Serving in the Cold, PDC Annual Community Survey

Posted on Sunday January 20, 2013 by Jacob Campbell.

I was doing a Google Image Search, how any of my good Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator design projects start. I’m writing an post for my blog, Serving in the Cold, PDC Annual Community Survey, about my recent experience canvassing East Pasco with a Survey for the Pasco Discovery Coalition (Google Site’s Page looking for inspiration. I cam across the The Quirky Community Survey photo. While this picture is nowhere near the same. I had Minnie take a couple of pictures of me pretending to be asking interviewing questions. I took that photo and followed How to Create Vintage Photo Effect Photoshop Tutorial. I followed it mostly exactly the same, but of course replacing my own image. I also made some changes to how the rendered lighting effects, and adding a little bit of a border to the image. It was a pretty simple tutorial, involving using some layer’s with color and blending options. As normal, you can download the Jacob the Great and Vintage Survey Interviewer Photoshop File so you can see more of what I did and help with your own design project.

I’m very thankful for all of the support that we got to complete some of the Pasco Discovery Coalition’s Annual Community Survey. We had people from the Coalition itself and some people from F.I.R.M.E. along with Jesse’s church members

I’m assuming that I will post something after we have more of the survey’s back and after the data analysis has been completed in my Resources Section, but I wanted to post that the data collection we did today went really well. A group of about 13 of us went around the Lakeview Mobile Home Park in Pasco and were able to reach almost all of the trailers there. People seemed to be very receptive and we might have even found more coalition members to participation in our monthly meetings. It was cold, but everybody was a trooper and had great attitudes. We were hoping to do more survey’s of East Pasco but ran into problems with not having a large enough volunteer base and enough time.

Birth Announcements and the Economics of Children

Posted on Monday January 7, 2013 by Jacob Campbell.

Official Birth Announcement

You might be getting a postcard in the mail soon, as an official announcement of Mateo Rodman Campbell VSP’s birth. If you don’t, I’m sorry, and we don’t mean any office to you what so ever. We have a lot of friends and family and it is hard to get the announcement out to everybody. I’m pretty proud of the work I did in creating the announcement. It took me a couple of tries and a lot of time thinking and deciding exactly what to do. My mom said that we’d better be careful, so somebody might call CPS on us (the card has little Mateo inside the oven, see below). Don’t worry he was completely safe the whole time and was even laying on a blanket. Minnie was pretty freaked out though. Below is the front of the postcard announcement. Make sure to also check out the Mateo’s Birth Announcement Postcard Back Version 2 and the version that I didn’t use, Mateo’s Birth Announcement Postcard Front Version 1.

This graphic is a postcard that I created in Adobe Photoshop to announce the birth of my son, Mateo Rodman Campbell V.S.P.. You can read my blog post about the birth, Are You Ready or Not? Proud Father . This postcard, is the second version of two. I like it a lot better then the first version. I spent a long time looking through google images of baby announcements for some inspiration. I was struck by so many really creative ideas people had. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. After a little while, I was struck with a little bit of inspiration of my own. I didn’t see anything like this, but I’m sure I’m not the first to think of putting my baby in the oven. Minnie was super worried (don’t worry, the oven wasn’t on… but she was still freaking out. We did a photo shoot with little Mateo in various pots and pans on the oven too, maybe I’ll load them on Facebook at some point, but I haven’t yet. It’s pretty simple design. I took a photo and placed it on the right hand side. I blurred out a section behind the text “Baked to Perfection.” The various other portions are texts of different sizes and directions in a type of word cloud.

It was a pretty fun process to go through and make it. Make sure to leave some comments and let me know what you think. Also, if you don’t receive one in the next week or so, and feel really left out make sure to let us know and we will send you one (please note that we haven’t even mailed them yet).

The CEO Gene

It always seems like I live a life of great serendipity. The other day, I’m still going through the old Freakonomics podcasts. The two next ones were all about children / parenthood. The first one I listened to, was especially fitting as I am still tinkering around with the idea of starting my own business. It was tilted The Church of Scionology or listen to the Podcast and hear great voice over repeating “Scion.” over and over. I always love learning new words, and with my new addition to the family, really like this word.

sci·on /ˈsīən/ Noun

A young shoot or twig of a plant, esp. one cut for grafting or rooting.

A descendant of a notable family.

They discuss a number of really interesting topics, and it is helpful that the two main companies they look into are related to beer (yes, Steven Dubner knows how to keep my attention). They get into discussion about the frequency in which companies that pass on their family buisness to a family member continue to succeed and that there really doesn’t appear to be a “CEO Gene.” I guess I must agree, for my little Mateo, with the Buffet Rule (both the one in the media recently and discussed on the podcast). I want my son to do what ever makes him happy and that he wants to do. That he would find his passion and follow after that. The other podcast that I listened to was The Economist’s Guide to Parenting. Another great story that you should take time to listen to.

Are You Ready or Not? Proud Father

Posted on Friday December 28, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

A photo of Minnie at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland and our baby Mateo Rodman Campbell, VSP.

We just wanted to update everybody, and let you all know that Minnie and I just had our baby. Minnie had gone in to her regular weekly check up with her doctor. Our pregnancy has been high risk due to the baby only having two arteries in the umbilical cord. While she was there doing the ultra sound they said that during her BBP testing only barely passed. She was put on a heart monitor and they said that he had “decels.” Basically that his heart beat was slowing down.

They sent her to Kadlec Regional Hospital to follow up. I left work at about 5 and headed that way to. by 5:45 she had been seen by the doctor and they told her that they were going to preform a C-Section. At 6:43 PM in Richland Washington on 12/27/12 “Mateo Rodman Campbell VSP” was born weighing 7 pounds 9.6 ounces and 20 inches. He was born three and half weeks early from our due date. He is healthy and we will be hanging out in the Hospital for the next couple of days. I’m sure I will write more with lots of cute little stories to tell and pictures to share.

Similarities of Bounty Hunters and Mental Health Case Managers

Posted on Tuesday December 18, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

Are mental health case managers like bounty hunters? It is a question in I ask in my blog post Similarities of Bounty Hunters and Mental Health Case Managers . In thinking about this blog post, it reminded me of the classic bounty hunter, Boba Fett from the original Star War’s Movies. I found the coloring page at Star Wars Forum. I embedded it into Adobe Illustrator and had it trace it and expand the tracing. I turned it into a live paint group and colored it in. The text states “Are Mental Health Case Managers Like Bounty Hunters?”

With my drive from Prosser Washington to Pasco twice a day, I’ve been listening to the Freakonomics Podcast (something that you should check out if you haven’t already… it will make you feel smarter). It’s been really interesting, I’m I’ve had a lot of things that I’ve thought about writing about, but just haven’t made time to write about yet. So you get my random thought of the day. The episode I was listening to was titled To Catch a Fugitive which is all about the economics of bounty hunters. As always, it was a well put together episode that was informative. They discussed the efficacy and some of the tactics that bounty hunters use.

As I was listening to the podcast, I found myself wondering if I could be a bounty hunter. That led to thoughts of how mental health case managers (i.e. my current position) are like bounty hunters. The most obvious similarity is sometimes the general tasks required. Frequently I find myself trying to track down clients and engage with them. This might mean calling collaterals, going by their homes or places that they hang out, and trying to get them to re-engage in services. This especially true when they have an appointment with our psychiatrist and they haven’t responded to say that they would show for their scheduled appointment.

They discussed that a good bounty hunter will build relationships with police and the community members. This also is true for case managers. I feel like an important part of my job is being the face of Tri-Cities Community Health in the community, building relationships, networking to be better able to connect clients to resources, and everything in the community.

I find myself, as I am trying to connect people to resources in the community (especially at DSHS), waiting around a lot. This means I need to find ways to be industrious (i.e. making phone calls as I drive with my bluetooth, something else discussed that bounty hunters do) and that much of my job is boring. In the podcast I believe that Bob Burton said that bounty hunting is 90% work and 10% adrenaline. I guess on this point, while I may not be kicking doors down or handcuffing people, there is that 10% that is super exciting and engaging and that reminds me of why I do what I do.

Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering Presentation

Posted on Thursday November 22, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

Recently at work, I created a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation for a training I did during one of our staff meetings. It is about affecting environmental change and empowerment theory. You can check out the tag Are You Pondering What I’m Pondering Presentation for all of the material that I uploaded regarding this presentation. It was really fun to put together, especially due to the fact that I used the theme of Pinky and the Brain. During my presentation, I even featured the cartoon introduction copied off of YouTube. You can see it below and linked at Pinky and The Brain Intro on YouTube. I created my own background title slide using some coloring page’s I found online (I lost the links to them).

This is the background that I used for the Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation I created for my my Empowerment Theory Presentation I created.

You can find my presentation: Empowerment Theory Presentation and the hand out that I gave my co-workers Empowerment Theory Presentation Handout

Follow Me to Freedom, Leadership / Followership and Shane Claiborn and John Perkins

Posted on Sunday November 18, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

Come along as we live out this conversation … there are many obstacles—so much suffering, poverty and violence. But our God is familiar with suffering. Our God can swallow up armies and pour out bread from the heavens. Wall Street may fail us, but the God who takes care of the lilies and the sparrows will never let us down. Our Savior has stared evil in the face and overcome it with love. And now we are invited to join the triumph of the cross … and to lead others on the narrow, rugged road to freedom. – From the back cover of the book

The cover for the Audiobook Version of Shane Claiborn and John Perkins book Follow Me To Freedom: Leading as Ordinary Radicals ( Google Books || Amazon ). I uploaded it for my blog post Follow Me to Freedom, Leadership / Followership and Shane Claiborn and John Perkins one of my Book Reviews.

I have really been inspired and encouraged by Shane Claiborn, and you can read my other book review A Look into Joining the Irresistible Revolution. While, I am somewhat familiar with Shane and the Simple Way (the intentional community Shane is involved with), I had not heard of John Perkins before. Interestingly enough, Jamie, my co-worker who lent me a copy of this audio book does know him.

As I am living a considerable distance from work, read my blog post When it Rains it Pours for some more information surrounding my move to Prosser, I was able to listen to the whole book in just a little over a week. During my car ride, it monopolized my time, not even leaving very much space for my normally appreciated National Public Radio listening Fervor. I came to find out later about the week (I believe that’s how long she said, but it might have been considerably longer) that spent with John Perkins. She talked about how her time spent with John challenged her perspectives on life and even influenced her later decision to move into the impoverished and underserved community of East Pasco. I also found out from her that he is an 82 year old advocate.

I didn’t read the book itself, so I am not sure how it flowed in its conversational format, but it seemed perfect for the audio format. It’s really structured as more of a conversation between Shane and John and goes back and forth between the two. I’m actually curious how the book displays the differences in voices that were so easily displayed by the portraying authors’ voices.

There were a number of really emboldening stories, [deep thoughts][18], topics that are import to me (community, leadership, how to follow, politics, etc.). Many of the topics addressed came back to relationship and community and how to do community development. The organization, Christian Community Development Association, came up a number of times. It really spoke to me in my position as the chairperson of the Pasco Discovery Coalition. Some of the methods of organizing these movements, the foundational inclusion of what they call indigenous leaders were all such promising topics. Now it will be trying to figure out how to help guide our coalition in that direction.

I would highly recommend this book, especially in its audio book format for any reader.

When it Rains it Pours

Posted on Monday November 5, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

A photo taken by Ami while were both still living down in Cusco Peru during my travel experience of my Jaunt Down South 2010 . It showcases how during the rainy season in Cusco Peru, the rain really pours down and the streets turn to rivers. During the peak of the rainy season (i.e. December to February) it can have an average of 133.9 inches receiving 401.7 inches of precipitation of the expected annual 707.8 inches per year in just those three months. Read the Wikipedia Article for more information regarding Cusco’s climate .

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on… So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow; will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34 in the NASB

In my second year at Columbia Basin College earning my AA Transfer Degree, I remember being in stress management class. I believe it was the first time that I was exposed to what I have heard over and over in my professional life regarding stress. He discussed a concept of clustering. This could be referred to as chronic or complex stress. This clustering is when an individual experiences a number of stressful events all near the same time period. Both in my life story and so much more in my experience working in mental health over the years, I can really see the truth and frequency that clustering happens.

Over and over in my interactions with my clients, I’ve heard them discuss complex stress even when they don’t understand it as such and only see it as a matter of their daily lives. Working with Medicaid clients and the severely chronically mentally ill at Tri-Cities Community Health’s Behavior Health Services Department (Neuva Esperanza Community Counseling Services), unscientifically I would propose that majority of our clients are experiencing the most complex trauma and stress. In thinking about it, I realistically don’t have any client who is only experiencing one major concern in their lives. Their lives tend to be series’ of crises and other problems. As a clinician, it can often times be difficult to discern what their underlying needs are or what issue to work on first.

Life and Its Constant Search for Balance

A photo taken at Tony Romas for our Baby Shower. You can check out the photo album, It’s a Boy! Family & Friends Baby Shower. It displays a photo of a balloon that was at our baby shower with the words “It’s a Boy” written on it.

On Saturday, October 13 Minnie and I were at Tony Romas celebrating the life growing inside of Minnie and getting ready for our baby boy that is expected to come in January 2013. We were completely focused on celebration prep and all of the friends and family that would be attending. I made these pretty snazzy invitations in Adobe Illustrator.

A graphic I created in Adobe Illustrator. This is one of the first graphics that I have ever created completely free hand without importing any other images. The front of the postcard displays a monkey I drew using shapes and merging them using the pathfinder function, two tags that state the event details and our registry. It is all designed to look like a gift with colored geometric design in the background and ribbon. There is a back side to the postcard that you can check out and I have uploaded the Baby Shower Announcement Postcard Front Adobe Illustrator File so that you can see more of what I did.

A graphic I created in Adobe Illustrator. The simple graphic displays more detailed information regarding the even along with space for a stamp and address block to be handwritten in. There is a front side to the postcard that you can check out and I have uploaded the Baby Shower Announcement Postcard Back Adobe Illustrator File so that you can see more of what I did.

We were preparing for a baby shower and had both of our families and friends from all over to celebrate at Tony Romas restaurant and to give us baby gifts because we didn’t have anything. As we were celebrating this new upcoming life, we had no idea that Minnie’s mother would pass away in a little over a week. You can check out the photo album, It’s a Boy! Family & Friends Baby Shower, on Facebook. During the baby shower, we had everybody participate in an activity where the guests wrote pieces of advice on a note card for Minnie and I. I really thought this was a cool idea, and wanted to find a great way to share them with everybody. I made a picture collage and a flash object.

This is a collage I made in Adobe Photoshop of the various advice cards we received from our guests we used as an activity during our baby shower. You can also see the Facebook album. It was inspired by playing around with Google’s Picasa Program I realized that I couldn’t make all of the changes I wanted to, so I ended up making it in Photoshop. The Photoshop tools I utilized were pretty basic. Over all of the individual cards, I added a stroke, some inner shadow and some drop shadow. To add a title to the picture, I used a square shape with stroke and pattern overlay. The text of the title just has some drop shadow and utilizes Bradly Hand font. I’ve also uploaded the PSD file so you can better see what I did.

The day after the baby shower, Teresa Garcia, Minnie’s mom went ended up going back to the hospital. She had fallen a couple of weeks before, but had not been improving even under her doctors care. While there was a lot of different factors and things that happened, all of which I’m not going to share here, her mother ended up in the Intensive Care Unit at Kadlec Hospital being sustained by life supportive machines. For over a week, Minnie was at the Hospital all day every day with her family and friends. After I would get off work, I’d head to spend time at the hospital too. This gave us a lot of different things to think about and consider.

She and her family had to make decisions about what quality of life is and what her, Teresa Garcia’s, desires would be given her living situation. It was not an easy week with a myriad of other things that came up and difficult situations. Last Monday (10/22/12) the family made the decision to take Minnie’s mother off of life support and she passed away several hours after that. You can see her death notice and her obituary in the Yakima Herald.

I took the rest of that week off to be able to be supportive and to help with the arrangements. During this time, we were asked to move in with her father and help to support him in Prosser Washington. We packed up all of our stuff and put two thirds of it into a storage unit in Pasco and moved the rest of it to their ranch. This week, I’ve been back a work but it’s been hard to catch back up. Other then moving and all sorts of other crazy stuff… I also got my wisdom teeth pulled (all four of them).

Hard for the Economy as For Individuals

Posted on Saturday September 15, 2012 by Jacob Campbell.

Yesterday, I was listening to an article on NPR’s Planet Money Even If You’re All-Powerful, It’s Hard To Fix The Economy.The article was all about how difficult it really would be to fix the economy. Using a computer generated model of the United States economy, they try to change various variables associated with the economy to improve it. What they find is that regardless of how many variables they change and how drastically they change those variables… it never gets back as good as it was. It makes me think of the work I do with some of my clients. Often times, when people have psychotic episodes and their mental health deteriorates, they won’t come back to their original baseline of functioning. This is not to say that when somebody experiences a new psychotic break that they can’t improve. But it is like they lose their ability to get back to the same normal that they once had. I guess it is the same for the economy. It almost like in both of those systems, too many things become broken and it becomes very difficult to get back to the same level you were at before.