MSU Extension Alger County

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Welcome to the Alger County Communities That Care podcast series. I am Vicki Ballas, Alger and Marquette County Community Nutrition Instructor for Michigan State University Extension. MSU Extension is partnering with Alger County Communities That Care or aAC3 For short, to provide informative and real conversations from our community. AC3 is a coalition of community members working together to keep Alger County united and thriving by providing programs and resources that promote a safe, healthy, and prosperous environment for all youth and adults in Alger County.

Vicki Ballas: Today we will be talking with Christina Bowers, who is the Program Director and Peer Support Specialists at the Getaway Drop In Center located at 226 West Superior Street in Munising. Welcome, Christina. Thank you for talking with us today.

Christina Bowers: Thank you, Vicki Thanks for having me.

Vicki Ballas: You bet. So Christina, can you tell our listeners about the drop-in center and how you can become a member?

Christina Bowers: Sure. We're at peer run organization. We're a Mental Health Recovery Center. Our mission is to provide an atmosphere of acceptance where individuals feel needed and will grow in self worth, dignity and self-respect through social and recreational activities, peer support, community resources, and to promote self advocacy. For some of our members were the only family they have. And we strive to be that for them. And anyone who comes through the doors, all of our services are free. I'm a certified peer support specialists like Vicki said, meaning I'm not book taught. I'm life taught. I do trainings to keep that current. I may have the same mental health issues that you face on a day-to-day basis. We do have three requirements for you to become a member here. You need to have either sought or seeking mental health treatment. And that can be either from your regular Dr. or a therapist, a psychiatrist. I do verify this. I send them out a letter to your mental health provider and they just check a box that states that they have or are treating you. I do not get any information on your diagnosis and you have to be over the age of 18. And lastly, you need to be able to use the restroom on your own. We have a couple of members here at the center today and they would like to share a bit about how the center has impacted their lives.

Vicki Ballas: Alright, That's awesome.

My name is Vicky.

Vicki Ballas: Hi, I'm Vicki too.

Vicky: And originally I'm from downstate. And there's nothing like this downstate. It would have impacted my life years ago if I had some place to go and hang out with peers.

Vicki Ballas: So you go to the center often?

Vicky: I would come even in a snowstorm.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah. Oh, that's great.

Vicky: I just had to get out of the house during the day. So this was home, away from home.

Vicki Ballas: That's great. Good to hear. Hi Gretta.

Gretta: I joined this two months ago. Since then, I moved from White Pigeon up here, to be with my daughter. I left the house. My mom died at March.

Vicki Ballas: Sorry to hear that.

Gretta: I moved up here. So since I've been here, I'm learning how to to be artsy crafty. I'll be hit damn, I am not artsy crafty. (both laugh) I joined the gym. They gave me up membership for six months of joining the gym. I got hit by a car August 3rd. I was walking down Elm Street I took me a month to get back to walking. Right now. I have walked with a cane or walker. I enjoy coming to play Cribbage with Leroy. I finally beat him!

Vicki Ballas: YEAH! (both laugh) Is he good? Yes, he is, he's better than that. I finally beat them. Yeah. I like having this center. They feed me.

Vicki Ballas: It sounds like a real social event. And you get to do fun things and get feed. (laughs)

Gretta: You can ask for a better day.

Leroy: Morning.

Vicki Ballas: Hi Leroy, how ya doing? being at the center, what does that mean for you?

Leroy: It's a great place to be real organized, they keep us busy. Never board.

Vicki Ballas: besides cribbage what else do you do there?

Leroy: I do a little cleaning, vacuuming. Do some dishes once in awhile.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah, that's nice. Good. What about the arts and crafts? Do you do any of that?

Leroy: Yes, I have.

Vicki Ballas: You have, alright! Have you participated in any of the outings?

Leroy: We went to putt putt golf, taken walks.

Vicki Ballas: Leroy do you go there pretty often? Leroy: Yeah. Every day.

Vicki Ballas: Every day! Leroy: Monday thru Friday When they're here.

Vicki Ballas: That's great! And how long do you usually stay?

Leroy: I usually get here around 8:30, 8:45 and leave around 2:30.

Vicki Ballas: Okay.

Leroy: I put in a few hours every day.

Vicki Ballas: and I know I've seen you on the computers there too, you get to use their computers and that's good.

Leroy: Yes, it is.

Vicki Ballas: Well, it sounds like you do a lot of different things while you're there, so that's awesome. Alright Leroy, Thanks for talking with us. Appreciate it.

Leroy: Thank you.

Vicki Ballas: Uh-huh.

Leroy: Bye.

Vicki Ballas: Bye.

Christina Bowers: Now, both Vicky and Leroy, our board members, and we do have two other board members also.

Vicki Ballas: What does a typical week look like at the center?

Christina Bowers: We're open Monday through Friday, eight to four, we have mental health workshops, a soup, and a movie on Tuesdays, Wednesdays we play board and card games. Thursday, we do a healthy luncheon, play Bingo and have a gift bag giveaway for everyone who attends. Also the last Thursday of the month, we have a birthday party for any of the members that may have a birthday that month. I make a homemade cake of their choice. And then on Fridays we do crafts and in November will be making Christmas cards for the metal lodge residents.

Vicki Ballas: Oh, wow. Well, that's sounds great and really busy. So I'm aware of other things that you do outside of your weekly schedule that have a really positive impact on your members. Tell us a little bit about those please.

Christina Bowers: Sure. In the summer with outdoor outings, we've gone kayaking, putt putt golf, last year we went to like Sand Point, stuff like that. We also had a garden this year. And if you need help with your budget, I can help with that. We also have free Wi-Fi and computers for your use. I'm also here. If you need someone to talk to, I can help find resources for a situation that you may find yourself, duty or mental health issues. Also, if you're looking to eat healthier, I can help you with recipes and I can go with you to the store to provide feedback on grocery items. Make your meals healthier.

Vicki Ballas: That's really awesome. And also myself as a community nutrition instructor, I sometimes get to come to your center and offer nutrition and physical activity classes for your members, which I really enjoyed doing that and I hope we can do that again this year. That would be great.

Christina Bowers: That would be fantastic.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah, for sure. I love comeing there. The center has such a warm feeling to it. It's really comfortable to be there.

Christina Bowers: We've recently repainted. So I don't think you've seen the new updated. I finally got it all painted and it's not clinical at all.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah. That's awesome. So I believe you also help with transportation, Is that right?

Christina: Yes, we do. So if you have difficulties with getting here, we do offer bus tickets and gas cards that are earned by you. To earn them, we ask that you are here for an hour, either participating in an activity or you can volunteer with something that needs to be done. Many of our members use Altran services and if we have an outing, we also utilize Altran.

Vicki Ballas: So some of those things you talked about earning is that like what Leroy said where he comes in vacuums and does dishes and stuff like that.

Christina: Oh, yes, Leroy is a huge asset here. He's fantastic.

Vicki Ballas: That's great. I know it comes to all my programs whenever I'm there. Yes. So Kristina, How is the center funded and could you benefit from any community donations? And what are some other ways that community could show their support for the center?

Christina: Well, our main funding comes from Pathways and a grant we've received. Pathways is that umbrella that we work under. They have given us some rules that we have to go by, but they're not involved in our day-to-day runnings. And of course, we can always use community donations. And since we're a 501C3 organization, your donation is tax-deductible. Donation would go to our extra outings and activities that we do, the gift bag giveaways, those would help for that. For those gift bags, I give them the personal care items or cleaning supplies.

Vicki Ballas: People could donate money and it would go towards those kinds of things?

Christina: Yes. Vicki Ballas: Is there any items that you could use for donations?

Christina: I've never been asked that before. (both chuckle) There's always your general cleaning supplies and things for the gift bag giveaway. I just go to the Dollar Store.

Vicki Ballas: Now, weren't you onetime collecting was it fabric for making blankets?

Christina: last year for the Medi Lodge project we made no sew blankets.

Vicki Ballas: Oh, right. Right. Yeah.

Christina: We gave each of the residents there one of the blankets. This year, we're just doing cards. Okay. And I know they've done cards in the past for them. Okay. We've got a Cricket here that we finally have another member that knows how to use it. And she showed me how to use it. And I'm like, oh, this is sweet! This is cool! so we are going to be doing that.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah. Oh cool. So you're gonna make some real special cards. Yeah, nice.

Christina: Put a smile on their face.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Great. What a great program you have over there or community really benefits from it. And I know the AC3, we really want to bring more attention to the center to get more community support. If anybody wanted to donate money or items to your center, what's the best way for them to do that? Should they call you or just stop in?

Christina: They can stop in. Like I said, I'm here Monday through Friday eight to four and donate and I'll give them a receipt right then and there. Or if they want to email me at getaway@gmail.com or call 906-387-1757 and leave me a message and I'll get back with you or if if it's after hours because I can always meet with somebody afterwards.

Vicki Ballas: Alright, great. Is there anything else that we didn't talk about that you wanted to be sure to mention

Christian: Specific counties have drop-in centers. And when I was downstate, I grew up here and then I moved away for about 20 years and then I came back and I work next door at Auto Value. I didn't know what the center was. And I think these drop-in centers are like each community's best kept secret. The secret is gotta get out. Though. It's been one of my goals to become more community intertwined.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah.

Christina: we gave about, I think about 50 bags of candy out for halloween and I did put my card in each one. So I consider that having 50 of my cards out in circulation to promote the center.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah. Yeah, It sounds like, you know, the center is so valuable and we just need more people to know about it. So people want to go down and just kinda come check the place out, see what you have, see what you need. That would be great. Christina: We also celebrate the holidays here too. Like for Thanksgiving. We might not celebrate it on Thanksgiving because AlTran doesn't run and many of our members use utilize all-trans. So we do it on a Tuesday or Thursday before the holiday.

Vicki Ballas: Nice. So everybody gets to celebrate.

Christina: To me, it's important to celebrate your birthday. That's why I make specific cake for the members. And it's homemade. So it's that little bit of special.

Vicki Ballas: Yeah. Yeah. And everybody needs to feel special on their birthday I think. Well, you're center just sounds so wonderful and it's so valuable to the community and just really want to thank you for all the work that you do there and coming and talking about all of this on our podcasts. And hopefully we can really spread the word about the Getaway Drop In Center. Christina: I hope so too. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Vicki Ballas: Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alger County Communities That Care, promoting a safe, healthy, and prosperous environment for all youth and adults. We hope you tune into our next episode. For more information on AC3, visit us online at alger ctc.org. Funding for this podcast comes from the US Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. MSU is an affirmative action equal opportunity employer committed to achieving excellence through a diverse workforce and inclusive culture that encourages all people to reach their full potential. Michigan State University Extension programs. And the materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, or veteran status issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914 in cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or biased against those not mentioned.

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  Vicki Ballas