Hands On Greater Portland's Cares Day is one of my favorite days of the whole year. I told a few people that I like Cares Day better than my birthday and was greeted with some confusion. I mean it… I LOVE Cares Day.
SO… Cares Day is a big day of service put on by Hands On Greater Portland. This year there were 13 or so sites and somewhere around 1,300 volunteers spread to those sites. I was a Site Captain at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School in Oregon City. In a matter of hours, about 60 employees from Comcast painted the gym, painted a computer lab, spread truckloads of mulch over the grounds, and spread bark chips over the playground. The transformation was amazing. I love it when people come together and are focused on making a difference. I will post pictures when I get them.
Showing posts with label volunteer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteer. Show all posts
11 May 2008
Where’d she go?
Not far! It’s been a busy couple of weeks! Work has taken over as of late, but the volunteering is still a goin’… I just haven’t had much time to write. The last couple of weeks have included all of my regular favorites.
A few highlights…
- Hands On Greater Portland CARES Day (more on that in a minute!)
- Tabling for Hands On Greater Portland. It is so fun to talk about Hands On.
- SMART reading. This most recent week I worked with a kindergartner who did cartwheels down the hall on the way to the SMART room. Next week is the last week before summer break.
- AKA Science – weeks 3 and 4 included discussion of earthquakes and tornadoes. Now when I ask what causes certain types of weather… the answer tends to be “the combination of hot and cold air.” We continue to start each class with running or walking around the school to expend energy. I joined them in a race one week.. I don’t think they knew what to think when they found out I can actually run as fast as they can.
- AmeriCorps Alums Leadership Council – we are gearing up for a national conference on volunteering in Atlanta at the end of the month. We have talked about wearing superhero capes to stand out in the conference of 4-5,000 attendees. Whatever it takes to stand out.
- Oregon Commission on Service meeting – Friday’s meeting was in Albany, OR. 4 new Commissioners add great energy to the mix.
Total Volunteer Hours as of 5/11/08: 115.75
3 months into the adventure.
A few highlights…
- Hands On Greater Portland CARES Day (more on that in a minute!)
- Tabling for Hands On Greater Portland. It is so fun to talk about Hands On.
- SMART reading. This most recent week I worked with a kindergartner who did cartwheels down the hall on the way to the SMART room. Next week is the last week before summer break.
- AKA Science – weeks 3 and 4 included discussion of earthquakes and tornadoes. Now when I ask what causes certain types of weather… the answer tends to be “the combination of hot and cold air.” We continue to start each class with running or walking around the school to expend energy. I joined them in a race one week.. I don’t think they knew what to think when they found out I can actually run as fast as they can.
- AmeriCorps Alums Leadership Council – we are gearing up for a national conference on volunteering in Atlanta at the end of the month. We have talked about wearing superhero capes to stand out in the conference of 4-5,000 attendees. Whatever it takes to stand out.
- Oregon Commission on Service meeting – Friday’s meeting was in Albany, OR. 4 new Commissioners add great energy to the mix.
Total Volunteer Hours as of 5/11/08: 115.75
3 months into the adventure.
14 April 2008
What does it all mean?
This week has a few of the usual suspects and one new endeavor. I read at SMART on Tuesday, worked with our local AmeriCorps Alums chapter, and went to an orientation at Fernwood Elementary/Middle for a new Monday activity; teaching science in an after-school program through AKA Science.
I spent Saturday at the University of Oregon at their student leadership conference. I presented a workshop called “Civic Engagement a.k.a. how to be a superhero in your community.” There were 25 or so college students in the room and I decided to utilize their experiences in a focus group discussion about community involvement.
We watched a video about the 4 college freshman in NC who changed the world by having a seat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in February of 1960. Within 1 month 54 cities had similar sit in’s. Those 4 young men made a difference.
The U of O students worked through a couple of scenarios where they were called on to react to theoretical situations on campus: a dorm fire and a campus policy change on recycling. The students had great short-term and long-term actions for the scenarios. Then we talked about one’s responsibility in the community. It is easier to react when something hits you, but if we were to talk about the every day things students do… what does it mean to be a “citizen”? In Ancient Greece, an idiot was the opposite of a “citizen” or someone involved in community.
The students discussed the idea of volunteering and whether that should be a part of citizenship. Some thought a requirement was good… others thought is should be by choice and related to one’s interest. They mostly agreed that being informed was an important component of being a citizen. This led to a discussion on voting and whether that was an important component of citizenship. The students thought that voting without information was useless and should therefore be a neutral indicator of citizenship. Do you agree?
By the way… if you are in Oregon, please make sure you are registered with a party so that you can vote in our primary on May 20th. If you are an independent, then you cannot vote for a major party candidate. Your vote matters! Please register by April 21st. More information on registering to vote is here!
Total Volunteer Hours as of April 13th: 87.5
I spent Saturday at the University of Oregon at their student leadership conference. I presented a workshop called “Civic Engagement a.k.a. how to be a superhero in your community.” There were 25 or so college students in the room and I decided to utilize their experiences in a focus group discussion about community involvement.
We watched a video about the 4 college freshman in NC who changed the world by having a seat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in February of 1960. Within 1 month 54 cities had similar sit in’s. Those 4 young men made a difference.
The U of O students worked through a couple of scenarios where they were called on to react to theoretical situations on campus: a dorm fire and a campus policy change on recycling. The students had great short-term and long-term actions for the scenarios. Then we talked about one’s responsibility in the community. It is easier to react when something hits you, but if we were to talk about the every day things students do… what does it mean to be a “citizen”? In Ancient Greece, an idiot was the opposite of a “citizen” or someone involved in community.
The students discussed the idea of volunteering and whether that should be a part of citizenship. Some thought a requirement was good… others thought is should be by choice and related to one’s interest. They mostly agreed that being informed was an important component of being a citizen. This led to a discussion on voting and whether that was an important component of citizenship. The students thought that voting without information was useless and should therefore be a neutral indicator of citizenship. Do you agree?
By the way… if you are in Oregon, please make sure you are registered with a party so that you can vote in our primary on May 20th. If you are an independent, then you cannot vote for a major party candidate. Your vote matters! Please register by April 21st. More information on registering to vote is here!
Total Volunteer Hours as of April 13th: 87.5
26 March 2008
Immersion in community
This past weekend, my husband and I participated in a short “homeless immersion” activity in Portland through Hands On Greater Portland. Typically this activity is an overnight excursion where someone stays outside overnight, has limited or no money, and has a series of activities they must complete like finding a loaf of bread without paying for it, finding out the process to get a single room occupancy in a hotel, and finding bathrooms open all hours.
Our experience was over a few hours… just a taste. We met in Old Town a representative from JOIN and a fellow who had spent many years living on the streets. We walked through Old Town learning about shelters, service organizations, and the reality of living on the street.
Things I learned:
• There are no family shelters in Portland. Families are often split where a male will go to one shelter and the female and children to another. This is not unusual. Baltimore has just one family shelter.
• There are no shelters for women in downtown Portland.
• There are about 2,000-3,500 people living outside in Portland. 1 in 4 of those individuals are children. As a point of comparison, there are 12,000 people who are homeless in Washington, D.C.
• There are beds for about 25% of the homeless in Portland.
• Most shelters require a TB card to stay there to verify they do not have tb.
• One shelter requires that the men lock up their own clothes during the night so they won’t leave in the middle of the night.
• JOIN has an innovative model where they get people into houses first and provide services to help with the transition. An alternative model is to piece together services after eviction or to focus on employment first.
One of the parts of the afternoon was to eat at a shelter along with folks living on the street. I had a strong reaction to this opportunity. I felt like it was disrespectful to “parachute in” for one meal and know that I could walk away and buy lunch wherever I wanted to. It felt like I was a tourist in their life. Would me eating there keep someone else who needed a meal from eating? I didn’t take the opportunity to eat in the shelter. I am still thinking through that decision. Maybe I should have focused on listening to the other’s I had the potential to eat with and then tell their story to others.
It was an emotional day. Learning the reality of living on the street and the difficulty of getting an i.d., getting services, finding a place to eat, and finding a place to sleep was palpable. But it was just a few hour experience. What’s next? What do I do with the emotion in my gut and questions in my head?
One of the questions to our leaders was what should we do next? They recommended volunteering our time in a shelter or supporting one of the organizations we heard about. Is that enough? Does that make a difference?
So many questions. It is good to have questions and it was a very valuable experience.
Our experience was over a few hours… just a taste. We met in Old Town a representative from JOIN and a fellow who had spent many years living on the streets. We walked through Old Town learning about shelters, service organizations, and the reality of living on the street.
Things I learned:
• There are no family shelters in Portland. Families are often split where a male will go to one shelter and the female and children to another. This is not unusual. Baltimore has just one family shelter.
• There are no shelters for women in downtown Portland.
• There are about 2,000-3,500 people living outside in Portland. 1 in 4 of those individuals are children. As a point of comparison, there are 12,000 people who are homeless in Washington, D.C.
• There are beds for about 25% of the homeless in Portland.
• Most shelters require a TB card to stay there to verify they do not have tb.
• One shelter requires that the men lock up their own clothes during the night so they won’t leave in the middle of the night.
• JOIN has an innovative model where they get people into houses first and provide services to help with the transition. An alternative model is to piece together services after eviction or to focus on employment first.
One of the parts of the afternoon was to eat at a shelter along with folks living on the street. I had a strong reaction to this opportunity. I felt like it was disrespectful to “parachute in” for one meal and know that I could walk away and buy lunch wherever I wanted to. It felt like I was a tourist in their life. Would me eating there keep someone else who needed a meal from eating? I didn’t take the opportunity to eat in the shelter. I am still thinking through that decision. Maybe I should have focused on listening to the other’s I had the potential to eat with and then tell their story to others.
It was an emotional day. Learning the reality of living on the street and the difficulty of getting an i.d., getting services, finding a place to eat, and finding a place to sleep was palpable. But it was just a few hour experience. What’s next? What do I do with the emotion in my gut and questions in my head?
One of the questions to our leaders was what should we do next? They recommended volunteering our time in a shelter or supporting one of the organizations we heard about. Is that enough? Does that make a difference?
So many questions. It is good to have questions and it was a very valuable experience.
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