Posts Tagged ‘upfront’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Not-for-profit TAPS founder Bonnie Carroll takes privately funded strides on behalf of fellow survivors in seeking to improve lives after death
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Bonnie Carroll
Founded in 1994, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) is a national, nonprofit organization serving families and friends who have been affected by the death of a member of the U.S. armed services. The organization formed out of a tragic incident in November 1992 when an Army C-12 aircraft crashed in Alaska. Eight military service personnel were killed, including Brig. Gen. Thomas Carroll, the husband of Bonnie Carroll, the then-future founder of TAPS. Bonnie Carroll, who at the time was an Air National Guard Reserve officer, found courage and strength during her time of need in individuals who had also lost loved ones on that aircraft. Less than two years later, she formed TAPS as a national group to provide comfort, support and care to surviving military families.
What was the need in founding the organization?
Peer-based support programs are not new concepts in the United States, but up until 1994 this did not exist for the military families. TAPS had the luxury of benchmarking the best programs in the country after doing a careful analysis of what Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense offer.
My background prior to my husband’s death was I working in the West Wing of the White House for President Reagan as executive assistant for Cabinet Affairs, which is basically intergovernmental coordination at the executive level. From that experience, I understood how the federal government works. In Alaska, I worked at the Department of Law on programs of victims of crimes—surviving families of homicides—program development and legislation for those who had been affected by the tragedy. So, out of those two ends of the spectrum, I saw the fruits of programs that have been put in place in this country for families affected by a traumatic event.
Concurrently throughout that experience, serving as an Air National Guard Reserve officer, I became part of a critical incident stress management team after a KC-135 crashed and killed three members. They put together this team to be available not only for the families to cope but the other unit members. Basically, the critical incident model is peer-based to normalize what is a very abnormal experience. Law enforcement and emergency responders use it to come together after a horrific event and debrief and normalize the experience. Post-trauma effects are just normal, psychological reactions to various abnormal events that we experience, the witnessing of an aircraft exploding and three people being killed. Most people won’t experience [that] in their life; seeing another person die does have an impact.
How do you serve the survivors?
After two years of research of what was currently in place through other veterans’ service organizations and state agencies, and benchmarking the best practices of other peer-based support programs, bringing all that together, we identified four services that were not offered anywhere else and where critical need existed: peer-based emotional support, which is the real core of what TAPS offers, the grief and trauma resources and information, crisis intervention and support, and case work assistance.
Are there local chapters?
We don’t organize as much by local chapters as we do by relationship and circumstance. For example, we have a very large national sibling network of brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones in the military, and they communicate by online forums or national gatherings—coming together with others who truly understand. We’ve got a network of individuals who have lost a twin, or parents who have lost an only child. Whether you live across the street or across the country, you’re going to primarily be communicating by telephone and email these days. The concept in getting together regionally has not proven as helpful as it is getting together with others who most closely match your circumstance.
What other organizations are you networked with?
We are part of a wonderful network called the Care Coalition, and we work not only with other military organizations, but also civilian groups to provide resources to families, to network support to let them know in their local area what other resources are appropriate to their circumstances. For example, a mother who has lost her only child in Iraq can be connected not only to the national support network from TAPS, but also local support through bereft parents or a program called Compassionate Friends.
What’s your relationship with the Department of Defense?
We work very, very closely with the military branches—primarily the chiefs of casualty. Each military branch has a section that provides immediate casualty and mortuary assistance to the families, primarily in regard to processing survivor benefits, which is something we don’t do. We would help families connect with agencies after they’ve gotten all the government benefits that they are eligible for, and we provide information about all the different levels of support.
How many people do you serve each year?
It’s probably close to 20,000. Everyone receives from TAPS a quarterly magazine offering information, resources and articles by other surviving families. We also send invitations to regional events, invites to regular weekly chats online for parents, siblings, teens, and special chat events, like a chat for male grief on anger.
You’ve been busy since 2001. What has changed with TAPS?
We have expanded some of our programs. For example, we’ve reached out to the families of the contractors. There are 140,000 military members in Iraq and 180,000 contractors, and more than 1,000 contractors have been killed. That’s a big part of what we do now. We are having a special survivors’ seminar in Dallas, Texas, just for the families of the contractors, and those families are also included in our regular programs. We’re the only support program for those contractors’ families.
For the kids, one of our popular programs is the Good Grief Camp. It’s been a fantastic opportunity for children to really gain a connection to the military, have that ongoing understanding what their dad or big brother or mom was part of and that America continues to honor their family because of the service and sacrifice, regardless of the circumstances of the death.
What’s your greatest challenge?
Funding. Meeting this mission as a nonprofit organization is pretty daunting. It’s all private. No government funding, mostly few private individuals, and we’re open to corporate support.
Is there one region that has responded well in terms of participation with the program?
Northern Virginia is our strongest support.
Families are going to continue needing your assistance long after we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan; is that right?
Absolutely. TAPS existed long, long before this conflict, and what we are seeing is a lead time for folks in becoming involved. Some folks contact us immediately, and others maybe a year or two years later. They reach out for help. I think many families the first year have much more support, but they find the second year tougher. Our support would be most critical in the first three years. We have families who have been involved since the very beginning with TAPS.
We have worked very hard not to duplicate any services. The benefits to families right now are fairly comprehensive. The Department of Defense and the branches are responsive to the needs of families, and we have a great relationship. We will call on the agencies for families as we hear about them and, likewise, they will refer families to us for emotional care.
What other areas are you expanding?
We are doing a Spanish outreach. We also have a national childhood traumatic grief network, and we are working with Iraqi Women’s Affairs to establish a support program for the Iraqi women and children.
The theme of our program is “Remember the Love, Celebrate the Life and Share the Journey.” The heart of TAPS is to remember the life and the service, regardless of the death. It is the service that is honored; with the families, it’s the extraordinary life that was lived and the selfless service given to this country, who stepped out and gave of themselves. That’s what we’re about.
(April 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Steve J. DeBenedittis felt Herndon residents couldn’t take control of troubling day laborer policies. So he took center stage in politics.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Jonathan Timmes
Steve J. DeBenedittis
In September 2007, the Herndon Official Workers Center—a controversial day laborer site—closed its doors after a two-year battle that divided a town and became a political hot button in the 2006 mayoral election. The center was opened the previous December as a way to dissuade Hispanic immigrants from congregating outside a 7-Eleven convenience store. But a number of citizens were concerned it was being used by illegal workers as a publicly funded job-seeking site.
Steve J. DeBenedittis, a native of Herndon, felt that the immigration process was being disrespected because no one knew who was using the center. DeBenedittis, the manager and personal trainer at Tower Fitness Club, consequently decided to run for mayor. As a result, this immigrant workers controversy ultimately unseated the town’s former mayor, Michael L. O’Reilly, and two Herndon council members who backed the creation of the center.
Herndon, a township of 23,000 in western Fairfax County, seemed an unlikely place for immigration and illegal workers issues to have been thrust under the political spotlight by voter dissent, but the explosive growth of the job services industry has drawn individuals from all backgrounds and skills to the region over the last seven years. DeBenedittis, 40, was the unlikely politician, a local citizen who spoke up. The voters found him to be the right man to resolve this issue. As his first term comes to an end, DeBenedittis knows the center may be closed, but the issue is not fully resolved.
Did illegal immigration push you to run for mayor, or the circumstances of the controversial labor center?
It was just the center. Myself, friends and neighbors felt like we weren’t listened to by the folks who were elected in town during that whole debate. It was something I was interested in doing. I didn’t think I’d run quite so soon. I thought I’d do it when I would be a bit older and my schedule was different.
Herndon Official Workers Center closed in September 2007. What was the focal point? Why such opposition to its operation?
The main concern for myself—and I think of most people that I talked to—was that it used taxpayer funds, and it helped people who couldn’t probably legally work to find work. The funding came from Fairfax County but it was on Herndon land, so it did use some of our resources. Nobody was checking; nobody asked if they had a legal right to work.
Why did it take more than a year for you to close the center?
When the former council opened the site, they also enacted an ordinance that prohibited solicitation from the side of the road. And we did hear from a number of people that they did want a site in town, so we tried to take a balanced and thoughtful approach to our initial efforts in trying to find somebody that would operate the site, an approach that didn’t use taxpayer funds, and to finding a way to structure the site so that it didn’t help people who couldn’t legally work. That’s where we spent most of our efforts, at first, to try and accomplish that, and there’s a whole story that goes with it.
Over the summer the county cut the funding for the site; and then, on Sept. 16, 2006, a gentleman got a ticket for violating the anti-solicitation ordinance. He picked up a worker or two at 7-Eleven. He hired an attorney and went to the General District Court. He didn’t dispute the facts of the case at all. He simply stated that he thought the anti-solicitation ordinance was unconstitutional. He lost. His charge was upheld. He appealed to the Circuit Court, and a couple of months later the court ruled in his favor. That was the final straw for us. If we couldn’t enforce our anti-solicitation ordinance, then it became clear that no matter what kind of site we had, we were going to be challenged. That’s when we decided to close up the site and not to appeal the Circuit Court case.
What is currently available to the legal day laborers?
There are some private organizations around, like Labor Finders that has some offices nearby. There’s a group called Labor Ready. There are other places like that in Manassas and Rockville, and the Virginia Employment Commission office in Chantilly.
So no numerical figure exists for how many illegal immigrants were using the center?
Nobody ever asked.
The center is closed now, but the issue of illegal workers remains. So what’s next?
One of the things that the judge seemed to indicate was that, even if they don’t have a legal right to work, you have a legal right to ask for work, and that can be done in the public right of way, but not on private property. In the past, large groups of workers had gathered in the 7-Eleven parking lot, and 7-Eleven indicated they didn’t like that situation, that it negatively impacted their business. So, we’re letting private business owners know that you don’t have to tolerate that type of behavior on your property. In addition, there’s a zoning issue, and if the property wasn’t zoned for it then they could be in violation of the town zoning ordinance.
Has there always been a problem with illegals in Herndon and Fairfax County?
I don’t remember it being an issue when I was growing up. We never had a gathering of workers at the 7-Eleven or anywhere else until the past two years. I don’t think it caught people’s attention until then. It started with a small group of people and gradually grew to a larger group of people, and I think that if elected officials at the time took the strategy we’re taking now, it wouldn’t have grown that big. Instead, they allowed folks to gather around the 7-Eleven, and [elected officials] told 7-Eleven they would have to put up with it until they had another solution. I think they should’ve discouraged people from gathering on private property.
What other issues are you dealing with that are tied in?
Residential overcrowding. When I went door-to-door campaigning, people mentioned a lot that there were houses in their neighborhood that had too many people. It’s a health and safety issue for the people living in the house if they don’t have enough bathrooms and exits. That’s been a major priority with us—to make sure that everyone who lives in town is in a healthy and safe situation, and I think we’ve accomplished that. We’ve devoted more to resources and more inspectors working on residential overcrowding. Compared to last year we have about half as many active cases.
What’s the diversity of Herndon?
I think we have one of the largest foreign-born populations in the area. I think it’s 20 to 30 percent that’s foreign-born. It’s always been like that. I remember being a kid, and I don’t remember anybody minding that. I grew up here, and I care a lot about the town, and there’s a lot more going on in Herndon than the illegal workers and day worker site. My wife and I decided to settle here. My wife had a townhouse in Oakton when we first got married, but we really wanted to be in Herndon and raise our family here.
What has your constituency told you of the immigration issue?
Most of the people I have talked to are happy with the direction that we’ve gone. They were concerned that we had a site that had people that could not legally work. We no longer have that situation. That’s the biggest concern. Growing up in Herndon—it’s always been a very diverse community. The concern is for those who have come here illegally. I’ve talked to several people who are immigrants themselves when I was campaigning, and that was their concern. They didn’t welcome anybody who had not done the same thing they had done. They felt it was a matter of fairness to have gone through the process and be entitled to the benefits.
(March 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
For 42 years, Dr. John O. Peterson has witnessed faith and heritage on Alfred Street as pastor for one of the most famous Baptist churches in the nation
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Seth Freeman
Dr. John O. Peterson
The Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria is one of the oldest churches in the country, having served the African-American community in the region for more than 150 years. Not only has the church always been used as a house of worship, but it has also become a center of education and community unity.
For 42 years, Dr. John O. Peterson Sr. led as pastor for the Alfred Street Baptist Church. More than that, however, he has been an educator, community leader and evangelist for the black community in Alexandria. His name and that of the church are known throughout the world. He has been an active member of many organizations, including The Northern Virginia Urban League and Baptist World Alliance. During his tenure as pastor, Peterson was a participant in the civil rights movement and an engaging community leader. He built a congregation that is strong in numbers, a church that is financially healthy and a legacy for others to build upon and expand. Peterson retired in 2006. He continues to reside in Alexandria and remains a member of the church and active in his civic commitments.
Describe the Alfred Street Baptist Church in 1964, and the City of Alexandria at large.
Alexandria was not like anything that it is today. And of course the church was almost nil. Everything has grown within the city, and the church grew with the city. It was a mixed community, quite naturally more Caucasian than African-American.
But the change of Alexandria has been great.
I have done a tremendous amount of traveling, and I don’t know of any other place in this country or any other that I would rather live than Alexandria. I was born in 1934 in Northumberland County, and the rural address was Horse Head, Va.
The Alfred Street congregation was deeply affected by the civil rights movement of the 1960s. What was your role?
It had an effect on the community and our work in it. First of all, the schools had to be integrated forcefully. That was a terrible time. I worked very closely with the integration of schools. The school children accepted it, but it was the parents and community that did not want to accept it. By the time my children went to school in Alexandria the transition had been made. The transition—to really get into effect and be accepted—it took very close to five years.
What other issues did you have to confront as a community leader in this area?
I remember we had an occasion in City Council where an activist group had come and really interrupted the council meeting, very boisterous and not respecting the council members, and I had a very serious coffee meeting at the Holiday Inn on King Street the next day with the then-Mayor Charles Beatley, and he did not understand what caused that kind of ruckus in council. By the time our coffee session was over, I really think Mayor Beatley understood why the people acted the way that they did, and things became a little calmer.
Another time we had Molotov cocktails being thrown one night, setting everything on fire by a group of blacks. Two other ministers and I went out that night. We talked to them. Since then, not another Molotov cocktail, to my knowledge, has been thrown in Alexandria.
Did you ever meet Dr. King?
Yes, I did, and I met him before I came to Alexandria. I met him when he spoke in Washington, D.C., in the old Metropolitan Baptist Church. The second time was during one of the marches in Alabama.
The congregation grew. What was the success?
When I came to Alfred Street I was told they had 300 members, but the day I went to take over the administration on Oct. 4, 1964, the clerk gave me a folder of everyone’s names, and he said, “Reverend, I know they told you we had 300, but 168 is all that I can find, and that includes Mama, Papa, children, cat and the dog!” Today, the church exceeds 2,400 active members. We grew out the seams because the Woodrow Wilson Bridge had just been built, and folks in southern Maryland did not have a significant church. We picked up a large number of persons coming across the bridge on Sunday morning. We have ministry to do as God’s requirement, and it’s still working extremely well. The average person who belongs to Alfred Street now is upper 30s, lower 40s and has at least one degree.
What was your calling in becoming a preacher?
That is a long story. I was told as long as I can remember that I was going to be a preacher, but I was determined not to be a preacher. That is the reason that I went to college. I went to a college that was known for preparing preachers. They usually took social studies. They took a language. They took history, something like that to prepare themselves to go into the seminary. I decided to major in mathematics and minor in physics. That would prove I wasn’t going to be a preacher, so I thought. But preaching is more than saying, “I’m going to be a preacher.” I believe very strongly in the fact that it is a calling—calling is placed upon you, and you must accept it. And in 1953 I gave into it.
Your health problems triggered your retirement.
Eight days after my retirement I was in the hospital. And I have been in and out of the hospital ever since. The first thing that precipitated the retirement was the heart attack, which ended up with surgery. I was in the hospital for 128 days, and most of those days I was flat on my back, and I gradually lost my ability to walk. Today, I am wheelchair-bound and naturally, even though folks were telling me I was doing a fairly decent job, I personally did not feel I could do the job that I wanted to. So I retired. And eight days after retirement I was in the hospital. It was the right choice.
How are you doing these days?
I am doing well. Wheelchair-bound. I go to the church every Sunday, if I can. One of the things I was persuaded to buy as pastor was a bus that had a wheelchair lift on it. Little did I know that I would be one of the people to use that bus!
The church is going to continue to play a role in Alexandria for the black community. What do you believe to be the future of the church?
A lot of it is going to depend upon the pastor. A Baptist church is led by the pastor, and one of the things that is not helping it is that I announced on the last Sunday of February 2006 that I was retiring at the end of the year. As of today, they have not selected a new pastor. That is not helping the church. I don’t think the pastor search committee sees it as seriously as I do.
Do you have future plans to write your memoir?
I am planning to write one. I have started a book on my life called “The Boy From Horse Head,” but I’ve been asked more than once about writing a book on being a pastor in the 20th and 21st centuries. I do see the need for such a book, and I think it would be widely accepted.
What’s your best moment as pastor of Alfred Street Baptist?
I’ve been asked that a number of times, and there’s nothing I can point to. The fact that the church responded to my ministry and that they responded in so many different ways. They responded monetarily; missionary, in giving to others. I cannot put my finger on any one thing. It was the overall response and gratification amid hardships.
(February 2008)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
VDOT Commissioner David S. Ekern and his staff hold the keys to understanding and improving the region’s traffic woes
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Tom Saunders VDOT/Public Affairs
David S. Ekern, VDOT Commissioner
When David S. Ekern, the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), spoke with Northern Virginia Magazine not long ago, he was communicating via what he assured us was a hands-free cell phone while driving on one of the Commonwealth’s highways. It wasn’t surprising news. Ekern, 61, spends many of his days traveling on the more than 57,000 miles his department maintains. He became commissioner in fall 2006 after three years as the Idaho Transportation Department director. The timing of his arrival to Virginia was perfect. Ekern arrived in the midst of a period of significant transportation initiatives and funding, including $3 billion in transportation bonds approved for construction, and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s newly granted permission to raise additional funds, nearly $500 million annually, for regional projects. The funds serve three purposes: maintenance, improvements and preparation for tomorrow’s transportation needs.
When you came to Virginia in 2006 from Idaho, what was your impression of the Commonwealth’s transportation system—and especially in Northern Virginia?
It was clear that when I came to Virginia the challenges are not universal. The challenges in Southwestern Virginia are significantly different to those in Northern Virginia. Northern Virginia is literally “The Congestion” and where people are seeking better connections. People are trying to adjust to the travel patterns to fit their work and lifestyle. We have many projects in Northern Virginia that are underway that can help. It probably won’t solve all problems, but if you look at the Springfield Interchange, that removed bottlenecks, which is a key a problem in Northern Virginia. You look at current projects, like our private sector partnerships that we’re working with on I-495 to install 14 miles of HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes, using HOV as a step. That gives people multiple mobile choices as a way to solve problems. You’ve seen some selective improvements in the system, like I-66 where you can install a short piece of road and actually affect commute times. That couples with the emphasis around extending. Those are hard things to do, but they really do set a frame for the future. To top it all off, the Commonwealth is not waiting. The transportation community—our partners in the program—are trying to advance new and innovative ways to solve problems, and the General Assembly working with the governor this [past] session made another step forward in that process through the funding package and establishing that Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which will, hopefully, also give people more options for which they will choose to spend their dollars.
What’s your department’s budget?
When I came here our annual budget was $3.8 billion, but now that total budget is about $5 billion.
How did you get to know the state’s road system—how long did it take?
My staff provided that information; the first 100 days you get a pretty good feel. I’ve been in the business for years. I have done all there is to be done in [transportation]—I’ve been in construction. I’ve done maintenance. I’ve written environmental impact statements. I’ve done planning operations. I’ve been a district administrator and senior management. In terms of the core business, what I look for is a team of professionals. We have a strong team in Virginia. We have an excellent team in Northern Virginia. They are some of the most sophisticated problem solvers in the country.
Who selects the VDOT projects, sets priorities?
The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) is the key player. The General Assembly works on the funding side. The CTB is the funding selection vehicle. This coming year, we’ll be before the General Assembly considering the fiscal year ‘09-‘10 budget for the department. We’re in the process of putting that material together for the governor’s consideration.
Obviously watching your budget and costs are important. How do you stretch dollars better?
We look at stretching dollars to move forward. We’re constantly looking at our businesses within the organization—where can we effectively use more of the private sector. We have a committee that makes recommendations to me every year on things we could do to achieve efficiency. In addition, I’ve asked my senior management of the department over the year to find 30 non-valued processes or documents or procedures that we can eliminate. It’s a complex business, and we’re doing that in the case of economical cost increases that we’re facing, like the cost of concrete or cement, petroleum, which are all increasing at double-digit rates.
How often do you visit Northern Virginia?
I am up there one or two days every two weeks. I spent quite a lot of time in Northern Virginia because there are a whole variety of topics. It has unique problems.
What are the biggest challenges in Northern Virginia?
Three biggest challenges in Northern Virginia are congestion, safety of the road networks—we’re working to reduce deaths by 100—and that strong connection between land use and transportation. As local officials are making land use decisions, they have good information and good knowledge on what impact it may have on transportation, so they can plan and provide either roads or public transportation.
The Springfield Interchange was completed last summer. That was an eight-year project, a $676 million project. Is there another project of that scale on the drawing board?
In Northern Virginia we have what we call seven megaprojects that total in excess of $7 billon that are in the planning stages right now and we’re working toward funding. The examples are the I-95/395 HOT lanes project from Fredericksburg to Northern Virginia and the I-495 HOT Lanes. The I-95/395 HOT lanes project … that’s about a five-year construction project for 14 miles … and not only will the HOT lanes be built, but general lanes will be refurbished.
HOT lanes are a hot topic. Who are these companies—what’s their experience?
Those are examples of the private-public partnership act. They finance the partnership with us around the toll they would charge for single-occupancy vehicles to use those lanes.
The two companies … are Transurban, they are the financing entity, and Fluor Daniel, the contractor/construction partner in that consortium. Both are international companies with experience in this initiative.
You have a deep connection with Minnesota DOT. That’s where you got your start in this business in 1971 and where you eventually served as assistant commissioner. Within days after the tragedy of I-35W Mississippi Bridge collapse in Minneapolis, VDOT took measures regarding Virginia’s bridges in reassuring the public of their safety, setting up a website of their status and so forth. What steps did you take?
It’s very tragic. I know how those professionals are taking that and how seriously they are taking it. Hopefully, from that tragedy, good things will happen. In Virginia, we have about 21,000 structures that we monitor on a regular basis. We repair and improve them. Of those, 12 are of the same style as in Minneapolis. We actually have four in the process of being replaced right now. That’s the first wave. The second wave is what we call fractured vertical bridges, which we have about 300 across the Commonwealth, and we’ll be reviewing those. The CTB, about four years ago, made sure our priorities were straight; so if you look at our program over the next five years you’ll see we’ll have almost 600 bridges that are either going to be replaced or being studied for replacement beyond 2013.
What attracted you to come to Virginia?
That’s simple. If you want to be someplace where the transportation community is on the cutting edge of using technology and innovative finance and trying to reform the way we do business, this is the place to be. We accomplished more in the Commonwealth in the last five years than most states do in twice that time.
(January 2008)