Author: Sarah Reid

From Homeless to College Bound: Ryan, YouthBuild student

Posted on November 30, 2018

For most kids, turning 18 is a celebration, a time of transition and experiencing tastes of independence with parental support. However, for thousands of kids across the country, turning 18 signifies “aging out” of foster care, meaning they are too old to stay in care and must make it on their own. According to national studies, only half of those aging out find secure employment by age 24 and only 4% earn a college degree by age 26. One in five of these young adults become homeless. Homeless youth face many challenges.

They may have a hard time staying in shelters due to shelter policies, and often experience depression, poor health, and poor nutrition. Most (75%) drop out of high school. Without shelter, transportation, or education, they have difficulty supporting themselves financially and turning things around. This year, our YouthBuild program started with a cohort of 15 participants, four of whom were homeless.

Aging Out of Foster Care

Ryan Gravely was one of those participants after aging out of the foster care system. He had been referred to TAP after staying at the Salvation Army’s men’s shelter and then the Roanoke Rescue Mission. “He was quiet at first, but there was something that just made you like him immediately,” said Scott Liptrap, TAP’s youth programs manager at the time. Staff from our Homeless Educators Linking Providers and Services (HELPS) program immediately began looking for a place Ryan could stay. HELPS assists homeless individuals, primarily youth, in Roanoke find housing and secure employment.

As part of their search, program staff began contacting our community partners, and Police Chief Tim Jones recommended Least of These Ministries, operated by Dawn Sandoval. Dawn worked tirelessly to find a place for Ryan, even offering to pay for a hotel at one point.

A Place to Call Home

When she finally found him a room on Good Friday, Dawn greeted Ryan at his new home with bags full of essentials for his first time being on his own. Facing a completely new situation, the reality of living independently set in. He had never had a place to call home. Would he get along with his roommates? What were the expectations? “I was nervous,” Ryan said. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever had before.” In the meantime, Ryan joined 14 other students in YouthBuild, a national program that trains youth ages 16 to 24 in construction trades.

Education and Training

Participants also receive training in career, technical, and leadership skills in the classroom and on the worksite. Additionally, if the participants do not have a high school diploma, they are enrolled in a GED preparation course. With a place to call his own, Ryan is flourishing. He received his GED in weeks instead of the usual six months, and he will soon graduate from YouthBuild with a pre-apprenticeship certification in green construction. With an opportunity that he couldn’t have imagined a few years ago, Ryan is going to follow his fascination with the mysteries of the ocean and study marine biology at Virginia Western Community College.

“It would have been easy for him to give up, but he’s tough,” said Scott. “He’s bright, and he’ll do well in college.”

Many in Ryan’s position never find or take advantage of the network of community services available. In Ryan’s case, the Salvation Army, Rescue Mission, Roanoke Police Department, Least of These Ministries, and TAP all played a role.

“Don’t be shy to ask for help. People will help.”

“Don’t be shy to ask for help. People will help. The staff at TAP will do anything,” Ryan advises. “And just keep your head up. Never look at things negatively, or things will always be negative.” Many who have met Ryan attribute his success to his perseverance and optimism. With these traits, Ryan’s future looks bright. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll write a book about the Bermuda Triangle and the Mariana “ Trench,” he said.

Click here to find out more about our youth employment programs.

Starting Over and Thriving: John, Virginia CARES client

Posted on November 30, 2018

It was getting late on an August Friday in 2011, in Covington, Virginia. All John LaFlamme had in the world were the clothes on his back and a copy of his high school diploma. He had no car, no home, no family in the area, and no ID. He had just been released from prison.

Time was not on John’s side.

Within a few short months he would either successfully become a stable member of the community or he would fail to meet his parole requirements and end up back in prison.

Leslie Matney, who was at the time the district’s chief of probation and parole, recalled that the first afternoon, the scope of the tasks that John needed to accomplish in a short amount of time was daunting.

The challenges extended as far into John’s future as she could see. “He owed thousands of dollars in court costs,” Leslie pointed out. “He was stuck in the Catch-22 of not being able to afford a permanent address without a job and not being able to get a job without being able to list a full-time address,” she said.

Finding work was another challenge

The Great Recession made getting a job extremely difficult. When John got out, it seemed no one was hiring. However, despite the employment opportunities in Covington being more limited than perhaps might have been the case in a larger city, there were also opportunities in Covington that would prove crucial to John’s success story. Many returning citizens like John exit prison without a support network. For them, the sink-or-swim nature of release makes the challenge to find the right tools critical.

Luckily, John Found Help

To connect returning citizens to the services and resources that already exist, Virginia created local Reentry and Community Collaboration Councils. The councils brought together state, local, private, and community-based organizations to make better use of existing resources. Ultimately, they help returning citizens build their skills, practice good habits, and keep their positive momentum to improve their chances of gaining good jobs and remaining out of prison permanently.

Upon his release at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday, within an hour, John had obtained a temporary place to stay at a motel and met up with TAP Virginia CARES’ Lawrence St. Clair. The two talked about the obstacles facing John and began to connect. John began to work with our Virginia CARES staff regularly and attended the computer classes and the Thinking for a Change program there. He volunteered. He used all the tools that CARES offered to turn his hard work into tangible results.

Slowly, John gained momentum. Through his volunteering in the community, he made a connection with Debbie Barber of Motor-Vation Lawn Care, who hired him part-time and taught him landscaping. With a work history and references on his applications, John eventually found full-time employment with benefits. He went from staying in a motel to renting a small garage apartment, which he renovated, to owning the house in front of the garage apartment.

Thriving Today

Today, he is active in the faith community and serves as a board member for Virginia CARES, Inc.—where he continues to work alongside former Chief of Probation and Parole Leslie Matney. Reflecting on John’s progress and his role on the CARES board of directors, Leslie summarized the value of John’s progress as a source of experience and encouragement for the whole organization: “To have John’s perspective, to have that voice on our board is so valuable.”

When asked about the key to his success, John’s answer is almost a perfect mirror image of Leslie’s. Her career in probation and parole and its lessons of building a community of support for returning citizens have led her to conclude that “it takes a village” to help formerly institutionalized people. John, meanwhile, reflected on his story and what he most often shares with those he mentors now: “Nobody can do it by themselves.”

Click here to find out more about our Virginia CARES program.

Working Together to Serve Our Nation’s Veterans

Posted on October 31, 2018

How TAP works with the local VA Hospital to help end veteran homelessness

When the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced the ambitious goal of ending veteran homelessness in 2009, the agency knew that it would need to do things differently to make the impact it wanted. Its new plan involved bringing more partners to the table to make the care veterans received truly comprehensive.

As part of the Salem VA Medical Center’s efforts to help reach that goal, Katherine “Kate” Donaldson serves as its eyes and ears in central and western Virginia. As the outreach worker for the VA’s Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program, Kate is not just the first point of contact for veterans living in homeless shelters in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Staunton, but also a hub for dozens of supportive service programs for the veterans she works with.

Since she joined the Healthcare for Homeless Veterans program four years ago, she has worked closely with our Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program. She describes the working relationship with her SSVF counterpart and TAP employee Evelyn Jordan as not merely a point of contact, but as an extremely close and trusted colleague, emphasizing that they have joint outreach sessions and rely on each other to help meet the needs of the hundreds of veterans they meet each year. “I know her program like the back of my hand and she knows my program like the back of hers, so if anyone comes into TAP and she thinks they’d be appropriate, she can give them all the information about my program that they need to know, and vice-versa.”

In addition to all her efforts to meet veterans firsthand and make sure they can get into the programs they need, Kate also oversees another program—Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Administration Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH)—that works in tandem with SSVF to help end veteran homelessness.

“HUD-VASH does not help with security or utility deposits, but SSVF is able to provide that,” she explained. “And then there are clients that SSVF sees that don’t have income, and won’t have it soon, so without HUD-VASH they would be sitting in shelter a very long time without being able to get housed.”

For the nation’s veterans facing homelessness, service providers collaborating isn’t a question of making efficient use of available resources—it’s the only way to start closing the service gaps that veterans can fall through.

For information or to donate, please click here.

Someone you know has likely suffered through domestic violence

Posted on September 28, 2018

Domestic violence is common. Very common. About one in every four women and one in seven men has experienced it. Despite how frequently it occurs in our society, the myths about domestic violence can cause us to do the wrong thing when trying to help.

In my work assisting domestic violence survivors, the question that I’m asked most frequently is “Why don’t they just leave?”

The truth is that most domestic violence situations are complicated by a number of factors. An abuser can use different fears as leverage in order to trap a survivor or limit their options. For example, a male client once told me he stayed with his abuser because he knew that it would make his kids safer. He said that if she was hitting him, then he knew she wasn’t hitting their kids. That need to be close to his kids, and to have firsthand knowledge they were safe, was far more important than his own physical safety.

And, further complicating the matter, many male survivors perceive that they will struggle in court to prove that they are victims of abuse and that they should retain sole custody of their children.

Where to start?

Each situation is different. The best thing you can do to help is be an advocate—to listen and to support, offering counsel, but always remembering that abuse is a form of control, and empowering survivors means they must make their own decisions. After all, they’re the ones who have to live with the consequences.

With that in mind, one of the best things you can do for someone is to make sure they don’t have to navigate a complex, dangerous situation alone. Refer them to a domestic violence hotline, such as TAP’s 24/7 help hotline at 540-580-0775. Abusers are often able to perpetuate their abuse because they isolate their victims.

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Three common myths

Seeing past all the myths and misunderstandings about domestic violence goes a long way in developing a helpful, supportive perspective.

Myth #1:
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ONLY HAPPENS IN POOR FAMILIES.

Domestic violence occurs throughout all levels of society. There is no evidence that suggests that any income level, occupation, social class, or culture is immune from domestic violence. At TAP DVS we see a wide range of clients, from clients with no income to professionals with PhDs. The HBO short series Big Little Lies demonstrates this phenomenon and is a great example of how common abuse and violence are in many relationships.

Myth #2:
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS ALWAYS PHYSICAL ABUSE.

Domestic abuse and intimate partner abuse do not always leave a bruise or a broken bone. In fact, the majority of clients that we see have experienced other types of abuse like financial, mental/emotional, sexual, coercion, harassment, stalking, and poly-victimization (multiple types of abuse). Sometimes the emotional and financial abuse leaves a larger scar than the physical abuse. The feeling of another person controlling your life has profound and lasting effects; these wounds can take years to heal.

Myth #3:
VICTIMS HAVE THE TYPES OF PERSONALITIES THAT ATTRACT ABUSIVE PARTNERS AND ENCOURAGE ABUSE.

This is a form of victim-blaming and it is very common in our society. A number of studies have determined that there is no standard set of personality traits among victims of domestic violence. It is helpful to remind ourselves that the batterer is responsible for the battering, not the victim. We often turn the table back on the victim in abuse cases, especially assaults and sexual assaults, instead of rightfully placing blame on the abuser. Remember: no one asks to be raped, beaten, or abused.

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What to do if you think someone is in danger:

Learning these facts will help you become more informed, but it’s only the first step. Learn about the resources in your region in case you need to help someone out of a situation. If you’re worried about someone, recommending they seek out resources is much more likely to be successful if you can name some of those resources and how they can help—it could make the difference between life and death.

If you or someone you know in the Roanoke region has been abused, TAP DVS has a 24/7 hotline at 540-580-0775. If you are unsure of the local resources in your region, call the U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233. We can all be a source of hope!

Written by the director of TAP’s Domestic Violence Services

Dr. Brenda Louise Hale honored with the 2018 Cabell Brand Hope Award

Posted on September 24, 2018

We are delighted to present Dr. Brenda Hale with this year’s Cabell Brand Hope Award. Hale has devoted her life to serving her community and we are happy to honor her with this award. The award will be presented to Hale at TAP’s Annual Lunch on October 16^th. 

Dr. Brenda Louise Hale is an eight-term President of the Roanoke Branch NAACP with an impressive portfolio of service, achievement, innovation, and collaboration. Dr. Hale is an individual of high integrity and is well-respected throughout the region for her community service. Steadfast in her commitment to community and justice, she truly possesses the ability to act as an agent for change.

Dr. Hale attended Chaminade University in Honolulu and Roanoke College where she studied psychology. She received her nursing education from Fitzsimmon Army General Hospital and Virginia Western Community College. She also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Bethlehem Bible College in 2010; a doctorate of theology in biblical studies from the Word of Life Theological Seminary in 2013; and an honorary doctorate of humane letters with all rights and privileges from Roanoke College in 2018.

Sergeant First Class (E-7) Hale retired from the Army in 1978. She has since worked with the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center as a LPN and RN; the Non-Commissioned Officers Association in Honolulu as a financial counselor; and Primerica Financial Service as a financial representative division leader.

Dr. Hale is a member of Loudon Avenue Christian Church and a Gold Life Member of the NAACP, among several other civic memberships. She is the senior vice commander of the VFW Post 1444 in Roanoke, serves as the secretary of the TAP Board of Directors, and also serves on several other boards including Jefferson College of Health Sciences, Roanoke City Rescue Mission, and Local Colors.

Dr. Hale is the first African American elected as secretary for the VA State Board of Nursing. She was also listed in Who’s Who in American Nursing 1990-91 and Who’s Who of American Women 1995-96. Other accolades received by Dr. Hale include: numerous military medals; the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award from the Roanoke Chapter SCLC; named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International; the Black Girls Rock Award from the Continental Societies, Inc. Roanoke Chapter; the Impactors of Excellence Award from the Roanoke NAACP Youth Council; and the UBU Humanitarian Award.

How Much Can You Know About A College You Can’t Visit?

Posted on September 4, 2018

TAP’s Project Discovery makes sure great students don’t miss out on college due to a lack of resources

DA’NERA KINSEY IS GOING TO COLLEGE—she just needs to narrow down which one from the dozens she has visited with TAP’s Project Discovery.

Like many high school seniors, Da’Nera’s thinking about college a lot this time of year. Through her involvement with Project Discovery, she’s made dozens of visits, but she’s taking plenty of time this fall to think her decision through. Unlike many of her peers, however, her opportunities to visit colleges were limited by her mother being the primary caregiver to Da’Nera’s quadriplegic brother.

Grabbing Opportunities

Da’Nera knew she was interested in attending college—and, despite not being able to take her to visit schools herself, so did her mother. When a family friend recommended Da’Nera look into Project Discovery, she grabbed the opportunity and didn’t look back. She joined the program when she was in middle school and has attended each year’s workshops and as many campus visits as possible.

Since joining, she has gone on dozens of campus visits with the program, including Emory and Henry, James Madison University, William and Mary, Old Dominion University (twice), Christopher Newport University, Hampton University, Norfolk State, and more.

The visits have given her a better idea of what kind of school feels right for her. She wants a school that’s not too far away from home so she can still see her family. She does, however, want a school that’s far enough away that she doesn’t feel like she never left. She says knowingly, “I still want that college experience!”

A History of Success

Project Discovery helps hundreds of students to succeed in improving their test scores, getting into college, and being successful. A 2008 Pell Institute study found that only 11% of the nation’s low-income, first-generation college students earned a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting. Project Discovery wants to change that by giving young students academic counseling, workshops on admissions and financial aid topics, SAT prep, college application fee assistance, and, of course, campus visits to help students stay focused on their goals.

Because community members like you give to TAP, we’re able to sustain programs like Project Discovery and to keep serving talented young students like Da’Nera.

Community Partnerships: Carilion and TAP working together

Posted on August 1, 2018

Carilion Clinic runs a wide network of hospitals and physicians and serves nearly one million Virginians each year. Medical expertise is a major requirement, but a hospital needs so much more to be successful in its mission of care. Hospitals are often high-stress environments—for employees and visitors alike—making the practice of interpersonal skills an important challenge to meet.

Certified Nurse Assistant Program

To help its nurse assistants be successful, Carilion partnered with TAP to provide orientation classes to new hires. It was our Certified Nurse Assistant program, which provides the certification necessary to work in long-term care facilities, that first got Carilion’s attention. Our students consistently demonstrated not only the right blend of technical skills required to achieve certification, but did so along with a core set of soft skills, good workplace habits, and hands-on practice.

Jessica Sheppard, LPN, is our instructional specialist for the program and coordinator with Carilion. Previously employed at Carilion, she brings 21 years of nursing experience and knows just how demanding the profession can be. She works with her students to improve their skills in listening to and interacting with patients, as well as deciphering what findings to report to their colleagues. She also prepares them for how the practice can be more demanding than what’s in the textbook.

“It’s my passion”

For Jessica, the chance to make a difference in the care her students provide to those in need is a major motivating factor. “It’s my passion,” she says. “I want my students to remember what they learn!”

Find out more about our adult education programs here.