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You are a multi-dimensional being, with your own unique blend of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual components that make you perfectly, imperfectly you. Your genetic make-up, environment, and circumstances can never be replicated. There is, and will only ever be, one you. 

This is why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving your life. Whether you are trying to lose weight, improve your finances, change your career, manage a health obstacle, or reach any other goal that you are striving to achieve, what worked for someone else might not work for you. We are all individuals with our own unique set of circumstances and obstacles to overcome.

In this week's episode we discuss a holistic and person-centered approach to improving your health and wellness. We offer some basic strategies that will help you determine where to start when implementing change into your life.

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With cold weather on the horizon,. we have been receiving an increasing number of emails from people that are in need of housing. Unfortunately all of our units are currently full. We do have a waiting list, but there are more resources available in our community. In this week's podcast we interview Lindsay Best from St. Lawrence County Community Services to help provide tools that you can access if you or someone you know are in need of housing or services. 

Lindsay discusses the different programs and agencies in St. Lawrence County that can assist with finding housing, receiving financial assistance, and accessing wrap-around services. 

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Have you ever felt emotionally dominated or abused, or like a victim of injustice? If you have felt held back personally, socially, professionally, or financially, or as though you were unjustly controlled by another, then you know all too well how devastating oppression can feel. 

Oppression can traumatize a person over time. It strips a person of his human dignity and identity, and the result is deeply felt pain, and frustration. 

 When we first met Casey earlier in the summer we met a very different person than the one that met with us for this interview. The smiling and lively person that had come into our office only a few short weeks before had been replaced by a man that was struggling to hang on to hope. Casey tells us that he now understands very clearly what it means to "kick a man when he is down." 

Join us as we wrap up our "Under the Bridge" series for the time being and discuss some of the common themes that have surfaced in our homeless interviews. 

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This week we continue with our Under the Bridge Series, where Dave and I talk with some of the homeless in our community to better understand what is happening, and to shed some light on the questions that we have. 

Ed's story and circumstances are very different than anyone else we have spoken to. Ed spent the majority of his life hiding who he was, and it has taken him many years to be comfortable enough to share with us. Ed's story and message of self-acceptance reinforced our awareness that each individual has a unique story. Join us as we delve a little deeper and hear a new perspective surrounding the community that exists Under the Bridge. 

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." 
~ Kurt Cobain 

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In this week's episode Carrie and Dave address the two most common questions that have been asked after the first three episodes of Beyond the Box:

How can I help?
How do I receive more information to apply for housing?

Carrie interviews Tammy Bush, the Deputy Director of S.T.E.P. by S.T.E.P., Inc., who gives some helpful information on how you can help in your own community, as well as discusses how to apply for housing at the Lincoln School Apartment Program. 

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Marley's story is a very different narrative than the one we heard from Mountain Man last week. It is emotional and raw, and gives us a glimpse into what it is like to live with addiction. Despite her traumatic past, today Marley sees herself as a survivor and has a strong will to better her circumstances. She knows that she wants to leave a better footprint on the world than when she entered into it, and challenges me to ask myself that same question. What is the legacy that I will leave behind? How will people remember me when I am gone? Do I want to be seen as someone who truly made a difference? Marley helped me realize that I not only want to be a good person, but I want to take action. I want to be the kind of person that stops when someone is in need, rather than simply turning a blind eye and continuing on my way. 

What is the legacy that you will leave behind? 

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Why is there suddenly such a drastic increase in the homeless population? Why are we seeing people sleeping in the dumpster and congregating in the park? Are they traveling together? Where are they coming from, and how in the hell did they ever end up here in our remote area of Upstate new York? Walking into my first interview I thought those questions were going to be easy, straightforward answers. However, what I discovered Under the Bridge was far more complicated than that. 

Who doesn't feel overwhelmed by the daily rat race? Who doesn't feel like they want to extricate themselves from society and live in the wilderness when life gets overwhelming? Well, Mountain Man not only thought it, but he retreated to the wilderness in Canada, withstanding temperatures of negative fifty degrees below Fahrenheit during the coldest winter months. In this week's podcast I share his story, the first of the interviews that I conducted in an attempt to understand a little bit more about what is happening in our community. 

With each interview I went away thinking, “Well, they can't be part of the group that everyone is talking about. They must be the exception." What I’ve begun to suspect is that they are all exceptions, each with their own story. And their lives intersect Under the Bridge. 

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In the debut episode of Beyond the Box, Carrie sits down with Dave, the Executive Director of S.T.E.P. by S.T.E.P., Inc. - a small, peer-run, non-profit organization located in Ogdensburg, New York. Carrie and Dave discuss the agency's twenty-five year history, how their one room Drop-In-Center has expanded to offer more community services, and how they've implemented a Community Housing Initiative. While staying true to their grassroots  mission, S.T.E.P. by S.T.E.P., Inc.. has grown from assisting only those discovering and recovering with mental illness, and now aims to  improve the mental, physical, and emotional health and well-being of every member of our community. 

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