Listen in as we visit with Isabell Chronister, Assistant Director of the Hope Center!
Hear about her time as interning at TRM through Washburn University, where she worked with our TED (Trauma Education Department) Team, and her desire to continue working here even after her internship was completed.
Also learn about her heart for the people we serve, and how we are really doing life with those we serve.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Listen in as we visit with Isabell Chronister, Assistant Director of the Hope Center!
Hear about her time as interning at TRM through Washburn University, where she worked with our TED (Trauma Education Department) Team, and her desire to continue working here even after her internship was completed.
Also learn about her heart for the people we serve, and how we are really doing life with those we serve.
To learn more about TRM Ministries: Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and your blessings and your provisions. God, lord, I pray that you'd bless this time, this conversation. Lord, thank you for our special guest today and pray that you would just guide and lead this conversation and that years that would hear it would be blessed and encouraged. Father, you're good to us and we love you and praise your name. Amen. Hello everybody.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Our Community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission. This is your host, barry Fiecker, here on Wednesday, november 1st 2023, podcast 196. Good morning, marion Kraball. Good morning. You know what's spooky about today.
Speaker 3:You know what? I can't even respond to that. Well, you know there's good reason for it to be spooky. Uh-huh why it's Halloween.
Speaker 2:No, halloween was yesterday, no, no.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I don't do Halloween, I don't hand out candy, I leave my light off.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, is there such a thing as a Halloween grinch? There is.
Speaker 2:There is.
Speaker 3:I am it.
Speaker 2:We just heard her. Well, you know what's spooky to me Halloween was and all that jazz. Was yesterday, and I'm not too much into it either, but what's spooky is it's already November 1st. Oh, I know, yeah.
Speaker 3:I know that's ridiculous, almost. Yeah, it went very fast, it did, it went very, very fast, so you didn't dress up or anything yesterday.
Speaker 2:Oh no, people kept asking me where's your costume. I said where it. All the time I said where's my costume. So I'm actually only 29 years old and you know I'm a serial man costume, so anyway, yeah, no, I didn't dress up, I didn't do any of that.
Speaker 3:I mean, I kind of like seeing the little kids when they're all dressed up and happy and that kind of thing, but not so much, I don't know. It never has been. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's fine. You got plenty of other things to do to get out to help people, being in charge of supportive services here at the rescue.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Lots of food baskets and and do you know what?
Speaker 3:Pretty much from July on. It's all about Christmas.
Speaker 2:We're going to get an update on that. A couple of other things, but first of all, there's a couple of important things about that that's really trying to divert. Yes, right, but a couple of important things about today being November 1st. It's national. What day?
Speaker 3:You know what, Barry? I don't know what day is it today.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a couple of things, but at least it's National Author's Day. So any anything that you've ever written before you're an author. Did you know that? No, did you write a paper in school before I did? You're, yeah, a nurse. You've got a background in nursing and so you've been head of a couple of United Ways in the country Chamber of Commerce, and so anything that you've written you're an author. You know, if you write a letter, you're an author. But we think about authors as being writing books right and making money and making money. Yeah, some of us write books and don't make.
Speaker 3:anybody Don't make anybody.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we just do it because we want to do it Exactly. Yeah, so, but also it's a really, and you know this one very, very well, I do. So next one National Extra. What Day?
Speaker 3:Well, maybe extra mile day.
Speaker 2:Extra mile. This came out of the air, didn't?
Speaker 3:it. It did because you know, I would know that.
Speaker 2:Well, you go the extra mile all the time. Oh, maryam, you really do. Well, thank you, and so sometimes the extra two miles, three miles, four miles, five miles, the extra mile. So we get the extra mile day out of the scripture where Jesus talked about doing the extra mile for somebody, and we get into a sermon here today. But that's where they think that that came from. But it's National Authors Day and extra mile day, that's wonderful, that's wonderful.
Speaker 3:I particularly like the extra mile.
Speaker 2:Now that we've set the stage of a non-spooky day that was yesterday. I know Today is just spooky because we only have two months left before the end of the year and it's kind of spooky because Christmas is coming. Christmas is coming.
Speaker 3:I know there's so much to do Around the mission. There's just incredible amounts to do. You know we will serve so many people. We will adopt people from Christmas Bureau. In fact, just the other day I helped with Christmas Bureau intake.
Speaker 2:I heard you were on TV.
Speaker 3:I was.
Speaker 2:I heard that, yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, so I was talking to somebody in a whole different town and they said Mary and Crables on TV. I said what's she doing on TV? She's always on TV, or she used to be. Anyway, I think it was Christmas Bureau.
Speaker 3:Oh, really, I'll tell you that is such a heartwarming thing to do to see people that are just so humble and they're coming in because they really have no options. And, in particular, it's just so amazing to me how I have to pull things out of people that they want for Christmas that are not things that we would just go and buy every day. You know, maybe there was a gentleman yesterday that was just precious. He was just precious. I mean, he had a hard time coming anyway, because he was just. I think he was just ashamed that he needed to be there, you know, and the person beside me who was doing his intake was saying well, isn't there just something? And he said you know, if I could just get a few things like pet food and maybe some detergent? And she goes well, isn't there something that you need? And he leaned forward and he just said very quietly, I need something. And she was like I didn't quite hear you, can you speak up just a little bit? And he's like I could just really use maybe just two pairs of new underwear. You know, I mean he was just and you could tell that it was just everything for him to be able to even say something like that.
Speaker 3:And then I was doing intake on a mom who had kids and just the the hardship that she was walking through, right, and she had great ideas and was so enthusiastic about what her kids needed. But when I asked her but what would you like, what can we do for you to help, to help the holidays be special for you too? I mean, she just weeps, you know. I mean thinking of herself was so difficult for her.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a very successful individual that you know and I won't say who it is because it's her story to tell but there was a time in her life where she did not have anything at Christmas at two kids. And her daughter came to her and said mom, please get something for my little brother. Oh, not something for me. Yeah, get something for my little brother. Yeah. And this lady went to a church here in town and she had 13 cents left. She put it on the plate. Put it on the plate and his prayed said God, help me to know how I can get something for my son. And, without asking anybody, some Individuals came up to her in that church and said who are you? Here's who we are, and we believe the Lord has told us to help you with Christmas.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, yeah, see how God works. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I was. I heard this the other day and it was just like, oh my goodness, that's widows might yeah. Unmarried these two kids and her situation. She was in a divorce situation and had nothing. She's very successful today. We'll mention her name. That her story to tell yeah but point is, she wasn't looking anything for herself, and even her daughter, mm-hmm, said please get something for my little brother. Yeah mom yeah see, isn't that?
Speaker 3:I mean it just, it's humbling, it's convicting and it's beautiful, right, I mean so. We will be doing a lot for people over over the holidays, whether it's at Thanksgiving and doing trying to help people over Thanksgiving and then definitely at Christmas, and so if people can help us with money or With brand new gifts for folks, or with food that will give out for people, or, if they can't do that, if they could just come volunteer we need a lot of volunteers whether it's in our shelters doing volunteering, whether it's helping us decorate, that's a way to volunteer whether it's at the distribution center where they're Coordinating and organizing all of the gifts. There are just so many ways to be able to engage with the Topeka rescue mission and the folks we serve, and it's so greatly appreciated and is just such a tremendous help.
Speaker 2:People could go to the rescue mission website at TRM online dot org that's TRM online dot org and find out how they can serve and Department, and there's a Christmas needs list out there and I think on Facebook there is, or is going to be, some of those announcements, and so Spread the word. You can make a big difference, just like those individuals in that church did with that lady who absolutely and so yeah, maryam, you've been kind of watching the poverty numbers, you know, prior to pandemic, post pandemic, where we are right now. Anything that you can say about that, what we're seeing in our community I know that you were in a meeting here recently with some folks with the night away and others Is there. Is there anything that we need to be aware of?
Speaker 3:You know, I think, barry, there's just so much that's that's such a heavy topic. I mean there's just so much that we could discuss in terms of the number of people that are struggling, people that are living in poverty, people who would not necessarily consider them living themselves living in poverty, that are still struggling to make ends meet. You know, we're watching food prices still go up. I think I heard something the other day that they were happy that they had only just gone up another 3% and it's like okay, but that's that's making it really difficult for people. You know and I think it the the opportunity that I had to review a lot of data, whether it was around housing or reading scores or All different kinds of health indicators right, I think the thing that I'm struggling with right now is that we've watched this before.
Speaker 3:It's not like these are new numbers. They are numbers that are rising. There are more people being impacted in different kinds of ways with the price of housing, with the price of food, with all different kinds of things, and yet it's like we as a community continue to kind of do things the same way that we always have, and the thing that I'm continuously struck by is we just have to be better. We have to do better. We have to break out of how we are used to doing things and Recognize that what we're doing is not working. It's not working. It's not working for the people that are experiencing Experiencing generational poverty. It's not working for the people that are experiencing new challenges, and we just have to do better. You know we have to work together in different kinds of ways and come up with solutions.
Speaker 2:I think we need to unpack that even more in a future podcast, but we're running into the 60th year of the war on poverty and, while it was a good idea, we we're still fighting that war and a lot of things didn't work. And so what? What's the solution? I don't think anybody has the magic bullet no, no. But we do have some things that we can look at and do differently in our current time right we are today Not to take away from the good things that are already going on.
Speaker 2:You know it's if you're bleeding, a good place starts a band-aid. Don't forget the band-aids, you know, because that's good to stop the bleeding, but it doesn't fix the wound necessarily, sure, when it's so severe. So we need to talk and I think it's.
Speaker 3:You know we will not program ourselves out of these situations. No, not it. There's not one program to programs, a hundred programs that will program our way out of the situations that Communities, including to pica and the greater to pica area, are facing right now. It has to be system level chains and it requires everyone to be at the table and relation, including those folks that are experiencing the things that we're talking about poverty, housing challenges, Equity challenges, all those kinds of things. We have to have folks at the table with us.
Speaker 3:Because otherwise we don't really know the real deal.
Speaker 2:So it's not like nothing. Good is being done, a lot of good is being done. It's not good enough to be able to stem the tide, what we're seeing here. So we, we do what we do and try to make it better, but we've got to be better than better. We got to be great absolutely yeah absolutely a couple of things.
Speaker 2:A lot of attention to the homeless issue again. It's kind of ongoing Recently with law enforcement and going into camps and ordinance is coming and those kind of things. But it's getting cold. We've got a little cold here recently and then it's gonna warm up up for a few days. We don't know what the following week's gonna look like at this point, but we know winners around the corner. Yeah, what are we doing here? To be a rescue mission?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, during cold weather we changed some of our processes so that people, even if they can't stay with us overnight, that they can come into our shelters and warm up. Or there are warm or cold weather rules. I can't say that there are cold weather rules in terms of how we'll be able to shelter people, exactly.
Speaker 2:We'll loosen that up a little bit. So somebody didn't freeze today right, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And then, obviously, our outreach teams are out trying to help people have what they need to stay as warm as possible. But I'll tell you, barry, well, you know, when the temperatures are in the 20s, it's just cold, it's just cold. And so you know, I, honestly, I it seems like it maybe isn't as much as we want, as people would want to do, but we just need them to really pray for everyone's safety for the people who are living outside, for our staff, who Are bringing more and more people into the shelter, which then can bring about more challenges, sometimes more chaos, people who are just struggling.
Speaker 3:So for our staff, for the folks living outside, for our first responders, I mean, there's just so many people that during this time of year, when the weather becomes less predictable or extremely cold, there are just more and more challenges.
Speaker 2:So prayer all the way around is just so helpful and I can't understate that Last year we diverted a fatality any fatality during that incredibly cold weather snap because of prayer and because people came together to create something for people to get off the streets, and we're out there outreaching ahead of time and so, yeah, that prayer, praying for the outreach teams that are out there today, yeah, absolutely Trying to keep people safe and, yeah, all the different things that go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, prayer, and then put the boots on and the gloves on and get to action.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, Mary, what?
Speaker 3:we like to.
Speaker 2:Your sleeves up right, Right. Yeah, that's right, that's a good one. Somebody came up with that one day, One me. That was before. My time Sounds like a long time ago.
Speaker 3:That's lasted a lot of years.
Speaker 2:It has well it works. It sticks Should be in the Bible but it's not. But anyway, it's kind of talks about the Bible.
Speaker 3:Maybe it is just not those exact words, not those exact words.
Speaker 2:Well, mary, what we like to do on our community, our mission, is to highlight a lot of different people making a difference, and so we have one of those here today. Sometimes it is community leaders. We've had international people that have come into our community. Our mission Again, we're on podcast number 196, headed towards 200. That's a lot of those on almost nearly weekly basis for several years now, and one of the things we'd like to do is highlight some staff members who are here, and so today we have the fairly new assistant director of the Hope Center for Women and Families, isabel Cronister. Welcome to our community, our mission.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we're glad you're here too, and this is your first time maybe being on a podcast, or have you been on one before?
Speaker 4:You know, some of my friends have a podcast set up and sometimes we would just joke around and Well that's what we're doing here. Yeah, and we never put anything on the internet.
Speaker 2:Oh, we won't do that here either. We kind of cross our fingers and say this is just a fun.
Speaker 3:He's bibbing. Yeah, we're just having a grand time.
Speaker 2:So, josh, just to kind of help her, to kind of loosen up, where all does this go?
Speaker 1:All over, I mean anywhere you can get a podcast.
Speaker 3:So it's a global goal, we got some global listeners, you know shout out to them for listening to our podcast. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:So like you said, someday, hopefully we'll have some on the moon when there's a base station.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at least the International Space Station ought to be out there right now. Probably is right now, so no worries here as well.
Speaker 4:No worries, no one on the moon is going to listen yet Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but this is the other way we save these, you know. And then if they're really bored up there which I kind of got a feeling they might be they'll want to listen to this and see what's happening down. Good old earth 20 years ago, so whatever. Anyway, well, welcome. Before you became assistant director of Hope Center, you did an internship here.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To pick a rescue mission a Worshpern student at the time and talk about where you're from, how you got to Topeka, going to Worshpern, and then what happened to get you landed here as an intern.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I always say that I'm from Wichita, which is kind of a small lie. I'm from Derby, which is 30 minutes south of Wichita, and I had some family friends at my church who went to Worshpern and they were involved in a college ministry called Christian Challenge.
Speaker 4:And they told me how great it was and just that I needed to come. And I toured Worshpern and it just felt like home and I was like, okay, this is where I'm gonna go. And I applied and then got super involved in Christian Challenge and yeah, and so Christian Challenge then, what was your major at Worshpern? So I started out as a biology major, but then halfway through I realized science was more of a hobby than a career choice for me. So then I switched to psychology.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so you came in to intern here. For how long?
Speaker 4:It was a whole semester, so August to December.
Speaker 2:Last year.
Speaker 4:Yes, of 2022.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a fairly good stretch to do an internship and you work with the TED team here. Specifically, what were you doing with the trauma and education department in your internship? Just kind of broad or focusing mainly on the trauma end of things, or what?
Speaker 4:It was kind of specific. We focused more on, like trauma education, and so my friend and I we made classes. We started off talking about the five B's. The five B's yes so if I can remember the five, it is.
Speaker 2:That's what I always go like. Oh yeah, I should have said that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's brain, biology, behavior, belief. And the fifth one is gonna leave me. The fifth one always does, but we just talked about those topics, and then we paired it with an activity that also started with B, and so we did bracelets, baking, bubble painting, things like that, and we called it B&B, and we did it both at the Hope Center and also at the Men's Sheldon.
Speaker 2:For the guests that were coming and staying here. So why was that valuable?
Speaker 4:It was tremendously valuable, not only for me but also for the guests, because we could educate them, and the last week we just showed them that the life that they're living now and the way that their brain functions isn't the end all be all. There's new ways for them to move forward and just have this better outlook on life and also just how they think of themselves. And so it was so cool because that last couple of weeks we really saw people make connections and being like, oh, this is what happened in my past and this is how I feel now, but that doesn't determine my future. And just to see the joy that that brought to people was amazing and it filled my heart so much.
Speaker 2:Sounds like what you guys did in that system is to help them to get some understanding of some why things have maybe happened and the way they've looked at things, which is good and probably a little scary sometimes, you know, maybe bringing up some memories or those kind of things. So helping people to see what they can be is wonderful, but when they come into connection with maybe some of the pain that has created some of the things in their life, what did you experience with that? How challenging was that and how did you help them in that crisis moment?
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, our first initial thing was just to stop and let them talk, because a lot of the times some people feel like they don't have that listening ear and so, either after the class or maybe if they were comfortable sharing with the group, then we just took some time to discuss what they had felt and what they had learned and just stuff about their past, and then after the class we would just sit and pray with that guest and just kind of talk with them further and how people they could reach out to or who they felt comfortable like talking with more and just getting the help that they need.
Speaker 2:Mary-Meson, speak to the fact that to be a rescue mission is not just a place to stay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:And you helped with the development of the TED team and all of these things and brought in some really awesome people. And then you have an Isabel comes along and does some internship to what is it? What do people need to know about? To be a rescue mission and that's just one aspect that it's. It's not just a three-hots in a caught place.
Speaker 3:No, it really isn't.
Speaker 3:It really, really really is that we care about each of the people that comes to us and we want to make sure that they know that and that we do things that can maybe help them see a different future for themselves.
Speaker 3:Right, that takes them from this place where they are thinking, maybe, that they're hopeless because they've experienced this trauma and that'll never change, and how I think will never change, and how my brain functions will never change, to a place where they can embrace the fact that, oh, I maybe have a little bit more control over this than I thought I did, and there is, there is light ahead of me, there is an opportunity to be hopeful and to do some things.
Speaker 3:I think that's incredible because, you know, we talk a lot about compassion and we talk a lot about people, that every person has a name and that every person has a family. But when I listen to Isabel and the things that were done and the things that continue to be done, it's those kinds of things that emphasize that that we put skin in the game around that thing too. It's not just something we say, it's something we actually believe and that we're going to do whatever we can to help people understand that In your case you have a medical background, just a few other backgrounds but, you know you worked, I think, all over hospital work before and in your nursing career.
Speaker 2:It'd be kind of like if somebody was in a major car wreck and they came in all broken up and you say wow, we really feel sorry for you, hope that you get better and give you a place to stay until you get better, and we're going to feed you. They probably die.
Speaker 3:Well, they would, right, I mean with you. You can look at it with children, you can look at it with adults. When they lose hope, when they see no different trajectory for their life, they do not thrive, right, they start to deteriorate, and so anything that we can do that reignites whatever that is inside of us, right, that gives us an opportunity to see something different, including Jesus right.
Speaker 3:You know to share that in a very gentle way that they are loved beyond what they will ever know. And when you combine all of those things, it makes a difference and people can heal. Maybe not heal in the way that we always think about okay, everything is just hunky dory and fine, but they can heal. They can have hope for the future and see a different future for themselves.
Speaker 2:So really to pick a rescue mission in some senses is partly not just emergency services, it's treatment to help people, right yeah.
Speaker 3:And staff right. So, the trauma team helped staff, helped and helped staff a lot, whether it's secondary trauma or primary trauma. In order for us to be able to serve those we serve, we too have to be healed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, Isabel. You came into this. You heard Christian Challenge, kind of open the door here for you than an internship. What are some things that you didn't know, that you learned in your internship here.
Speaker 4:Just how hectic, wonderfully hectic, it is at the home center. Yeah, and just learning more about what the shelters do. And because you know, during my internship we were always kind of in the office setting, we just did, you know, a couple hours a week. We didn't really interact much with the guest daily unless it was when we did our weekly classes and just seeing the need of how much people those or how much people need love and just they need someone to care for them.
Speaker 2:So during that internship period you got a chance to actually see the staff while they're engaging all the time with that. So you came through internship and then last August you came on board as a staff member to be a rescue in this position of assistant director now of the Hope Center. So what caused you to want to come back to TRM in that position?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So even after my internship ended, I just wanted to work at the mission. I was like, okay, I know this is the place that I want to work. I love the atmosphere, I love the people, and the Lord really just broke my heart for the homeless community. But at the time the job that I thought I wanted wasn't available, and so I was like, okay, I'm just going to finish out my semester, I'm going to graduate, and I worked up until when I got hired on here at an all-women's rehab center in Lawrence and that really it was challenging, but it showed how the Lord can move in a lot of different storms in just my life, other people's life. And so I was still actively, you know, checking in, just seeing what jobs were available. And then one night I saw that the assistant director position was available and it was, and I immediately applied. I was sitting on my couch and I was like, okay, here we go, this is.
Speaker 2:I don't know where this is going to take me. I'm coming back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't know. You know, I didn't know where this was going to take me, and now I'm just so thankful that the Lord brought me back.
Speaker 2:Explain Hope Center to people. We call it the Hope Center for Women and Families. But how would you describe this to a person who's never seen it, never been in there and only conceptually can understand?
Speaker 4:Yeah, Well, it's just a bunch of families and women just living together. We're all doing life together, Even us who work at the front desk. We are doing life with those that we serve. We have a bunch of amazing people that are staying with us. I don't remember the exact number we got, but we have single women, single mothers, some single fathers and some married couples and it's just yeah, the best way I can describe it is us just doing life together.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting way of putting that. Well, I literally like that. So these are folks that for this time in their life, would be considered homeless. They have nowhere else to go. They come to the rescue mission. There's a place you say, wow, I can't wait to go there. This is one of those desperation things. And they may come through the front door and have never been homeless in a homeless shelter before.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of different, probably, responses or reactions to that. Some people are like, wow, thank you, and other people are like I don't want to be here, yeah, so how do you manage through that?
Speaker 4:It's difficult. It's definitely a second by second way that I have to understand how I should react, and I learned a lot from my internship with the trauma education department, with the 10 team of. Not all of it is like just them being difficult or them being defiant, it's more of a deep rooted thing, and so I always try my best to handle it with grace and love and just extend Christ's love on them and just help them understand that there's going to be no judgment while they're here and there's going to be so much support if it's the first time that they've had support around them. That's what we're here for, and just try and help them understand, even if it takes a few conversations, and for us to build that trust with that person.
Speaker 2:You know, maryam, what I'm hearing here is that it's not us and them. Right, it's us, it's us, and I love that. That is so what I could say Christ-like yeah, to not say well, we're better, or we're the staff, or we're you know, whatever, but it's us doing life together. That's powerful.
Speaker 3:Well, and when you think about that statement the doing life together it also means that we receive as much as we give, Right, so we learn things and we we receive from those people that we serve, and I think that that's one of my most, most, most favorite things about TDRM and something that was totally not expected for me that I would be learning and growing because of the people that we serve, not because I get the chance to serve, but because what they offer every single day to each and every one of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's. There's such a dichotomy in the way that this group of people that are experiencing homelessness are looked at. One is that they are really people who are our neighbors. In other words, they're a burden and we don't want them to be our neighbors anymore. And I think you know, isabel, what you're doing is challenging us to say they really are our neighbors and we're doing life together as if they were living right next door. What's it like to be? What's the assistant director of Hope Center role? What does that mean?
Speaker 4:You know, I don't think that there's an exact definition when I first started I was like I just was gonna follow my boss around, and I still feel like that sometimes. I just kind of follow her around and I help her when she needs help. But it's. I've learned a lot and, as I said, that everything that I was thinking of just went out the window. But I've grown in confidence. At first I was very shy about, like the role that I had and I didn't really know how to handle it, but now I can say with more confidence, now that I can just take a phone call and who someone needs help and wants to come in, I can assess, you know, the situation that they're going through and being like, okay, we're gonna open our doors for you and you can join what we, what I would consider the family at Hope Center.
Speaker 3:Sure, well, and I watched Isabelle yesterday because Rachel was out and we had a group of folks from a school district here that wanted to come in and see how things function and do a tour of the Hope Center. You know they have families that they're serving, that we're serving as well. Mental health issues are significant in the school system, just like they are here with us, and so I watched Isabelle have to step in, you know, and do tours and share all that kind of information with people that were seeking that information from us. So when I think about the assistant director, it's like they have to do everything the director does, right, they help with scheduling, they do everything, right, yeah, and they just do it with knowing that there is somebody that they can turn to and say, yeah, no, I'm not doing that, which I'm sure, isabelle says all the time.
Speaker 3:Not, that's not true.
Speaker 2:No, no, you definitely are people to try to make a way if there's a way to be made, and did you understand that? The reality is that the people that you are caring for it's life and death for them. Did you understand that before you came in? And if not, to what degree? Do you understand it now?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I had a little bit of understanding just because of when I worked at the rehab center in Lawrence.
Speaker 4:I saw people go from like their lowest point if they would consider that their lowest point and then, you know, to be 30 days clean and so with that I kind of had that in mind. You know, when coming in to the Hope Center I was like, okay, we do a lot of with some substance abuse and some mental health stuff. But then when I got to know, like a lot of the people that were there in the short time that I've been here, I see how much that we helped them in life, whether that be just giving them a chance to have a place for their kiddos, for some people to have their kiddos come back with them and just to see how not necessarily us treating them medically but us giving them the resources to help with some medical things and just seeing how, you know, a certain situation that can happen can impact them a lot and just trigger a lot of emotions and being able to just help them through that and then see them grow within just a couple days or a couple weeks.
Speaker 2:So so have you been on call overnight A few times I have stepped out?
Speaker 4:We haven't. Yeah, it hasn't been a full week yet, but I've taken a couple days where I've been on call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's always a little bit of adjustment, especially something in the position of a director assistant director is this doesn't shut down at five or weekends or holidays, it's 24-7. Anything could happen at any time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've gotten calls at 7 pm, 1 am, 4 am, like it's.
Speaker 2:You cool with that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I make sure I've always been so terrified. When Rachel told me that we were going to be on call. I was like I'm kind of a heavy sleeper, Like what if I don't hear the phone ring.
Speaker 2:They keep calling back.
Speaker 4:Yes, they do, but I make sure that the ringer is all the way up and facing me when I'm going to bed.
Speaker 2:My biggest adjustment was not being on call after I retired after 36 years, because in 36 years I was on call. Yeah, you know there were some buffers between when I first started and I handed over the the responsibility to the man on a Friday, hadn't got a call by Sunday evening and I'm calling the man, everything Okay. She said I want to give you one weekend without a call.
Speaker 3:And what it really did was just increase your stress, but it would.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really did, and it was withdrawals, that's what it was. And now I'm kind of cool that I don't have to be on call 24-7 anymore. But I do understand the the importance of it, the pressure of it, but the importance is that those calls, whether they be during the daytime, or middle of night. They're really important because they're life and death.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, so you're kind of new into this, but I didn't hear her say well, I hate that. On the call.
Speaker 4:I know she knows it's definitely it's. All of my friends know that if they hear a phone ringing really loud in our circle they're like okay, we'll see you in a minute, we'll take that call and I hope everything's okay Right.
Speaker 2:We'll be in a movie you're at, or whatever you're at. We'll be back, maybe a little while.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because this is an emergency room for people and sometimes in the emergency room it's not just them coming in, they're having an emergency while they're with us. Yeah, yeah. So. So what else have you learned in this amount of time, since that would be good for our listeners to know about what it's like working with people in this kind of situation, where they're experiencing homelessness but they're in this place now where you're doing life together.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that I've learned is just the stigma and the stereotype that is surrounding homelessness isn't true. It's not because people don't want to work, it's not because you know they just want to sit around and you know, do eat bonbons all day, like it's people who are hurting, it's people who are broken and that just need someone to extend their arm and help pick them up.
Speaker 2:How can we change that perception? How can we help people to see that it's not that stereotype, that it is? I'm an obviously podcast. Yeah, talking about it is important, but what are some other ways you think that can change?
Speaker 4:I think, just kind of going back to the volunteering part, just seeing it firsthand. You don't have to do it every day, you know that doesn't have to become your nine to five, but just volunteering a few hours a week, just seeing how a friendly smile and just a hello can impact someone's day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty simple, isn't it? Yeah, but powerful. I assume that you're still connected with Warshmallow.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Some degree. Do you encourage other students to consider volunteering or doing their internship at the rescue mission?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've talked non-stop about my internship and I volunteered a little bit too before my internship. I was connected with Cody and she was my Bible study leader and we volunteered in the kitchen a few times and that's how I heard about the internships, as she told me about other interns and I was like, well, I want to do that.
Speaker 2:That's how I first met Cody via phone, when she was Christian Challenge and we were heading into the same called pandemic.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How can we help and nobody else wanted to help.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so they did, and here today she's leading the TED team. Yeah, she was pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah, what thank you for sharing today. Is there anything else you'd like for our listeners to know about homelessness, people at Hope Center, anything that would be important for people to understand in addition to the Stistone stereotype people?
Speaker 4:Yeah, nothing really comes to mind of just yeah, continuing to pray for that and just helping in any way you can we? Yeah, it might seem like sometimes we got it figured out, but we really don't. And that's when we get to be vulnerable with each other as staff and sometimes we get to express that with the people we serve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate that realness about you, that authenticity about that. Well, Isabel, thank you for coming back to the Pica Rescue Mission after a little break of internship and being here and taking on call, you know, whenever it happens to be there for people, and so thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being on our community, our mission. Well, thank you for listening to our community, our mission. You've heard from Isabel Chronister, who is Assistant Director of Hope Center for Women and Families at the Pica Rescue Mission, and I think that for you who are familiar with TRM, you know how important it is to support people like her, to be on the front lines and other staff to be here for people who are hurting and are broken and really don't have hope. And yet we can go with the five B's and be able to help people to have that process of healing Three hots and a cots important, that means a place to sleep and good meals, but it's way beyond that at the Pica Rescue Mission.
Speaker 2:So if you have considered where you might support, you can go to trmonlineorg to get more information. That's trmonlineorg. Or you can also press the Give Now button and then you can help support Isabel's and other people on the front lines, whether in shelter or on the streets today or getting ready for this incredible season we call Christmas, and so if you'd like more information, you can go to that website. If you'd like to help support our community, our mission, you can subscribe, rate or share, just getting the word out. So thank you again for listening to Our Community, our Mission.