I'm Frickin' Lonely...Tell Me Your Story! (Staying Connected Through Conversation)

This week I’m delighted to welcome three guests from The Father Center of New Jersey: Marc Warren, Director of Operations, Carter Patterson, Director of Programs and Randall Toby, Programs/Projects Coordinator. Our conversation with these mission driven public servants continues our exploration of the particular impact the pandemic has had on community service organizations.  It's wonderful to learn how, through creative thinking and use of resources, organizations like this can not only continue to serve their participants, but also thrive.

Through the work of The Father Center, men (or anyone who identifies as a father figure) have access to “Bridges 2 Success” certification training, “Operation Fatherhood” including courses in anger management, parenting skills, technology skills, career counseling, a workforce investment program, and multiple other programs including access to case management services at all levels. As Carter describes it…. they provide their participants with “A Warm Blanket”!  The key is building trust.

They kept things going during the pandemic through strategic partnerships with other organizations, virtual outreach, and social media. This new hybridized approach has been so successful, it will continue to be their model going forward. And as they work to broaden their outreach, Randall notes they’ve been asked to host a statewide fathership conference in November!

As Marc says, “The Father Center is a small organization with a large impact.” 

Tune in to hear more from these great public servants!

Follow The Father Center of New Jersey on social media; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Or go to their website for additional information; www.thefathercenter.org.

Check out Randal Toby's Amazon Best Selling book, "Suited for Success" 

Also, read up on his "Breakfast with Our Boys" series of interactive conversations with young men 12-18 years of age, toward providing them with positive role models.  

This week we continue our deep dive into how the community continued to be supported during the pandemic by the herculean efforts of caring individuals and organizations.

Michael Roseborough, Project Director at the Princeton YMCA and director of the ACE program, is one of those exceptional individuals. He tells a heart-rending story that led to his Aha! moment and his commitment to helping young people overcome adverse circumstances.

Mike shares insights into how the ACE program (Accept Compete Excel) is helping to reduce chronic absenteeism in the Princeton Public Schools and build connections and supports for students in grades 8 to 12 who are most at risk of missing school and falling behind.

We also learn how he developed a love of craft beers and strives to share that love with his buddies through “Tap Room Take-overs”, while at the same time bringing a more diverse clientele to New Jersey breweries. Mike assures me that all “allies” are welcome!

I loved my conversation with Mike and I hope you listen and enjoy as well!

This week my guest is Kate Bech, VP of Mission Advancement for the Greater Somerset County YMCA. Kate recounts her journey from artist to non-profit leader, and how her Midwest upbringing instilled a sense of duty, justice and fairness and a belief in public service that undoubtedly played a role in her following that path.

We also learn how navigating the “rules” created by the government’s response to the pandemic made leading the Y so challenging. Kate attributes much of her and the Y’s ability to continue to serve the community to her exemplary team of volunteers and board members.

Kate’s vision for the Y is to provide a place where people of all walks of life can come together, experience the joy of sharing a common purpose and regain mutual trust; a true community center that fulfills people’s “longing for belonging!”

Once again, I was uplifted to know there are optimistic, energetic people working toward improving our social fabric!

This week we're talking with Tawanda McCrae, a multifaceted and socially pro-active person, veteran, Vegan and a Vegan business owner, founder of the charity Red Queen Foundation, animal activist, a cannabis advocate. and architectural designer and instructor.  Tawanda is driven by the desire to help others through mentoring and charitable work.  We talk about looking for those "light bulb moments" and how to perhaps ease into a vegan lifestyle to help our health and the environment.  Hand made vegan chocolates might just do the trick!   She advises to "let your body be a garden, not a graveyard". 

Links to Tawanda's foundation:

Red Queen Foundation https://www.redqueenfoundation.com/

Other things to look for and support: 

Sistas for Change

Homefront

Trenton Area Soup Kitchen

Woman's Space

This is the second session of a two-parter with Karl Reutter. He had so much to talk about it took two sessions! In this episode we circle back to learn more about Karl’s time in Japan and the promising relationship he developed there. But also how the pandemic-imposed long-distance nature of that relationship was more than could be endured. It’s a tale of heartbreak and mental illness, and facing life beyond that.  It's got everything: romance, intrigue, loneliness and tragedy!  Take a listen!

This week’s guest is Ira Stanley, accomplished rock and blues guitarist, musician, and song writer. Currently Ira is the lead guitarist for the bands Checker’d Past and Blues Power. I was eager to learn how Ira kept his music going through the pandemic. (Here Social Media once again features front and center…in this case in a positive way…)

As the owner of businesses that provided on call nursing and doctor’s services, Ira had an up-close vantage point of the demands on medical professionals created by the pandemic.  And his own bout with pre-vaccine COVID made it all the more personal.

Ira also shares the clever way he and his wife were still able to “dine out” while restaurants were closed down and how he believes people have learned that working from home has not turned out to be all it was cracked up to be.

Check out Ira’s bands on their Face Book pages:

Blues Power https://www.facebook.com/bluespowerband

Checker’d Past https://www.facebook.com/checkerdband

This week’s guest is Alan Maimon, Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Twilight in Hazard – An Appalachian Reckoning and an investigator for Centurion, the nation’s oldest innocence organization. Alan shares with us the difficulties of pursuing freedom for wrongly incarcerated people, most of whom are on death row, even in the best of times…much less during a pandemic!

As an investigative reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal, he also had a first-hand view of the environmental, identity and Oxycontin crises in the coal mining town of Hazard Kentucky, the subject of his book. He tells how when reporting from there he felt every bit the “foreign correspondent” he was when with the New York Times in Berlin, Germany.  Get yourself a copy of the book and prepare for a “harrowing, angering, but most importantly true”* read!  

(*Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home)

You can get more information on Centurion at: https://centurion.org/.

You can find Alan’s book at: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57421474-twilight-in-hazard.

This week we’re talking with Ed Klimek, Architect and Partner at KSS Architects. Our conversation with Ed covers a lot of ground, including changes in workplace and the future of robotics! But we start with family, including the impact of COVID on non-COVID healthcare, and the wisdom of not buying your adult kids washing machines so they still have to come home to do their laundry!

We also learn of Ed’s inspiration in launching a new life path after Architecture, building on his dedication to social justice when working on Solidarity Lending and community outreach in Guatemala. The resilience of the people he works with in these small remote communities can be a lesson for us all as we deal with our own upheavals.

Ed feels that one of the reasons that many people have taken to thinking only of themselves is because they have lost their “Interior Lives”, that is, understanding who you are as a person a basis for making “moral decisions”.

Contrary to my own pessimistic view, Ed explains the reasoning for his optimism. Listen in and maybe you too can feel more optimistic about our future!

This week’s conversation is with Lauren Krause-Malave who is blessed with a wonderfully tight knit multicultural family (African-American, German, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Japanese….! Oh and her dog comes from Harlem!) and she tells us how that finds its way into shared traditions, particularly cuisine! (Lauren throws in some Italian for good measure.) She shares with us their techniques for staying tight knit even during the pandemic.

Like many people, Lauren suffered the “pandemic postponement” of launching her new business but is excited to bring it to fruition this spring! So, if you need your home organized or a refreshed decor…she’s the one to call!

Lauren (and her husband) are heavily involved in “giving back”. One way they do this is through coaching young people’s sports teams, teaching teamwork and character along the way. And Lauren’s “all-girl’s” flag football team proudly “beats the boys”! And don’t ever call them “sweetie”!

Lauren advises us all to live in the moment and be a part of the conversation.

Organizations supported by Lauren that are mentioned in this podcast include:

This week we’re talking with Mel Gjonbalaj. Mel tells us how she actually found comfort and an opportunity for introspection while isolating during the pandemic. (Escape from FOMO!) 

Our conversation also (of course) covers the creation of the Princeton Fox Project, and how we “stalked” the suffering foxes on campus. We also learn how she patiently shares her point of view with those on “the other side”…an admirable skill many of us lack. (I am speaking for myself…).

Mel advises us to “slow down, “learn how to just be” and reflect…to be more like her dog Jeffy and smell the bushes…(and maybe pee in the wilderness?). 

Give a listen!