Safe Haven #43

Ethan Strimling:

What you need is to make sure you get the resources as close to the community as possible. A place like Learning works. We're right on the street. We're right in the middle of the neighborhood. We're a place that people can walk to. We're a place that people can access easily and we can react quickly.

Michael Tarpinian:

People recognize that no matter how difficult they may think they have it, they know there are those that are less fortunate. They want to do something about it. Portland in particular is a giving place and we care about one another. We may have different political views, we may have different ways of doing things, but at the end of the day, people care about whether or not somebody has enough heat, enough food, there's housing, and they respond.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

On today's show, we will be speaking with Ethan Strimling, former Maine state senator and CEO of LearningWorks, in addition to Michael Tarpinian, who is also a CEO but of the Opportunity alliance, which is the community action program agency for Cumberland county here in Maine. Sitting with me today is Genevieve Morgan, the wellness editor for Maine Magazine and also a woman of action and all about Safe havens.

Genevieve Morgan:

I'm feeling very safe in our little haven of our studio today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I think that's important. We create this very interesting little atmosphere where people kind of come in, they feel safe, and they talk to us about what's going on, what they're doing for the communities. But there are lots of people in the world who don't feel safe at all.

Genevieve Morgan:

That's true. And I think that there are so many different levels of comfort zone depending on what your life experience is. And I think we're going to learn about some of the people who are really, really living in an unstable sit here in Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we've made this sort of, we made a point of bringing this into the conversation from very early on in the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. Some of our earliest guests were actually working with the city of Portland and with Preble street. And we've talked about people who are dealing with safe passage, which actually is not the state of Maine, but in Guatemala City. I mean, the fact is that there are a lot of people in the world whose lives are kind of inherently unstable.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and I think you and I talk a lot about and I hope the listeners enjoy what we tell them about how to keep healthy and different choices that they have in the state of Maine to further their pursuits in well being and feeling well. But let's face it, if you don't have enough to eat, if you're in an abusive situation, if you don't have shelter or warmth or clean water, it's very hard to even begin to think about pursuing well being. I mean, at the very least, I think our show, I mean at the very most or the very least is about those core elements of how to keep people safe because that's where it all begins. Safe and fed.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Right. And we've had a couple of shows where we've talked about the importance of feeding people and of sharer strength and we've talked about plenty and abundance. And the fact is that we all have the ability to impact the lives of people in our community that, that aren't as stable as ours and even as unstable as our own lives may feel. This is why on our show we bring guests in to talk about other members of the community who are also fellow human beings who are trying to make their own ways in the world and who may benefit from an outreach.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and I think too what we've been hearing over and over again after 42 shows is that even a small contribution, something that you might not even really miss or know that, that you're doing can really change someone's day. It can change someone's aspect. It can change just a helping hand at the right moment can fundamentally impact somebody else. That you never know what impact your life as an individual is going to have on all the others around you. But I feel very strongly that you and I have put out this message every week that showing up and being there and actually giving people a little safe haven on a weekly basis, just the people around you can actually have a huge impact.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I completely agree. And it's not even just giving of money. We've talked about this again with Safe Passage. It's giving of yourself and the book that we created, our Daily Tread, where people gave quotes or they contributed artwork, or they had been to Guatemala and volunteered down there. Or people with Maine magazine who helped put together the Kennebunkport Festival to bring money in for Share of Strength, the hunger relief organization in Maine. It really is about doing whatever you can as an individual. If that just means doing what you can one on one as an individual and having compassion for people around you, it doesn't have to be a big time commitment. You don't have to volunteer to tutor children for 40 hours a week. I mean, you can maybe tutor children a little bit, or you can at least try to get to know the people in your community who may not sort of exist in your social sphere.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, in this month's Maine Magazine, in the wellness column, I interview Kate Braestrup, who we had on our Celebration show. And she has a wonderful philosophy that she learned after being widowed, which is just to love, start loving now, today, the people right in front of you love meaning aspiring for the wholeness of the beloved or the person that you're. You're next to. So it could be a spouse, it could be a sibling, it could be a neighbor. But think about what they want to do in the world and just try to help them out a little. Give them a ride, talk to them, offer them some tea. Like you said, it doesn't have to be, you know, you have taken in your practice helping people to a much more professional level. But it can be very personal and it can be intimate and it can be a neighbor down the street who just wants you to knock on their door and say hello and bring them the paper.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I agree. And I do think sometimes what happens is we decide that somebody else's life is not maybe as quote unquote, good as ours or it's not a right life. And sometimes we believe that helping people involves changing them. And really it's not our job to change other people necessarily. I mean, maybe sometimes it is, but sometimes it is just as simple as sitting with somebody. And as Dr. Ann Skelton was talking about when she dealing with laboring women, just being present. And sometimes I'll get into situations which are really hard for me where I want to take on someone's pain or I'll feel like I should somehow take action. When somebody has a problem that they present me with and I have to sort of mentally close my eyes and just give them compassion, that's all that I can do is be present and give them compassion and not attempt to change them and not really go any further than just being there with them. And that's really hard. People don't realize how hard it is to just sit and listen to somebody else talk or understand somebody else's world without trying to kind of bustle in there and, I don't know, quote, unquote, make a difference.

Genevieve Morgan:

Right. Because sometimes that makes it about oneself instead of the person that's talking about and that needs the help. Sometimes just sitting there and listening is the best thing you can do because you're not interjecting your own personality or your own needs or your own concerns or projections into that conversation. But I think it's funny that you and I both, when we come to tape the show, we do have this feeling of that we have created this little safe haven just within our little group, because it is. Safe havens can be any variety, but really what it is is just a supporting network of people who care. I guess that's the best word.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I do know that the people who are speaking with us today, Ethan Strimling, who is the former Maine state senator and current CEO of LearningWorks, and also Michael Tarpinian, who is the chief executive officer of the Opportunity alliance, which is the community action program agency for Cumberland county, both of these individuals care. They care deeply. They not only are present with the individuals who are seeking change, they make possible the change itself. They keep showing up. They've been very successful in the work that they have done, and they haven't ever given up hope. So I believe that they're going to talk to us about the type of safe haven that we really hope for for the state of Maine and really all over the world. So those of you who are listening today, thank you for joining us. The Dr. Lisa Radio RM podcast is pleased to be sponsored by the University of New England. And with the University of New England, we offer a segment we call Wellness Innovations. This week's Wellness Innovation points out the fact that childhood traumatic experiences are associated with adult irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome, or ibs, have a significantly greater prevalence of early adverse life events. According to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological association, emotional abuse was the strongest predictor of ibs early adverse life events refer to traumatic experiences during childhood encompassing physical, sexual or emotional abuse, as well as discordant relationships with a primary caretaker or the loss of a parent. These events appear to be associated with an increased vulnerability toward developing functional gastrointestinal disorders, including IBS. For more information on this wellness innovation, visit drlisabelisle.com for more information on the University of New England, visit une.edu.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, our focus is on Safe Haven and our first guest is Ethan Strimling, former State Senator and CEO of Learning Works, which is a dynamic community based organization which started in 1967 as a grassroots neighborhood advocacy movement to protect the working people of the West End and never stopped moving forward with the community. Today, Learning Works is a social service agency that serves people all over Androscoggin, York and Cumberland counties. They serve young children at risk youth and low income families. Thank you for coming in today, Ethan.

Ethan Strimling:

Thanks. I'm glad to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been doing different types of work for Maine for it sounds like a good chunk of your career.

Ethan Strimling:

Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're pretty young now.

Ethan Strimling:

Yeah, I'm 44.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you've been working in the public service arena most of your.

Ethan Strimling:

Yeah, I mean in some level or another, either politics or public service, either working on campaigns or I've been running Learning Works used to be called Portland west and I've been running that for about 15 years now. So it's as you mentioned, it's been around for about 45 years doing the work and we've really become this educational institution where we really focus on, you know, there are two kinds of agencies. One who are providing fish, a lot of the shelters and the soup kitchens, and the others that are sort of teaching people to fish. And you really work hand in hand. And we're kind of on the teaching people to fish side and we work with, as you mentioned, at risk kids who are in elementary school or adolescents who have dropped out of school, kids who are in jail. And then we also work with a lot of adult immigrants and refugees who have just arrived here looking to learn English to try to build some stability in their lives.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What was it about your background that caused you to believe so strongly and the importance of public service?

Ethan Strimling:

I'm not sure, exactly. Both of my parents, neither of them are really in the political side of things, but they both were very politically active as I was growing up. My mother is a teacher, she's a professor at ucla, and she's always been a real activist as I was growing up, really around the feminist movement and my father, I grew up in New York City with my father, and he was very involved in nuclear disarmament and sort of international policy and trying to calm the world down a little, make it a little bit safer. And so both of them, I think, instilled in me a real commitment and a need to do the kind of work that feels close to your heart, whatever that is. So that's probably where it began.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how did you. It seems like an interesting thing to be the former state senator and then begin working for this organization that is really about social services. What was the connection? How did that happen?

Ethan Strimling:

I've done both jobs at the same time. So I've been at Learning works for 15 years, and for six years while I was there, I was served as a state senator as well. Because our legislature is a part time legislature. So you try to do both, but they've actually been a good, you know, it's a good parallel path because every day I'd go into Learning Works in the morning before I'd go up to the legislature. And it helps you to feel very connected to what it is you're trying to accomplish. When you walk into a building and you walk in with a kid who's being brought to you from jail, it gives you a certain perspective. When you go up to the legislature to make decisions about how it is that we help young people turn their lives around, or when you walk in with a new immigrant who's just learning to speak English for the first time, trying to support their family, it gives you a different perspective or some young adult who's trying to get into the workforce, you know, when they're making minimum wage and you know that minimum wage is so small and you're taking a vote on minimum wage, it helps you to understand, to say, look, you know, the world of politics is a very. It's invaluable and it's imperative that we have good thinking people who are there. But it is true that you get a little disconnected in that world. You're a little bit sheltered. And so having the work that I do at LearningWorks every day helped me to stay committed to what it is that we wanted to accomplish.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it was this sense of higher purpose that you, despite all of the things that happen in politics that can be a little distasteful or a little onerous, you were able to look towards the sense of higher purpose to keep sort of being motivated.

Ethan Strimling:

Sure. You know, and I think it's. I think both are higher purpose. And I think you lose it sometimes in politics, which is maybe what you're referring to. Although I don't really. I wouldn't impugn people in politics to say that, even though I disagree fundamentally. I mean, I'm a Democrat and I'm a progressive Democrat, and I disagree fundamentally with really conservative Republicans, but I don't ever impugn that. Their desire. I mean, they want kids to learn just as much as I do, and they want there to be jobs in the economy just as much as I do. They just have a different way of going about it in ways that we disagree. But I don't think their purpose is less high than mine. I think my grounding comes from LearningWorks. Their grounding may come from town meetings where people are talking about their property tax bills, or their grounding maybe comes from the small business they're running that feels the onerous burden of government regulations or whatever it is they could work in the outdoors, and the environment is the thing that grounds them. We all have that thing, and we all need to stay connected to it.

Genevieve Morgan:

As you know, Lisa and I are also working hard in the community to support a broad idea of health. And health can mean many things to many people, but I'm interested in particular with learning works. It's hard to say, politics aside, but right now, at this moment in time, there's argument about who should be providing services, whether services are even necessary. Why does it matter for the health of a community to have an organization like LearningWorks in the community? What does it do?

Ethan Strimling:

It matters in a lot of ways. You know, we have developed in this country, and I think it's very healthy, these relationships with a lot of not for profits. So instead of government actually providing the service, we look often to not for profits. In other countries, they'd be called NGOs, nongovernmental organizations that provide the service. And oftentimes you can. You're more flexible at a not for profit. You can make decisions more quickly. There's less bureaucracy going around because once they distribute the money to you, it's already gone through the bureaucracy and now you just have to meet the outcomes. So organizations like Learning Works or Preble street or the Opportunity alliance or Suites or all of these organizations have much more ability to be Flexible and react to what's going on in the community without having to weigh all the other concerns that somebody who's in elected office has to. And that's the role that not for profits play. It's very smart. We don't need, you know, to have more or fewer government employees. It doesn't really matter. What you need is to make sure you get the resources as close to the community as possible. A place like learning works. We're right on the street, we're right in the middle of the neighborhood. We're a place that people can walk to. We're a place that people can access easily and we can react quickly. Plus, because we're private, I can have standards for my employees in terms of how it is that we're going to meet the expectations of the grants and be very clear about those. And you know, an area where I feel like not for profits, where we have not been as good as we should have in the past, is really having clearer expectations in terms of what are the outcomes we expect. It can't be enough that the person's having a better day today than they had yesterday. It has to be deeper than that. It has to. At least for my organization, it has to be. Our expectation is that you're going to have a job by the time you're done. So what do I need to do to work backwards to get you the skills to get there? I want you to go to higher education. So what do I have to do working backwards to get you the skills to get there really having clear outcomes.

Genevieve Morgan:

And I'm not to be too pedantic about this, but if I'm a resident of the West End, what does making sure that a kid who's 17 coming out of jail, that they have a job, how does that pay back to me ultimately, in my opinion?

Ethan Strimling:

Well, it pays back to you in two ways. One, it doesn't take from you. Obviously it's very, very expensive. I mean, to put a kid in the long in Long Creek, in the youth center is, you know, it's. It's something like $400 a day. It's just absurd, right? I mean you could give somebody a very nice hotel for a lot less money. And so that doesn't take that money out of your pocket, number one. But more importantly, obviously is the long term impact of that person being part of the community. And I'm always also careful to make sure that we don't just talk about this in financial terms. Right. It's not just about that. You have more money in your pocket. It's also about you have a safer community, you have a more comfortable community, you have a higher quality of life. Those are all good things and are all things that we should want and that your investment in taxes should help you get right. If I'm paying taxes in the community and it's safe and I feel like my kids are getting a good education and they can get a job at the end of the day and the water's clean, well, then I'm not feeling so bad about the money that I'm paying. But if I'm paying property taxes and I'm scared to go out at night or I feel like I gotta send my kid to a private school because the public school isn't any good, that's a problem, right? So helping a young person change the direction of their life is not just a financial, not just financially better for you. It enhances your quality of life. It makes you a healthier life, I would say.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, the topic of the show is safe Haven. And do you think that there is some aspect of what you do that is providing a safe haven for the people who are coming in to see you, who need help from your organization?

Ethan Strimling:

You know, you can define safe haven perhaps from its most traditional where it was, you know, immigrants coming and being in the basement of a church so that they wouldn't be persecuted or the Underground Railroad. There's that kind of safe haven. And then I think there's a world where for our kids, they have this. They're living in a very unstable life, right? They're homeless, a lot of them, couch surfing. Education has been sort of 10th on the list in importance in their life, very much in survival. They don't have the developmental assets that those of us who grow up in sort of more middle class families just gain just because we have that cultural upbringing and so learning works. While we don't create all the stability for them, we create a safe haven, as you would say, from that world. And perhaps more importantly, though, we begin to create some structure to help them move out of it this is a good example of what I was trying to talk about earlier in terms of expectations. If we were merely a safe haven, I would say that's not enough for what we are supposed to do. I think for Preble street, for the teen center, that's a safe haven, right? This is a place kids can just go and relax and try to tone out the world. Our job is, you come to us. Yes, we want it safe. We're going to make sure you have food so that you're not worried about that piece. If there's abuse going on in your life, we will try to help you take care of that. If you have serious substance abuse issues, we're going to help you try to work through those. But ultimately understand that all of that is about you now taking different steps in your life to walk a different path, to move away from what it is you grew up in, to try to break that cycle of generational poverty. Because kids get kids, like everybody gets caught up in it. And the kids we work with, their parents were poor, their grandparents were poor, probably their great grandparents. So it's this cycle that you see over and over again that nobody breaks. And that's what our job is. I enjoy working. I enjoy the accomplishment of it. I enjoy the ultimate outcome of being able to understand somebody's life. Somebody has found a better path due to some structure that I was able to help put in place.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think your enthusiasm for work actually helps the people that are coming in as part of Learning Works? Because you can say to them, look, here's something that I find very enjoyable and it's work. Maybe if you find a work, this will be very enjoyable for you as well.

Ethan Strimling:

Yeah, I think so, probably. Although some of my staff might tell me that I need to go home more often because it feels like I'm setting a model that's not the model they are going to be able to hit, but I think it's. No, I think that's probably fair. We certainly try to say to our students and all the staff at Learning Works, I think really like the work that they do. And we've been very careful to hire people who fit the job. You know, oftentimes you'll hire somebody who is 80% right. And then you'll say, well, I'll fill in the last 20%. And a great lesson for me is to not do that anymore. To say, take the time, find the right person for the job you're going to, in the end, find somebody who's better equipped, do it. Who Perhaps sets a better model, and then you can look to other areas that you can try to find to improve. So I think our staff does a very good job of they're in the right place. They're doing the job that they're wanting to do, that they're good at doing. And I think that models well for the kids.

Genevieve Morgan:

My older brother is an environmentalist out in California and he has been doing it for about 30 years to stay hopeful and to serve, in the back of your mind, sort of a larger purpose. It's really about the day to day skirmishes and the day to day triumphs and not the idea that you're gonna win the war, but you're gonna win the battles. And I'm wondering if that's something that you. That keeps you going every day. You know, it's not necessarily that you're gonna accomplish everything in one lifetime, but you'll win the day.

Ethan Strimling:

Yeah. Although I would say that winning the. Because you lose a lot of battles in this work. So you have to, at some level stay both in politics and in social service work. So you have to, at some level, stay focused on the bigger picture. You have to stay focused at some level on the war, as it were, because you could lose great hope based on the number of. I mean, if. If I took every day and went into our alternative high school and felt every day's success or failure, there's a lot more failures every day than successes. There's a lot more. We will have 50 kids enrolled in the program and 20 may show up. So that's 30 failures. And of those 20 that show up, or 25 that show up, three or four might not make it through the day because it was just too rough. Or another three or five might get stoned at lunch. And so there's another five or six failures. Right. So do I get focused on the 15 successes? Of course. I mean, those are very exciting. But you have to continue, I think, at some level to understand the world is a world of failure and we're trying to break that cycle. So. And in politics, it's certainly the same way. You know, you work on legislation, you try to create something that's very important. You try to get your colleagues to vote with you to do what you consider to be the right thing. And sometimes that works. And more often than not, that doesn't work. But you stay focused on the bigger picture of what it is you're trying to. Where you're trying to move the ball.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ethan, how can people find out more

Ethan Strimling:

about learning Works two ways. Website learningworks Me is certainly a great way, but the best way to find out about us is to volunteer. And so if you want to understand what people are going through or you want to get more connected to the kind of work that we're doing, I just encourage folks, even if it's an hour or two a month, to come in and tutor somebody or to do some community service with a kid. We have a program where kids have to, you know, they get 40 hours of community service from the court or something. They come to us and we structure some activity for them to do and we have volunteers come and help. It'll change your life. It'll just give you a very different perspective on what people. I mean, we all say to ourselves that we know people. I think that we know people who are poor or I was poor and certainly there was a time when I was growing up that I was poor. Right. My mother was. My parents split. My mother was in getting her PhD and.

Genevieve Morgan:

Right.

Ethan Strimling:

So she's living on student loans. My father's an unemployed actor in New York City. Right. So we're very poor. And so I can talk about that. But that's nothing compared to what's happened. That's situational. Right. Both of my parents came from middle class families. Lots of books in the house, lots of cultural conversations, lots of drive and ambition. So I can be situationally poor, but that's very different than generationally poor. And that's where you just start to learn about a different culture and a different climate. And so that's the best way for people to understand what we do is to just come and volunteer. And we have a very easy process for people to come in and we can set up a schedule that works for you.

Michael Tarpinian:

Good.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we've been speaking with Ethan Strimling, former state senator and CEO of Learning Works here in Portland's West End and actually all over southern Maine now. So thank you so much for coming in and speaking with us today and also for the good work that you're doing for the state of Maine.

Ethan Strimling:

Thanks, I appreciate the invitation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

on today's Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we are having a conversation with Michael Tarpinian, who is the chief Executive officer of the Opportunity alliance, which is the community action program agency for Cumberland County. The Opportunity alliance partners with communities and individuals to deliver a full spectrum of social services and mental health care. And it's interesting to me, the most interesting to me thing is that you're a longtime Mainer. Maybe that shouldn't be the most interesting thing. But as somebody who's lived in Maine all of my life and, you know, been interested in social aspects of the community for a long, long time, I feel a kindred spirit in front of me.

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, I have to tell you, it is nice to find another longtime Reiner as well. I was born and raised in Portland, had an opportunity to go away to school for four years and then came back and I've been here ever since. I have deep roots in deep roots in Portland, and it's an even better opportunity for me to work in the social service field in the town where I grew up.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, you went to Cheverus, is that right?

Michael Tarpinian:

I did. In those days it was a Catholic

Ethan Strimling:

school

Michael Tarpinian:

and it is still today, but it was very different. Each neighborhood had local Catholic grammar schools and junior highs and it was the feeder system to Cherus. And I think my senior year my tuition was I think $250, I think. So it had a very different field.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But did that impact the Catholic high school education? Did that impact your interest in social services as you were?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, I have to tell you, the Jesuits obviously had an influence, at least on social justice and inspired me to go on to a Jesuit college in upstate New York called Lemoyne College. And at the time we had a couple of professors, Philip and Dan, Father Philip and Dan Berrigan, who were major initiatives around the anti Vietnam War. So I began to get some sense of social justice and came back to Portland and had an opportunity to begin work at the Cerebral Palsy center in Portland as a aide in the classroom.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you've seen a lot of different angles of social justice. You've seen cerebral palsy. I mean, obviously that's more of a more directly health related. But now what you're doing with the Opportunity alliance really spans quite a large area. Tell us what the Opportunity alliance actually does and how did this come to be?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, the Opportunity alliance really is a culmination of three mergers that occurred since 2006. Youth Alternatives, which was the organization that I worked at since 1988, was a typical child and family service, child welfare agency, group homes, foster care, family mediation, a lot of work with families. 2006, the exec at Ingraham leaves and the board decides to explore options and they decide that they want to merge with Youth alternatives. So in 2006 we merged with Ingraham, which was an adult mental health agency and that has a whole host of adult mental health services that came with it. And then 2011 props executive director Suzanne McCormick left to become the executive director of United Way of Greater Portland. The Prophet board went through a similar process and decided that maybe it made sense to move forward with us. And as a result of those three mergers, we decided to come up with a new name, a new mission, new values. And so today we're the Opportunity Alliance. We're very, very focused. Although we have a few programs statewide, we're very focused in Cumberland county. We have about 500 employees. We have an annual budget of about 37 million. And we have 50 programs that have a wide range of impact, both on the prevention side, intervention side and treatment. But we are a community action agency. And for your viewers, that came out of 1960 with Lyndon Baines Johnson and the war against poverty. And so we have a unique set of a tripartite governance board. But also we come with this advocacy piece that isn't just so much that we're advocating for people, but our goal is to be able to have people advocate for themselves, to feel good about who they are and to be able to find their voice. And you can only do that if you do the work in the community where they're at. And so we're in various places throughout greater Portland and Cumberland county so that people don't have to come to us, but we're there with them listening to what they say they need and then trying to figure out how to do that with them. So it's a very different view.

Genevieve Morgan:

And now with the merger, you have become sort of the prime first line of emergency response. I mean, not obviously they're the police and the fire department, but when someone's really suffering a trauma or crisis in the moment, you have the hotlines and you run the.

Michael Tarpinian:

Yes. There's a unique piece that each of the organizations that came their culture and one of the cultures of Ingraham, obviously, aside from being adult mental health, is that they came with a wonderful experience doing call centers. And so we have, we are the contract agency for crisis services for adult mental health in Cumberland County. So we run, we oversee a hotline called 774 HELP and that is a hotline that we take in about 25 or thousand or so calls a year. Some of those calls result in actual on site assessments or going out to where the individuals are for assessments. So some of them end up in hospitalizations, some end up in some of our facilities, but we'll respond to about 25,000. In addition to that, behind the scenes, we operate the call center for 211. And 211, as you know, is the United Way brand for information and referral. That is a statewide call call in center and it's also a national initiative by United Way of America. We answer about 80,000 calls on an annualized basis, 24, 7. Both are 24, 7 call ins. And that is also a way to connect people to one another and more importantly, I think to services when they need them. It's challenging, but for many of them it is not their first call. And so there is a level of comfort really knowing that we are there. We also do something in conjunction with Sweetser. Sweetser operates what we call a warm line, and that's the peer services line. So when somebody calls in who just needs to talk with somebody who may not be at that place where they need intervention, we literally can transfer because they're sitting next to our crisis workers. It is a wonderful opportunity to be connected. And it's also I think finally a recognition on us that peers can play a role in supporting people through crisis. And so it's been an invaluable addition to our system.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

well, what do you think it is that causes people to need, to feel disconnected and to need the sense of connection? What causes people to call up and need a warm line?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, I think, I think part of it is isolation. It is as simple as we have an area in South Portland that we've been working for three years. It's place based services. By that we mean all of our services are on the ground in the neighborhoods and we have supper nights and we bring people in the neighborhood to break bread. And it's sponsored and done and donated and volunteers by Wright Express. And they go out and they do all this work because they're in the community, they're in South Portland. And we have these every other month. And people come out and they begin to feel connected with one another. And so if somebody is missing, they know they're missing and that sense of isolation gets, is removed. And so that's our focus as an organization. We have a lot of programs, but some of it is just simple stuff. And I think it's, I think we're excited about the potential of where we're going with some of this.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and it seems to me that part of what you do is help people understand that they're not alone, but also help people understand that there are a lot of other people just like them and that there isn't really an other. We aren't others to each other.

Ethan Strimling:

That's right.

Genevieve Morgan:

What is it that switches people into a sense of caring for another person, a sense of empathy, and then perhaps even like yourself, devote their life to helping others?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, I know for me it was very simple. My parents were great teachers in recognizing that no matter how difficult life was in the moment, there were always those that were less fortunate. And you can either stand on the sidelines and watch the parade or you can be in the parade. And I think for. I can only speak for Portland, Greater Portland, although Maine is really in many ways a small city, people respond to people in need. They do. And they respond in a bigger way if they know the individual. And it seems like we're only one degree of separation from each other. And so I think that's part of of it that people recognize that no matter how difficult they may think they have it, they know there are those that are less fortunate, they want to do something about it. Portland in particular is a giving place and we care about one another. We may have different political views, we may have different ways of doing things. But at the end of the day, people care about whether or not somebody has enough heat, enough food, if there's housing, and they respond. And so I think that's why some of us, if not all of us, do it. I happen to get paid to do it. And that's a great. I mean, I've had a great run, but there are so many more people who do the work every day, who are volunteers and who are just community members who look in on their neighbors to make sure that they're okay. This is a great place to live, and we're very fortunate that way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have two daughters, you and your wife, Nancy, you live in Westbrook currently.

Michael Tarpinian:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you have two daughters.

Ethan Strimling:

I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you've also made as part of your life's focus children, children and families. You serve as the chair for the children's Committee for the Maine association of Mental Health Services. You're a member and past chairperson of the New England Steering Committee of the Child Welfare League of America. And you're a peer reviewer for the Council on Accreditation for Child and Family Services, which is also a national organization. Why are children so important to you?

Michael Tarpinian:

Children are fascinating to me. You know, they're the next, and there's an innocence about them and a wonderment, I guess, if you will, and curiosity that adults don't carry around. And so I think that's a major piece of why I do that work. There's also an innocence, and we have an opportunity to give them a safeguard place to play and shame on us if we don't. And that can take a lot of forms and shapes on how that gets exercised. But I think it's important that the curiosity of life, the sense of security in order to get be able to do that, and the sense of safety and unfortunately, a significant portion of my work life has been with working with children who haven't felt safe and trying to put their life back together in a way that is. It is more positive. On my home life, I have a wonderful partner of 37 years who's a second grade teacher. And so she helps me formulate that view of nurturing and safety and curiosity about learning and experiencing life.

Genevieve Morgan:

My son Wyeth had the pleasure of being your wife's student in second and third grade, and I know from his experience that she helps her students incorporate a lot of these values that we're talking about. How do you and she show kids or give them the room to experience these kinds of nurturing, safe feelings? How do you both go about that.

Michael Tarpinian:

I think one of the things that I have observed with Nancy is that that while the reading and the writing is absolutely critical, the experiential learning part of what she does is absolutely, she would say is probably the most important piece. And so just talking about certain things doesn't quite do it. You have to live it, you have to experience it. So you have so similarly and nurturing. One has to feel safe, one has to feel hugs. One has to feel that they can express things in appropriate way. At the same time, there's a comfort level in structure that. That if a child is living in a chaotic world, that sense of safety goes away. So it's a combination of a bendable structure that has a lot of love and empathy and at the same time affords children the experience of learning and experiencing things for the first time and then talking about what that is and how it feels and spending time with your children is critical. It's not just about doing things, but it's being with them. And we're fortunate that we have both of our families are living here. And so our children also have had the good fortune of experiencing Nancy's parents and my parents, as well as also watching that interesting interplay that goes on between adult parents and adult children.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What types of, I guess, advice can you offer to parents who are feeling as if maybe they're falling short somehow, as if maybe they're not able to create the safe haven for their children that is more ideal?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, if they're concerned about the safe haven, then I think they need to reach out and they can do it in multiple ways. Reach out to a teacher or a professional to get advice. They can clearly reach out to their physician. If. That is not an option, then they clearly can call 774 help and that will get or 211 and that will get people to where they need to be. They can also call the Opportunity alliance directly at 874-1175 and that will get people to our intake process. But. And I think they need to just also talk with their friends. They need to be able to reach out to somebody. Don't hold it in, don't isolate. And I think if they are religious and they have faith and they have a minister, I think they should reach out to him or her. But I think my advice is never just hold on to it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, this is going just slightly different and sometimes more difficult to hear about subject. But what if you are someone who believes that there is an abuse situation going on within a family? Say you're not required to report it. You're not a doctor, you're not a teacher. You suspect there might be abuse going on in a home. And it's hard. How would you suggest that? How would you suggest somebody go about doing that?

Michael Tarpinian:

Here's how I've handled it. Because we also have, occasionally we have allegations regarding our staff, you know, and so I don't make judgments. My job is not to investigate. My job is to clearly report. And so I would strongly suggest that if there is any issues related to the whether or not you're questioning the safety of a child, you should call the Department of Human Services, let that process, let that process determine whether or not there's safety issues. If you're not quite sure of really it's reached that point. I think again, it's a question of reaching out to people that you are comfortable with. I think all of us have, from time to time in the shopping, doing grocery shopping, have found that mother or father of two or three children trying to do the grocery shopping in a chaotic sense. And occasionally in those instances, I'll simply go up and say, is there anything I can do to kind of help you through this process? And it's really, it's a neighbor to neighbor piece as opposed to, you know, some know it all, trying to tell another person how to do it. I don't. I think that's the piece that I think if I can impart on your audience is that it's simply, it's view the world as neighbor to neighbor.

Genevieve Morgan:

I want to talk a little bit about why people don't do that. And I think it has to do with shame. And I'm interested how Opportunity alliance in building community counteracts that sense of shame that people may feel either in reporting or actually feeling like as Lisa said, that they're not doing a great job or maybe even endangering somebody that they love.

Michael Tarpinian:

One of the things that we try to do, and I'm not sure if we talked about it earlier, is that we want to go as far upstream as possible in working with communities. And so we don't want to be perceived as those people coming in only when there's some child that's hurt or some child that there is some safety issues. So we, and we're in the community. I mean, I'm literally. We have office space in various neighborhoods. And so people see us every day and we see them every day. And we can intervene so early on if we're there that it is not even close to being an issue. Around safety, but it is an issue around maybe parenting. We also hold parenting education classes for our folks in the neighborhoods, so it really is less about policing and more about relationship building. And when you build those relationships, people are more likely to come to you sooner than it is to be afraid that there'll be some ramification for telling you something.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How can people learn more about the Opportunity Alliance?

Michael Tarpinian:

Well, we've got the website www.oddortunityalliance.org and they can call, you know, obviously our number at 8741175 and talk to our staff who are there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we appreciate your coming in and speaking with us today. You've been talking to Michael Tarpinian, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Opportunity alliance, which is the community action program agency for Cumberland county here in Maine. Thank you for being a part of what we're doing.

Michael Tarpinian:

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today's show featured discussions with Ethan Strimling, former Maine State Senator and CEO of Learning Works in Portland, in addition to Michael Tarpinian, CEO of the Opportunity alliance, which is the community action program agency for Cumberland County. For more information on Ethan Strimling or Michael Tarpinian or other organizations, please visit the Dr. Lisa website at doctor. Org. We hope that you are gleaning lots of useful information about Safe Havens at Wellness and our broad approach to health on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast through our weekly podcasts. Please be sure to download any past podcasts that you have not had access to through itunes. Like us on our Facebook Dr. Lisa page. Visit Dr. Lisa.org for additional information on the show or read our Bountiful Blog on bountifulpath.com this is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.