As far as the scrapbook goes, I only saw it for a few minutes, and at that point, I had no idea about straight, just that whenever that subject would come up the staff would say that we were not straight, or anything like it. I believe she told me that a program parent had put it all together, it was full of newspaper clippings and stuff like that, I would assume that it included things about straight. Pre KHK i had no idea that there were programs like this, so when straight was brought up and anyone asked questions about it, the subject was shut down. I really didn't think anything of it. Miller Newton was never brought up, however, he did visit the program once while I was there. I had totally forgotten about that. He wasn't there for very long, and I don't think that his presence was explained. I think that I was the only one who knew about him because he put me in there, but the other clients had no idea who he was.
Only recently have I started looking into this stuff, and have heard things about straight. I guess I'm in that phase that your talking about where you start to realize everything that happened was so f*cked up, and I guess I'm just trying to work through it? I don't know. Most of my friends that went through there with me are still all about the program, and when it comes up they say it doesn't matter what it was like because it was the best thing that happened to us. I disagree. And so far, talking to other people does nothing because they don't understand, I mean, how can you explain "time out" to some who wasn't there? So I feel kinda in limbo between the whole 7 stepper thing and 'the real world' for lack of better words. I haven't talked to anyone about this in a while, hence the long posting.
The merger started when I was about to graduate, I don't believe they told us anything as clients, only that they were phasing some of the old stuff out, like beltlooping. I don't remember what reason they gave us though. Once I had, my friends on staff told me that it was because of finances, they were very hesitant to talk about it though, I was always swore to secrecy when we talked about it, so there probably is more to the story, but I doubt that peer staff would be in on it. They gross 2 mil a year?? Staff was paid almost nothing, and I was always under the impression that money was scarce. Where does it go?
As far as I know, most of the kids that are there are court ordered, and they changed the payment system, so you pay based on how much you make or something like that, so I think that they are accepting families who aren't wealthy (i don't know how to phrase that, but you know what i mean) so the group has a totally different feel. I think that they are accepting medicare too. Looking back, the parents seemed to be brainwashed too. I mean they all loved us, and wanted the best for us, but they didn't understand. They were just totally scared. All of this is just what I've heard, so don't take it as factual. To me it seems like it would be bad for them to lose the Milford building. Not only is it completely locked down, but the location allows for families from Cincy, Columbus, Dayton, and Kentucky.
I remember when ya'll did the protest. I had already graduated, but my staff friends told me a little bit about it, people standing outside with signs right? Penny was pissed when they did that news segment on KHK. I guess she was under the impression that it would be good publicity for KHK, and instead they made it look cultish. I haven't read any of the articles that you are talking about, do you have links to any of them? I'm no longer in Cincy, but just curious, what do you all do when you meet up?