John Balderson's Homeless Assistance Center (HAC) Diary

March 21 - March 27

Thank you for visiting this section of the Tent City/HAC web site. Since I moved into the Broward County Homeless Assistance Center/Huizenga Family Campus on February 1, 1999 after spending time from March,1997 at Tent City, I have had a variety of interesting experiences.

You are visitor to John Balderson's HAC Diary web page.

Below is a daily diary of my activities from the time I moved into the HAC until the time that I will be leaving.

I had an appointment with my case manager in order to get 10 bus tickets for the Microsoft seminar and BETA testing that I am going to be involved in for the majority of the week.

Went to BETA (Broward Employment and Training Act) at 2610 W. Oakland Park Boulevard, went through orientation and took a TABE (Test of Adult Basic Education) and passed it with flying colors.

However, the counselor at BETA thought that I was over qualified and may not be able to get into the program. I picked up some literature from the 3 vo-tech centers and Keiser college and will contact my counselor once I have received my birth certificate from the state of Michigan which is a prerequisite for getting into BETA as well as getting a Florida ID or driver's license since the Tent City ID was lost at security the second day I moved into the Center.

Went to Microsoft seminar kick-off event at the Broward Convention Center and got the agenda for Tuesday's activities.

Spent all day at Microsoft events at Broward Convention Center,attending consultant/reseller Direct Access in the morning, technical/developer TechNet in the afternoon, and MSDN collaboration in the evening.

I met with the photographer from City Link at the BCT station and we rode the bus together to the Broward Convention Center where he took some pictures of me both inside and outside, in conjunction with an article to be printed in the March 31 issue about me and the Center.

I also went to a customer's business from a contact that I made at the seminar, and called the resident coordinator to let her know that I was going to be late past the 12 Midnight clearance I had already received from my case manager. As it turns out, I was done sooner than expected and arrived back at the Center at 12:15 AM.

I went to yet another Microsoft event on Channel Strategy for Windows 2000 and Office 2000 at the Hyatt Pier 66, down the street from the Convention center.

In addition I had an appointment with one of the companies I spoke with at the job fair last week, and since this company was on Commercial Blvd. about 3 blocks away from Keiser College, I also stopped there to get information on their course offerings in conjunction with the BETA program.

After a 45-minute review process and looking through the course catalog, the offerings at Keiser are more in line with what I need to learn in order to be accredited with Internet and programming experience.

I will report this information to my BETA counselor, and I talked to my case manager about this, but she thinks I should also explore the more traditional colleges such as BCC,FIU,and FAU.

This conversation with my case manager came about as the result of an unscheduled meeting ,as she had to discuss with me a problem with the diary entry I made on March 15, regarding an "off-campus favor". In an attempt to be as confidential as possible, while allowing all interested parties in reading this diary to follow my activities, I perhaps was too vague, and I told my case manager that I would make every effort to clear up this vagueness.

To clarify, on March 15, I followed up on a suggestion that I had made to my case manager and went to Office Depot Express and prepared a set of 250 appointment cards for her on their self-service computers, since after 2 months, and despite the fact that there are computers at the Center currently not being used, the clients still do not have access to them, and probably won't during the short time left I have remaining at the Center.

Therefore any computer related activity, including the daily entries in this diary, must be done at the library, or some outside provider such as Kinko's or Office Depot.

I am also exploring the financial possibly of getting a sub-notebook or laptop computer from my IRS income tax refund once it comes in, which according to the IRS, will be mailed out March 26, as then I'd only have to go to Kinko's to print and not pay computer charges, as Office Depot Express closes on March 27.

Went to Miami on another interview related to the job fair contacts I made last week, and since the Microsoft seminar that I attended on Tuesday was at the Wyndham Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard, I stopped off to attend a couple of the sessions I could not attend because of simultaneous sessions in which I was interested in the subject matter of both.

With the contacts I made this week with the two companies, I am optimistic that a job opportunity will come soon.

Due to the activities this week, it took me until today to enter all these diary entries, and I also met with the City Link photographer to take more pictures of me for the March 31 article highlighting my stay at the Center, with excerpts from the diary.

I will probably have to confer with staff regarding the article when it is published, although I have made them previously aware of the interest by City Link and Sun-Sentinel.

With the flurry of activity I was involved in this week, I went to the library to set this diary up for next week and to read the tons of e-mail I have in my various accounts.

Also did some on-line reviewing in case I decide to buy a laptop computer with my IRS refund, as computer access at the HAC is non-existent, and probably will be while I'm still a resident there.

Also picked up 3 videos for the guys to watch when March Madness is not on, probably tomorrow, as the two games leading to the championship game on Monday start at 5:30 PM.