By Jeffery McNeil
Vendor

I’m approaching middle age. Most of my relatives are senior citizens, ready for retirement.

But a few bad decisions could ruin everything for them.

Because of the age and deterioration of their mental and physical capacity due to age, seniors become prime targets for con artists. Many scams go under the radar and never get publicity, many go unreported due to embarrassment. According to the Investor Protection Trust ‘s Elder Investor Fraud Survey, one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 has been a victim of financial fraud.

According to the Pew Research Center, seniors are better off than younger people. In 2009 the typical household headed by the older adult had $170,494 in net worth, compared with just $3,662 for the typical household headed by the younger adult. Folks usually accumulate wealth as they age, so it makes sense that there would be large gaps in wealth based on age.
But this concentration of wealth paints a large target on seniors.

Many elders fall prey to clever marketing tactics used by TV personalities who advertise to invest in gold, art dealing and too good to be true scams. While these con artists use mass media, seniors are also sometimes betrayed by those they know best, people who portray themselves as friends or helpful relatives.

They persuade seniors by asking for a credit card number or bank statement. The more ambitious types persuade seniors into signing over power of attorney.

The aging process makes people more susceptible to fraud. Studies have shown that mental capabilities peak at 53. According to the Alzheimers Foundation, over 5 million Americans have some form of the disease.

Education and awareness can help protect against fraud. If something is too good to be true, chances are it isn’t. Before making an important financial choice, do your own research. Talk with a trusted financial advisor, and do some reading.

Before you sign something, read it. If it is confusing and complicated, chances are whoever wrote it doesn’t want you to understand. A simple test is to ask if you can can come back after you have someone review it. If whoever is trying to sell you on the deal pressures you, head for the door. If it is a good investment today it will be good tomorrow.

So can an unexplained change in lifestyle or mood. If a typically outgoing relative has become isolated or withdrawn, it could be out of pride or fear that he or she is in trouble. Use your instincts to probe your elderly relative about what is wrong.

If your relative decides to give you financial power of attorney, review his or her financial statements on a regular basis, and look for any suspicious activity on their accounts. Unusual signatures and flurries of unexpected financial transactions could be red flags.

Your elder may want to donate money or use his or her savings to invest. But do some research to see if the charity or investment opportunity is reputable. Get the information in writing, review the fine print and see if it is legitimate. You should always ask for written information from the organization or charity. Reputable businesses or organizations know that it is proper protocol to ask for written information. If you are unfamiliar with companies, you can contact your local Consumer Protection Agency, Better Business Bureau, or State Attorney General’s Office.

My last piece of advice is know your legal rights. Before you invest or make a transaction, you should educate yourself about consumer rights.

For victims, the chance of recovering stolen money can be slim. It is plausible that there will be no arrest for the perpetrator. So be wary and be vigilant on behalf of yourself and the seniors in your life. There are con artists out there, planning their next scam.

 
By Nicki Conyers
Women of Street Sense Special Events Coordinator

Recently, Street Sense joined forces again with Senior Karate Instructor Sarah Wolf of D.C. Self Defense Karate Association for a Women of Street Sense Self-Defense Workshop. The latest event followed up on a self-defense Workshop back in September. Wolf has helped educate and empower the women against possible harmful and life-threatening situations.

The recent workshop was a continuation of verbal strategies with the addition of low-force physical techniques to evade confrontation, sexual assault, and abduction. Vendors Gwynette Smith, Sybil Taylor, and Jacqueline Turner showed off their skills in self-defense exercises. They reviewed verbal techniques to avoid physical conflict; and when words failed Smith, Taylor, and Turner put on their fighting shoes to reinforce that the words “no thank you” means “NO” and nothing more!

In some situations aggressors don’t seem to respect verbal/body language indicators that you disapprove of their harassment and just want them to back off. So, when words can’t reach them than one must make the choice to exercise low-force self-defense skills in order to flee possible harmful situation, get to safety and reach out for help.

With the help of Wolf WSS effectively got this message across to participants of the workshop.

Wolf’s greatest advice for women is to avoid physical confrontations by verbal and mental tactics, because by doing so an individual can gain control of a hostile situation. Her whole strategy is to defuse a potentially aggressive situation before it escalates. Participates of the Workshop were encouraged to become more aware of their environment, avoidance of compromising conditions , and exercise body language / voice tones for de-escalation.

Wolf pointed out when verbal and mental strategies fail low-force physical methods can be used to avoid dangerous circumstances. Most importantly women were showed the safest and practical way to hit and fight back in the event of an attack. Women are still advised to use low-force measures in order to escape dangerous situations verse combating the assailant. Wolf’s final note of advice was, “In life threatening situations an individuals’ greatest line of defense is following their instincts.”

 
By Meagan Ramsay
Editorial Intern

Safe Shores is a nonprofit organization serving children and families affected by abuse in D.C. Children who are brought to the organization by the police department or Child and Family Services typically have experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse or witnessed violence. Many times they have seen someone assaulted or even murdered.

Children receive services at the organization from the age they can talk up until they are 18. But developmentally delayed adults that function on the level of a child can also receive services.

“The effects of abuse on children can be lifelong. That’s why therapy is so important — because there can be long lasting feelings of shame and guilt,” said Jada Irwin, senior communications associate for Safe Shores. “People act out, they abuse substances and they become promiscuous or even suicidal. Any of those issues can affect your ability to earn a living.”

What makes Safe Shores distinctive is that it coordinates a multidisciplinary team, which is responsible for responding to allegations of abuse. The team includes the Metropolitan Police Department, Child and Family Services, the Office of the Attorney General, the United States Attorney’s Office and Children’s National Medical Center. All of the team member agencies have a suite in Safe Shore’s office building, which makes it easier to assist the children and families.

All services provided through Safe Shore’s three programs — victim services, forensic services and clinical services — are free of charge. The organization has helped more than 13,000 children since its founding in 1994.

“We want people to know that we are here and that we’re an open resource,” Irwin said. “The child abuse issue is real and that every person has a part to play in helping to fight that fight.”

Package: A Testimony to the Strength of Youth

D.C. Youth at Risk of Homelessness

Shining a Light on the Many LGBTQ Youth who’ve Experienced Homelessness

Young Women Voice Concerns for the Foster Care Center

A Young Man with a Life-Plan 

Evi Mariani
Editorial Intern

Troubles at home send many Washington, D.C. children and young adults into foster care or the juvenile justice system. From those unsteady places, it is easy to get caught in a downward spiral of mental illness, social isolation and uninformed decisions that eventually leads to chronic homelessness.

The fracturing of a young life can start out as a conflict with parents, neglect, abuse or the loss of the family home. Many children struggle with their parents over their sense of identity. Some young people who come out as homosexual find themselves disowned or even kicked out of their homes. Girls may be sexually abused by stepfathers or molested by their mothers’ boyfriends.

Many troubled youth come from low-income families and neighborhoods known for crime and drugs. Some have parents who are too young to be parents themselves. Others have inherited poverty from their grandparents’ generation.

For these young people, the possibilities of growing up healthy, enjoying respect and obtaining a quality education can be very remote. Any dreams they may start out with can be crushed, and they become different people.

“I was now cold and angry, a high school dropout, violent and pugnacious. I had given up on any dream I’d had of becoming something beautiful, something great,” said J.W., a 19-year-old woman quoted in an at-risk youth survey report “From the Streets to Stability: A study of youth homelessness in District of Columbia” by the D.C. Alliance of Youth Advocates. J.W. said she was raped and molested by her stepfather for four years starting at age 14, and she was kicked out of his house at 18.

The survey report, written by Margaret Riden of DCAYA, reported that of nearly 500 unaccompanied young people between the ages of 12 and 24 who completed the survey last year, 330 were literally homeless on the night prior to the completion of the survey. The remainder of them were considered to be at high risk of homelessness or unstably housed. The report found that even before the recession hit, an average of 1,400 children received welfare services in the District.

Accurate data about youth homelessness is hard to find, but a 2011 count of homeless people in the Washington region, conducted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Homeless Services and Planning Committee found 3,249 homeless children in the city and its suburbs. The figure did not include unaccompanied youth.

Deborah Shore, founder of Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a nonprofit for young people from unstable families, said that there is an enormous diversity of how young people across the country become runaways or homeless. “There is, however, a strong link between poverty and how the young people become vulnerable,” she said.

Shore said that many of the organization’s clients experience many disruptions in their family lives. They have a hard time concentrating in school. Sometimes they are socially isolated. Other times, their hardships make street life seem attractive.

“We’ve seen many young people who see violence in the family, who have abuse visited upon them, and [are] also very angry, that sometimes they are lashing out,” Shore said.

D.C. has its own entrenched patterns of need and vulnerability, Riden said. “It has generations of abject poverty. In D.C., it’s a little more acute, because there’s a massive white-black split. Geographically, the district is very defined,” she added, with more affluent areas concentrated in the northwestern part of the city, and poverty more prevalent east of the Anacostia River.

DCAYA’s survey finds that about 39 percent of the nearly 500 youths questioned were “system involved,” meaning that they had once been in foster care or the juvenile system. Children in the government’s foster care system also often face a bleak future in spite of the care that they receive. Children who age out of the foster care system often deal with an unstable transitional program.

It is difficult for vulnerable young people to become independent after foster care if they have been uprooted from their familiar environment and sent 90 miles away from home, or if they have been moved around, or if they have run away up to 10 times. Many do not finish high school or hold a General Education Diploma. Most do not possess any soft skills to get into the workforce. Some lack adequate emotional development.

Foster placements may be far away from the child’s familiar environment and can disrupt normal development.

“I firmly believe that keeping kids in their communities, with tons of wrap-around support, is the way to go,” Riden said. The first option for foster care providers should be members of the extended family, whether an uncle or a grandmother, she said. The kinship care subsidy, however, has been cut, making providing care harder for grandmothers, aunts and uncles who act as parents for children.

Riden said that the foster care system needs to be better integrated. As it is, she believes, only very savvy young adults are able to flourish once they age out. She would like to see a transitional center that would provide a kind of “one-stop shopping” center for young people preparing to leave the system. “If I’m 18 or 19 and struggling with a place to live every night,” she said, “I don’t have the energy to go to eight different places to get the support that I need.”

In Riden’s mind, such a center would be staffed by case managers who would understand the young adults’ needs and be a consistent presences in their lives, and providing a bridge to link them with mentors within the larger community.

Sasha Bruce Youthwork has an independent living program that helps its young clients meet their needs to eventually live a healthy, independent life. The organization provides counselors, emergency shelters, houses, financial management training and parenting training for young parents. The website, sashabruce.org, has success stories about some of their clients entering college and getting good jobs. The organization runs 60 units of housing, which Shore says is not enough: There is a long list of young people who have applied for their service. “We have a waiting list pages long, and after the economic crisis, there has been an explosion of needs,” Shore said. She wishes that more people would care about the situation and help the children and the young adults.

Both Riden and Shore agree that a successful system will help break the cycle, because otherwise it will be very difficult for D.C.’s troubled young adults to build a stable family, thus creating another generation of vulnerable young people. “People should care about this,” Shore said. “How many more jails can we build? How many more terrible circumstances where people are so stressed that they do terrible things? We can stop that, we can make a difference. Lives can change, and there’s so much hope.”

Riden said that hope also comes from the young people themselves. “They are really resilient young people,” she said, “who know they have to put in the work to be successful, and they’re generally willing to do it if they feel supported.”
___

 
By: Christina Mele
Editorial Intern 

A rundown house in the city’s Marshall Heights neighborhood is soon to be transformed into a haven for homeless young people, thanks to a collaboration between a local nonprofit organization and two companies that serve the construction industry.

Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a local nonproft that helps at-risk youth, has joined forces with Reed Construction Data, a construction-information provider, and Hanley Wood, LLC, a firm that provides media services to architects and builders, to create the transitional housing facility. The effort has been dubbed “projectDC.”

The former single-family home, located on D Street SE in Ward 7, was donated in July 2011 by the family of the previous owners in support of Sasha Bruce’s mission, said Jim Beck, Youthwork’s development director.

“When we accepted the building, we knew we wanted to use it for homeless youth,” Beck said. “What we envision is that it will be a transitional living program for older teens up to 18 [years old]. It will be longer-term than a shelter.”

Once completed, the facility will include bathrooms, bedrooms, a kitchen, offices and community areas. The program will serve “young people with no ability to go home to their parents,” Beck said. The facility will also feature a community garden and greenhouse.

The home will be operated by Sasha Bruce Youthwork as a “service-enriched” transitional housing program and will have space for up to eight young people at any given time. The young people will be able to stay for as long as a year and a half, sharing bedrooms, learning independent living skills, attending school and getting counseling and other help.

The ultimate goal of the project, said Beck, is to “have a home for homeless youths where they’ll be safe and have the skills to live independently, so that they leave the program either with permanent affordable housing or to move back in with their families, or go to college.”

Staff and students from Sasha Bruce, as well as about 150 volunteers from Reed Construction Data and Hanley Wood, are expected to assist with the project, which is scheduled for completion by late July. Currently, homeless youths who are part of Sasha Bruce’s Workforce Development Program are doing some pre-construction work at the site. On May 16, the renovation and expansion work is scheduled to get underway.

Project coordinators are still seeking donations of funds and materials, additional volunteers with skills in plumbing, electric, roofing, carpentry, flooring, siding and insulation, and volunteers who are willing to help wherever needed.

Beck said the total cost of the renovation is estimated at $450,000.

“Hopefully the donations for labor and materials will make up for a lot of it,” he said. “Hopefully we will end up only having to pay around $300,000 in cash.”

By: Ilana Shulevitz
Editorial Intern

On Friday March 9, members of the Obama Administration traveled to Detroit to host an unprecedented national conference regarding housing and homelessness among America’s LGBT community, particularly its youth.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual youth represent between 20 and 40 percent of an estimated 600,000 or more homeless youths across the country, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. In many cases, the youths are outcasts, denounced by their guardians and hounded out of shelters by bullies.

One in every three lesbian, gay and bisexual youths has been thrown out of the house by his or her parents, according to the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University.

“At a time in life when most young people are worried about which college they’re going to go to, what their first job might look like, or what opportunities might exist once they graduate from high school, thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender teenagers are worried about something far more basic…where they might be able to sleep that night—and whether they’ll be safe once they get there,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who was the keynote speaker at the Detroit event.

The conference, co-hosted by the Ruth Ellis Center, included the second in a series of dialogues focusing on LGBT issues to be held around the country. It announced historic changes aimed to increase protection for the delicate community.

“For far too long, LGBTQ has been a population that has been overlooked,” said Andrew Barnett, Executive Director of Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), a community-based organization exclusively dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in the D.C. metropolitan area. “These conferences are great because they’re calling national attention to this urgent issue.”

Conferees stressed the importance of upholding laws intended to protect tenants, including LGBT tenants, from discrimination. HUD officials have recently stressed that cases of housing discrimination against LGBT people may be covered by the Fair Housing Act. In addition, they have pointed out that housing providers receiving HUD or Federal Housing Authority funding and lenders insured by FHA may be subject to HUD regulations intended to ensure equal access to programs by LGBT people.

In addition, HUD also recently expanded its official definition of homelessness to create a category for unaccompanied and unstably housed youth up to the age of 24. The expanded definition is intended to provide more help to homeless youths, including LGBT youths, allowing them greater access and assistance in seeking shelter and services.

These measures can make a difference between life and death for thousands, according to speakers at the conference.
“LGBT youths are at greater risk for…homelessness, STDs and HIV infection, mental health issues, bullying, harassment and substance abuse,” said Barnett. “Most of which is because of isolation and rejection at their schools, homes and even their community.”

Approximately 58 percent of homeless gay and transgender youth have been sexually assaulted, compared to 33 percent of homeless heterosexual youth, according to the Center for American Progress. About 44 percent reported being asked by someone on the street to exchange sex for money, food, drugs, shelter or clothes, compared to 26 percent of their heterosexual counterparts.

Cai Noble, founding director of Operation Shine America–an advocacy, education, and outreach organization that raises awareness of the homeless youth epidemic in America–spoke of her life as a survivor of youth homelessness. Noble, who identifies as queer, said she had a traumatic home life. She attributed her mental illness to stressful family relations.

“My entire family struggled with [my gender identity], and I felt like it was my fault that my family was falling apart,” she said. Noble left home, believing that in her absence, her family would heal.

But on the street, Noble found herself entrenched in poverty and unprepared for the added trauma of sex trade. She said that in her nearly seven years adrift, she experienced police brutality, deprivation and discrimination.

“Through access to community support and education, I finally made my out,” said Noble. “The most important part of the whole experience is now knowing that if my family simply would have had access to [research]… there’s an undeniable possibility I would not have become homeless in the first place.”

Noble said she believed that many cases of homelessness among LGBT young people could be prevented if families were better able to support their children transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Noble also cited signs of progress, such as research and increased attention to the issue, including the Obama Administration’s focus on preventing and ending homelessness among LGBT youth.

“By accepting that this issue is an epidemic for both the LGBTQ community and the U.S. as a whole, we can move our country into a space that real action can be taken,” Noble said.

For assistance in the D.C. area, the Wanda Alston House offers living services for homeless LGBTQ youths ages 16 to 24. It is located at 1414 North Capitol Street. For more information about resources for LGBT youths in D.C., visit http://www.smyal.org/.

 
By: Hannah Traverse
Editorial Intern

More than a dozen local businesses, organizations and residential complexes are working to pull off FWD: Your Fashion, the largest community clothing drive in D.C.’s history. Live Green, a green living organization, and Repax, an eco-friendly moving company, have teamed up to collect at least 5,000 pounds of clothes for Goodwill between March 19 and April 20.

Live Green and Repax worked together to develop the concept of FWD: Your Fashion as “a socially responsible way to engage the community,” said Steve Ma, president of Live Green. People can donate their unneeded clothes, shoes, handbags and linens at one of nine drop-off sites throughout the city. These sites include businesses, offices and residential buildings. Donors simply need to leave the items in one of the bright green Repax reusable packing crates at the drop-off site.

“We’ve done some very large clothing drives before, but typically they have been with one major corporate partner,” said Brendan Hurley, chief marketing officer for Goodwill of Greater Washington. “…this effort involves the entire community utilizing a large number of geographically diverse donation points…this is much more sophisticated in scope than any donation drive we’ve done before.”

At first it might not seem clear why an eco-friendly moving company and an organization promoting environmental awareness would be interested in doing a clothing drive, but as Ma and Hurley described, everything about a clothing drive is green.

“The idea of re-using clothes is much more eco-friendly than buying new clothes, even eco-friendly, organic new clothing,” said Ma.

“We often say that Goodwill is the world’s ‘original recycler’ simply because we have been repurposing unwanted items for more than 100 years!” said Hurley. “The second most common reason why people donate to Goodwill after ‘wanting their items to go to people who need or want them’ is because they ‘believe in repurposing, reusing and recycling.’ ”

Marcus Stephens, vice president of Repax, made the point that the values of Live Green, Goodwill and Repax are all fairly aligned. Repax rents plastic crates and dollies to people who are moving in order to limit the amount of cardboard that ends up in landfills. Clothing and other items donated to Goodwill also stay out of the trash. According to Hurley, Goodwill of Greater Washington diverted about 17 million pounds from area landfills in 2011.

Ma says he is confident FWD: Your Fashion will meet its goal of collecting at least 5,000 pounds of clothing. During the first week of the drive, FWD: Your Fashion received over 1,000 handbags from a single donor, and drop-off sites already needed to have filled Repax bins collected.

“I’m just really excited,” said Ma. “It just gives me great hope to see how well the community has already embraced this drive.”

According to a press release, money from the sale of clothing collected in the FWD: Your Fashion drive will help fund Goodwill’s job training and employment services for people with disabilities and disadvantages. Goodwill estimates that, if FWD: Your Fashion meets its goal, it could fund about 400 hours of employment programs for residents in the D.C. metropolitan area.

FWD: Your Fashion officially comes to an end on April 21 with an event in Dupont Circle that coincides with Green Rush; an Earth Day scavenger hunt hosted by Live Green, Repax and Clean Currents green energy company, in which teams of up to five people must follow clues to various green sites throughout D.C. with the chance to win $1,000. Ma says the event in Dupont will be the last chance to donate to FWD: Your Fashion. The donations will then be tallied and transferred from Repax bins to Goodwill trucks.

“Not only does Goodwill run their thrift stores and sell clothes at very affordable prices…they’re organizing really critical worker training programs to help people who have gone through a tough time,” said Ma. “This is a perfect combination of protecting the planet and helping our community and the economy.”