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Resource Report 7 - Lewis County Gospel Mission · Resource Report

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Hello and welcome to Resource Report where we share with you important information about
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local nonprofits and resource organizations that support the community we share produced
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by Pathways to Agency.
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I am your host Rainmaker.
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Today's show features Rollin Carl, the Executive Director of the Lewis County Union Gospel
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Mission.
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I am here in Lewis County Gospel Mission with Executive Director Rollin.
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You introduce yourself to us Rollin.
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Rollin Carl.
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And I'm from Montecino, Washington.
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And I've been here at the mission for just shy of two years now as the Executive Director.
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It's been a minute then.
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So Rollin, can you tell me what's the history of this place?
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Sure, the mission was originally started in 1996 as a resource for people coming out of
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incarceration at Lewis County Jail.
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That was their primary objective at that point.
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They operated out of a little one bedroom house that they had a hot dog griller that
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they used to serve meals and provide services similar to what we do here but it was specifically
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aimed at the recently incarcerated.
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Since then because of the need for those who are just needy and or homeless, unsheltered
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in Lewis County, it's grown to cover a very broad spectrum of those in that situation
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whether it's financial need, housing, whatever it happens to be.
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Wow, that's really cool.
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And just started, you know, that just goes to prove that you can start small, start with
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what you have, start from where you are, meet people where they are and in time it will
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grow.
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It becomes something big and amazing.
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Oh my god, I'm like getting emotional because it's just so cool.
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Yes, it's amazing the simple start with helping people from coming out of incarceration to
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today where we serve well over 150 people almost every single day and many of those
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again are coming out of incarceration whether it's at the county level or the state level.
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Occasionally, we have people coming out of the juvenile detention, Green Hill or other
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juvenile facilities and we take care of all of them as best we can.
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Okay, and what does that look like, like a kind of a process that people tend to go through
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when they're coming out of incarceration and then coming through here?
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What does that look like?
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We try to actually get on the front end of incarceration so it's basically as soon as
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they're arrested or in court in Lewis County, we try to make contact with them and make
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that contact so now when they come out of incarceration, they have real life mentors
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and people that can help them make that transition back into society.
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We find that it's way more successful than not.
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If we wait until they're actually released, it's too late.
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They have other plans, they're going somewhere else.
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So our staff tries to run all the way through that from arrest to incarceration to release
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standpoint, so we have a relationship with them, we know what their needs are.
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As soon as they come out, they will either come here, we routinely go to the jail when
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they're coming back from the state institutions and pick them up there, they will come in
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here, we'll help them get some basic necessities, clothing, food, that kind of thing for enough
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for at least a couple of days.
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Hopefully by that time we've set up with WorkSource or the community college to get them, you
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know, WorkSource for jobs and then the community college for advanced education, some of them
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even GED.
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We also work real closely with drug and alcohol recovery and mental health facilities so that
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when they come out, they're set up to be as successful as it's humanly possible for them
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to be.
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That's so wonderful.
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It's you know, going into such a traumatic environment and situation as incarceration,
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knowing right away that you've got somebody supporting you, that is so huge because just
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it's a worse hell than where they were before that and it's like you're providing another
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option that they know about right away.
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We try to provide a road to recovery and wholeness so that they can be reunited with family and
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community they've left behind.
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We've often worked real closely in getting them reunited with separated family children
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that have been disenfranchised, you know, that kind of thing and it's actually pretty
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successful, way more successful than the traditional.
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You go in, you serve your time, the doors clang behind you when you're released and
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there's no support system out there or anybody who even cares in many cases.
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Unfortunately that still happens in a lot of situations.
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We're one of 18 organizations around the state that actually tries to intervene with that
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and informally.
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So it's a very encouraging process.
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That's wonderful.
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Yeah, the campaign to transform the landscape of incarceration in this country has been
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ongoing and continues.
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And I feel like we're gaining strength, we who support that kind of structure.
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Things are changing, I believe it.
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Yeah, we're confident in it and I think the approach we've taken of being proactive is
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foundational to making it actually successful so people can be successful when they come
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out.
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They can feel like they're returning as a valued member of community.
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Without that, the success rate is like zero.
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So yeah.
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All right.
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So tell me please about the different services.
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You've mentioned briefly some of it, but can you go through that a little more clearly?
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We are primarily a day shelter and meals service organization.
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So we provide day shelter from 630 until 2 every day for folks, irregardless of weather
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or whatever.
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We're open during those hours.
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We serve two meals a day, a breakfast and a lunch, breakfast at 8 o'clock and lunch
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at 12 noon.
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On the weekends we serve a single meal at 9 brunch and then we have all sorts of other
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services that we provide.
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We have a shower so folks can get a shower Monday through Friday.
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We have restrooms they can use including a full handicap accessible restroom.
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I should mention our shower is also fully handicap accessible.
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We have a clothing room and folks can get a complete change of clothing once a week.
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And then if there are special circumstances we make, if they've lost their clothing in
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a flood or whatever, we get them clothing.
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Or if they're going for a job interview, we will get them more than the once a week.
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If they're getting a shower and it has been less than a week we get them clean clothes
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to put on when they get a shower.
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We also have a food pantry.
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It's a little different from a food bank.
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We are not allowed to be a food bank because we serve meals.
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Don't ask me why but somebody made that decision.
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So we can assist people with enough for a single meal out of our pantry.
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And they can do that every day.
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But we don't give out food boxes like for a family or whatever.
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They're not allowed to.
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Isn't there a Lewis County Gospel Mission Food Bank also?
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There's a Lewis County Food Bank.
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We partner with them and they are able to give out, in fact do give out food boxes to
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community members that qualify.
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Okay, okay.
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Thanks for clarifying that because when you look it up on Google Maps there's both of
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them.
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One is just the mission and one says food pantry behind it.
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Yes, yes.
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We get confused quite often.
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And there is quite a misconception that we're an actual food bank.
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But it's kind of a nomenclature issue because we do provide food but we don't qualify as
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a federally sourced food bank.
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So it's just a fine line between the two.
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Yeah, that's important clarifications for people to know.
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That's not maybe common knowledge.
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What else have you got?
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You talked about the clothing and showers.
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What about the Bible studies?
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We have Bible studies actively three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at
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nine o'clock.
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We have a couple of different groups that come in and lead those.
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Anyone is welcome, not just the people that we serve but anyone from community that wants
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to come in and join them is very welcome to do that.
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We try to be very centered and not too radically one way or the other as far as presenting
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the gospel, sometimes that's a real temptation.
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We try to be respectful of a whole slew of different denominational, theological backgrounds
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and respect them all.
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Like I say, anyone is welcome to join and have a lively discussion.
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And then you have the jail ministry.
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Yes, that's actively part of the reentry program.
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They kind of intertwine with each other in the jail.
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Our two staff people that are involved with the reentry are also chaplains at the jail,
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which has given us a great boots on the ground kind of access to that.
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It's not easy to get that and to get the confidence of the local authorities to be allowed to
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do it.
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We've been very successful here in Luce County.
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You're right on.
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So you have a long list of current needs that are listed on the website that people can
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go and look up.
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Yes.
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Can you just name a few of those?
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Well, we're always needing men's and women's size clothing in smaller sizes.
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Our people that we serve tend to be more slender than the average person in our population.
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So the smaller women's and in particular smaller men's from 30 inch waist to 34 and 36 inch
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waist size for trousers and men's and the mediums, shirts and jackets and that kind
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of thing.
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Always in need of those.
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We go through them like quite often out of what we need to take care of our guests.
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So in the clothing it's that and then underwear, both men's and women's adult underwear, again
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in the smaller sizes are a constant need.
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Right at the moment we're really good on socks, but that isn't always the case.
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Quite often we are out and scrambling to find enough socks for everybody.
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Never turn down socks.
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No, never turn down socks.
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Never ever ever.
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And then the other thing would be just cold weather clothing this time of year.
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Coats, jackets, sweatshirts, rain gear.
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We get quite a few requests for it that we just don't get enough of it in to take care
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of folks.
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So rain gear is always always always welcome.
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If it's in the summer we put it out in the dry storage and make it available in the wet
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and rainy weather.
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In the kitchen we're always looking for staples.
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Things like milk and eggs, butter.
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We do have an excess of cheese right at the moment, but generally we would need cheese
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but that's an exception right now.
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Potatoes are always again a staple that we go through a lot of.
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Let's see was there anything else?
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Oh sugar.
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Sugar is a huge one in our kitchen.
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Coffee.
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Coffee, coffee.
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We go through on an average two to two and a half sometimes three of the big five pound
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cans of coffee every single day.
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I believe it.
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Yes, yes.
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Coffee, yeah.
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We have a five gallon coffee urn out there that gets refilled five, six times during
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the day.
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Year round.
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It does seem to matter.
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Do y'all like aside from just like people bringing stuff like community members bringing
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y'all donations, do y'all get any big donations or small donations, food, anything from like
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say I don't know thrift stores or other corporations.
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Y'all are across the street from Dairy Gold.
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We used to get a lot of mention Dairy Gold.
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We used to get a lot of donations from right across the street from the plant.
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Their corporate, they had a corporate reorganization about a year and a half ago and they no longer
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do that.
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Occasionally they will bring stuff over that's part of the overproduction on their line,
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but we don't get just the, yeah they were providing us all the milk we ever needed for
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years in the corporate office.
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No, you can't do that anymore.
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Those darn corporate offices.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And I get it.
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They're counting their pennies.
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I don't get it.
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Counting their pennies?
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They have enough pennies.
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They probably do.
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Let's be real.
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I was trying to be really kind and generous there.
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We can be kind, but we can still be real.
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So y'all primarily like focus on people going through incarceration, but you earlier mentioned
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that y'all do like help just like people who need those kind of assistances that aren't
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going through jail.
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Can you talk about that?
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Sure.
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We are always here to help people get, if they need mental health counseling or whatever,
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we have contacts with several of the mental health resources here locally.
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And we have invited all of them to come in and intervene right on the spot with our guests.
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And occasionally they do that.
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And if there's a need for a specific referral sometimes, somebody's really having a bad
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mental health day, we try to encourage them to be involved with somebody that can provide
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those services.
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Most of our staff is actually trained to recognize mental health issues and to be able to at
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least provide some on-site support for them.
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And the same thing goes with the drug and alcohol addictions and those kinds of things.
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We resource with a number of other local resources that can provide inpatient or outpatient treatment
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for that.
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And there's not a day goes by we don't encourage folks to take advantage of those things.
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We'll take them there, we will introduce them, we'll act as their advocate, whatever we need
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to do.
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We'd like to provide those services in-house maybe someday, but for right now we have to
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resource those outside of our facility.
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It's wonderful, y'all actually drive people and take people to appointments and set up
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their appointments and get them going?
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We advocate all day long for folks and get them where they need to be.
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Even if it's just a trip to the bus station or to the adult family services offices to
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get set up with their food stamps or departmental licensing, get their ID card or whatever,
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we're going to do our best to make that happen for them and get them those things.
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We've had folks come in and actually represent the free phone programs with the government.
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That's kind of been in limbo the last month and a half or so.
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We're hoping that can be regenerated.
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There was a distinct lack of availability of the phones and then funding has kind of dried
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up for that.
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We're hoping to get that redone.
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Yeah, okay.
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So do y'all work with legal aid services with them?
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Yes, we do and we can refer them to legal aid, be an advocate again with them at legal
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aid because many of them don't understand the legal processes at all.
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So it's important to have somebody that can say, hey, this is what you need to ask your
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attorney and get that resourced.
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We can actually call whoever has been their attorney is and say, hey, we know this person.
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We might want to pursue this avenue with them.
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Right on.
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And then you said that y'all catch them at the time of arrest.
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How do you do that?
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Since our chaplains, two chaplains are in the jail, they know when those folks come
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in when they're booked into the jail.
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Okay.
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So they're new to the population, they make a contact, they give them a hand out flyer
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that goes to them within the first 24 hours of being in the county jail.
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They get that flyer, here's our services, here's what we can provide for you.
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So they get that right within hours of an arrest.
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So the people stationed there at the jail, that's like, they're working, they're from
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here.
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Right.
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And they just, they go down two or three times a day from here to the jail, do their intake
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at the jail and make those contacts on a daily basis.
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Quite often they're in there giving, doing an assessment for drug or alcohol treatment
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and or an assessment for mental health care.
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And sometimes those visits take half hour, 40 minutes.
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How does the jail receive y'all?
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How do the people at the jail, are they all cool with y'all?
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Do they work with y'all?
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Does anybody give y'all trouble?
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They are very, very appreciative of the contacts we have.
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Lewis County Sheriff's Office and jail staff has been over backwards to help us out and
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make sure that we're getting those folks taken care of.
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I'd like to tell you that the same was true with the Department of Corrections at the
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state level, but not so much.
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So the county works with y'all better than the state.
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What's the deal with the state?
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They have their own reentry program where they have contractors that come in and do
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that.
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The attitude is we're stepping on their toes.
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It's been a difficult row to walk down because there's been a lot of resistance at that level.
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It depends a little bit on the facility, but all of them are kind of resistant.
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You want to be on their home wave list?
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No, you're not going to get on their home wave list.
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Well, we need to be on their home wave list because we're in this reentry program that's
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sponsored by the state of Washington.
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Well, we don't recognize that.
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Well, you're part of the state of Washington.
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Oh my goodness.
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I feel egos going on here.
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So what would you say, like state versus you guys with your program, which has a higher
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success rate?
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Time will tell.
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My personal assessment is that we're going to have way more success than what theirs
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does.
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Theirs doesn't really start until like a month before release, whereas we're involved way
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up front in that program or process.
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It's certainly not as thorough or as in depth as what we do.
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It's more about just providing a service and the numbers of service we provide rather than
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the success rate is kind of what it is.
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We're about success and not necessarily numbers.
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This reminds me of back.
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I want to say it was maybe the BLM COVID times period.
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I don't remember if it was like before that or after that or during that, but I remember
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that there was something I heard about happening in Seattle with like a home.
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There was some homeless camps in Seattle and I don't remember what the organization was,
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unfortunately off the top of my head.
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There was an organization, they were like maybe a nonprofit or a mission or something.
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What they were doing was they were actually going out there and providing services and
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helping the homeless camp people.
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They were actually getting out of homelessness.
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They were getting into recovery.
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The state, the Seattle, the city came in and said, you can't do that.
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That's what we're doing.
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We're doing that.
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You can't do that.
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We won't let you.
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Then they shut them down and then it just got, it just went back to the way it was.
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It kind of feels like a similar thing.
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It's like, are they really trying to help?
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Because it doesn't look like they're really trying to help.
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It looks like they're just like saying that but making it more difficult.
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Is that the feeling that you have to?
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It's a really significant way.
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That's a very accurate way of putting it, yes.
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I've been involved with homelessness and people incarceration for a long time.
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Those organizations historically that are having the best success are those who are
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smaller nonprofits who have a genuine heart for the people and the services.
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As soon as government gets involved with it, that perspective is lost.
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It's more about the money from a contract.
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We had contact with so many, X number of people.
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There's not a consistency of success out the bottom line.
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It's very disheartening.
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Seattle has spent billions of dollars, Seattle and Lewis County and the state of Washington
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in that Seattle metropolitan area to combat homelessness.
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It has been a gross failure in every respect.
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And yet some of the smaller nonprofits have been very successful in being successful at
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recovery and getting mental health resources provided.
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I was reading statistically government run programs tend to be less than 5% long term
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success, meaning less than five years after treatment of still being successful.
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Whereas the smaller nonprofit, especially faith based that have a faith element in their programs
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are as much as 60 to 80% successful.
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It's a significant difference and it's about the attitude and the reason we're doing it.
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It sounds like there's a conflict of alignment.
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There's not a shared vision here between the state or the cities and the nonprofits, organizations
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and the community that are actually providing real support.
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So that's what it makes it feel like that their vision isn't the same.
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I don't know that the vision isn't the same.
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I think people at the state level in politics or whatever, they see the urgency and the
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need so there's money budgeted.
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But going through that budget process and getting it, the smaller nonprofits tend to
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not be able to qualify, meet the standards of providing services.
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So they get left out of that money pool for the most part and so organizations that are
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set up to take advantage of that process then get the monies.
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And quite often those folks don't, it's more about making the money than it is about actually
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helping people recover, helping people deal with their mental health issues and so on.
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And that's not to say all of them are that way because there are quite a few of them.
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There are very genuine people involved on both sides of that card but it just seems
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that there's, for some reason or another, there is a disconnect between what the states
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are providing and what the smaller nonprofits are providing.
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Difference in values more than vision.
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Like here, we are accountable to a small donor base and our donors want to know that we're
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successful.
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Not only that, as a Christian organization we have a responsibility, a moral obligation
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to fulfill the great commission and taking care of people.
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That's commanded in the scriptures.
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So our staff and volunteers, when they come in here, they have that front of mind.
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On the other hand, somebody who's just come out of college, they've got this fancy sociology
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degree and all, may not have that foundational, they may have a heart for taking care of people
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but they don't have that foundation under them to motivate them to do what they do.
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So they're getting a paycheck and they're making money and they're feeling valued because
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of that but they don't have that really fundamental values-based service orientation.
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And there's just a disconnect there.
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And I have to admit, sometimes we have them come in here that have that disconnect too.
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There's a lack of understanding and the understanding is what brings the wisdom to be able to manage
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that appropriately.
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Appropriately, yes, exactly.
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What do you think that the community can do to change this situation with the difference
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the disconnect that we were talking about between the government basically and the nonprofits?
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I think that's a difficult question.
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A lot of it has to do with our economic structure of how we support services for those who are
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in need or unhoused or whatever.
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We've tended in the last 70 years or so to depend on the government to provide those
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services whereas pre-1950 we depended very much on our local, whether it was the church
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or the grange or local organizations to actually provide those what we would call welfare programs.
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Since then our society has shifted to a more government-based, welfare state-based and
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in that process we've lost that sense of ownership of those programs.
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They're out of sight, out of mind, so it's hard for the taxpayer that lives in their
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almost paid-for home on National Avenue in Chehalis, they have a hard time connecting
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with the social services that are being provided.
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I think one of the things that can help people make that connection is to actually volunteer
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in their community.
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I'm a huge advocate of volunteerism.
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Volunteering at our mission is not for everyone, but there are other places that people can
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volunteer that will help you bridge that gap emotionally and mentally to understand what
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the services are.
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Whether it's volunteering in a child care facility is a great example.
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All of those places need volunteers, they're all short-staffed.
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Volunteer at your local hospital, volunteer at the senior center.
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I volunteered as a first responder for years, being a firefighter, EMT, was in law enforcement
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forever.
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Those are great places to get a grasp on why services are the way they are, why they cost
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what they do, and to be connected with community in a different way than just living in a comfortable
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neighborhood, a culto-zac in middle-class America.
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I know a lot of schools are requiring some volunteer community service, I think that's
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actually a state requirement now for graduation in Washington.
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I think that's a great step.
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I love to have my grandkids come in here and see what's going on.
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See people who can't, when we're at a mission, we're dealing with people who can't make decisions
33:29
for themselves on a day-to-day basis, but yet they're homeless on the streets.
33:36
That's a problem.
33:37
Yeah, when you're in a constant state of survival mode through trauma and fear, there's a part
33:44
of your brain that shuts down functioning or reduces that functioning, and you can't
33:51
literally, you don't have the physical brain capacity to navigate those things, especially
34:00
when you have limited options.
34:02
That's absolutely correct from a psychological and physiological standpoint.
34:09
Many of these folks don't have, they've lost that cognitive ability to even just take care
34:15
of basic survival needs.
34:18
They no longer have that capability.
34:20
So they end up sleeping under a bridge or in the back alleyway of a business or someplace
34:26
just to get kind of sort of out of the weather.
34:33
Socially I have a real problem with that.
34:36
I don't think we need to criminalize homelessness or those kinds of things, but I'm absolutely
34:45
convinced as a society we need to do a better job of how we treat those folks.
34:55
And at some point we need to decide there's a particular level of ability to care where
35:00
we need to intervene.
35:02
And right now we say, oh, they have the freedom and the liberty to be out there if they so
35:07
choose.
35:08
Well, they don't have the ability to make that decision on a rational basis.
35:13
So if we wanted to deal with homelessness, we've got to recognize that they can't make
35:17
that decision.
35:19
They cannot rationally make that decision.
35:21
It's called life happens to you.
35:24
And sometimes life happens to you in a way that just makes it really hard to move forward
35:32
in your life.
35:33
Yes, absolutely.
35:34
So do we need to have more halfway houses where they can be, where their behavior and
35:41
their addiction and their mental health can be monitored and say, you know, you can't
35:47
sleep under the bridge, but here's a place where you have some liberties, where you can
35:51
be cared for and people will genuinely care for you.
35:56
The problem with that approach is that it costs money.
36:00
Costs a lot of money.
36:01
Yeah.
36:02
Money seems to be the main problem everywhere.
36:05
It's about money.
36:06
What if we just didn't have money to deal with?
36:08
You know, like maybe that would solve all the problems.
36:12
And to a certain degree, that is right.
36:14
We are the most prosperous individual nation in the world, in world history.
36:20
And we fail miserably in taking care of.
36:23
I remember taking a sociology class when I was in sociology, anthropology class in college
36:30
and the professor said, there are two things that are paramount to a successful society.
36:38
One is how do we take care of infants, children, and the other is how do we take care of senior
36:45
citizens.
36:47
And I would add to that those who are dealing with mental health and addictions.
36:52
How do we take care of those folks?
36:56
We continue to have issues with child abuse.
36:58
We continue to have issues with elder abuse and domestic violence.
37:03
That's not acceptable.
37:05
It's not an acceptable value system where we have those issues.
37:13
Situations like the Oakley-Carlson situation in Oakville, that should never, ever have
37:19
happened.
37:21
And yet, that's just one case of thousands of them nationwide that happen every year,
37:27
every year.
37:28
So where do we say it's socially acceptable to intervene when a parent doesn't have the
37:39
cognitive abilities to properly raise their children?
37:46
And I spent years doing child abuse investigation on a child abuse investigation team in Oregon.
37:55
And one of the frustrating parts of that was judges and courts would treat children as
38:02
property of their parents and gave them the same rights as if they were the lawnmower
38:09
that sat in their yard.
38:11
No, they're not property.
38:15
They are a gift.
38:17
And you have a moral responsibility to take care of them.
38:19
And abusing them isn't one of those responsibilities.
38:22
Sorry, this is not acceptable.
38:25
Do y'all work with any other organizations that also helps incarcerate individuals or
38:32
something like that?
38:34
We haven't actively been involved with that type of organizations.
38:41
We're open to any of them that happen to come across our radar or whatever.
38:45
We've got a whole list of them right now.
38:48
But yeah, there's a lot of folks out there that are doing that kind of things.
38:54
We have worked with, and I don't remember the name of it, there's a local group that
38:58
provides dogs to people coming out of incarceration.
39:02
Dogs?
39:03
Yes, pets, dogs.
39:06
Yeah, and Lenny's had a couple of those folks be involved.
39:12
People need emotional support dogs.
39:13
Yes, they do.
39:14
Yeah.
39:15
Yeah.
39:16
And that's a tough one.
39:18
To give a gift like that of a dog to people coming out of those situations, that's a life
39:25
changing moment for many people.
39:29
We would like to hear, we would like to be significantly more involved with pets.
39:37
Unfortunately, because of the health code regulations and for being a food service,
39:43
we can't allow them in the building unless they're a certified service animal.
39:49
They can't be an emotional support.
39:51
The state won't allow them in as emotional support.
39:56
And we've had people we've had to turn away just because, sorry, can't bring your pet
40:03
in here.
40:04
Again, I was in cons, man.
40:05
Yes, it is.
40:07
Well, you understand that there's health risks with pets.
40:13
Sure.
40:14
But again, where do we draw that line?
40:17
Sure.
40:18
Yeah.
40:19
You were talking about some of your, you have an amazing list of experiences, firefighter,
40:27
working for the police, first responding, like child abuse cases.
40:34
That's an amazing repertoire.
40:37
I totally see how you're an amazing executive director here, having all of that experience
40:41
and wisdom that you've gained.
40:44
So how was it that you came to be the executive director with all of that under your belt?
40:49
It's a long, long story.
40:54
I spent 20 years in full time law enforcement in Oregon.
40:58
I was in the police chief of three different small communities in Oregon, including, and
41:04
this is right after I graduated from college.
41:08
The last community I was the police chief in was Madras, Oregon, when the Rajneesh were
41:13
at, out at the Rajneesh Param Ranch.
41:17
Madras was the closest community of any size to that operation.
41:21
So I was involved with over 3000 homeless people who were bused in on Greyhound in the
41:28
voter fraud scam that they were running.
41:31
And was actively, very actively involved in that.
41:34
I ended up leaving law enforcement.
41:38
There were people that didn't like the fact that I had moral values and standards and
41:43
so on.
41:45
So after fumbling around for a couple of years, I went to work for a major retail corporation,
41:51
traveled part of the time with them all over the Northwest doing audits in their stores.
41:56
And that's when I started volunteering as a volunteer fireman, got my EMT.
42:02
Well, I had actually had my EMT, first got my first EMT certification in 1978.
42:09
And so I'd had an EMT certification for a long time.
42:14
Did the volunteer fire department thing.
42:17
And then in 2014, I retired from Safeway and went to work for the Yakima Union Gospel Mission
42:27
and did their, was their facilities director.
42:31
So I maintained all their facilities.
42:33
We had like 30 different major buildings that we had to maintain.
42:41
We housed as many as 400 people on a night to night basis in the facilities.
42:47
We had a retreat camp up on White Pass that we maintained.
42:51
Very active position and I had a lot of staff and volunteers and so on that we managed there.
42:57
My wife and I, she was the food service director there also.
43:02
We both retired in 2020 and moved to Montesano to be closest to our middle daughter and her
43:09
husband and three kids.
43:11
And then in early spring of 2023, I got a call from the director at the Yakima Mission
43:18
and he said, you know, you've got the skillset and everything.
43:21
I want you to get a hold of the Lewis County Gospel Mission and the rest is history.
43:26
So I've been here.
43:27
I'll be here two years in April.
43:29
Wow.
43:30
Wow.
43:32
My kids are all saying, Dad, you're just not doing a very good job of retirement.
43:37
No, I'm not.
43:38
Yeah, I've had a very colorful career in every place I've gone.
43:45
I've been called an overachiever.
43:47
I don't know, an overachiever.
43:50
I just like to be successful.
43:54
Does that make any sense?
43:55
Yeah, I feel yeah.
43:56
I've been called ambitious before.
44:01
I have friends at the Montesano Police Department that I kind of skipped over, but I worked
44:06
for Homeland Security for a few years, for five years.
44:12
I was a technician or a technical provider.
44:18
And so my friends over there at the Montesano Fire Department where I volunteered have seen
44:24
me do things, jump off of fire trucks and stuff and go places that nobody would do.
44:29
And they say, we know you were a hit man.
44:31
You had to have been a hit man.
44:35
I can't tell you what I did for Homeland Security.
44:37
I can just tell you I was a technician.
44:39
Oh, we've seen the movies.
44:42
We know what technicians do.
44:44
Oh my goodness.
44:45
No, I was not a hit man.
44:47
Never mind.
44:48
That's funny.
44:57
So how do people get involved in different capacities?
45:03
We always have openings here for volunteers.
45:08
Like most nonprofits, we seriously couldn't operate without the volunteers.
45:15
So if somebody's interested, come in, fill out a volunteer application.
45:20
We do have to have a background check on folks because of the clientele.
45:25
And we do have small children that come in here occasionally.
45:29
So we need to kind of be on top of who's in here volunteering.
45:35
The all drug test?
45:37
Not at this point, no.
45:41
We have had a couple of incidences where people have come in intoxicated to help volunteer.
45:50
No, that's not OK.
45:53
We're dealing with people who deal with alcohol abuse every single day.
45:57
So we have to guard against that in our staff and volunteers.
46:02
Drug testing is always a possibility, but that's kind of the last resource we want to
46:09
do.
46:10
And then donations?
46:13
Donations are always, again, welcome financial and or material donations.
46:20
Financial donations historically are on the downward slide because of the economy and
46:27
inflation.
46:29
Donations have definitely not kept up with the inflation rate.
46:32
So the dollar value of what we were getting in donations five years ago is significantly
46:41
less than what it is today.
46:44
And so it's financial donations are always appreciated.
46:49
Material donations, whether it's in the clothing or food or the pantry, are always welcome.
46:56
And there is a list on the web page that they can refer to.
47:00
We also have lists, little printed lists, that we give out at our counter.
47:07
And then if somebody asks for something specific, we can tell them.
47:11
Do you need milk today?
47:13
Yes, no, maybe.
47:14
They can always give us a call, send us an email, message us on Facebook.
47:20
We have somebody who monitors Facebook almost all day long every day.
47:25
When can people come by and donate physical goods?
47:31
We're open at 7 o'clock, 7 o'clock every morning.
47:35
And we close during the week at 2 p.m.
47:40
And then on the weekends, it's by 1130.
47:43
They serve the breakfast and then they close at 1130.
47:48
So any of those times will be great.
47:52
So do you all have peer counseling, anything like that?
47:55
What's training for volunteers look like?
47:58
We don't do a lot of training for them.
48:02
Most of our volunteer positions are pretty much labor oriented.
48:06
So it's a matter of showing you how to run the dishwasher or how we sort clothing or
48:13
how you mop the floors, those kinds of things.
48:16
So we don't spend a lot of time on training.
48:19
We do try to talk to our volunteers about how to de-escalate a situation if there is
48:26
one because that happens all the time.
48:30
We talk to them about trauma informed so that they know when somebody's acting out, it quite
48:36
often isn't because you're there or it's part of the result of trauma.
48:44
And we do encourage them to go to a trauma informed class if there's one locally here
48:50
and there are generally several during the year that are available.
48:55
What are those places?
48:57
What are they?
49:00
Let's see, the Gather Church in Centralia offers classes on that, adult and family services
49:07
and also occasionally will offer a class on trauma informed interaction.
49:12
I think I saw something in the library was sponsoring one too.
49:17
So I think that's an important thing for everybody to be involved with, at least have some really
49:23
basic understanding of it.
49:27
That's how we generate empathy and understanding in the community and bridge these gaps.
49:32
Yeah.
49:33
And we talk about the ACE study here all the time.
49:37
Adolescent to ACE experiences, which is basically trauma based and the relationship of those
49:47
things to what happens when they come through our doors because it's rooted in that childhood
49:54
experiences 95% of the time.
49:58
Are there adult experiences that can cause it?
50:01
Absolutely.
50:02
But the root of it all is in adolescence.
50:06
And absolutely.
50:07
Is there anything else that you would like to share?
50:20
Oh my gosh.
50:21
Yeah, I think that one thing that I always try to remind people again is that we need
50:27
to take care of our children.
50:28
If we want to have a long term solution to homelessness, poverty, incarceration, that
50:37
really starts with children.
50:41
My wife, since we retired, she's gone back to work for the school district in Montesano
50:45
as a parapro and she works with the challenged third and fourth graders.
50:52
And she comes home almost every day and says, I know where our folks are coming from when
50:56
they're in our missions.
50:58
Wow.
50:59
It's so real.
51:02
It is.
51:03
And you know, those of us that have been around it, we can walk into that kind of a setting
51:08
and we can say, oh, we can recognize the trauma that this child has gone through.
51:15
We can recognize the mental illness or the early signs of it.
51:20
And we really need to take care of those children way better than what we're doing.
51:26
It will make a huge impact.
51:28
Is it expensive?
51:29
You bet it is.
51:30
But the so, so worth it.
51:34
Yeah.
51:35
And is it going to happen overnight?
51:37
No, it's going to.
51:39
We've got we've got a problem that's been escalating for 100 years in our country, at
51:47
least, at least.
51:49
And so, you know, it's going to take a while to to recover from that.
51:55
The statistics right now are showing that we've had double digit increases in homelessness
52:01
and and poverty in the last five years every year, every year for five years.
52:07
That's a steady increase.
52:10
Wow.
52:11
How do we deal with it?
52:12
How do our missions deal with it?
52:14
How do our social services deal with that?
52:17
I'm going to need a major infrastructure change.
52:20
Yes.
52:21
There are not enough there are not enough clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists
52:27
to deal with it.
52:29
My middle daughter that we moved to be close to is a doctor of psychology and and directs
52:35
a contract organization that that provides services for the for Marines and Navy veterans
52:43
and active duty that are dealing with PTSD.
52:49
She can't find enough clinicians to staff what they need.
52:54
She's responsible for offices, every office west of the Mississippi and all of the Pacific
53:00
Room.
53:01
So every military base she has an office she has to supervise.
53:04
And so that's a lot of offices for veterans and they can't find enough clinicians.
53:10
They're just we're not they're not graduating from our colleges.
53:13
They're not they're not getting that education.
53:17
And that's just one segment of the of the need for for that kind of services.
53:24
A lot of people who would have an interest in going into that kind of field.
53:30
A lot of people tend to be going more in a holistic alternative therapy kind of approach.
53:37
And I think that that may be part of the shift is that there's a certain line a certain channel
53:48
that people in her industry in her positions are only looking at.
53:54
And that's because of the current infrastructure and the paradigm that that structure.
54:00
Yes.
54:01
Exists.
54:02
You're exactly right.
54:03
Yes.
54:04
Yeah, you're correct in that assessment.
54:06
And we need to change that.
54:08
Yeah.
54:09
Yeah, we need to change that perspective.
54:10
People need to be more open and aware of the extreme high benefit of alternative and holistic
54:19
therapies.
54:20
I think that would make a big difference.
54:22
Well, they're less invasive for one.
54:26
Yes.
54:27
Yes.
54:28
Yes.
54:29
And I think that these are fabulous for one example.
54:41
It was such a pleasure to sit down with rolling Carl and his office at 72 Southwest Chehalis
54:47
Avenue in Chehalis, Washington.
54:50
If you would like to get involved, check out their website at https://lewiscountygospelmission.org
55:01
from 4 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.
55:06
Tickets can be purchased through their website or by calling Janet at 350-966-4474.
55:15
Tickets will be held at the Centralia Christian School.
55:27
That's it for today's resource report produced by Pathways to Agency.
55:31
At Pathways to Agency, we are driven by the belief that everyone should have the tools
55:36
and support to achieve their goals and thrive in their communities.
55:41
Our mission is to bridge the gaps in understanding accessibility and trust by connecting individuals
55:48
to resources and sharing information and processes that can lead to personal and community growth.
55:56
Resource report offers information about existing and emerging nonprofits and resource organizations.
56:03
Find out more at https://pathwaystoagency.org
56:14
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56:20
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56:23
Till next time and thanks for listening.