Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Good morning, Welcome to What's goingOn, a show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine Ballad. Tomorrow, We're going
to be airing a couple of interviewsfrom the archives this morning. Sister Mary
Scullion is a warrior when it comesto homelessness. I rear an interview I
conducted with the executive director of ProjectHome and Now for a story that we
(00:21):
hope will inspire and show you thattaking steps forward, no matter how small,
can change the course of a life. My name is Luanne Cohn.
I'm the author of My Dear Me, based on a year I did something
new every single day for a year. I'm also the director of Career Services
for the Climb College of Media Communicationat Temple University. My name is Emma
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Berkstrom. I'm currently a junior inTemple School of Social Work. I'm hoping
to pursue a career as a therapist, specifically working with people struggling with addictions.
I'm also a personal trainer on theside, but being a student has
definitely become my full time job.Luanne, briefly tell us about your book.
Well, for a year, Idid something new every single day to
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get my life unstuck. And itwas in twenty ten when there was a
lot of dramatic changes going on,just like there are now during the pandemic.
There were technology changes, there werechanges in the workplace, and I
was a TV news reporter and wasvery overwhelmed by change and decided I didn't
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want to change. So my daughtersuggested I do something new every single day
for a year, and that journeychanged my life and ended up being a
book called I Dare Me. Emma, tell us how you found out about
this book and what the impact ofreading it was. The world works in
really mysterious ways. I met Luannthrough a public speaking class I took last
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semester, and I remember my professorsaying the name Luang Khan and describing that
Luan was an award winning investigative journalist. But I said, you know,
I don't know if that's quite it. Like that name sounds so familiar,
but I don't know if that's howI know her. And then when Luianne
came and spoke, she spoke abouther book I Dare Me, and it
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hit me. Then I was like, that book is sitting on my bedside
table at home, it's sitting onmy mom's bedside table, and it's a
book that both of us have referencedtime and time again, and it came
into my life at a really pivotalpoint and helped me a great deal.
So in twenty seventeen, I hitwhat I would consider my defining rock bottom
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moment from a decade long struggle withan eating disorder, and I came home
and a lot of my freedoms weretaken from me. But my mom didn't
let that become a limiting factor.And at the time she was reading Luanne's
book, I dare me and everyday, no matter how small, we
would do something new every day.So even when I was being treated as
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an impatient, it could be somethingas little as trying out a new hairstyle,
or trying a new brand of toothpaste, or you know, something as
small as that. As I startedto stronger and as I started to gain
some freedoms back, those smaller yesesturned into bigger yeses. So at the
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end of Luane's speech in my publicspeaking class, I couldn't believe that someone
that became such a role model forme I was actually hearing for talking person,
so I had to share with herhow much her book changed my life.
Lane, before we get into theexperience of meeting Emma and seeing what
a huge difference your book made inher life, I wonder if you can
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tell us a little bit more aboutthe concept of I Dare Me, in
which you encourage people to try somethingnew, and in your case, you
did something new every day, likeEmma said, it could be something small
or could be something big. Iknow you kicked it off by mping into
the Atlantic Ocean on the first ofJanuary a number of years ago for a
polar plunge, which I witnessed butdid not personally participate in. So tell
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us us more about the concept ofthe book, Well, the ideas we
get stuck because we decide not tochange. Whether it's stuck in a way
that Emma got completely stuck by aneating disorder, whether you get stuck because
there's so much change around you andyou just cannot figure out your way forward.
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We lose our best self, howeverit is, and it's different for
so many people, but somewhere alongthe way, we lose our best self.
And I had lost my best self, and this became a kind of
therapy for me in the way thatEmma also discovered for herself. The action
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of doing something new that you haven'tdone before, no matter how small,
creates ripples and energy in your lifeagain. It opens your life up.
It presents opportunities again that we're notthere before. It gets you out of
stuck. And I was stuck mentally. And I had been a breast cancer
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survivor and a kidney cancer survivor,and I'd had many other health issues myself
along the way. And I knowhow precious life is. We all know
how precious life is, and soI knew I had to fix it.
I wasn't sure what this journey offirst time experience is what the result would
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be. But I became more courageous. I was able to step outside my
comfort zone on a more regular basis. I realized that I needed to say
yes. As Emma has said,just saying yes opened up the world possibilities.
And you know, some people youknow might think, well, you
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were a TV news reporter or youyou already had kind of an interesting life,
so it worked for you. Butwhat's interesting to me about Emma and
other people who I've talked to haveread the book, although I will say
Emma's story I think is extraordinary andwhat she's done with it, but I
found and part of what I loveabout Emma's story it can work for anybody.
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It can work for anyone who decidesthat they're ready to make a change.
And even if you don't know exactlywhat it is you need to do,
just doing something different, just takinga different action. Because most of
us live in our habits every dayand we do the same thing over and
over again. Most of us don'teven realize that. And in this time
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of the pandemic, you know,a lot of those good habits are good,
you know, working out or eating, ride or doing those basic good
healthy habits are good. But alot of the other habits that we do,
we don't even know why we're doingthat. We just do them,
and one day we wake up andgo, what is this life? This
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is not what I like, Thisis not what I want to do,
and not sure how to move forward. A year of first or a steady
diet of new experiences can really makea difference. And that's why I wrote
the book, and that's why Itold the story. But I love hearing
stories like Emma's because it reinforces theidea, you know, people take this
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journey in a different way, createtheir own journey, their own unique journey,
and Emma definitely did that and didsomething different with it. Emma,
tell us more about what the readingof the book and then author practicing doing
new things every day in the end, What did that do for you and
what did it lead to? Ithink Luanne described it so perfectly, and
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you know, we spoke about thisa little bit when we met together.
Saying those small yesses really creates thisripple effect of bigger possibilities. And as
soon as I started to say yesto even something as small as trying a
different hairstyle or paying my nails adifferent color, those smaller yesses turned into
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yesses that led to bigger opportunities.And for me, when when Land's book
came into my life, I washospitalized and I wasn't it made it even
more challenging because I wasn't allowed toleave my bed. I was bed ridden
for about a month, so itfelt extremely limiting. So I not only
was stuck in this place of strugglingfrom mental health challenges, but I was
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also physically stuck. So the possibilityseemed really limiting at first, but I
realized, you know, there isstill things that I can do, and
me and my mom kind of becamea team with that and keeping each other
accountable. We really made it ourown. So even like I remember,
I was allowed to leave my roomonce a day, I was allowed one
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adventurous, exhilarating wheelchair right a day. And my mom one day she's like,
Okay, this is our yes,We're going to go in the opposite
direction. And that was like oneof the smallest yeses that I can think
of, but it really started toripple into biggery ess. I think Luann
too, So with your method ofsaying yes to something every days, I
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found it especially beneficial for something likean eating disorder, which is rigidly based
in habit formation. It really comesdown to these like ingrained habits of eating
and exercising and thinking that trap you, and those are the habits that kept
me stuck. So as soon asI started introducing new things that challenged me
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outside of the box that my eatingdisorder made for me, it gave me
the courage to say yes to biggeropportunities. And it also just allowed me
to be okay with not being goodat something right from the start, and
it allowed me to be more forgivingwith myself and have more fun and live
more freely, which really did setme free from my mental health struggles,
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and it was actually one of themost pivotal parts of I mean recoveries ongoing.
I still would consider myself in recoveryfrom an eating disorder. But when
I was at a point where Iwanted to start introducing exercise back into my
life, but in a way thatwas sustainable and supportive rather than destructive and
unhealthy, I met someone that wastalking about weightlifting and they're like, oh,
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you should try it out. Normally, with the habits that I had
previously ingrained for a decade, Iwould have said no immediately because there is
a chance of mes sing up memaking a fool of myself. But because
I had adopted this new mindset andalmost had like Luanne Khan sitting on my
shoulder telling me say yes, Isaid yes, and that led to making
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that a part of my lifestyle,and that led to becoming a personal trainer.
Sharing. It was like I openeda Pandora's box, and even though
everyone already kind of knew about weightlifting. I decided everyone has to know about
this, so I started training,and that led to new opportunities that I
was willing to say yes to,all because I had the courage to one
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day say yeah, I'll go theopposite direction on this wheelchair ride, or
yeah, I'll try braiding my hairtoday. And I think there's so much
truth in what Luan said. Itreally starts with starting small lane. When
a person writes a book, youdon't always know what the impact of that
book or those words are on aperson or people. What was it like
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to meet Emma and see how deeplyimpacted she was by your book? It's
amazing because you're right. You know, a lot of people read the book
and sometimes I get comments back,sometimes I hear stories, and Emma's story
was so remarkable, and in fact, when she first came up to me,
I think her words were your booksaved my life, and I was
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like, nah, come on,I can't be right, you know,
I mean, or maybe I eventhought that, like she's exaggerating a little
bit, But in some ways Idon't think she is. I just sometimes
when you put something out in theworld, I think so many of us
don't know how it ripples out,how it touches other people. So it's
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so gratifying. It is so lovelyto hear from Emma because it reminds me
again, this is a story whyworth telling and a message to keep telling.
And through Emma, she will continueto share this with other people,
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and that's what I love about it. So I'm very grateful how I ended
up in her class. You know, that's serendipity karma, I don't know
what you want to call it,because she had no idea I was coming,
and I had no idea she wasin the class, or that she
had read the book, or thatit was important to her. I feel
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like it was kind of meant tobe. And I also love that Emma
has the courage to tell her story, which was why she had signed up
for this public speaking class. Andshe wants to tell her story and she
wants to share it, and that'sanother great yes and another great dare and
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I'm so thrilled about that. ButI do want to also say, I
mean, I think you have somuch insight, Emma. I love that
you talk about this idea of needingto let go of perfection because the reason
people don't do first time experiences,or don't try new things, or don't
say yes. Is fear so muchat the time. We fear failure,
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we fear what other people will say. We just fear a change in general.
I love that you recognize that yousee that as part of your journey.
So am aside from all the personalbenefits that you've had from an emotional
standpoint, from a mental wellness standpoint, what else has reading this book led
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to something really, really kind ofcool. It's kind of a new direction
for you from a creative side.Tell us more. Yeah, So when
I first said yes, going backto one very pivotal part of my recovery
journey, when I said yes togoing to a gym, the weightlifting gym,
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and realizing that that really was somethingthat I enjoyed doing. I liked
that feeling of being strong so muchthat I became a personal trainer. I
started to learn a lot about thefitness industry, what messages it feeds you,
what messages I was plagued by whenI struggled with an eating disorder,
and what I wanted people to hearso they wouldn't have to go through the
struggles that I went through with foodand exercise. Really, when I started
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my personal training journey within my recoveryjourney, I started writing a blog I
found when I was in recovery.I never found a source that was completely
unfiltered from somebody who had gone throughrecovery. It was kind of like,
here I am one day struggling withan eating disorder, and then look at
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me now, just a very simplebefore and after picture. But for me,
you know, there really is noend picture. When you're recovering from
something, It's such an ongoing processthat you know you have to wake up
and decide to commit to every singleday. So I was always so confused.
I was like, you know,the whole middle section is completely deleted.
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I made it my mission with thisblog to only write about the messy
middle part. And that was trulythanks to Lunne and her book, because
I was at the point where Iwas like, sure, why not.
You know, I've accepted this,the fact that maybe i'll mess up,
and that's okay. So people startedto be really responsive to that, and
I've gotten messages where it's like Ifeel like you're in my head, like
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you're you know, you're describing myexperience so candidly, and that was my
goal. So with that, Ikind of found, just with the times,
people are more responsive to social media, So I kind of turned to
Instagram as more of an outlet andtried to make it a safe space for
people not only recovering from an eatingdisorder, but I always say people recovering
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from anything, because you know,we're constantly recovering, We're constantly falling down,
getting back up, repeating the process. I wanted to create a platform
that was completely as filter free aspossible. So not only do I share
tips and just like personal accounts ofhow you can improve your relationship with food
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and exercise, but I've also sharedvery unfiltered moments for my own recovery and
hopes that someone could relate to that, or maybe on a day when they
feel like it's not worth fighting foranymore, maybe reading that post will give
them the courage to at least dareon themselves for one more day. So
that's kind of become an outlet forme just sharing my story on that platform,
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and I found it's kind of theeasiest way to reach a lot of
people. How do we reach thatplatform? Sure, so on Instagram My
user name is just mac Borg BRG. It's just my name. I just
wanted it to be as real aspossible. Just keep it simple, keep
it unfiltered. I felt like peoplewere most responsive to that. So yeah,
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it's just at mac borg and onthere you'll find different accounts of recovery,
very candid conversations that I encourage peopleto participate in. I always really
promote that my direct messages are alwaysopen if anyone just needs someone to listen
and just say hey, I hearyou. Nothing has to be changed at
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the moment, because anything I saywhen you are struggling is not going to
make that make that much of amonumental change. But I'm here to hear
you, and I'm here to seeyou. It's kind of not only become
a source of therapy for me,you know, sharing my story with people,
but it seems as though it's becomea therapeutic outlet for other people.
And this is a little bit ofa preview, but I'm also in the
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process. This is a very recentidea, but I would also I've been
toying with the idea of starting apodcast just from feedback I've gotten with other
people about you know, just havingthese really candid conversations that a lot of
people write off as taboo, justso we can all feel a little bit
more human. Love it. AndLuanne, if people would like to know
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more about I Dare Me and aboutyou have a blog and you have social
media. How do we reach you? Oh? The best way to find
me is luan Con dot com,l u a n nchn dot com.
I'm on Instagram, luan Con.The book is on Amazon in bookstores I
Daremy. It's easy to find me. But I can't wait to see what
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Emma does next. And I knowyou're going to be a great social work
or two. Oh thank you.That means so much. Yeah. Wow,
what an amazing story. And I'mso glad that you spent time with
us too to share that story withus. Luan Con, the author of
I Daremy, and Emma play Barkstrom, who read the book and was changed
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by it in some very positive ways. Thank you both for joining us today.
Thank you, Thanks Loui, you'relistening to what's going on. Homelessness
is a national crisis. On asingle night, according to the latest stats,
more than half a million people ofUS are unsheltered While some stats say
(20:11):
that Philadelphia has the lowest number ofpeople who are unsheltered among the major US
cities, there are some dispute asto how many are actually unsheltered and living
on the street. The city saysbetween seven and eight hundred, and Project
Home says it's a whole lot morethan that. They are a nonprofit that's
been on the front line of thefight against homelessness in Philadelphia since nineteen eighty
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nine. They have a most inspiringmotto, which is, we believe that
none of us are home until allof us are home. I just love
that. Joining us right now isSister Mary Scullion, co founder, president,
and executive director of Project Home.Thank you so much for joining us
today the rain. It's always greatto be with you. Thank you.
(20:55):
Well, let's talk about the stateof homelessness right now. There are estimates
as to the number of people outthere. We see these faces on the
street, and I wonder if youcan put some humanity behind what we see,
because I think that so many peoplebecome a little bit numb, they
(21:15):
have compassion fatigue about this issue,and yet Project Home is about examining and
looking at each of these individuals asa human being that has possibility, And
I wonder if you can talk alittle more about what the state of homelessness
is and what we need to knowabout the unsheltered the rain. Philadelphia does
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have a serious crisis. The deepestone is poverty and the lack of affordable
housing. Homelessness is the tip ofthe iceberg of those two crisises that work
hand in hand poverty and the lackof affordable housing. The people who are
unsheltered are us actually very young peopleaging out of foster care. They're young
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people LGBTQ. They're adults struggling withmental illness or substance use or a physical
disability. You know, today we'reseeing more and more people in wheelchairs and
other serious physical challenges, and yetthey are living on the street. Philadelphia,
along with our nation, is facinga very serious crisis of homelessness and
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the lack of affordable housing, andthe pressure that that puts on people is
truly enormous. So we just talkedabout the faces of people that we may
see who are unsheltered on the streetsof Philadelphia. What we don't see are
the faces of mothers and children whoare more invisible in the sense that they're
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in shelters or in precarious situations,living in cars, or abandonmenting of Actually,
mothers and children are the largest numberof people who are experiencing homelessness,
and this is a very traumatic experiencein the lives of those families. As
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I said, the men and womenthat are unsheltered on our streets are the
tip of the iceberg. It's hopefullya radical call to all of us that
something needs to be done because sucha devastating experience for people. I had
a brief encounter with being homeless forone night, and I won't get into
(23:36):
all the details of why that happened, but I can tell you that the
feeling of panic and what am Igoing to do? Where am I going
to go? I'll never forget.And I think that that is something that
maybe not everybody can identify with.But it is so interesting that even someone
like me I was younger of coursethen, but times we're just one step
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away from having that experience. It'snot something that is completely within the realm
of possibility of happening to anyone.Really, I mean, you know,
it could be one paycheck away fromhaving to be out on the street,
or living in your car right orone illness, one loss of a job,
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or an eviction that could be dueto as we just saw at the
University Towers, a landlord selling abuilding for you know, another purpose,
a very nice price, and thenhe has to evict people. And for
people that are on the that arestruggling and may have a job, but
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not a job that would pay thekind of rents and utilities that are in
the city of Philadelphia does lead tohomelessness many times, not always, but
many times. And actually in thecity of Philadelphia, what we're seeing now
is even people with bouchers that's likea subsidy where they pay thirty percent of
(25:03):
their incomfort rent and the federal governmentpays the difference, that finding a safe
and decent place that will take thatvoucher is becoming increasingly more difficult. So
even people with vouchers are struggling tofind a safe place to live that is
a quality housing. Project Home hasworked with this issue and has had tremendous
(25:30):
success using sort of a continuum wraparound services not only providing housing but also
support for employment, medical health,educational support. Can you briefly give us
a rundown of some of the thingsthat you have accomplished over these many years.
Sure, Lobraine, so hoh's affordablehousing and actually we're working when developing
(25:56):
our thousand unit of affordable housing thatwe hope to in early in fiscal year
twenty three, which is really avery exciting milestone for us, considering that
we started in a winter emergency shelter. Oh is opportunity for employment, so
we have both social enterprises for peoplewho can work within the Project Home supported
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employment program and then also certificate programswhich leads to jobs that hopefully our living
wage job. And then and medicalcare which we have a federally qualified health
center that provides primary care, behavioralhealth, and even dental services. And
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then education, which we believe thesingle most important thing tending homelessness today is
affordable housing, but the single mostimportant thing tending homelessness in the future are
really such a worthy goal to strivefor as a community, is a quality
education for every single child. WhatProject HOMEE does is provide the four most
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basic things that are needed to endand prevent homelessness. Affordable housing, education,
employment, and healthcare, done ina spirit of community and advocacy that
is not really rocket science. Buttoday, the way our political system and
society has developed is that affordable,quality housing is no longer something that we
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can all take for granted or relyon it. The affordable housing unit's not
only in Philadelphia, but across ournation has diminished significantly in the past ten
years. Again, we see ourschool system, our public school system,
struggling to get the necessary funding andteachers and resources to provide a quality education
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for every single child. Potential isequally distributed, but opportunity is not.
And that's what we as a societyand city need to focus on, is
creating equal opportunity for all. That'sactually the American dream, but it's becoming
a distant reality for a lot ofreasons which we don't have time to go
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into today. Is well, let'smove on to what we can do,
and certainly one thing we can dois support the work of Project Home.
I want to just say one thing, Loraine. In addition to supporting Project
Home and other nonprofit organizations in people'sneighborhoods and community, every listener hopefully is
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registered to vote and will vote.Vote for homes, vote for education,
vote for jobs. At living wages. I mean, that's another thing that
every single person can do. There'sso much that we can do to move
the needle on the unsheltered and homelessnessas an issue. If people again would
like more information all the things wetalked about. What is that website?
(28:53):
One more time? Www. Projecthome dot org. Www. Project Who
dot org. Fantastic Sister Mary Scullion, who is the co founder, president
and executive director of Project Home.Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you, Loraine. You canlisten to all of today's interviews by
(29:15):
going to our station website and typingin keyword Community. You can also listen
on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia CommunityPodcast. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram
at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine BallardMorrow and I stand for service to our
community and media that empowers. Whatwill you stand for? You've been listening
(29:36):
to what's going on ed. Thankyou