Welcome everyone to midday magazine for this December 20th, 2023. Have your host James J.
Mailoff here. Welcome into the studio. Our great friends from the family center. We have our
good friend Amy Shide with us. Administrative development and volunteering coordinator. Gotta
get that title right, Amy. Gotta get it right. That's right, James. Good morning. Thank you for
being here. Appreciate it. And you brought a friend with you. I did. Today I have Tia with me.
She is one of our volunteers extraordinaire. She works with in-kind donations and volunteers
with us every week. Amy, you and I have been talking for a while now about different ways that
people can help at the family center. They can make an impact. They can do some good. This time a
year, that vibe, that feeling, that spirit is all around and all in us. Perfect time, I think,
to be able to really hit on this and talk about this really, really key in on it, if you don't mind.
You bet. It is the season of giving James. And I think one of the really fantastic things about
this time of year is it really gives us a chance to reflect on what we have that we can give to
others to help improve their situation. And I'd like to touch on today treasure, which of course,
in the midst of our annual appeal, it's important for nonprofits to receive the funds necessary
to do their valuable work, but also treasure. And that's one of the reasons why I have Tia here with
me today as one of our fantastic volunteers. Now we're going to put Tia to work. I mean,
talk to her in a second, but what I wanted to do if you don't mind me for a moment. And as I
always like to mention, I am on the board of the family center. I am very biased on this topic.
And I'd like to think that overwhelming majority of people are out there on this topic. The importance
of the family center and the work that you guys do in this town. For me and again, it's just my
opinion, I believe it is most vital work going on in our community. It involves also facets of
family. It involves too many different layers and topics for me to do a wrap up in 25 minutes.
But I think it's pretty commonly known by now the important work that is being done. So with that
being said, it's all the more important that we are able to give back and donate and help you guys
do the work that you are doing. Something we get to talk about from time to time, but I don't think
we really get to focus and really put a spotlight on the donations part of things. I did want to
mention this is a little different now because we got new ownership and I got a little bit of a
better paycheck now. But years ago when Sue and Deb asked me actually to be there was a two-prong
attack. I had no chance. I was going to be on that board. When they asked me to be on the board,
I'm the last person in the world I ever thought of as a board member for anything. I mean,
even like a Simpsons board, I didn't think people would put me on. I didn't think of myself that way.
But the first thing that occurred to me was, well, this is my way to give back. I don't have the
money. I don't have a lot of time to be able to volunteer, but I can do something like this.
And so I just wanted to touch on that really quick to people out there that we are in need of
board members and not just with the family center, but a lot of our community businesses and
nonprofits are looking for board members are looking for people to be a part of these things.
And that is another way that you can give back and put back into your community.
Absolutely. And I would challenge you if you think that you wouldn't have something to give
to an organization such as ours that board services a fantastic way for you to learn more about
an organization. And I promise you, you have skills and knowledge that will be helpful to that board.
Or to the individual organization itself if you care to volunteer in an individual level.
I was thinking about this over the weekend doing some prep for the interview, Amy.
And this is actually hits on something that you and I are familiar with.
It made me think of when I talk to my students about acting and you want to be a good actor,
work behind the stage, work back behind the scenes and everything.
That's how you really become better at theater understanding all the the nooks and crannies and
how things are worked in the back. It's similar to this what you were saying about being on a board.
It is an opportunity for you to see a little bit more of what's going on in the behind the scenes
and happenings and understanding I think a little more empathy towards what's happening there.
Absolutely. And any of the ways in which you might give to the board of directors,
such as being on the fund development committee, on governance, those are great opportunities
for you to learn more about the organization and your community as well.
Okay, I think now we can put Tee on the spot. Now we can do it. Now it is your end to it and
everything, right? Tee, I thank you again for being here. Appreciate it. Amy, Tee is donations
coordinated. Is that the director? Okay. Yeah, she's one of two at this time. We're always looking
for more help for her. She works very, very hard. How many hours a week do you work to you?
Usually about seven, sometimes a little more. So one of the things we were talking about on the
drive over is that any time we have a volunteer that comes in for an hour that is one hour
of work that the team can then turn and give direct services to the clientele that we serve.
So by Tee coming in seven hours a week, she frees the staff to have seven hours of direct
client service. And that's an amazing gift to us as well as our clients. So what do you do in a
given day Tee? We get food bags ready for outreach. We rotate and stock all the dry goods in the
pantry. We take in the donations. We usually spend quite a bit of time talking to the people
who bring the stuff in for us. So that's today's. We build relationships with people in each other
while we're doing this. That's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Tee was something like what got you to want
to be involved with this? I am actually a survivor of domestic violence myself and it was December 15th,
2021 when the Family Center helped me. So it was my duty to come back when I was in a better place
and give back. Thank you for sharing that. Appreciate that. And thank you for being so brave.
And not only that, but seeing that, having the insight to see that. Not everybody does appreciate
that. I appreciate the wanting to give back. I think people have that feeling from time to time,
but they don't follow through on it always. Well, good on you for doing that. That's awesome.
With that being said, though, how often do you get donations?
We get at least one every time I'm there. I would say right now with Christmas, it is just
been absolutely amazing. It is constant. We are so busy. I'm tired by the time I'm done.
I hate to hear that, but at the same time, that's a good thing. That's, yeah, that's really good
to hear that warm my heart literally like warmed up from that. That is awesome to hear.
And not that I had in this early in answer in my head, but I didn't know what to expect.
So that is really cool to hear. But we also know that there's always going to be needs.
There's always going to be we can have enough donations. There's more that can be had needed.
I wouldn't mind taking a second to touch on some of those more, what are more needs than others
right now, Amy? If there's anything in particular? Yeah. And I would just say that while this is
the season of giving, we need 12 months out of the air to be the season of giving. And while we are
just so grateful to how the community has stepped up these last few weeks, if you have a moment to
visit our Facebook page, I've been trying to catch pictures of different organizations and individuals
who come in and donate either to our holiday program or to our pantry needs. It has just been
overwhelming. There was a moment yesterday when I was calling any staff that could go to the
donations door to take a picture because I was at the business door taking a picture while someone
was coming into the general entrance. All three doors were being populated by donors, which
has not happened in my two plus years. And then all of that. That's a cool story. That's great.
That's all great. All the bells are ringing. And then all of those materials go back into donations
for Teah who comes in in the morning and goes, what in the heck happened? What does she do to me?
And then she's making me go to radio. She left her cohort back there to deal while she's here with me.
But yeah, throughout the year, things that we need every, if you can imagine, just for a moment,
what communal living is like for the sheer volume of people that we serve,
clearly laundry soap, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, anything along those lines is always a need.
Toilet paper, paper towel, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies. In pantry, what would
Teah, what would you say the most frequently requested items are?
Pancakes are up. Who knew? Who knew? There's always someone coming down for pancakes.
Makes sense though. Now that I hear it, that makes sense.
Yes, and we have kids coming like crazy right now. It's a joyous part of what we do
to serve those secondary victims. We wish there wasn't a need for us to do so, but they
are a joy to us during the holiday season and Teah and our volunteers as well as the donors
that have been giving. And my team at the Family Center is certainly helping to make their holidays
right. I would say for the first couple of years that I mostly interviewed Deb. She would be the
one coming on and I'd tell her whether it was on air or off air every time she came in. I wish
you didn't have a job. I wish we didn't need you. I wish you were bored. I wish you were doing
something else. We didn't even need these services, but we do. And I don't play this card very
often, but you mentioned the children. And I like to think when we're doing these conversations,
we're having these discussions every once in a while. It's not as much as it used to be.
Every once in a while I got somebody out of the woodwork comes out and asks why we're spending
so much time on a subject like this. It's the future. Research this week and kids are the future
it turns out. And that seems pretty important to me. So if there's any other, you got people that
are in this gray area these days. I think most people are either in that area or the one side
of the other for it, but for the most part, most people that I talk to are on one side of this
issue and they are on the right side of history when it comes to it. There is no situation in human
history where it is okay to hurt somebody you love. And it is very uncool to be doing this and
unhealthy to be doing this to children who are growing up and going to be running our jobs,
running our country one day. This all comes full circle. This all adds up. You want your
community to be stronger. You want your community to have a better future. Add to the family center.
Help the family center. It's as simple as that. It doesn't, there's, this is rocket science.
Sometimes it's Occam's razor. It's right under your nose. This is something that helps our future
of our city, our community and our country. I would agree with you wholeheartedly James. And
I will tell you that the work being done by our child and family services, individual Elizabeth,
she's fantastic. Ashley's out in the schools talking about violence prevention. Our advocates do
an amazing job of ensuring that they're meeting the needs proactively, reactively of secondary
victims as well as primary victims and trying to eliminate victimization as in, in totality.
Getting the chance to sit in this chair for the last seven eight years. I've talked to Senators
Congressman. I've talked to my mayors. I've talked to a number of different people. I stress to
them whether it's on air or off air. I think the biggest concern we have in this state and going
forward maybe in this country is child care. But right under that is this. Right under that.
And the two are very intertwined in many ways too. So really you help with one. You're helping with
another in some ways, not completely, but in some. These are topics that we need to face and we
need to face with our head up. Long gone are the days of talking, having this whole discussion
like this. We're not doing that anymore. Yes, exactly. And with that, we want more and more people
to be involved in these things. And sometimes you can be loud with your donation. Not everybody speaks
up. Not everybody feels comfortable saying something or what have you. But plenty of people can do
that. Tia, if you don't mind, when it comes to the job, when we're looking for people to kind of
assist with this, to looking at other donation coordinators and everything. Who do you think
the type of person would be really good for a job like this? I'm energetic, just
you know, hard worker. Yeah. Come in, get be ready to do what you're going to do and just start.
That's how Terry and I both are. We take a look around. We see what needs to be done and we just
make a plan and go. They're both amazing. They get an awful lot done and I feel very privileged
to work with them and know that donations is an area that is just working like a well oiled
machine that those folks that give to our organization know that their donation is going to be processed
in a way that serves the client best. And that those items are going to outreach to shelter wherever
they need to go. We are speaking with Amy and Tia from the Wisconsin Rabbits Family Center. And
Amy, you were touching on something before and it's something that I like to reference whenever
we can, whenever usually we're wrapping up an interview and we have some topics we're talking
about and I like to bring up volunteering towards the end of the interview and ways people can
give back. And you know, if you go over there and you shovel or you mow, it may not seem like
a big deal, but that's one more way of freeing up the staff over there. You were hitting on that
more detailed though with more more actual logistics and knowledge that it really is really
helpful from this. Do you mind with all respect breaking down a little bit of what the services
is like a person, a family comes in and the work that goes into that so that the audience can
understand why it's so important that we can free you up. Why you can have that time to be able
to do those things and great people like Tia and that are doing that other work. Absolutely. So one
of the reasons why funds are so valuable in our organization is that we're funded with some
government grants. However, those are taking a significant and by significant that's there's
just not a word big enough for the level of decrease and support we're going to be getting from
the state and federal government in coming years. So any of that work, that direct service work
that we spoke of, we're going to be seeing more and more need for that work to be funded. So in
our organization, when someone comes through our door, they might need the services of the folks
that are answering our 24 hour manned phone line. They might be coming into shelter so they're
going to need the services of our shelter coordinator. They might need advocacy from a legal
standpoint. They might need among services. They might need child and family services. Really,
we are designed in such a way to have advocacy for every need that a victim might have. So any of
those direct services need to be funded and more so than ever, ever before. We're already seeing cuts,
we're already seeing organizations in our state close and we are at capacity and also a word
that is not large enough to describe our current condition. Tia was brave enough to share the date
in which she received services from our organization. Sadly, we see intake at an astronomically
high level over the holidays. We were just speaking about our holiday program and the fantastic donors
we have that bring the holidays to our clients. They like to have those lists before Thanksgiving
and it's with great sadness that we always ponder the fact that if only the clients we were
serving at Thanksgiving were the only clients we were going to serve before the end of the year.
So the needs of new clients coming in are always significant. So when we say it's the season of
giving, we need that treasure, but we also need the time and talent of people like Tia that will
come in or those that drop off in kind donations or those that volunteer to do things like
lawns and sidewalks. Every aspect of that volunteer service, whether it be twice a year to help
me with a fundraiser or once a week and a time that's good for you to do some of the work that
will free us to serve clients directly. In that work, I'm sorry, this topic gets me. That work that
you guys are doing, the details on what you gave us right there really appreciate Amy. It expands
beyond that too when you look at the community outreach and the different things that are going on
there, you touched on that a little bit with the work going on in schools and some of that.
That can't be done if we don't have these other positions and these other things taken care of
as well. So the sharing of knowledge, the spreading of knowledge, the sharing of understanding on this
topic, even just the simpleness of this topic being discussed in schools. That's something that's
completely different than almost what we grew up with. That's a new day, that's not, but we need to
get there. We need to be able to have that and you guys be able to free to be able to do that.
Absolutely in prevention, just a little caveat that James, you know, prevention is not funded by
the government. So that position, it's really important that we see financial support for that.
Excuse me. For a second, as I get on my soapbox here, that is why it is so important to know who
your politicians have in their pocket. Be sure to be smart about your vote, be informed, do your
homework, and know where these politicians stand on this subject. If you don't know, ask them,
ask them. Absolutely. And if they don't give you a straight answer, you just got your answer.
Everyone can do that. It doesn't, you don't have to be on the radio to do that. You can get on your
phone this afternoon and call Senator Teston's office or crew's office. Whoever there's legislation
being proposed right now to fund part of that gap. And I took my 17-year-old daughter to the
state capital with me last month to discuss, educate, not lobby, James, educate them on, you know,
what we're seeing, that we're way higher in the amount of domestic violence, homicides in the
state of Wisconsin, then we should be sixth in the nation, and our legislators need to know that.
And the impact of these funding cuts that are going to be significant.
I talk to these individuals all the time. Once a month, Teston, crew, they're on the air with us,
and we butt heads, we argue, and by the end of the conversations, we're laughing or talking,
these are people that they want your conversations, they want to hear from you. They are trying to
represent their community to the best, and in order for them to do that, we've got to do our work too,
and making sure that they know these things that they are important to us, that Wisconsin rabbits,
that Wood County is a town that we're not going to take light this moment anymore. This is
that we have finally gotten to a point in human history, and dang it, it took a long time to get
here, but we're there, and we're not going backwards, and I put in the genie back in the
bottle with this, and sometimes I think that whether it's a politician or it's people in
positions of power, they get in bubbles, and they don't always understand the world that they're
living in and the world they're around, and that can happen on a rural level, as well as on a
state level or a national level, and I think that that can be the case sometimes with these.
So if we don't bring these things up, it falls on us as much as does them for them to get things
done, but once the ball is in their court, then that's where it comes back again,
know who's in their pocket, know who they are voting, or where their votes are going to go,
and how important that is, because not only is there no going back on this subject,
unfortunately, it's not going anywhere. These numbers, as we see, Amy, what you touch on there,
I've lived in a state for half my life, and if there's one thing I learned, Wisconsin
rabbits are very proud of being from Wisconsin, and that's cool, that's very cool. I'm all about
that. Be proud of your roots and everything. I would think if you're a proud Wisconsinite,
that hit you. That hit you hard. That hit you worse than a packer loss. It should have. It should have.
And if it doesn't, I question your loyalty to your state, because again,
coming back to a full circle kind of look at this approach, and how important this topic is,
one of the big, I was just talking about Mayor Blazer, and one of the bigger topics to us on
air off air is a population and keeping your population intact. And there's a couple of things we've
seen to help populations in the last 10 to 20 years, really. They're dog friendly, about communities
that are dog friendly are seeing an increase in population. We're seeing that, and communities that
are approaching this topic, that they are taking on domestic violence, and they're not blinking.
That's very vital to your population of your town. So again, coming back to something else,
like this, if you don't care about domestic violence, maybe you care about your taxes,
maybe you care about your city's population. All of this adds up. That's why it's all the more
important to be able to donate to the family center and help them do the work that they're doing.
It all is attached. It's all connected. I would agree. And we had just shy of 5,000 bednights
this past year. So the need is there. The need is there for the season of giving and beyond
to give to this organization, to give your time or your talent to this organization.
Come hang out with Tia for a day. She'll tell you all about what we need and what would be the
best way to serve our clients, and she makes a darn good fun day of doing it. Oh, I believe it.
I believe it. That's why I keep coming back. There's chocolate in my office. There's that too.
Well, I think we buried the lead there. Wait a minute. There's chocolate. I didn't know that.
Amy, we got just a couple of minutes left before I wrap up. I did want to mention that there are
some other positions that the family center is looking to fill. Yes. Yes. We do have
need of a part-time shelter advocate as well as a visitation coordinator at this time.
So I would encourage you to look at our website for those open positions. And if you're interested
in donating of your time or talent as we are spending time on today, our Facebook page has what
we need Wednesday. That comes out every Wednesday. Talks about volunteer opportunities or what
we literally need. Right now it's pull-ups and maybe undies and socks, I believe. Are the primary
need? Good. The kids just keep coming. And on the website, you'll see our volunteer application.
We would love to see you just fill it out. Just fill it out. It'll come directly to me.
We can work out if you've got four hours a year. If you've got four hours a month, four hours a day.
Also, please take a look at that donations page. If you think that you're able to share $10
a month, you can set it up reoccurring and every penny helps. Amy, if people want to, sorry,
if people want to find out more about this and have follow up questions, how can they reach you?
They can reach me at info at familyctr.org. They can send a message through our Facebook page,
through our website. It all comes to me first and if I'm the wrong person, I'll be sure to connect
you with the right person. If you have questions about what we do, please call. If you have questions
about your situation or you feel that you're not in a healthy relationship any longer, our crisis line
is up on our Facebook page on our website. We will get you connected with somebody who can help you.
I have phone number that you can call is 24 or 7 crisis line, 421-1511-715-421-1511. Tia, thank you so
much for being here today. It's a lot of fun. Thank you. Amy, always good to see you. Thank you so
much for what you do. Please say hi to the staff for us and everything and a very Merry Christmas and
happy holidays and new year to you and yours and all of the members of the Family Center.
Thank you. We appreciate you, James. We will take a break. We will have some more Midday Magazine
for you tomorrow right here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
