Master Luthier in OTR Page 11
Gap Year Page 8
STREETVIBES
$1
A p r i l 2 0 0 9 • I s s u e 1 5 3 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
Healer and Brother Marianist doctor’s specialty is caring for homeless people By Paul Kopp Contributing Writer
is located in an old mansion on Washington Avenue in Avondale, once owned by “some Brother Bob Donovan, kind of steel tycoon,” as DonM.D., has been giving medi- ovan puts it. Walking up the cal care to the homeless com- grand staircase, one can almunity in Cincinnati for 16 most imagine what the interior years. He was “instrumental of the house must have looked like. in starting The centhe health“A lot of times you know ter sees care sysexactly what the person about 130 tem for the needs but it’s just so patients homeless hard to get them in.” yearly, the in Cincinnati,” ac- - Br. Bob Donovan, M.D. majority of whom are cording to treated by Mary Beth Meyer, executive director of Donovan unless he is out of the Respite Center in Avon- town. The illnesses he treats most often at the center indale. “He is such a gentle person, volve recovery from surgery, so humble that you wouldn’t broken bones and cellulitis, a necessarily ever get any of skin infection that usually octhat information from him,” curs in the legs, he says. The second floor is where Meyer says. “You really kind of learn about him from other Donovan sees patients, in a small wing directly off people.” The Respite Care Center, a the staircase. The halls are 24-hour medical and nursing cramped, and the air feels facility for homeless people, slightly oppressive, in stark
contrast to his demeanor. Raised in Cincinnati, Donovan attended St. Xavier High School, received his undergraduate degree at the University of Cincinnati, then studied at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, returning home to start a private practice in the suburbs, which he held for four and a half years. “I loved my practice but I felt like I wanted to do something different, to help people with less access to health care,” he says. At the same time Donovan was beginning to explore the matter of his own spirituality. Though not quite sure what he was looking for, he began to learn about the Marianist community through a recommendation from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He says the Marianist mentality clicked with him largely due to its “prayer life“- a group prayer twice a day. “It’s a time for us to come together and in a sense remind ourselves that God is a part of all of our day,” Donovan says.
See Healer, P. 4
Brother Bob Donovan, M.D. dedicates his life to caring for homeless people without insurance. Photo by Andrew Anderson.
Treatment Center Under Attack In the face of tragedy, city council lashes out By Gregory Flannery Editor Do you want to live near sex offenders? Too late. You already do. What do you want to do about it? Hamilton County is home to about 1,500 people who have been convicted of sex offenses. There is only one residential treatment center for sex offenders in the county, and Cincinnati City Council wants the state to “shut it down,” as its letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland put it. Last month a former resident of the Pogue Rehabilita-
tion Center, where sex offenders and other former prisoners receive treatment, allegedly killed a 13-year-old girl. In response, six of council’s nine members demanded the facility be closed. Raw emotion seldom makes for sound public policy, and no one made the point better than the victim’s father, who in the midst of his grief said that city council is wrong, and the Pogue Center should remain open.
‘Vote pandering’ The Pogue Center in Overthe-Rhine houses 90 to 100 former offenders, about half of whom have been convicted of various crimes classified as sex offenses, according to Chris Lohrman, president of the local chapter of the VOA, the non-profit agency that operates the facility.
On March 7 Anthony Kirk- the Cincinnati community,” land allegedly strangled Esme the letter to Strickland says. Kenney. The Pogue Center “Please shut it down.” This is, had evicted as Marhim eight Raw emotion seldom gie Slagle days earlier makes for sound for strikpoints out, public policy, and no an election ing another one made the point year for resident. The center better than the victim’s city councalled the father, who in the midst cil. An atCincinnati torney with of his grief said that the Ohio Police about city council is wrong, Justice and the incident and the Pogue Center Policy Cenbut Kirkshould remain open. land wasn’t ter, she says charged. c o u n c i l ’s The center notified Kirkland’s position ignores facts about parole officer the next business sex offenses and the most effective response to them. day, as state rules required. But as public outrage over “The politicians really love the girl’s death mounted, city to blow it out of proportion,” council responded by blaming she says. “It’s vote pandering, the facility that had tried to and they rely on the fact that their constituents don’t know treat Kirkland. “VOA has, at the least, failed what’s going on.” miserably in their mission and Research in the past 10 destroyed all public trust with years shows that, contrary
to public perceptions, most persons convicted of sex offenses don’t repeat the crime, according to Slagle. Repeat offenses decline significantly when offenders receive the kind of treatment offered by the Pogue Center, she says. “What we should learn from this is there aren’t enough programs like this in the state,” Slagle says. “If the VOA is closed, most of those folks are going to become homeless.” Which is, of course, the state Kirkland was in the night he allegedly committed murder. If the city wants to protect public safety, closing the Pogue Center is the wrong step, according to Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. VOA is a member of the coalition.
See VOA, P. 6