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Helping
homeless help themselves Volunteer:
Ex-war correspondent James Willwerth now in battle to mobilize resources. By Neda Raouf, Staff writer The soft-spoken woman, with braces and her hair swept up in a
ponytail, said she had been hospitalized for mental illness this month and
diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She also recently lost her
job and has been homeless and needs help. Willwerth, a volunteer with The Village, a nonprofit group that
helps people with mental health problems, many of whom are homeless, conducts
weekly interviews with those who come to the facility. He helps them reach
people who can help them. "Wow, you've got a big load,' Willwerth, 59, said to Alvarez,
as the two sat in the basement office of The Village, 456 Elm Ave. Gently asking her questions and listening, Willwerth explained the
different ways the facility could help her. "They find people jobs here did you know that?' he said to
Alvarez, who looked elated. She said she wants to go back to the work she was
doing with the developmentally disabled in her last job. While most mental illness treat ment centers operate on the medical
model, The Village operates with teams of people. The staff often hires some of
the people they treat, and aims to improve a person's life, Willwerth said. "The whole idea here is to get a life,' he said. "If
there was anything progressive and good that would happen for mental illness, it
would happen here.' The Village is a program of the Mental Health Association in Los
Angeles County and was started in April 1990. "Our main motivation is to get people to work,' said Casey
Carver, spokesman for the facility. In the afternoons, Willwerth teaches a free class on writing at the
center and often a group of three to seven people shows up. "At least two of the people are actively working on books,' he
said. Willwerth, who was born in Detroit and spent his teenage years
growing up in Eureka, went to UC Ov 17 LNs Berkeley, where he was assistant
editor of the Daily Californian. From there, he got a job as a freelance writer
with Time Magazine and was hired on. He worked for Time for 34 years and
traveled the world, covering seven different wars. He came to Los Angeles in 1987 and continued writing books full
time. That's when he sought a place where he could volunteer and found The
Village. "All my life I wanted to volunteer somewhere,' he said.
"This is the best place I ever ran into in all my life as a journalist.' |
