The Life Narrative of
  ANDREA KROCHALIS

Presented By: Sharon Mirtaheri

WORKING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

       

       Andrea Krochalis has had an exceptional thirty year career with Roanoke City government helping people in need. She developed and ran, for twenty of those years, the "Sanctuary Crises Intervention Center" for which the city built a building on her watch. Her idea was to separate several categories of troubled youth from those that had committed crimes and give them services that would help them get back on the right track. She also concentrated on family units and services to help them heal. The program was very successful.
    On top of a long career dedicated to helping others Andrea's time outside of work was dedicated to a long list of organizations that promote social and environmental justice (see related web sites). Her energy and dedication are inspiring to say the least. In an age where we look for heroines I have found one in my own backyard!
    Currently she owns her own business "Paw and Whiskers" and writes grants for numerous non-profits and now has the time to dedicate herself even further to environmental justice.
Andrea Krochalis at a "Sprawl Site" in Roanoke Valley before grading begins  
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Sierra Club: The Paw and Whisker

                                        

Annie
 
She splayed her life out for me
and I became entwined
in all it’s threads.
Our vessel drifted
backwards through
the years. I marched
with her for justice,
sat on a cold cement
floor in a jail cell
on her twenty first
coming of age.
 
Justice was rotten
bologna sandwiches.
 
Self imposed the fight.
Efforts for the right thing
always. Live a life
fully, trying to glue
the cracks of the world.
Thirty years
of intersections with
suffering, mending broken
lives. I have been gifted
a heroine.

Quotes:  
"Eyes that don't see are hearts that don't feel". Esperanza Hernandaz" From Ruth Behar's book: " A Translated Woman". The Life Narritive of esperanza Hernandaz.

"I think activism… is a process really for me. I would say activism is about what you do in the world and how you go about doing it and doing it in a values based way". Andrea Krochalis

On Activism:
"Well it’s meaningful because it’s work that has a larger purpose than just your paycheck. It’s meaningful because you spend a tremendous amount of time in your life at work and I would like to think that in bits and pieces here and there it has done something to improve human condition just in terms of working with run away and homeless youth. I  think too that I was driven by the fact that I had seen abuse and had seen corruption and it fit with my coming of age at the same time…that there was this social upheaval so I got to act out a lot of that". Andrea Krochalis.

"The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens". President Jimmy Carter

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