Well, now that I've actually gotten a start on my work, I feel like I have something I can write about.
Lets see...what have I worked on...
Well I went to the Juvenile Detention Center for the first time. That was actually pretty fun. There were three kids, we made felt bags with them. They seemed to enjoy it. Although one of the kids was skeptical when I told him that this was my first time making felt bags. He thought I was too good at it for it to be my first time. What he doesn't know is that I didn't cut quite enough holes in it to thread the string properly. Its a learning experience.
I've also been planning what I want to do with the youth at the JDC in upcoming weeks. I think I'm going to do things like friendship bracelets, knifty knitter hats for babies that will be donated to the local hospital, an activity involving eco-bots made out of vibrating pager motors, watch batteries and toothbrushes, decorating and donating bowls for the Empty Bowls Benefit at the end of October, and making dog toys and treats for the Humane Society. All of these activities and projects have lessons to go with them...or at least they will when I write the curriculum for whoever takes over this program in the future.
I've sent out a few emails about starting a literacy program involving Spanish and English children's books. I'll tell you more about that one when it gets off the ground...if it does. Which I really hope it does, because it sounds like a fun program.
You know, when I sat down to type this I felt like it had been a productive day, but now that I've written it all out, it doesn't look as productive as I thought. I mean, I still did work, but mostly its planning and organizing is what I've been working on. Planning what I'm going to be doing in upcoming weeks.
Things will pick up soon, like next week.
Until then!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Training. Pt. 2 (Hey maybe I should always put a title here....)
So I realize I'm a little late with this. This last week has been busy and filled with end of the summer activities. I'm finally going to finish telling you about training.
The first session was focused again on poverty and finding ways to combat poverty. The main idea behind the in depth study of poverty was so that we would know how to handle it and what to do in certain situations. There were people at the training who had never been exposed to any kind of poverty.
The facilitator asked us to write down what our take away was from these sessions. I wrote, "People are more concerned with third world countries that with what is in their own backyard. While they feel sympathetic to domestic poverty (once they knew it was there) they have high expectations as to what can be done about it."
Perhaps this response was unfair. When I wrote it I was slightly upset since I felt like I was the only one who had any semblance of what low-income living was like. I did not have a privileged childhood such as they did. This was also only one of five breakout groups. I'm sure it would have been a different situation in the other groups.
Moving off the topic of poverty was good for me. We were finally able to focus on our VAD (Volunteer Assignment Description). This contains a brief description of everything we would be doing over the next year. Our main goal was to come up with a list of questions to ask our supervisor. These were mainly things about the VAD that we were unclear on or needed some help achieving. As a group these were some useful questions we came up with:
- What are some of the norms or ground rules I need to observe?
- What are capacity building activities?
- How can I identify the cultural guide?
- What has a potential for working?
- What is the interest level in a specific program?
- What is the context of the people in the community so I can create an effective program?
- Am I meeting the needs of the community?
Some of these questions are more helpful for me than for others, and vise versa. I have a slight advantage of being familiar with the community in which I am serving, and in fact the office in which I'm serving. I've worked in this office for the past three summers as an intern, so I'm familiar with the office and how it works.
On my VAD there is a main goal that I will be working to achieve:
"Increase Extension Outreach to underserved youth and families."
There are four main activities on my VAD that I am supposed to be working toward to make this happen.
1) Marathon County will adopt a Homelessness Plan
- I will be working in conjunction with the United Way to look at the homelessness problem in our community and come up with some ideas about what to do about it.
2) Assist with Marathon County Diversity Commission/WIPPS work
- These organizations have been working together to look at youth leadership in our community, and looking at what causes people to leave or stay, and how engaged they feel in their communities. There will be a leadership summit in January about this, and I am on the planning committee for the focus groups that will be done before hand.
3) Youth Detention and Shelter Home
- Every week I am going to go to the Juvenile Detention Center to run a short program with the youth that are in the shelter home and on the secure side of the center. These will be little projects that will hopefully enrich their lives just a little and teach them something they may not have known before. There are many different things I can do there and hopefully I touch many peoples lives and make a difference. My other goal with this project is to set up an outside volunteer to take this program over when I leave.
4) Develop volunteer leadership within Extension Youth and Family Programs
- This essentially means that I will be working with the Youth Action Council by helping them run several different community service programs and projects throughout the year.
There are a few other activites and programs I would like to get started while I'm here, including either starting a Hmong 4-H club, or continuing the Latino 4-H club. I would also like to start a reading program where high school Spanish students go into the elementary schools and read books in both Spanish and English to ESL (English as a Second Language) students.
I have lofty goals for this year. Hopefully I reach them.
I may post either later today or later next week about the projects I have started and what I have on the immediate horizon. Not sure when I will get to it. Hopefully soon!
Until then!
The first session was focused again on poverty and finding ways to combat poverty. The main idea behind the in depth study of poverty was so that we would know how to handle it and what to do in certain situations. There were people at the training who had never been exposed to any kind of poverty.
The facilitator asked us to write down what our take away was from these sessions. I wrote, "People are more concerned with third world countries that with what is in their own backyard. While they feel sympathetic to domestic poverty (once they knew it was there) they have high expectations as to what can be done about it."
Perhaps this response was unfair. When I wrote it I was slightly upset since I felt like I was the only one who had any semblance of what low-income living was like. I did not have a privileged childhood such as they did. This was also only one of five breakout groups. I'm sure it would have been a different situation in the other groups.
Moving off the topic of poverty was good for me. We were finally able to focus on our VAD (Volunteer Assignment Description). This contains a brief description of everything we would be doing over the next year. Our main goal was to come up with a list of questions to ask our supervisor. These were mainly things about the VAD that we were unclear on or needed some help achieving. As a group these were some useful questions we came up with:
- What are some of the norms or ground rules I need to observe?
- What are capacity building activities?
- How can I identify the cultural guide?
- What has a potential for working?
- What is the interest level in a specific program?
- What is the context of the people in the community so I can create an effective program?
- Am I meeting the needs of the community?
Some of these questions are more helpful for me than for others, and vise versa. I have a slight advantage of being familiar with the community in which I am serving, and in fact the office in which I'm serving. I've worked in this office for the past three summers as an intern, so I'm familiar with the office and how it works.
On my VAD there is a main goal that I will be working to achieve:
"Increase Extension Outreach to underserved youth and families."
There are four main activities on my VAD that I am supposed to be working toward to make this happen.
1) Marathon County will adopt a Homelessness Plan
- I will be working in conjunction with the United Way to look at the homelessness problem in our community and come up with some ideas about what to do about it.
2) Assist with Marathon County Diversity Commission/WIPPS work
- These organizations have been working together to look at youth leadership in our community, and looking at what causes people to leave or stay, and how engaged they feel in their communities. There will be a leadership summit in January about this, and I am on the planning committee for the focus groups that will be done before hand.
3) Youth Detention and Shelter Home
- Every week I am going to go to the Juvenile Detention Center to run a short program with the youth that are in the shelter home and on the secure side of the center. These will be little projects that will hopefully enrich their lives just a little and teach them something they may not have known before. There are many different things I can do there and hopefully I touch many peoples lives and make a difference. My other goal with this project is to set up an outside volunteer to take this program over when I leave.
4) Develop volunteer leadership within Extension Youth and Family Programs
- This essentially means that I will be working with the Youth Action Council by helping them run several different community service programs and projects throughout the year.
There are a few other activites and programs I would like to get started while I'm here, including either starting a Hmong 4-H club, or continuing the Latino 4-H club. I would also like to start a reading program where high school Spanish students go into the elementary schools and read books in both Spanish and English to ESL (English as a Second Language) students.
I have lofty goals for this year. Hopefully I reach them.
I may post either later today or later next week about the projects I have started and what I have on the immediate horizon. Not sure when I will get to it. Hopefully soon!
Until then!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Well the first full day of training is complete.
Let's back up for a second.
-Day One:
Because of the bus schedule it ended up that it made the most sense to drive. It was about a five hour drive. Not too many problems. Not too bad of a drive. I had a little trouble finding the hotel, but once I got there I was surprised at how fancy dancy it was. I'm talking doormen, valet parking, bathrobe in the bathroom, ten dollar a day internet, but no chocolates on the pillow. In other words a lot fancier than I'm used to. Its good, though, to experience new places and venues. (PS - The food is to DIE FOR here.)
Since everyone was arriving throughout the day, the festivities didn't begin until 6:30. Mostly we were welcomed several times, and then given a history of the Americorps group.
After that I went back to my room and slept in my outstandingly wonderful bed.
-Day Two:
This was our first introduction into the nitty gritty of what VISTA is all about. Put simply: VISTA is working to eliminate poverty in America.
The idea of poverty was then broken down and discussed in groups lead by highly qualified facilitators and trainers. (I say highly qualified because they know their audience. They provided play-doh to give us something to do with our hands.)
The first question we were asked to think about was "What is Poverty?"
- The group agreed that poverty was essentially the lack of basic life-needs, whether that means food, shelter, support, or any sort of stability.
We were then asked to consider what the causes of poverty were. There were many responses, but none of them were the sole cause of poverty. Some of the responses that were tossed out included:
- lack of opportunities
- job loss
- socio-economic standards
- cost of living
- physical/mental health status
- Race (though this was heavily debated as to whether it was a cause or a correlation, or if it was even relevant at all.)
While discussing poverty, we talked about the different types of poverty.
-Situational: Living in poverty for a short time
-Generational: Two or more generations of one family living in poverty
(The majority of people living in poverty are generational.)
Poverty is also defined as a lack of resources. These resources include Mental, Financial, Emotional, Social, and Role models.
Our discussion ended on an unfinished note that will be continued tomorrow.
Until then!
Let's back up for a second.
-Day One:
Because of the bus schedule it ended up that it made the most sense to drive. It was about a five hour drive. Not too many problems. Not too bad of a drive. I had a little trouble finding the hotel, but once I got there I was surprised at how fancy dancy it was. I'm talking doormen, valet parking, bathrobe in the bathroom, ten dollar a day internet, but no chocolates on the pillow. In other words a lot fancier than I'm used to. Its good, though, to experience new places and venues. (PS - The food is to DIE FOR here.)
Since everyone was arriving throughout the day, the festivities didn't begin until 6:30. Mostly we were welcomed several times, and then given a history of the Americorps group.
After that I went back to my room and slept in my outstandingly wonderful bed.
-Day Two:
This was our first introduction into the nitty gritty of what VISTA is all about. Put simply: VISTA is working to eliminate poverty in America.
The idea of poverty was then broken down and discussed in groups lead by highly qualified facilitators and trainers. (I say highly qualified because they know their audience. They provided play-doh to give us something to do with our hands.)
The first question we were asked to think about was "What is Poverty?"
- The group agreed that poverty was essentially the lack of basic life-needs, whether that means food, shelter, support, or any sort of stability.
We were then asked to consider what the causes of poverty were. There were many responses, but none of them were the sole cause of poverty. Some of the responses that were tossed out included:
- lack of opportunities
- job loss
- socio-economic standards
- cost of living
- physical/mental health status
- Race (though this was heavily debated as to whether it was a cause or a correlation, or if it was even relevant at all.)
While discussing poverty, we talked about the different types of poverty.
-Situational: Living in poverty for a short time
-Generational: Two or more generations of one family living in poverty
(The majority of people living in poverty are generational.)
Poverty is also defined as a lack of resources. These resources include Mental, Financial, Emotional, Social, and Role models.
Our discussion ended on an unfinished note that will be continued tomorrow.
Until then!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
This summer I was hired as an Americorps VISTA in Wisconsin.
This means that I will have a job for another year. WOOT!
This is the start of my blog about my experience. I'm hoping I will be able to keep up with this for the entire year. My goal will be to post something every week. Later this week I will post about my pre-service training in Chicago.
Until then!
This means that I will have a job for another year. WOOT!
This is the start of my blog about my experience. I'm hoping I will be able to keep up with this for the entire year. My goal will be to post something every week. Later this week I will post about my pre-service training in Chicago.
Until then!
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