INSIDE OKDHS, SEPTEMBER 2013 FEATURE STORY - FRIENDS OF NW 10TH STREET

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No Audio: Jamese Siranga - School-based Service Specialist, Tulakes Elementary, Oklahoma City, OK

Jamese Siranga: 55H is trying to make a bigger impact in our community. We want to develop new programs and go out more. We want to be seen a little bit more humanly, if that's a term we can use. We believe in finding the need, and then going out and making that happen. 

No Audio: Ken Couchman - Friends of NW 10th Street, Task Force Chair

Ken Couchman: From the very beginning, this DHS office was even designed to work with its community. The County Director who helped get this building built this way including media room space -  we have task force meetings here monthly. There's also a great back lawn with play structure, a playground and a walking trail and a great big parking lot that can be used for our community fairs. 

From the very beginning, they knew that DHS couldn't succeed in this neighborhood alone. Friends of NW 10th Street has recognized it can't do the work alone. Reaching Our City, various churches  - we can't do the work alone. We need each other to make a difference for the positive future in this neighborhood. 

No Audio: Betty Gordon - Supervisor Specialist IV, Rockwell Human Services Center, Oklahoma City, OK

Betty Gordon: Every year we do a community fair, and we have found that people have come to really appreciate it and have a good time, and they'll come back and say, "Oh, I'm so glad you're having this again this year." Typically we serve hot dogs, and we've had Latin dancers, we've had Native American dancers. We always have lots of entertainment. And we also have asked people that we know in the community to come and share resources, like a dental group will come and give out toothbrushes, or a medical group will come and screen hearing or eyesight. 

No Audio: Angel Sanchez - School-based Service Specialist, Western Heights Middle School, Bridgestone Intermediate

Angel Sanchez: Community means a lot in that it takes a village to raise children, not just a family. A lot of them are single parent families, whether it be single dads or single moms, and it's to give them that support of their neighbors and their children's friendÆs parents, just to make it more of a family. Families are unorthodox now, and we're trying to show them that it's not just aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas, it's your neighbors and your daughter's friends. It's the whole crew. 

Jamese Siranga: Having those backpacks and the supplies is almost like a confidence booster, but it is just exciting. You really feel like you're getting ready for school. We love to do it right before school starts, like usually the weekend before so they can have it all out. Being at the school, seeing them all walk in, and you know, we know which backpacks we handed out and seeing them wear it proudly is huge. 

And then, having the extras is awesome, too because we get kids throughout the year who move and say, "I don't have a backpack." So, we make sure that we notice those kids and make sure that they have them so that they feel equal. I think it's very important that we can do this. It's the little things that we don't think about as maybe adults that that's important, but it is. It is to them. 

Ken Couchman: The children that we're giving backpacks to this year, that's a three month project to gather school supplies and get them delivered to the schools for those kids to benefit. So, it's not just the goal of just getting the school supplies there, it's letting that teacher know that she's got a fallback, that the neighborhood is here to back her up, that we believe in what they're doing. We believe that they can be successful, but they can ask for help. We're willing to offer that as we can as a help to them. 

We also know that the family... it's possibly cynical to say that families have learned over the years not to go shopping for school supplies because Friends of 10th Street and DHS is going to take care of them. Well, that may be the cynical way of seeing it, but on the other hand it may be the case that this family can redirect its resources into something else that's a bit more pressing in August than school supplies when they know they have the support of the community behind them. 

Jamese Siranga: With our backpacks all of our items are donated. Friends of 10th Street sometimes comes up every year and says that they'll give us a budget, like they'll gift us so much money, and they'll usually give us a gift card. What we do is go on the different schools' websites and look at the common school supplies lists, things that they have on there. There will be crayons and scissors and glue and paper, those basic things that are on there, and tissue and hand sanitizer are the things that we try to make sure that we get. 

So, we'll look at every list, narrow it down to the top 10 that are on every single list, and make sure we get those items. We'll pack them. Office Depot has been awesome with giving us backpacks. The food bank will also donate those. 

Angel Sanchez: We don't want them to feel that awkward feeling of just sitting there at their desk because they can't participate because, you know, they need glue sticks for this project, and Mom couldn't afford the glue sticks or the paper or the construction paper or scissors. 

Ken Couchman: Not only are we doing the school supplies but there's School-based Service Workers at those schools that are helping those families throughout the school year, helping direct parents into resources for parents, helping create school nights where parents and kids can interact with neighborhood agencies. 

Jamese Siranga: We had to ask, and we had to go and knock on doors, and we had to tell our community what we needed, and by giving them responsibility for this place. And they want that responsibility. I think so many times we just assume that somebody will come to us, you know, or things like that, and by going out and really advocating for what you're trying to do and showing them what the needs are. 

Ken Couchman: The DHS office here I think is a model DHS for understanding that it is both present in the community, it serves the community, and it draws on the resources of the community. I like to think of this work as an hourglass. There's a great deal of resources at the state level, a great deal of resources and expertise that happen at the state level up top. There's also - it's very different - but there's also a great deal of resources and skill and expertise at the local level in the people that we serve, in the business owners, in our neighbors next door. 

If we could create a space where the expertise and resources of the state to mix with the expertise and resources of the neighborhood, then new and creative things happen. Those things happen outside of the typical boundaries that would happen with a state agency or with a neighborhood association, things like dual contracts, School-based Service Workers, things like Adult Education programs in the elementary schools for the parents that happen with the staff support of the School-based Workers, with bringing in higher education like OCCC or OSU-OKC, when those expertises mix, new things happen that wouldn't otherwise happen. 

Betty Gordon: All of the people that I work with in the Friends of NW 10th Street have become what I consider close friends. They're not just a business owner on the street anymore. They're someone that I could call up and, you know, go to dinner with or what have you. I think community collaboration is really important because it strengthens, you know, if you have two, it strengthens those two, but it also spills out so that people believe that they have a connection and they feel good about that. 

It's amazing, really, how much people want to do to do good, if they're called upon. You know, sometimes people are reticent to get involved these days with situations where you're trying to serve others and yet if you ask them, they're very helpful, very willing to come forward and be helpful in that circumstance. 

Jamese Siranga: Letting them see that we're here, and we're here to help, and we, you know, are all in this together is kind of what I feel like the point is. 

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