Are you getting served???
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/17/rewards-of-volunteer-service/
And Now?
15 years ago
Friday, August 29, 2008
you lika the happy
No one came into the office yesterday, which was fine because I was able to get so much work done.
I'm looking forward to getting some more things checked off the to-do list today as well because we're officialy closed to the public. I love being able to come to work in a sweatshirt and jeans.
Yeah, it has been pretty chilly and I'm starting to realize that it's not getting warmer. It's just chilly to me.
Hey so for those that would like more info about what I do and see the awesome CEO and founder that makes all of this work possible, you can check out this video...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/15562744#15562744.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. I have to work Saturday but I have Sunday and Monday off for both days. The first time in weeks, I haven't had to work. Days off to just enjoy my freedom and time. Yeahhhhh!
Okay, let's roll!
I'm looking forward to getting some more things checked off the to-do list today as well because we're officialy closed to the public. I love being able to come to work in a sweatshirt and jeans.
Yeah, it has been pretty chilly and I'm starting to realize that it's not getting warmer. It's just chilly to me.
Hey so for those that would like more info about what I do and see the awesome CEO and founder that makes all of this work possible, you can check out this video...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/15562744#15562744.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. I have to work Saturday but I have Sunday and Monday off for both days. The first time in weeks, I haven't had to work. Days off to just enjoy my freedom and time. Yeahhhhh!
Okay, let's roll!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
eating too much mac and cheese for lunch
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/18/AR2008081802407.html?referrer=facebook
There is a warm place in my heart for the world of nonprofits. I still want to be involved in reform for the nonprofit sector especially in knowledge and information management. Pop!
There is a warm place in my heart for the world of nonprofits. I still want to be involved in reform for the nonprofit sector especially in knowledge and information management. Pop!
they say in heaven, love comes first
I came in to work early today because I anticipated a huge flow of people in the morning.
Yet our neighboors (I'm trying to get away from calling them clients) showing up to their appointment is unfortunately not very common. What tends to happen is that people will just show up all in the afternoon, especially people who don't have an appointment. I have one woman who is coming who just got kicked out of her apartment, shes 7 mos pregnant and has a nine year old son. I've been collecting some housing resources and trying to connect with this organization that specifically works with low-income women
http://wcrpphila.com/Fracontact.html. But they aren't answering their phones or aren't there I don't know.
Shawn is out of the office today and tomorrow so I'm hanging loose on my own. We also have our information session for new volunteers today. But it is welcome week at Temple, so I don't expect a huge turnout. It's one of three. I loved being on campus yesterday, it just felt really good, seeing all the students and their families and such.
I have a ton of other work today, including compiling our monthly report and working on notes for the meeting I have with the director of community relations next Tuesday. But I'll take a break to give y'all a shout out while I transition mindsets from client meetings to administrative tasks.
In other news, I have roaches in my apartment. I've seen two but I think if you see two then that means there's more. I'll admit my apartment is definetely not the cleanest place lately, so I really can't blame them. But all I want to do is go home and clean my apartment and set up roach traps. Oh how I long for the time of 20 legged house centipedes.
I had a really good conversation with a good friend last night which reminded me of how much I don't want to lose touch with the people that I had the fortune of meeting in my years at UF. I feel so self-concious and clingy lately but I am very much a relationship person and I value those strong relationships in my life and I don't want to lose them. I've learned in the last year that relationships don't just magically stay in tact. You have to work at them and tend to them. I've been lucky to regain my friendships with two really good and wonderful girls who have such a warm place in my heart.
Talking about being 'busy' I really need to stop signing up for volunteering. I'm even thinking about taking time of at Lush to sign up for volunteer projects. Moderation, girlie, moderation. There are just so many issues I'm interested in learning about and opportunities I want to be involved in. Since we can't be involved in political or advocacy things as AmeriCorp workers I might need to take time off at the end of the month because their is this demonstration happening at City Hall for affordable housing, especially for low-income women. I just feel like I want to be apart of that because it is such a big issue. But we will see, moderation. Maybe it's because I'm a tiger http://pages.infinit.net/garrick/chinese/tiger.html
But anyway, I think my mindset is coming back and now I can continue working on designing our trainings and volunteer packets and blah blah. Okay, ciao!
Quote:There is really nothing you must be. And there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have. And there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains the earth gets wet. Japanese Zen Scroll
Song: The heart of the matter by Don Henley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLgUuHl2xJo
Yet our neighboors (I'm trying to get away from calling them clients) showing up to their appointment is unfortunately not very common. What tends to happen is that people will just show up all in the afternoon, especially people who don't have an appointment. I have one woman who is coming who just got kicked out of her apartment, shes 7 mos pregnant and has a nine year old son. I've been collecting some housing resources and trying to connect with this organization that specifically works with low-income women
http://wcrpphila.com/Fracontact.html. But they aren't answering their phones or aren't there I don't know.
Shawn is out of the office today and tomorrow so I'm hanging loose on my own. We also have our information session for new volunteers today. But it is welcome week at Temple, so I don't expect a huge turnout. It's one of three. I loved being on campus yesterday, it just felt really good, seeing all the students and their families and such.
I have a ton of other work today, including compiling our monthly report and working on notes for the meeting I have with the director of community relations next Tuesday. But I'll take a break to give y'all a shout out while I transition mindsets from client meetings to administrative tasks.
In other news, I have roaches in my apartment. I've seen two but I think if you see two then that means there's more. I'll admit my apartment is definetely not the cleanest place lately, so I really can't blame them. But all I want to do is go home and clean my apartment and set up roach traps. Oh how I long for the time of 20 legged house centipedes.
I had a really good conversation with a good friend last night which reminded me of how much I don't want to lose touch with the people that I had the fortune of meeting in my years at UF. I feel so self-concious and clingy lately but I am very much a relationship person and I value those strong relationships in my life and I don't want to lose them. I've learned in the last year that relationships don't just magically stay in tact. You have to work at them and tend to them. I've been lucky to regain my friendships with two really good and wonderful girls who have such a warm place in my heart.
Talking about being 'busy' I really need to stop signing up for volunteering. I'm even thinking about taking time of at Lush to sign up for volunteer projects. Moderation, girlie, moderation. There are just so many issues I'm interested in learning about and opportunities I want to be involved in. Since we can't be involved in political or advocacy things as AmeriCorp workers I might need to take time off at the end of the month because their is this demonstration happening at City Hall for affordable housing, especially for low-income women. I just feel like I want to be apart of that because it is such a big issue. But we will see, moderation. Maybe it's because I'm a tiger http://pages.infinit.net/garrick/chinese/tiger.html
But anyway, I think my mindset is coming back and now I can continue working on designing our trainings and volunteer packets and blah blah. Okay, ciao!
Quote:There is really nothing you must be. And there is nothing you must do. There is really nothing you must have. And there is nothing you must know. There is really nothing you must become. However it helps to understand that fire burns, and when it rains the earth gets wet. Japanese Zen Scroll
Song: The heart of the matter by Don Henley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLgUuHl2xJo
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
don't stop believing
Our office got robbed today.
Shawn and I had left the office to put some fliers on campus and stop in on our University partners. When we got back, our phones were gone as well as Shawn's backpack. We had a client so I met with him while Shawn got things sorted out.
He seems very very frustrated. Its his fourth time getting robbed in the city and he just seems to be taking it hard. I can only imagine. His car keys and house keys were in there as well as our office key. He filed a police report and the building staff seems to be really supportive.
It's unclear of who did it although we have an idea. Not a client though.
I just worked with two really wonderful clients. One is this guy who has all of these business ideas and the other was this sweet 18 year old girl. Sometimes I just really enjoy my job.
Toodles.
Shawn and I had left the office to put some fliers on campus and stop in on our University partners. When we got back, our phones were gone as well as Shawn's backpack. We had a client so I met with him while Shawn got things sorted out.
He seems very very frustrated. Its his fourth time getting robbed in the city and he just seems to be taking it hard. I can only imagine. His car keys and house keys were in there as well as our office key. He filed a police report and the building staff seems to be really supportive.
It's unclear of who did it although we have an idea. Not a client though.
I just worked with two really wonderful clients. One is this guy who has all of these business ideas and the other was this sweet 18 year old girl. Sometimes I just really enjoy my job.
Toodles.
a very new soul
So yesterday night after work (Lush) I had a hankering sweet tooth (what else is new.) I stopped over to Starbucks to pick up a little pastry. To my wonder and surpise they had this wonderful little treat known as a rainbow cookie which had M&M's in it, I mean that sounds good right?
worst.cookie.ever.
It was beyond bad, it was very thick and not even in a creamy gooey way. As I was eating it an I thought, man this would only be a good cookie with some coffee. Imagine that, a pastry at Starbucks that would only taste good with coffee. So that got me to thinking about the our society as a whole.
In the world of business and suprisingly non-profits as well, there is a focus on serving to customers rather than serving to people. Insteading of creating goods and services that empower people and give them the ability to make choices, we create goods and services that make people dependent on things and engulf them in this cycle of buy buy buy or take take take. It's one of the reasons I've enjoyed working at Lush, because we serve people not customers. We give them products that are made with ethical ingredients that will free them rather than trap them in a consumer cycle. You know most lotions have added filler chemicals that actually make the skin drier so that you constantly need to apply. You then use up the bottle and surprise surprise your back for more.
The same thing can happen in the non-profit sector as well. We create services, programs and service projects that serve clients rather than people. Through that language and mindset, we trap people in a dependent cycle on what we're shelving out. We'd be more effective as a whole if we learn to serve people, all of their needs and thier ability to be empowered. Again, why I love NSP. I believe it has that ability, it's apart of our mission:
NSP’s mission is to direct the energy and innovation of young people toward ensuring that all community members have access to the services, opportunities, and attention that they need to pursue employment, self-sufficiency, and personal success.
With each of my clients I try to think, how do I get them to become empowered and not dependent. How am I approaching them or servicing them and what effect will this have on their long term ability to succeed?
It's daunting never the less.
So the astronauts and astronomers, keep thinking, I'll blog it later.
Our client flow has definetely picked up and there is still so much work to be done with recruitment and preparing for training. I live by to-do lists or I would never get anything done or time or at all. I get sidetracked very easily with new ideas for something else while I'm working on a project.
I once went back to my high school and, at the time, I was really interested in becoming a social worker. I told one of my teachers this and she very diplomaticly told me that that wouldn't be the right career for me. She said that I would be consistetly frustrated with what I saw and what I knew and wouldn't have the ability, in that position, to make the change I could and wanted to make. She couldn't have been more right. I love what I do, but every day is so frustrating because I think, with all the manpower and all the services and all the focus why hasn't more been done effectively. Because I know that things have been done, money spent, time invested but effectively. The US census press release on poverty came out yesterday http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010583.html if you're interested. Sidetrack, anyway.
I had a client yesterday who wanted so badly to get out of the situation he was in, but harsh reality is that no matter how much he believes in himself or how much ability he has, their are so many forces against him. We as a community can fight them though, we have to.
Quote: If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Charles Darwin
Quote (2): It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. Bill Vaughan
Quote (3): The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. John Berger
worst.cookie.ever.
It was beyond bad, it was very thick and not even in a creamy gooey way. As I was eating it an I thought, man this would only be a good cookie with some coffee. Imagine that, a pastry at Starbucks that would only taste good with coffee. So that got me to thinking about the our society as a whole.
In the world of business and suprisingly non-profits as well, there is a focus on serving to customers rather than serving to people. Insteading of creating goods and services that empower people and give them the ability to make choices, we create goods and services that make people dependent on things and engulf them in this cycle of buy buy buy or take take take. It's one of the reasons I've enjoyed working at Lush, because we serve people not customers. We give them products that are made with ethical ingredients that will free them rather than trap them in a consumer cycle. You know most lotions have added filler chemicals that actually make the skin drier so that you constantly need to apply. You then use up the bottle and surprise surprise your back for more.
The same thing can happen in the non-profit sector as well. We create services, programs and service projects that serve clients rather than people. Through that language and mindset, we trap people in a dependent cycle on what we're shelving out. We'd be more effective as a whole if we learn to serve people, all of their needs and thier ability to be empowered. Again, why I love NSP. I believe it has that ability, it's apart of our mission:
NSP’s mission is to direct the energy and innovation of young people toward ensuring that all community members have access to the services, opportunities, and attention that they need to pursue employment, self-sufficiency, and personal success.
With each of my clients I try to think, how do I get them to become empowered and not dependent. How am I approaching them or servicing them and what effect will this have on their long term ability to succeed?
It's daunting never the less.
So the astronauts and astronomers, keep thinking, I'll blog it later.
Our client flow has definetely picked up and there is still so much work to be done with recruitment and preparing for training. I live by to-do lists or I would never get anything done or time or at all. I get sidetracked very easily with new ideas for something else while I'm working on a project.
I once went back to my high school and, at the time, I was really interested in becoming a social worker. I told one of my teachers this and she very diplomaticly told me that that wouldn't be the right career for me. She said that I would be consistetly frustrated with what I saw and what I knew and wouldn't have the ability, in that position, to make the change I could and wanted to make. She couldn't have been more right. I love what I do, but every day is so frustrating because I think, with all the manpower and all the services and all the focus why hasn't more been done effectively. Because I know that things have been done, money spent, time invested but effectively. The US census press release on poverty came out yesterday http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010583.html if you're interested. Sidetrack, anyway.
I had a client yesterday who wanted so badly to get out of the situation he was in, but harsh reality is that no matter how much he believes in himself or how much ability he has, their are so many forces against him. We as a community can fight them though, we have to.
Quote: If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Charles Darwin
Quote (2): It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. Bill Vaughan
Quote (3): The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied...but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. John Berger
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
how far we go...
In the world of social services and social change and policy there are bascially two types of people: astronauts and astronomers.
Think about, I'll blog about it later.
Think about, I'll blog about it later.
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