MENTAL HEALTH COALITION IN PINELLAS COUNTY
History was made in Florida in March 1999 when uniformed patrol sheriff’s deputies and police officers completed the state’s first-ever 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for Law Enforcement Officers course in how to properly and professionally respond to all calls pertaining to persons with mental illness in crisis. In communities throughout the United States, persons with mental illness often have encounters with law enforcement officers. Sometimes these turn into “fatal encounters” for the officer, the mentally ill person, or an innocent by-stander. As mental hospitals close and jails are overcrowded with the mentally ill, little seems to be done to improve the situation by government services at any level.
In July 1997, the Mental Health Coalition (MHC), of Pinellas County, Florida, was developed. This working-group comprised of mental health providers, consumers, practitioners, government officials, representatives from the law enforcement community and other interested parties focuses on developing a jail-diversion and prevention program. Since the police are the first to come into contact with a person with a mental illness in crisis, it is imperative to have someone who is trained to remain calm and contain the situation as opposed to exacerbating it. Learning that most officers receive little or no training in how to deal with mental illness, the MHC took the initiative to design, develop and deliver a Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) course.
CIT was tailored for officers who volunteer and function within the mainstream of patrol officer duties, work in the community on a daily basis, respond to calls relating to the mentally ill, and after this specialized training, respond to all calls relating to mental disturbances throughout the entire jurisdiction. Success in developing CIT came as a result of a Community Partnership of families, organizations and academia. It also added an infusion of law enforcement expertise as a guide for the group when encountering procedural roadblocks. Most presenters came from outside the law enforcement community, but they are professionals in the mental health field. The five-day, 40-hour comprehensive course is free.
As a result of the endeavor, several additional counties in Florida have conducted similar training programs under the guidance of the MHC. The 39 affiliates of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) in Florida, and all Department of Children and Families, Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health program offices statewide were made aware of CIT. Presently, more than 300 officers from four counties and 15 different law enforcement agencies in the Tampa Bay area have completed CIT, with another class scheduled for May 2002. CIT has become institutionalized in Pinellas County. MHC is on a mission to have CIT in law enforcement agencies throughout Florida and the nation.
PHYLLIS HOFFMAN
Palm Beach, Florida resident Phyllis Hoffman plays a critical role in her community. Hoffman mobilizes the community to provide housing for adults with mental as well as or in addition to physical disabilities. Hoffman is so passionate about the care of mentally and physically disabled adults, that she founded a nonprofit social service agency, Jewish Residential & Family Service. Though the program is titled “Jewish,” they serve persons of all faiths.
In addition, she is a full-time volunteer for Jewish Residential and Family Services (JRFS) and its parent, Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service. Hoffman has received local and national recognition for her dedication and hard work including awards last year from the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies for “Outstanding Volunteer Service” and the Junior League of the Palm Beaches – Wachovia “Woman Volunteer of the Year” prize.
Hoffman is a dedicated professional who has done everything from write grants to answering phones. She receives no compensation but a full heart. She first came to Alpert JFCS over three years ago when she helped obtain a Quantum Foundation grant of $160,000 to house and supervise disabled adults in a West Palm Beach apartment complex. Her daughter Troy, 38, lives a busy, active life in one of these apartments.
Hoffman and her husband, Timothy, have two other adult children. Several decades ago, when they moved to the area they found no resources for Troy. Her pediatrician even advised her that there was nothing wrong with Troy. Throughout her daughter’s childhood, discouraging doctors told Hoffman Troy would never live on her own.
This situation was more than discouraging, and Hoffman took matters into her own hands. She literally created services so her child could flourish and achieve some measure of independence. In 1974, she created a group home for mentally challenged children in Loxahatchee. One of the neighbors objected, and a controversy erupted. The day before a zoning board was to vote, the house was covered in graffiti. The next day, the house was vetoed, no reason given.
Yet, Hoffman did not give up. She started her own school for Troy and other children and redirected her considerable energies to creating day programs. One of the programs was out of a Lake Worth church, and another was out of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach. One program started with five students from Kindergarten through twelfth grade, and by the following May the program had 150 students. Phyllis also was instrumental in creating a special live-in school in Broward County, Florida.
With the help of Alpert Jewish Family and Children’s Service and the Quantum Foundation, Phyllis Hoffman was able to fulfill a special dream. Now, because of her tireless effort, Palm Beach County has two new group homes and dozens of apartments with 24-hour supervision and loving care for disabled adults. These men and women are now able to lead lives of relative independence.
JOSEPH MURTAGH, JR.
Joseph Murtagh, Jr.’s community service began in 1974 when he chaired a Wa1kathon for the Middletown Jaycees that raised $40,000 and provided money for the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (A.H.R.C). Today that program has 25 sites and annually serves 2,000 retarded children with a budget of $20,000,000. After serving as President in 1975, he prepared for and won the New York State Jaycee’s Speak Up Competition Award, and has been a public speaker delivering both informative and motivational community development talks to hundreds of people in a spectrum of organizations, clubs, and youth groups throughout the State.
In the early 90’s his Rotary Club was asked by Rotary International to raise money for a project to eliminate polio from the world. Under Murtagh’s Chairmanship the clubs Polio Plus Project raised over $100,000 and his Goshen Rotary Club was recognized as one of the most outstanding clubs in the world for its support of Polio Plus. In 1995, County Executive Joseph Rampe was initiating 911 for Orange County and encountering resistance. He initiated a County-wide Rotary involvement project supporting 911 and for the first time in the history of Orange County a collaborative effort of all clubs within the County helped to bring about a successful conclusion.
After 20 years of efforts to bring various Chambers within the County together, Murtagh invited past-presidents of the Chamber to a brainstorming forum to identify methods and strategies, as well as obstacles and challenges preventing these chambers from merging. One and half years later the Chambers of Commerce did merge and the county now has one organization representing the business interest of all.
The county where he lives has four hospitals; each with far more beds than required supporting the population. Murtagh drafted a cooperation proposal to save money and enhance service for everyone and sent it to Board Member of each organization. One year later the four hospitals announced a collaborative agreement and are working together benefiting everyone in the community.
Believing in both youth enrichment and youth at risk programs, Murtagh has been a Big Brother. In 1998 and 1999 he chaired a seven County Rotary Districts RYLA Conference (Rotary Youth Leaderships A wards) where he and his committee were responsible for four nights and five days of leadership training for 110 High School Sophomores. Through the Education Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, Murtagh initiated and chaired a drop out prevention program for the 18 School Districts in the County. In 1997, he created a newsletter of positive thinking, problem solving, and thought provoking ideas that he faxes monthly (THINK ABOUT IT) to 255 community leaders, encouraging dialogue and motivating change for the better.
In 1999, Murtagh released his first book, Retirement Investing that has helped hundreds of families achieve higher levels of financial success. In 2000, his second book, America 2000 Enslaved & Dependent, won the endorsement of Congressman Benjamin Gilman.
GENNIFER DAVIS
Gennifer Davis is a youth living in Appalachia. At 13 years of age, Gennifer was searching for a project for her Girl Scout Silver Award. She went to the local community center that serves underprivileged youth to assist them with their library. When Gennifer visited the center, she found it in utter disrepair. The ceilings were leaking, there were holes in the floor, and the ceiling tiles were falling. Their library was filled with books that were water damaged. She realized that providing books would not solve the problem the center was facing.
Gennifer completed another community service for her Silver Award, but she could not stop thinking about the community center, so Gennifer called her friends to help. They cleaned and painted the center. She was so excited about that bit of progress that she called the city for help, and they installed gutters and downspouts to stop the leaks. In addition to that, they paid to fix the floor. Gennifer and her helpers then went through the library and threw out the damaged books. They painted the library and received a donation from Emily Douglas of Grandma’s Gifts. They provided a truckload of books so the library could be restocked. Gennifer then held a penny drive to purchase pictures and beanbag chairs to decorate the library. She also received donations of two computer systems with color printers and scanners from Hewlett Packard and a set of encyclopedias from Britannica. Gennifer also convinced Sharon Davis to take on the director’s position at the center to ensure the youth were provided with quality programs, guidance, and the direction they needed.
Gennifer organized a group of friends to help a disabled neighbor. The volunteer work crew scraped off old paint and repainted her home. They replaced her roof and installed a fence. The supplies were purchased as a result of fundraising events organized by Gennifer.
Gennifer attended the National Youth Summit in Orlando this past year. When she returned home, she had a desire to motivate the youth of her community. Gennifer turned her passion into Focused Organized Resourceful Compassionate Energized Youth (FORCE), which is a volunteer youth program. FORCE has 22 members who are available to provide service projects throughout the year, be a voice for youth in their community, and to research philanthropy so they can continue to provide resources to other youth who want to make a difference in their community. Gennifer organized a local youth summit called Something to Say Yes To! and they worked with FORCE on Make a Difference Day.
GREG FORBES SIEGMAN
After graduating college at the top of his class, Greg Forbes Siegman walked away from his own lucrative career dreams to spend one year as a substitute schoolteacher in Chicago’s public schools. Two months into teaching, on March 8, 1997, Greg ran into two of his African-American students and took them for milkshakes. When the kids were treated poorly by a nearby customer, Greg was furious and vowed to return to the restaurant with ten people instead of two. In the process, he had started the BrunchBunch.com Program– bringing adults and students together over brunch on a weekly basis. 243 weeks later, Greg– now 29– had still never missed a single week of BrunchBunch.com. Not even four operations on his feet got in the way (the kids simply pushing him to brunch in a wheelchair). The one year teaching turned into five.
After the first 70 brunches, Greg created The 11-10-02 Foundation. Named after Greg’s 30th birthday and his belief young people can do anything, this 501c3 nonprofit organization oversees BrunchBunch.com and now gives out tens of thousands of dollars a year in grants and scholarships at their annual ShakingUpChicago.com Gala thanks to support from the likes of Kinko’s, AT&T Wireless Services, LaSalle National Bank Senior VP Michael W. Kiss, business advisor David Weinbeg, global consulting firm Strategos and the Gordon & Karen Millner Family Foundation. To raise funds– and to prove his principle that everyone and everything in life has value– Siegman has made a practice of selling seemingly ordinary items for extraordinary prices (convincing Nordstrom, for example, to pay $8000 for the piece of a Sprite can and later this year, auctioning off a piece of a baseball and the splinters of his Grandma’s rocking chair). The bulk of the funds raised by 11-10-02 now come from its “Milkshake” Campaign — instead of just taking kids for shakes, Siegman now sells shakes for $7500 apiece (and notes it is a fair price because it comes with a straw).
Greg has still never taken a salary for his efforts– still substitute teaching to this day while also speaking at companies, conferences, colleges and schools around the country. The principle behind ’11-10-02′ that young people are as capable as anyone has been put into practice as well thanks to the efforts of talented interns like Michael Berardini of Lake Forest High School, Kris Ekdahl of Latin School, Katrina Beltran of Loyola University and Naomi Fox of Highland Park.
Greg Forbes Siegman, whose stockbroker dad named him after the magazine, said he could not have made the foundation a success without his parents’ (unwitting) support. He joked, “Every year, my Dad sends me the Crain’s Book of Lists in the hope that I’ll go work for one of the CEOs featured inside of it. And every year, I end up convincing those CEOs to come volunteer with The 11-10-02 Foundation. It’s been a huge boost to our efforts.”
Jokes aside, Siegman insists that while his parents do wish he was more concerned with IPOs than SATs, they still remain the two most supportive people he knows and uses the lessons they taught him daily. He said, “My dad taught me that an investor invests not just in companies but in the people who are part of them. He also taught me that return is a function of risk. I never wanted to follow the Forbes family’s footsteps or for that matter, my dad’s, but in the end, ironically enough, in trying so hard to carve out my own path, I’ve ended up doing exactly what they do — investing in people– and in the process, I discovered my Dad was right– the risk may be greater when you invest in something or someone in whom nobody else believes– but the return is too.”
In a fitting irony, Siegman now even consults his Dad on the stock market but notes “some things will probably never change. He still ignores me when (CNN Anchor) Lou Dobbs is talking.”
For more information about Greg and The 11-10-02 Foundation, go to www.ShakingUpChicago.com
THOMAS TURNER
Thomas Turner has been an active community volunteer for over 45 years. At the age of 86, he devotes an average of 40 hours per week to helping seniors and young people in the Greater Cincinnati area and his local community, Georgetown.
A former professional baseball player with the Negro League’s Chicago American Giants, Turner began his public service in the 1960’s by organizing and coaching title-winning girls’ softball teams. His expert advice helped start more than 300 women’s slow-pitch teams.
Leveraging his relationships with former Negro League baseball players, Turner provided the leadership that helped form Seniors With A Purpose (SWAP). SWAP, made up of a local group of noted Negro League players, bridges community gaps with youth through participation in the lives of seniors. SWAP members seek to share their experiences and pass on the historical wisdom that made them successful. Members are active, signing on for speaking engagements, personal appearances and baseball clinics at elementary, junior and senior high schools, colleges, churches and civic organizations.
Turner holds a special place in his heart for the seniors in nursing homes. He volunteers weekly at the Villa and Locust Ridge nursing homes, leading the seniors in entertaining activities, poetry readings, sing-a-longs, and Bible trivia games. An accomplished cook, Turner makes special desserts for the seniors and often invites them to his home for dinner. Turner brings the generations together by enlisting Georgetown High School students to push wheelchairs for disabled seniors at the annual Brown County Fair. A man who likes to stay busy, Turner finds time to head up the Brown County Alzheimer’s Fundraiser and Annual Memory Walk.
Turner was born in Olive Branch, Tennessee, but grew up in Glendale, Ohio and lived most of his adult life in Cincinnati. He attended Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, on a football scholarship. Turner has been admitted to the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Said Turner: “I feel blessed to be able to perform small acts of kindness that can brighten a few minutes of someone’s day. Spending time talking, teaching and learning with both the young and the old gives me a new perspective from which to view the cycle of life. I’m honored to be among those recognized by the Points of Light Foundation.”
ORANGE HATS
Some of the toughest neighborhoods in the country are those that are located in large inner-city urban areas. Citizens of these neighborhoods are often portrayed in the media as apathetic in the fight against crime and, in some cases, even sympathetic to those perpetrating the crimes. However, in some communities, angry citizens once polarized by the fear of crime have discovered a new tool to take back their streets. Their discovery coupled with a renewed resolve to fight back is one reason that crime rates across the country have diminished in recent years.
These brave men and women have found that by working together in groups to patrol their streets, they can deter crime. The largest of the organized citizen patrol groups is the Orange Hats, known for the orange baseball caps they wear as a sign of solidarity. Founded in 1988 by Ed Johnson in the Fairlawn section of Southeast Washington, DC, the Orange Hats have grown through replication throughout the District of Columbia and in communities across the country. Each Orange Hat group consists of 5-50 members who band together to walk the streets of their community during the evening enough to deter crime, they often do much more than just walk. They utilize camcorders to videotape drug dealers, write down the license plates of suspicious cards and stay in constant contact with walkie-talkies and cell phones.
While Johnson is acknowledged as the founder of the Orange Hats, Jim Foreman is generally given credit for popularizing and expanding the idea. Foreman was a member of Johnson’s patrol and as word of the Orange Hats’ success spread, other neighborhoods asked for assistance in initiating similar groups. Thanks to the efforts of Foreman, Eleanor Hill and many other leaders of this movement, more than 250 Orange Hat patrol groups across the country have been formed. Foreman often travels when he is requested to do so by concerned citizens interested in forming an Orange Hat patrol.
One example of his travels is a recent trip to El Paso, Texas, where at the request of the Justice Department, Foreman met with a group of citizens and provided them with the training they need to form a patrol group. Today, although there is no official count, membership in Orange Hat patrols is estimated to number more than 14, 000.
The Orange Hats have not yet put an end to crime, but they have made a difference in their own neighborhoods by discouraging drug dealing and crime in general. The citizens of Washington owe a debt of gratitude to Jim Foreman and to all those patrol group members who are making the effort to take back their streets.
SONDRA CLARK
Sondra Clark has published two books, is a motivational speaker, and has her own line of craft projects at the ripe old age of 11 years old. She has always been motivated to use her skills and abilities to help children in less fortunate situations. Sondra has utilized unique and creative ways to raise money and support other children who are in need.
At eight years old, Sondra penned her first book, Craft Fun with Sondra. Sondra tried to teach some children crafts and realized they did not now how to use a bottle of glue or take off marker caps. She wrote the craft book after deciding she wanted to financially support Bethany Adoption Services. Due to the book sales, she has donated more than $2,000 to Bethany. Sondra wrote her second book at the age of nine and the proceeds from that book went to Childcare International. To date, Sondra has donated over $3,500 to them. For more information on Sondra’s craft work, visit Sondra’s craft site.
Childcare International requested Sondra be a “spokeschild” for their organization. She speaks at schools, churches, and conferences where she gives information about the organization. Sondra also asks those at the conferences to sponsor a child for $25 per month. She was able to visit Africa and see first-hand what other children have to go through every day. Several villages she visited had no electricity or running water. Children go to school from 8:00 to 5:00 and have dirt floors, no electricity, and few school supplies. Sondra saw a village where half of the community was infected with AIDS. She also saw a shack where three young boys live alone because both of their parents died of the disease.
Sondra was able to teach games, songs, and interact with hundreds of children. She even held a little baby whose father had died and mother was dying of AIDS. Sondra collected 140 t-shirts from her school friends before her trip. She took them to Africa and gave the children an opportunity to “shop” for clothing. The group set up a pretend store and allowed the children to have their choice of clothing and select a t-shirt on their own. Sondra also visited an orphanage run by Childcare International. There, one woman cooks three meals a day for more than 100 children using only a few pots over an open fire.
Sondra is an example for her peers and adults as well. She also gives motivational speeches at schools and conferences. She writes articles for magazines about the importance of volunteering, and she is a part of an on-going project that will provide aid for children in Haiti, India, and Africa.
VOLUNTEER SERVICES PROGRAM AT METHODIST REHABILITATION CENTER
Patients at Methodist Rehabilitation Center deal with the effects of stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. One of the goals of rehabilitation is to help the patient return to his/her former life, and a job is a vital step in that process.
There are currently 100 volunteers in the volunteer program. As volunteers talk about their volunteer experiences to others they encounter, others come to join in helping people with disabilities realize that they can do almost anything they did before their trauma.
One of the volunteers is now retired from her position as Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and gives her time to visit patients and explain to them the options open to them in the work place. She assists them with finding a job suitable for them when they leave the hospital. This type of one-on-one help would be too expensive for most patients, but they receive this assistance at no charge thanks to the volunteer program.
The volunteer program has been in place since the hospital opened in 1975, and they are a permanent organization. The volunteers make a difference in patients’ lives by reading, writing letters, delivering mail and newspapers, pushing wheelchair patients to occupational, physical and respiratory therapy, celebrating patients’ birthdays, and many other acts each day.
A serious social problem for people with disabilities is filling their time after they leave the hospital. One of the ways volunteers have helped solve this problem in an innovative way is with art lessons for patients. A volunteer artist and volunteer art teacher met with patients to teach basic skills. Another volunteer donated frames so that each participant could have a piece of their artwork framed to take with them when they went home. Some patients have discovered talent and ability that they had no idea they possessed. They gain a hobby and possibly even a source of income.
As volunteers help to change the attitudes of individual patients, their families, and their friends, community attitudes will also gradually change. When helping a patient eat, the volunteers show with words and body language that it is their privilege to help with this most basic of human needs. In small increments, these volunteers are changing in the minds of individuals.
PAUL BALES-2
Paul Bales’service to the people of Blount County, Tennessee began when he was just a child. He is employed with The Daily Times , and his service continues today. His first service project at age six was picking strawberries. He was paid two cents a cup, and Bales used the earnings to buy cookies for residents of the near-by Blount County Poor Farm. He loves animals, and he would also take his dog around for people to pet and enjoy while he passed out cookies.
When Bales was seven, he learned to hop the trains that passed through the County. There he saw hobos, and he soon began taking food to those he met along the way. Bales’ service has taken other forms since he has matured, but the results are the same. He feeds the hungry, helps those who are cold gain shelter or warmth, and the lonely are blessed with fellowship.
Paul Bales has been chairman of the Empty Pantry Fund, which is an organization that buys and delivers food to the needy of Blunt County during the holidays, for the past 43 years. He oversees the annual budget, which was $62,000 in 2001 and coordinates the activities of the 1,500 volunteers in the program. More than 100 million pounds of food have been distributed. The number of baskets has grown from 50 in his first year as chairman to 1,400 this past year. Each of the baskets contains enough food to feed a family of four for over a week.
Bales also initiated Coats for the Cold and served as its chairman in 1997 and 1998. Because of his efforts, over 1,000 coats were donated and then given to those in need. He paid all advertisement, building space rental, and other incidental expenses. In 1999, Bales also created a similar program in 1999, which distributed over 18,000 baby items to those in need. He also paid the expenses for this program.
In 1994, Bales founded Operation Big Yellow. This is a safety check of local school buses prior to the beginning of the school year set up to ensure the children’s safety. The state of Tennessee provides the safety check forms, but Bales pays the expenses. He did not stop there; in 1995 he chaired an event that raised over $26,000 to buy car child restraints for families who could not afford them. He also helped raise funds for the Boys Club of Blount County and helped organize the first Teen Safe Driving Club in the county. As chairman of the Maryville Kiwanis Carnival for over 25 years, Bales has been instrumental in raising more than $100,000 to be used in local youth programs.
Senior citizens have also benefited from Bales’ service. He has paid for refreshments and entertained more than 100 people at Broadway Towers, which is a housing unit for the elderly. Paul Bales has served them since 1999. In addition, he initiated Protect the Ones that Serve. This is a program that involves providing bulletproof vests for local law enforcement personnel. He led the effort to raise $26,000 to fund the cost of the vests.
