Posts Tagged Columbus

A voice of the crisis – why help is needed

Posted by Rob Paterson in Engagement, Impact, Local, Personal Story, The Collective Story on September 30th, 2009

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Here is a letter received by Scott Gowans at WOSU in Columbus. It shows to me the challenge we are all up against and why our work is so important. For is not the very fabric of our society being eroded? Without a concerted and group effort what will happen?

Dear Scott Gowans,

I ran into your article on http://www.columbusmortgagecrisis.org/ while searching for any info to help out my x-in laws. They are the only parents I have and I’ve exhausted myself trying to come up with some help for them. My father was an electrician for 40 years on and off at Elite Electric which was located in Johnstown, but relocated to Columbus near 161 and Cleveland Ave, making $40,000 a year. My mother works as a state tested nursing assistant for Friendship Village of Columbus for over 13 years now making just shy of $20,000 a year.

They have taken in my daughter, accepted her as their granddaughter and have helped me by placing her in their home while we work with her with her counseling.

Sadly, my father was laid off in a split second. He has been unemployed for a few months now, and has fallen behind on his mortgage. After contacting the “save the dream” program and a few other help links I had found for them, they are still at a dead end, and my father is struggling to become employed again to save their home. The home has been passed down in his family for some generations now. It is so saddening to me to be so helpless after they have stepped in and have been my parents and grandparents to my children since January 2003.

It’s frightening how fast and unexpectedly something like this can happen. He has so many trades, and has over 40 years of electrician service under his belt. He was the president of the Mid Ohio Ford Club since I have met him. He just lit up when he could put on car shows, and run the Mid Ohio Ford Club Spring Swap at the Columbus fairgrounds every August and raise so much money for the Earth Angels Foundation, and now he is fearing the knock on the door with someone on the other end telling him that they have to get their belongings out and leave.

I pray for everyone in this same situation, and I hope everyday that the economy will get better soon so that families like my ex-in laws will have a place to lay their heads at night, and be able to afford food and everyday costs of living these days.

Thanks for reading and God Bless.
Sincerely,

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Pub Media Offers a Voice to the Community Organizations

Posted by Rob Paterson in Branding, Context, My Source on September 15th, 2009

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One of the surprises that many stations had when we begun this work was that most of the community organizations that were able to help people, had no access to the public themselves. They had no money and no pathway. The public was meanwhile being bombared with message by people who had money – the very people who had got them into trouble and who now had a business pretending to help.

So here is a poignant My Source story from one of WOSU’s community partners:

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How to get through the stress?

Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Experts, Impact on August 20th, 2009

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Great advice from WOSU – What can be more stressful than being under the gun financially? What can help the most? Keeping a routine.

More here:

Marital and Family Dynamics

Families

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The real cost of foreclosure – a blow to our self and to our kids

Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Experts, Impact on August 20th, 2009

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From WOSU Columbus – in September Sesame Workshop will offer an hour long special on the impact of the Crisis on families and kids. We tend to look at the financial costs but what is the cost of having to take your kids out of school? Of moving to your mum? How does this affect YOU?

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What to do with abandoned properties?

Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice on August 17th, 2009

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Blight is a growing problem – here is how Columbus is dealing with it from a City perspective” (WOSU Columbus)

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Abandonment – What to do when whole neighborhoods fall?

Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, Journalism, Local, Personal Story, The Collective Story on August 4th, 2009

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As foreclosures eat into entire communities and neighborhoods, they act like a social cancer. Everyone and everything is affected. We are starting to see stories that are pushing this issue to the forefront. We don’t know what is best yet, but my hope is that as we cover this issue, solutions that work will become more clear.

Here are two such stories from Columbus – thanks WOSU and Tom Bogerding.

“Facing The Mortgage Crisis.” As part of the series, WOSU News visits two streets, Blake Avenue in Linden, and Dakota Street in Franklinton to take measure of some of the tell-tale effects of multiple foreclosures.

About a month ago, a backhoe and dump trucks rolled into the 300 block of Dakota Avenue in Franklinton. A burned-out two story house was slated for demolition. Along this block of Dakota, nearly half of the homes are vacant, testimony to economic tough times and the mortgage downturn. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says the razing of 300 Dakota and other abandoned houses is part of a larger plan to fight blight in established city neighborhoods.

“We can’t tear down every one of them but we certainly are looking forward to tearing down those that are clearly not habitable.”

Coleman says demolition of some abandoned houses and a city-backed home renovation program are the primary means the city has of stanching neighborhood decline. Its a daunting task

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Scams!

Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Local on July 31st, 2009

The same people who took many for a ride in the mortgage market are now doing the same as they pretend to help you – let’s expose these people for what they are.

Here is how WOSU in Columbus is warning folks:

COLUMBUS, OH (WOSU) – Every month in Franklin County, hundreds of homeowners receive a summons of foreclosure. These and other homewoners struggling to make their house payments might also receive the promise of help…..for a fee. WOSU’s Christina Morgan reports on the rising tide of foreclosure rescue scams in Ohio.

Ohio Attorney General, Richard Cordray puts it this way: predators watch what’s going on in society and then figure out a way to take advantage of people who are desperate. Two years ago there were no foreclosure rescue scams going on. Now, there’s a ’smorgasbord.’

“Be very, very careful when you are contacted by any of these people. They are looking to take advantage of people in desperate situations. And, its disgusting and that’s why we have brought dozens of cease and desist actions and lawsuits to shut these people down.” Says Cordray.

The number of foreclosures in central Ohio this year is five times what it was just two years ago. Housing counselor Mark Easterling says the problem last year was adjustable rate mortgages’s and balloon mortgages. This year its all recession-related job losses, loss of overtime and workers getting fewer hours. Regardless of the reason, he says help is available free of charge.

“The foreclosure crisis in Central Ohio has effected every zip code and I can tell you that because I’ve worked with people from every zip code.” Says Easterling.

Easterling works with Homes On The Hill, one of five federally aproved agencies in Central Ohio to offer housing counseling. A mediation program and homeowner helpline were added last fall as monthly foreclosures topped 800.

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Good Help is very practical

Posted by Rob Paterson in Engagement on July 15th, 2009

Have you ever tried to put together a BarBQ? You know the ones with the instructions that seem to skip key steps or that assume that you are an engineer?

If I need help, I need the advice to be practical. What are the steps I will take? What will the experience be like?

Here is a great example from WOSU in Columbus of how to show how we can help.

One of the first things that people need practical help on is OPENING their mail! if you are frozen with fear – many stop opening their mail. Here WGTE Toledo offer a good practical bit of advice:

Find more videos like this on Facing the Mortgage Crisis

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Engagement – Convening the Community in Important Work

Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, Engagement, Partners on June 18th, 2009

When many ask me to give them the latest on “Engagement” what they are really asking for is more information about social media tools. How can we have better commenting – answer by the way look at NPR’s system – or how can we use Twitter better – answer look at Planet Money?

But my main answer is that “Engagement” is more than using social media. It is also a physical activity focused on acting as the Trusted Host for the groups in your community. Groups who can do better if they came together as a larger group.

Engagement is not trivial. Engagement is surely more than being one of a thousand friends on Twitter or Facebook? Real Engagement is about committing your self to act on an issue that is important to you. It is bringing people together to do important things. When a couple is Engaged, they have made a promise to the world and to each other to act – to get married.

So what is really important to Americans today? It is the economy. What is the non trivial work to do? It is to get through all of this and to come out at the other end healthier as a society.

We need help to do this.

As millions of us struggle to save our homes in the mortgage crisis. As millions wonder what to do when they lose their job. We need help. But do we know what help is out there? Can we trust the help that we see?

In every city in America there are not-for-profits that can help. Not-for-profits that can be trusted. Not-for-profits that know what to do. But often they have no money or capability to get their message out – that they exist, that they can help and that you can reach them.

Worse, there are many many of these organizations that themselves, act alone. That also need help. That also need support.

Stations like WOSU in Columbus are going out to these not-for-profits and asking them if they would like to meet to explore how they can help each other and working with them to get their message of hope and help out to the people.

Public TV and Radio Stations are doing this in the hardest hit cities in America.

WOSU is working with 22 of these organizations in Columbus. This list will give you a sense I hope of the potential that can arise when we bring these organizations together.

Community Resource Partners

While many of these organizations know each other, they often don’t know each other well. In some markets I have discovered that there is often some competition as well. With resources strained, it is easy to see the other not-for-profits as a possible competitor for money and help.

WOSU and stations all over America are using their power as a trusted convener to help the help that exists in your community. Over time, the stresses are diminished. Over time, the shared accomplishment builds morale and so builds more capability.

In St. Louis, where we have been acting as the host now for over a year, this “Platform” of Community strength gets stronger every month and now has a life of its own. Organizations can now contact each other directly, and can help more people as a result–if one organization can’t help someone, they now are able to refer him/her to the larger network they’ve developed.

We are renewing the social foundation of our communities.  We are using our abilities as public radio and TV stations to bring together people and organizations in the community.

In my next post I will talk a bit about how we are connecting the people to the help.

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