Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, August 27th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here, and welcoming into the studio.
Our good friends from the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.
We have Neha with us.
It is good to see you again.
Nice to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Appreciate the time.
And always want to remind the audience with journalistic integrity that I am a board
member of the Family Center.
And I believe the Family Center here in our community does maybe the most vital work
that there is in our community.
And I really appreciate you and the team over there, Neha.
Thank you so much for all that work and all that you do.
And one of the things that we've touched on before is the idea of the Family Center
reaching other avenues, gray areas, different places that maybe our community hasn't always
been able to.
And you've been a big asset with that when it comes to the among programs and the outreach
that is going on.
Can we start right there and kind of talk about that a little bit?
Yes.
So our home program, we serve anyone in the home community.
That is dealing with any kind of domestic violence or sexual assault.
And this is a, this is a topic that affects all creeds, all races, religions, everybody.
Nobody is left away from this one, but every creed, every culture of religion handles
things differently, no matter what we're talking about in life.
And certainly among culture is no different than that.
There is a lot that we've talked about with the subject where the older generation
generations haven't always been as open with this topic and forthcoming with these things,
whether it is a victim or it is an abuser.
This is something that coming from a Jewish community, I can relate to quite a bit.
And even the Italian side of my family, I relate to quite a bit.
I think that actually when we pull from almost any creed, there's a similarity here with
this when we're talking about the way things used to be and the way things are going forward.
How has it been for you outreaching to the community in general?
It's been a lot, I think, I would say, easier with, especially with my generation, you know,
30, 40-year-olds kind of, well, the younger generation is more open versus the older generation.
It's still very tapu to even talk about.
So just having us putting our feet in the community, it has helped broaden their awareness.
It really does speak to why us talking about these things with our normal speaking voice
and not in the hushed voice or anything has really changed things when it comes to this
subject matter.
It's very different than when we were young, where we are now with this subject.
And that's wonderful to see for our society.
It means positive things going forward.
It also means there is still work to be done.
There's two things at once, where I find a lot of hope from it while at the same time
being reminded that this is a subject we need to keep our foot on the gas with.
We can't take our foot off the gas on this one.
We've got to keep going forward and keep going strong with this subject.
But I'm oftentimes, I look at this from, I mentioned before, my creeds in my area, not just
here in Wisconsin, but where I come from in Chicago, I think about the subject matter
on that level.
I don't know if I or others think enough about how this affects other cultures and other
cultures, whether they're immigrating to this country or adapting to this country or
however it might be, that transition, that can be quite difficult.
And then you put on top of that a language barrier.
And that can make things even more difficult oftentimes, especially where my heart goes
immediately to victims, to people who are abused.
Is this something that I'm just kind of like as an outsider seeing or making an assumption
or is this kind of sort of the case for this subject matter, for you, Neon, what you've
experienced?
Oh no, that's very accurate.
A lot of the ladies that do come in are of the older generation and they are always
like, we don't know how to speak English, we don't know where to look for resources, you
know, they hear even like us broadcasting it on air or in the newspaper or events, they
don't really get that message, they usually get the message by word of mouth.
Which I'm so glad you brought up because it speaks to so much of the importance of sharing
these things and how we treat each other.
Maybe you and somebody else are not even talking about the family center, but domestic
violence comes up and you're speaking about this and speaking against it and talking
highly against it or something like that.
Well, a victim might be overhearing you and might feel more encouraged to come forward
than if they hear somebody talking the opposite about this subject.
It's not just kids we need to think of this with, but all kinds of people and all different
walks of life that may be benefited just from overhearing a conversation or you talking
with this person and you don't even know that they are going through these things.
And because you were so open to the topic and so on the right side of history in my book
on this topic, they feel more willing to go forward.
Whether it's word of mouth or it's how we talk to each other, it becomes more and more
important as we go forward, how we handle this subject and how we treat each other on
this subject.
Correct.
Yes.
I noticed that our younger generation is more open to speaking about domestic violence
that they see at home or hear about and speaking up against it versus our older generation
which puts a more of a hush hush on it.
But I think with the younger generation kind of stepping up and putting their input in
about the situation, it's kind of changing our older generation's minds about how things
should be.
I always feel like I'm putting our guests in an awkward position and asking you to answer
for like a whole creed of people or things like that.
Sometimes I know what that's like, sometimes myself on my end of things.
But I do, I am curious, from your experiences, have you seen the younger generation helping
the older generation or working with the older generation in any way, maybe not even in
a gigantic way, just kind of like being an ally in these things?
Oh, definitely.
Definitely.
Just from my personal experience growing up, you know, I'm first generation here in
the US.
So, you know, growing up being around the elders, you know, I would just hear them, you
know, once it comes up, that topic of like domestic violence comes up, they tell us to hush
about it.
It's kind of like put it in the back burner, don't talk about it, everything will figure
out things out.
But as I've grown up, I'm very vocal about it, you know, I'm very vocal about it.
I've seen even like younger generations now, when they see it, they speak up, you know,
they speak up to it.
And I do see that transition of the older generation kind of like, okay, you know, we see a difference,
well, we got a change too.
So, it's improved drastically.
It's really good to hear, it's really, really good to hear.
Nihah, can you tell us a little bit about the Mung Program?
Yes, so our Mung Program, we do have groups that we go to.
So we have the youth groups at Rams and also at Lincoln.
So we meet with the teens, we just talk about topics and, you know, coping skills.
And, you know, we have fun.
And then we also have an elderly group in the evenings that, you know, we bring up
the topics, the sensitive topics.
And again, we eat, we, it's like a pot leg where, you know, they come and it's more healing
for them.
Yeah, that got me.
That's really good to hear.
It's a safe space for them to just come in and, you know, talk about what they've gone
through or, you know, not even directly to them, but, you know, what they hear about
in the community and so it's a great place for them to be and just be safe and to voice
their concerns and their issues or their problems that they're going through.
I've spent my life fighting for this subject and fighting against domestic violence.
It's something that's important to my family.
It's something I was raised on.
And it's a subject that I am very familiar with for various reasons.
But one of the things that I didn't know until I started working more hand-in-hand with
the family center.
And I am seated, men in the kitchen a couple of years back and everything.
And I've talked about this event many times because it just stands out in my head so much
about this community.
And I thought that I was, this was a subject and this was something that, well, I don't
know how many people are out, I got our back on this one.
I don't know how many people are behind this one.
And I look around and I walk into that room and I see not just the leaders of our mayor
at the time and the head of the rafters at the time and so many, our head of the police
department, our sheriff Sean Becker down there.
But I see men there.
I see men representing this cause.
I see men standing by this cause and meaning, meaning something behind that.
But one of the things that also stood out to me about this that I think our Wisconsin
Rapids Family Center does better than almost anybody is the idea of, hey, here is this
heavy subject.
But we're not, that's not the only thing we're here to talk about today.
How are you?
Are you hungry?
We got some food over here.
Like, we're, there's other things going on.
I think it loosens people up more.
It gets people to be freer with their conversation, maybe even more likely to share information
or share something they have been through than if it was just, we're just talking about
this.
We're just meeting to be here about this.
I think it's such a, it's such a smart idea to be able to do it that way.
And it's great to hear that the among programs that are available that are, are very similar
to that.
Yes.
So we do have also, we do also do outreach.
So we have our emergency food pantry and our clients are coming like once a month to
get their food pantry and most of the time they come in and we chitchat, you know, we get
an update on how they're doing, not just come in and grab the food and leave, but we'll
take the time to like sit with them and talk to them, chitchat with them.
So it gives them an opportunity, or if it gives us an opportunity to engage with them
a little bit more and just check in on them and I think that's very, again, healing for
them.
And so much of this is about that word healing and it just hits my heart every time you
say that.
It really does meaning something and it really does impact things.
And I think again, there's the idea of this too being an opportunity, say a person doesn't
necessarily share or really, you know, come into the event doing something like that.
That's okay too.
This is a moment for them to have some, some peace or some healing as you mentioned
there.
Because sometimes that's the way we all heal differently and we all need different
ways to be able to do that.
This gives you more of an avenue and more of a kind of, hey, come on, come on, we're
here for you, sort of atmosphere and that goes a long way.
The outreach you mentioned is there other forms of outreach or other programs that you
do with the among culture and about this subject?
So yeah, so we're, you know, Kabal and I are there during business hours.
So you know, we have our clients come into or we'll like do, you know, whenever HACC
has things, events we partner together.
So whenever they have events, you know, we cross with each other and we let each other
know like to reach out to our clients to reach out to their clients to get the message
out to the broader or among population.
With this subject, Nia, this is something that it comes down to so much to communication
and sharing with each other and trusting each other, no matter what the scenario is, victim
to advocate, advocate to advocate, victim to victim, any of the scenarios, it all comes
down to communication and trusting each other and having a belief that you're, what you're
sharing or what you're hearing is going to be, you know, you, we're going to do something
with this.
We're going to help.
We're going to be there for you.
At the very least, we are here to listen and we're here to have your back, those things.
But again, I come back to the communication factor with this and not just for among individuals
but Spanish individuals and others where I grew up, this oftentimes was the issue where
a person couldn't speak English and so they didn't know how to talk to a police officer
and explain to them that the person they were living with was abusing them or something.
There just wasn't enough programs like this back in the day to have this as something
in this day in 2024 is wonderful, is great, but it's also, I imagine it's got to be very,
I don't want to say taxing, that can be a very loaded word, but I imagine this isn't,
this takes a lot of work on you and your team's end.
Oh, it does.
You know, just the simple translations, the Hmong language is very, I would say, limited
into how we can translate the words in English over to Hmong, you know.
So sometimes the message, we know we would have to re-word our message a couple of times
just to get that message through to them clearly, asking a lot of questions, then they would
ask us a lot of questions to clarify things.
Yeah, and it's great to get behind the curtain of some of these things.
I not only think it creates more empathy in our audience for this subject, but also
some insight to it.
I appreciate that very much.
Thank you.
We're speaking with Nia from the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center right now talking about
among programs and outreach that she and others are involved in over there.
And when it comes to that outreach, I'm curious, are you guys also looking into new avenues
and new ways to be able to reach out to the culture and connect with more and more people?
We are.
There are a couple of programs that we are currently in the process of setting up and
connecting with, collaborating with right now, so look forward to that.
Yeah, I was going to say, I look forward to hearing about that too.
That's going to be good news when we can.
And is there any other programs or any other forms of outreach that we can touch on that
we haven't already, Nia?
I think that's pretty much it for the home program.
Yeah, I thought so.
And nicely done by you, by the way, that was very fun.
And Nia, as we're wrapping up, you thought it was a good idea, and I like the idea of just
we just wanted to shut out the Family Center website and remind people that that is a great
resource along with their Facebook page for finding out information and reaching out
to the Family Center.
Correct, yes, our Amy does a great job keeping up with it.
You know, if you ever want to donate, go definitely check out our website.
We have what we need Wednesdays just for updated items that we might need at the center.
There is a lot of great resources.
There is not just services and programs and events and ways to reach out to the Family
Center, but there is also a great section of what is abuse.
And I think that as we go farther and farther in the subject as a society, it's more and
more important for people to understand that what you have in your head as the definition
of abuse might be different than what abuse is.
A lot of people tend to, I speak to this as somebody who went through it.
You normalize abuse sometimes.
You get so used to it that, well, that's not abuse, but it is.
And it's a great resource to be able to kind of figure that part out, along with finding
out some of the great different ways that the Family Center is not only reaching out
to the community, but doing good in the community.
On their Facebook page alone, they're first posted, I'm seeing here, they've got tips
on financial awareness with domestic violence that is a great resource right there, even.
And there's all kinds of other great pictures and different things on the Facebook page.
Encourage you to like that page.
It's also a great way to have in your timeline a moment of positive popping up on your timeline
and everything on your Facebook page.
And of course, the Family Center is, Nea, I mentioned, there are needs over there.
And while not everybody can be an advocate, while not everybody can maybe be a board member,
every single member in the community can be a part of things at the Family Center and add
to the good that they are doing over there by these simple items that they could use.
You can find out more about those by going to their website, by looking at their Facebook
page.
And I mentioned Wednesdays is a good day to look out for those things.
And it could be as simple as you're going to the store picking up toilet paper and you
grab an extra set of rolls.
Like something as simple as that can mean so much to the Family Center and take a little
bit off of their plate so that the team over there can do the vital work that they are
doing.
I've talked about this for many years.
Not everybody has dollars and cents to donate.
Those that can we greatly appreciate it, just a reminder that are not only our domestic
violent shelter, but domestic violent shelters around the country have just been, just
cut had cuts, so deep cuts to their financing.
Now more than ever, it is important for us to be adding to our Family Center and helping
out anyway we can.
So dollars and cents are greatly appreciated.
But again, not everybody has that.
So maybe you have an hour or two to kill.
Maybe you have time on your lunch break or something.
There are little things around the building that could always use help with.
There is lawn care and different stuff like that.
There are ways to impact your community and help out the Family Center that aren't always
the typical ways or the ways that we might think of immediately.
But again, dollars and cents or your time, all of this is greatly appreciated from the
Family Center.
And as we like to always remind you, the Family Center is there for you.
They have your back.
The crisis line is available 24-7.
That phone number is 715-421-1511.
That's 715-421-1511.
Anytime, day or night, an advocate will assist you.
Keep in mind that they also have, again, this great website, it's familyctr.org, familyctr.org.
And do yourself a favor, go to your Facebook page, type in your search bar, Wisconsin Rapids
Family Center, and subscribe and like their page.
It's a great way to keep up the date on everything they are doing over there.
And Nia, if people want to reach out to you specifically and find out more information
about some of what we talked about, should we just send them to the website?
Is that the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Yes, definitely.
Okay.
Send them to the webpage or just call the crisis line.
Yeah, thank you for that.
Again, that website, familyctr.org, familyctr.org, help our good friends at the Family
Center to continue to do the vital, great work that they are doing in this community.
Nia, great conversation today.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us.
Thank you so much for having me on the show.
We'll look forward to talking again real soon.
Thank you.
And again, that website, familyctr.org, and be sure to follow the Family Center on social
media in that crisis line where they are available for you any day, time or of the day or
night.
715-421-1511, that's 715-421-1511.
We'll have more Midday Magazine coming up for you here at 97-5 FM, 13-20 AM, WFHR,
where we are locally grown radio.