Why aren’t there State/Federal Funds for everyone exiting Destructive High Control Groups???

Funding approved for polygamous Safety Net: State lawmakers have approved more than $300,000 to fund support services for people grappling with abuse and neglect in polygamous communities.
Deseret Morning News, Mar. 4, 2008 , Ben Winslow ***FACTNet editors note at end of story…

The House on Monday unanimously passed SB239, a funding package to create the Safety Net Initiative within the Utah Attorney General’s Office.


Lifting the Veil of Polygamy.

“This is a population that is unique only to Utah and nobody has addressed making sure people within those communities are safe and they have access and they have the same rights and abilities as other citizens within the state,” said Paul Murphy, the Utah Attorney General’s Safety Net coordinator.

The bill’s language was broadened to include providing services to people in “underserved” and “culturally isolated” communities in Utah and northern Arizona — not exclusively polygamy.

“I think people look at this and don’t see this is crime prevention and community building,” Murphy said. “It fits with the goals of the attorney general’s office. We want communities to be healthy and people to be safe and know that help is available.”

The attorney general’s office has been pushing for the funding since a $700,000 federal grant was cut that paid for emergency housing, a case manager and other necessities to help women and children dealing with abuse and neglect in closed societies. With that money gone, many social service agencies had to scale back their efforts.

Authorities have estimated that the Safety Net has helped as many as 1,300 people in polygamous communities. With much of the resources in southern Utah, the Fundamentalist LDS Church appears to have been the principal target of outreach efforts.

The Utah Attorney General’s Safety Net committee came about after a 2003 town hall meeting in St. George about “the polygamy problem.” Victim advocates, representatives from polygamous communities and bureaucrats have forged an alliance to provide services to those in need.
Deseret Morning News

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*** editors note: I beg to respectfully disagree with Mr. Murphy’s statement of “This is a population that is unique only to Utah”.

There are 1000s of “Lost Boys”, children and families exiting destructive groups in this country and throughout the world every year. Why can’t funds be found for them? Where are their “safety nets”???

The following is a letter I had hoped to present at the ICSAs Annual conference this June but was not chosen as a speaker. So I would like to post it here and would love to hear any feedback on my proposal… You can email me at nabashalam@yahoo.com

“My name is David Pike. I am an ex-member of the Twelve Tribes, an international, destructive, high-control Christian fundamentalist group. I am also the volunteer news editor for FACTNet. When I left the Twelve Tribes community in Colorado Springs, as a 48-year-old single male at the time, I was fortunate enough to have my parents to come home to in Madison, WI. They were willing and able to provide the food, shelter and safe environment for the immediate triage I needed at the time. They also sent me money and a ticket for the bus ride home.

When I was at my parents’ home, I had time to wind down and refocus. I had also the opportunity of access to a computer and learned how to use the internet quite quickly. I found Meadow Haven, a residential exit-counseling program in Massachusetts. The only reason I found their website was because I had heard the name Bob Pardon, its director, mentioned in the Tribes so often, usually followed by “enemy of the Tribes” or “servant of the Evil One.” I ended up Googling his name! If I hadn’t known his name, I would have had a hard time finding Meadow Haven on the web. It still is very difficult to find, as is Well Springs.

Meadow Haven was the only place I found on the internet that actually stated, “No one will ever be denied participation due to their lack of financial resources.” This was the only reason I called Bob! He and Judy, who is his assistant and wife, interviewed me over the phone and accepted me into their program. Once again I had to rely on my father’s retirement pension and generous heart to take a flight there!

I eventually got a job and was paying them what I could, but I stayed for only 3 months. I thought I had learned all I needed, even though they wanted me to stay a year. I found out they were right! A few months after leaving, I found myself trying to get back into the Twelve Tribes. Luckily, I had offended their “apostle,” Yoneq, on a FACTNet discussion board to the point of being banished from the Tribes forever! Thank God for burnt bridges!

It’s been 4 years since I left the Tribes.

I now have my own apartment, a support network of family and friends, a disability pension from the Veterans Administration and a VA hospital just minutes away. Looking back, I realize my successfully leaving the Twelve Tribes followed a haphazard series of fortunate and incidental events.

My concerns now are for those who are not so fortunate, those still caught in these groups but without any avenues of support. As you well know, most ex-cult members leave their respective groups with little to no resources of their own and also have alienated some, if not all, of their friends and relatives while in the groups. And what about those who do have some support, but their friends and family aren’t set up to receive a family of 4 or 5 or 8?

I’m emotionally invested in this problem; I still have friends in the Twelve Tribes. I know if I could offer or direct them to a “Safe Haven” – a place where they could go and not have to worry about how they were going finance their stay (because they have enough to worry about already) – they would leave today.

Places like Meadow Haven can handle a single person or possibly a single mother of 2 children, but beyond that… No. Some state and federal help for the homeless is available, such as shelters and food stamps, but this is not all that is needed to help people escape highly destructive or high-control groups.

What’s needed is a SAFE, SECURE place where exiting members can receive reassurance that everything is all right and that they have help to re-adjust to society. Just ask the professionals at Wellsprings! If a “safety net” isn’t there to catch them immediately and the necessary “triage” performed, exiting members most likely will return! It’s a typical “battered spouse” syndrome response.

What I am proposing is creating a central location or access point of information for ex-members to use!

I have been searching the internet for resources that are actually, truly free and available to exiting cult members. In my research so far, I have found NO free actual resources, other than literature or an occasional non-professional peer group chat room. Everything is for fees or covered by insurance which, as I mentioned earlier, ex-members do not have!
Heck! Most don’t even know how to get on a computer! Even the best researcher has to dig DEEP to find any actual cost-free resources. I am telling you, there are cult members who don’t leave because of this! They have nowhere to go! Singles like myself find it a bit easier to escape these groups. But families? That’s a different story! Many people are leaving these groups with no money and no credit or credit history or work history. Some don’t even have a social security number!

I’m not talking about the help found in books or videos. It disturbs to me to see all the books, videos and the list of academia in the “Who’s Who in Cult Research,” but no actual hands-on help for exiting members without resources (which is probably 75% of them). “Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink!” If there’s not an actual live body involved, I believe help doesn’t reach the depths it needs to go to.

I am brainstorming for solutions to this problem, and for possible methods of attack, and I am asking for help or suggestions from everyone and anyone. I want to bring this to the forefront of the minds of people in this field! People need help, and it’s time to stop just writing and talking about it!!!

I don’t have any solid plans yet, and I certainly don’t want to take bread out of the mouths of our current programs and providers. My proposal in no way should threaten any care provider’s livelihood because there are no monies to be made or lost when you’re dealing with the indigent.
Many non-profit websites and foundations in the field of cults struggle to raise money just to support their websites and a bare bones staff. I know; FACTNet is one that I’m very familiar with! But I’ve seen too many cult-related sites whose “resources” links contain only the usual list of academics or providers which all cost money, and most of these are just follow-up treatments for those who have already had their basic needs met.

Here is what I firmly believe is needed:

First, a “central information site” that is easy to “Google” and to navigate, and contains direct links to actual cost-free, tangible help. Also a possible “911” type Cult Assistance Hot line for those who are exiting or have just exited who need immediate help and direction to that help. Many cults make it hard to make an actual private phone call or to get unsupervised time on a computer.

Second, a national center with specialized programs designed like Wellsprings or Meadow Haven, which is fully, federally or benevolently funded, and capable of receiving whole families of exiting members.

Exiting members need a place where they can come to rest, heal and grow. If exiting members do not receive counseling from someone who understands their experiences in a thought-reform environment, they will often find themselves seeking something that mirrors the cult environment. If they do receive quality counseling in the areas of trauma recovery and thought reform, chances are good that they will be able to not only recover their pre-cult identity, but learn and grow from their experience in the group. In addition, relationships that were lost or destroyed because of the cult can be healed and rebuilt.

According to estimates on Wellsprings’ website there are 10 million cult members in 3,000 to 4,000 cults in the United States. According to Meadow Haven’s website, 300,000 people enter cults in the US alone, and 300,000 leave these groups every year. Also, Wellsprings reports that they have treated 1000 people in their 10 year existence.

So what does this tell us? How many men, women and children leaving these groups suffer from PTSD, along with a whole myriad of cult related maladies and dysfunctions, which go untreated? And how many with little or no means of self support go unassisted every year?
These are the ideas I want to present to you as experts and care providers in the field. Ladies and gentlemen, you for one know that this is not just a national epidemic…it is global, it has many strains and it is spreading! These people need more than just empathy and lip service. They need tangible help, and it’s up to us who can provide such things to make it readily accessible. I can’t tell you what free assistance is available in Europe or others countries but I can tell you what is not readily available in this country.

On the lighter side, I hope we have all learned something from FEMAs mistakes and can actually get the goods and assistance available to those who truly need it…
Thank you for your time, attention and consideration…”

IMHO
FACTNet

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Posted by David Pike on March 6, 2008.
Filed under: News