Deidre Newman
Deirdre Newman is a seasoned journalist, with extensive experience reporting on community news, as well as business and legal reporting. She is also an investigative journalist who initiated and reported on a series on the squeezing of the middle class in Orange County, CA. This article on the homeless dovetails with her investigative series.
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Urban Compass Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary
On a playground in Watts, surrounded by barbed wire, kids are playing and laughing. They are immersed in the joy of the moment, insulated from what is going on around them. They are part of a program called Urban Compass. Its mission is going into the grittiest, low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods to keep kids in school and out of gangs, typically the only other viable alternative for survival. Urban Compass is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2015. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the Watts riots, which were caused by high unemployment, below-average schools, and inferior living conditions, according to a report published by a commission that investigated…
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Get High Naturally: Recovery Movement Insider Creates A Program For Kids
Dr. Dan Headrick wants your kids to get high. Not that way. A natural high. He wants them to be so high on life itself that there will be absolutely no temptation to even try alcohol or drugs until they’re 21. To that end, he created The Other Side, a DVD and presentation targeting fourth- and fifth-graders because that’s the optimal age to have an impact on them and because kids are starting to experiment with drugs and alcohol at younger ages these days. He takes the adage “Just Say No,” espoused by Nancy Reagan in the 80s, and flips it to create a new paradigm – essentially “Just Say Yes” to your passion, and let…
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20th Anniversary Of Sonenshine Pro Bono Event
When Jayna Zimmelman suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her fiancée, she managed to escape her living situation with her toddler and a garbage bag full of clothes. Destitute and distraught, Zimmelman thought she would have to fend for herself in the legal thicket of avoiding her abuser and maintaining custody of their child. Fortunately, she found shelter at Human Options, which has been operating shelters for victims of domestic violence for close to 35 years. The non-profit matched her with a pro bono lawyer from Troutman Sanders, Binh Pham. He found Human Options through an annual, legal matchmaking event known as the Sonenshine Pro Bono Reception, which connects young lawyers…
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Homeless Struggle To Re-Enter The Mainstream
Originally Published By The Indy. Tony, a 48-year-old homeless man, misses his wife. They used to take shelter at night together in his car, but he wanted better for her, so she went to live with her mother. He became unemployed and homeless after a construction accident stuck a skill saw through his leg. He refuses to sleep inside the Laguna Beach homeless shelter because of overcrowding and because even if he can get in, he ends up sick, he said. Tony isn’t alone in expressing his frustration with the conditions at the shelter, known as the Alternative Sleeping Location. The objections he voiced are also spelled out in a…
