MSSP Roz Pichardo 25.10.16

Michael Schweisheimer: [00:00:00] You good? Alright, here we go.

Speed.

3, 2, 1. It's time for the Mission Story Slam Podcast, brought to you by PWP Video. I'm Michael Heimer. I'm the executive producer at PWP Video Mission Story Slam, and having just returned from Chicago, I'm a Mallor survivor. If you know, then know. So I also have survived throwing a dozen mission story slams.

Now our 13th edition is scheduled for Tuesday evening November 18th at National Mechanics. We are very excited to have been invited to be a part of Generosities Philanthropy Week. We're adapting their theme for the Slam. So prepare your stories on the theme of Braver today. Learn about other events@philanthropyweek.org.

That's PHL. Anthropy week.org. In other exciting partnership news, the Philadelphia citizen [00:01:00] is now officially our media sponsor. If you aren't already reading the citizen head over to the philadelphia citizen.org. There's one sponsorship gap we are still looking to fill, which is a new lead sponsor. If you're interested in reaching our audience of engage and inspiring Philadelphians, let us know by dropping an email to info@pwpvideo.com.

One thing that Mission Story Slam is never missing is connections. Lots of them. I first learned about today's guest at Ignite Philly 24, which was in May of 2024. Ignite was actually a major inspiration for me in putting together Mission Story Slam. It's a group of presentations that last five minutes with 20 slides and 15 seconds of.

No stopping. It is crazy. It was started by a group of people including Jeff Dessi, Alex Hillman, Adam Teris, and probably some other cool folks that I don't even know about. So I'm there for the first post, COVID Ignite and Ra Pichardo takes the stage along with Clayton Ruly. Roz has [00:02:00] this book where she records the overdose issues reversed.

So back a year and a half ago, that number was at 2335. Ross, do you have any idea what the number is today? I would say it's about, uh, little over 3000. My goodness, that is way too many to have added to that list in that shorter period of time. Yeah. I'm on my second book, so Okay. Yeah. To continue how I met you the next time I saw you, you showed up at the Fittler Club where I learned we both have been selected in the inaugural cohort of the Fittler Foundation, impact residents.

There's a little shout out to Dr. Kimberly McGaugh, but I knew that I wanted Roz to come and tell a story. So she was nervous, she was unsure, and she hated that she couldn't bring that little book as a prop. But she showed up and she showed up big and she won the judges award that night. And an awful lot of love from the audience and definitely undying respect and love from me.

So before we fully get started, I do want to give just a couple trigger [00:03:00] warnings. RA's story is tough. Raza may need your help here, but I know people need to be ready to hear about intimate partner violence, murder, suicide, substance use disorder, depression, and trauma in general. Is there anything I might have missed?

Yeah, maybe a little graphic with how I describe my memory of many of those things. So yeah, definitely trigger warning. Oh, Raz, we swear on this podcast, so feel free by the way. Okay. Oh, and there's also, yeah, an L warning. Yes. There is this thing that we call the Kensington Pause, but we won't pause, but you will hear the train at as it rolls by the space.

So I loved it. That's the name of it. That's cool. Yeah. But I will point out, believe it or not, with all of those trigger warnings, there is some good news. I'm gonna let Ross's story tell it a little bit more fully. But today will also be about overcoming trauma. We're gonna hear about harm reduction and you're probably gonna hear the word sunshine more often than you're used to hearing it.

Is there anything else you think we should say before I play your story for everybody that, let's roll with it. The theme [00:04:00] is the time is now, but I wanna kind of begin with the time was then, um, 16 years old, I survived and attempted homicide by a childhood. Boyfriend. Um, so I experienced that early on in life and, um, my journey to surviving was simply, don't be quiet.

Um, just speaking up. And when I survived that attempted homicide, um, by an ex who then murdered my boyfriend was overwhelming at the age of 16 and having to testify. And being intimidated by family members and other folks in the community. So I learned early on not to shut the fuck up. Yeah, to speak up.

So that was at 16 and the pain was overwhelming. [00:05:00] However, I lived, right? I got to tell the story and got to testify. But then heartache hit again. So my identical twin sister, Kathleen Pichardo, who suffered from mental health and substance use disorder, was allowed access to a firearm literally two days after being released for the, from a mental facility, um, was able to purchase a nine millimeter, um, and then ultimately took her life.

My activism didn't stop with my, with my boyfriend. It didn't stop with my attempted homicide. Then it increased my ability to heal from trauma, of losing my boyfriend, almost losing my life, and then losing part of myself. I spoke up, I talked about her. I tried my best to [00:06:00] share my life with folks and how it was to lose.

Part of me, Kathleen Pichardo. So then it was just another skill of learning to heal from one trauma from another trauma. 2012, my brother, who was a happily gay man, was going to go pick up some dinner. And someone approached him and my nephew, they said to him, give up your shit. Gave him everything he had.

Not only did he gave him his keys, his money, they called him a faggot, and they took his life. My trauma didn't end there. That activism began the time. Was then [00:07:00] the fire that was lit inside me because of the loss, immense loss, the loss of my boyfriend, the attempt of my life, the suicide of my sister, dealing with a fucking broken system that didn't defend us.

The time was now. Operations Saver City was born in 2012, fighting for the justice of people who want to live freely. Whether you're gay, you're bi, you're part of the L-G-B-T-Q, who gives a fuck, you have the right to live whoever you want to be. So the time was now, so when Operation Saver City was built.

We helped families. We were helping support families of homicide victims, but layers of trauma that needed to be healed for myself, for my mother, for my family. The, the [00:08:00] politicians didn't have a clue how to deal with our, with our agony in our pain. We went to certain council person, or we won't even say any names 'cause I'm not trying to make this political.

There was no help. So this is where I began to be, create spaces for people who needed to heal. Operation Saver City was born, and now we have a place so people can come and heal. And now we're dealing with families of homicide victims, but we're also dealing with people who are unhoused in addiction and these fucked up policies of mobile services that people need and now you're causing more harm.

The time is now the system of fucking ice coming in in schools. The time is now. We gotta speak up. You know, as a, as a Dominican woman and dealing with families who are being, being like deported for being hardworking fucking citizens, [00:09:00] the time is now. So if you want to help support an organization that's been on the grounds for over a decade, the fucking time is now.

So come down to Kensington. That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at. I'm serving 300 people a day. Both families of homicide victims, people in addiction. People are hoarding. My mom is volunteering. She's fucking healing. Years of seeing sorrow. Did I not mention that a year after my brother was, was shot dead?

My dad, I forgot to mention that. My dad said, I wanna fight. I wanna find my son shooter. Change who he was as a person. Every black man that walked around with Timberlands and khaki pants, he killed my son. No pop. He didn't change my dad forever. He will stay every day. [00:10:00] I wanna die and not wake up. I wanna go to sleep.

I'm gonna go to bed. I don't wanna wake up one day. He went to bed and he didn't wake up. So you wanna support the time is now. Thank you. You okay Russ? Oh yeah. I could almost hear like the. Pain in my voice when I forgot to mention about my dad. It's wild in the world of storytelling and story slams, and one of the main things we do to everybody is we don't let you come up with notes or props or things like that, and it is really easy to get.

Into that moment, and you had so much going on in your life, but in that story, yeah, so raw. You were so raw, and I think that's why the audience really was so intently listening and so bonded to what your story was. It's a hell of a thing to be able to show up that way. So thank you. I know that's how you show up in your life, but man, you're [00:11:00] welcome.

Um, you know, I was thinking about maybe starting this after we played your story. Would you mind if we just had a, a brief moment to honor your high school boyfriend, your twin sister, your brother, and your father? Maybe just five or 10 seconds. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Let's do that.

Silence in a podcast might get a little weird, so I'm keeping it a little shorter than maybe we might in other situations. Yeah. But I wanted to maybe have that space for you, for our listeners, 'cause that is not a light story. So, um, Hey, you mentioned that you were. Going back and listening to the story before the podcast, and I appreciate you doing that.

And you said you shared it with your staff and I'm curious what some of their reactions were like. So we played it in the space and a lot of folks didn't know why I started, you know, the Sunshine House or Operation S City. They gave 'em some more insight about how we got started and some of the volunteers.

Also didn't know my story. They just come [00:12:00] from different backgrounds and say, Hey, I wanna help. We have a shared respect for one another because now I know their stories. Mm-hmm. So it's like, oh wow, that's similar to what happened to me earlier on in life. And so we may see eye to eye on some things, and we may have experienced some of the same things for some reason because of the context in which I've met you both through the Ignite and then at the Impact Fellowship.

I thought you led with your story a little bit more. It's intense. I wouldn't want to have to tell that story every day, but I'm a little surprised that some of your staff and volunteers were not familiar with that. Yeah, yeah, and a lot of people aren't. I think because I wear different hats and I work for a long time, I was working in different places.

So when someone used to see me working in the er. That would be different when they see me working at Prevention Point, when I used to work there, they would think, oh, automatically, maybe she's in recovery, which I'm not. So it just depends on where you [00:13:00] find me or where we met and they just don't know in depth like where all of this fight came from.

So you mentioned working in an er. Are you, do you have a medical background? I actually don't know what you might have studied. No. Let me tell you, I don't have a degree in shit but the streets, to be honest. It's just, you know, when I was working at the er, I was a trauma advocate. Okay? I surely worked with gunshot victims, rapes and assaults, and my role there was to connect people to services to find out who they are, who's the next of kin, prepare them for when the family comes to view them if they didn't survive, that kind of thing, and just get general details of what happened.

Well, you've got multiple PhDs as far as I'm concerned, so, uh, yes. Yeah, so there's that street cred. Yeah. Damn. Damn right. So, do me a favor, I've mentioned sunshine. You've mentioned Sunshine House. Can you explain what the word sunshine means in Roswell? Yes. So sunshine for me is like someone [00:14:00] who is like either unhoused or an addiction, and I don't know your name.

Or if I just don't know your name, if you're down in Kensington and I don't know your name, and, and we met. Whether you're a professional or whatever you, you're sunshine. But it's pretty funny, you know, when you know, hey sunshine, you say that. Everybody's turning around, so, oh no, the sunshine in the blue shirt.

Let me get the sunshine in the blue shirt. Oh, that's awesome. And it's so, it's like it's, everybody knows. Everyone knows down here what a sunshine is. Oh, it's me. That's, well, Raj, you are, or it's her across the street. Yeah, I'm gonna go with, it's also, you are an awful lot of sunshine, my friend. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I'm Mama Sunshine. No doubt. They call me Mama Sunshine down here, so that's okay. Oh, that's awesome. That's great. Yeah, mama Sunshine's the best. So the big question that comes up for me, hearing that story and then knowing about the work that you've been doing, you talked about. When you lost your brother, that's when you started operation Save our city.[00:15:00]

But it seems to me like your whole life, or at least your whole grown up life, you have really been channeling trauma into activism. Mm-hmm. The things that you have been through and experienced. I don't think anyone would fault you if you'd had times where you were not being a very positive person. Did you actively make that decision?

Is it inherent in you as a human? Like how did you channel trauma to activism? So, so I always try to find an outlet for the pain that I was experiencing. And this started very early on. I love my mom dearly. No shame on my mom. My mom was a tough mom. She was very, very tough early on, and she had kids very early as well.

Mm-hmm. So her ability to be the mom that she is now wasn't, it wasn't the same. So we were, it was like borderline. Beatings. Like we did some shit. We're getting our ass kicked. Right? Yeah. But there was some other things that would've been borderline. Young mom, my dad left when I was six, and then my stepdad came [00:16:00] along and my step who raised me was an awesome dad, but my mom just didn't know how to be that mom for a long time until she had more kids.

Right. Okay. With my stepdad. Something shifted my mom, where she was becoming a really good mom and a mom who was more aware. And finally I started to love my mom again. Oh, that's awesome. And um, yeah. And then. Of course, this is like many years later, but I always try to find an outlet for the pain that I was experiencing.

I always used sports. I always used writing. I always used art growing up in high school and in middle school when I used to experience these things with my mom, so I had to like escape it some way. I was just having this conversation the other day. I think he was quoting someone who, I can't remember the quote so I'll get it wrong, but it was something effect of an idea is just an idea until you put it down on paper.

And I'm wondering if that, having that writing. Uh, practice may be a strong word, but that writing [00:17:00] habit, if that helped you, oh, there's that Kensington pause. Mm-hmm. That's right. In the building. But if that writing habit helped you to solidify the idea that you wanted to start to do things. 'cause I think it's all of us think like, oh, I'm having a hard time.

There are things I'd like to do. Do you think that writing those words down for yourself helped you to channel from ideas to action? Uh, no. You know what? I think my writing was more about how I hated my situation. Okay. And I think, I'm not a, I'm not a doctor, but I think that what happens is with people with A DHD like myself, um, or like me, we just saying love that.

Like, I, I was always about doing something physically. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I didn't really like reading and writing that much, but when I did it was always like dark. Okay. It wasn't like one of those writings like, oh, you're so powerful. It was like, no, it's y'all about to go into a mental institute. Like the stuff was [00:18:00] so dark because I was experiencing such pain growing up, but my.

My ability to run and to jump hurdles. And as a gymnast, that was always my thing, my outlet. Do you still, whether or not it's organized sports, are you still athletic? Do you still get out and do that? Oh, you nuts. I might break a bone. I'm old. Oh my goodness, man. I'm afraid I'm gonna get like a little arthritis in the elbows.

Like I, I'm not, no, I'm not doing it. I do go to the gym though. Okay. That's as close as. Fitness as I get as far as, and that's barely, like when I go to the gym sometimes I go and do the, the massage chair if that counts. You know what? I like your approach to the gym. Listen, operations, save our city. You talked about starting it in 2012, and I think in the timing of your story.

That was precipitated by your brother's murder. Mm-hmm. Was that something that you had been thinking of before that tragedy, or how [00:19:00] did it come up? How did that idea start? I remember how I felt when my boyfriend was murdered and the power that I felt when I testified and when my brother was murdered, there was no shooter.

We don't know who the shooter is. We never caught the shooter. So my only way that I can gain that power back to like motivate people to do stuff was to be on the front line. And that was just to ignite something. And other people that I felt once before, especially cases that are unsolved. So my way of doing that was just like supporting the families, being there, listening to them when I knew that someone was murdered in Philly, I'll be the first one on the mom's couch.

How can I help? What can we do? You know why I'm sitting on the couch talking to this mom, one of my volunteers are doing the dishes or fold the lady's laundry, or, you know, the normal things that moms and family members don't wanna do in a time of grief. And it's really that simple. [00:20:00] Just being there, being present with folks.

My mom didn't wanna do no dishes. Sure. My mom didn't wanna do laundry. My mom didn't wanna take care of the family. She was grieving. So in order to lend support, that's just some of the little things that we used to do for a long time. Just helping families, uh, solve cases, solve cases. Oh yeah, that, that was another.

So there's this film that we did, it's called Mother Undercover, um, and it's played on Hulu and it talks about a mother myself, and she lost her son, and Lisa would pretend to be someone she wasn't. I would pretend to be someone that I wasn't, almost like catfishing on social media and in person social media obviously.

We didn't look like what we portrayed ourselves. We would get answers, like we would find out where the shooting happened and we would troll. We would troll everybody and their mom who was in that bar that night, and we found out where they lived. We found out who the shooter [00:21:00] was. We found out, geez, what biker clubs they were, oh, we were sassy.

We, let me tell you, I wore these shoes. My feet hurt for days. I was this little sassy queen down on fifth Street, almost like a Lady of the Night type Joan. Oh my God. And, and we went into this biker club and we sat there, we had a few cocktails or whatever, but we were getting answers left and right for these shooters.

And it was just like, that's crazy at all. Cost. Right. And then, uh, we were handing out flyers and then when I found out where they lived at, early on, I made really dumb mistakes like saying, operation save our city on these flyers. I know. In hindsight that if I'm looking for somebody, I'm not gonna put operations save our city.

I'm just gonna put crimes commission or something. Okay. And put the tip line, which is citywide tip line. So I would find out where the shooter's family live at. Where their mom live at, where their out live at. Like, yo, your sons want it for murder. Wow. Or your, or your, or your cousins want it for murder, and I put it in their mailbox.[00:22:00]

$20,000 reward. Who wants it? I would do crazy shit like that, putting myself at risk a lot. So. I've shied away from doing that, but that's how we used to find shooters because money talks when somebody's broke. Yeah. There's a $20,000 award. Yeah. So we're sharing that. Did a lot of people, did you find a lot of people?

Yeah. We were able to find a lot of people through our work. That's wild. I did not know that was part of what you'd done in Operation Save our city at all. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of things we don't share because again, when I used to live, like early on when my brother was murdered, I just wanna check, you do know that I'm putting this out as a podcast, right?

Like Yeah, it's okay. You're okay with me putting that? I don't wanna share anything that's gonna put you any No, no. It's, it's cool. I mean that that danger's done. We have tens of listeners. Tens. It's okay. Anyway, sorry. Yeah. So it's just like, for me. We do the work and sometimes there's some danger involved, but when it got too bad, like it got really, really bad one time where we were [00:23:00] following this, we're gonna call 'em H.

We were following H when there was a murder that happened and he found out where I lived. So you know, you ever seen like the world's dumbest criminals where they used the same car that they shot someone with to shoot up your house? That's what he did. The same car. You shot up your house, Ross? Oh yeah.

So I had to move. I was on Allegheny, living on Allegheny, so I moved, they ended up catching him. I watch a lot of crime shows. I would dump the car or burn it or something. Well, he kept the car, he kept riding around the same car. So that's what happened. I mean, you know, let's, we'll start with the line of work that they're in already, but I'm just glad you were okay and that Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

That's pretty, that's some scary stuff. All good. So yeah, this work is scary. So when you started operation at Save City, were you focused on trying to find shooters? Like when did you start doing the mobile services in the community and helping people experiencing addiction disorders? Oh, so I [00:24:00] was burnt out.

I was burnt out from working with families of homicide victims for a while. Understandable. I, yeah. And I knew that I wanted to serve. I just didn't know in what capacity. I started riding around in my minivan and we made peanut butter jelly sandwiches and rolled up some socks and we're just like giving that stuff out, out on the avenue.

And then between then I kept finding people blue and unresponsive. I'm like, what the fuck do I do with this? This guy is not breathing. What do I do with this? What in heaven's earth do I do with this? So I learned how to reverse an overdose, and then now I'm like. 3000 overdose reversals in, I never left either field, so now I'm doing both.

I guess it's the same field of trauma, but different field of services. Well, I mean, there's no shortage of trauma that people need help with, but there's very few people that'll step into it the way that you do. I did it as this, um, short doc. Mm-hmm. And would it, I remember me saying if I don't help [00:25:00] someone who experienced trauma, I don't know what use I am.

I remember saying that, and I remember saying, not chasing trauma, but being in it is actually a thing for people who've experienced trauma. Like, oh, okay, I'm in it all the time. I'm in it. I'm in it, and I can't really shut it off. It's not something I can say. Oh. Let me turn this light switch off. It's not like that for me.

It's more, let me see how I can help you navigate it. So let's do this for real. Let's do that. So if there's something that that like my community or my sunshine's experiencing, I can give them some point or say, well this, this is what helps for me. Mm-hmm. Now, when I'm experiencing myself, like watching someone od or dealing with a gunshot victim, that vicarious trauma, then I know.

That when I get off work, I step out of it in a way where I'm gonna chill. I'm not gonna look at my phone. I'm gonna try to do something a little bit different tonight. Maybe I'll go to the massage place, [00:26:00] you know, get in that chair. So yeah, get in a chair, you know? They get mad at me playing fitness though.

'cause I'm stay in a chair. I take longer than 15 minutes. And it was like, well do you know? You know there's a list. Okay, well put me back on the list. You know this is me. Yeah. I argue with them all the time and they're like, I come in, they look at me. Oh God, look, she's coming to get the chair. I'm like, dang, y'all should plan fitness.

Y'all got enough money? Y'all should get like five fucking chairs then yeah, get another chair. Get a hold of room full of chairs. They got like four hydro chairs and two little chair. You're cracking me up so much. Sorry. It's just funny. Yeah. But plan, if they need to do better with them chairs, there's people like me that need to go in there and use them chairs.

Yeah, for real. You deserve some support and some massage. But I'm gonna back you up for just one second 'cause I'm trying to, you said something that I'm trying to. Process a little bit. So you talked about how you're always in trauma, I think is maybe what you said. I could be wrong. I, yeah, no, exactly what I said.

Like I'm always in it. Let me ask you a question, 'cause here's what I'm trying to figure out. When you say that, are you saying that you're always in [00:27:00] trauma because of your, your own trauma that you've experienced and that you're in the world of helping others with trauma? Or are you talking about you're always in it because you're always putting yourself out there to help others in their trauma?

No, but I would say both. Like I. I would say both. There is times where I'm here at work and something's always happening, right? Mm-hmm. So I'm always thinking about how I felt. I put myself back into that mode so that I can know, oh, when I was in it, this worked for me. Yeah. And I can be able to relate to the person, well try this or do this, or do you know?

Just because you're feeling like this doesn't mean you always have to come in like that. For instance, I have this one sunshine that I call him Thundercloud. Okay. Exactly. I call him Thundercloud. So he comes in and he's always like rolling around, running into people, running into things, and I'm like, Thundercloud, why are you doing this?

Why is your pants hanging off your ass? Oh, I got this going on. No, let's slow it down. [00:28:00] I, we all going through some shit. It doesn't mean you have to show up like this. Mm-hmm. Just because we're experiencing this trauma or this stuff, you don't have to show up all like that. So then he'll tighten up, go back out the door, pull your pants up.

Yeah. You can always be in it. 'cause we're always in it, but it don't mean you gotta pass that shit off to everybody else all the time. You gotta be a part of the solution. So that's what I mean, like I'm in it all the time. I feel it all the time, but it doesn't mean I got to. Go to spaces and everybody else gotta feel it.

There's gotta be something that you can give to prevent or to heal people from feeling that trauma. So, okay. If that makes sense. Oh no, it makes a lot of sense. So I just want to make sure I follow and understand some of the things that you're doing on the regular. So you started out helping support families, then you were finding and identifying murderers, then you started.

Getting into the street working in Kensington, which led you to learning how to use Narcan and do reversals. It sounds like that was a big turning point for you in terms of where you were putting a lot of your time or, so I was doing [00:29:00] both. To be honest. I was working at Prevention Point, which is a harm reduction space, but I also was working with Ceasefire pa, um, when we're learning policy legislation and bills being passed when it comes to gun violence and what it looks like for someone who shouldn't have a weapon.

Background checks, universal background checks. Like we were, I was learning all of these things, so I couldn't necessarily leave both worlds, but I found that. There was more healing for me, um, doing more hands-on work with people here in Kensington and with people in addiction. And even though it does kind of go hand in hand, 'cause it's a lot of sunshines out here, who the reason why they're using it's.

Because they were shot or because they were physically abused and all of these dark things that, that lead to addiction. Sometimes I found that it was happening to a lot of my folks who are using. So I do both, but I do more of this hands-on, sunshine House, clothing, case management. Get people into housing.

[00:30:00] Get people into treatment. Tell me a little bit about Sunshine House. 'cause that's pretty relatively new, isn't it? When did you open Sunshine House? Uh, maybe like two years. That's awesome. Be, yeah, like two years. I'm guessing that it's close to the L. Is it close to the L? Oh yeah, we're below the, we're underneath the L.

Yeah. Okay. That's what it sounds like. Yes, yes. Like a tunnel. So yeah, we're at the Somerset station. Legit at the Somerset station. Literally when you get off the Somerset stop, you make a right. I'm right there. The first building. Why did you decide to open a storefront? So I was here previously as a facilitator.

Of art Way before the pandemic, it was a collaboration of mural arts and KCDC impact services prevention, point CBH, so organizations providing a space, music, art workshops. Cool. So I was facilitating stuff here. Uh, and then when they closed, they said, oh, it was due to the pandemic. [00:31:00] I think it was because the population that we were serving.

So anyway, they closed and I wanted to come back. I said, how do I reopen it myself? So three years we'll come by and now I would tell the landlord, I said, listen. I said, don't rent the space 'cause I'm gonna get it. And he didn't believe me. He's like, oh, I don't know. And then he gave me a number. I'm like, oh shit, I gotta work like three jobs.

So shit, I was working three jobs. I was working at Prevention Point, I was working at Temple University Emergency Room. I was working for Ceasefire pa, and I was running my nonprofit. My operation, favorite city. So I was doing all that, trying to get my coins together, and it didn't quite have it until I did a film called Trigger.

And when I did this documentary with First Person Arts, an anonymous donor came. This person says. I wish I knew who they were. Um, and they said, oh, we wanna help support operations, savers City. And they did. Wow. They helped me with some funds, a first round, and then it was like [00:32:00] 47,000. I was like, oh, I'm gonna quit one of my jobs.

So I quit one of my jobs and then they came back again. And they're like, oh, we wanna support again. Shit. I damn near almost had a heart attack. They gave me like, yeah, for real. They gave me 300,000. I was like, shit, I'm quitting. I'm quitting all my jobs. I was like, I'll see y'all later. I gave my three weeks notice.

I said, blessings, and I'm rolling out. Yeah. But I treated the space for three years. Every fucking day I would come here and sweep the front like it was my, and then when it was snow, I would shovel it like the shit was mine, still didn't have fucking keys. I'm like, man, I'm gonna get the keys like for three years.

I would beg 'em. I'd say, you are not gonna rent it out, because people have been looking at it. I said, Kip. I'm gonna get it. I said, don't let nobody get it. He said, I'm not gonna wait another year. I said, you don't have to. I was like, I showed him the letter, the letter and everything. I said, you don't have to.

I got the money. We got the money. That's amazing. We was on it. We was on it. Like, um, three weeks later I was in [00:33:00] here. I hadn't even had the lease yet. I said, let me get the key so I can clean it out at least. So he let me clean it. Oh, that's cool. And then still, I still had to paint it, so I was in here like a month prior for getting the lease and everything.

It was great. All right, so the lesson is I will never not believe something you say you're gonna do. Just so you know. 'cause that is clear. Oh yeah, yeah. People fuck around. Find out. Don't, don't bet. Don't bet against Roz. And a lot of people doubted me. They'll be like, you know the naysayers. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.

'cause I was steadfast focused. I'm like, I know I'm gonna get the place. Like I'm working like three jobs. I'm gonna get it even if I gotta work another year. I was determined. I just wanna make sure our audience is a pretty tuned in audience, but can you just give like, the simplest explanation of what harm reduction is as a approach or philosophy?

So harm reduction is essentially if someone, let's say we're combating the HIV or the Hepatitis. Um, so we're, we're trying to make sure that people don't [00:34:00] spread it. We're gonna give you a smoking kit so that you're not. Smoking out of plastic. Like Gotcha. Like just some of the stuff that they do. We're gonna, we're gonna give you these tools so that you don't further harm yourself.

You're gonna use 'cause because you're an addiction, but you don't have to spread anything while you're using. That's what harm reduction is for me. I meet people exactly where they are. Okay. It's not something that you can arrest your way out of. You can't arrest someone for being unhoused. You shouldn't be allowed to just do these like inhumane things, like especially allowing like officers to conduct the work themselves in a way that's.

Not humane. You know, they need additional training to deal with people who are unhoused and in addiction. Well, that's just something totally different from just being a, an officer in Center City or South Philly, like Kensington is a whole nother world when it comes to people in addiction, people in unhoused, and there's just a certain way you gotta treat people who are going [00:35:00] through that struggle and kicking them.

It's not one of them. Yeah. And I see that a lot and how they minister Narcan too. I feel like police have recently been weaponizing it just to say, oh, I'm gonna get 'em up. Help me understand. How do you weaponize Narcan? So when they're tired of, of people laying out and you, you tell them to move or you can't lay Here, you, you're now this, this new.

Bill or law, you're blocking the highway is what they say. So if they can't get you up because you're heavily sedated because of the tran, they'll give you Narcan. Narcan doesn't work for Meine or Xylazine, so for them to use it is you're essentially weaponizing it and you're sending someone into withdrawal unnecessarily.

I would always recommend just call EMS and they'll come and get 'em. Gotcha. There's no need to send someone into withdrawal, especially if they have endocarditis, a blood infection. If they have all of these things and they're sent into withdrawal, they can be very deadly, [00:36:00] and that's what they don't understand.

When you're dealing with people in addiction and have underlining conditions, you can't just send someone into withdrawal like that. Narcan, putting people into withdrawal. Can you just explain what you mean by that? So when you give someone Naloxone Narcan, it's a overdose reversal drug. If you give someone too much it, what it does is if someone's ODing mm-hmm.

It blocks the receptors in your brain, it doesn't allow you to get high anymore, and it's reversing the effect of the overdose, right? But if you give them too much, you're gonna make someone very, very sick. Like the first dose you're gonna, you're gonna feel queasy. You're gonna feel a little queasy, you're gonna feel a little sick.

But if you give someone too too much instant withdrawal, like you are vomiting, you're shitting your pants, you're pissing yourself, it is horrific. And if you have underlying condition like endocarditis or which is a heart condition, or like blood infections, it's gonna make things a lot [00:37:00] worse for you when you go into the hospital, which is why a lot of people, if you've given 'em like four narcans, they're gonna feel very sick, like they need to be.

In the hospital. Some people have stroked out, some people have had heart attacks. Right? It's just so much that goes on with this withdrawal symptoms. When you think about, you know, like the family of Amanda Cahill who died on the prison floor because of going through withdrawal. Um, and that's the initiative of the mayor, you know, the, the wellness court, or the wellness village is what she's calling it.

You're sending people into a place that used to be a prison and making it into a home that's traumatizing the self. As someone who even went into the prisons as an inmate. Like that doesn't make any sense to me. So I don't know. It's just a lot of things that need to be done. And although money is good and money can get you certain places, money doesn't make you humane.

You have to already have that in your heart. And some policies are not humane. And I just wonder what the motives are for [00:38:00] people who are, um, making money off the people who are suffering. Do you feel like you're getting to a point where your work is having the impact that you want it to is when students come back, so I have like a summer program where kids come there between the ages of 12 and 18.

You got sunshine's living on their block, their uncles of sunshine. Their cousins are probably dealers and we're dealing with this epidemic together, literally. Gotcha. And, um, they know how to stop the bleed. They know how to reverse an overdose and they know how to train people. So what we've done over the summer is we've trained over 300 stores, corner stores on how to administer Narcan and how to stop the bleed if someone stabbed or shot.

And we provided the emergency response kits to those bodegas. Wow. You do a lot, Ross. I can't even track it all. I gotta tell you, we have a team. It's really not just me though. Oh, no, I, I, I understand. I know, I know it's not you solo, but it is an amazing team. It takes [00:39:00] entire community to put these efforts into place and seeing results.

I mean, they've seen our tourniquets go through these ERs, so I'm grateful. Alright. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your openness. I appreciate everything that you do. And I wanna make sure you know anything that I can do and that mission story slam committee can do to shine a light. On the work that you're doing in Operation Save our city, your whole team.

Let us know. Is there anything coming up in particular that you wanna make sure the people listening are aware of? Just that we always need additional support. Like we always need that little stuff here. Water and. Individually wrapped snacks. So my mom doesn't always have to cook. Give, gives her a day off at the kitchen.

But I like muffins and stuff for the morning is always great razors, 'cause people still wanna look good and feel good. Mm-hmm. And, and like little hand sanitizers and things like that, wipes are a big help for folks who don't have access to showers and water, the basics. Basics here. [00:40:00] What about money? Is, are donations important for Operation Save our City?

Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. So yeah, if anyone wants to donate operations, save our City of Culture Trust. They can donate to us anytime. Well, where do we find you Online? So you can find me on Facebook Operations, save Our City, or Roz Pichardo. Also, you can find me on Instagram operation, save Our City. And I think that's it.

Okay. Oh, y'all can call the Sunshine House too if y'all wanna talk to us. 2 6 7 8 0 4 71 66. And if you wanna drop off any snacks, we are at, uh, sunshine House, 27 74 Kensington Avenue. And if you're catching the L you're going to get off right on Somerset and then come see us. Is there any chance, you don't have to tell a story, but do you think there's any chance we might see you on November 18th for the next story slam just to have you in the room?

Yeah, sure. I'll lock it in. That would be great. It would be great to keep you as part of our community. Yeah, for sure. At the story slam, [00:41:00] I was watching a bunch of them after I left, like previous ones, so, so anything else, uh, before we close that you wanna make sure we talk about? No, no, no. Just be kind. Be kind and keep loving on them.

Sunshines. I cannot think of many better examples than Roz Pichardo her story and her work at Operations Save Our City. To demonstrate just what we are trying to do with the community of Mission Story Slam, Roz is exactly why we are trying to build a community for all of us doing the hard work of doing good, and we need your help to do that.

So please direct people to our website, mission story slam.org. Or have them follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram. You could also bring yourself and some friends or colleagues out to National Mechanics on November 18th when we will have our 13th edition. The theme is Braver Today because we are part of Generosity's Philanthropy Week.

Thanks again to our media partners at the Philadelphia Citizen. I strongly recommend checking out their reporting and leadership and solutions journalism. The Mission Story Slam Podcast is [00:42:00] produced by Dave Winston, and it is edited by James Robinson. The pod itself is produced and brought to you by PWP Video.

We are video with a mission. Find us@pwpvideo.com. Until our next episode, I sure do hope I remain Michael Schweitzer and I look forward to sharing the next story behind the story with you soon.