Greetings
from Robert Donofrio � Founder and Member of the Board of Directors of
POEinAction, Inc. (A
not for profit initiative)
Ten years later in 2011, Elliott, his combat brother and an
Army "wounded warrior" whom I mentor, suggested Mike talk to me after
having met him at drug rehab in Twelve Oaks in Navarre.  Elliott told Mike that he too had seen the
horrors of war. He too had tried to numb
up his feelings to what he had experienced and he too had considered suicide. I
went to the halfway house Mike was living in at that time to meet him. Mike told me about his drinking and how his
wife had taken their child and left him. She told him that he wasn�t the boy she fell in love with anymore and he
wasn�t the man she married. He told me
about the horrors of what he experienced in war and how he tried to "numb up�
and "dumb up� his feelings with alcohol. He talked about the problems he created with his drinking and how the
Marines tried to help him by sending him to an Alcohol Treatment Program. He said his continued drinking and subsequent
inappropriate behaviors resulted in his being booted out of the Marines; the
only way of life he knew and loved.Â
"I�m a trained killer� Mike told me, "and there isn�t any
need for my type in civilian life. I don�t know how to do anything else and I
don�t want to do anything else.�
I told Mike about resources and things available to him, but
he said he wanted nothing to do with any of it. He wanted to be a Marine and he wanted to have his wife and son
back. Mike said he was told that neither
of those things would ever happen. Mike
rejected my offers to talk and try to help. He requested that I stop trying to meet and talk to him. The last time I saw him was when he told me
to leave him alone as he turned and walked back into the House of Many Nations
off of Blue Angel Boulevard. I sent numerous messages to him. Later he sent word for me to stop calling
him. Mike said I was a nuisance.
On October 3rd, 2011, at age 28, Mike Sherman committed
suicide and became a statistic. He
joined over 6,000 other service men and women who choose to die each year rather
than live with what they experienced in America�s wars. More who have worn the American uniform in
this past decade have died of suicide than those who have died on the
battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.Â
His friends and family miss him. I now have another scar in my heart. And Mike becomes another undiagnosed PTSD
veteran who has died because we failed to understand and address his issues.
Elliott is trying to be part of the solution. He is reaching out every way he knows. There is a "run� he wants to participate in
to raise awareness for Veteran�s Suicide Prevention. On Nov 8, 2015, he will snap on his running
prosthesis and run the Pensacola Marathon in Pensacola, Florida, to bring
awareness to this growing problem and to raise resources for veterans in need.
[cut and paste this to your internet browser]
 http://www.gofundme.com/x3umar4?fb_action_ids=461029624075027&fb_action_types=og.shares&fb_ref=fb_cr_n
POEinAction was formed in
2004 by a group of University Professors who wanted to go beyond the boundaries
of their campus and assist those who never had the chance to expand their
cognitive horizons and were trapped in a life of poverty, misfortune and
suffering. The organization was based on
the tenants of the statement made by Gandhi, a remarkable man who�s simple
nonviolent code inspired millions of people to improve their lot in life by
expanding upon their individual spiritual foundations of helping themselves by
helping others; thereby taking personal responsibility for the "creation of
good.�
"... we need to be the change
we want to see happen...� Gandhi
POEinAction -- MISSION
STATEMENT
POEinAction, Inc. is a not
for profit 501-C-3 initiative made up of individuals who believe in civility,
compassion, tolerance, mutual respect for human dignity and providing a service
to our fellow human beings. We come from
all walks of life and we believe in assisting others to learn to help
themselves and regain their life and dignity by becoming free from poverty,
misfortune and suffering. Our members collaborate with and establish community
partners in our goal to provide educational, behavioral, mental health,
physical health, and social services for a wide range of those less fortunate
individuals within our community.
The founding Board of
Directors members were Marcia Howard, Holly Ellis and Robert Donofrio. All three were faculty members at the
University of West Florida in Pensacola at the time. Dr. Howard was the interim Dean of the
College of Business. Dr. Ellis was
working in the early special education section of the College of Education and
Mr. Donofrio was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nursing and
working with the Juvenile Justice Section within the College of Education. Doctors Howard and Ellis served on the Board
of Directors (BOD) from 2004 until 2012. Mr. Donofrio continues to be a member
of the board.
Subsequent BOD members
included Joshua Haggard, MSW, Jake Schneide, BA, Michael Maxwell, BSW [MSW
graduate student] and Elliott James Smith.
Â
Jake Schneider, CDR
USN-Retired, joined the BOD in 2013. Jake earned his Purple Heart while serving
as a Marine in Beirut Lebanon during the suicide bombing of the Marine Barracks
in 1982.
Robert Donofrio is a
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner/Mental Health Therapist, a veteran and an
educator.
The GANDHI BRIGADES � A
POEinAction Initiative
All recipients of services
from POEinAction are required to become volunteers within the organization as
part of their responsibility to "pay it forward� for the services they receive
from the organization. The training and life experiences recipients receive
from our support groups, classes and activities provide excellent credentials
to help others. The act of helping
others to help oneself is at the very core of the concepts within the
POEinAction philosophy. We strive to "do
good, so we can do well and then be able to continue to do good for ourselves
and others.� We provide nothing to others
for free. Doing so would lower the self-esteem of those who receive our assistance.
Requiring recipients to go forward and help others as payment for services
received fosters self-esteem and a greater vision of how we are all
connected. We adhere to the definition
of success as "not how high one has climbed up on the ladder of success but how
many others we have helped up the ladder behind us.�Â
Volunteers within the
POEinAction organization are referred to as the "GANDHI BRIGADES.� Different brigades focus their efforts on
specific targets of change. A brigade
targeting poverty will seek solutions to poverty by offering vocational
counseling and training. Developing
entrepreneur-ship of creating businesses when there are no jobs available is an
example resolving the threat of poverty. We have brigades targeting various issues rampant in our community; such
as veteran�s issues, homelessness, unemployment, intimidation, ignorance, and
the wide arena of abuse; be it substance or emotion or physical. Our goal is always to empower others to learn
to help themselves.         Â
We invite you to learn more
about us and our work. We have numerous
projects and partnerships that include rescuing abandoned horses and using
their habilitation as a means for those with PTSD and others with disabilities
to connect on an emotional level with other creatures who have experienced
pain. Numerous UWF students have participated in our projects for their
clinical education. Â Since 2012, we
participated in the "Home for the Holidays� project where working with other
groups, homeless veterans and others are placed in a motel for a month while
they participate in training and classes that are aimed to break the cycle of
helplessness. For several years we assisted
the Wounded American Veterans Events
(WAVE)  "Day of Appreciation� where representatives
from six yacht clubs along the Gulf Coast of Florida provide a picnic and
sailing for Wounded American Veterans. In our Service Office in Gulf Breeze, and at other locations in
Pensacola, POEinAction volunteers and staff provide Employee Assistance services,
Mental Health Counseling, PTSD Support Sevices and a wide variety of other
individual and group services.Â
                                                        "... we need to be the change we want to see happen...� Gandhi
For more information contact us at  [email protected]   or 850-484-3560 or  850-341-1399.
POE in Action, Inc. Â Service Office: Midway Plazza, Unit 8, 5668
Hwy 98, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561
POE in Action, Inc.  Administration Office: 890 Lexington Road, Pensacola, Fl 32514
University of West Florida, Building 78, Room 103
11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514