[Seattle-editorial] Article: Seattle Peace Heathen Crisis Guide

[sheelanagig at juno.com]

Here is the summary and the article -

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<P>Seattle Crisis Guide: 6th Edition
<BR>by Kirsten Anderberg 

<P>Where can the homeless take free showers in Seattle? Where are the
most reliable needle exchange sites in town? Where can women get safe
abortions? Where can our youth get free anonymous STD testing? Where can
the poor find emergency child care and emergency infant supplies? How can
seniors get a utility discount? Where are gay/bi/transgender medical
services? Where can the poor find clothing, meals, food, housing,
shelter, e-mail and phone services, and other essential services in our
Emerald City? This information, and more, is contained within the
recently published 6th Edition of the Peace Heathens' "Seattle Crisis
Resource Directory." 

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<P>Seattle Crisis Guide: 6th Edition
<BR>by Kirsten Anderberg 

<P>Where can the homeless take free showers in Seattle? Where are the
most reliable needle exchange sites in town? Where can women get safe
abortions? Where can our youth get free anonymous STD testing? Where can
the poor find emergency child care and emergency infant supplies? How can
seniors get a utility discount? Where are gay/bi/transgender medical
services? Where can the poor find clothing, meals, food, housing,
shelter, e-mail and phone services, and other essential services in our
Emerald City? This information, and more, is contained within the
recently published 6th Edition of the Peace Heathens' "Seattle Crisis
Resource Directory."

<P>The "Seattle Crisis Guide," as it has come to be known on the street
over the years, was first produced in 1989 by a bunch of local hippie
activists calling themselves the "Peace Heathens." The group was founded
by Vivian McPeak, director of the Seattle Hempfest. With a flair for
psychedelic art and colorful presentation, this group was reminiscent of
the early days of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Ken Kesey. Peace in all
forms, including economic peace, was the agenda of this group. 95% of the
staff that created the Crisis Guide are also on the Seattle Hempfest
staff. As Hempfest grew, it absorbed the Peace Heathens, so this is the
sole project left that the Peace Heathens do independently.

<P>The Crisis Guide was the first successful project the Peace Heathens
had. The Peace Heathens felt that the music and alternative culture
communities would dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to something they
believed in--people just needed a vehicle for community service. They
wanted to create a project that had an immediate and tangible, rather
than symbolic, result. So the Peace Heathens went out and collected all
the pamphlets and info they could on community resources and put them in
a pile on Vivian's floor and began to separate them into categories. They
had a friend who worked at a copy center doing graveyard shift (oh god,
how typical is this story?!) and that was the first guerrilla printing of
600 copies.

<P>The Seattle Police began carrying the Crisis Guides in their patrol
cars, using them as tools to connect to the community. Instead of telling
someone to move on, they could tell them where a shelter was and give
them a Crisis Guide. The Church Council of Greater Seattle, the
Washington Department of Corrections, the Department of Social and Health
Services, NW Hospital, the NW AIDS Foundation, TeenLine, and others, have
requested and given away Crisis Guides. Safeco approached the Peace
Heathens and asked if they could donate printing and supplies to create
the 2nd and 3rd edition printings, but not have their names anywhere on
the copies! Thus, the next 12,000 copies appeared on the streets in
coffeeshops, at libraries, in shelters. The 4th Edition was printed again
by guerrilla printing at another late night graveyard copy shift in town.
The 5th Edition was researched, but evolved into the Crisis Guide website
at <a href="http://www.seattlecrisis.org">www.seattlecrisis.org</A>. A
hard copy never was printed.

<P>The new 6th edition is ready to be printed and distributed. Vivian
says that they need to get 10,00 copies printed before winter so no one
freezes in an alley for lack of information. He said they have never been
able to meet the demand for copies yet. He also pointed out the greater
need than ever for this resource, as we are in a federal, state, county,
and city budget crisis, and there is a conservative mood of contempt
towards the poor. So far, 21,000 copies have now gone out to the public
without ANY money exchanging hands.

<P>The Crisis Guide is a hand up, not a hand out. Vivian says, "we just
give them the resources, they are the ones who need to pound the pavement
to make it happen." Over the years, Vivian has worn a leather jacket with
Peace Heathens painted on the back. People have come up to him and
thanked him for the Crisis Guide, saying it saved their lives when they
were homeless, suicidal, and broke, and now they have a family and job.
But Vivian says the best reward for him is to see a street kid, with a
tattered Crisis Guide hanging out his back pocket, as he walks down the
street.





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