Episode 267: Jo Massarelli on Social Role Valorization in Response to the Needs of the Homeless (September 6, 2023)

In this episode of The Open Door, panelists Jim Hanink, Mario Ramos-Reyes, and Valerie Niemeyer discuss how to best respond to people who are devalued due to intellectual or physical impairment, mental disorders, age, and poverty. Our welcome guest is Jo Massarelli. She leads Social Role Valorization workshops both in the United States and internationally. She has also evaluated dozens of human service programs for schools, hospices, prisons, and homeless shelters. Massarelli and her husband Marc Tumeinski are members of a voluntary community responding the needs of the homeless in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1. Valerie Niemeyer was blessed to meet Jo and her husband, Marc Tumeinski, in Omaha after the interview with Marc on The Open Door. Henry, Valerie's 18 year old, joined her and met a few of Jo's colleagues. Could you tell us about that weekend event? Why did it happen in my home city of Omaha?
2. Can you tell us more about Wolf Wolfensburger? How did he influence you?
3. What is the status of the social role valorization movement here and abroad?
4. What are the goals of the International Social Role Valorization Association? How might folks support its work?
5. You are part of a local Catholic Worker community. What can you tell us about it?
6. What connections do you see between Wolf Wolfensburger and Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement?
7. Do folks in the social role valorization movement and the Catholic Worker movement face similar challenges?
8. What patterns contribute to greater or lesser "success" within the two movements? And how would you define "success" in these contexts?
9. Tell us about your conference this summer. And what's on the agenda for next summer's conference?
10. Any last thoughts, invitations, or reading suggestions for our audience?