Former Front Rooms Department Coordinator, Alex Farmer, shares about the department, its role in the social service network and some of the values that he learned working there.
Front Rooms Department is the department of white bird clinic that acts as the first point of contact for most of the clients, over the phone and in-person. They also distribute services and referrals to clients. Services include:
Go to the White Bird Clinic Website to learn more.
To find out more about White Bird Clinic, visit whitebirdclinic.org.
Former Front Rooms Department Coordinator, Alex Farmer, shares about the department, its role in the social service network and some of the values that he learned working there.
Front Rooms Department is the department of white bird clinic that acts as the first point of contact for most of the clients, over the phone and in-person. They also distribute services and referrals to clients. Services include:
Go to the White Bird Clinic Website to learn more.
To find out more about White Bird Clinic, visit whitebirdclinic.org.
Welcome to White Bird Mutual Aid. I'm Hana Francis, thanks so much for tuning in. In this podcast I speak with staff and volunteers of local community oriented organizations, mostly in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon. This season, we're focusing on the basic services and departments of White Bird Clinic, which is the organization that I work for in creating this podcast. So I had this interview with Farmer in Front Rooms Department back in January of 2022. Back when he was still the Coordinator of Front Rooms. Now Farmer has moved on to Portland to do great things up there. But his experience with the collective is nonetheless invaluable and definitely worth a listen.
Alex Farmer:Yeah, my first name is Alex, last name is Farmer but I go by Farmer at White Bird. And I use he/him/his pronouns. And I'm the Program Coordinator of the Front Rooms Department.
Hana Francis:Front Rooms is the department White Bird Clinic that works as the first point of contact for folks. And it also provides services
Alex Farmer:for folks that don't know what that looks like, it's a living room, in a house with lots of cool art everywhere that has been given to us and created by our clients and, and lots of quirky little trinkets and things like that everywhere. And, you know, there's, there was historically chairs and things like that, where people could just sit and exist and be, you know, for a few hours each day to access our services. But, you know, once the pandemic started, we basically transitioned to all of that out front of 341, the location that we, we operate out of, and we've been able to continue to provide services in that way. And it's, it's different than what we've done in the past, we're not able to kind of allow folks to hang out as much on site. But we've still been able to provide services to folks and, and get folks these basic needs met. The front rooms has been a number of things over the past, you know, at this point, I think kind of it was officially, it officially became a whiteboard department in 2014, or 2015. And before that, it was kind of just the central hub, for a number of different whiteboard services. It was the main, you know, it's always been kind of the main phone line for white bird. And so, you know, we're, we're a part of what we do is considered reception for the agency. But it's, in my mind, it's, it's much more it's much different than just a regular reception job, because you're doing a lot of information and referral services, you're providing folks with a lot of, you know, context about white bird, what services we provide, how to access codes, how to access crisis services, how to access a lot of our, our other services, as well. So, and over the years, we have also recognized a significant need in our community for more data access style services. And so not only do we provide that information and referral over the phone, to, you know, anyone in the community and calls, we also provide that information and referral, as well as basic needs services to the enhanced community. So within the services, there's, you know, a lot of different things that we provide, whether it's a pair of socks, or a toothbrush, or, you know, a tent, or sleeping bag, you know, when when it's super cold out, we kind of go into emergency mode and handout, you know, anything that we can i I've bundled folks up with six sweaters and you know, three pairs of socks on their hands when we didn't have any gloves and all sorts of different ways that we adapt to kind of meet the needs of the community in a lot of different ways. So we're also kind of this like first point of contact for for white bird, as an agency. And so many people come here just trying to access you know, their basic needs. But then, as we develop a relationship as we develop trust with those individuals, we then can kind of identify other things that they are maybe needing to better their current situation, whether that's, you know, case management or a tooth extraction or, you know, a primary care provider or ongoing counseling and then help steward them in See those other services as well.
Hana Francis:So Front Rooms does a lot. It is the main point of contact for anyone who calls White Bird Clinic, unless you're calling our 24/7 crisis line, and a lot of people call for CAHOOTS. But the deal that we currently have with the city is that you can't access CAHOOTS directly from Front Rooms. CAHOOTS is only dispatched through the local police-fire-ambulatory line. However, if you want information on CAHOOTS, Front Rooms will definitely be happy to give you information about it, or direct you to someone to get services. And Front Rooms also provide some basic services itself to pretty much anyone who comes to the steps and needs help. Front Room strives to be as low barrier as possible.
Alex Farmer:Yeah, so we provide basic needs to anybody who comes up to our front door. And we're, you know, we strive to kind of be a low to no barrier service, you can come in just about any state that you want and access services, you know, of course, we ask that you respect us as you know, same way we are trying to respect you. And that leads to some interesting conversations at times. But, you know, to the best of our ability, we try to provide services to everyone who walks up to your front door. And that includes, you know, clothing, first aid, materials, hygiene, we have, at times when we have the funding for it, tarps, sleeping bags, backpacks, tents for folks. Yeah, different different types of warm clothing and, you know, clothing that, that functions throughout the year, depending on the season, ponchos, you know, miscellaneous things like folks really wanted flashlights for a while. So we tried to find some flashlights for folks. And we also provide a huge part of our services that we provide a mail service for folks. So folks can receive mail messages and packages at our clinic. And they don't need an ID, they don't need anything to be a part of our mail service, they just come in and we we get them set up. And they put our address down for different services or different benefits. So we go through a lot of mail, we have, I think we have over 2000 active mail clients right now. I don't know if all of those folks are really accessing our mail service or not. But I think it's close to 2000 Last time I checked. And we also provide eyeglass vouchers to folks, we partner with a number of optometrists in town to provide a free eye exam and a free pair of glasses to folks because that's not something that OHP offers. And we do address verification forms for folks so that they can access, you know, bank accounts or get their ID or, you know, a number of other things that require an address verification form. So, and one of the huge things that we offer that, you know, is not necessarily always quantifiable, but it's it's connection, human connection and consistency for folks. And relationship with individuals, you know, people that they come and access our services, we, we get to know them and we we show them that they're valuable and that they you know, are worth caring for. And, you know, that's such an important function of, of what we do in different rooms is to provide that, to attempt to provide that sense of dignity and value. Awesome. Yeah.
Hana Francis:So the information referal side - that also works with other community organizations, right? It's not exclusively White Bird.
Unknown:Yeah, definitely. Yep, we have, you know, we make a lot of different referrals to other organizations in town. Whether you know, anything from kind of, you know, legal advice, we refer folks over to Legal Aid or folks call with, you know, medical supplies that they want to donate, we hand them off to maybe Occupy Medical or Black Thistle or Volunteers in Medicine. So we've always been kind of in this pseudo partnership, I would say with a lot of different agencies, you know, despite the fact that they're maybe not even aware of how many referrals we make. But we're basically just kind of like this information hub, where we attempt to be this information hub for a lot of different services in town. So whether folks are calling about support for their dog or support for their, you know, teenager in Crisis or whatever it is, we try to kind of help guide them to the appropriate services. It's great to be able to kind of provide that consistency to the community, in that way of just knowing that, you know, during our hours of operation, you're always going to be able to call and talk to a human being, you know, you're not going to have to go through a phone tree to figure out what you're what you're kind of desiring, you're always going to be able to call and talk to a human being and navigate your situation, you know, together.
Hana Francis:So cool. Yeah. And then also, as far as like, the basic needs go, Where did those resources come from?
Unknown:So historically, those have primarily come through by donation, we, you know, don't provide services that we can bill for. And it's surprisingly, very challenging to find grants and funding for day-access style services. They are not as valued in the social service network world. Well, actually, that's how they're, they're very valued in the social service world. But however, in the kind of like, in the world of grants in the world of, you know, external funding, they're not as not as valued as I, I think they should be. Maybe I'm biased. But we're, we've been challenged by that, as a department of finding resources in terms of funding. However, we've been supported by a lot of different community partners. In that way that we've been able to kind of find some funding sources for for supplies and things like that. And we were able to access a lot of federal funding during COVID as well to, to access basic needs services for folks. And we've also partnered with the county in the city, both in Eugene and Springfield, to get some, some services out and out into the community and, and to access some funding for supplies. So
Hana Francis:yeah, yeah, let's talk about COVID. First, yeah, that impacting your work?
Alex Farmer:Well, gosh, it's, it's been, it's been a wild few years, in terms of just our service provision, and evolving as a department, as well, as an agency, you know, our entire agency is involved. But the front rooms, you know, since since that is where most of my focus is just recognizing and seeing the ways that we've adapted as a department has has just been kind of incredible, and to, you know, recognize the willingness of our staff in the front rooms to be on the front lines every single day, putting themselves at risk, you know, for the past two years to continue to provide services has just been just incredible to watch, it's, I'm so honored to work with the people that I work with, they are just some of the most amazing humans I've ever met in my entire life. And they just really, they care a lot. And they recognize the importance of, of the services that we provide. And so at the beginning of COVID, we, we partnered with the city of Eugene to establish a number of kind of safe camping sites around town. And we partnered with carry it forward another wonderful group in town to put those camps together, and, you know, get folks set up in different camp spots with gear and things like that. And then we would, you know, check in with them throughout and continue to provide services on site to really just keep people safe, and to allow folks to shelter in place during the pandemic, which is, I think how to, it's, it had a really huge impact on a lot of folks in their ability to not only shelter in place at that moment, but then also to be able to find a certain sense of stability in their lives to then, you know, access other services, because I think that, you know, to kind of go on a tangent, I think that one of the most important things that front rooms provides is that sense of stability for folks to then access other services in their life because, you know, first and foremost if I don't have the clothes that I need to keep myself or if I don't have access to clean drinking water and food, how am I going to be able to then like focus on getting my you know, my mental health in order or access other services that I might need to get my benefits in place or things like that. So I think one of the the core responsibilities, front rooms is to first and foremost provide those basic needs to folks to then, you know, build that relationship with Have them and then help them access other services. And throughout the pandemic, we've been able to do that we never, we never closed our doors throughout the pandemic, we've always stayed open.
Hana Francis:For me, this brings to mind a concept which you may be familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This is a psychological theory that correlates, what our bodies and brains are capable of processing, and the types of challenges that we're facing in our lives. It's this pyramid shape consisting of our most basic needs on the very bottom, then our psychological needs. And then at the very top, our self fulfillment needs, we have to have our physical needs met. And if we don't have rest, food, water and warmth, then we can't really think about anything else. And then once our physical needs are met, then we have to worry about our safety and security. Once we feel like our physical needs, and our safety needs are met, which are our most basic needs, then we worry about belonging and being loved, and having self esteem and feeling accomplished. And then at the very top, once we have all of those other needs taken care of, then we get to self actualization. This is by no means a foolproof system. But I think it's a really interesting tool when thinking about how people can gain mental stability just from having basic needs met, like a place to sleep or food to eat. I also wonder about kind of impact on the staff. And there used to be more volunteers. And because of the pandemic is less. Yeah, yeah.
Alex Farmer:Yeah, sure. Yeah. So I always kind of like starting with historical context, because I think the history of white bird is, is so valuable and important for us to us to think about as as members of the collective, but also for the community to understand. So previous to the front rooms, being an official department of wiper, everyone in the collective worked front room shifts. And so everyone volunteered some of their time to do a front room shift each week. And so that really spread out that responsibility, and that kind of exposure to that frontline work to a lot of different people. And now, as a, as a department, you know, we have folks that are working 30 to 40 hours a week, doing that frontline service work, like down in the trenches. And yeah, it's taxing in a big way to folks. And it's extremely challenging to be exposed to the amount of kind of vicarious trauma that we see each day, and that the challenges of folks who are living outside space, and be really present for that be, you know, be witness to that right with that person. Because we really attempt to, to the best of our ability be be really present with folks and, and be be with them as they as they struggle, you know, because we can't fully understand that, of course, right. But what we can do is we can be with that person, as they experience those things, whether it's a, you know, a mental health crisis in the moment, or, you know, someone who has just recently lost someone or someone who is in the process of dying themselves, or, you know, whatever it is that they've experienced, we can just be really present with them. And that takes a lot of emotional energy, a lot of mental energy and a lot of, you know, spiritual and physical energy as well. And so to have that, combined with the, you know, underlying stress of COVID, as well has been been really, really challenging for folks on the team. And with all that it's really offered us a lot of opportunities to figure out ways to support each other, and to, to build up that kind of resilience within ourselves, while also being really present with the things that we struggle with as a department as and as individuals. And again, it's like this, this group of folks is just so rad in that way that they are willing and able to take care of each other and to enter themselves as well as they can and to each other. Also, there's just so many wonderful relationships on the front ramps team through just kind of like our shift work throughout the day, but also people spending time with each other outside of work to kind of maintain intend to each other's needs. You know, it's a pretty incredible thing and it's it's so essential. have that to be a part of not only our work within this collective at wiper, but just in social services in general, you know, we're great at tending to others, but how do we learn how to tend to ourselves,
Hana Francis:I asked him what the public needs to know more about. And in order to bridge, this gap between people who have houses and people who don't.
Alex Farmer:I think one of the most important things that I have learned, working with folks who are living outside is the importance of attempting to understand the whole person, right, and the entirety of their situation and circumstances that have brought them to this point right in front of me, and to try my best to leave my assumptions and leave my judgments or my expectations of how I want this interaction to go with this person aside, to really just get to know this individuals as human beings. And, to me, that, that mindset, and by no means am I perfect at it, I continue to learn every single day with every interaction I have, that, to me, that mindset is essential, like an essential foundation, as we as a community, and we as a world, kind of identify ways to approach the unhappy situation is to really identify and look at what each individual is as an, as a human being, and looking at, you know, all of their life circumstances that have brought brought them to this point and, and not laying down kind of, you know, blanket services that are supposed to kind of like, create this one size fits all approach to approaching the in house situation, but to really take each individual's as the unique individual that they are and, and trying to attend to, to those folks. And that's challenging, you know, we're overwhelmed as an agency and as a, as a community, by the number of folks who we have, who are living outside and who are struggling. And so I think that, combined with that is a really important piece of what white bird has done in the past is around education, and kind of our social, social activist lens through educating the public about, you know, individuals who are living outside and what their circumstances might be, and kind of trying to shift the perception of the unhoused population for folks to, to better understand, you know, why someone is maybe using meth, and why someone is maybe, you know, yelling on the side of the street, or, you know, looking at those things through a different perspective, other than just maybe a sense of fear, or other, you know, a sense of judgment or something like that. So, it feels to me that without trying to, there's so many different components of trying to like, you know, solve the problem, and I'm putting that in quotes, you know, because it's, without looking at, you know, economic inequalities, and all of these different these layers of, of oppression that exist within our society and within our world, you know, it's, it's not, none of these issues are going to ever be fully solved. But for us as a community, you know, starting out at, at a much more kind of, like, micro scale, shifting our internal responses to folks who are unhoused. And trying to inform and educate the public to help shift their responses as well, to different things, I think, could make a really significant impact on how and if we, you know, approach these, these topics. So, one line that I've been hearing a lot and has really resonated with me is, you know, first seek to understand then seek to be understood. And I dig that so much because it, it requires us to really slow ourselves down to to slow our responses down to things, you know, so when I'm walking down the street and I see somebody screaming on the, on the sidewalk, to try and first try to understand where that person might be, or understand what their situation might be that has led to them acting in that way or somebody living in it too. That's that's in your alleyway or or on your sidewalk or something like that are, you know, trying to first really attempt because you're not going to fully understand their situation that's impossible, nearly impossible but to attempt to first try and understand before then being underserved is is, I think a really essential piece to have it.
Hana Francis:For a full list of donable items, you can visit whitebirdclinic.org/donate or you can call 541-342-4357. If you have an experience or question that you would like answered, you can email me and a whitebirdmutualaid@gmail.com. In the meantime, thanks to Kiki soda for theme music, and a huge thank you to Farmer for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk about front rooms with us. As always, thank you for tuning in to White Bird Mutual Aid. I'm Hana Francis.