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Using tools he bought with funds
from the SERV Foundation,Wayne
gives
a haircut to fellow SERV
consumer,
Carlos,
at the
Serenity
House
in Mercer County.
SERV consumer has shear talent for barbering
A shave and a haircut costs much
more than the two bits
(25 cents) required in the old days, but Wayne L. offers
a relatively better bargain in 2009. A resident at SERV’s transitional
Serenity House in Mercer County for men recovering from mental illness and substance
abuse, Wayne is honing his barbering skills on fellow consumers at the group
home for a mere $5, while also working toward his license.
Before
Wayne
started classes at the
Tri-State
Barber
School
in
Philadelphia
more than a year ago, he exhibited a natural talent for cutting hair. With encouragement and support from his
primary counselor Edward Mitchell and Residential Program Manager Milena
Margolin, Wayne, age 44, enrolled in the school and has earned high grades
since. “I aced my last written test,” says
Wayne, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
His imminent diploma is just one of
the accomplishments he can add to the “success list” he started to keep when he
joined SERV Behavioral Health System two years ago after transferring from
Trenton
Psychiatric Hospital. “We showed him that he could build on his
successes … and learn lessons from his mistakes,” says Milena. “We told him
that if he can succeed one time, then that means that he can succeed again.”
That advice – plus what he learned
in the self-esteem and other groups he attended at SERV’s ADAPT partial-care
program – boosted his confidence level and Wayne took the next step to apply to
barber school. He received tuition money
from the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and nearly $3,000 from the
nonprofit SERV Foundation for the cost of barbering tools and public
transportation to downtown
Philadelphia.
The first time
Wayne
made the trek to center city, he was accompanied by Edward to show him how to
make the transfer from the bus, which passes by Serenity House, to the
Trenton
train station,
and then the five-block walk to school. Since
then,
Wayne
has
independently taken this same trip every week, Mondays through Fridays, and
every other weekend on Saturdays when he works at the school earning tips from
customers.
“I finally found something I love
doing,” says Wayne, who plans to search for a job in the field after he
receives his diploma in September.
Getting his barber’s license is the
means by which he seeks to fulfill his other dreams: moving into SERV’s
independent apartments at the
Leonard
Building; getting a
stable job so he can eventually marry his girlfriend of two years, Elaine; and reconnecting
with his teenage children, Heaven and Laquan.
The success
Wayne
has had at barber school has given him confidence, says Milena. “From his
painful past, he has worked to change his pessimistic attitude to an optimistic
one,” she says. “He also knows that if
he doesn’t take his medications, he can hear voices, lose touch with reality,
or not be able to stop his own behaviors or actions.”
Wayne
grew up in
Camden
as the middle child in a family of five children, all of whom have mental illness. His mother also has schizophrenia and is in a state psychiatric
hospital. It was in grade school when he began to hear voices that told him to
hurt himself and others. In later years,
he attempted suicide several times and spent some time in a correctional
institution.
When he was released, he went to
the Salvation Army in Trenton,
but he had stopped taking his medicine and felt confused and stressed out, and the
voices were “out of control.” He then entered
Trenton
Psychiatric Hospital
and
eventually became stable on the proper medication.
Since transferring to SERV two years
ago, he has been psychiatrically stable and committed to staying abstinent from
alcohol. He attends self-help group
meetings three to four times
a week and has been sober for 3½ years. “I know there is a God,” he says. “Things
have gotten a whole lot better.”
Wayne
recently bought three suits so he can
start attending area church services. He is interested in finding a spiritual
community and, to that end, plans to visit churches of different denominations.
Another of his goals was to reunite
with his daughter, Heaven, but he didn’t know how to begin the process. Milena and Edward began to prepare him for
this goal and encouraged him to make phone calls. When he confided that he could not afford to
bring his daughter a birthday gift, Milena helped him get a hand-crafted
medallion and chain. “He was thrilled to meet his daughter,” says Milena.
“She’s a good girl,”
Wayne
says with a smile.
“She goes to church, and she works part time for the Boys and Girls Club in
Camden.”
Before meeting Heaven,
Wayne
says he felt “empty
and incomplete.” “I’m her dad, and I want to be the best I can be for
her.” Today, they talk several times a
week on the phone and he visits with her every other weekend by taking the
Riverline train to her home in
Camden,
where she lives with her grandmother. Reuniting with his son is still a goal to
be met, but in the meantime, he continues to send child support payments for
both children.
In his spare time,
Wayne
loves to listen to R&B music and
watch old movies, particularly Westerns, with his girlfriend. He has managed to take 12 pounds off his 6’
3” frame by exercising and following a nutritional program introduced by
Edward.
Wayne
is a role model for all the other
residents at Serenity House, says Milena. “He has inspired the other residents to go to school. One is taking entertainment technology, another
studying with an electrician’s union, and another is going to a music school,”
she says. “We have a real friendship
here.”
“SERV helped me to try to find myself and has
been a very good inspiration in my life,” says
Wayne. “Ed Mitchell is magnificent. He guides
me and shows he really cares.”
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