Doing Some Good - Paulissa Update

Hello friends,

I have written here for awhile so I think an update is long overdue.

The Lenten and Passover season are upon us so things are busy with spiritual reflection, renewal, and tradition. Always a beautiful time of year and fun too since the Midwest tradition of church fish fries began last Friday.

For the unfamiliar, fish fries are usually done by the men in the Catholic church and are used as a fundraiser during the church year. Everyone seems to have their favorite church for these things, but the tradition involves standing in line with a few hundred of your neighbors, coolers full of your favorite beverage, free beer (if you're so inclined) with your dinner, usually a few prominent people sightings, bingo and a great sense of community. One of our personal favorites is St. Pius X, which has a pasta feed instead of a fish fry and beer cheese sauce!

The quarter ends this week and I have successfully completed another class, despite a few challenges. Mostly, the challenges involved plagiarism on the part of the professor and I turned her in for it. She was doing a horrible disservice to the students and possibly costing them their financial aid. All's well that ends well and she liked my paper "Do You Mind" which dealt with the positivity movement and its cookie cutter approach to affirmations, etc.

The nonprofit now has a registered tradename, Persons Becoming and the logo appears above. I've always been touched by the Heart in Hand icon symbol used by the Shakers. It is purported to mean charity, given from the heart. I have been comparing the needs that foster care alumni say they had upon ageout and making up a chart that shows which programs meet those needs, etc so that I can see where the gaps exist and begin crafting a response. I have been asked by the Foster Care Alumni of America to help craft research guidelines so that when someone makes a research request, the intention of the request is clear and doesn't cause emotional harm to alumni.

I've been sitting on the Empowerment Network foundation, which responds to the challenges facing our city by having law enforcement, elected officials, educational officials, hospitals, drs., gang interventionists, prison officials, etc work together to influence legislation and city ordinances. Right now, our city is facing very high rates of gang violence. I'm trying to make a difference. Very interesting stuff.

David is still very busy with his Masonic activities and will be even more so shortly since he sits on the maintainence committee (fundraising arm) of the Omaha Home For Boys.

So. . .that's what trouble we've been getting into. How about yourselves??

Paulissa Update

Hi friends,

It's been a while since I've written so think it's time for an update:

I'm doing OK, walking every day and getting to the Y when my schedule allows. Swamped under finals prep (last day is on the 25th) so I have term paper editing, etc, gearing up for next quarter (starts March 11th) which will be Intro to Human svc, doing lots of footwork for the nonprofit and being involved in the community.

There have been upper level mgmt layoffs at work, none of which affect me too much but it's still a distraction. That's the news from my side of the fence.

Change Is Gonna Come

Hello friends,

I have been swamped so please forgive me for not checking in more often.

There are tons of things going on, so where to start:

Well, I've been working on getting healthier this year which means more movement and better meals. I'm educating myself and walking with a friend every day at work. This week I'll be kicking it up a notch and adding a morning "get sweating" workout.

Classes are going OK: I have a term paper in progress on the power of positive thinking versus sarcasm as ego boosters. It has been interesting reading.

I am changing my major to Human Service so I begin Intro to Human Svc next quarter. I value the critical reasoning and organizational skills that Legal Assisting has taught me but it won't get me where I want to be and that is close to those who need a hand up and someone to believe in them to turn their lives around. I am set to launch an ageout aftercare outreach program for emancipated foster care youth (my idea, my time, my efforts on the line - lots of phone calls, community meetings and research later) there is a program and coalition of churches and persons committed to this.

Here is the mission statement:

MISSION STATEMENT: Persons Becoming Inc., provides transitional support for foster children who have aged out of the system. Persons Becoming offers cooking classes, budgeting classes, basic needs for a first apartment or dorm room ie., towels, food storage containers, basic dishes, silverware, cleaning supplies, etc. "And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.' Matthew 25:45 I have a new photography theme for this year: I'll be doing churches and rescued handiwork this year. So lots of things in the frying pan but I'm glad to be able to learn, grow and become.