What is happening with Alpha House, transitional home for women in Tennessee?

Unfortunately, Alpha House is currently closed due to lack of funding. Efforts are being made to reopen. A new board of directors is in place. We will report as good news emerges. August 26, 2016

Like fledglings from the nest, transition to a straight life is not easy.Wings must become strong and directions clear. Alpha House does its part for women coming out of incarceration.

 Each resident tells her personal story to all on the day she 

graduates and returns to living on her own.

Support from volunteers, friends, family and others with loving hearts

 is apparent at each graduation event.

A post in the blog dated 9/8/2013 contained this line:  Alpha House is now closed and the current residents will be the last.  Without increased and regular funding, this will be the last year.  That statement was totally true and for a while work to secure funding mixed with faith and prayers for effective efforts was in itself a work of faith with no assurances of the future.  The home was given up to its owner and the search for a new home was in earnest.

A new nest was needed and was found. 

 Families are reunited with a new hope for the future

 Love flows in abundance

As of January 2013 there is an new residence for Alpha House. A smaller house was located, freshened  and fixed up to suit the needs of a group home.  At this time, the chain of assistance to ladies in transition from incarceration has not been broken during the trying transition from one home to finding and occupying the new one.  Women in the program graduated as fledglings from the nest into their own lives again.  One lady would not complete the program until January 12, 2013 and special living and learning arrangements were provided for her.  I attended her send-off, graduation, celebration of accomplishment at the new residence and also met the first lady to begin the program at the new home.  One fledgling has left the nest and a resident is now moved in, learning the social, everyday life business and work skills needed to adapt to a new straight life. When she flies the nest, we pray she will make it.  Currently there is room for 3 more residents and those spots will likely be filled soon.  

DONATIONS
Alpha house is looking for regular and committed monthly donations from individuals.  They truly need commitment from business and organizations in larger amounts.  Support of this faith based transitional home is an ongoing effort and a base of dependable support is needed to avoid the crash experienced last fall.  The idea is not just to exist but to grow in service to ladies coming from the jails and prisons in transitional time.  I cannot speak for the board of Alpha House or for those running the operation daily. However, I do believe they are willing to speak with anyone who holds a key to improved funding.

Contact and Words from Graduates   Read what a few women who have completed the program have to say, straight from their hearts.

Alpha House Website 

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I speak my own words and experiences and in no way am an official spokesperson for Alpha House, the faith based transitionalhome in Tennessee.  This blog post is written to educate, inform and hopefully bring financial and prayerful support to the program.  

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Feeding a Red-tailed Hawk Mice from a Glove

This young lady is a volunteer at the Clinch River Raptor Center, a rehab and educational center for birds of prey.  I am fortunate to be part of the center because there I have access to the birds and have made good friends of those who operate the center.  I am able to be part of educational programs presented to school children, special groups and the public.  This young lady is still able to do what I do not but have tired: She feeds the large hawk from her gloved hand.   When I tried, the hawk would have nothing to do with me and would not come close or go to the glove to get the mice. This photograph is on Facebook, page Clinch River Raptor Center.

Do you see the tail of the mouse in the beak of the hawk? The mice are presented head first and the head is the first part eaten.  Several mice are given this hawk for its meal.  The volunteer must hold the mouse tightly or the hawk will take the entire body in one large gulp! (These mice are dead and come from a lab mouse supplier.)

For more images from the raptor rehabilitation center, please visit my website. There you will see photos from my works in artistic, entertaining and educational directions.  There is a section on real estate property photography because I am developing that as a business...a difficult task in times of an economy not favorable to a new business formation and growth. Client galleries are private and require a password to view. Other galleries are open for your viewing and enjoyment.  One gallery contains  various photos from this blog and a small group of galleries is devoted to the Clinch River Raptor Center.  You might find  joy in what you see at the website and I put the link here:Thomas Haynes Photography

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I have a special and dear friend who lives in Russia. I hope you see this blog post, my friend Sergey. : )

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Anyone visiting this blog is welcome to tell others about it and send a link so they may visit this blog or my photography website. 

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A NOTE ABOUT USING MATERIAL FROM THIS BLOG

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Remember, all text and photos are ©, meaning copyrights apply and using writings or photos is not  legal unless I license that use to you. Schools and educational organizations may contact me about using photos or information from this blog or the website.

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Coopers Hawk Profile and Barrred Owl

COOPERS HAWK

 This injured Coopers Hawk is a recent addition to the Clinch River Raptor Center.  I am not certain of the extent of injuries to its wing. You may "like" these photos on the Raptor Center page of Facebook, here: Clinch River Raptor Center, Facebook

The Barred Owl below is an educational bird held by Kris, one of the founding sisters of the raptor center. With an owl and flash..red eye is almost expected!  The event is an OWL PROWL at early evening in the University of Tennessee Arboretum.  Birds are shown and hikes go into the woods to listen for owls.  When I arrived the director of the arboretum told me I was number 207 in attendance.  That was a well received event on a pleasingly cool October evening.  The arboretum itself is a marvelous place to visit during normal daylight hours and walk among the many trees and across small fields. The day prior was my first time to recognize a Bur Oak and see the huge acorns the oak produces. Photos of those will be posted fairly soon.

BARRED OWL

Morning light, lots of fog..and I was there.

Those three elements came together and I was there simply means with camera in hand and the know how to shoot the image...good fortune it was.

Think what you want of this photo.  This has been re-sized and that is essentially it for editing.

The day prior when driving by I saw a large fossil fuel electrical plant with sunlight of a clear morning coming from behind the steam of the scrubber chimney.  I went back to get the same shot, sort of a juxtaposition of energy sources.   The photo here is what was there, a far better scene and one with depth of vision greater than what was planned.  This creation provided me a better photo as if to say, "this counts more".  I agree.

Lake Morning, washed with fog

FLEDGLINGS IN A STRAIGHT LIFE..transitional home for women needs funding to help residents learn to fly a new, meaningful path

Many people out of jail must return to the environment from where they came and will not have enough support to hold out and make it.  Some will make it and be fine parents to their children.  All out of jail deserve at lease a chance to go right and stay that way.

No person should be considered disposable.Certainly the ladies at Alpha House are not. God love them..God Bless them, they all have touched my heart and blessed me. That is why I have referred to them as "jailbirds" in an affectionate way with nothing disparaging about its honesty. Today, I will stop using that term publicly and apologize for any who were possibly offended. These ladies have a
piece of life history which happens to be public record of incarceration. Is that bit of history going to shade their lives from now on?  Yes, consequences are to be paid and life experience will shape the approach to life and "how to's" of survival and handling relationships.  Costs are often higher than the "rest of us" can imagine or honestly handle.  Yet, many of the ladies do make it past that anchor of the past and move on to establish straight and productive lives.  There is no better spokesperson about the need for deep healing the entire person and environment than these ladies who have been there, who have been in a darkness the fortunate ones will have difficulty imagining. 

The affectionate term I will now use is fledglings, young birds just free of the nest and ready to apply survival skills they have learned and are learning daily.  Flight will be a tumble at first but soon will carry the distance, with a jumbled landing now and then but better each day.  The path for any fledgling is growth and maturity in a new life.

 

The women in the Alpha House transitional home come for the most part fresh out of jail and facing long probation. They can gain credit for time in the transitional home and it sure beats other options.  They are not free but have a taste of it, living in a nice home with a bedroom to share with a roommate and call “their place”.  They have a place to exercise and stay fit, a place to have life skills training such as how to use computers…a place to regain or learn afresh self-image, social skills and confidence.

 A block party earlier in 2012 featured a Christian band.  

Those at the party understood the need for helping others get back on their path.

Alpha House is a Christian faith based facility and is a place the women may find faith in our Creator, discover they are God’s children and become sisters of Jesus Christ.  This faith is a powerful sustaining force in helping the ladies develop a new outlook on living in the world and in living with strength and peace in recognition of their own fallen past years.

The website for Tennessee Offender Reentry list various organizations set up to help felons and other offenders in transition to a new and straight life.  http://www.tnoffenderreentry.com/housing-transitional/

You will see Alpha House in Oliver Springs among the listings.

A new smaller residence is open and active as of January, 2013.,
Oliver Springs, TN 37840
865-435-3399
http://www.alphahouseinc.net
Fee: None

 Alpha House needs to exist!  The ladies running it need strength and lots of endurance through this time. Pray for wisdom, pray for donations, help as you personally are able.

The list of organizations set up to help offenders in Tennessee is impressive but a critical aspect of it does not show:  Who pays for it !    Government grants are often not workable in the faith based transitional home like Alpha House. Funding from other sources and maintenance of that funding is difficult. As this blog post was  written during September 2012, edited on December 29 and clarified with a new post on January 17, 2013 to reflect new positive developments, the staff and volunteers of Alpha House are seeking grants and contacting churches and organizations in effort to gain regular monthly funding. Without a substantial increase in funding, the future is not rosy even with a new home being prepared for new residents.

The power point slide show which was here to tell the situation and hopefully draw some interests in funding for Alpha House is no longer relevant and is deleted.  While the slide show was available, a pleasing number of downloads were made and it did reach an audience.

Vultures, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Buzzards, Baby Vultires to Adults

To begin, we have the newbies to the vulture world.  These are babies too young to fly, still covered with baby down.  The ones shown grow a little over the span of the photos. The one above is a couple of weeks later in development than the same birds shown eating below. These babies come out of the shelter of their "box", hissing like some unknown creature and shuffling along the floor like armored tanks from World War I.   But these are not tanks, they are babies who need to grow up to survive.

   A hissssssssss is the sound of baby vultures.  Of course when eating, there is much less hisssssss and a lot more chopping sound of beaks taking in a nice treat of deceased mice. 

Three weeks later, notice the black wings showing as down is lost and wing feathers emerge.

The photo below is approximately 5 weeks later than the first photograph of the black vultures covered with down.

  
  While in captivity, the vultures are given little attention except for feeding and cage cleaning. Why are these birds not allowed to socialize with humans?  Have you heard of imprinting?  There are stories of a newly born chicken emerging from the egg and the first view is a person. The chick then follows the person around  "believing" that person is its mother.   How true are the chicken stories I do not know.  What is fact is that young birds can be imprinted on humans, losing their own identity and considering the human "their type".   Once imprinted, the birds cannot be released into the wild as healthy birds should be.  They become dependent on people, not fearful and have likely lost the ability to socialize with their own kind.   At the Clinch River Raptor Center the aim is to restore baby birds to the wild, where they were intended to be.  Survival depends on not being friends with people and learning to be what they are...vultures.  With the down gone, the vultures grow into sleek, well designed birds as is seen later in this post.

Vulture mantle ornament, black bears with pink snouts...
its madness!  The gloved hand holding the jesses of this black vulture let you know this is a real, living bird.  She was part of a demonstration at Amicalola Falls State Park, Georgia. This bird is imprinted and has no place in the wild. As it is, being social with humans dooms the bird to a life of education for people...and very good care with regular meals topping normal road kill. The whiter feathers on the ends of the wings and the gray head identifies this as a black vulture. The flying vulture photo at the end is a turkey vulture, two tone wings from below without the highly contrasted light wing tips.  Turkey vultures also have a red face.


Obviously, those cute stuffed animals are not black bears and look most like Asian Honey Bears.  Coloring black bears this way is commonplace, not unlike giving all cartoon crows a yellow beak. The colors of the black vulture are real. 

Going bald, a sign of maturity or old age...with vultures going bald is an expected and needed part of getting out of the teenage years. If you are dipping your face into the carcass of a dead animal, feathers matted with last night's supper is not desirable. The bald head helps keep the face clean, as possibly the featherless legs help keep the legs clean of dead animal matter.  Making a meal of fresh carrion is the scavenger way of survival.  Freshly dead is preferred to road pancakes. Stomach acids are quite as is the immune system of which the strong digestive acids must play a part.  You do not want vulture vomit on your skin.


The following two photos show a transition of hairline in a vulture growing up. Note the dates of the photos in the upper left corners. Click to see and enlarged version of the photograph.

 

And finally here is a photograph of a Turkey Vulture.  This is flying in the wild above Center Hill Lake in Tennessee.  Turkey vultures go further north than do black vultures and the reason has to do with slide. A black vulture will slide down while soaring at a quicker rate than does a turkey vulture. This means the black vulture needs stronger thermals (uplifts of rising air) to help it stay aloft and soar for long periods of time. Southern areas have stronger thermals suited for the black vulture and northern areas have weaker thermals. The turkey vulture does  fine in northern thermals but the air is too weak to help the black vulture stay aloft while soaring...and vultures are known for soaring.  Black vultures stay mostly in southern areas.

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ABOUT THE VULTURES FEATURED IN THIS POST

The babies were found apparently lost or otherwise separated from their parents. These were raised until ready to be transferred to caretakers who specialize in vultures.  Often, the birds may be united with a  flock of wild birds.  I am not certain where these birds went. They did leave in healthy condition.

The vulture demonstrating "how to go bald" was also transferred.

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There are no buzzards in this post.

Although vultures are generally called buzzards in the USA, 

buzzard is the appropriate name for soaring hawks, as used in the United Kingdom. The word has been misused for years.

That being said, I do not call vultures "buzzards".

Still, there is no way I can bring myself to call hawks buzzards.