Social Services in Pierce County

Morning Session—Scandinavian Cultural Center, PLU

We returned to PLU Thursday morning and kicked off the day (feeling comfy in jeans) with Dr Kathy Russell, Asst. Professor and director of Social Work. Kathy is championing initiatives to address the needs of children of incarcerated parents, a heretofore invisible category in the state. Often when parents are imprisoned, they are reluctant to disclose the existence of the  children in fear of their being permanently denied custody, however, the children themselves are often forced to "couch surf" with a variety of relatives seldom, if ever, visit their parents in prison, and generally have little knowledge of, or access to, needed services. Here are some quick statistics from the Department of Justice on the subject.

Lunch Session—Catholic Community Services

We grabbed brown bag lunches and carpooled (thanks to Dan, in the same group as our breakout session) to Catholic Community Services to endure a relatively uninspiring panel discussion which touched on the issue of mental illness, but was largely taken up with the complexities of funding. It was entirely missable, especially given the lost opportunity to interact with diners at the Hospitality Kitchen.

Afternoon Session—Hospitality Kitchen

Jim Anderson, director of the Hospitality Kitchen, led us downstairs to tour the facilities and storeroom, sadly emptied of diners, though we had a good visit with Wes, one of the dedicated workers. We then we sat down with him to talk about issues relating to homelessness for about 1½ hours, and easily could have talked for much longer.

I worked at St Francis' kitchen in Portland many years ago now, and  found the experience to be extremely rewarding, for everyone treated the guests with respect, and it certainly appears to be the case here as well. Jim was endlessly informative, particularly as we delved into the relationship of substance abuse and mental illness on the homeless population. Many assume that people who are homeless ought to be able to get a job, however, Jim soon showed us that some are either so severely abused as children or so mentally incapacitated that the simplest tasks are beyond them.

Jim illustrated the issue for us in simple, yet dramatic fashion: "Imagine," he said, "that you walk out the door without your cell phone, without your keys or anything that goes to them, without your wallet—essentially, with only the clothes on your back. What do you do?" Jennifer considered this and concluded that if she were a homeless woman with children, she would do anything to ensure that they received food and shelter.

Evening Socials

By mid-afternoon we wrapped up, and I found myself in the usual state of mental exhaustion, but we had to shift gears, change clothes, and go meet local Ag Forestry grads at a reception on the upper floors of the Wells Fargo building in downtown Tacoma. The contrast from our various afternoon visits was not lost on many of my classmates. I had some pleasant talks with Mike (Class XXIII) and Bill (Class XXVIII) and we listened to some observations by Dr Samuel Torvend, Professor of Religion at PLU.

Afterwards, we pumped our hostess for restaurant ideas and, armed with her recommendations, headed out through the rain and eventually found Il Fiasco (and it was far from a fiasco; the name's Italian for that basket one finds on the outside of chianti bottles) on Sixth Avenue, which amazingly accomodated 15 of us for a pretty darned great dinner. I ordered limoncello and a very spicy bowl of cioppino, finishing off with a fine crême bruleé. 

Some poked their noses into a piano bar afterwards, but when I heard Grant observe that everyone within was too young for him, I knew that I was destined for bed, so ran back across the street and caught up with Dan, Rhonda and her husband to return to the hotel and rest up for the final day.