I’m so proud and grateful to welcome Lisa Halverstadt onto our show today. Lisa is a senior investigative reporter for Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit investigative outlet in San Diego. Lisa writes extensively about her community's homelessness, substance abuse and behavioral health crises and the people impacted by them.
I met Lisa a couple of months ago when my brother-in-law died from the effects of substance abuse disease and homelessness. We all missed him terribly for the decade plus that addiction created a distance we couldn’t quite bridge. We missed a lot in his life. And when he died, we felt hungry for any piece of him that we could hold onto that would let us back into his life.
My daughter in her own search for understanding the uncle that she'd never really gotten to know, stumbled across this article that had been written by Lisa. It gave us peace and understanding about something we really struggled to understand
And, that’s what Lisa’s work does: it creates understanding and it bridges gaps. She creates greater awareness of the experience of homelessness, and its effects on individuals and families and in doing so rehumanizes these people who struggle day to day just to stay alive.
We also discuss what it’s like to be an Uplifter doing this intensely emotional work, the challenges and surprise superpowers that made this job a perfect fit for her, and the Journalist Trauma Support Network that has helped her process the harsh realities she witnesses all too frequently.
It's easy to sit in our homes and feel like somehow we are different than people who are without them. But the truth is, we all have the same needs. Lisa uses her work to bring us back together. I can think of nothing more important or uplifting.
Lisa has graciously shared a list of resources that can help us think about other ways to help:
To hear more from Lisa click here. To learn more about the unhoused community on Lisa’s beat, read Uplifter Peggy Peattie’s Tales of the Street blog.
I hope you’ll listen deeply to this episode, share it, and find ways to reconnect to those in your community, who most need a friendly hand.
