We have a problem at the Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter in northeast Wyoming.
I worked there for a year as the second-in-command, and the director had me team up with her during most of her conversations with shelter residents throughout the year of 2007.
I watched her condescend to our residents, create almost universal fear of being kicked out among them, and encroach on their personal lives when they were away from the shelter, all in the name of "helping them stay on their program."
People were kicked out for no defensible (and sometimes no defineable) reason.
I was put in the position of defending our homeless residents against the director and one of the staff (who saw a drug addict in every new resident).
I found the whole ordeal very unpleasant, undignified and offensive.
I was told I was "too close" to our homeless guests, and when I had a casual conversation with one of them, the director told me I was "counseling," and that I should "leave that up to mental health."
I was fired a couple of days before Christmas.
I raised these concerns to the board of Volunteers of America, which replied in The Sheridan Press through its vice-president, that there was "nothing to" my concerns.
The homeless in and around our community deserve much better than this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I give you a lot of credit for writting this and exposing what really goes on behind closed doors to the public. An organization like the VOA should follow its core values to help a person and not hold a person's weakness against them by any means. The homeless people and even those down on their luck need a place for help, not a place to be be-littled. I would really like to see these people in charge making $90,000 a year, driving their fancy cars, and in power over someone else, have a time in their life when they need this kind of help be treated in the same manner that they treat others, just so then they would really know how to treat someone at times.
Kurt
Kurt, thanks for the nod from you. As I get older, I appreciate every one of them. There are many ways to be dismayed or frustrated by the way things are run. I wish it was better ... hoping to make it so by pressure from the outside. Still sleeping well. Hope you are the same! TIM
Post a Comment