Rotary Ramblings - January 27, 2009

[SUSAN MILLER]

Many thanks to Lori Garland for the January 27th Ramblings.  Sorry a little delayed in forwarding!!





ROTARY
RAMBLINGS – 1/27/09
 
President
Steve brought the meeting to order
Dave
Hardin gave the invocation
Jimmy
Witherspoon started us out by singing #57 R-O-T-A-R-Y and then followed up
with
#69 Smile
 
No
Birthdays … Ops, one birthday…Mr. Harvey Michaelman
No
Anniversaries
 
Harvey
Brown announced that Steve Alexander was engaged over the weekend –
Congratulations!
 
Visiting
Rotarians – Bill – Ronson, MI
                                 Mr. Strasser –
Ormond by the Sea
                                 Jay Ackerman –
St Clair
                                 Harold Lipvosky – our regular visitor
                                 Andy Hall –
past pastor of Delray Baptist, past member
Make-Ups
- Mike, both visited and did an on-line make up
                    Sylvia Pecaro made up on-line
Guests
- Pat Archer introduced City Commissioner Mack Bernard
              Phil Taylor introduced Vera
Hauser
              And Joe Milenkovic
introduced Patricia Swink of the Patrol division
Stock
Market and Sgt At Arms -  Fred
Bonardi   
The
stock market looks sick this year!  I
wrote the numbers down but they are too depressing to even type here! Home
values fell y/y 18.2% which is the worst on record   
 
We
took in $496.00 today from various sources including a generous donation from
Ira Fine (who won green hat) of $400
 
Community
Involvement Opportunities:
 
District
Gov still collecting toothbrushes, beanie babies to take to India
Paint
Up Delray date has changed to March 7 – Sign up at the door
VolunteerAchievement Center1/29  – times to read are 8-9, 9-10, and 3-4  Contact Bob Teninga 
 
Candace
Etzler read some adorable thank you notes to the club from Banyan Elementary 3rd graders for the dictionaries the club provided.  She is also collecting new and gently used kids’ books for K-3
 
DUES
ARE DUE!
 
John
O’Connoll – our fellow Rotarian that was severely injured in an auto accident
has gone home.  He has full use of his
arms and the trunk of his body but will probably be in a wheelchair for a long
time.
Susan
McBride did our presentation today about the “Lord’s Place”
 
They
have been in operation for about 25 years and are recognized for their
innovative approach to working with the homeless.  All men, women, and children are eligible for
assistance. The Lord’s Place tries to break the cycle of homelessness and
restore dignity and self esteem.  Their
main office is on Australian Avenue in West Palm Beach.
 
There
are on average about 4,000 homeless in Palm Beach County.  The average age of a homeless person is 9
years old.  Children are silent victims
of homelessness and many never tell that they are sleeping in cars.  Most do go to school.
 
In
order to be referred to Lord’s Place many call 2-1-1 crisis and tell them that
they need help.  Once that happens, they
have a team (HOT team) that meets with each.  Unfortunately, it can take 2 weeks to get in to meet with the team.  Once begun, the person goes through meeting
with a psychologist and social worker who access why the person is
homeless.  If it’s an alcohol or drug
issue, they typically go to a sober house.  The county will pay for one month of treatment.
The
HOT team also tries to get as much assistance as possible for the person by
getting them signed up for food stamps, and health care.  The treatment centers usually provide a bed
and bathroom but by the 5th week, the homeless person must be
employed or be self sufficient.  They
cannot stay there after the 4th week even if they are not.   The Lord’s Place does try to help when
possible by providing payment for the treatment center until the person is able
to be employed and self sufficient.
 
The
team has 37 appointments and of that 13 are reserved for emergency cases.  They can get a person placed in a hotel and
then do the assessment appointment.
 
Lord’s
Place helps people who were homeless by helping them further their education
with GED assistance, and grants for school.
 
The
men’s facility is located in Boynton Beach and includes a sober house (alcohol and drug
abuse.)  The Joshua House is also a
Lord’s Place facility and serves to assist men as they leave prison by
providing educational assistance to them.  Some of the men even go to college.  There is a Thrift Store which provides apprenticeships to participants
to give them experience in working at a retail store.  The Chef Apprentice program has been a great
success for them.  The Café Joshua has an
8 week program with trained five star chefs educating and training young men to
become prep cooks.  Currently there is
not a program for women with kids.  This
continues to be a problem that needs our attention
 
Palm BeachCountyhas just embarked on a
homelessness plan.  Part of the
implementation to come is an Engagement Center where homeless
people are brought in from parks, streets.  Once in there is assistance provided to get services.  One engagement Center in the south originally planned to feed 50 people Tuesday through Friday from
2:00 to 6:00 with a hot meal from 4:00 – 5:00.  At last count they were feeding about 175.
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