The Ballard Center Proves to be a Vital Community Resource to Single Mothers in Lawrence
The first family Kathrine Ward helped as the family stabilization director for the Ballard Center was a mother who came to the door with a bag full of disconnect notices, her small child and no appointment. Ward set her up with the Ballard Center’s pantry, assisted with paying the majority of her bills and created a pay agreement for future bills. As a mom and former foster child, Ward was crushed by this mother’s fear of losing her child, and the two of them cried together.
“[In] my past I personally have overcome a lot, and it just took one person to believe in me and to take that chance. I want to be that person for our community,” Ward said.
25.3% of Kansas households are held by single mothers according to the Census Bureau. The Ballard Center is a non-profit organization and prevents eviction and homelessness by assisting families in need with rent and utility payments. According to its website, the Ballard Center’s food, clothing and supply pantry serves more than 6,972 people. Mothers have access to free diapers, wipes, bottles, baby food, books and backpacks from the pantry.
The Ballard Center also provides the most affordable early childhood education for ages 2-5 in Douglas county, according to Director of Communications and Outreach Nick Detrano. Their education program serves more than 200 children and families.
Tiffany Barrett, a single mother of two living in Lawrence, sends her son who has autism to the Ballard Center’s school. Last year, Barrett brought her two children, Ermias and Selena, to Lawrence from San Diego to escape the rising cost of living and domestic violence. According to Detrano, Ermias has thrived in speech and emotional development since he’s been at the Ballard Center.
“There’s a compassion in Lawrence for other people that I haven’t recognized in California,” Barret said. She is almost done with the manuscript for her book about her healing experience in Lawrence. In it, she reflects on the time the Ballard center waived a month’s tuition for Barrett as she was going through a difficult time.
“A simple act of kindness goes a long way,” Ward said. I see it as anyone can find themselves in a tough situation at any given time in a blink of an eye.”
28-year-old Rachael Washington is raising two children, Gift and Mercedes, and is the lead teacher in the 5 year old’s room at the Ballard center. Washington sends Gift to the Ballard center for school and utilizes the pantry. Holiday Bureau works with the Ballard Center for the Adopt a Family program, which provided Washington with a lego set, glow in the dark pajamas, an outer space kit, candles and gift cards as presents for her and her children.
According to Detrano, the Ballard Center’s Adopt a Family program reached about 800 families, more than any other organization in the Holiday Bureau network.
The relationships between Washington and her students last longer than their time in the classroom. She regularly sees a few students for breakfast, and sometimes visits
For Washington, the Ballard Center is her family. When her son recently fell and injured his head, she texted the only people she could to watch her daughter, the teachers at the Ballard Center. All of her coworkers responded immediately that they would meet her at the ER.
Broadcast script
The Ballard Center is not the only Lawrence resource for mothers in crisis. When Ballard can’t provide for a need, they connect families with organizations that will. LIEAP, Warm Hearts, HSC, EWAP, SNAP and WIC are examples of resources they endorse.
As 25.3 percent of Kansas households are held by single mothers, according to the Census Bureau, the Ballard Center works to provide supplies and resources for single moms in need. According to Ballard, its supply pantry serves nearly seven-thousand people and provides products including food, clothes, diapers, wipes and bottles. The Ballard center also offers the most affordable early childhood education for ages two to five in Douglas County, according to Director of Communications and Outreach Nick Detrano. Single Mother Tiffany Barrett left San Diego last year to escape her physically abusive partner and found Lawrence, where she says she can heal because of the compassion that people have here, compassion that she’s found particularly in the Ballard Center. Her son is attending Ballard’s education program and has skyrocketed in speech and emotional development since enrolling less than one year ago. Racheal Washington is a single twenty-eight-year-old mom of two and teaches at Ballard. This holiday, Ballard’s Adopt a Family Program provided Washington with gifts for her and her children. Mothers in crisis also have access to Ballard’s financial emergency services, including help with rent, utilities, car repairs and home repairs.
Victoria’s Secret The Tour ‘23 features beautiful women and disappointing fashion
Victoria’s Secret announced The Tour ‘23, a comeback from its fashion show hiatus, on July 27. Its reimagination brought with it significant strides and stumbles to the fashion world. In the 2010s, the iconic shows featured very small models walking a classic runway in sparkling million-dollar bras and five-foot-high angel wings. In November 2019, the annual fashion show was canceled and did not return, according to Vogue, until now. For its latest show, the brand is redefining its narrow definition of what it means to be a beautiful woman, and what it means to be an angel.
One kind of beauty on the runway does not cut it for me when I see one hundred kinds of beauty every day when I walk to class. In the old shows, I saw one kind of beauty. Iconic angels like Gigi Hadid and Winnie Harlow are back, but with them are diverse new angels like Paloma Elsesser and Tess McMillan, whose bodies represent a kind of beauty that does not fit with the mold that shaped the old angels. Also appearing are icons of past shows Adriana Lima and Taylor Hill, who, by their age, are breaking a mold of their own.
While the angels dazzled, the fashion underwhelmed. Past shows debuted fabulous looks that enchanted their audience every time. The Tour ‘23 lacks the glamor of feathered wings and Fantasy Bras adorned with jewels and replaced it with ill-fitting garments and a campaign remnant of a Calvin Klein ad. One designer created purposefully tattered pieces that all seem slightly too big for their model. Another showed pants made of material that looked like tangled hair. Hailey Bieber modeled a corset bra that was either so big for her or so poor quality or both that the bones of the corset kept bending.
Pieces that are fabulous are still lacking a serious Victoria’s Secret fashion show prerequisite, which is actually being lingerie. I saw a lot of dresses and two-piece sets but very few bras and panties. Some bras and panties I did see from this collection are cotton and available in “colors” gray, black and white. The show itself is filmed in a documentary style, which was a good decision because the clothes alone don’t give the audience enough, the way stronger designs would.
According to the comment sections of Victoria’s Secret’s recent Instagram posts, people aren’t taking the change well. Some people are disappointed in the collection, some in the new models. I read comments such as “So anyone can wear wings now” and “I want the old victorias secret beauty standards back.” I understand resisting. The culture is addicted to skinny airbrushed models and resists when models refuse to conform to that. How freeing would it be for women to be encouraged to feel comfortable with real women on runways instead of afraid of it? I hope that Victoria’s Secret’s new campaigns and other, hopefully stronger, fashion shows will allow us to welcome true and diverse beauty.
Say please and thank you. Lie about loving your friend's new hair. Let it ring a few times before you hit decline. These are among the numerous silent principles of behavior we follow daily. As these exist in social situations, so they exist on social media.
On Snapchat and Instagram especially, the stakes are high. How you dress, talk and act in front of people on the daily makes an impression, but it often feels as though an Instagram page is where you broadcast your image. Not to mention, social etiquette is nothing new because we learned it from our parents. What the Gen Xers couldn’t prepare us for and can’t guide us through is the heavy pressure of social acceptance that comes bearing down on us when we don’t know how to post a get ready with me Tik Tok without feeling embarrassed, or slide up on someone's story without sounding weird. Most of us can’t even draft a text to a cute classmate without a few proofreads from the girls. This is the etiquette of social media, and it is brutal.
The double snap
If you’re left on delivered, don’t snap again. If you’re left on opened, absolutely do not snap again.
Instagram stalking
Stalking is acceptable, just don’t get caught. Avoid liking a post older than their most recent one. And, if the top post is older than ten days, you can’t like that one either. When it comes to old story highlights, view at your own risk.
Sliding into the DMs
If you’re messaging a potential fling, don’t. Flirting should go down on snapchat where it belongs. If you’re messaging a potential friend, don’t start with “hey girly” because you’re going to make her think her boyfriend cheated on her. Also, use as many exclamation marks as possible so you don’t sound like a mean girl.
Social media activism
Tasteful infographics only. Avoid bright colors or you’ll look like a performative activist. A statement you wrote yourself with white plain text on a black background is usually received well.
Photo dumping
People will think you are shallow if your Instagram is only gorgeous pictures of yourself. To appear genuine, post a photo slide of a fancy dinner you had, your outfit from the neck down, your friends all hanging out in perfect lighting, a picture of a tree or the sky or an animal, something cute in a shop or your room. The more candid looking, the better (even if it isn’t actually candid).
These rules are intimidating, but we follow them like our social life depends on it, because it sort of does. Etiquette is incredibly valuable and most of these rules exist for a reason. The danger comes from the pressure young people experience whenever they use social media, a place where image is everything. When double snapping is desperate and posting a sexy photo on Instagram is vain, we are left anxious about how the world perceives us. My solution and final rule is to never care. Break the rules if you want to. Maybe don’t leave a comment on Guy You Met in the Boom’s post from 2019, but definitely don’t care about my or anyone else’s opinion if you do.