Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy

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The Citizen Advocate: Spring 2011 News

May 4th, 2011 View Comments

Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy is a 32 year old Savannah-based non profit that recruits, matches and offers support to over 125 local citizens who engage in one-to-one citizen advocate matches to offer protection from neglect and harm and advocacy for inclusion and better civic and social opportunities for citizens with developmental disabilities in our community.

 

Citizen Advocacy is built upon freely given voluntary relationships between the two people and advocates are invited to understand, represent and respond to that person’s interests as if they were
the advocate’s own.

 

Listening to Citizen Advocates…

 

I had a quick coffee with citizen advocate Chris Middleton. Chris is an attorney here in Savannah and his days start early. He and a man named Rick Black* have been matched for a year this month so it was a good time to catch up on some of what’s been going on. Rick lives
in a group home here in Savannah.

 

“Rick and I did some hanging out this weekend. He came over to my house and we washed my car together and ate lunch together.” There is nothing more ordinary and manly than men and cars. This is how trust is built.

 

People find ways to spend time together, get to know one another and gradually come to care about
each other and what happens to one other. This is the ground from which spokesmanship and action grow.

 

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I ran into citizen advocate Richard Lane at Barfood in the Habersham Shopping Center. He and his protégé Denise* had been at the mall the previous evening shopping for Denise – new shoes, new outfit.

 

“I really don’t spend much time in the women’s section at Stein Mart, but there we were, with me offering my humble opinion about women’s fashion.” A few minutes later three of Richard’s friends came in to meet him. Two of them have heard about Denise through Richard. I was sort of a “rock star” since I was the “introducer” between Denise and Richard.

 

I introduced Richard to Denise several months ago because Denise needed a Representative Payee. Richard accepted and he now helps Denise manage her monthly finances. He also helps Denise with some errands and shopping. This sort of neighborliness is something that can happen naturally between people. It’s the sort of thing that sometimes needs a little encouraging as well.

 

Denise is a change agent. She changes people’s ideas about who is supposed to know and care about
whom. This is going to be one of the “big stories” in the culture over the next decade or so. Richard and Denise are prophets as they help people around them see neighborliness in action.

 

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Citizen advocate Jane Fishman recently told a lovely story about spending time with her protégé Natalie* and Natalie’s mother. They all spent the day in Natalie’s neighborhood walking around, pushing Natalie’s wheelchair, looking at people’s gardens, talking about who
people in the neighborhood are. Just taking the time to be together and see good things all around.

 

Jane was invited to meet Natalie at a time when various human service agencies were pushing for her to be removed from her family, a time when no one was valuing the complexity of family life. None of the people who were pushing this had spent much, if any time, at Natalie and her mom’s house.

 

A citizen advocate takes the time to be with people, to see what is going on in a person’s life first hand. This is true of Jane, who is beginning to “feel like family.” This match is deepening
and becoming a relationship that can offer enjoyment to everyone and protection to Natalie.

 

*Names have been changed to honor privacy

Looking forward to Springtime…

April 25th, 2011 View Comments

As we welcome Springtime in Savannah, let’s revisit the purpose we share under the banner of Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy.

 

Our shared purpose is to provide protection to and advocacy for people who are marginalized because of prejudice toward disability. We bring people who would not ordinarily meet into meaningful relationship with one another. We have done this for more than 30 years using a model called Citizen Advocacy.

 

We do this so that people who live isolated lives, lives that are only witnessed by paid staff persons, or sometimes by no person, will have someone who is voluntarily and intentionally in their corner.

 

We do this so that people who live big busy lives can be in solidarity with someone whose life looks different on the outside, with the hope that they will discover that they share many of the same hopes, dreams and needs on the inside, inside their souls. We call this “identification”  – when the advocate identifies with the life and the soul of the other person.

 

We do this as a way to encourage both people to be the most they can be as human beings.

 

This is an idea that can have great strength and fragility. It is an idea that becomes real as people find ways to be together, working on practical matters as well as finding ways to share pleasure and enjoyment.

 

As an organization, we have to try and be curious about ourselves. It is easy to fall into unconscious busyness, missing the chance to refresh, reframe and reestablish our passion.

 

As we enjoy the renewal of Springtime, let’s all work together to ask important questions, create useful ideas, celebrate good news and make meaning out of all that comes our way.

WWBC in Cincinnati… guest blog by Dave Murley

February 9th, 2011 View Comments

As part of the Waddie Welcome Martin Luther King Jr. Day Worldwide Read, groups of people have been reading the story together in each other’s homes, churches, community centers and coffee shops. Here is a reflection from a coffee shop reading in Cincinnati.

 

“I would walk away a changed man…” — Dave Murley

 

Several weeks ago, April and I attended a book reading at the Coffee Emporium in Cincinnati. We ventured out on Martin Luther King Day to downtown Cincinnati and found this huge establishment crammed full of people wanting….coffee. About 20 of us were there to read out loud a book called Waddie Welcome and the Beloved Community. I stood in line, grabbed a large cup of coffee and dragged a chair over to join the group. Little did I know I would walk away a different person inspired by a man with a disability from Savannah, Georgia.

 

Waddie (yes that is his name), was an African-American man who was born with cerebral palsy and was taken care of his family until he was 70 years old. When his parents died he was placed in a nursing home. The story is about how a community came together to help Waddie get out of that nursing home and into a real home again. Waddie could only communicate with yes and no answers, but because people took the time to listen to him they discovered that he did not want to be in the nursing home. He wanted to live in a house that had children and he could smell home cooking. This became a reality with the help of dedicated people from the community who acted as advocates for Waddie.

 

I volunteered to read around Chapter 9 not knowing that I was going to have to read his very long, touching eulogy. Let’s just say it’s a little hard to read while you are crying and sniffing at the same time. This book is so powerful because it shows you the importance of having our kids with disabilities surrounded by a community of people who care and will take the time to help.

 

We all think about what will happen to our children when we aren’t around any more. If you have the opportunity to attend a reading or read the book yourself, do it! It will give you hope and much to think about. Truly a life changing book.

Gumption…

February 3rd, 2011 View Comments

Norton Melaver passed away last week. The story of his role in the Savannah community was shared on the front and editorial pages of the Savannah Morning News. Both spoke of his business, religious and civic leadership.

 

I attended Mr. Melaver’s funeral on Sunday and saw many people that are part of “my” Savannah. All three of the Melaver children spoke about their dad and there was plenty to say. Norton was involved in and led dozens of business, civic and religious activities over the decades. Martin Melaver pointed out that the two public accomplishments his father was proudest of were the hiring of African American cashiers at M&M Supermarkets at a time when this was unheard of, and the questioning and rectifying of certain insider business practices at Memorial Hospital roughly 20 years ago.

 

Both of these actions took gumption. Not everything we do as leaders or as followers requires gumption. It’s just interesting to me that the two things that Norton felt were his most important contributions involved having the gumption to question and challenge the status quo.

 

On a personal note, the Melavers were early, long standing, generous contributors to Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy. Norton and wife Betty came to a dinner and discussion at my house 20 years ago, when my wife and I lived on Duffy and Waters. Betty sat on the floor. Norton was a little more formal, but very much at home among the broad mix of people.

 

Also noted… Reverend Bennie Mitchell passed away earlier this week. Tom Barton shares his memory of Rev. Mitchell in his editorial in today’s Savannah Morning News. If you read Tom’s editorial you will see two familiar names, Waddie Welcome and Addie Reeves…

People say the darndest things…

January 31st, 2011 View Comments

Two quick quotes – one next to the other in this Sunday’s New York Times to remind us of just how differently people see what is “right.”

 

“I was making a crazy amount of money and not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it.” from Gil Meche, an injured pitcher for the Kansas City Royals who gave up his 12 million dollar guaranteed contract for 2011 and retired. Is this man a hero, simply honest, or a chump?

 

“The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done.” from a report by a Federal panel concluding that the financial crisis was an avoidable disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate management and heedless risk taking by Wall Street. The words regulation, management and taking could be regulators, managers and takers. It was people – not papers – that acted. Some of the “smartest” men and women in the world were seemingly not able to see what was RIGHT – no pun intended – in front on them, created by their own actions and inactions…

 

Sometimes “everybody” is really nobody. Sometimes one person’s actions can ignite the moral imagination of a nation, a town, an organization or simply one other person.