Update: Cool things to come!

Hey there, folks! It’s been an exciting last few weeks as I have had a lot of cool feedback from readers in person and a few online. I have another video I’d like to share with you, a way for you to actually subscribe to this blog so you get automatic updates when I add new interviews or entries (check out the box to the left of the heading) and a very cool development as well.

Regarding the cool development, I have been fortunate enough to get to know a person in Bend that has had a phenomenal life. She was born into difficult circumstances and from there things got worse. She and her siblings were adopted by a family that seemed nice on the outside but the father was sexually abusive. Now if this sounds like some of the interviews you’ve read on this blog, you’re right. However, the very cool part of this is that this woman is by all accounts very successful with a great family life. I am proud to call her and her husband my friends and I look up to and admire them in many ways. Even better is that she is also aware of my blog and has agreed to allow me to interview her about her childhood anonymously. What I’d like from you are questions you’d like me to ask. Please forward these to me via the “comments” section at the bottom of this blog entry so others can see what you are interested in. This will jog your thoughts (unless you’re the first to respond, I guess) and allow others to get ideas as well. I am excited to interview her because although we know that so many are out there that need our love and understanding, it is nice on occasion to find someone to give us hope and to see what worked in her life so we can one day apply her successes to someone with a similar background. I’d like to be ready to interview her by February 2. I expect the interview to be longer than normal, but will work to get it published by the 14th. I’m so stoked to get your questions and comments and see what and who made the difference for her!

Thing #2: Some of you have asked how you can help. Well, until I have some of my regular “day-time job” stuff figured out, I think there’s not too much, except for the input above, to subscribe and spread the word to increase readership of this blog. But let me tell you where I would like this to go someday and maybe I can get your ideas here as well. I want to go to a city, any city, various cities, and continue to interview and publish interviews. You know, whenever I go to interview I pray for the same things: I pray to find someone with a compelling story, someone I can help or give hope to and I pray to be safe. Well, so far so good every time. I want to keep doing the interviews, but it's so hard to talk to these people and then leave them with only a good word of encouragement. Watching Julia go back to the very people that feed her illness about ripped my guts out. So I’d like to have a system set up where I can help someone meaningfully if I ascertain they are ready. Let’s say I find someone who is really, really ready to get off heroin, but they lack the money for methadone treatment, a safe place to be and they’re surrounded by evil friends. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to buy them a bus ticket to, say, Portland (if they’re not from there) where I would meet them? I would personally escort them to a methadone clinic and make sure they get on that program. Then I’d get them enrolled at maybe an “Oxford House” (see http://www.oxfordhouse.org/) or some other safe place. After that, I / we’d get them to treatment every day. I / we would make sure they got enrolled in a trade school or community college and just help them back on their feet. In return, they would have to submit to drug tests regularly and meet certain benchmarks that show that they are committed to progressing and that they are not wasting resources that might be better spent on someone more committed. The screening process would be key, but my good friends at Mammas Hands (http://www.mammashands.com/) have that pretty wired already and they’ve given me all the forms necessary to go. We could start with one person and expand as quickly as I / we could. Actually, I already have the “nonprofit” organization papers filled out and ready to submit. It’s just a matter of coming up with the $850 to make it happen, which I will do ASAP. Anyway, that’s my dream and I think it’s not impossible to start as soon as I get a few things figured out. What do you think?

Finally, here’s the link to a great and very applicable song that each and every homeless young person needs to hear and know.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8187291

Just copy and paste the address above into the address bar of your browser, hit "enter" and it should go.

I hope we can spread the message of this song to these young people. We can do this by a smile, a blanket, a cup of soup or getting them away from danger as I have described.

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts, prayers and words.

Please subscribe to this blog and send a link to 4 or 5 of your close friends! I am a firm believer in momentum and in the power of many people with a passion for a change. We can all make a difference on a very personal level to some people who need it very badly!

Eric
youthstories@gmail.com
541-948-7445 cell