Pictures!

I thought this might give you a better understanding of where I am... The first picture is a picture of the lake that I am staying at, in which I swim several times a week. The second picture is a picture of the New Haven green where I eat my lunch on most days. It has some buildings in the background. Enjoy.

Calloused

I have been working in the office for five straight weeks now and I have probably worked with 35 different clients. This means for the most part that I have heard the stories and situations of that many people and probably about half of these I have met with more than once. Almost everyone has it pretty rough, and are in situations that I would in no way, desire to be in. There are a variety of needs from needing to find a place to stay, work, etc. Most have financial burdens that play a factor some how and there are always some that are worse than others. As I may or may not have already posted, there was one lady who came in and told me she was living with her cousin in a subsidized apartment complex, but legally she was not suppose to be there and she needed a bed for the night and was willing to stay almost anywhere. This meant that she would need to stay in a shelter for anywhere from 1 night (best case scenario) to anywhere to a couple months until she could find a more permanent place to stay. What I didn't fully realize until working here and hearing all of the stories, at least two of the biggest shelters in New Haven are pretty bad. They unfortunately are places where the use of drugs and theft are both common practices. We spent an hour calling about 13 different emergency shelters. Unfortunately we were facing all kind of difficulties, one of them including people going home early for the 4th and being unable to help us with the coming holiday. (For some reason, people don't need emergency shelters on holidays...) I wish I could say that it ended on a happy note and that we were able to locate a shelter with a bed (or cot) open. But truth be told, we had to call it a day and we were supposed to continue the search on monday (as it was a Thursday befor the 4th). I have not seen her since... There are times when I am concerned about her, wondering where she might be sleeping or if she has a roof over her head, but most of the time, I simply don't care. When I say that I don't care, it's not that I don't care about her well-being. It's just that I have begun to realize the professional "distance" that is put in place for us volunteering there and I am trying to process the benefits and downfalls of this separation.

It's hard for me to grasp with the necessity of this distance. But, at the same time, if I worried about everyone that I tried to help, I would not be able to sleep at night. The truth is, I care about the people that I am getting to know and that is one of the reasons I decided to take this job: so that I could get to know people and their stories and hopefully help them in some slight way to get a hold of a better life. But before you think I am some self-righteous person, I don't care enough to do anything extra.

When I first started working here, we met a couple of case workers or social workers who had been doing this for so many years. It seems that a common trend for social workers is that they become so jaded that the clients, in a way, become just cases and situations, and not real people. This clearly isn't the case for all, but from what is an inexperienced perspective, I would say that this is a common trend. I am not just pointing the finger because I see myself in a similar fashion. In fact, after only 5 weeks of working in the office, I feel that i am becoming calloused. I have become so used to hearing stories of poverty and desperation that it doesn't shock me anymore and more importantly, it doesn't impact me that much. Granted, I am able to ask more intelligent questions, (notice I said MORE because who knows if they are intelligent) that deal with the issues more directly, but it is clear that I am almost falling into a rhythm. A example that shows this really clearly is just in the few minutes going to and fro work. I walk about 4 1/2 blocks to get to work from the train station to work and vice versa. For some reason, at least every other day, in those 4 1/2 blocks, people ask me for money, food, or any other handouts. It used to be that I would pause, look them in the eye, say no and that I was sorry and go on. In some instances, I would stop and ask them their situation, explaining that I work for NSP and briefly what it does. Then I would explain to them that I might be able to help them but I wasn't going to give them money, but they should stop by and I would try to help them find a job or place to stay. This is becoming more of a rare case though. I more frequently pass by without giving them the time of day, some times not even looking at them and just saying a quick "no, sorry" as I pass by in order to make the train. It is sad to me that it has been so easy for to become calloused or jaded, or whatever you want to call it. This makes me wonder if this is the common trend...

Questions...

Is it common for people to naturally distance themselves from the hurt and pain from the world even when they are immersed in it? Is this the reason that most people, even most people in the church don't seem to care about those living in poverty?

Do we make a decision (either consciously or subconsciously) to not involve ourselves with the needs of the marginalized because it is too much of a burden on us? Will we ever learn how to change these misaligned structures, if we don't immerse ourselves in them and learn the shortcomings?

Will we ever be the church in its truest sense to give COMPLETELY of ourselves. Can i give everything without it killing me? Is a professional distance necessary? Or is it just an excuse?

If the gospel isn't being brought to the poor with our actions, what are we doing? Who are we reaching?

Anyways, these are just some honest reflections and things that I am pondering. I apologize if it seems a little down or not very insightful, but I think it reflects the necessity to just be honest sometimes. Please feel free to respond, if you so desire.

Thoughts...Irony or Beauty?

So, I have been working at my job for quite some time now. Our office has been one of the busier offices, not to say anything that we are doing right, it's just that we offer a few services that other offices do not offer which allow us to see clients more regularly as they are able to have their mail delivered there, pick up voice messages, use the computer to check if anyone has emailed them about job opportunities, check the weekly job postings sent by a local distributor, and much more. In getting to know some of the clients pretty well, it has been quite encouraging, challenging, and puzzling.

There is one lady who has been coming quite regularly since we got there. I am told that she wasn't a regular in the office until both myself and the other summer director got there towards the middle of June. She has been coming quite regularly... She typically checks her mail, uses the phone, then jumps on the computer for a quick minute or two and then leaves. About a week ago, my fellow site coordinator started working with her directly, something i would have probably overlooked. She started helping her with what she had been doing, which was apply for jobs. As a result of the right circumstances, coincidence, fate, or whatever you want to attribute to it, the client ended up getting a job two days after Christa, my fellow summer director, started working with her. Now, while Christa is good at filling out job applications, and she did help, in no means is the client's success DIRECTLY related to her help. Regardless, this was a huge deal. We had a client or two already obtain jobs before, but for some reason, either because of the client's immediate uplifted spirits or something else, this particular job was a great sign of encouragement. I wish I could say that her life has ever been changed and the world is a better as a result. This just isn't the case, though. It ended up that although she was promised 36 hours a week, the employer hired at least 20 other employees and thereby limiting the client's hours to a 6-16 hours a week. Which, is by all means, a step in the right direction, but no where near sufficiency. If it isn't clear, I had a tough time dealing with that...not because I have a huge personal investment, but because I could feel the disappointment when the client returned the next week to continue to look for jobs.

I believe that this has helped me to process through some of the more difficult thoughts pertaining to my work and involvement...(and i thought i would share some thoughts.) I began to ponder about the lasting effect that I was having with helping people with various services. I first thought of it as if I could help them get back on track, it would ultimately change the course of their lives and bring some restitution to their lives. That I would be making some significant impact. While I still believe that I am having an impact and helping clients who don't know how to do certain things, i am pondering my lasting impact. For example, what happens if I help a client get a job, but a month down the road, they end up getting fired or quit because they are unhappy, or whatever happens. It was at this moment of processing these difficult ideas that it hit me...! It was something that I had heard before and already known, but became even more true to me... I came to REALLY understand that it is so easy to see the financial or physical difficulty of the poor, the homeless with them either struggling to find a place to stay or something to eat or what ever it is. It is easy to understand that, or at least try to. But there is so much more than that. I was completely losing sight of the social aspect of poverty or homelessness or even unemployment. Christa and I were even talking about this with our boss, Jon and not delving too deep, but nonetheless wrestling with this issue. Christa brought up an interesting thought. It was a Psychology experiment in which they tested rats with two different groups. To both groups they would administer pain to the rats, but one group of rats had a way out. They did this several times, one group with a way out and the other without. Then, they changed the set up altogether. They gave all the rats a way out of the pain, similar to the other group. The results were quite clear... The ones who did not originally have a way out of the pain, did not use the way out in the second round of tests and simply endured the pain. WOW! In case I am too wordy and a little confusing, I will connect the dots... I wonder how difficult it is for individuals or groups of people who are faced with poverty or homelessness for sometime without any hope of a sufficient life to come to grasp that there is a way to stand up and fight for what should be everyone's right. This means that what I am doing, or what I hope to do, is not just help clients get jobs or find housing or schooling, or whatnot, but help change the social mindset and structure telling them that there is no way out.


I also had one more thought today as I was sitting in the New Haven Green (which is conveniently located 1/2 block away from my office - it makes for a nice place to eat lunch). The New Haven Green is quite the place. It is nothing special or different from any other green in a city in that it is a few blocks of green grass, trees, park benches, and a place for summer concerts or gathers, etc. I am not too familiar with other cities, but the New Haven Green is particularly beautiful. It is co-located with Yale which has several ancient architecturally designed buildings all around it. This combined with the green trees and fresh air makes for a splendid place to relax and even eat lunch. At the same time, it also happens to be the place where a lot of people who are homeless either sleep or hang out. Everyone should know that it is common poor or homeless people to be ignored. In fact, in my office, there is a board for poetry and art which clients can contribute to. It is really quite inspiring. There are several poems that talk about the perspective of a homeless person and how everyone ignores you. I think it is clear that the homeless today are typically ignored or forgotten for one of many misperceptions. It seems clear to me that society pushes them to the fringes (in most cases, not all). What I find interesting is that it is here, out of all the places in the city, that the lives of the different socio-economic classes cross paths. Perhaps, it is ironic that business men and women come out of their comfortable jobs to enjoy the beautiful scenery just feet away from a homeless person sleeping under a tree. Or perhaps, it could be argued that God's beauty, in nature, permeates and breaks the social and class boundaries no matter how much distance or maybe that is too much of a stretch to say that it is a sign of God's presence in nature in that he brings everyone of different statuses. Either way, I find it absolutely intriguing that both worlds come together in what may seem to be the least likely of places...and hope that you might be able to ponder or contribute to my thoughts.

A Changing Perspective

So, I have been working in the office and with clients now for two weeks. This, by no means, makes me an expert on the situations that arise. I am however able to judge how stable (may not be the right word) their life is after talking to them for a little bit. Even though I am no expert and still have no idea what to do in certain situations other than start to look for answers on the internet and through some of our community partners, I have begun to have a change in perspective. It is one that is somewhat scary due to the nature of the change, but is seems to be true. Let me explain...

For those of you who don't know, I had the great opportunity this past year to be a part of a feeding ministry with the church that I am a part of while at school. The feeding ministry is directed towards those who live in a subsidized apartment complex. Through this, I have been able to get to know tens of people in the building. It has been quite an enjoyable experience and also saddening experience as everyday that we distribute groceries, we were faced with real life. For example, there is one guy, who is in a wheel chair and has asthma and his wife has been in and out of the hospital for the last couple years. It is disheartening to see his face when I, perhaps in ignorance and stupid attempt to connect, ask how he is doing. It was so clear that he wished he could say good, but it hasn't been for quite a while. Instead, he simply lowers his head and says something of the sort that he's making it. I bring this up not to play with your emotions, but to give you an accurate account of the life issues that are so present in this place.

When I came to this internship, I was fairly comfortable as i had worked with and interacted with people of the same socio-economic class. I knew some of the realities that they faced and thought that i had a pretty good understanding of life, not necessarily in arrogance, but hopeful expectation. In the same sense, I was troubled by the low quality of life. To put it simply, I thought that this was the bottom...

After only two weeks of working in the office with clients, I have begun to see things differently. Oh, how i was wrong... Granted, I have seen a lot of clients come into the office over the past two weeks (Each day I work with about 3-8 clients directly each day, although today I helped 13 clients personally - our office helps about 15-20 each day on average). Over the past two weeks with working with clients directly in applying for housing and searching for available housing, I have begun to open my eyes a little wider. I may come to see this differently in the future, but here are my thoughts... While I used to see subsidized housing as one of the lowest ends of the spectrum, it is actually one of the highest. The lowest on the spectrum of housing situation is clearly homeless. Those either affected by at one time, or those stuck in the cycle of homelessness, living on the streets, etc. The other end of the spectrum would be for someone to be able to rent a market-rate apartment. This would suggest that they have a job of some sort since a 1 bedroom apartment in New Haven goes for 900-950 a month and SAGA (a complicated acronym for state welfare) is about $600 at its highest (and that is generally only for those who are disabled or unable to work). Anyways, the goal is to help people get a job for those who are able, but some or a lot are not even able to do that, either from a physical or mental disability. This group probably qualifies and lives off of $630 or so a month. In this case, the best option for them is a section 8 voucher. This means that the government gives them a voucher for any apartment for rent within a certain price range for different #'s of rooms (i think 1350 for a 1 bedroom apartment). The person then pays 1/3 of their income towards the rent and the government pays the rest. This is a great program and allows the individual/family to not spend 80-90% of their income on high rent. While this is a really good program, it is really limited. Most cities have waiting lists of 10 years to get a section 8 voucher and in New Haven, you the waiting list isn't even open. Often times, the list will open for a short period where people can apply to get on the waiting list, sometimes for a day, sometimes longer. Thus, since this is limited, the next best option seems to be subsidized housing, where the individual/family pays 1/3 of their income towards housing for an apartment in a number of various apartment complexes around the city.

I hope this isn't too confusing... I am still trying to understand it all, but it is interesting how what I once conceived was practically the lowest end of the spectrum in terms of housing is now one of the best options available and is typically a legitimate one. In comparison to the other options of either living on the streets exposed to the weather or even in shelters where you are only able to spend the night (about 6 pm to the morning) and being exposed to the weather conditions during the whole day, subsidized housing begins to look pretty good. It gives someone a stable place to stay where they can start to piece together their life. I have begun to realize how difficult it is for me to conceptualize the difficulty andt he structure of the system as even after a year, i did not completely grasp the benefits... I am still struggling with the difficulties and real life issues that people face in these situations and am by no means saying that people of other socio-economic status don't face real life issues. But there seems to be a greater stress and difficulty in dealing with these issues when you don't know where you are sleeping the next night or even how you are going to feed your children.


The questions lurk within my mind and remain unanswered... (perhaps questions that are not asked very often because they often don't have an easy answer - maybe we should be better at asking questions that don't have an easy answer).

What can I do about it?

How can the system be better?

What can we as a society do to change this world in a positive way?

What is the best way to help people get out of this endless and tormenting cycle?

Is there always going to be a way to help individuals? And if not, how do I face that? Do i accept it and move on? Or am i deeply devastated?

Public Transportation and More

Well, I have begun the second week of work in the office. (third week counting training). It is still quite enjoyable. I know I have shared a lot about what I am doing and about some of the stories that I am learning, but I thought i would take a different approach today.

I have been riding the train into the city each day (as you know)... And I absolutely love it. I have realized that one minor aspect of not ever living in a big city is not having been able to enjoy the pleasures of public transportation. For those of you who may have a similar experience as i have for most of my life, wondering what i could be getting at, with no other preconceptions of public transportation than an inconvenient, crowded, dirty, means of transportation, i thought i would give some insight as to how it is so much different. Everyday, i get on the same train (the 8:16 am train from Guilford, CT to New Haven - State Street stop) and ride either the 5:04 train or the 5:39 train (depending on when we finish work. Not only myself, but a lot of people have the same routine (either going to, fro, or both). This makes me able to see anywhere from 10-20 people, whom i would normally otherwise never see in my life, and have 5-20 minute conversations with them to get to know them. It is quite enriching! For example, there is this woman named Carol (spelling?) who gets off the same train as I do going to work. She works at Yale Medical School. There have been three out of the 5 days that i have ridden the train total, that I have walked next to her for the 4-5 blocks from the train station to my office building. This accounts for anywhere from 8-12 minutes depending on traffic and such. Thus, i have been able to spend anywhere from 24-36 minutes (or about a half hour) with Carol in getting to know her. The first day it was simple talk about weather and traffic, not even exchanging names. The second, we noticed the similar routine and exchanged names, occupations/current employment, and a few other things. Today, I saw her again and was able to talk to her more about where I am from and what exactly she does. In case this doesn't point clearly enough to my point, i love public transportation. I am able to meet people that i wouldn't normally get to meet and be able to soak in a little bit of their perspective in the world (because I feel like everyone we come into contact helps shape our perspective whether we notice it or not).

Today, I also met a client (person who came into NSP for help in one of our various services) whose name i cannot disclose for confidentiality reasons. But, he was in his early fifties. Living with a woman whom he referred to as his wife several times (due to the longevity of their relationship being over a decade long and reasonably so), he has been looking for a place to stay for a little over a month. He and his significant other (from now on out to be referred to as "his wife" for convenience sake) were living in a small one-bedroom apartment where they shared a bathroom with the people next door. (the housing situation was a little unclear). But when the person next door invited many friends to come live with them, it forced them to have to wait several hours to use the only bathroom to get ready for the day. This man, who had been in a car accident over 5 years back has been unable to work since then because his leg was literally wrapped around his neck from the accident and forced to a long time of rehab. He has fought to be able to walk with a cane and is doing pretty well, but is forced to live off of social security and SSDI (a federal cash assistance available to people with long-term disabilities). He makes no more than $800 dollars a month, and while that is more than a lot of people, it is still not much when he is not living in either section 8 housing or subsidized. (Section 8 is basically a voucher for any apartment and subsidized housing places are particular housing apartment complexes set up for people to pay 1/3 of their income or assistance). Anyways, it is clear that this guy is in a rough spot and after not knowing what he could do, he came to us today. Not only this, but his wife is in desperate need of surgery for something, which without it she could die at any point if something goes wrong. I spent an hour talking to him and hearing his story. Of all the places that he worked and of his current situation. What was extremely amazing to me is that after only spending an hour talking to him today (while also going over forms) he called me
to tell me that his wife has been approved for surgery by (according to him) one of the top ten surgeons in the world. He sounded very ecstatic and he ended the phone call by saying, "I just thought I would call you and let you know the good news." It was amazing to me that he felt like I care enough that he would call me and tell me that. Anyways, that is my story for now. I hope this gives you insight as to what exactly is going on...

The first two days...with a few surprises...

So, I have been working for two days now and I have probably met around 15-20 different clients. Not only that, but I have a couple great stories of my own that I would like to share as well as some of the clients' stories as well (of course, anonymously...)

Day 1 - So I found my way to the train station perfectly well and with about 10 minutes to spare before the train got there. I found my way from the station in New Haven (where I got off) to my office. It is a short walk of only 4-5 blocks. It is placed next to Yale University (well, parts of it... seeing how half of the city is next to Yale) as well as the New Haven green. It is in a great location. I finally met my Site Coordinator (a.k.a. my boss) who is a couple years out of his college years and enjoying what he is doing now. He majored in English, but found more fulfillment in human resources (if that is the correct term). Anyways, we went over briefly a variety of services that we offer and went into the local services and the in's and out's of some of the systems such as employment and housing as well as state and federal assistances such as SAGA, TFA, SSI, etc. (a lot of terms that can be branched into assistance). The second part of the day involved a few client meetings, getting their mail (as some people have their mail delivered there so they can get anything that would need an address delivered there...) or looking through online job searches, creating resumes, etc. It was an overall good introduction day to everything that we would be doing. Oh, and By the way, I forgot to mention that we share a floor with one other company and we are the end of the hall with one big room where we do all of our client services and one other room with two desks. Both at the end of the hall have yet to have the AC work. So, it has been probably 78-80 degrees in the office. :) Quite enjoyable.

Day 2 - Today, we quite more interesting. I got to the train station about the same time and after a few minutes of waiting there, a voice came over the speakers announcing that the train that I was taking into the city was canceled. This immediately leads me to think, "How can they do this... I need to take the train into town..." with a million other thoughts thinking about if I choose to drive to downtown New Haven, I have no clue where I will park or how much it will cost to park. Anyways, as I call Ron, the person I am staying with and am explaining the situation over the phone, a gentlemen in a random truck came up and offered me a trip downtown. Phew..! That was a close one. It was so nice of him and he even went on to explain what he did as a consultant executive after being retired from the air force (or navy... he talked about both in our conversation...) So, he drives me to where he works and instead of a 4-5 block walk with about 20 minutes to get to work, I have, what i found out later to be, 10-14 blocks to walk in about 10 minutes to get to work. It was a well-paced morning as I power-walked my way to work and arriving only 2 minutes after 9.

While at work, we went over a few more local services and then jumped into client meetings. The first meeting was with an older lady whom I will call Nancy (not her real name of course - and don't ask me why I chose nancy either...) had been coming to our office for a little over two years. She is not a huge success story as some might see it, but I believe (speaking with 2 days of experience) that she embodies the progress that NSP is aiming towards. She came in to work on a cover letter for a couple of jobs that she is applying for after getting a degree/certificate from a community school. Since coming to us the first time, judging from her initiative today in the office, she has achieved a lot of independence and understanding of how things went. She held Sunday's paper under her arm coming in with a few job opportunities highlighted. She let us know that she had returned to school/training school a couple times for a couple different certificates or degrees that would allow her to contribute to others' success. It was quite the experience being able to peek into her life's story for just under an hour's time.

The day was also filled with quite the opposite example, but not nearly in a bad way. Another woman, came to the office for the first time. I was able to go over a few introductory (and mandatory/necessary) forms getting to know her situation and how we might help her. With my hour and a half spent with her, I was given a perspective that opened my eyes to the systems set up for those in need as well as being able to see someone who was first coming to us for assistance and not as well-versed in things as the first woman I mentioned. She quickly told me her story that she had a well paying job and providing for her two sons for several years. She was making over 20 dollars an hour and was paying the bills and such and living life. But when less than a year ago, she was hurt on the job, she was forced to leave her job and was granted unemployment. The company somehow did not give her workers comp and just recently her unemployment ran out. Now, she is currently borrowing from friends and family while she has been looking for jobs left and right through various online job searches. She has been unable to find any employment that she can physically handle and is extremely frustrated because the system, as it is set up now and from her perspective, gives assistance to drug addicts who may have disabilities, but fails to give anything to her because she is able to work a job physically and mentally. Overall, it was a gut-wrenching story, as i hope i was able to illustrate, as I saw a single mother with one child left at home not being able to provide for her family.

Even though the AC was still not working and there were times when our slow computers were extremely frustrating, I realized that I am going to be daily faced with real life situations such as these, with the hope that what we are doing can make a difference and I don't know if there is anything I would rather be doing right now as I am able to learn the systems which provides some sort of hope and assistance for those who are barely holding on. Thanks for your interest...

A SHOCKING story.

I am here! I arrived yesterday around 7pm, but that fails to account for the interesting story...

In order to get from where we were coming from yesterday in PA, we had to drive through New York City. It wasn't directly through downtown, but we caught some of the traffic from the city. Just as we were getting through the city, we were thrown into this storm where it went from no rain to a heavy downpour. There were a few lightning bolts and thunder, and then there was this one that was unique. I was driving and I saw a flash of lightning and the next thing I know, my car has practically died in the middle of the interstate. The "Check Engine" light also came on as well. I tried to restart it many times, but it just kept dying on me and kind of gurgling at me while limiting my progress and many attempts to get to the shoulder. In case it isn't clear from my description, I WAS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING! (Not even kidding)... Well, I guess it was my car that was struck by lightning. Anyways, to make a long and very stressful story short, I ended up, about 10 mins later, restarting my car and it took off. I was able to drive it to the side and there was conveniently an exit just 1/4 mile up the road. After disconnecting my battery (perhaps unnecessarily) I was able to continue my trek to New Haven. But, this is clearly one of those stories that not only will I not forget, but seems like it would never happen to you, UNTIL IT DOES...

I finally met Ron, the person I am staying with. He is very nice and has a comfortable little house on a lake. It is even one of the cleanest lakes in Connecticut because of its location between two damns and slow, steady flow of water. It is very peaceful and I am definitely looking forward to spending many evenings reading a book by the lake and going for a swim to relax. It is nice place to relax, especially after such a shocking story. Literally.

Training (June 2-June 6) and more about NSP

Hello Everyone again,

I am currently in Pennsylvania with Jessica staying with a friend of ours from school. For those of you who might know her, we are staying with Katie and her family. They are great and excellent hosts. They have made us feel very comfortable.

But, for those of you itching to know what I have learned about what I am doing from training... So... to start from the beginning, NSP (National Student Partnerships) is a non-profit organization that is run by mostly college students. During the year, it has volunteers from local colleges at the offices. In fact, for the year (Sept. 06- August 07) there were 532 volunteers serving 70,643 hours at the 12 different offices. It was started by two college students (from Yale) 10 years ago actually in New Haven who saw the effects of poverty in the cities and wanted to work towards something to improve life and help community members achieve a life in which they can be self-sustaining. There are 12 different offices (as far west as Chicago, IL) and spread out throughout the North-Eastern part of the country. The farthest south is Richmond, VA and as far north as Boston.

We offer a variety of services. We help clients or community members (words that help us maintain a level of professionalism and true value for those we are helping). Each office has partnering organizations in the community that helps the clients with typically specialized services, which we can refer them to in order to help them find any of the various services: Housing, Employment, SSI, Children Services, Clothing, Food (or Food stamps), transportation, budgeting, immigration, health care, legal services, education, as well as helping them create or perfect resumes, cover letters, etc. I (or we - all of the Summer Directors) will be working one-on-one with clients (either by appointment or walk-ins) to help them with various needs. On the client's first meeting with a NSP volunteer/worker, we will take their information as well as going through the various needs that we might be able to work with them to obtain. We will later put this into an online data base where we can track the interactions and record and successes of various needs for statistical information. It seems to be similar to a Social worker position but is perhaps more personal and allows them to work with us to help their situations. For more statistics, in 2007, NSP served 5,498 clients and had 16,629 client meetings (since they return for multiple meetings), while being able to render 89,470 services.

As it is probably clear, I feel like I have learned a lot about more of the services that we are able to offer, but am not clear exactly how we are going to do everything. :) It looks like it will come with experience and I am definitely excited for that. As that comes, i will be sure to share some stories. For the rest of this, I want to give some highlights of Training:

Tuesday - We got there and had lunch, intros, and then the rest of the day was focused around Diversity training. It was interesting and some good information, but seemed to be somewhat surface level and not really delving into the deeper issues about identity and such, but nonetheless, it was good.

Wed - We simply focused on client services most of the day. We listened to the director of programs for NSP talk about the importance of client meetings and even did some role playing to help us prepare for some interesting situations. It was good experience to help us know what a client meeting might be like and opened my eyes to how professional of a setting NSP is. At first, I was thinking that this might hinder the relationships with clients, but it seems that it gives a healthy environment, especially where clients can learn to appreciate us and themselves. It also helped us see some of the various situations that we might encounter and worked towards preparing ourselves for some of the typical situations.

Thurs - Wasn't as interesting of a day, but worked out some of the logistics. We went over telling people what NSP is and how to communicate it clearly to different audiences. We also worked with our co-summer directors (since there are 2-3 per office) to start some team building and begin getting acquainted with each other, including our strengths, weaknesses, etc. Also, went over some statistics to see all of the influences on effectiveness and efficiency.

The last day, Friday, was probably the best day (not just because it was shorter - 8am-1pm) but also because we were able to act out client situations. We were each given real life situations and told to act them out fully as we were trying to find housing. Some were married, single, with or without disabilities, etc. I was a single, male, with no children and handicapped (which I acted out by moving around with a chair - surprisingly helped me to see the perspective of someone in that situation). We were given 40 minutes to find housing and about half of the participants were able to do so. I found out that for the DC housing assistance program, there are actually (in real life) about 50,000 people on the waiting list for section 8 housing. The waiting list then is about 8-10 YEARS for someone on the list. They of course carried this over into the role play as i was put on the waiting list at somewhere around 18,300 or so. So, only 3-5 years.. :( It was an eye-opener for me to see this. Not only that, but because of my physical disability, i was unable to work and left to live on social security of $500 per month. This seems to be really accurate as getting to know some of the people in Patten Towers in Chattanooga during this last year at school, most of them live on $600 or less a month, paying 1/3 of that for housing. This was just one of the few places that was simulated for places to obtain housing. Others we places only for singles or even single-gendered families where if you are married, it is extremely hard to find housing. It was definitely a powerful way to close down with training (although we did a few things after that...) in opening our eyes to the difficulties of our clients and how we might be able to be understanding in that.

Tomorrow, I leave for New Haven to meet Ron (the person I will be staying with for the summer) and then Jessica will be continuing on to Boston. I am very excited to get started. Be looking forward to reading something of my first day... I believe there might be more reflections and info to come from that day. FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS. Hope everyone is doing well.

Before Leaving

Hey Everyone,

I decided that I would start a blog for everyone to read up on my adventures in New Haven and in the the North Eastern parts of the United States in general. I hope that this will allow you to see all of the stories and even help myself keep track of all the excitement and stories that I am anticipating.

For those of you who may not be completely aware, this summer (June - August 15) I have an internship in New Haven, CT. I have never been there nor do I know very much about it. I thought I would share the little things that I do know with you now. I am leaving Monday (June 1st) in the morning to drive to Washington DC. Well, actually Laurel, MD where I will be staying one night at a hotel. I will actually get to see my girlfriend, Jessica (whom I haven't seen since the end of April - one month seems like a lifetime) since she will be staying with her parents in the same Hotel. Jessica was selected to do the same internship except in Boston. (She likes to copy me - Just kiding, kind of...) From there, we will travel to Howard University (Downtown DC) where we will have training through the end of the week. After that, Jessica and I will be headed up to Annville, PA where Katie, a friend of ours lives and will be staying with her a day or two. (not sure how long). Then we will head further up north... I will be going to New Haven and Jessica to Boston.

I will actually be staying with a single guy from the New Haven Vineyard, Ron Fisher. He has graciously opened up his house for me to stay with him for the length of the internship. It is truly a sign of true hospitality. I will then say goodbye to Jessica as she heads on to Boston where she will be doing her internship, as I already said. She will be staying with a friend of her sister whom she knew in Boston.

You may be wondering at this point... Why are you going to New Haven? What will you be doing...? To answer some of these questions - I am not completely sure. I do not have all the details, but I am very excited with those that I do have. I will be working out of an office (Mon-Fri 9-6) helping lower-income and homeless individuals to find housing, employment, and hopefully other social and medical services. The program is called National Student Partnerships (see this website for a little more info: http://nspnet.org/about/index.htm) and is somehow associated with Americorps (I think...) I will also be attending meetings in the city addressing the needs with poverty (or at least that is what the job description tells me). As I said, I am do not know much more than that. In fact, when people have been asking me what exactly I will be doing, I tell them just what I described and then am stuck with saying "and the rest I will figure out" or something of the sort.

While that may explain the what, and it may be impossible to explain the why, I will give it a shot. I felt myself wanting to do something meaningful with my summer, but also something that would prepare me for making a lasting impact on people's lives while giving me practical means of doing so. I began looking for missions internships and found myself deeply disappointed. To my many hours of internet browsing and emails with various mission organizations, all I was discovering were mission experiences. While these do have their benefits, I knew that this was not what I was looking for. I wanted something that will stretch me, acquaint me with something new and such. Jessica suggested that I look into this as she found it online and said that it sounded like something I would want to do. I immediately (a couple weeks later) started applying and to make a much longer story shorter, I had an interview over the phone and was hired. Oh yeah, not to over-spiritualize this or whatever, but I feel like it all worked out in some weird way for some reason(s). But then again, there is almost always (if not always) something worth learning from everything that life offers us. It was only at the last second (literally at the last second, i changed my top three choices of locations to work at in order to include New Haven at my number 3 in my email to the organization) that I selected the New Haven office as one of my choices. As it worked out, I found a free place to stay (thank you God) whereas if I were somewhere else, I don't know that I would have. Either way, I am very excited to be doing what I will be doing. I am excited to get to know more people and have them contribute to my changing perspective. I have noticed over the past year that in getting to know people (especially people deeply submersed in real life like those living on the streets and those facing life's difficult struggles on a daily basis) they allow you to see an aspect of life that is different from your own (or my own, rather).

I hope you guys (ya'll, for the readers from the south - not sure if I spelled that correctly, my apologies) enjoy hearing about my story. I would love to hear your comments and such and even hope that this might be a place to stimulate discussion about life's bigger issues. Who knows how it will end up.