“My first experience with outreach was supposed to be isolated to my own neighborhood,” said Jason Hall, community resources navigator with SoonerCare, an initiative undertaken by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, a state agency that provides health care coverage for qualifying Oklahomans. “A lot of the kids at the bus stop were really underdressed for the weather. So, I wanted to do a coat drive, initially for the kids in my neighborhood.”
The coat drive gained the attention of Andrea Winstead, district homeless education coordinator for Lawton Public Schools. Hall was able to supply LPS with a coat rack and fill it with coats for students in need. The initiative grew into a clothing closet for kids in emergency foster situations, prompting the need for a storage facility, which was generously provided by Tracie Davis, Hall said.
Wanting to meet the needs for more members of the community, when a college had decided to renovate its dorms, Hall was able to get a truckload of clean beds.
“A lot of times when kids are in DHS custody, the thing that splits up siblings or keeps kids from going to family members is that they don’t have a bed for them. We were able to supply beds, clothes, diapers and a lot of other things.”
Providing furniture and other needs to families leaving the shelter program, Hall was called on to volunteer with Family Promise of Lawton, a homeless shelter network that is partnered with local churches to provide shelter for families with minor children, a mission he continues to support.
In the meantime, for a short time, he became the director for C. Carter Crane Shelter for the Homeless, a project of Great Plains Improvement Foundation. “Shortly after I started at Carter Crane, the executive director of Family Promise position opened up, and I was encouraged to apply.”
Without an accountant, a master’s degree or any previous grant writing experience, at the time Hall “didn’t feel I was qualified for the position” at Carter Crane, he stated. “I don’t want to say that they don’t have [a grant writer] now [because] I don’t want to diminish the work that the director at Carter Crane is doing, because she’s wonderful, and a great grant writer. But at the time, when I was there, the supports were different.”
Growing up in Indiahoma, Hall attended Cache schools. Though he grew up in a home where love and understanding abounds, as a teen, his struggle with drugs and alcohol began.
As a young adult, he worked in several nightclubs around Lawton as well as Tulsa. Hall contends the nightlife “really facilitated that lifestyle and almost encouraged it.” He was arrested multiple times, charged with misdemeanor assault charges and disturbing the peace.
“My addiction became pretty serious,” he said. While living in Tulsa, Hall reached a point where he “started the day at the methadone clinic and was drinking about a liter of whiskey a day. Then started taking Xanax or whatever else to get me through. I was pretty out of control.”
At the bars, “a lot of my regulars showed up just to see what was going to happen next.”
His last arrest was “a wakeup call,” he said. Subsequentially, bar management stated his actions made him “too big of a liability” and let him go.
“I was convicted for being an employee intoxicated while on duty,” he said. “Tulsa Police Department came in and put me in handcuffs and took me outside. I was pretty defiant, as usual. They kept me in handcuffs outside until County showed up. There was a county law about apparently employee intoxicated on duty, that’s a charge according to the county police.”
Receiving the citation, Hall was under the impression that he would just be able to pay a fine. When he went before the court, he was notified that the charge carries a maximum term of six months in jail.
“Addiction itself is traumatic,” he said. “And then you have to go through all the things you see and go through, witness and experience – those things are also traumatic.”
Unemployed, with prior charges and a suspended driver’s license, in order to provide for his family, Hall donated plasma, and, at one point, was buying Xanax, the medication prescribed for anxiety disorders, panic disorders, and anxiety caused by depression, from residents at an assisted living facility. He would then sell the medication at a methadone clinic.
“I had my family and a house I couldn’t afford, so I started applying for jobs. But with impending charges, I was pretty much unemployable. There was not a bar in town that would hire me because I was such a liability.”
Hall began picking up odd jobs on Craigslist, working for a roofing company, earning less than minimum wage. “It wasn’t even enough to pay the bills,” he added.
To avoid jailtime and keep his family together, Hall loaded up everything and fled back to southwest Oklahoma, staying with friends and relatives. He began building a life for himself and his family. He was able to make amends with the Tulsa courts.
Since his return, he has worked with several organizations and outreach programs, including Hungry Hearts Feeding Ministry of Lawton, Family Promise of Lawton, and United Way of Southwest Oklahoma. He has spoken to area schools about the needs of homeless persons and provides backpacks filled with donated nonperishable foods and personal items to the homeless on his routes to camps around the city.
Seeing firsthand what addiction can do, Hall, a Leadership Lawton graduate of class 30, aspires to become a substance abuse counselor. He is pursuing his bachelor’s in psychology from Cameron University, minoring in family science, and has plans to master in social work or public health.
In 2019, Hall was presented with the Oklahoma Human Rights Award for his work on several community projects and initiatives. Co-sponsored by the Oklahoma Universal
Human Rights Alliance and the United Nations Association Oklahoma City Chapter, the awards ceremony, held Dec. 7, was a bittersweet day, he said.
“Someone from Oklahoma City who follows my social media actually nominated me for it, and then reached out to some local community members who are involved in outreach,” said Hall. “They all put together a narrative of what I’d been working on over the past few years. It wasn’t just for my work with Family Promise or street outreach, it was a celebration of all I’d done.”
Forthright about his struggle with addiction, with his acceptance speech written and rehearsed, Hall was reminded of a tragedy that had happened years before.
“The morning of the awards ceremony, I did my morning mediations and checked social media. Seeing Facebook Memories, I was reminded, on that same day that I was going to accept this award, 6-7 years prior, I was admitted to the Indian Hospital for my medical detox off of alcohol and opiates.
“It’s a really good reminder of where I have come from and what I had achieved.
“The level of my substance abuse when I went into that detox, drinking a liter of whiskey a day and mixing that with opiates and benzos, that’s a pretty deadly combination. So, to be receiving that award on the anniversary of a day — I could’ve very well died that day. That one day was a reminder of what I have been able to achieve and reflect on where all that came from.”
“I’m really impressed with the amount of passion there is in southwest Oklahoma, and how much people like to help.” concluded Hall. “I’d like to see a more concerted effort and focusing of resources on initiatives and plans that have documented and proven results. We have the right heart, drive and resources, we’re just too spread out. If we could focus more on what has worked in other communities, we’d have a lot better outcomes.”