I woke up at my girlfriend’s apartment at around 7:00 a.m. and got ready for work. I drove to work a little after 8:00 a.m.
I arrived at work at 8:45 a.m. I went through messages on the outreach phone and I had a call with Padrick who is in treatment at Gosnell Detox through us, and I helped coordinate further care with Padrick and his case manager. The plan is that Padrick either go to Fall River TSS (Transitional Supportive Service) or a Halfway house program for men in Tewksbury. I spoke with Colin who is in drug treatment at Lahey through us. Colin is currently trying to coordinate aftercare for himself which I will help with by coordinating with his case manager. I had gotten Colin into the shelter from the streets of Lawrence. He was living in the streets using fentanyl. A few days after I got Colin in the shelter, two other shelter guests, two brothers who are known for street drug use, convinced Colin to sniff some fentanyl with them at the shelter picnic table. This got caught on camera and they were all kicked out of the shelter. The director gave them all an ultimatum. Go to drug treatment and you can come back to the shelter, or you’re out for good. Colin agreed to go to drug treatment and that’s when I got him in.
At around 10:00 a.m. I sat down with my director and explained the false accusations and misinformation that Ezekiel had spread about me to get me fired. The claims about giving social security’s numbers to the police was completely false and easily dispelled. The other accusation about helping police find clients with warrants was completely false and we went over that, and that was proven false. Ezekiel had also been snitching on an outreach worker from another agency I partner with in the community occasionally. This outreach worker’s name happens to be the same name as the shelter manager. The CEO of the company has a bad reputation and the Outreach worker had spoken bad about the CEO of my organization in front of Ezekiel, Ezekiel texted the outreach worker thinking it was the shelter manager’s cell phone since they had the same name, essentially ratting him out for speaking bad about the CEO. I told my director about this since the outreach worker had told me that Ezekiel had done this. The director sided with me, and the outcome was that Ezekiel would work in the shelter and help people get jobs. Ezekiel would never work outreach with me again.
After meeting with my director, Henry, a homeless client, stopped by the shelter claiming that people had slashed his tent which is located along the river behind Doyle Street. I spoke with Henry about the possibilities of further service and treatment which he denied. I sent Henry off with some food and drinks, I will re-engage with him in the future when he is ready for further services and hopefully drug treatment.
I stopped by The faith-based homeless day shelter around 11:45 a.m. and I engaged with Sonya, Louie, and Carlos. Carlos reported to me that Jess, who camps with him behind a building near the train tracks near Mr. Tux, had been arrested for shoplifting. I will engage with her husband Pedro who lives in the tent with Jess. This may be a good time for him to go into treatment if he is willing.
After leaving the faith-based homeless day shelter I drove to the harm reduction Center down the street to see if there were any homeless people outside, and I also drove to McDonald’s to see if I saw any of our clients in the area. I didn’t see any clients at the harm reduction Center, and when I drove to McDonald’s the police were cruising through and if any people were there they had left or were hiding.
I received a call from my director to meet her and the CEO at the CEO’s office around 1:00 p.m. I asked my director on the call if this was a sabotage, she said it was not. When I arrived at the CEO’s office, I sat down with my director and the CEO. The CEO immediately began to accost me. I had told the CEO that my director had told me that Ezekiel is no longer on outreach when I spoke to the CEO while my director was on vacation. This was true, because I had texted my director while she was on vacation, and told her that I was telling Ezekiel that he’s no longer on outreach on Monday, which she and I discussed on Friday. She responded “Ok” in the text. The CEO stated that I acted on my own accord, and the director refused to back me up and say that she gave me the okay. Instead of throwing my director under the bus, I tried to explain this away as the director and I had a conversation and it was my understanding that Ezekiel was no longer on outreach. Once again, I took a reprimanding, and I was criticized for failing to get clients various identification documents. I knew this was a dressing down, so I played that game. I was right, it was a sabotage. At one point when the mood in the room began to lighten I actually asked for a promotion, which caught the CEO off guard since she was in a mind to punish me. The CEO’s response to giving me a promotion was, not right now. I’m definitely on thin ice with this agency, but at the same time I’ve lost a lot of motivation to work for this outfit. We will see what the future brings, in my mind my homeless clients, all 140 of them are my prime concern. Not the toxic environment I work in. I exercise my skills, and am paid off a state grant. A grant my director wrote for and got. I am beholden to my Director and my clients.
I got back to the shelter a little after 2:00 p.m. and I worked on getting One of the old company laptops set up so that I can upload files such as IDs and other identifying documents for clients that are high on the housing list. I uploaded a homeless client’s license into the system. So now we have a streamlined process to get that information in The homeless information management system Vesta, so housing coordinators from other agencies can do the job of finding housing for our clients.
I wrapped up my day updating the system, and working to coordinate with community partners to do outreach in the future. I informed my director and we will continue to improve, and communicate The collaborations and workings of outreach so that we can continue to improve on our service.
At 4:00 p.m. I finish my day an hour early which will be represented in my hours.
After work I drove to my girlfriend’s apartment and she and I spent the night together.