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SEEING POTENTIAL, NOT POVERTY
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We are thankful for your commitment to Kootenai County as we work together to promote the human flourishing of our neighbors. Here's a peak into what we've been up to:
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Mental Health Workshop - HUGE SUCCESS
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On November 14, we hosted our annual training. The Mental Health Workshop at North Idaho College was sold out with 100 guests in attendance. Attendees came from a wide variety of local organizations, government agencies, churches, and businesses in the community.
Our keynote speaker, Keith Orchard delivered a fun, interactive, and educational session that had attendees raving. Keith shared practical insights and encouraged engaging discussions. The presentation left everyone feeling empowered and equipped with tools to address mental health challenges in their places of work
. One attendee shared:
"I appreciate all the work that went into putting this together for our community. I left feeling refreshed and supported (knowing others deal with the same barriers that I do)."
Between Keith’s keynote address and our afternoon panel of mental health providers and recipients of mental health services, there were many great resources shared.
We’re excited to announce that we will be compiling many of these resources and adding them to the Charity Reimagined website to make them accessible to our community all year around. Stay tuned for updates on this!
As we’ve mentioned before, education is one of our pillars at Charity Reimagined, and we are thrilled to see what a positive impact this event has had in our community already. We are grateful for our community’s desire to learn more about mental health in order to better serve those around us.
As we plan for future workshops and events, we’d love to hear from you about topics and areas of interest that you are interested in or would find helpful!
If you have ideas or input, email us at: connect@charityreimagined.org
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FAST FORWARD FROM A YEAR AGO TO TODAY: At 38 years old, Crystal had a long history of trauma, addiction, and undiagnosed mental illness. She lost custody and rights to both of her children and had built a lengthy history of criminal behavior to support her drug habit.
More importantly, she is a fighter.
Her story began to change in 2021. In 2021, she achieved sobriety through hard work, excellent resources, and determination to be with her family again.
She held a job as best she could with her physical health issues, worked through the Mental Health Court program, and earned her driver’s license back. Crystal has a very positive attitude and has reunited with her family.
Mary Wolfinger with the Mental Health Court program has seen Crystal's commitment to healing firsthand. She shared: “Let me tell you, this girl can work!! We have had to tell her to slow down because of her health issues.”
Last year, the mental health court program recommended Crystal to Christmas for All Year
(CFA-Y). She had a simple request: new tires for her vehicle in order to get to and from work and her appointments. We were thrilled to grant this request to a woman working so hard to rewrite her story.
Since receiving her tires, Crystal has continued to move forward, has addressed her physical and mental health issues, and is now a manager at Safeway with a reliable vehicle to get back and forth to work.
So often, the work we do is made possible because of the personal relationships between our referring partners and the clients they serve. These gateways into individuals’ lives allow us to see the specific barriers to success. Through these connections and the generous CFA-Y donors, we are able to provide personal, tailored assistance so that people like Crystal can remain steadfast on their journey to flourishing.
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DOING BENEVOLENCE BETTER
(with dignity)
Reimagining charity is about digging into how we help the needy:
Not just loving with our hearts and hands but loving with our minds, too.
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Building off of the momentum from the Mental Health Workshop, we wanted to devote a little ongoing time to learn more about mental health and how we can help within our spheres of influence.
Toward that end, we will be going over a four-part series from True Charity
's Mental Illness & Poverty course
.
In this course, Restoration Counseling
's Brian Fidler examines the poor's experience with disproportionate levels of mental health problems ranging from depression and anxiety to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His goal through the course is to equip frontline workers who interact with those in need on a daily basis to be able to help someone struggling with mental health challenges.
You might wonder - w
hy is it important to learn about mental health as helping organizations - even when mental health is not your expertise?
It can be easy to think, "Well, if I encounter someone struggling with mental health issues, then I will simply refer them to an organization with counselors available to help!" And this is a good idea in many instances!
However, when you find yourself sitting across from someone struggling with mental health challenges, understanding and engaging with those challenges is a central part of how you can love them. The challenges they experience in this realm not only affect their behavior and inform the way we work with them, but these challenges often touch the deepest wounds they carry. Without their wounds healing, these individuals cannot flourish
.
Brian reminds us that the “heart of mental health counseling is really connection...trying to get back to the hope that we can have a wise, appropriate, powerful connection that will help a person be" "empowered to navigate" "the stressors they have in their lives.”
Next month, we'll dive into Part 1 where Brian discusses the relationship between Poverty and Mental Illness and why they are often closely interrelated.
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REFERRING PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
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The Mental Health Court
(MHC) in Kootenai County strives to reduce recidivism of offenders in the criminal justice system who have a controlled substance addiction and a mental illness. The MHC provides community protection with a cost-effective, integrated continuum of care through the development and utilization of community resources. The MHC holds defendants accountable and assists offenders to achieve long-term stability, become law-abiding citizens, and become successful family/community members.
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Referring Partners are the boots on the ground, our community's Unsung Heroes, serving the poor who refer their clients to Charity Reimagined for specific assistance tailored to our work.
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BUSINESS PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
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Fairway Floor Inc., Abbey Carpet & Floor
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Fairway Floor
and Design Center
is the North Idaho supplier of quality floor and window coverings. They have been serving North Idaho since 1976. Fairway's goal is to provide the best possible floor covering service and experience to residential and commercial customers.
Abbey Carpet is the featured product at Fairway Floor, along with all major brands of carpet, vinyl, tile, hardwood, laminate floor and hard window coverings.
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Business Partners offer their services at a discount in order to meet the needs of those rising out of hardship. They give clients the dignity of interacting in the business world for their needs, not just receiving handouts. The role played by these partners cannot be overstated!
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Donor's Corner: Why We Give
"Charity Reimagined is all about giving people in need a hand up, not a hand out. This is an approach I completely support. Charity Reimagined’ s leadership is professional, creative, and committed. They have launched several innovative and successful programs, accomplishing excellent outcomes for the people they serve. Charity Reimagined addresses the homelessness and poverty challenges in our community with programs which extend dignity and respect to those willing to invest in themselves, and work to a better future. Charity Reimagined has my full support. "
-Jim Riley
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If you're new or would like to learn more, we'd love to grab coffee with you and get connected. Your partnership makes effective charity in Kootenai County possible.
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OUR VISION
No matter how big or small, no single church, charity, or “helping” organization can meet all needs. But, by all of us working together through communication and collaboration to identify categories of care and responding appropriately, pride can replace shame, hope can replace despair, and lives can be changed.
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