‘I try to think about what we can and what we can’t do for a person’

BRATTLEBORO-Caz Clark is the safety and outreach manager at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, a position that was created in 2022. There, he interacts with folks in need and finds ways to help connect them to many local organizations.

He also serves on the board at Groundworks Collaborative, and he's a member of the town of Brattleboro Situation Table.

Caz fills a place in our town we didn't even know we needed. He has a view of Brattleboro that's gritty, real, timely, and hopeful.

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Wendy O'Connell: You were born in Mississippi. And you moved to Michigan at some point?

Caz Clark: Yes, I was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. I moved to Michigan, probably 1999, I do believe it was. I was 12, maybe. It was a big move, but I had spent my summers vacation there with my grandparents in northern Michigan. So I was pretty used to the area and whatnot.

It was a big step, winter wise.

W.O.: And you have an unusual name, Caz. So is that a family name?

C.C.: Well, Caz is not. My full name is Charles Christopher Clark. I am a fourth generation CCC - my father was Charles Crockett Clark, his father was Charles Crockett Clark, his father (my great-grandfather was Carsie Canna Clark, and apparently, Carsie Canna Clark was named after a South American tour guide who saved my great-great grandfather, William Clark. But that's just family lore.

W.O.: It's a good family story.

C.C.: Then my mom, she just mostly wanted me to be my own person. So she she named me Caz before I was born, so I've always gone by Caz. I like it.

W.O.: You've done a lot of traveling, and you've lived in many places in the country, traveling in Oregon and various other states. Have you been a musician throughout this time?

C.C.: Yes, I definitely grew up playing music, and my mom was really adamant about helping me pursue that. When I moved out to Oregon, I got together with a group of people out there. We really, really honed in on on our talents together and were able to really take off as as friends and as musicians and do a lot of cool stuff.

We mostly played Americana, a little country. But early on, my parents had a band that I played in, more like classic rock and stuff.

W.O.: You traveled around as a handyman. You did some arbor care, stonemasonry, bartending - that kind of thing. So you're really seeing the country and checking things out.

C.C.: I was just picking up what I could as I moved around through my youth.

W.O.: What was the appeal of traveling for you?

C.C.: Mississippi was a lot, weather-wise, too. It's a very hot place. Michigan, I enjoyed, but the winters were very rough on me, and I think I spent a lot of time traveling, trying to find the place that felt comfortable for me.

I would travel. I spent two years kind of following the warmer temperatures around. So I'd do the Virgin Islands in the winter, and then go back to North Carolina for the spring, because it's so beautiful there, and then go back to Michigan and spend time my family, and then kind of start to circle again.

W.O.: And so you ended up in Brattleboro.

C.C.: A friend that I knew in Oregon lived here, and she had invited me to check out the area around 2018. So I started thinking about it, but I had not really made a plan to come here yet. Then Covid hit.

At the time, I didn't have an address, because I had been traveling for two years. So I just had to make a drastic decision and find a place where I wanted to lock down.

And this was it. I was like, "I'm gonna go, and if I don't like it, I'll leave later."

W.O.: You arrived in Brattleboro on March 14, 2020, which was like the moment....

C.C.: That's correct. And I remember landing in town, walking around, checking out some places, and for a lot of them, it was, like, the last day they were open.

I moved to a ghost town. I remember just sitting at my first apartment window, right downtown, above Sam's, and just watching the town kind of struggle through everything.

There were a lot of protests at that time, too. So it was a very tense time, around the George Floyd time. So as I was sitting in my apartment window, I would just watch all this happen, and I didn't really know what to make of it.

So it was a very intense way to take in a town and try to figure out how I would fit in here.

W.O.: When you come out of the lockdown, were you working right away?

C.C.: When I landed in town, the people that I stayed with here helped me get some side jobs through people they knew and whatnot. I got a job working with stonemasonry in Wilmington. That was a lot of driving. I didn't really enjoy that very much. And that job lasted only a couple months.

And then after that, just so happened, the Co-op was hiring a facilities person, and I jumped on that.

W.O.: When you started at the Co-op, you were doing the facilities and maintenance and security, but at some point that kind of rolled into more of a job, one with more of a call for security and for safety.

C.C.: This kind of circles back to Covid and how the Co-op had to react to the issues that were happening around the store with mask policies and theft and mental health issues.

We had to really think about how to continue to keep the store open for everybody without having any dangerous situations. And it was really hard to navigate where people were coming from or what kind of situations they were in.

So we tended to respond similarly to all situations. Trespassing people wasn't really sustainable. And I saw a lot of issues from people who were being treated like they needed to be trespassed, and I felt like there was a different answer for some of those.

There was a person who frequented the store, usually in the worst weather. He would walk around the store a couple times to get warm, then he would leave.

And there was a series of complaints about this person just being in the store. Some customers and some employees were like, "I think we should get this person out of here."

And I was like, "Why? What are they? You know, they're just coming in just to get warm for a minute."

I didn't think this was someone we should tell that he can't come into the store. Maybe we could help cater to his needs a little bit more and try to make a relationship with him.

W.O.: You started interacting more with the customers who were coming in.

C.C.: When it came to theft, I wanted to find out why people were stealing. A lot of people really dehumanize people and make terrible responses.

So meeting those people where they're at, figuring out what they need, can really help change how they interact with us as a store and our community.

I try to think about what we can and what we can't do for a person. If it's a connection I can make to another case worker, I'm happy to do that. If they're hungry, I'm happy to provide something.

W.O.: You described it as having firm compassion or empathy in action. You're actually representing the Co-op, but you're also in that environment, so you're also seeing a lot of people every day.

C.C.: We have a huge goal to make the Co-op a place that feels safe to people. And even though I have to interact with a lot of people on site, the respect that we get for the Co-op and for its staff has changed through building these relationships.

There's a lot of feelings about it, and it's all understandable. There's some positive feedback about it and there's some negative feedback.

W.O.: I know that a lot of what you do is, as you said, connecting people to where they need to go, finding out enough of their story to set them on a path somewhere. You're collaborating with Groundworks, HCRS, the Department of Health, Youth Services, the police on the streets.

And another great organization, Edible Brattleboro.

C.C.: This year, we really got off and running in a collaboration together that seems to be working really well with Edible Brattleboro. They had already been making soup at the store for quite a while on Sundays in our community kitchen with food that they got from Foodworks or from growing in their gardens. They also freeze-dry soup, which is really cool.

They provide me with about three gallons of soup every Sunday. And then on Sundays, on our patio, from 1 to 3 p.m., we hand out soup to anybody who needs it. We have a warming station there. We have coffee available.

When we were dealing with thefts, we were trying to figure out what was [going on]. We'd communicate with people, "Hey, you stole that," and they'd say, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

So I'd ask: "Are you just hungry?"

"Yeah."

"Well, let me get that for you. No, you can't [steal from us], but we'll find a way to assist you."

So that's how it started. It became unsustainable to continue to do that, to buy food for people, so the Safety and Outreach Department was always brainstorming and trying to find solutions to get as much food available while spending [the least] amount of money.

And the employee that I work with, Jeff Reynolds - he and I collaborated on ideas, trying to figure out what we could do. And he came up with our pizza program. So we have two cheese pizzas we give out every day, 12 slices a day. We give out free to anybody that needs it.

[We ask ourselves] what else can we provide that could help people? Water was a big one this past summer. We provide food basically from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It may not be a meal, it may not be a slice of pizza, it might be a granola bar, but we'll be able to hand something to somebody who is hungry.

W.O.: And how is that working in terms of numbers of people coming to you?

C.C.: It definitely depends on the day of the month [based on when people get access to government assistance funds]. There's definitely times where we absolutely get overrun by this, which is why we have our boundaries. I can't just continue to make pizzas all day. I do one pizza at noon, and I do one pizza at three. And you can come show up and get that, if you like. And if we don't have that available, we're able to hand out a muffin or something.

W.O.: The busyness of your job sometimes is a little bit overwhelming. And you were saying that sometimes you feel like one of those telephone switchboard operators.

C.C.: Absolutely. I try to come into the day with a plan, and sometimes that plan works - but sometimes the day just takes me where it's going to take me, and I just have to respond to what's happening in our environment.

W.O.: The other thing about your job and who you are is that because you're not a nonprofit, because you're not affiliated with HCRS or any other organization, you can help and collaborate in ways that other organizations cannot.

C.C.: Yes, and that was a big start of our department in 2022. A lot of the outreach case workers that we have available now weren't available. Still coming out of Covid, people were trying to figure out how to come back to the community and meet people where they were at. But they hadn't. The wheels weren't moving correctly yet.

So that's why I was kind of able to take on a few things myself that provide solutions for people that they weren't able to get in other places.

W.O.: Yes, right. And they know to come to you now.

C.C.: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I help people do is try to get their identification back. If we want people to help themselves and get their lives moving, it's a crucial tool. And sometimes it could be very tough. Somebody has nothing, and we have to start from scratch. And sometimes it can be as easy as "I had an ID, then I lost it. I just need it renewed."

We also noticed a lot of people who had phones could use them only with WiFi, and we were actually getting an influx of people against our building outside who were just trying to get our internet connection to make a phone call. We started to get into a bit of congestion around the front of our store. So the general manager let me get a WiFi booster, and I boosted our signal all the way to the park across our parking lot so people could be there and make their connections.

W.O.: You also are working closely with the police on the street.

C.C.: Yes, I have a lot of relationships with a lot of the officers. We do very well together. I think Officer [Ryan] Washburn is probably my biggest collaborator on the streets, and I think he's a really important person in our town.

W.O.: People seem to respect him.

C.C.: Yes, lots of different kinds of people really respect him. I honestly think he can be more of a social worker than a police officer, for people who need it.

W.O.: You have two people who are working with you at the co op. You have two employees [in your department]. So instead of having no one addressing all these things, now you have three people.

C.C.: Yes, the goal was to have somebody available at the store from open to close seven days a week. It's taken a while to build that. I started with myself, and then quickly got into my No. 2 guy, Jeff Reynolds, and we had to do it with just us. We tried to fill as many hours a week was we could.

And now we have a third employee who was able to fill that other gap.

W.O.: I have a feeling that you must have radar - that you're always taking the temperature of things and [evaluating] how things are going.

C.C.: Absolutely. Yeah, I'll spend a lot of time just outside of the store, just watching and trying to see issues before they come to the store or see people who are having problems. I can see potential theft coming from a mile away a lot of times. And a lot of that I get from just standing up front.

W.O.: Let's talk about the situation table, because this is something new.

C.C.: The situation table has the police force, the fire department, EMTs, all case workers, HCRS, Groundworks, the town manager. We all get together. I say we, but it's mostly them. I don't really have a stakeholder seat in this position.

All the people in that room are the people who make those solutions. We get together, [identify] people who are having issues in our community, and figure out how to get real solutions for them.

W.O.: I know it hasn't been going very long, but in your experience so far, do you think it's working?

C.C.: I think it's working wonderfully.

W.O.: Really,

C.C.: Yes.

W.O.: That's so great.

When we're talking about having two new employees with you now, what's your burnout rate like?

C.C.: It depends. I've really learned not to take things as heavy as I did in the beginning, but that can change day to day. My surprise rate has completely diminished - I'm not surprised by a lot of things at this point, because I've seen a lot of crazy things around our store.

But there can be incidents like, say, an overdose, or where somebody gets harmed outside the store, or where I have to intervene. I have to remind myself to take space after that. Maybe even leave work to decompress from it and not try to continue to move into other situations, because I might react poorly.

W.O.: But you've been able to sort of keep that in balance?

C.C.: For the most part, yeah, and it comes and goes, and it comes and goes for all my team members who never know what we're going to be doing.

I try to be supportive in that. And I say, "Hey, this happened to you? Take a day, yeah? Like, I don't want you coming back feeling like you have an obligation to give yourself to this. You need to give some self time to yourself."

W.O.: So the three of you commiserate together, but do you also [work on this with other members of the Co-op staff]?

C.C.: We have monthly huddles where we invite staff, and if there's definitely a situation, we try to communicate that with everybody there. If there's an incident that involves employees, I try to connect with them personally, to decompress with them a little bit.

But that's also something we're working on. We're always trying to build more of a trauma response team. I have actually collaborated with Rachael Trill, community restorative practices coordinator from Interaction: Youth Services and Restorative Justice. She does circle talks to help organize communication between people in a helpful way. And I also have been in connection with Knowles Wentworth, the HCRS police liaison, about incidents that might happen around the store.

So we've talked, and I've asked, "OK, if an incident happens, would you be available to be here at our store to help people decompress through problems?"

W.O.: And that's worked?

C.C.: . Fortunately, we haven't had anything recently this winter, but this trauma response team idea actually came from incidents we had this summer. So it's a work in progress.

W.O.: As you're looking at the town, there's the Co-op on one end and then the library at the other end, in terms of public spaces that are well-trafficked. Are you in conversation with [Brooks Memorial Library Director] Starr [LaTronica]?

C.C.: Yes, absolutely, she's wonderful. I've sat on a couple other committees with her, and I think that [Brooks is] a great resource for people for communication or an email address or computer or even a telephone. She's provided a lot for people in need in our community,

W.O.: You landed here in Brattleboro, and all of a sudden everything changed, including what you thought you were going to be doing. And I found that to be true from for some other people, you know, Starr, I think being one of them. She came from Binghamton to this job, [not long before Covid hit].

I think the right people end up in the right place sometime at the right time. It seems like that's really true.

C.C.: Absolutely. I wonder a lot how I got here. I was a bartender for 14 years - I think that helped prepare me for a lot of different situations - but I'd never, ever saw myself where I'm at now.

W.O.: Is there anything else that you'd like to mention about your job or about anything that you've encountered that you think would be helpful for people to know about?

C.C.: There has been a lot of concern about my job and what I am doing for the town by some members of our community. They're wondering why I do this and why we don't have [other] resources that are able to handle this instead.

And I really want to mention how well Brattleboro is doing. It's slow progress, but there's a lot more going on now than there was four years ago, and I think that another four years from now, we're going to really be able to have a handle on a lot of situations in town very gracefully.

What my job has really just turned into is just - I'm the connections guy for a lot of different resources, whether it be clients or case workers.

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Editor's note: Stories presented as interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets.

Wendy O'Connell hosts the award-winning series Here We Are: Brattleboro's Community Talk Show, which airs weekly on Brattleboro Community Television and features conversations with a very wide variety of local people of all ages.

This News item was submitted to The Commons.