Social worker helps homeless families find homes, furnishings
May 12, 2012 at 2:30 am in Grand Forks Herald
The first night in their Grand Forks apartment, Joe Rodriguez-Chapman’s four children slept altogether sideways across a double bed, even though there were enough beds for each of them. He and his four children now have a permanent address because John Fuher was on a mission. A social worker at Valley Middle School where Desirae and Aaron are enrolled, Fuher has been helping find homes and furnishings for families down on their luck. Continue Reading
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Well Glum Glen, the phrase “Isn’t that special?” has been used before too.
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Schurkey,
You may remember the front page story in the Herald many years ago about the family who got a Habitat for Humanity house in GF. They had been on welfare for 18 years, and in that time had had 3 kids. It raised quite a negative ruckus in the letters to the editor section. But they maintained they had as much right to have kids as anyone. They never mentioned, of course, other people were paying for them.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I remember that story when it ran. I also remember that the dad did not work because he had a “bad” back.
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I am sure that is true for a select few social workers but not the vast majority. There is no shortage in the numbers of people who need the assistance of social workers, in fact there are more of those needing help than their are social workers. Social workers make significantly LESS than teachers it is not a profession you go into to get rich. The ultimate goal of social workers is to increase independence and self sufficency of the people and families they work with.
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You are very very wrong, the ultimate goal of social workers it to foster independence. They do not make more if they create larger case loads for themselves they just have more work to do. They get special recognition for helping people get off the system. It is obvious you have no idea about what social workers do or what motivates them.
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Gosh, I can think of a few professions where it can be said that the need for the work is perpetuated by the work itself: lawyers, medical personnel, farming, carpentry, airline pilots, bankers, etc. Then there are college professors who have tenure. Not sure why tenure is still relevant today as opposed to when it originated. I wonder if those profs who have it (or plan to get it) see it as their responsibility to make sure it stays as part of the higher ed ‘system.’ Assumptions would suggest this.
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I commend this man for his efforts. I am sure it is heart-wrenching to see youths suffer when their parents are unable to provide. To take action on this level is fantastic and inspiring. He could be doing the bare minimum. This is the kind of guy we need in our schools.
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Interesting how so many are uptight about people having more children than THEY deem ‘appropriate’. I wonder how many of those people are also against the open distribution of birth control and opposed to ABORTION. Sounds like a lot of you ‘proud ‘publican’ types really want to follow the COMMUNIST CHINESE pattern of LIMITING the number of children people are allowed to have.
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Yeah, it just follows in lock-step fashion that someone who advocates RESPONSIBLE PROCREATION must therefore be both a Republican anti-abortionist AND a Chinese mandatory abortionist after denying the parent(s) access to contraception.
You’re on the wrong medication. Get help.
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“Responsible procreation”…is that from rush or glenn? I thought BIRTH CONTROL was the key to such a matter. I am sure access to low cost or free birth control would be looked upon by deep thinkers like you as “NON-voluntary charity” also. People (like you) who made the ‘thoughtful/caring’ comments that I was responding to, are CLEARLY right leaning…politically.
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I checked…and yup…”responsible procreation” is indeed the phrase they use in CHINA. Odd that you rightys share that position with the ‘commies’…innit?
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If you are referring to me Petey its obvious you have little idea of my views. I have no problem with people using birth control. There are many places to get it free. But in reality most birth control is rather cheap. I am totally against forcing religious organizations to provide it.
As for abortion, I believe it is murder straight up murder of a child. But I also believe a woman has the legal right to get one if she chooses and pays for it. She will be judged for her actions by God and very likely, as I have witnessed many times, haunted by the decision and the crime she committed the remainder of her life.
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I can’t believe this heartwarming story turned into a political, nasty slugfest on this board. Guess what? This story has nothing to do with Republicans, abortion, birth control or any other hot topic. Can we just let a nice story be a nice story??? Geech!!
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I also thought this was a good story about a small group of great people. I wanted to see the people of GF support this, and instead find mostly jerks who can’t keep their opinions to themselves. Personally I have found that a bad attitude only reflects who you are and nobody else.
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While there are people out there that abuse the social service system, there are some that need a helping hand. Those might be the working poor, disabled, enemployed by no fault, etc.
Remember that you can be poor in an instant. Health problems, unemployment, etc. You could be involved in a vehicle accident and never walk again. The wolves can be at the door. The social services system was setup to help people that need a hand, until they can get back on their feet. Lets not dismantle a system, just because of some that abuse it. We just need to reform the Social Services System to get the ablebodied the incentive to work.
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We should ABSOLUTELY dismantle the Social Services system, because GOVERNMENT ISN’T ANY GOOD AT IT.
There’s abuse on BOTH SIDES, criminals and parasites stealing “assistance” they aren’t entitled to, and the IRS claiming that the general public has to pay for this crap or go to jail. The biggest, most horrible abuse is the government stealing our money under color of law and handing it out irresponsibly.
The obvious solution is for Government to enforce the Constitution, and for private charity–churches, temples, Starvation Army, the local Mission, etc. to handle “assistance” programs. When the public has the option to NOT support the non-deserving, the non-deserving will be motivated to support themselves.
Too much assistance, with too little oversight ROBS AMBITION, steals self-respect, becomes a self-fulfilling doom, it leads to a “next and LARGER” generation of deadbeats.
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Everyone relax. Xenophobes and malcontents like Shurkey are a time limited problem. They come with an expiration date.
Jesus said the poor will always be among you. Then he told his followers if you have two coats give one to the one without.
Jesus was a very hard task master. That is why Focus on the Family is a non player after exchanging God for the GOP and Jerry Falwell did not receive the reception he was expecting when he reached the Pearly Gates.
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It’s amazing the Scrooges around here. I’ll bet those who hate helping people the most consider themselves good Christians. Just hope and pray to your God that you’ll never need help.
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