CityView Magazine’s December 2007 edition contains a nice article about Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM). The article also contains an inadvertent error, and we feel like we should address it.
Although the article, titled “Burt Rosen leads the day-to-day fight to end homelessness in Knoxville,” draws welcome attention to the issue of homelessness, and does a nice job of getting KARM’s story out, the piece designates KARM’s Executive Director, Burt Rosen, in reference to the issue of homelessness, as “…the city’s acknowledged leader in this day to day battle.”
None of us who know Burt Rosen believe that he would have characterized himself that way. He has communicated to his colleagues on the Homeless Coalition that CityView appears to have misconstrued his remarks, and inadvertently mischaracterized his role in our community’s work to end homelessness.
KARM is a member of our area’s Homeless Coalition, and operates Knoxville’s largest emergency shelter and several other excellent programs to help homeless people get back on their feet. KARM is certainly a leading agency in the local fight against homelessness, but this fight is highly collaborative, and has many leaders.
We applaud our local media and its essential work to help our community understand and address the critical issue of homelessness. It’s important to the Office of the Ten-Year Plan that the public have accurate information about the work of the agencies and people in our community who are involved in work on behalf of our homeless neighbors.
It’s also important for the public to know that the Ten-Year Plan was, and is, a highly collaborative plan. Our community is engaged in a team effort with regard to this plan, and the implementation team, which is fluid, dynamic, and coordinated, doesn’t have a single acknowledged main leader among its participants.
I submitted the following comment on Monday, December 3, to CityView’s website, in the comments to the article in question, in the hope of correcting the error as soon as possible. I spoke with Nathan Sparks, the Magazine’s editor, yesterday and today, and he says that the comment may be edited and posted sometime in the next day or so. In the meantime, to try to head off as much confusion as possible, here it is in full:
This is in reference to an article that ran in the December 2007 issue of CityView. The piece is titled “Burt Rosen leads the day-to-day fight to end homelessness in Knoxville”
This piece contains this statement: “Burt Rosen is president of the Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM), a network of individuals working to end the problem, making him the city’s acknowledged leader in this day to day battle.”
I am acquainted with Mr. Rosen, and I feel sure that the writer of this article may have inadvertently misconstrued some things from his interview. It’s hard to imagine Burt saying these things about himself.
Knoxville & Knox County’s Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness was the result of the work of a coalition of people who are deeply concerned about the issue of homelessness. Implementation of the plan is also a cooperative effort, with private sector and government parties collaborating with each other and with nonprofit organizations like KARM.
KARM is a significant player on the implementation team, and Mr. Rosen is among that team’s leaders. But that list of acknowledged leaders would also have to include Ginny Weatherstone, the Executive Director of Volunteer Ministry Center. It would need to include Major Don Vick and Ola Blackmon-McBride of the Salvation Army. Dr. Roger Nooe is still seen by everyone as the leading authority on the study of homelessness in our area. Fr. Ragan Schriver of Catholic Charities, and president of the Homeless Coalition, needs to be included, as does Andy Black, of Helen Ross McNabb. This list should probably also include Jon Lawler, who is the Director of the Ten-Year Plan office. And there are plenty of others.
Burt Rosen is one of our great community’s leaders in the fight to end homelessness. But he’s in the company of a bunch of other leaders, each of them playing his or her part on a fantastic team. I know he’d say the same thing.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to clarify things a bit.
Robert Finley: Mayors’ Office of the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness