phyllis darling

Our celebrity readers program is coming along nicely. Prominent members of the community seem honored to be asked and happy to participate.

Apparently, it's not all about me....

I considered composing my blog solely of quotes from other VISTA’s submissions in the past few weeks. I hit the proverbial wall a month ago when I realized that I was simply cheap labor to get the job done. Not to provide “sustainability” or “capacity building” but to mindlessly punch keys and answer phones - setting the needle on the record for the thousandth time. Sometimes I have to hold hands, yell to be heard. I’m used and taken advantage of – none of which is on my VAD.

With a background in education, I’m an advocate of ‘process over product’. I often can’t find the point in completing a task if I’m not able to see the reason behind getting it done. I need the lesson learned, the knowledge gained, the relationships built, I need the process. My VISTA term has successfully broken me of this. It’s not about MY process, in fact, the only way it’s about me at all is balancing my idealism and the reality of the situation.

There’s a lack of instant gratification in indirect service that is incompatible with my personality, but it’s not about my voice being heard. I’m not a servant of my sponsoring organization or “The Corporation”, I’m a servant of my students.

The students that have volunteered 1168 hours with us since September, the students that raised and spent close to $3000 to provide school supplies, first-day outfits, full Thanksgiving meals, and Christmas dinners and gifts to 10 families in the county, and the students that are constant advocates and supporters of the program.

It’s these highly-motivated students, but it’s also the student that calls me in May because they need those 10 hours of community service, not because of their altruistic nature or acceptance of their role as a responsible citizen, but because they want to graduate, but those 10 hours is work getting done. It’s a non-profit, who relies on volunteers, now having the ability to remain open for one more day.

This isn’t to be read as a ‘do it for the kids’ inspiration, but instead as the reason that I’ve nullified my VAD, ignored the handbook full of my rights and responsibilities as a VISTA, and signed up for a second term.

Peace Keepers- A Peer Mediation Program

This month the North Olympic Youth Corps was awarded a grant from the Port Angeles Education Foundation to implement a peer mediation program within Port Angeles High School. The volunteer center collaborated with local attorneys, mental health consolers, and the high school faculty members to jump start this program. In February, Peace Keepers-A Peer Mediation Program, will train 20-30 student volunteers to act as mediators within their school. 2010 will be an exciting year for the Youth Corps!

Taylor Schraudner
North Olympic Youth Corps Coordinator
North Olympic Volunteer Center

Hmmm...

I'm eight months into my VISTA service, and to be honest, I'm hitting a wall. Hard.

It's getting more and more difficult for me to remember why I even signed up for VISTA in the first place. I thought I would be "working to end poverty"; instead, I set up volunteer opportunities for people who mostly make way more money than me. So I'm living at poverty level because...? I guess our volunteers have some projects with organizations that work on issues of poverty, but I'm mostly removed from that, other than getting emails and occasionally going on projects.

So I need some motivation. Seriously. Right now I'm just trying to finish so I can put it on my resume and get my Ed award, but I wonder what I'll feel when I look back on this year. I already regret not having taken a more direct service Americorps job where I felt like I was actually doing something. I've definitely learned that sitting in front of a computer all day is not for me, not even if it's for a good cause. Exchanging emails in a windowless office is not a particularly fufilling occupation.

These are issues I've struggled with my entire term, but now I feel more them even more strongly because it seems too far along in my term of service to stop now.

Thoughts? Ideas? Inspirational quotes? Why are you a VISTA? Why are you still a VISTA? I don't mean to sound like a whinypants, really. I could just use some words of wisdom right now. At least it's almost winter break...

Kym, Seattle Works

Stew for the Soul

Being capacity builders, it isn't often that we get to go out and be involved with direct service. But last week I took the opportunity to get out of the office and experience one of our program areas as a project coordinator for Operation Sack Lunch. I joined five others for a day of cooking and serving a beef stew lunch for the homeless. It felt great to be in a kitchen for most of the day, slicing, dicing, and stirring.

Lunch smelled tasty, and as half of use served the line at the shelter, the other half packed up the rest of the food to serve outside. The experience was good reminder of what the face of homelessness actually looks like, and that many of those who we served didn't look like what most people would expect.

After all the thank-you's, when I headed back to the office, I was feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and ready for the next couple weeks.

Walk and Knock Turns 25

On the day I saw my breath, more than anything else, this internal wind was overwhelmed by the width and breadth of the kindness that surrounded me. Not just kindness, but selfless compassion. My second VISTA term has brought about a few worthy service sequels. However, none has compared to Clark County's Walk and Knock. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary and the need was, and is, far greater this year then ever before. To make this one truly spectacular, we started planning months in advance. As I had been of a particular help with recruiting youth and families last year, the planning committee asked me to participate in this way again. I attended meetings and also offered this event up to numerous high school and college volunteer fairs. The response was truly gratifying. Everyone seemed to see the urgent necessity for Walk and Knock 2009! All I could do now was hold my breath that the turn out would reflect the intent I had witnessed. December 5th, 2009. Has it left your mind yet? I doubt it. The cold slowly sunk into our skin as a few of us waited for a ride and wondered how long we were going to be outside. As it happens, last year I walked and knocked, picking up bags of food enough to fill two cars! I got a glimpse of the aftermath this year. We were taken directly to the boxing portion, where car after car dropped off literally loads of food and we stuffed the boxes full of both nutritional nourishment and macaroni and cheese! Not that I hold anything against this delicious dish! It is probably the most given item of food at Walk and Knock, from my experience . All the boxes were loaded onto a gigantic truck, the kind you see cars loaded in, to be transported to our very own, Clark County Food Bank! I observed teams of every age work as efficiently as I imagine they would in a factory. We had just the right amount of people and I breathed a very cold sigh of relief. Special shout out to the Hudson's Bay Key Club! What a tremendous job you all did! In fact, this is them in the photographs that accompany this story. Such a well run, committed and consequential cause lets me know that working together, we can make sure that our neighbors have what they need.

Family Volunteer Day, what a way to end it!

My term is ending a few short days. My last big duty was to plan Family Volunteer Day. This was the first year our volunteer center had done anything for Family Volunteer Day. That should not be a surprise since we are celebrating our 2 year anniversary this month. What was a surprise was that we managed to pull off 3 projects in one day!

The event was held in the YMCA's gym and had different stations for the projects. The projects were: fleece blankets for children and babies in low income families, holiday cards for veterans, and dog toys for shelter animals. Turn out could have been better, but it was the first nice day of weather after 2 weeks of storms and a Saturday.

We ended up with 47 blankets, 20 cards that passed inspection, and 22 dog toys. A few tips: for the blankets- have the fabric store cut them to legnth, cards- train your leaders to be hawks about what goes inside the card, dog toy- get a rotary cutter to cut the sheets in to strips or you'll hand will be killing you (don't ask).

A quick note: I had a great time this year and I really loved hanging out with you guys at the IST's. I wish you guys all the best.

Reading to English Language Learners

I had never realized until I started visiting the preschools and childcare centers that our volunteers read at just how many small children there are in King County who don't speak english. This is even the case in more suburban areas where one might not think to look for especially diverse classrooms. At one head start site that we visited for instance, fourteen out of the twenty children enrolled in the program were native Spanish Speakers. We have also found programs that have found it useful to offer their own bilingual educator to help english learners fit in and to have someone to talk to. This begs the question though, what happens when kids don't have someone to speak to them in their own language?

This thought worries me more and more the more that I think about what these kids go through on a day to day basis. Not only are they learning an entirely new language with little or no help from adults at home, but they're also attempting to do this at the same time that they are developing their native language skills. It is widely thought that children are able to pick up a new language in the blink of an eye, but through the research I've done on the subject for my volunteers, I've found that it can take years for english language learners to catch up to their peers both academically and socially. One little boy that I worked with was in what they call the "quiet stage" of language development. Because he didn't have the basic words needed for classroom survival he remained silent, unable to communiate with his classmates or to take away all that he could from the learning opportunities going on around him. This is why I believe so strongly in the volunteer reader program. Yes it's helpful in developing the cognitive abilities of children who are native english speakers, but it also gives english learners the chance to interact one on one with someone who has nothing but time to listen, even if this involves nothing more than gestures and looking at pictures. It gives kids a chance to hear english spoken in a non-threatening environment, while at the same time providing another supportive adult relationship.

Thanksgiving Holiday Meals

Thanksgiving Meals project was a run to the finish. The organizer had 2 weeks to get over 30 drivers to deliver over 100 meals to houses in Mason and Thurston counties. Routes had to be mapped, food had to be made, volunteers recruited, decorations gathered… and all in a short amount of time. Maria, the project lead, pulled it off in the short time she was given and no one on our route went without a Thanksgiving meal this year.

Probably the most interesting aspect for me was the variety of people who came to prepare the meals and drive. I videoed them as they talked about how long they have been doing Holiday Meals and why they volunteer. We had mothers delivering meal with their children, friends delivering meals together, singles wanting to help. The reason of why was usually similar among all generations and types, “Because no one should go without food, especially during the holidays.” It seems a concern for the hungry transcends generational, class, lifestyles, and racial gaps. All people were just there to help.

I was impressed with how everyone in at VCW pulled together and took part in this project, even though we all have so many other things going on at this time of year. Where there was a gap in the project, it was quickly filled. I think the team effort to accomplish this was impressive and I think Christmas Holiday Meals will come together with the same life and tenacity.

Alena Swanson, VCW VISTA Leader
Volunteer Center's of Washington