Breaking the silence

I'm sure alot of people wonder why I would do a show where I talk about my own personal experience with abuse. Being a victim of spousal abuse changed who I am as a person. I used to be one of those  people who believed in the inherent goodness of the world, and that bad things only happened to bad people. For a long time, I blamed my terrifying experience on my innocence, and became very jaded.

It hasn't been easy for me to talk about. I've been divorced for 2 years and I still cry when I think about the things my ex husband did to me. I suffered from a kind of post traumatic stress syndrome, and I literally wasn't able to face life for a long time. luckily, during this time I read eat, love, pray. While the author of that book may not have had my harrowing experience, it made me feel better about needing time to heal, and different ways to do so.

Then I hit my turning point. I began to ask myself if I hadn't already suffered enough. Yes, I made a mistake in choosing my life partner. Yes, I allowed others to take advantage of my innocence. But hadn't I paid the price for that in tears and blood? I would say so.

It's been a long road, but each day I am on my way to healing. I know there is a reason I went through everything that I did, and I wanted to talk about it because I now know that my story belongs to millions of other women out there who have suffered like I suffered, but didn't have the platform to broadcast their experience. For better or worse, I have the microphone now, and I wanted to say something that mattered.

I know that there are people who will be angry that I have spoken the unspeakable, and that's fine. The time has come for me to move past the hurt, and into the joy. Part of that is losing the gag that kept me from finally, once and for all letting go of everything I was holding inside. I hope that women across the nation hear this, and take note. It happened to me, it may be happening to you or someone you know, and you are not alone.

Eating your cake, and loving your family too

Eating your cake, and loving your family too

Is it possible to really balance work and home life? Mad Businesswomen get real on the subject of being a mom and managing your business. Join Ini Augustine and special guest Heather Sedlock as we discuss real life issues that affect women in business.



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Heather E. Sedlock, age 33, is a married, stay-at-home mom of two boys. Heather and her two boys are on the autism spectrum while her husband has various physical disabilities. Her lifetime experience as someone with autism and her two sons having autism led her to write about it in various places. It is her passion to share quality information with parent about autism and other issues that affect parents whose children have special needs. Heather currently writes for examiner.com as the National Special Needs Kids writer. She discusses the types of special needs that kids may have and reports relevant science-based news on studies, new products or services of interest. You may visit Heather at www.examiner.com/x-10560-Special-Needs-Kids-Examiner .

Governor's Debate Awards 2010 Part II

Governor's Debate Awards 2010 Part II

The official awards list for the Minnesota Governors Debate 2010

How to use Welfare for Job Creation Part II

In this economy, people are not unemployed because they don't have job skills. They are unemployed because there are no jobs they can work that pay a livable wage. Yet the County of Anoka is willing to pay upwards of $2,500 to train them on how to become a professional customer service representative. These hard working, fully trained individuals will receive beautiful certificates to hang at home. But they will not receive a job. There’s this thing called a recession going on, and they will wait for months to even get a call on their meticulously written resumes.

You see, having a job to work in is the key to employment. This may come as a surprise to the state of Minnesota, but all the training in the world does not one bit of good unless there’s a job opening. So why not use our welfare dollars to create job openings?

The infrastructure is already in place. Make the small business option an approved work plan through the Diversionary Work Program, or MFIP. If some resources are redirected in this way, possibly supplemented with TARP money, Anoka County could be the test market for a revolution in economic recovery, as well as providing residents with a vehicle out of poverty. The current welfare programs already offer job training, as well as cash support and assistance with utility payments. However, they actually discourage people from working because as soon as people start making enough to be marginally above the poverty line, benefits get cut.

Take the top 10% of people in that class with good work history out of that DWP/MFIP training class. Teach them how to put together a business plan. Provide training in those areas of future economic growth. Prepare them to apply for TARP or economic recovery finance dollars. Support them with professional mentors through WomenVenture, or SCORE, as well as help them pay their bills during start up. Stop wasting money on companies that truly don’t contribute to the health of our economy, and use our social programs to train the next generation of business owners.
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That money would come back to the state in the form of increased tax collection, as well as increased consumer spending. With a strong, small business based economy, Minnesota will be more resilient in the next down turn.


www.minnesotahelp.com
wwww.minnesotaworks.org
www.sba.gov
www.womenventure.org
www.co.anoka.mn.us

How to Apply for Welfare

The process to get approved for assistance is humiliating. They poke and prod you, asking for detailed financial information, your paystubs, bank accounts, and more. Be prepared to provide copies of all of your financial information for the past 3 months. Then, after providing the information, they call you a liar and investigate. While they investigate, they will try at every opportunity to disqualify you for assistance.

You do have to literally be destitute to qualify. I qualified after living with no heat for 2 months. I only had $20 in change to my name. I had to spend that last $20 on gas to repeatedly go to the office and make sure my benefits were approved. The clerk at the gas station was strangely unenthusiastic about counting my change when I filled up. I would go to the office twice per day: at 8 am when the office opened, and 12:30 when my worker came back from work. The key is to be constantly lurking when they least expect it. I was too desperate to play the welfare office shuffle. I don’t blame my worker for the situation. The social workers are typical government employees: under-paid, overworked, and with a tendency to shift responsibility to others.

After a month long process, they will deign to release benefits to you. By the time my benefits were released, I hadn’t eaten in 2 days. I know there are food banks, and soup kitchens, but I didn’t want to risk using my meager tank of gas on extra trips. I am lucky enough to have extra weight to spare. That said, I wouldn’t advise the So Poor I Can’t Afford Food Diet” to anyone.