Advocacy

fireworks going off in Green Bay, Wisconsin

TikTok Told Me to Jump Off A Cliff!

, , , , , , , , , , 0

Let’s be clear, TikTok inspired me to jump off the occupational cliff. Going from a salaried position to an LLC position. It all started when TikTok became the dominant social media entertainment source during the 2020 pandemic.


I started to take entrepreneurial ventures more seriously. Suddenly I was stuck in the entrepreneurial algorithm and hooked on the advice and tips. I started liking content as fast as possible for ‘come back to it’ research. In the 2020 pandemic and national shutdown, as a clinical social worker in the mental health field, I was considered essential and never missed a day of work unless I was home for a quarantine scare from other coworkers or clients.


I made a big decision about turning my personal brand website that had led to my clinical position into an LLC. With the creation of Relentless Advance as an LLC and the addition of gaining a bit of traction through Fiverr freelance writing, I decided to use all my research and try career skydiving.


I jumped off the occupational cliff in April 2021 after five years in the same place. I had started in a made-up job title and became one of the directors. Before I gave my thirty-day notice, I thought I was irreplaceable. I left a big title behind as well as a consistent paycheck. I had been working fifty hours per week and I was paid for forty-hour salary. The job was basically 24/7 and it was my life for five stressful years but it was my normal.


In my job hunts, I found an agency that was offering independent contractor status, running a position through my LLC under independent contractor status. Of course, that meant paying for my own health insurance, getting my own liability insurance, saying goodbye to paid vacation hours, and only getting paid for the hours that I worked rather than a salary.


I ran into a few problems getting things going on the fly. I had to dip into my savings account to offset what I was not making in the beginning. The previous job had thankfully paid out my saved vacation days and that gave me a little bit of an emergency cushion.


I started my new position with a small number of hours per week that did not suddenly pick up. I liken the whole experience to retiring and then going back to work at a less stressful job. The problem was I was not pulling from social security or a pension, I was pulling from my savings account.


In the normal process of changing jobs, I reached out to the former agency’s retirement planner to figure out how to figure out how to handle the retirement account. I ended up having a few meetings with the retirement planner as I was beginning the whole business process. Those meetings were like therapy for me.


After each meeting, the retirement planner gave me new knowledge and insight into my situation. The told me that I should be looking for several income sources because I was no longer guaranteed a consistent paycheck. Boy, was he right! After about two months into jumping off the cliff, I was still pulling money from the savings account. And lets me real, I live a pretty boring life with zero extravagance. So, I have been pulling money for usual bills and mortgage.


Prior to quitting my clinical director job, I had intended to leave at a certain point after gaining enough traction with my freelance writing on Fiverr. However, I jumped at the tease of a potential income increase. I currently have thirteen, five-star reviews on Fiverr with at least three repeat customers. With niches in fitness, mental health, and gardening, I play to my strengths and interests. However, the gigs are not consistent, and it is nowhere near what I need to take it and run from any type of traditional clinical position.


Currently it has been three months since leaving my job. I am no longer reaching into my savings account, but I am also not replenishing it yet either. I have settled on this retirement feeling and will steadily increase my workload and work hours. I have other projects that I am working on as well for income.


Did you get addicted to TikTok in 2020? Have you fallen down the entrepreneurial algorithm? Did TikTok make you jump off a cliff like me? Let me know by commenting below. Thanks

20190718_232305.jpg

Ms. Blakk for President

, 0

On Wednesday I ventured to Chicago from Green Bay (four hours nonstop) with a coworker to attend the production of Ms. Blakk for President at Steppenwolf theater. Based off the real life experiences of Joan Jett Blakk in the early nineties. Joan was a drag queen who was able to get herself on to several state ballots for presidential candidates.

The creator of the play, Tina Landau held a discussion following the play. Unfortunately, few remained to take part in the discussion. Hopefully, audience members left with plenty to discuss regarding how queer history parallels current queer culture as well as other current minority groups attempting to be brought into the fold. The discussion sparked more conversation about queer identity. I enjoyed the younger and older reactions to the play.

The stage was setup like a runway adorned in hot pink and black queer history iconography. The actors were able to use the unique runway stage to it’s full advantage, making sure to turn and face the different sides of the audience. Utilizing television screens to play real historical video clips, helped validate the importance of telling Ms. Blakk’s storyline of events.

One thing that caught me was how group and individual differences for how far to take things mirrored what I had seen portrayed with Harvey Milk and The Advocate magazine. Queer Nation just wanted to be mentioned, wanted the AIDS crisis to be mentioned but Ms. Blakk wanted more. Arguably Ms. Blakk’s queer identity threatened Queer Nation’s idea of being accepted in a more mainstream way. We’ve seen these mainstream arguments about moving the needle inch by inch. The HRC trying to push through a non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act is the first to come to mind. This began discussions in the LGBT community about whether the transgender community needed to split off and be separate. Ms. Blakk would have been placed in another realm of wanting too much for herself in the moment.

Thankfully, a knowledge of queer history is not needed to come away with a lasting impression. I looked at the play through two different lenses. One lens was what I knew about the type of environment it was back then in the Reagan years. The other lens was through an interest in one day creating a play that teaches and ignites action for change. I was taken back to the memory of a video of Dustin Lance Black talking about his playwright process, making characters really real.

As much of a pain as it was (mostly in my driving leg) to drive back to Green Bay and arrive at 1:30am, I enjoyed going to the play as well as getting out of my comfort zone. I would have never gotten an idea to drive down to Chicago on a Wednesday afternoon for a play. I’m glad we did it. Given that this Saturday is Green Bay’s annual Pride event, it was a good reminder of living our lives openly and honestly under whatever labelled identities we use to describe ourselves.

“You as an alive and functioning queer are a revolutionary.” ~Queer Nation Manifesto 1990

DSC09568 edit

Advancing Community Integration

0

I’m moving forward with a past website idea. ‘Advancing Community Integration’ is going to be an on-going series of interviews with community movers and shakers in Northeast Wisconsin. The hope is to highlight various organizations and agencies that offer services to the community in an effort to make communities stronger. I already have a list of twelve potential contacts and topics to begin the series.

DSC04124 edit

Trauma-Informed Care in Action

, , , , , , , , , , , , 3

My hope is to create a series on Trauma Informed Care (TIC) in Action. Rather than wasting everyone’s time with a multitude of awareness campaigns that only serve to cater to those already aware of the issues. When I was in graduate school, TIC became a hot button issue/training opportunity. Hopefully this was sparked by the new wave of combat veterans and research on adverse childhood experiences. The hope of this series is to highlight people and projects contributing to real changes in trauma-informed care not necessarily where federal, state, and local money flow.

I didn’t fully confront my own medical trauma until graduate school, when out from the end of first semester I wrote a dark and honest performance piece called, “Gods and Monsters.” A piece that opens with, “As a child my teddy bear wasn’t allowed to have eyes.” Memorized, engraved somewhere in the lizard part of my brain. 

My talents in social services are my abilities to write, my high attention to detail/excellent memory, and my desire to advocate for others. As a writer, I write professionally/clinically as well as creatively. I write performance pieces or poems meant to be performed and I have been fortunate to be published by other change agents. Cathy Plourde formed Add Verb Productions (The Thin Line, Major Medical Breakthrough, You the Man, Out & Allied Project Volume I & II) and later Animal Mineral Press (Making Out Like a Virgin). Both ventures have focused on sharing the experiences of others in subjects meant to educate and respond to social justice issues most professionals will not or do not know how to approach. I prime example of taking action rather than wasting time and money on another awareness campaign. A feel-good project accessorized with brightly colored bracelets. Never mind the stigmas that victims and survivors carry with them and others are walking around with look-at-me bracelets.

Mistakenly, I thought social workers were a profession of trauma survivors, a field of flowers that was once a minefield, showing others how to plant the seeds of change. We aren’t even fully aware of the trauma we continue to inflict on others. I went to a TIC training hosted by Brown County by Disability Rights Wisconsin. It changed how I interacted with clients, especially those who are not able to verbalize their needs. Environmental psychology taught me that children who have experienced trauma have a larger personal space bubble. My bubble requires much more space than others I interact with on a daily basis. I am not a hugger, not even with family. “To hug me is to hold a collection of bones mummified for self-preservation.” Give people their space. Take some action and start planting the seeds of change rather than advertising the seed package.

Links associated with this post:

Addverbproductions.org
Animalmineralpress.com
Disabilityrightswi.org

Darth V.A.T.E.R.

5

Many years ago, when my father was still a juvenile justice social worker, I presented him with a poem I had written about his role as my advocate and an advocate for other children and families with disabilities. The idea of using Star Wars characters as metaphors in my poem I think got lost in translation.

Recently, the question of how his role as the advocate and caretaker (taking me to appointments) has affected our relationship arose. While I cannot control how I am perceived by others or how they feel, I would be hard pressed to understand the notion that I do not like, love, and find my father to be an amazing man who I will never be able to repay or thank enough. My parents are my biggest supports because I do not have time to interact with people that waste their time because they were never given a limited time to live.

Medical records reveal that I had pulled away from my parents when I was younger as both of them had taken me to appointments and surgeries. My father decided to be the bearer of difficult tasks and take me to appointments. Driving from Racine to Milwaukee, Appleton to Milwaukee, and Green Bay to Milwaukee. All of my surgeries and appointments were early in the morning, to have less of an impact on my academic progress. 

My parents did not allow medical professionals to dictate how I lived otherwise, I would have been another boy in a bubble not allowed to scribble on sidewalks or dabble at life but to hobble, wobble, and grovel in a learned helplessness.

I will never understand how parents plaster their children with disabilities all over the internet as a means of advocacy or networking. My parents always decided to keep me out of that world. Off the talk shows and away from the White House. Never wanting me to be a commodity in the marketplace of disability porn. If you’re not familiar, being an example of someone achieving despite challenges, to uplift people with less challenges. The old adage of “What’s your excuse?”

My father gave me his attention to detail, his researching mentality, and his tight-wad view of spending money. My dad started me in photography and writing and let me assist him in renovations around the house. Happy Father’s Day!

Two Thousand Additional Inmates Per Year

0

Experts predict that Wisconsin’s inmate population will grow by at least 2K this year due to tougher drunk driving laws. The DOC and state congressional teams have voiced their support for the possibility of leasing space in county jails as well as the possibility of contracting with private prison corporations to fill the immediate need for more space to house offenders.

As a social worker and a numbers guy who has knowledge of services and service limits in the community, it seems like we are hedging our bets on the side of institutionalization rather than providing services to help people who are more likely to be at risk of succumbing to the effects of economic downturns and limited availability of resources.

Recently the governor released a statement about testing recipients of state assistance programs who are going to be drug tested prior to receiving services. The governor implied that those who failed the tests would be given treatment services. Let’s be honest about what drug testing is intended to accomplish for those needing assistance programs.

It’s all smoke in mirrors to appease higher SES taxpayers. Being fiscally conservative is not a bad thing but its time to stop this “us vs. them” mentality in the availability of services and providing people with a hand to help them up rather than giving them boots without straps. 

In a previous post, I mentioned a solitary confinement cell being placed at a church in De Pere. Next week from April 30th to May 6th at the Presbyterian Church in De Pere, JOSHUA for Justice will have events coinciding with their replica. A similar replica was displayed at UW Fox Valley a few years ago although the events were primarily attended by people already aware of the issues. Please help other people become aware of the issues surrounding incarceration in Wisconsin and solitary confinement as a ethical and human rights issue.

Fudging with the Facts

0

An article in the Chippewa Herald by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism suggests, that inmates in solitary confinement have been reassessed to make their mental health statuses less relational to the harm of solitary confinement on those with mental illnesses. This apparently comes after Governor Walker proposed changes to how inmates with mental illnesses are treated physically, psychologically, pharmacologically, etc. In this regard, a memo was released asking professionals in the DOC realm to reassess inmates pertaining to mental health statuses and levels of functioning related to their level of confinement.
In an era where mental health is gaining support for services in the consciousness of the general population. Having a Governor and a State department to feel the need to reassess inmates to fudge with the statistics behind funding and operational success of incarceration institutions is mind boggling. The governor is in the midst of attempting to make himself look good in the face of another re-election campaign. A failed presidential campaign where he boasted the budgetary restrictions he has already forced on limited resources in Wisconsin should provide some indication of his potential to successfully continue to govern our great state. 

Any recent attempt to overhaul the incarceration rate of Wisconsinites has failed due to policy makers and state legislative bodies. Having never visited a prison in his time as Governor, how effective does he expect to be in creating real changes in a department he doesn’t seem to care enough about, nevermind how many potential voters are being lost in the ever increasing maze of minor infractions, mandatory minimum sentences, and social consciousness wars where taxpayer monies are wastes in awareness campaigns.

​Read the referenced article at this link: http://m.chippewa.com/wisconsin-prison-officials-quietly-changed-mental-health-status-of-inmates/article_39c22536-62de-5357-94eb-f3e65ae79423.html

Wisconsinites Paying For It.

1

Fact: Governor Walker has not visited a prison since he was elected in 2011. That is a jaw-dropping fact! Not even bothering to visit one of the many juvenile detention centers. As a past prior presidential candidate, this is deeply concerning especially when Wisconsin has a rather high number of incarcerated individuals and a disproportionate number of minority inmates, combined with large budget that surpasses other nearby states. Nationally, only eleven other states spend more per resident than Wisconsin on corrections. And with more mandatory minimum laws being passed, the prison population is guaranteed to grow rather than shrink.

With the DOC asking for more and more funding to be able to provide critical mental health services to inmates, Wisconsinites need to surpass their love of awareness campaigns and push for some real structure and oversight. Who audits the state or the governor’s office? Let’s push Walker to set foot in a prison or juvenile detention centers and possibly create a mindset that speaks to giving a damn about people that need services and reformed supports and not just becoming a number or a chance for private prisons to collect tax dollars.

“The DOC’s 2017-19 Biennial Budget Request mainly incorporates a cost-to-continue approach for current operations in our institutions and supervision of offenders in the community with some modest investments requested. When all funds are combined, this request increases spending 112.3 million or 4.6% over the current biennial base budget.” 

☆I attempted to find a total budget figure rather than a requested amount but was not successful.

Additional reading: Tax dollars are further wasted as the DOC leases”sprawling”pieces of property. http://watchdog.org/292556/treasurer-taxpayers-lease/

Solitary Confinement Reform and Awareness.

0

Our more successful neighboring state of Minnesota (for prison reform) is in the news for seeking out reforms when it comes to solitary confinement. 

http://m.startribune.com/solitary-confinement-legislation-takes-steps-toward-essential-reform/417834623/

In our neck of the woods, we are still holding awareness campaigns for people already aware of the issues. Also, our largest supporter of reforms is religious based communities rather than political, social, or departmental (as in DOC). Appleton will be hosting an evening of awareness in the basement of the public library on April 5th put on by ESTHER an the League of Women Voters (Meeting Room A, 6:30pm). Additionally, there will be a solitary confinement exhibit in De Pere beginning April 30th at First United Presbyterian Church in partnership with JOSHUA. Details at this link:

https://m.evensi.us/the-truth-about-solitary-confinement-first-united/204579063

If you are not aware, please attend one of these events to see how we are treating people in prison and the conditions in solitary confinement for people who can be locked away in a small room for 23 or 24 hours a day for weeks, months, years, and decades. How we treat others and how we allow ourselves to turn our backs and remain unaware of the truth that people live on a daily basis in this modern America, shows how we as a country elected our current political majority.

If you are already aware, please come up with ways to make others aware of the issues rather than attending these events alone and creating false numbers of how many individuals this information reaches in the general population.

For-Profit Prisons and The Reversal In Phasing Them Out.

1

The United States imprisons more people per capita than any other country. With more mandatory minimum sentencing laws and more economic and social policy changes in favor of a higher wage population, privatization of public resources has become any easy moneymaker. This also includes charter schools and for-profit higher education institutes.

The idea that a company can relieve the government of the responsibility of managing the incarceration of people by also getting paid by the government shows how much disregard there is for the rehabilitative purposes of incarceration.

Recently, the Department of Corrections was on a path to phase out for-profit prisons realizing full well that making money off the incarceration of people has no ethical basis. With Trump’s new attorney general Jeff Sessions in his new capacity of power, he reversed the DOC’s phasing out process. I wonder why? Below is a great article about the reversal of phasing out private prisons. When you think about the over 22,000 prisoners Wisconsin houses and consider that Illinois has statutes that have banned private prisons. Last week’s post was about Cook County Jail. In a state that holds the motto of ‘Forward’, it does not look like our previously purple state minds to disregard a lot of these issues.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1622NN

Load More

© 2024