What to expect this coming month:

February 3- Skill Share

Guest- Assistant Director of Campus Community Partnership of Tulane’s Center for Public Service, Amanda  Buberger

February 10- Service Project

Communities in School at Ben Mays Preparatory School, 12:30-3:15

February 17- Leadership

Guest- Tulane’s Center for Public Service Executive Director, Vincent Ilsustre

Guest-Senior Program Coordinator at Tulane’s Center for Public Service, Nick Solari

February 24- Professional Development  

Grant Database Training at the Main Branch of New Orleans’s Public Library

Tour of Evacuteer.org headcounters in City Hall 

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy"- MLK JR.

Come join Dillard, Tulane, Loyola and Xavier as we celebrate a “Week of Peace” in remembrance of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The week is full of events, including service projects, student events, music and dance, and a special lecture and book signing by keynote speaker, Dr. Steve Perry.

This week, we will come together as a community with a common purpose: to grow, learn and serve together in honor of the legacy of Dr. King.

Cathy Harris (who we’ll just call “My Sanity”) and I are meeting with different community based organizations to find out their capacity for service learning. We are contacting each individual site that may have worked with or has an interest in service learning. So typical meeting involve going to the location as a potential site, meet the coordinator of who’ll be working with the students, ask some questions, get some answers…okay, to keep it simple our meetings are three fold, we are trying to accomplish the following:

1. Get some face-to-face time, serving as the face of AmeriCorp VISTA, UROC, MCTC, University of MN and as someone who sees the value in working with North Minneapolis.

1. See if the organization is potentially ready for MCTC service learning student to come during 2012 spring semester.

1. Receive updated information about the organization since last year in order to add to the already long, long started list by Year 1 VISTAs.

Volunteering is at the heart of being a VISTA. My family was always on survival mode, with not a lot of time to participate in the community. I feel in my heart that it is everyone’s purpose in the world to help His people. By helping others, you will truly in turn help yourself. Me and My Sanity, set up the Christmas Store on Friday, 12/09/11. There were so many items (please see photos). As we worked the event on 12/10/11, just to see the spirit of Christmas through the eyes of kids, it truly rekindled my spirit for this time of year.

I am doing my service to my country because why start across a sea when I can help someone across my city. At my previous position as a paralegal, in a small firm, all I did was assist clients in their own affairs, day in, day out. Of course, I helped people which they were in a time of stress of the legal world. But I wasn’t helping myself grow personally. I was too content with helping others, but little to no benefits to who I was as a person. There was something missing…I am of a certain age and in a certain time where I am searching to find my purpose in this life lol which has been uncomfortable. But a tape plays over and over, I hear what a wise woman said in church, “do whatever feels uncomfortable, because more times than not, it’s what’s right.” When I applied to be an AmeriCorp VISTA….uncomfortable, to volunteer and meet so many people….uncomfortable, to be living at the poverty line….uncomfortable, to receive state benefits….uncomfortable and the list can literally go on. But somehow all of this has giving me so much peace in my mind and purpose to this world, I can barely describe how good it feels to be truly a part of something meaningful.

So let’s rewind…looking above, this is my official expression of my position as an AmeriCorp VISTA. I could not articulate for the life of me why I was chose to be a VISTA or how I even came across From start the week of Thanksgiving to working through Christmas and then the New Year’s…working on my project has been an obstacle. With all the issues that arise, I am so glad most my efforts are to the betterment of my community and myself.

I love N Mpls! 612!

Brittany M. Lane

This is my first blog of my VISTA life so I suppose I should start by introducing myself. My name is Cathy Harris and I am working at the Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center. I recently graduated from law school and am doing this year of a service to begin my career in public interest work, whether it be legal or not.

I am now about a month into my service and everything is beginning to look a lot clearer. When I first began it was difficult to understand what work I would be doing on a daily basis to accomplish the greater goals. As I have begun my service, however, projects have developed and I have been kept very busy. My overall goal for the year is to increase partnership between Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the University of Minnesota, and Northside non-profit organizations through service learning programs. This goal is important because the increase in connections could potentially allow the organizations access to the vast resources of higher education institutions, increase diversity at MCTC and the U of M, and benefit the community by making the higher education institutions more accessible allowing more Northside students to access college education. More directly, I believe a service learning experience for students on the Northside could completely change their opinion of North Minneapolis, could introduce them to the benefits of public service and could create connections for them that could lead to more volunteer work or possible career opportunities.

So far I have only just begun my work on this project, but already I have had exciting and uplifting experiences. One of the first projects I worked on was helping set up for a Christmas store at a Northside Church where children could buy gifts for their families for a quarter.  The pictures below are from that event.

An example: As a result of an unexpected and disruptive “restructuring” of an unpaid intern within the Latino Farmer’s Cooperative, I was left holding the bag for an innovative new fundraiser consisting of selling cheesecakes from the Jubilations Company in Mississippi. The product was unfamiliar and costly, and as a result few people wanted to give $25 for the promise of a cheesecake three weeks later. As the intern who was spearheading the cheesecake campaign is a native Spanish-speaker, we initially contacted with several consulates and organizations that have no English capabilities. Without his assistance, I still had to follow through on our promises and appointments, stumbling through with my poor grasp of the Spanish language.

This project wasn’t the unmitigated disaster that it could have been, however. I did my best to take my boss’ fluctuating focus and direction in stride, and make this a learning experience about managerial processes and how projects can be managed. It also allowed for a more personal look into the act of salesmanship with a product that is unwanted, which previously I’d had no knowledge about. My travels took me from art expositions to garden fairs, from law offices to foreign consulates, which allowed me to get a glimpse at different professional offices and how they operate on a day to day basis.

Though the funds raised from the project weren’t enough to validate the time spent on it, it was still an experience that I wouldn’t have received if I had not taken this year to be a VISTA. I would never have met the wonderful teachers at Mount Carmel Academy, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to speak with local artists as I did at the O.C. Haley Art Fair. Through this VISTA activity, I have been able to see places I would not have otherwise visited within the city and have met people that I feel enrich New Orleans.

There are detractors and downsides to every experience, but in the end all you’re left with are the memories of how they were overcome. With the soft lens of retrospection, I feel confident that I’ll look back on this year and tell myself that these are things I wouldn’t have seen anywhere else.

There’s something to that.

– Brian Templet

Over the past few months I have been doing quite a bit of soul searching through my experience as a VISTA. Not necessarily as to where I fit into the organization but how I can truly use this experience in my future. What I have found thus far is that it is not the work I do that matters, but the sheer passion and dedication that I put into it. My VISTA term began as a Dream Deferred and seemed as though I was trucking down the muddy creek of uncertainty. However, throughout certain obstacles I have constantly reminded myself “Don’t Quit.” Though I am not at the place I imagined I would be at 24,  my spirit has remained invictus. As I continue on this VISTA path, I must remember that I have been placed in this position to not dwell on my deepest fears as it relates to poverty but to in turn be phenomenal VISTA.

As a gift to you I would like to share the poems that I have used to guide me along the path. Enjoy!

A Dream Deferred
By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
 

Our Deepest Fear
Our deepest fear, is not that we are inadequate.
Our Deepest fear, is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small, does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking,
So that other people won’t feel secure around you.
We were all meant to shine, as children do.
It’s not just in us, it’s in everyone,
We unconsciously give other people
Permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fears;
Our presence automatically liberates others.
 

Invictus 
By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul
 

Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
 
- Author unknown
 
Phenomenal Woman
By Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Grow Dat Youth Farm’s first year at was a great success. 11 Crew Members (local high school students, aged 15-18) completed our program in urban agriculture. The farm provides a space for students to apply the interests and skills they have developed in our educational program outside of the classroom. It also creates a healthy and supportive work environment for area New Orleans youth from who face limited job opportunities. Each student was motivated to complete the program by different things. With a focus on developing a sense of responsibility, community, environmental stewardship, and service among participants, the farm enhances leadership and teamwork abilities through the collaborative work of growing food. Listen to what each youth has to say about working at Grow Dat Youth Farm.

And by “Ace”

a Grow Dat Crew Member:

We are excited to announce our first annual “Growing the Green” campaign to support the work of the Grow Dat Youth Farm. The idea for Grow Dat is simple: hire young adults, whose job options are often limited to fast food restaurants, to grow food for their community. You can help us grow the green by supporting us in one of the following ways: giving the gift of employment for a young person or by purchasing a tool or set of tools that will help us start our farm. Visit our website, growdatyouthfarm.org, to help grow the green. Thanks for your support!