The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Dr. Washington's Inspiring Mission to Humanize Homelessness
What happens when personal tragedy ignites a passionate mission to help others? Join us on the Kindness Matters Podcast as Dr. Darlene Spark Washington shares her poignant journey of loss, resilience, and leadership in the nonprofit sector. After experiencing the devastating loss of her mother and husband on the same day, Dr. Washington found her calling as the Executive Director of Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless Inc. Her incredible story reveals how her personal experiences have fueled her dedication to instilling hope and providing essential support to those experiencing homelessness. We explore the significant challenges she faces in nonprofit management, including financial uncertainties and the critical role of community partnerships.
Dr. Washington and I delve into the transformation of community support systems for the homeless, especially in the post-COVID landscape. Discover how the pandemic necessitated a shift from traditional night shelters to more sustainable year-round solutions in collaboration with local authorities like the Portsmouth Sheriff's Office. Drawing on her experience with the American Red Cross, Dr. Washington emphasizes a compassionate approach to advocacy, one that prioritizes viewing individuals as people first, enabling trust and sustainable community solutions. This paradigm shift from necessity to choice has been instrumental in reimagining how we support the homeless population.
Lastly, we shine a light on the annual "Coldest Night of the Year" fundraiser in Portsmouth, Virginia. This impactful 5K walk, organized by the Blue Sea Foundation, raises significant funds to support local homeless initiatives and fosters a sense of community involvement. Dr. Washington highlights how events like these not only raise money but also play a crucial role in humanizing those experiencing homelessness, helping restore their dignity and respect. We close by celebrating the unwavering dedication of leaders like Dr. Washington, whose work inspires us all to contribute towards making a tangible difference in our communities.
#homeless #empathy #help
Did you find this episode uplifting, inspiring or motivating? Would you like to support more content like this? Check out our Support The Show Page here.
Well, hello there and welcome. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. What is this podcast all about? It's about kindness. It's a pushback against everything negative that we see in the news and on social media today, and it's a way to highlight people, organizations, that are simply striving to make their little corner of the world a little better place. If you want to join in on the conversation, feel free, Go ahead and follow us on all of your social media feeds. We're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. And, in the meantime, so sit back, relax, enjoy and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast. Hello and welcome to the show, everybody. I am so happy that you're here and that you're taking time out of your day To listen to little old me and my amazing guest. If there's anything in this show that inspires you or motivates you, I just ask that you share this show with your friends and family and maybe, you know, leave a review and give a rating. I don't know something like that.
Speaker 1:So about today? My guest today is an accomplished and visionary non-profit industry leader, dr Darlene Spark. Washington has spent the good part of her adult life inspiring individuals to achieve their greatest potential. It is her passion and she's had the privilege of serving that goal throughout her career. During her almost 20 years of service at one of the nation's largest non-profit international humanitarian organizations, washington was known as a forward-thinking leader, a seasoned manager and proficient administrator. She directed national and community-level efforts and managed multi-million dollar budgets, serving as the agency's project director for several cooperative agreements with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 1:Her current assignment is as the Executive Director of Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless Inc. It's a local nonprofit whose mission is to help individuals experiencing homelessness rebuild their lives to gain self-sufficiency. Launching the platform changing the paradigm of our perceptions about homelessness, dr Washington has convened community partnerships to advance services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Part of convening community partnerships has been Washington's spearheading of the organization's most successful annual signature fundraiser event, pvh's Coldest Night of the Year 5K Walk, which has raised over $100,000 in operational funding for the last three years. Welcome to the show, darlene. I should have an applause track there. Thank you for coming on and doing this with me. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:Again, we won't go into that, and okay. So I mean, as we're experiencing, much of the country is experiencing some really, really cold weather I think it's important that we talk about this your current assignment and what drew you to this particular mission. Was it something in particular?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think most people will say or think she must have almost been homeless. She must have been homeless, because we tend to gravitate towards our thing.
Speaker 1:Things that are personal right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me it wasn't that, it was in 2016,. I experienced some pretty tragic losses, so I lost my mom and my husband on the same day.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God 12 hours apart.
Speaker 2:I lost my husband at 11am and I lost my mom at 11pm. Husband at 11 am and I lost my mom at 11 pm. And so walking out of that, I was like, okay, you have my attention, what is it that I am designed to do now? And nine months later I walked into this role as executive director, so I guess I was birthed into this role. When I look back at the resilience through those tragic events, what I learned, my purpose was to see resilience and seed resilience in other people. Seed resilience in other people was to know that, as much tragedy as the individuals that we serve have in their lives, that there is life after. And how do I use our services to build hope and to help them exercise their resilience and become the individuals that they were designed to be in our society? And so that when I look back, I see was, you know, brought purpose to those tragic events that I had to experience?
Speaker 1:Wow, I cannot. I cannot even imagine I mean I was. I was a mess for probably a good year and a half after my mom passed. I can't imagine losing my spouse the same day. Holy cow, where do I go from there? No, and I can see you're probably saying I was called to do it.
Speaker 2:It is my assignment, saying I was called to do it. It is my assignment over all the things that I have faced in this role from the organization being just financially in red, red, red and not knowing, you know, pay period to pay period, if I was going to get paid and there were times when I didn't, and you know, let's pay the staff, let's pay the staff, but I never went without anything and so I. That was confirmation. This is your assignment. This is your assignment.
Speaker 1:Is that kind of like? Is that just kind of the norm for a, for a nonprofit? I mean you have good years where you meet all your, all your goals, and then you have those years that some tough decisions need to be made.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's lean, it's, you know, feast and famine, and you just have to be able to create sustainability. You have to be able to create relationships in communities and just help the community know that we will lead this effort and it's a community response. And so the solutions are complex. They are, you know, integrated, and we have to have an integrated solution, yeah for sure, and we have to have an integrated solution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Okay, so just the numbers right now. In 2024, there was recorded 771,480 homeless, which was an 18% increase over 2023. That number is really way too close to a million for my liking. Talk to me about how they how do they get that number? Because it seems like it would be an impossible task, but it's just one night, correct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are a variety of places and spaces that information comes from. However, there is what we call a point in time count, and that point in time count is a snapshot that we do across the country on a specific night to give us a sense of what sheltered and unsheltered homelessness looks like in our communities. And then that information is reported and aggregated up. So the night before we count individuals who are in shelters, who are in transitional housing you know night shelters, day shelters and then from that night leading into the morning of the next day, the unsheltered count takes place. And so you know, communities have a strategy by which they look at where are individuals who are unsheltered sleeping, you know where within the geography of their community, are those pockets, and then they have teams to go out. There's a questionnaire. So it's not just I saw a person, but there's a questionnaire to determine the person's homelessness.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's funny you say sheltered and unsheltered, because I don't think, when we think of the homeless, I don't think we make that distinction. You know somebody at a homeless shelter? When we think of the homeless, I don't think we make that distinction. You know somebody at a homeless shelter, if you will, is sheltered, obviously, and the person on the street is unsheltered, but they're both homeless, exactly, exactly. Okay, so I know, and if you look, and I shared with you some comments about in my community, about homeless people and people, we can be kind of ignorant, can't we? Especially those of us who have never experienced that, who have never experienced that, what are some of the? If you could talk to the whole world and clear up some myths about the homeless, what would be one or two things that you would want to set straight?
Speaker 2:I think one thing is how we refer to individuals. It's not about political correctness, but it's about being as descriptive about the true situation. It is individuals who are experiencing homelessness and we want that to be rare, brief and non-reoccurring. So it's not who that person is, but it is the situation in which they find themselves at that time. So individuals experiencing homelessness, it could be for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2:Right now we're seeing we have been seeing over the last few years an increase in individuals who are seniors, 62 and above, and what's that looking like is, yeah, is you know, a spouse has passed away. They no longer have the income to keep up a house coming out of COVID when prices are going up on apartments and things of that nature, so they're being priced out of housing you know markets, and they don't want their families to know. They don't want to be a burden to their families. So they'll sleep in their cars for as long as they can do that and then, when that's not an option, then they will seek shelter. People have mental health, undiagnosed mental health issues and concerns, substance use disorders, former incarceration. So there are a variety of reasons why individuals are experiencing homelessness and these are reasons that everybody has. Generally, as a community, we just get to close the doors on our issues.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, Nobody gets to see my undiagnosed mental health issues, or or because I'm housed, Right, Um, and I think it's important. I think we, as a, as a and I'll just speak for, because in America I'm all over the place, aren't I? I think America has a larger population of unhoused individuals or homeless individuals. I mean other countries, countries of Germany and Great Britain and what have you? France they all have homeless people, but not to the extent that we do, do they?
Speaker 2:Well, I really can't speak to the scope in other countries. However, I do know different countries handle and manage homelessness differently. We know that the solution, a big part of the solution, is housing, and it's housing that is affordable and that means that a person needs to be able to live, make a living and also have a night cover residence over their heads at night. It just depends on what that country's positioning is around homelessness and what are they willing to do in terms of solutions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you talk about affordable housing. I see these buildings go up and they're labeled as affordable housing. I look at some of the prices of rent and I'm like affordable, for who?
Speaker 2:exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean that would not, and you know so and that also, I mean that's a barrier to a lot of things for these people, right? I mean, if you don't have an address, a place to live, oftentimes you can't get a job and and it's just like this big cycle, right?
Speaker 2:Moving from location to location. Many times, you know our clients individuals who are experiencing homelessness will lose the three things that make us a human being in society, and that's going to be that government issue photo ID, a social security card and a birth certificate. And again, I should know that. You know you can get 12 birth certificates in your lifetime. I mean 12 social security cards in your lifetime. But you know what happens is people go from station to station and they lose them, and we need those three documents for employment, we need it for housing and so many other things. So, yeah, those are critical documents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not to get off on another tangent, but when they talk about a photo ID for voting, it's the same sort of thing, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah voting.
Speaker 1:It's the same sort of thing, right? Yeah, because oftentimes a homeless person will not have that required piece, and okay, that's a whole other show. I won't go there. But yes, I mean. So it's a state issued photo ID, social security number or a card Card, and I'm sorry, what was the third thing? Social?
Speaker 2:security card and a birth certificate birth certificate yeah, and if you have none of those, in order to get you started, one one way is going back to high school transcripts. Oh, so if you get the unopened high school transcripts, you can get a birth certificate, and then you work your way through that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm guessing there's probably a fee for that. Yes, Well then how does that work? Because you have to prove who you are to get the transcript right.
Speaker 2:Usually we can request those because they send them out and they know they have to be. When they go to whatever entity, they have to be unsealed. So we can't open them, we just have to take them unsealed.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's interesting. I did not know that that was available as a resource or a tool to establishing those things that they need, those things that they need. So and I think we oftentimes so when somebody says, you know, you walk past a homeless person and if you are a normal, fully functioning human being, you say, oh, that poor person, I wish I could help. And you know, maybe you've got a couple bucks you could give them, but that's not going to solve the problem, is it?
Speaker 2:Correct and many times, you know, individuals who are experiencing homelessness are invisible, in plain sight. You know we don't want to see the plight, we don't want to see the despair, we don't want to see the despair, we don't want to look like hope for a person, and so we just ignore the faces of individuals who are homeless. And so many times they're invisible and in plain sight.
Speaker 1:Right, don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. Yeah, yeah, and most people are cool with it as long as it's not in their backyard, right?
Speaker 2:NIMBY, not in my backyard, you know and the sense is there are lots of things that have to take place.
Speaker 2:Our local town is actually constructing a shelter, a residential shelter, and we happen to be fortunate enough that it's in a corridor where social services are. So you know, the health department is already there, behavioral health is already there, social services is already there, and then there is a clinic that's already there. So to have the shelter right, and then, and there's food services as well, to have the shelter right, and then there's food services as well, to have the shelter right. There is a corridor of support and other times people are not so fortunate so they are trying to put it in a neighborhood or close to a business or things like that. It's been my always my approach that individuals who need residential shelter we don't need to be downtown, we don't need to be visible, because there's so much that people are working on for their lives, so they don't need the distraction of being highly visible. We're okay being tucked away so that we can kind of work on our community and get our community ready to go back and face the larger community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Can you talk a little bit? And I almost forgot about this. I'm glad I remembered I was really impressed with your communities and with PVH's. Is it PVH? Tell me, yeah, oh, PVH, yeah, PVH.
Speaker 2:I got it.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I'm so surprised. When you were working with your community prior to COVID, you had a lot of churches in the area that were helping out, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we were the traditional night shelter program, and so during the winter months we had about 25 interfaith churches, you know, baptist, methodist, catholic, working across denominations, and so we would seven days church, seven days church. When COVID hit, we were no longer able to do that, and so we established a partnership with our local sheriff, the Portsmouth Sheriff's Office, sheriff Michael Moore, and we were able to go into a building that he had that was not going to be used.
Speaker 2:And so we went in and we kind of transformed as best we could the building into a shelter, as well as adhering to public health protocols.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And we were able to go into that facility. I have a short little background in disaster emergency preparedness from the American Red Cross and had the opportunity to serve as a pandemic coordinator, and so we were able just to roll right into writing new protocols, training and things like that and we didn't have a COVID outbreak for two years.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:So you know. It just goes to show that when you have the right protocols in place and training and education that those things are possible. We also went from six months to year round, so we were able to extend our services for the community as a result of that.
Speaker 1:Wow. So then, after COVID, did you go back to the faith community? We did not. Or did you just stay with? Okay?
Speaker 2:Just because many churches still are not back to their vibrant selves again and my commitment in this assignment is to not go back. So the sense is, once we put a service in the community, I want to have enough confidence that we're going to continue to be able to sustain that service and not have to draw it back from the community.
Speaker 1:Plus, I would imagine change leads to distrust in that community. I mean, if you're changing up, you go. Okay, this week you're going to be here and then next week you're going to be over here. I would think that that would maybe not foster trust.
Speaker 2:And they were solutions of necessity. Yeah, we didn't have a choice but to do it those ways, and now we have other choices.
Speaker 1:Right, right, so I was really. I found it really inspirational. You drew on your experience with the Red Cross when you were communicating about homeless people, because you were very big in the HIV AIDS era about looking at people as individuals and you kind of brought that with you into the homeless nonprofit. Can you talk a little bit about that, because that's really interesting to me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so during some of my work at Red Cross we actually worked in HIV and AIDS education. We actually had the only nationally certified instructor course. So, just like CPR first aid, you could get trained to be an HIV AIDS instructor, and the foundation for that was the information had to be factually accurate, nonjudgmental and culturally sensitive and appropriate, and that way the focus was on the behavior and not the human. And so what?
Speaker 2:how I was able to bring that over into the work that we do is that we tend to sometimes look down on an individual or we think that they are deserving of being homeless because of something that they've done in the past, and so my goal was to change the paradigm of our perceptions about homelessness so that individuals they support what they like right. I like this, I'm going to support it. So here are some snapshots into the lives of individuals who are experiencing homelessness, and how do we humanize that so that we can get the support that we need to help individuals rebuild their lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think a lot of times we tend to dehumanize that population a lot, you know, like, oh, they're just a drug addict or whatever the case may be. You may not realize that the person you're looking at had a home at one point and lost it for whatever reason. And, yeah, that absolutely does make you look at that person as a human being and deserving of respect and love and housing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, history has definitely shown us, if we dehumanize people, we make it okay to treat them differently, to treat them badly, to ignore them, to place them at a station in life that's lower than us. And so if we can humanize individuals, we can gather and convene what we need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure it's so cool. Now, okay, let's talk about your fundraiser, because that's coming up in next month, right, yes?
Speaker 2:February, the 22nd, and this is a yearly thing with Blue Sea Foundation, which is actually out of Canada and so right around 2022, they were extending the event into the United States. And so the difference is with other foundations you go and they have a specific amount of money and they can give out five grants for that. In this case, you rally around an event where you get to execute, plan and coordinate that event and as much money as you can generate from that event, that's your grant. So Blue Sea Foundation is an amazing partner. Is coldest night of the year and it is cold. It has been cold nights, rainy nights, cold. It has been cold nights, rainy nights. But last year, the 2024, we had over 500 walkers and we raised a lot of money. So we call it a winterific family fun event.
Speaker 2:And it's open to the whole family right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. How about pets?
Speaker 2:No pets liability issues. No pets Okay, we want your pet to be safe fair, fair, fair, um, and, and like what? Last year, you raised over a hundred thousand well, we have raised over a hundred thousand over the three years that we've done it last year. We raised somewhere around 50 50 thousand dollars wow, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:And you said is it a 5k?
Speaker 2:you said yeah, it's a 5k walk, oh um, and it's down on our um seawall, so it's not only cold but it's bitter and wind I'm sure you got a little breeze coming off yeah, we have some amazing sponsors for the event and we just go out and walk and the walk actually takes about an hour hour and 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:That's not horrible.
Speaker 2:We end it with a nice warm bowl of chili and a cookie and some potato chips, because you know, that's what a typical meal dinner meal might look like for individuals who are experiencing homelessness.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And then we disperse and get ready to do it again next year.
Speaker 1:Oh, you get a day off right before you have to start planning for the next year. That is so fantastic. Oh, that is so fantastic. Darlene, I so appreciate what you do and I absolutely love your organization. I am not in Portsmouth, virginia, so I probably won't be attending your walk, but I'd be happy to. I'll put a, because you've got a website for it, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I do. There'll be a because you've got a website for it, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I do. That'll be. There'll be a link in there. If you're listening to my voice and you're in the Portsmouth Virginia area and you're going to be around, I highly suggest going for a walk, and cold is subjective. I might just say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just talked about that. You guys are a little bit colder than we are, right about now.
Speaker 1:Coldest night of the year. Yeah, that was last night, oh my gosh. But thank you so much for coming on and talking to me about this. Everybody needs to be aware of this and you know, I don't know what each of us can do to help somebody who is homeless, but donate to a local nonprofit that works specifically with them. I would highly suggest it. I would consider it a personal favor to me if somebody would do that, but I appreciate your time and the time that you've spent talking with me today. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I certainly appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to speak on something that is just so passionate about you know and caring about.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are passionate and caring about. I appreciate your time, Darlene. We will talk again soon.
Speaker 2:Sounds good.
Speaker 1:Take care.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for taking this time to listen to this episode with my guest, Dr Darlene Sparks Washington. I hope that you're able to take something positive from the time that you spent with us. Maybe you'll be inspired. Maybe you spent with us, Maybe you'll be inspired, Maybe you'll be motivated, Maybe you'll be moved. If you experienced any of those positive feelings, as I mentioned in the beginning, please consider sharing this podcast with your friends and family. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and maybe or maybe not TikTok.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance, or have a podcast and you're looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetworkcom and check out the many different shows, like Afrocentric Spoil, my Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle Radio Show, Wake Up and Dream with D Anthony Palin, Stacks of Packs and the Time Pals podcast. We will be back again next week with a new episode and we would be honored if you would join us. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I am your host, Mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
