4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS CRISIS RESPONSE OCTOBER 20, 2023 41-year-old St. Andrew’s Breakfast Program models nonviolent crisis response There is a commotion outside the Breakfast at St. Andrew’s. It's 7:15 a.m. on Reverend Paul Frolick's first day as the new Rector for historic St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division St., in Ann Arbor. Frolick goes outside and immediately starts shaking hands with everyone. It's nine a.m. Someone is waiting at the locked front door of the dining room. The kitchen is closed. The volunteers and guests have left. The new program director, Sue Nishi, goes back inside to pack a double-sized "to-go bag," putting in two meals instead of one, just in case. "We like to meet people where they are," said Nishi, who started September 15 after training for two weeks with former Breakfast Program Director Shannon Floyd and volunteering since February. Frolick's first day was September 5. He took over from Interim Rector E. JANE REILLY Groundcover vendor No. 611 Breakfast Program, a six-year member of the St. Andrew's Board of Directors and was instrumental in the hiring process for Nishi. "They're both coming in with this wonderful injection of energy," Halloran said. "We're so impressed by both of them. Everybody is." With 195 years of operations, includWayne Rollins and retired Rector Alan Gibson. There are other newcomers but it is Nishi and Frolick who work directly with the homeless community. "He comes around," said Colby Halloran about Frolick. "You see him, don't you? That's never happened since I've been here. He's very keen on this program." Halloran is a volunteer for the ing 41 years with the Breakfast Program, St. Andrew's ministries may be the longest-enduring social justice, community outreach organization in the County. St. Andrew's and the Interfaith Council of Congregations contributing in forming the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County in 1982, the same year as the start of the Breakfast Program. Various social justice groups in Washtenaw County, including Groundcover News, Community Mental Health, the Sheriff's Department, along with the City of Ann Arbor and its police force, are working for more community building and proactive crisis response instead of the current nationwide reactive police response. But St. Andrew's has already been modeling this for a while. While there are occasional disruptions by guests and even staff at the breakfast program, it's never daily and violence is rare. Nishi said problems are dealt with on "a case-to-case basis." "I am so grateful for the St. Andrew's Breakfast Program, which has been providing nutrition, structure and togetherness for community members for decades," wrote Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor via email. Ann Arbor Municipal Safety Officer Dave Monroe, a 35-year retired veteran of the police force, said while he couldn't speak on behalf of the entire police department, he thinks "the see BREAKFAST page 9 Beyond Walls screening and panel discussion calls for community connection On the evening of September 26, the Neutral Zone hosted a Beyond Walls event. Beyond Walls is an organizing initiative featuring documentary films that define and amplify what prison industrial complex abolition means, while inspiring people to imagine and take action toward a world without policing. The first film, “What These Walls Cannot Hold” was about the COVID-19 crisis in San Quentin State Prison in California and how the harsh, dehumanizing measures put in place due to the crisis are still active. The second film, "Defund the Police,” was a primer on how policing is shaped by race, gender, class and the dominant culture. The panel included Alejo Stark (GEO Abolition Caucus); Liz Kennedy and Luna NH (Care Based Safety); and Lindsay Calka (Groundcover News). The Graduate Employees’ Organization Local 3550 is a union of graduate students at the University of Michigan. The Abolition Caucus has a specific goal to defund and demilitarize campus police and cut university ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Care Based Safety is a grassroots organization that tasks itself with responding to conflict and crisis with life-affirming care, preventing destructive conflict and crisis through skill-building and social JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 • Often we're offered a flattened version that only portrays the negative when talking about abolition or defunding the police. But abolition is also about building and growing things. Could you share something that you've learned about the meaning of abolition?" The panelists' answers reflected their different perspectives but often centered around the role of Community Connection. In my time, both as a person who survived homelessness and as an activist and advocate, I have come across many support, collaborating with community partners in addressing the root causes of violence, crisis and neglect in Washtenaw County and building a culture and system of care-based safety for all. Groundcover News is the street newspaper you're reading — sold and written by those experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness. The questions asked of the panel were: • For those of us questioning the idea that prisons and police keep us safe, or who want to build alternatives, what does building connections look like in your work? • The first film illustrated the importance of coalitions in abolitionist organizing. Can you talk about the role that coalition building plays in your work? people whose lives were made worse by policing and prison in a society where people are expected to take care of themselves. Many of these people are unable to get jobs due to their criminal records. People who have been incarcerated for a long time often struggle with housing and employment due to a lack of skills and the handicap that comes from being institutionalized. Some of them were arrested and jailed as a result of mental health breakdowns. Instead of being punished, they needed compassion and treatment. One individual I know was tased because he waved a spoon in “a threatening manner.” The person told me at the time of their illness they believed it was a magic wand. I was held in jail once. I had an apartment and a job that I found while trying to recover from homelessness at the Delonis Center. Fortunately, I was only held for the weekend, both of which were days I had off work. Had I missed work because of the detainment, I would have lost the job and probably, as a result, the apartment. This happens to people daily. Not only does this system work against people who are trying to live peacefully, it can destroy someone's livelihood and self-esteem. People do things for many reasons. They do harmful things because the system allows it or even propagates it rather than solving the underlying problem. The marginalization of both houseless people and the formerly incarcerated contributes to a cycle of crime and homelessness. Rather than abandoning them, the community should offer them a welcoming, healing and encouraging place. For every homelessness episode, there is a reason. For every crime, there is a reason. The reasons are often the same. Beyond Walls, the GEO Abolitionist Caucus, Care-Based Safety and Groundcover News all believe in a social system in which empowerment and relationships can take the place of control and imprisonment as a way to live together.
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