side.

At the end of my drug use, I was fortunate enough to get into a treatment center in Pasadena, California. I didn’t have insurance or money: I got into that rehab after 30 days of frantically calling publicly funded treatment centers. I was broke, sick, and worn out from my heroin use. I’d had enough. But how would I make it to Pasadena? I was able to get almost enough money together for the treatment I desperately needed. I was a few dollars short. I called my mom and told her my story. She didn’t have to believe me – why should she believe anything I said? We’d been through this a dozen times already. But when I explained that I was going to treatment, she helped pay for the medical attention I needed.

What amazes and inspires me is how many other mothers of people facing addiction continue to stand by them, too. Our moms support us, give us second chances, and help us out when nobody else can. Many of the stories featured on the Voices Project are told by moms just like mine. They didn’t give up on their kids – even when things looked impossible, beyond hope. When I read the stories of these moms, and all they’ve been through to help their children make it into recovery, I can only believe that the love between a mother and child is the strongest thing in the universe. It’s stronger than addiction. My mother’s love for me saved my life.

I’m proud of you, son. Those words mean more to me than any of my other accomplishments. In recovery, I’ve not only rebuilt my self esteem, self worth, and sense of self respect. One of the biggest blessings of my recovery is that I’ve gotten even closer with my mother. And she’s gotten her son back. I call her every couple of days, just to catch up. My mom turned 70 this year. My hope is that she’ll never see me relapse, or go through the hell of addiction again. My gift to her this Mother’s Day is my sobriety. I can do this because she didn’t give up on me when I was so sick and scared and alone.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thank you for giving me life – twice.

I couldn’t have done it without you.

Ryan Hampton is an outreach lead and recovery advocate at Facing Addiction, a leading nonprofit dedicated to ending the addiction crisis in the United States.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2q9acLd from Blogger http://ift.tt/2pszODH

[imreviewblog]

My Mom Is My Hero

My mom was always there. From the very beginning of my life, to the darkest days of my addiction, she believed in me. Whether things were good or they were horrible, she was with me. She was the one who took me to my first political rally, when I was only 10. She was my first photographer at public events: the photo credit to “Barbara Hampton” is my mom. When I was homeless, she’d find me wherever I was and bring me a home cooked meal so that I wouldn’t be hungry. This Mother’s Day weekend, I’m reflecting on the incredible gift of my mom’s love. I don’t believe that I would have survived heroin addiction without her.

After my dad died in 2001, my mom raised my sisters and me by herself. When my prescription pill addiction upped the ante and suddenly the Oxycontin wasn’t enough, my mother watched me descend into IV heroin use. I was an active user for over a decade. In that time, I lost jobs, burned the bridges I’d built in my career, and was always broke. I ended up homeless and begging friends to let me stay on their couches. I was a mess. My mental illness, substance use disorder, completely controlled me. Through it all, my mother continued to show up for me, sometimes when I least expected it.

She’s been a public school teacher for more than three decades, and she’s still working. She’s tough, for sure, but I tested all of her limits. Fortunately, my mom is a really spiritual, grounded person, and she was able to draw strength from her faith. She had no road map for what my addiction put us through. She was my social worker, my case manager, and my mental health advocate. I’m lucky she did that for me. “Tough love” is supposed to be the way to deal with people who struggle with addiction. What does that mean? “Tough love” to me sounds like “brutal honesty.” It’s a contradiction. How can you be tough and still turn your only son away? For someone like me, that approach wouldn’t work, and my mom knew it. She wasn’t a doormat, though. My mother had boundaries, like not giving me money when she knew I was going to buy drugs with it. I wasn’t allowed in the house. She sometimes took breaks from me. She didn’t answer the phone every time, or cosign my long, rambling conspiracy theories. But she never shut me out. Even when she didn’t know what to do, she’d pray with me. She was tough, and she loved me, but she never stopped being there for me.

Of all the people in my life, my mom knows me best. She knew that there was more to me than my addiction, and she knew that there was hope for my recovery – even when I doubted it myself.

Other people advised my mother to use “tough love” to try to get me to shape up. I’m so glad she didn’t take that advice. Anyone who’s dealt with people whose substance use disorder is advanced as mine was knows that threats, hard limits, and ultimatums don’t always have the desired effect. In fact, they can actually drive people further into isolation. In a time when less than 10% of people with substance use disorder actually seek treatment, shutting the door isn’t the way to help someone. I can’t imagine how much my mother suffered, watching me struggle with this illness. What I do know is that, when I needed her most, she was by my side.

At the end of my drug use, I was fortunate enough to get into a treatment center in Pasadena, California. I didn’t have insurance or money: I got into that rehab after 30 days of frantically calling publicly funded treatment centers. I was broke, sick, and worn out from my heroin use. I’d had enough. But how would I make it to Pasadena? I was able to get almost enough money together for the treatment I desperately needed. I was a few dollars short. I called my mom and told her my story. She didn’t have to believe me – why should she believe anything I said? We’d been through this a dozen times already. But when I explained that I was going to treatment, she helped pay for the medical attention I needed.

What amazes and inspires me is how many other mothers of people facing addiction continue to stand by them, too. Our moms support us, give us second chances, and help us out when nobody else can. Many of the stories featured on the Voices Project are told by moms just like mine. They didn’t give up on their kids – even when things looked impossible, beyond hope. When I read the stories of these moms, and all they’ve been through to help their children make it into recovery, I can only believe that the love between a mother and child is the strongest thing in the universe. It’s stronger than addiction. My mother’s love for me saved my life.

I’m proud of you, son. Those words mean more to me than any of my other accomplishments. In recovery, I’ve not only rebuilt my self esteem, self worth, and sense of self respect. One of the biggest blessings of my recovery is that I’ve gotten even closer with my mother. And she’s gotten her son back. I call her every couple of days, just to catch up. My mom turned 70 this year. My hope is that she’ll never see me relapse, or go through the hell of addiction again. My gift to her this Mother’s Day is my sobriety. I can do this because she didn’t give up on me when I was so sick and scared and alone.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thank you for giving me life – twice.

I couldn’t have done it without you.

Ryan Hampton is an outreach lead and recovery advocate at Facing Addiction, a leading nonprofit dedicated to ending the addiction crisis in the United States.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2pspD2d