Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep #188 - Unity in Action: Addressing Homelessness through Community Engagement

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Ep #188 - Unity in Action: Addressing Homelessness through Community Engagement · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Dearly Father, we thank you, lord, for this day and your blessings and provisions.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: God thank you for another time to record this podcast, and Lord just continue to thank you for all of our listeners.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I pray that they would be encouraged and that you would just do a mighty work.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Lord, we love and praise your name, Amen.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Hello everybody.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Our Community, Our Mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission on Wednesday, September the 6th 2023, podcast number 188.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: This is Barry Fiecker, your host here today, with LeManda Broyles, who's Executive Director of Topeka Rescue Mission, and Mary Ann Craball, Deputy Director of Supportive Services.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so proud.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: You can't say too long of a title.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I know I do.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: You should type it out I wrote it out again so I didn't mess up again.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: So for those of you who are frequent listeners, Mary has had more than one title since she was back at the rescue At least I didn't say Christmas Coordinator.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank goodness.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: That could have sent me into a spiral.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: That is a trauma.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: But, we have started that, Barry.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We have started planning.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Absolutely Yep.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Here in September Christmas plans are already underway.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and we're yeah, yeah.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: But let's don't talk about that today?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: No, let's not.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Okay, Very good.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: So we're going to have some updates here in a minute.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Then we want to talk kind of unpack some community meetings that we had.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: We want to talk about that and, mary, we're going to ask you to kind of interview LeManda and I, sure, since we were involved in those.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: But of course, what we like to do is just remind people of the importance of the date in history.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: So this is September the 6th and in history there's a common theme that seems to be about books, like children's book day, or read a book day, or well, I guess that what it is.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: It's National Read a Book Day.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I blew that Okay Completely, or buy a book day, or give a book day, or there's just a lot of book days.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I wonder if there's one for giving a book review.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Giving a book.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there is I think one up yeah, we could do that and put it somewhere.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Half of these are made up anyway.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Okay, so what else today is known for is a very, very challenging thing in many of our lives.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: It is fight something day.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: It is LeManda.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: You don't know anything about this, do you Nothing?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Fight procrastination day.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Fight procrastination day.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Let's not talk about it right now.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Let's wait.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: So how about embrace procrastination day?
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I mean this, you know this we just had Labor Day.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: We were still tired, trying to get back in the swing of things, but I do want to, just you know, make all the viewers know Viewers, yes, or listeners.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I'm so tired.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I need my coffee.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: It's a podcast.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Viewers, listeners, whatever they might be viewing the screen, as they're listening, right, but I am a procrastinating perfectionist.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Good for you.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So I do procrastinate, but I do still shoot, for do I?
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Perfection.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I just shoot for it.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, there you go.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I shoot for the perfection.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there's a day on that too, a professional procrastination day.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very good, but anyway, we're supposed to fight it.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: I hope somebody came up with that.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: And so it's probably not a bad idea.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: We decided that we probably ought to do that today to have a podcast, not keep putting it off.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're interpreting that as saying that we should fight procrastination versus procrastinating fighting?
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Next subject here, because I read it totally different than you did.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: So, maryam, we're going to have time to unpack that and my brain will not unpack that, so you're going to make me look stupid.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: So, maryam, one more question.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: How does it feel?
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: One more question.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Okay, well, it feels good, but this is back to you now, back in 1322.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Do you remember those days?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I do, I do Like it was yesterday.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Something originated in a place that you may have some relationship with in England, and it was.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I really don't, I'm not from those parts, you're not from them, but we even know some people who are English.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: But anyway, they started a certain day.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: It was called a great what.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Egg toss day.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Now, why would you do that?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: What would be the point of that?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: That's what I was going to ask you, Maryam.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: I know what was, but I got you first.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: What do you remember?
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Back in 1322?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: That there was the emphasis of that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that there was.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: This is payback.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Is it okay?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I want to do it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I want to do it.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's very good.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: So apparently I agree.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I agree with her.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Apparently they had a lot of rotten eggs in England and they were trying to toss them.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I guess that's what we were going to say.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: So yeah, let's go with that, and I think today there's probably an egg toss competition.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I doubt there is.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: With the cost of eggs, People are like we're going to have to do something different.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't want to break any eggs today?
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: So we're done with all that.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Okay, thank you all for listening and staying with us on our Community Art Mission here on September the 6th.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: I got a couple of upcoming events.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Maryam, do you want to talk about what's coming up on September 9th?
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Sure, you know, we have this wonderful partnership with Nodo, which is just to the north of us.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: The arts district is just such an incredible asset to Topeka and all of September for them is really calling attention to public art and one of the things that they do, that we participate, is in the Nodo Art Cakes Pancake fundraiser.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: So I know, doesn't?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: that sound good.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, this is where we our team out of the kitchen helps make pancakes and people can buy tickets and get pancakes and come out in the morning, and that revenue is actually shared with the Topeka Rescue Mission and the Nodo Arts Center.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: So it's a wonderful opportunity to partner in a very different kind of way as they celebrate the contest with the fanciest pancake or something like that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there is I remember one of those last year.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I know there were a couple of you I don't remember anything about it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: You did Because you lost.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think it existed.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have evidence, we have evidence.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Oh shoot.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Okay never mind.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: For those of you who really are curious, there was a pancake decorating contest and the Lomanda lost, and the Lomanda lost too, out of pity.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Okay, drum roll please.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: I know I had the judges, but it was actually by crowd consensus of volume and I kind of helped with volume a little bit.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: You did, you did Uh-huh, it was cool to win.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: None of that was cool.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I'm still struggling with that.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Apparently it's a wonderful event and hopefully people will come out.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we really appreciate Noto being a part of Noto and they have ever since the inception of that Another really cool evening, September 24th, night of praise.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: What's that about?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: You know, this is a fundraiser that we're doing in collaboration with three of our churches to speak Bible, church fellowship Bible, as well as Grace Point.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Their praise and worship bands are all coming together and we'll just have a wonderful night of praising the Lord and bringing attention to some of the issues that TRM is very committed to and focused on, which is the plight of folks that are experiencing homelessness, and as our special guest we have SJ Hazim who will be doing some poetry, some spoken word things throughout the evening as well, so we're really excited and hope that we have just an incredible turnout.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: In addition, barry Hunger is still such a significant issue, and we just see more and more people that are experiencing hunger, wondering about how they can access good, healthy food, and so we're asking that all of the folks that attend the event also bring some sort of shelf-stable food, whether that be canned food or pasta or things like that to help us meet the needs that we have going forward.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: It's gonna win-win for everybody People want to go to a worship time and hear some great groups and poetry and also help people in a very practical way.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: That information is on the Tipeek Rescue Mission Facebook page and people can actually sign up to register to be able to come to the door thing to show up.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Right, they can absolutely just show up and the registration is just so we have an idea of how many people are coming, because there is no cost for tickets.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Right right, canned good though A canned good yes, something shelf-stable, but if they come in with that one, we're gonna be okay with that too.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: We'll guilt trip them too much, but we sure would appreciate it to help feed people in our community that are in need.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So September 24th in the evening, and it is gonna be a fellowship by law yes exactly and more information on that to go to the Facebook page of Tipeek Rescue Mission.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, wanna pivot here in a brief podcast today in regards to reflection on three different community meetings that Tipeek Rescue Mission conducted informational meetings.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: So first one started in late August and we're at the North Peekababtus Church and we had quite a number of people.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: I think we had around 200 or so people came, plus people online that watched that.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Lemanda, what was the genesis or the reason for wanting to have these community meetings?
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Then Maryamona turned over to you to kind of talk to both of us, cause both LeManda and I were the presenters there and rather than me asking me questions, that's kind of like the procrastination day or fight, but you know okay, so I'm gonna ask you to ask the questions.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: But anyway, lemanda, you and I did do some presenting there.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: It was about two hour meeting each time and so, with these 200 or so people that came from different areas, what was the reason for it?
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: You know, I think that there were two main reasons we decided to move forward with these community meetings, one being homelessness people trying to process possible approaches, possible solutions.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: How can they get involved?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: All of that, it's a topic right now that is being discussed every day.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're seeing it in the news media outlets, we're hearing it in dinner conversations.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Across the whole country, a whole country.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: People are discussing what's happening both locally in their own communities, but also trying to watch trends across the world, and so, you know, it's been becoming more and more of a common and controversial conversation.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: And at first, you know we are continuing to do what we're doing here at TRM every day, the operations and the important work that we do for our community, and so then there becomes a time, though, where you say, okay, in addition to this, we also need to communicate, we need to be a part of this discussion, and we have so many partnerships which we're gonna talk about in a little bit where we're doing this day to day, but to really be public with what all we do at TRM and how we partner with other agencies to do even more, what we can't do because it's out of our scope or maybe we don't have the manpower, whatever the case may be, it became really evident that it was time for us to be a part of that public discussion, and so, in addition to what we were doing day to day for our community, in our community and with other fabulous community members, we also needed to be engaging publicly rather than just in the day to day operations, and so I think that was a part of it just becoming and becoming even more of conversation, of the opinions and the discussion that was out there.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: The other part is really as an educate and to be educated in the fact of there are and I don't mean this to sound ugly or anything, but there's a lot of opinions out there, whether it be about TRM, what we do, what we don't do, homelessness, history of homelessness, trends, things like that.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: There's opinions out there that, even if they're not malicious, they're inaccurate, and it could be driven by fear because of, maybe, things that were happening in their own neighborhood, which I'm empathetic of and I understand it could be maybe because when people are getting information from is not the greatest source, or sometimes just not knowing when to get your information, or that your information is inaccurate, and so we wanted it to really be a time where you know we've kind of said this before but if I'm going in for a heart surgery, I don't want there to be a foot doctor in there.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be listening to only vets Right, I want there to be a cardiologist, I want there to be a heart surgeon, I want there to be that at the table.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: We still need nurses and we need all of the other parts of of that hospital for the care, and so when we're talking about homelessness and trying to educate, the Topeka rescue mission needs to be heard.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: We have a lot of people doing the work.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: We don't have all of the answers, but we have experts and we have people that are boots on the ground every day, immersed in the people, the operations, what we're seeing coming down as far as the increasing needs of people accessing services who haven't, and we're trying to react to that so that we keep them out of homelessness.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: So our, our second part of this is that we could educate but then also be educated.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Barry, as the executive director, it truly breaks my heart when I see a news story or I'm at a public meeting and I see the hurt that some of our Community members have experienced because of maybe something dangerous at their house or when you see people that want to help but they're not sure how to help someone in need and so I also wanted it to be a time where we were hearing these concerns.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: We didn't have to agree on everything, that it could be a time where we talked about crucial conversations and people that are kind of fed up with maybe defecation on their lawns or their children's Play equipment being stolen and things like that, and so I wanted it to be a time where not only were we giving Ideas and information that was accurate, but I also wanted it to be a time where I and our team we had a lot of team members there every session, whether it was staff or board members or volunteers but that we were also truly hearing from the people concerns that they had, questions they had, so that we could then Either answer those or keep in mind what people are experiencing, what they're feeling, so that we can think about that as we move forward.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: So twofold you know to really be begin the the public participation in this discussion that's happening everywhere, but then also educating and being educated ourselves, yeah so People did come that had some knowledge about the issue.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Some people were just curious and some people Really didn't have any, any knowledge at all, but just more you know, more than just curious.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: They really want to know, yes and so.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: So, miriam you you were in the back of the room, you were seeing us unpack some maybe history, the Topeka rescue mission, the current services, the rescue mission, then talking about and and trying to answer some of those big questions that are coming up in the community that maybe are Misconceptions.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: So we unpacked about ten of those.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: So, miriam, what you know, we were both up there.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: You know we have one reflection of this, but you back there with the attendees.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: What Questions came up or reflections Do you have about those meetings?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: You know I was.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I was impressed with the meetings.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I thought that people were attentive.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: It was interesting to watch you could, as people were coming in.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: It was interesting to Sort of see their countenance as they walked in the room.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: You know, you could kind of get a feel for maybe what they were thinking or what they were anticipating might happen.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And then it was also great to kind of watch Some of those perspectives change.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: You know, as as you all unpack different kinds of things to really watch, people then realize that we were there to hear them and to let them know, to maybe overcome some Misperceptions that they may have had.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And I thought that that just went really well.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I thought that the tone in the room was great.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: It was very orderly.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: It was very, it was very peaceful, even though there's some people that were truly Challenge and affected in a negative way.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: It was still very Civil absolutely.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It was very, very civil.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: People were very respectful, they posed their questions.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I just I thought it was.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I thought all three sessions went incredibly well.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what Questions or things that you think would be important for Amanda and I do sure well, I know that the two of you presented this primarily the same information three times, so I'm just curious from each of you what were your initial thoughts, what were your thoughts going in, what may be changed as you were presenting or after it was over, and did that then influence any of the next sessions?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: You know, my first initial thought was in prayer days, weeks leading up to this was Lord, bring unity.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Unity doesn't mean the same and I think that sometimes we forget that.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: So thinking belief systems, we don't have to think the same to be united, but there are just some common, respectful things that we need to agree on, and so, being in this position, you know there's a lot of beauty with it, and then there's some things that are not so beautiful, and my heart was just Lord, let this be a time where people feel safe, including our staff.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: You know I have not publicly talked about this, but right now our staff take to heart opinions and what's being said, and I and some other leaders are really navigating and mentoring some of our people right now who Really take some ownership on in regards to the problem and the concern.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: And so my heart was just how can we have unity?
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: And, lord, please, bring unity in a way where people are heard, they're able to talk about what they're frustrated with, what they're upset with.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: That I could handle that and not be defensive.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: That I could listen, and not listen to speak, but listen to understand.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: And so, going into that, I was cautious because I wasn't sure I knew what my heart was in, that I wasn't sure if that's what was gonna happen.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I really feel like it was.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, we had some tough questions, we had some big feelings in those rooms and we addressed them the best that we could, and we've had a couple of what could have started out as Just in the midst of adversity kind of you know, this tension has turned into hey, let's do this together.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I don't agree with what you're saying.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: You don't agree with me just right now, but we both care about the concerns.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Let's look at this, and so that was probably my biggest thing going into.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: It was wanting unity, and I Feel like, after the three of them each one I saw at least one individual that I felt like we were more unified, and it wasn't just about them being educated, it was about I also gained a better understanding of what they were facing, sure, and so I think that was Executed.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we're still all there.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I think it's a work in progress, and so I'm sure that might be a question later on.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: That you asked what's next, you know, and I think that we're already processing.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: How do we continue this unified approach?
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Sure, I'm gonna tube it.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: I guess I would echo a lot of that and say this way with the Information overload that we experience these days, whether it be in traditional media forums or be the social media that everybody has access to, opinions and and reports can be shared, whether they have accuracy or not, and so I think it gave an opportunity to address some of those inaccurate things, which are always important, without getting kind of caught up in that social media back and forth type of thing, and so what I took away from that is yeah, we had an opportunity to say, okay, here's some concerns, questions that we've heard.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Here is the answer to those that are from a picture of information, as well as evidence that that's not the way that this really is.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: So those are always good and, and I think that generally people came up out of there the ones that I talked to we're going okay, thank you.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Now we understand some things we didn't understand, and also we understand that maybe there is a little bit more of a plan than there is just a reaction to this, and so, while the plan hasn't been fully developed here or anywhere in the country, at least there are some things that here and part of, as well as others in the community a part of a plan.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: So what was the most surprising thing that you all heard, or something that made you pause a little bit from the audience?
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was a question, maybe it was a comment.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: What, what, what was said that maybe you did not expect to hear?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Mine would be.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: You know, without going into too much detail right now, some of the people that attended the community meetings or maybe a meeting or two before that I've that I've participated in some that are most vocal and and Frustrated right now are people who have experienced homelessness themselves, and To me that is a powerful reminder, because do we have some Negative talk from people that are just being negative?
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Sure, I mean, that's just life, and sometimes we can all be guilty of that ourselves, right, but some people who are really being vocal about being fed up with trash, fed up with Some of the criminal activity we know not all people that are experiencing homelessness or criminals not all criminals are homelessness, but some of it is tied People that are talking about stuff happening at their house, whether it's the defecation of the stealing, whatever.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: That it's not from a place of lack of compassion, it's from either fear or they're not sure what to do.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: And so to me that is a reminder that not only is my role as the executive director and what we're trying to do at the Rescue mission to help those in need and to help our staff and all of that, but that there are people out here that sometimes we can view as they don't like what we're doing, or they are an objection to what we're doing, or they're being mean or negative.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: But really it's, yes, they have a first hand view and they know what worked for them, mm-hmm.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: So then they're they're wanting that for others and they don't realize not everybody gets to healing the way they did right.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: But then the other side of it is that it they're still compassionate, they do care, and that's a reminder to me to Really get to know, if they allow me, the people who are being vocal or seem negative, because their story matters too, just like our neighbors, and that sometimes they can be the most helpful on this once we get past the those first impressions and understanding really why some of these feelings are happening, and that came out at two out of the three informational meetings.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: And then there's another individual that I know, you know, that has walked this too and feels pretty passionate about this.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: So just realizing people have stories and Just how we have been trained and we work diligently every day to look past behaviors and find out the why.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I need to be thinking that about community members as well.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: So, barry, you know that word, compassion, has been thrown out a lot, that people are tired of being compassionate, that they're not going to be compassionate.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: My perspective on that is a little bit different, in terms of what that word actually means and From a perspective of the Tipeek rescue mission, the work that you've done in the past, the work that you know we're doing now.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: What, what, how does that strike you?
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: What does it really mean to be Compassionate?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Is it this situation where we just accept everything that's going on, and or is it something different?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question and you know it's most people historically would identify that compassion is a good thing and that we ought to be compassionate.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: You've heard, as you've been in the nonprofit arena, of compassion fatigue.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: In other words.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: People just get tired of doing the same thing.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: You know, feeding the same people, giving and giving and giving.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: We have tax fatigue as well, our taxes being taken from us.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: We have crime fatigue.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: We have all kinds of fatigues If we are not seeing anything working with it and going the right direction.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: And so compassion is related to empathy.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: When we don't understand a thing, or we don't or we're negatively affected by a thing, we lose our empathy for the thing or the situation or the person, and compassion can be the same thing.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: So that's why we like to look at, you know, compassion being looked at in a more positive light.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: And that is how can we take the thing that's by nature inside of us to be compassionate, the God given love for our neighbors that we would like to have, even if we don't have it sometimes.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: And then how do we make that work in a positive direction?
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: That's what we call this organization compassion strategies.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: You know, compassion just out of empathy for someone, without any kind of strategy, can actually harm, and so we can, out of all good intentions, we can actually bring harm.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: And so if we can not lose our compassion but we configure strategic ways to be able to exercise it, to understand it.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: What are the better things to do?
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: An extreme example is some on the West Coast have said that a heroin addict really needs access to heroin because they're suffering and so we're going to give them more heroin.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Well, that's compassion going the wrong direction, I think, in many of our, our, our understandings.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: To help a person who is addicted to a drug to be able to be free of, that is true compassion, and that's a little harder to do.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I get it, I understand.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I've been in the business, so to speak, for a long time of of of tempting them to remain compassionate, and sometimes it's very challenged, unless I find a way to do it better.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so, as you all were listening to the folks that that came to these meetings.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Where, where did you find the most points of agreement?
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Or, amanda, as you refer to, unity, what were those key points that encouraged you both and TRM to be able to continue to, to walk forward on all of this?
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Where was their agreement between TRM and the audience?
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I would say what I saw and I loved and I and I took that away was the things that were vocalized in those meetings.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: People really did care about the person struggling, whether it was the person in the mental health crisis or a person that was experiencing homelessness.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: There was unity in hey, we don't want to just see them as someone who doesn't matter.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: They cared about that person but they didn't want to compromise their own safety or their own space of their home.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: That's supposed to be, you know, their place of refuge and things like that.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: I also think that there was unity and I think it's surprised people that there is this myth out there, whether it's because people have intentionally spread it or maybe just a knowing that all TRM does is enable or all we do is act out of love, and then that ends up hurting businesses or hurts individuals or whatever.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: And when they heard how we approach the work that we do because of our belief in Christ.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: But we balance that with love, and sometimes that love comes with restricting from a service, or sometimes it comes with saying we really need you to seek treatment.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: We're at that turn, you know.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: You need this next stage of healing.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Those kinds of things.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I think there was this unity moments, I guess you could call it, where people are like oh, I didn't realize it.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: So we were able to share what we really do and how.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Sometimes that is tough decisions and I don't know if tough loves the right thing to say, but kind of, especially if there's safety concerns or if an individual is not being a good neighbor to know, though, things like that, we have to do that.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: And so being able to share what we actually do, and then seeing the people I mean you saw their faces like oh, and I don't know how many people came up to me I don't know if this is the same case for Barry, but people saying I didn't know that.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I've never heard that.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: I heard you forced people to be Christians.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: I heard that you people are able to do whatever they want to do and still get everything that they need.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: You know those kinds of things.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: So there became these unified moments when we debunked misinformation that was out there.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: So those were the two big things really realizing that people cared about the individual in addition to wanting to protect and to fix what they were experiencing, but then also these unified moments that happened when there was clarity given for specific topics, such as restrictions.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Sure Barry.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: How about you?
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: What?
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Where did you find common ground?
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: So I think most people came in with the, the, the what, they.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: This is a problem, this is the what.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Homeless is not okay for whatever reason.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: That they look at it from a humanitarian is affecting my neighborhood or my business.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: That's the what.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: But I think they had some degree.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: We helped unpack the why.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: You know why is this happening.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: So we had a better understanding that it's not just this thing that people can assume, but it's a multifaceted why.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: But then I think people began to understand that TRM and some others have a how.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: How do we take care of not only the what and the why, but how do we do this?
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Which then I think began to produce a little bit of hope that maybe we can not only do and support what we're doing well now, but that we can hope that we can do the how better going forward.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I think that's wonderful.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I think that's great.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, we have just a few minutes left, so this was kind of another step, something like what we did in 2019 in terms of ramping up communication.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Um, we, it feels like that's what we did again with these meetings.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: What are the plans for communication going forward, how are we going to keep the dialogue going and what, what would be the desired outcome in relationship to that?
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: As Lamanda answers that, because she's the director, I think that to unpack 2019 is that we had funding challenges.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: To speak of rescue mission, and one of the biggest things we heard back was we didn't know what you were doing, um, and and you know we, we do it a lot and we just didn't take time to inform.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: And you don't want to go around brag and say, hey, look what we're doing, but people really wanted to know, um, what we were doing now that we are into 2023.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Um, a lot more people were aware, but the it's gotten muddy in regards to this increase of homelessness that we have seen post pandemic, not only in Topeka, not only in Kansas, but that the whole nation, and so it was time again, I think, to be able to say, okay, what do we learn from 2019?
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: That we were just doing the work, um, not in a silo, because we had lots of supporters and lots of volunteers, but the general public had just kind of gotten used to they're always here, and so I think that that that that when you brought that up, you know coming back again saying here's what we do, here's the why and here's the value of it, and then, beyond that, what can we do as a community?
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: And so to to now, amanda, what's your plans?
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Sure, um, I would say, two big things bubble up.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: One, um, I think that it's going to be important somehow for us to kind of take this on the road, um, maybe to um, each of the NIA meetings, those kinds of things, the monthly meetings that occur, because I, what is it in NIA?
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, neighborhood improvement association, although I think it needs to be changed to like neighbors in action, or something because you know they're doing good stuff.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: That's more to fund it.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, I think we should, but where they kind of talk about in their own communities.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: How many are there?
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Are there nine?
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: There's NAs and NIAs.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, there's more than one.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: You're looking at the wrong guy here.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well there's lots, but where they represent their area, their neighborhoods, they're parts of the community.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: And so now that we've kind of done this general as a whole community meetings and we made them available online as well, one is even posted where people can even reference it.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Now I think then we look at okay, that was people coming to us, now how do we go out to them and how do we do it in smaller portions too, where maybe it's more intimate, maybe the discussion can be more qualitative, based on what they're experiencing or not experiencing.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: And I think that there's power in that, where we kind of condense some of the information but really hear what parts of our city and county are experiencing what.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: So I think that's one thing that's on the horizon too.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: We are participating in this innovation process with the city.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: The city has brought in a coach and there is a core team and an auxiliary team.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Trm is represented on both.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: We have a member on the core team and on the expert auxiliary team and so really participating in that, so that we are focused on the big picture.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: I've been saying this for months and some people love it and some people have opinions that I'm wrong with it, but I have a responsibility to take care of TRM and TRM's operations.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: However, for 70 years, trm has been here to not serve ourselves, to not just serve North Topeka, to be a community staple, and so it's a responsibility of mine that we continue that, and so I want to continue to be a part of the bigger picture of what our community needs, strengths that our community has in regards to this concern, and then gaps to see.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Are we going to be a part of that solution?
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Are we going to be a part of saying yes to something that may be different because the needs are different?
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: And so I think being a part of that process is going to be important to have ongoing conversations about how TRM serves, what we do and maybe things that need to be done that TRM can't do, whether it's a capacity issue, funding issue, or maybe it's just not our role, that there's other roles of our community that we need to step up to take care of our community.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: So I think those are two big things Us trying to take it on the road into the NIAs, or maybe even you know we already do a lot of presentations with churches and things like that.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: I also think that it would be powerful for us and I don't know how this is going to work, but we're lacking in getting into businesses.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: We hear a lot of business concerns because maybe someone's sitting on their steps or sleeping or bothering business.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: We care about that, but then sometimes there's not a reciprocated partnership, maybe because you know they're going 90 to nothing.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a fast-paced world and they're doing everything to make ends meet too, and then we have our operations.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: But my heart is really to whatever barrier there is with us in a business to be able to get into that business and speak to employees or speak to the business owner, hear concerns but also bring ideas.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be powerful because we do a lot of presentations with churches, other nonprofits organizations even.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: But businesses is something that's on my radar, sure it's a little more difficult to figure that one out.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: I think it's important for people to understand that every time Amanda or another TRM representative goes out and informs and educates, that's one less opportunity to help someone who's on the ground, and so this is a real balance here.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Whether there's people needing food or they're needing help with their homelessness or education or whatever, is that some organizations spend all their time educating and don't do very much.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Trm has probably been the flip side, doing a lot and not educating enough, and so I would encourage listeners to try to gather the right information and be a promoter of the right information.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: You know you can go to the website, you can be in some of these meetings, but help expand the accurate and I do say accurate information about what homelessness is.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Homelessness is what is being done and what we can do about it in the future to expand the community conversation.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Sure, I think it goes back to exactly what we say about all of our work, which is it's really all about relationships.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: It's about relationships with the folks that are experiencing homelessness.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: It's relationships with other providers, it's relationships with our donors, it's relationships with business owners.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: It's just about relationships, because once you have that, then you have this opportunity to have the kind of dialogue that people felt safe having in these meetings.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: So I appreciate both of you being willing to kind of talk through this a little bit and I know there'll be more to come going forward.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Thank you, mary, and well, thank you for listening to our community, our mission.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: Today we want to talk a little bit about the three community informational meetings that were conducted to try to help people understand about TRM, about the homeless issue, and also develop more of a understanding of harmony and unity coming together around this issue in our community.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: There's a lot more yet to be done in this issue, not only locally here in the Topeka community, but as a nation.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: So it's taking every neighbor, every person, every church, every business, every elected official, both on local, state and federal levels, to be able to come around.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: What do we do about this very big challenge to not just us, who maybe have a home, but especially for those who have no place to go, that we refer to as people experiencing homelessness?
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: So if you'd like more information about the Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to trmonlineorg.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: That's trmonlineorg.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: If you like our community, our mission, you can help us by subscribing, rating or sharing.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.