The first in a series by Cliff Lewis

NewsLanc recently interviewed three project directors involved with the Lancaster Urban League (LUL): Regina Duell, Director of Operations; Zeltha Ellis, Director of Adult and Youth Education Support Services; and Melinda Zapp, Director of Project Hope. The LUL exists to empower poor and underprivileged minority groups, primarily living in Lancaster City.

The Lancaster Urban League (LUL) first began operations in 1965. Initially, the LUL focused exclusively on serving the African-American community in Lancaster through employment/housing assistance and civil rights advocacy. Today, the organization has expanded both its clientele and its services. As stated on the LUL website, their mission is now to serve “African-Americans, the poor, the disadvantaged, and other minorities” through programs ranging from technology training to health services.

Working out of their S Duke St base, the LUL spreads their far-reaching influence into diverse realms of Lancaster City life. At McCaskey High School, there’s the Teen Elect Program, where case managers can assist teen parents in learning crucial skills and finding financial assistance for school-time childcare. According to Regina Duell, the three case managers each serve up to 35 students at a time. From the S Duke headquarters, the LUL also provides the Integrated Employment Program, which assists adults in searching for jobs, creating resumes, and even provides bus passes to keep the pursuit of employment as smooth as possible.

Also at the S Duke headquarters, the LUL houses an internet-connected computer lab, which serves over 500 individual community members each year. As explained by Zeltha Ellis, the lab is used during school hours to teach adults basic computer and web search skills and also serves as a hub for GED test preparation. After school hours, the lab is open to neighborhood children as a place for tutoring, homework, research, and some free activity. During the summer months, dozens of restless kids pour into this 20-seat lab each day, even requiring special activities for those waiting on overflow.

Project Hope is a division of the LUL that aims to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in the surrounding community. Testing, counseling, education, and free contraceptives are just a few of the ways that Project Hope fights the spread and the effects of this local epidemic. (In a later issue of this series, the local presence of HIV/AIDS and the efforts of this particular program will be discussed at greater length.)

Although the LUL is doing significant work in Lancaster City, their financial support has suffered in recent years. The drop in funding, which is not unique to this particular nonprofit, has painfully limited the LUL’s capacity to provide services that fully match the needs they see around them. Considering the broad array of programs undertaken by the LUL, one might expect a large and bustling office staff. But, currently, the LUL has to run on a staff of five.

By Cliff Lewis

At the May 13 County Commissioners Meeting, the Board voted to approve the Lancaster County Mental Health Plan for Fiscal Year 2010-2011; it will next be submitted to Harrisburg for final approval. Although the plan is requesting $14.7 million for ‘10-’11, it is expected that the Mental Health/Mental Retardation (MH/MR) program will actually be receiving a cut from its current $12.7 million budget. This will be the organization’s first budget cut since 1991.

The plan was presented to Commissioners by James Laughman, Executive Director of the County’s MH/MR program. Laughman explained how the need for mental health services has recently increased: “We serve about 3,304 people at a given time. In a six-month period we have increased our population of people with serious mental illness by 121 people. That’s pretty significant to see that type of increase.” According to Laughman, there is a direct correlation between this surge and the recent economic slump: “As people lose jobs, they become more stressed; as they lose their housing, they become more stressed. And that can turn into serious mental illness.”

Laughman elaborated that the individuals who would most suffer from budget cuts are those for whom the organization would typically make exceptions: “The law says that only people diagnosed with serious mental illness are eligible for services….But there are times where you do what’s right. Maybe you have somebody that’s not necessary diagnosed on the far-end spectrum that the law has identified, so you open your funnel and realize that if you spend the money now in a preventative nature,…it’s going to save the County a lot of dollars.”

Commissioner Scott Martin expressed his own concern about the forthcoming MH/MR budget: “When you’re moving in the direction of trying things to reduce costs to the taxpayers, that these types of cuts put even those innovative programs in jeopardy is very disheartening….I’m very worried about the impact on our MH/MR program from these cuts.”

Laughman encouraged all concerned citizens to write to their State and Federal representatives to let them know that “this is not the time to cut human services. Because we will pay for it if we don’t have preventative services. You’re going to pay for it in prison costs, you’re going to pay for it in children and youth agencies, you’re going to pay for it in drug and alcohol abuse.”

The lack of State and Federal dollars for preventative care is nothing new to Lancaster County. A recent NewsLanc series found that Lancaster’s Drug and Alcohol Commission has, since 2002, lost over $300,000 in annual funding for its already under-funded rehab and prevention programs.

The second in a series by Cliff Lewis

NewsLanc recently interviewed Rick Kastner, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Drug and Alcohol Commission (LCDAC). The LCDAC exists to “provide high quality prevention/education programs and treatment services for uninsured and low income citizens.” Our discussion with Kastner revealed the many challenges facing both Lancaster’s drug and alcohol addicted residents and the systems that seek to help them.

Most Federal and State funded programs have encountered budget cuts as a result of the recent economic recession. But, according to Kastner, this is no new development for the LCDAC. Whereas most other government funded human services programs are budgeted around $10 million each year, the LCDAC has received less than $4 million for each of the past seven years.

When asked by NewsLanc what may be the cause of this persistent shortfall, Kastner replied without hesitation:

“The drug and alcohol field has always received a lot of attention with enforcement and interdiction. Enforcement with tens of billions of dollars in the country going towards law enforcement to basically bust the addicts and alcoholics, and interdiction to keep it out of the country, or to keep it from being manufactured and distributed. But treatment and prevention has always received, by far, a minuscule amount of funding compared to enforcement and interdiction.”

In fact, the ratio of funding for enforcement/interdiction compared to treatment/prevention is at least 100 to 1, in Kastner’s estimate. Considering research demonstrating that every dollar put into treatment/prevention saves at least seven dollars in other social costs (prisons, mental health, hospital beds, etc.), Kastner asserted, “It’s very frustrating when you see the results of our treatment and prevention programs, but then you don’t have the public dollars to help those people who are working yet don’t have the insurance to cover their drug and alcohol treatment.”

Kastner hopes that one positive change could occur if the Obama Administration comes up with a plan for affordable health care for all. If the plan were to include adequate provision for addiction services, this could largely correct the funding problem. In this case, the “working poor” could receive care through their own health insurance coverage, and the LCDAC would no longer be needed to fund treatment programs at all.

Kastner would be happy to direct LCDAC funds away from treatment, as long as the people are served through other means. “I would like to be able to focus most of our attention on our prevention programs,” He noted, “My funding is small, but we could a lot with that $3.5 million if we could put it all in prevention and education—and probably decrease the demand for treatment services.”

The first in a series by Cliff Lewis

NewsLanc recently interviewed Rick Kastner, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Drug and Alcohol Commission (LCDAC). The LCDAC exists to “provide high quality prevention/education programs and treatment services for uninsured and low income citizens.” Our discussion with Kastner revealed the many challenges facing both Lancaster’s drug and alcohol addicted residents and the systems that seek to help them.

On December 8, 2008, the Lancaster County Drug and Alcohol Commission (LCDAC) had to cease accepting new placements into rehab and halfway house (HH) programs. There will be no new admissions until the beginning of the next fiscal year, on July 1. Of course, the LCDAC, which has historically received scanty funding from its State and Federal sources, has had to block admission to these programs before—but only for about two months, not seven.

Detox treatments (often dealing with life-or-death situations) and outpatient treatment (often less expensive) have remained open for new admissions. But rehab and HH are generally considered the “bread and butter” of addiction treatment, and their temporary closing marks a severe reduction in LCDAC’s treatment services.

On July 1, when the LCDAC receives its new budget, the rehab and HH admissions will be reopened. But not for long. This next budget will likely be cut by at least 2%, but probably more. In the words of Kastner, “It’ll be a real victory if we only have that 2% cut.”

The actual rehab and HH facilities are still up and running, because people are also admitted through personal health insurance or public medical assistance: “The welfare card in Lancaster provides over $6 million in [drug and alcohol] treatment….So our office is not the only referral source in town to keep those beds filled.”

Unfortunately, there is one class of people that will not be offered many of those beds in the coming months: The “working poor.” This group includes those workers who do not qualify for public medical assistance, yet cannot afford the cost of health care. Those who can barely afford health care can rarely obtain a plan that would cover drug and alcohol treatment. The LCDAC would typically provide rehab or HH services to people in such circumstances, were it not for the current budget limitations.

When asked by NewsLanc whether a lengthy waiting list has been accrued for rehab and HH since December, Kastner replied candidly, “We don’t keep waiting lists because an addict doesn’t stay put long enough to really make a waiting list worthwhile…. Let’s say you want to buy a brand new car, and there’s a waiting list, like early on with some of the hybrids. When they call you at home, you’re probably going to answer the phone and say ‘Yeah, I still want the car’—at least most people would. With a heroin addict, or any addict,…they don’t sit put very long.”

Radio Centro (91.3 WLCH) first entered the local airwaves on September 14, 1987. Station Manager Enid Vasquez-Pereira was there on that Monday morning, and today she easily recalls the small beginnings: “It was a little studio. You’d walk into the production studio and then walk into the on-air studio, so there were a lot of interruptions.” It was a Now the station occupies a generous first-floor space for their lively headquarters at 30 N Ann St.

Radio Centro (RC) is a Spanish public broadcasting station serving Hispanic and Latino listeners in Lancaster and beyond. Being an NPR-affiliated broadcaster, the station offers a blend of educational and cultural programming, some of which is produced by larger national studios, such as Radio Bilingue’s Linea Abierta (airing Monday through Friday at 3:00pm). Much of RC’s educational programming, however, is homegrown, produced right here at the Downtown Lancaster studio.

Music plays an important role in RC’s programming. And, although most of the music is Spanish-language, there exists a wide range of ethnic genres. As Lancaster has grown in its diversity of Hispanic nationalities, Vasquez-Pereira explained, RC has sought to provide specialized blocks of programming catered to various styles—from Cuban to Dominican. Occasionally, up-and-coming artists have visited RC from New York City or other urban centers to talk on the air. According to Vasquez-Pereira, “we have had some who are now international stars,” such as Andy Andy and Aventura.

Aside from providing Spanish-speakers with valuable news and information, one of RC’s greatest accomplishments is preserving Hispanic and Latino culture by connecting older and younger generations.

Vasquez-Pereira explained the dynamic: “We do have some programs that the older individuals might appreciate. This is music that you won’t hear elsewhere—like the old trio songs that my parents used to love….Then you have individuals like myself that appreciate listening to it because it reminds me of my parents.” Also, “with the radio station, I hear [the younger generation] using their Spanish a little bit more, and even appreciating their Spanish music a lot more than they used to.”

Radio Centro broadcasts from Downtown Lancaster and reaches as far as York. In the future, the station hopes to expand its coverage, and continue cultivating Hispanic and Latino culture in Lancaster City and beyond.

The month of March is a crucial time for Radio Centro in raising support for their operations as a public broadcasting station. For more information about Radio Centro and how you can support their programming, visit www.wlchradio.org.

Over one third of Lancaster’s population is Latino, a diverse Spanish-speaking group of cultures and nationalities. The stated mission of the Lancaster’s Spanish American Civic Association (SACA) is “to foster and facilitate the cultural, social, civic and economic development of the Latino Community of the City and County of Lancaster through the provision of human services, employment and training, and behavioral health services.”

According to Allison Weber, SACA’s Director of Community Relations & Education, Latinos have been drawn from nearby metropolitan areas: “Once you have a burgeoning culture here, we get the services: We have a lot of good Latino restaurants, we have employers who hire a lot of Latino people, for this size community we have a lot of non-profit agencies. So it just may be that things are more accessible.”

The avenues through which SACA pursues its mission are as creative and diverse as the community it serves.

The headquarter at 545 Pershing Avenue on the Southeast End of the Lancaster City houses the largest senior center in Lancaster County, and provides breakfast and lunch to senior citizens and the homeless. On a chilly Thursday morning, around 9am, the center is already bustling with activity. Dozens of visitors socialize in the high-ceilinged atrium while, beyond a wide set of glass doors, a large group of senior citizens enjoy breakfast in the cafeteria.

Other services provided by SACA include:

• WLCH Radio Centro (91.3 FM), broadcasting Spanish educational and culture programming 18 hours a day (featured in a NewsLanc profile)
• Employment Desk, connecting workers with prospective employers
• Career Development & Training, and Adult Education
• YouthBuild, a “leadership development program for young adults that provides educational (GED) classes, construction training, volunteer service opportunities, case management, career preparation, individual support, and graduate follow-up”
• HIV/AIDS & HepC Services
• Behavioral HEALTH Services, including
• Nuestra Clínica Behavioral Health Services
• Mental Health & Drug and Alcohol
• Outpatient Programs
• Adolescent Counseling and Therapeutic Services

In the near future, SACA hopes to begin broadcasting a new Spanish Public Television station in the Lancaster area. The organization has already obtained the necessary licenses and much of the necessary equipment. Grant funding stands as the only significant hurdle to bringing Spanish educational programming to the airwaves in Central PA.

To learn more about Lancaster’s Spanish American Civic Association, click here.

NewsLanc personnel visited with management of Tabor Community Services last week.

Located in its own office building at 308 East King Street, Tabor is a not-for-profit corporation established in Lancaster 40 years ago as a housing and credit counseling agency for persons experiencing difficulties in those areas.

“We don’t really have anything to give to them, but we can help individuals develop skills and strategies for personal success,” said President Robert Thomas.

In addition to financial literacy counseling, mortgage counseling, consumer credit counseling, first time homebuyer counseling programs, matched savings programs, and the like, Tabor also owns three local properties as living spaces for those who were or would probably otherwise be homeless.

NewsLanc toured two of those facilities – the Market View Apartments and the Transitional Living Center.

Market View consists of eight apartment units for persons with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness. A kindly African-American woman and her grandson have been living in one of the apartment for about half a year. It consisted of a kitchen, living room and dining area and a bathroom and is similar to other moderately priced apartment in the city. It is approximately 750 square feet.

In order to qualify to live in Market View, one must be homeless and have a disability. The actual cost of each apartment is about $540 a month, but most of the cost is subsidized by the government, and the resident must pay only utilities and a relatively small program fee.

A couple of blocks to the west at East King and Duke Streets is the Tabor’s Transitional Living Center (TLC). It is located in a converted old hotel.

The Transitional Living Center has 54 rooms of temporary housing and runs almost at full occupancy, according to “Team Leader” Doug Hopwood, the manager.

Though kept neat and clean, the facility is well worn and the rooms are tiny by current hotel standards. There is a common kitchen with bags with locks to enable occupants to safely store their own food. A portion of the former lobby area is used for a children’s play area during the day and a lounge in the evening.

Hopwood explained that the goal is to help people who are temporarily down on their luck to be able to return to independent living. “Life Skills” classes and personalized financial counseling are provided. An important part of the program is teaching people how to budget their income.

According to Hopwood, the outcome is that 73% of participants successfully move into permanent housing with the average length of stay at TLC being four months.

Hopwood explained that inhabitants must pay a daily fee which covers housing, education and enforced savings. The savings is held for the client until he or she departs and can be used for securing housing elsewhere. The rent is individually negotiated as part of an overall plan for the resident. Occupants are selected according to need.

Hopwood told of a middle aged man who was overwhelmed to learn that he had almost a thousand dollars saved up. The man exclaimed that he had never had so much money in his life.

The clients usually pay with funds received under various governmental aid programs.

Many who clean and maintain the hotel volunteer their services.

Last year, 205 homeless households were provided transitional housing coupled with supportive services to enable most to move on to permanent housing.

According to Thomas, Tabor thinks of itself as a Lancaster County organization, although in fact most of their clients come from the city.

But not all are low-income. “We’ve had persons with six-figure incomes come in for our mortgage default counseling,” says Thomas.

He added that since the housing and credit crisis really boiled over a few months ago, “the volume of calls inquiring about our mortgage default counseling has about doubled…”

Tabor has around 50 employees and an annual operating budget of about $2.7 million. About a third of their revenue comes from contributions, about a third comes from government contracts, and the final third comes from program fees and property rentals, according to Thomas.

Thomas has been President of Tabor for two years. Prior to that he was a vice president at Millersville University.

In addition to their primary function, Tabor also facilitates “Lancaster City Living,” a campaign to promote home ownership in the city and the East King Street Improvement District, the latter dedicated to improving the corridor from Penn Square to Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.

The East King Improvement District has raised money for such things as house numbers, flower boxes, garbage and recycling cans, street lighting, security cameras, and tree planting.

Before departing, a NewsLanc observer suggested that Tabor employees and clients set a good example by picking up and disposing of the excessive street litter near its headquarters.

You’ve seen them in front of stores around the holidays – all bundled up, ringing those bells.

Maybe you’ve even tossed in some spare change. Among all the extravagance and commercialism, they serve as a stark reminder that there are many people who can barely even afford to eat.

They are the Salvation Army. And if there’s one thing Major B. Bryan Smith wants people to know, it’s that they’re not just around at Christmastime.

He, along with his wife, Major Beverly Smith, direct the 117 year-old Lancaster County chapter, headquartered on South Queen Street.

NewsLanc visited their impressive facility, Monday, as part of its ongoing effort to uncover the inner workings of Lancaster – in this case, Lancaster’s hidden treasures.

Fundraising and food collection continue year-round, Smith points out. Private donations constitute virtually all of the local chapter’s $1.9 million annual budget.

This charity enables such services as the food assistance program, the clothes bank, the Latchkey children’s daycare program, the New Beginnings adult rehabilitation program, a kids summer camp, social services referral, and chapel.

Like Water Street Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army is a religious, not-for-profit organization associated with evangelical, Protestant Christianity.

Unlike Water Street Rescue Mission, however, the Salvation Army is does not require chapel attendance for almost any of its services.

“There is no compulsion for you to receive services based on any kind of profession of faith,” Smith said. “We feel that the giving of food or the giving of time – that that is in and of itself a ministry.”

He said that William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, used to say, “You can’t preach to a person while their stomach is growling.”

Nevertheless, the Army – and Smith himself – feels very strongly that their activities are commanded and sustained by God.

So how busy are they down on South Queen Street? Christy Salkeld, the Lancaster Salvation Army’s Family Services Coordinator, says that they see at least 150 people a week.

In the Latchkey daycare program, the Salvation Army partners with a number of nearby elementary schools to provide before and after-school care for children whose parents are unable to immediately pick them up. They participate in recreational activities, get help with homework, learn how to help their parents or guardians with cooking and house chores, and even get breakfast and snacks. And not just any breakfast, says Melissa Schload, who directs the program. Good breakfasts. Pancakes, waffles, and donuts.

And the children have access to superb facilities including a recently-completed gymnasium, modern classrooms, and a computer lab. The 15 Dell computers were purchased with a $25,000 grant from the Ronald McDonald Foundation in 2001.

The Salvation Army also has a spiritual support group called New Beginnings for adults recovering from addictions. Right now, the program has 15 men, who live in on-campus housing and pay a modest rent. Clients are often recruited to the program after graduating from other, more physically-palliative, rehabilitation programs. This is the only program for which chapel attendance is mandatory.

The Salvation Army does not provide emergency shelter or ready-made meals. For those services, clients are referred to organizations like Water Street, the Community Homeless Outreach Center, and the Council of Churches.

Its canned goods and clothing drives are aimed towards alleviating the plight of struggling low-income families.

Smith explained that while the army does attempt to determine an individual’s level of need, they certainly don’t interrogate someone asking for the basic necessities.

Not all of the Salvation Army’s services are on-site either. They are quick to mobilize field units when disaster strikes.

Indeed, the Salvation Army was one of the first relief organizations on the scene during both the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall near New Orleans in August 2005.

Locally, Smith says, they have provided supplies to emergency personnel responding to such events as missing person searches in the Susquehanna River, and the Nickel Mines Amish schoolhouse shooting of 2006.

The Lancaster Salvation Army raised roughly $535,000 in its Christmas fundraising drive last year. Smith thinks the need will be even greater this winter season with recent increases in the price of oil.

The Lancaster Salvation Army employs about 33 staff. Major Smith is a graduate of a two-year seminary program all Salvation Army officers must complete in order to be commissioned. He also holds a degree in social work – as do many of his staff.

It certainly is cold out there.

The Lancaster County Council of Churches agrees.

That’s why a handful of its churches plus Shaarai Shomayim Synagogue are participating in the Cold Weather Overflow Emergency Shelter program for the homeless.

They offer a warm place for the homeless to sleep on a rotating weekly basis from December through March.

Last week, that place was Covenant United Methodist Church at Orange & Mulberry Streets.

There, at 7:30 pm sharp, the doors are opened to the crowd of homeless that has formed outside its side entrance.

George Bergey has been volunteering with the homeless shelter program for three years.

“We have 32 cots,” he explained, “and, as you can see, they come in here and turn in their tickets from the Community Homeless Outreach Center.”

The Outreach Center, which opened in November on the premises of the Water Street Rescue Mission, helps coordinate the flow of homeless to the city’s various shelters.

After being asked to empty their pockets for security purposes, they enter a single, large, somewhat sterile, room with cots arranged in rows.

The cots were donated by the Red Cross, Bergey reveals, and the sheets by Lancaster General.

Some lay down immediately while others help themselves to the water, hot chocolate, coffee, and Goldfish crackers the Council of Churches has provided.

Many look very tired, dirty, and disheveled, while others are surprisingly well-dressed.

“It’s an emergency shelter, ” Bergey explains, “and the hope is that they can start to become self-sufficient and get their own living arrangements.”

He relates that the shelter nevertheless rarely sees fewer than 30 people a night.

“See that man over there in the corner just hanging his head? He comes here a lot and just sits there – we think he must be in pain or something,” Bergey says.

Asked what compells him to volunteer, he says, “We all have different motivations for it. My motivation is that I consider it a Christian responsibility to see how far we can go to help folks out who are less fortunate than us.”

Bergey left around 8:30 but there are others who stayed the night on Friday night, including Sue Orth and Michelle Strohm.

They are parisonhers of Zion Lutheran Church in Leola and have been helping out for weeks in a number of local shelters.

Cheryl, who declined to give her last name, is another parishoner of Covenant United, who has been volunteering for two years.

“There but for the graces of God am I myself,” she said of her motivation. “One or two paychecks and you can be there yourself.”

One resident of the shelter, whose clothing appeared very well-worn and who had a number of missing and darkened teeth, related that he became homeless after losing his ID cards for his previous job.

Asked what he does during the day, he said he sometimes goes to the Duke Street Library and uses the computers there to fill out online job applications.

Another somewhat older gentleman said he has been homeless for 7-8 months after having left his job because he had a stroke and continues to suffer from complications.

“I became homeless because of drinkin’ and druggin’ and just lack of responsibility’” a third admitted.

Yet another shared that he had previously worked for a printing company for a number of years, but lost his job after a verbal dispute with his employer. Now he’s finding it difficult to obtain another job.

“I’m a seasonal employee in a warehouse right now,” he said. “I couldn’t work third shift because the shelters aren’t open during the day.”

“Right now I only eat one meal a day,” he admitted.

While these individuals were willing to talk about their experiences, many others remained quiet and at least one seemed psychologically disturbed, sharing his thoughts on ninjas and the apocalypse.

At 9:30, just before turning the lights out, Associate Pastor Don Zechman entered the room and offered a prayer for the well-being of his homeless guests, including a reading of the Ten Commandments from the Old Testament.

“The church needs to be open and active in the community. I think that’s really important for us,” he said.

Many of the residents asked to be awoken at a particular time of the morning to get up and go to work or breakfast.

Tomorrow is another day.