{"id":6452,"date":"2022-07-21T15:30:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/?page_id=6452"},"modified":"2022-09-28T19:14:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T23:14:10","slug":"dave-blunt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/what-we-do\/programs\/housing-and-shelter\/portraits-of-strength\/dave-blunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Blunt"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"6452\" class=\"elementor elementor-6452\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-7773ef9c elementor-section-height-min-height elementor-section-stretched elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-items-middle\" data-id=\"7773ef9c\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;stretch_section&quot;:&quot;section-stretched&quot;,&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;,&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-background-overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1ae092c0\" data-id=\"1ae092c0\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4c1cf7d7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"4c1cf7d7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 30-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Dave Blunt<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1765be2a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1765be2a\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;jet_parallax_layout_list&quot;:[]}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3600e6e1\" data-id=\"3600e6e1\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c4a7897 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"c4a7897\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 30-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"513\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-768x513.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-image-6388\" alt=\"Dave Blunt\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Dave-Blunt-final-2048x1368.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-57e84a33 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"57e84a33\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 30-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite a past inclination to \u201cenjoy a good dust-up,\u201d David is a man focused on the humanity of every individual he meets. Dave ensures this understanding of humanity is at the heart of the de-escalation training, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Handle with Care<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, that every staff member is required to take at 2100. David shares a truck metaphor to capture his philosophy for helping the people he serves. \u201cI tell staff to assume that all clients have a semi-truck filled with personal baggage and trauma when they come into the facility. I say, if you don&#8217;t have the experience, skill set, or desire to help them unload their truck, at the very least, don&#8217;t add anything to it.&#8221; Dave guides his staff in doing no harm, handling everyone, across the board, with care\u2026even when help might not be possible yet.<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I Was a Bonehead.<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I was younger, I wasn\u2019t a criminal, per say. Yet, I suffered from poor decision making. Don\u2019t get me wrong, there was some criminality to it. Even though I was brought up in an impoverished area, I actually came from a very stable home. Mom worked. Pops worked. We were middle class. I had friends who came from broken homes. One or two friends even had some issues with food insecurity. I didn\u2019t have those issues, so why was I out doing what I was doing?\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Madelyne-Blunt-Daves-grandmother-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Madelyne-Blunt-Daves-grandmother-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Madelyne-Blunt-Daves-grandmother-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Madelyne-Blunt-Daves-grandmother-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Madelyne-Blunt-Daves-grandmother.jpg 1072w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>While my family was out working, they were trusting that I was making good decisions, but I was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Before then I was in a golfing program every weekend. That actually was my grandmother\u2019s choice. My grandmother was a prominent member of the community. She owned a magazine, ClubDate Magazine. I was around people who a lot of my friends weren\u2019t. I grew up with people like Arnold Pinkney, George Frazier. I used to call WKYC News anchor, Leon Bibb, \u201cUncle.\u201d These were my grandmother\u2019s friends, I was constantly around them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when I had a chance, a taste of freedom, I ran with it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My grandmother would say, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t need that freedom right now,\u201d when I was 12 or 13. \u201cHe needs to be driven to school. He shouldn\u2019t be left to his own devices.\u201d My grandmother was building a cocoon around me, not to shelter me but because she <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">knew<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> what was out here. My mother was a lighter hand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I didn\u2019t become a bonehead though until the age of 16. Then, I <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">completely <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">screwed up. I grew up in East Cleveland, top of Superior Hill. No matter how safe home was, I just wanted to run the streets. For some reason, the lure of the streets seemed a lot more attractive. So, you know, I ran the streets, started selling drugs, carrying guns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My grandmother actually saw a transaction at one point <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(\u201cJesus,\u201d Dave sighs, remembering this.) <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My grandmother is very strong, very strong, and I had never seen my grandmother get emotional until that day. I\u2019m about 17, 18 at this point. She\u2019s like, \u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019m doing here. I\u2019m breaking my back, I\u2019m forging ahead, and you\u2019re taking us back!\u201d She started crying. There\u2019s still a lot of racism in 1989, 1990, and she\u2019s a black woman, so double minority. A lot of the rooms she was in, she wasn\u2019t supposed to be in. She knew how to carry herself, very eloquent speaker, you know. She was forging some paths. She was like, \u201cListen, I\u2019m not dealing with this shit so that you can be out here and be this misfit.\u201d She was in tears, and it affected me. Did it change me? <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It did not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But, it affected me\u2026at least to let me know my grandmother was human.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was your Dad in your life?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My stepfather was from my earliest memories. Beautiful man. My biological father was not. I would see him. It\u2019s not like I didn\u2019t know who he was, but it just wasn\u2019t his thing being a dad. So, I was in the streets doing just boneheaded stuff\u2026fighting in the neighborhood, stuff like that. I had a few auto issues. I was in the back seat of a stolen car. We were pulled over, and we took off running. Got caught. Very petty stuff. Eventually, like most things, you start to get this sense of \u201cI\u2019m untouchable\u201d and start to graduate to more major things. That\u2019s when I was dealing drugs, had the guns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I chose to be part of the problem.<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The neighborhood we were in started to turn. And the thing I realize now at age 47, I was a part of that turn. The top of Superior Hill was a nice area. It was a stone\u2019s throw away from Cleveland Heights. My home was 7 or 8 houses from Cleveland Heights, but I went to school in East Cleveland. We were part of that turn in the neighborhood, selling drugs, hanging out in the park at the end of the street\u2026fighting and guns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But oddly enough, I didn\u2019t end up going to prison until I was 29. Looking back, hindsight being what it is, Karma will have its perfect way. God will catch up. I ended up going to prison for whooping my son. My son was very young, 4 or 5 at the time. I used the belt\u2026very conventional corporate punishment in black communities; I\u2019m sure in other communities as well. I put belt to butt, nothing odd. But he\u2019s light skinned, so he bruised up a little bit. His mom took him to the emergency room. It all kind of went downhill from there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was trying to make sense of it, sitting in the cell. Like, \u201cWhy was I here?\u201d At the time my criminality had stopped. I was a grown man. I was climbing the ladder. I actually worked at Cleveland Job Corp as the discipline officer. I was the one who decided when a participant did something wrong. I was the one who decided if they stay in the program or get a warning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">remember thinking, like no lie, \u201cI <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">left<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that life. Why in the hell am I here now?\u201d I couldn\u2019t understand it. What I used to wrap my mind around it was the thousand things I got away with. That\u2019s coming back to the part about Karma and God, all the things I got away with and even though I stopped the criminality, my decision-making skills hadn\u2019t improved. I was still doing bonehead stuff. Not criminal stuff but bonehead.<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going back a little, what made you wear off the criminality?<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had some friends get murdered\u2026die. I became a father at 17 before I was really a man. I had two by 19. So, I had responsibility\u2026weird how responsibility can be born out of irresponsibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A pivotal move<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, the thing that helped get out of criminality was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proximity<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I was living with my mother and we moved to an area I wasn\u2019t familiar with, down on 93<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and Chester. Right down from Cleveland Clinic. It wasn\u2019t my neighborhood. I did from time to time go back to my old neighborhood, but you know, I started working. I got to take care of my kids. Started spending time with them. Kind of like anything else: if you pick up something with two hands, right, eventually you\u2019ve got to put something else down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then I started in security and became a discipline supervisor. Doing that and whooping my son and I\u2019m sitting in prison behind a cinder block wall. \u201cI left that criminal life. Why in the hell am I here now?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new low<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any man who tells you that he didn\u2019t get emotional, at least on his first trip to jail, is lying. At some point during somebody\u2019s stay, they\u2019re like \u201cYo.\u201d They get emotional. I couldn\u2019t understand it. I was still doing bonehead stuff. Not criminal stuff but bone head.<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dave pauses and says, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You know what, I\u2019m lying. There was criminal action, but with so many things I\u2019d done, I guess I discounted it, but it was criminal.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, so short story: I was dating a girl and she racked up a lot of parking tickets. It was my car so when I went to get my plates, they said, \u201cYou\u2019ll need to pay these tickets first,\u201d like a few hundred dollars. My tags were expiring in next couple days. So, I paid a guy I knew 25 bucks to steal me a 30-day tag, to give me time to get paid. Then I could take care of my parking tickets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was picking up my new girlfriend at the airport and was pulled over in Lyndale. They initially charged me with identity theft but negotiated it down to receiving stolen property. Again, nose had been clean for many years. Judge was like, \u201cYou\u2019re an idiot. Take 6 months\u2019 probation.\u201d During the 6-month probation is when I whooped my son. The judge was like \u201cYo, you\u2019re an idiot. So goodbye.\u201d I ended up going to prison for a year and a half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which prison?<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grafton. Even though I was a bonehead, I never had been to prison. I had friends who had been in prison. I can look back now and see God in my life, but I couldn\u2019t see God then. Grafton was directly across the street from Lorain, which means my proximity to family for visits. In the prison cycle, the further you are from home, the harder your time is going to be because the further from your support system. So, people were like, \u201cMan, you got lucky, blah, blah, blah,\u201d because Grafton was like 40 minutes from Cleveland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, I went to Grafton. Grafton was very slow and the large majority of people were those who\u2019d already done 15 years. They didn\u2019t want any trouble. They just wanted to do their time and go home at some point or they were short-timers like me&#8230;18 months, wanting to get this over with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I quietly did my time, did some things that kept me busy and that\u2019s where my connection with God came in. I started reading the Bible a little bit more. Anyway, fast forward. I did a year inside Grafton and 6 months at Harbor Light, Salvation Army at 18<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and Prospect. It\u2019s what we say is a post release center. Did the last 6 months there.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was hell. It was run by Salvation Army, but the day to day people just weren\u2019t easy people. The majority of staff there were just bitter, vindictive. I was still an inmate, and they were enforcing the rules. That wasn\u2019t the problem. It wasn\u2019t the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they were enforcing it; very punitive, very nasty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allowed me to be a human being<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An important side bar of this&#8230; that\u2019s where I met Cynthia Johnson, on staff now at LMM Family Overflow Shelter. I remember her because she was just very pleasant. We called her CJ. I\u2019ve told this story to my 2100 staff. She still kept the rules, didn\u2019t let us get away with stuff, but it was the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">way<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> she just allowed me to be a human being<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wasn\u2019t necessarily an inmate, I wasn\u2019t number 385501.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember the first time I was here at 2100. My desk was in the corner, and I was the assistant to the Operations Director at the time. Someone comes to the office door and says, \u2018A friend needs a job.\u2019 They say CJ\u2019s name, and I turn around and say \u201cYou\u2019re hired,\u201d even though that wasn\u2019t my place to hire at that point. It\u2019s not like we were friends. It\u2019s that I had witnessed already how she had responded to a person in an ugly situation, she would respond with\u2026<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dave cuts off, pulled away by an actual ugly situation down the hall. \u201cLet me respond to this real quick,\u201d he tells me. I listen, the yelling subsides with someone telling Dave their side of the story. Dave returns energized. He\u2019s in his element, de-escalating tension.<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For 15 years I was a bouncer and that\u2019s where my de-escalation skills were honed. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I still enjoyed a good dust-up and unfortunately still do, but I also knew I didn\u2019t want to fight every night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Were you instrumental in the shelter\u2019s de-escalation policy?<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was the first teacher of it, but the policy and training program, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Handle with Care,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was actually at LMM\u2019s Youth Services first.<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Handle with Care is a national behavior management program in verbal de-escalation, safe physical management, passive holding methods for aggressive behaviors.<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m a physical guy. I played football, I wrestled, I was a bouncer, you know, I wrestle with my sons, I wrestle with my grandsons. Even now, I\u2019m in that whole physicality. So, when I went into the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Handle with Care<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> training, I loved it, coming from a bouncer\u2019s standpoint, I\u2019d done security at the Job Corp, so it was who I am. I did executive protection, a body guard, for the rap group in the 90\u2019s, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Security is just who I am. I gravitated to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Handle with Care<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because it was combined with intent of protecting people\u2026talking people down in a reasonable way. As I picked up those skills, that thing from CJ stayed with me. Realizing I don\u2019t have to be an asshole to enforce the rules.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the first training I cornered Mike Sering, Director of 2100. \u201cIf you bring that training here, I\u2019d like to be an instructor.\u201d He said they were still figuring it out. A couple times afterwards, \u201cAbout that program\u2026 I\u2019m interested.\u201d Eventually, Sering said \u201cWe\u2019re going to bring the program here.\u201d I got certified as an instructor. I also helped draft the shelter\u2019s use of force policy, how to use it, when to use it, and when it\u2019s out of bounds.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-7345\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dblunt-300x245.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dblunt-300x245.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lutheranmetro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/dblunt.jpg 396w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/>I was here for 7 years and left for 4. I took Handle with Care to the agency that I went to, Volunteers of America, in partnership with the VA. VA does the clinical side, VOA does the operational and support services. VOA was very interested, but they have a very strict hands-off policy so the only thing we could do was de-escalation. That is where I honed my teaching skills in de-escalation professionally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When a new staff member at 2100 is trained in Handle with Care, day one is de-escalation; day two and three are all hands-on. Just because there are so many maneuvers, so many techniques, and they\u2019re complicated, so we give more time to that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My walk caught up with my talk<\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My 4 years away from 2100 allowed me to grow in different ways. When I left I knew nothing about trauma, individuals\u2019 trauma, and I was only 60% proficient in teaching de-escalation. At VOA we were forced to learn about de-escalation and about trauma. The program director is a clinician, and we bumped heads a lot because I\u2019m a disciplinarian. I\u2019m big on black and white, so I needed to learn that aspect. Smoothed some of my edges.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I always had an affinity for 2100. When I left, I didn\u2019t know I was coming back, but Somebody knew. God knew that I would need certain smoothing and growth to come back. Fast forward, I still teach the hands on, but not nearly as much as I teach the de-escalation. Now, when I talk to the 2100 monitors, I\u2019m 70% about customer service, de-escalation, trauma informed care. I\u2019m not proficient like a clinician in trauma, but I\u2019m aware people have trauma and people manifest trauma in different ways. When I left it was, \u201cThis guy\u2019s an asshole, he has to go.\u201d Now it\u2019s \u201cOk, this guy still might have to leave. But obviously, something happened to him. There\u2019s a cause and effect.\u201d We deal with him differently. Because what he did was so egregious, he still has to be sanctioned, but we\u2019re not necessarily tossing him out. I tell the staff, even if you have to go hands-on, don\u2019t get emotional about it. You could hurt the individual. The staff has become professional about it and not emotional about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I told staff this yesterday, the population here is extremely challenging. I get it, but in those moments, try to remember what we\u2019re really supposed to be doing here: providing a safe environment for guys to start putting their pieces together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I first walked in the door of 2100 as a part-time monitor, I knew something was in me, but at first this was a survival job for wife and family. Later, because of this opportunity of working here, I started buying in. One of the things I like to say is, \u201cMy walk caught up with my talk.\u201d Once I bought in, I <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">went the extra mile<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When I was tired, when I didn\u2019t want to be bothered, I\u2019d make the extra effort to take care of somebody else. But it did take an entire evolution to get there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dave pauses and says with gravity,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You know what, at the end of the day, I get to go home and I want these guys to be able to do the same. This gets to the core of who David has become: a person who cares, even \u201clongs\u201d for the well-being of others at 2100. This is why he signs every piece of correspondence with the mantra of those who do this work: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Housing is a Human Right.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a past inclination to \u201cenjoy a good dust-up,\u201d David is a man focused on the humanity of every individual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6388,"parent":4732,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Portrait of Strength with Dave Blunt - LMM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Portraits of Strength gallery features LMM staff who have overcome challenges, now using them to help others. 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