Programming of the Triffids

I've been thinking about something that I heard at a World Cafe Host training.

"Everyone can count the seeds of an apple, who can count the apples of a seed?"

As my VISTA term is coming to a close in four short months, I've been thinking about how many seeds I've planted. How many apples will come from my work and cultivation?

I hope at least a few good ones.

I've been working on my curriculum (for the afterschool program and the gardening series), and I think that could be one of them.  I've been focusing much of my attention on community service and emphasizing that we need to do more.  Many people already do quite a bit of community service, but I'm trying to stress that it is not enough, there should be more being done.

For example: I've been working with the youth who are a part of YAC.  One of the major ideas of this group is to learn leadership skills through community service.  My goal with them this year was to encourage them to do more community service, not just with YAC, but on their own.

At the next meeting I will be starting their community service hour tracking sheet.  They will just keep track of how many hours they have done in the past month, with rewards for the members who meet their goal.

I've also been trying to think of ways to get YAC to become more self-sufficient and be able to function mostly on their own. Thing like, finding a volunteer each month to write up the reminder, a volunteer to write up the agenda, and so on. They wouldn't be responsible for mailing them, that is a big expense.  They would just have to email it to the program advisor and the office would mail them out. Along with this would go the responsibility of having one of the youth lead the meetings.  I'm considering leaving the room for half an hour and seeing what they have accomplished by the time I get back. We'll see how that goes.

My Spanish reading program didn't pan out the way I was hoping it would. Perhaps, though, I've laid down the seed for the next VISTA and it just needs to be watered and weeded for the upcoming school year.

My afterschool science program didn't work either, but I think the community service program will more than make up for that.  It would still be cool to have students from the college to teach that program.  Again...maybe the next VISTA...

Well as I start my last leg of the journey, I can only continue to hope and pray and work hard to get things off the ground.

Until Then!