Hope Is My Middle Name

When a young Alan Graham chided a homeless man panhandling next to a taco stand in Austin, he could not have imagined that 36 years later he’d be living in a vibrant neighborhood of formerly homeless people, a neighborhood that he built.

In 1998, real estate developer Alan Graham launched Mobile Loaves and Fishes to help communities offer food, housing, and employment for neighbors coming up off the streets. What started out as one food truck and a mission to meet people where they are turned into a multi-million dollar operation with tens of thousands of volunteers who have never missed a night, delivering more than 6 million meals from their food trucks and lifting folks into permanent housing, jobs, and most importantly, community. Today, Community First! Village is a thriving neighborhood still growing to span 178 acres and eventually provide 1,900 permanent homes for people coming out of chronic homelessness, alongside those who support and care for them.

As you'll hear, Alan didn't plan on dedicating his life to serving the homeless, but a twist of fate and a leap of faith changed everything for him and for so many others.

For more on Alan Graham and Mobile Loaves and Fishes, visit mlf.org

Read Alan Graham’s book, Welcome Homeless

Connect with Kate on youtube.com/katetucker and instagram.com/katetuckermusic and please follow, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it means a lot to us!

If you liked this episode, listen next to Ron Pringle: An American Dream to End Hunger, from season 2, episode 2.

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

Almost Heaven, West Virginia isn’t just coal mines and country roads. Called the Birthplace of Rivers, the state sits on the Eastern Continental Divide, where 40 rivers and 56,000 miles of streams provide drinking water for millions of people from the Chesapeake Bay out to the Gulf of Mexico.

And yet, while West Virginia serves the country with her pristine headwater streams, there are entire counties in the state that have been on boil water alerts for years, with wells contaminated by coal mining and fracking, with no infrastructure for clean drinking water, with no funding, and no real plan. Compounding that are issues of food insecurity, poverty, and addiction. With limited access to well-paying jobs, education, and broadband, West Virginia’s population continues to dwindle, and it leads the nation in opioid deaths.

Where is the hope for a place like West Virginia? It’s in the people, and it's in the water, according to Angie Rosser, West Virginia’s Headwaters WaterKeeper and executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition. As Angie says, “We're well-positioned geographically, resource-wise, to have this paradigm shift around what it means to develop natural resources [...] as something to preserve and hold up, as something we are the keepers of. You can experience this and it will make meaning for your life, your family, your connection to nature and the bigger world around us. So I'm excited about that and that’s why I'm not leaving. I'm staying here.”

Join us for a delightful conversation on rivers, resilience, and restoration born in the hills of Appalachia on this season finale episode of HOPE.

Learn more about Angie Rosser and West Virginia Rivers Coalition at https://wvrivers.org/

If you liked this episode, listen next to Tim and Beth Reese: Building Small Town Resilience in West Virginia on HOPE Is My Middle Name season 2, episode 3.

Follow Kate’s adventures through West Virginia on Made In America, now streaming on YouTube.com/ConsensusDigitalMedia

Connect with Kate on YouTube.com/KateTucker and instagram.com/katetuckermusic and please follow, rate, and review the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it means a lot to us!

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

Are America’s small towns in decline? Not if you ask Beth and Tim Reese. They’re part of a powerful revitalization effort in Capon Bridge, West Virginia, a town of 400 nestled on the Cacapon River, at the “Gateway to the Mountains” of Appalachia. The community of Capon Bridge believes that restoring old buildings, rather than tearing them down, attracts young people and new businesses, like the Farmer’s Daughter Market & Butcher serving up “West Virginia’s Finest Finest” including one of America’s best burgers. A son of West Virginia, Tim’s heritage is in coal, but he sees a future “mining West Virginia sun,” and his early investment in solar power is catching on throughout Hampshire County. Though they’ve lived in Capon Bridge for over twenty years, the Reeses still see themselves as newcomers, and they take a community-directed approach to building resilience.

More about Tim & Beth Reese at https://www.facebook.com/taprootfarmwv

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Hosted and produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

Kevin Berthia and Kevin Briggs are an unlikely pair. But their friendship saves lives. And it was hard won, founded on what matters – mutual respect, trust, and listening. They met when Sergeant Briggs was in the state highway patrol and Kevin Berthia was jumping off a bridge. Today they stand side by side as suicide prevention advocates, helping people know they’re not alone, that there is hope and a future. It’s been many years now since they met and we are honored to be part of their ongoing conversation.

Learn more about Kevin Berthia and his work at kevinberthiafoundation.org

And Kevin Briggs at pivotal-points.com

Find Kate on instagram.com/katetuckermusic

Hosted and produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call or text 988. Or you can talk online at 988lifeline.org

Warning Signs of Suicide

• Talking about wanting to die

• Looking for a way to kill oneself

• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose

• Talking about feeling trapped or unbearable pain

• Talking about being a burden to others

• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs

• Acting anxious, agitated or recklessly

• Sleeping too little or too much

• Withdrawing or feeling isolated

• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge

• Displaying extreme mood swings

What to Do

• Do not leave the person alone

• Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs, or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt

• Call or text 988 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

• Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional emergency room, or seek help from a medical or mental health professional

Out of prison and addiction into a full-time job with big-time responsibility, Kyle Wedge transformed his life in no small way, with the help of a whole host of folks who had faced that same hard recovery. Now, as Field Operations Manager at MaineWorks, he is helping people move from incarceration and addiction into aliveness and connection.

Founded in 2010 by Margo Walsh, MaineWorks is an employment company offering support, structure, and accountability for people facing real barriers to employment, like felony convictions and substance use disorder, by providing quality, long-term job placement in the fields of construction, carpentry, masonry, roadwork, bridges, demolition, landscaping, and more.

As Kyle says, “We can't define someone by everything that they've done in the past. The person that needs that second chance could be the most valuable person that you add to your company or team, because that person has hit all the pain in the world and they're willing to go to any lengths to be their best self.”

Kyle’s voice is heartwarming, his story heart-wrenching, and ultimately– incredibly inspiring. Join us as he shares his perspective on the power of service, sobriety, and good hard work.

Find out more at MaineWorks.us, and support the work at UnitedRecoveryFund.org

Special thanks to Margo Walsh and to Sternman Productions, Tom Hildreth and Ian McCrudden, for clips from the amazing documentary, Hopeful: The Story of MaineWorks.

If you liked this episode, listen next to Doug Naselroad: Building Instruments to Recover from Floods and Addiction in Appalachia.

Connect with Kate on YouTube.com/KateTucker and instagram.com/katetuckermusic and please follow, rate, and review the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it means a lot to us!

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

If you or someone you know needs support now, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org