I am optimistic about our motives for civic engagement. I certainly feel like we are on the right path to avoiding the “coat-drive” self-righteousness, but I also thing it is important to keep this goal in mind through out our work. However, the fact that is a concern we are aware of will help us to avoid such a situation.
I think that it is certainly okay for us to be ambitious, and I think we might have more fun if we try something that “stretches” us. At the same time, if we do choose an ambitious project I think we also need to be willing to accept the fact that we may not get everything accomplished that we set out to do. Since our ideas from the last meeting are still sort of fluid and in the works it’s hard for me to say whether they are to big or to small. I think all the ideas we threw out are still new enough and flexible enough at this point that we can work with them to ensure that they are not to small.
I think I would prefer us all to work together as a group. While I do understand the advantages I feel that working together and having a shared experience would really help us to get to know each other better, understand how each individual works, how we can work together and what we can learn from each other.
I really feel like 3 is a magic number in terms of encounters. I feel that in order build some sort of relationship we really need to be in contact with the same population at least three times. For my schedule committing to work once every other week would probably be easiest. In terms of scheduling encounters I am really fond of the following: Perhaps we can set up a regular weekly time for some of the cohort to work at whatever site or project we choose. Then we could sing up for the various days according to our schedule. That way students could work on the project as often as they wish (although I’m sure we would set a minimum) and if you know you’ll be crazy-busy for the 2 weeks in March planning whatever for the organization you are president of you could schedule around that.
I’m not really excited about the populations we have discussed working with. This is largely because I feel especially passionate about other populations. I spent the summer working as a call councilor for a crisis hotline that picks up for two major national suicide hotlines. As a result of this work I am really passionate about helping people going through mental health crises, or those struggling with disabilities. I’m not suggesting that we all go be call councilors for a suicide hotline, but I would be interested to see how we could maybe meet the needs of persons with physical, mental, and/or psychological disabilities. I also feel that veterans are a population that is in great need, especially those just returning from Iraq. There really are not a lot of services for these men and women, especially for those who are dealing with issues like PTSD. This is an issue that we might be able to do a lot for by raising awareness and seeing how we can work inside the system (i.e. the government) to demand a change in this. Since this project is about civic engagement and not just volunteerism it might be interesting to explore some ideas that tap into the civic side. Maybe we could facilitate a letter writing campaign or start a petition to demand better mental healthcare for veterans. As a non-mental health alternative I’m also a big fan of amnesty international and I think it might really interesting and eye-opening.
If we do decide to pursue working with children or the elderly I really think that the project would be nice if it was one-on-one and fairly unstructured. I think this is important because it would facilitate making connections and building relationships. Also I think this is an important way we can avoid the “coat-drive” problem because this way we can listen to what the people we are working with want and need instead of assuming that we know what is best for them. If the unstructured idea is too fluid for some people we could come up with a basic outline of what we want to do and then maybe talk to the groups we would be working with to see how they feel about it and if they have any additional suggestions or ideas. I like the idea of incorporating art, literature, sports/team building, etc, but I think we should talk to the people we would be working with before we make any unchangeable choices and also see if they have additional ideas.
If we do decide to work with children I would prefer to work with economically disadvantaged children, but I do not have a particular age preference for the group we would be working with.
I mentioned above (fourth paragraph) some of the ideas I have for organizing the project in terms of scheduling and contact. I think that there are ways the program work well whether we decide to structure it in a centralized or decentralized way. The suggestions in my fourth paragraph are simply ideas I had that I think could work well, but I’m interested to see what others have to say about this part of the project in particularly and I am certainly open to suggestions. In terms of the project having leaders or no leaders I think it might be hard to say definitively what would be best in this area without first knowing what sort of project we want to do. For instance if we decide to do art with kids than maybe a couple of people would want to form a sort of lesson plan or activity and others could help do the activity with the kids. On the other hand we certainly do not have to have leaders and another sort of project (doing something with amnesty international or the caring place for instance) might be just a easily and successfully completed without leader. I am open to all of the potential options involving leaders (or lack there of), however if we do decide to use leaders of some sort I think it might be best to use a system of volunteering/nominating and voting on leaders.
I think it would be really neat if everyone could come up with one or two ideas of a project that we could do (complete with preliminary research of the organization involved – maybe Suzy could help us individually with this if we want) and then present that idea to the group. I think this would be a really interesting way to do things because it would make each of us more invested in the projects we are discussing and it might let the group hear about some ideas that haven’t really been discussed yet. For me I sometimes end up liking ideas that are completely different from my own, just because they are ones I never would have come up with on myself. If others aren’t so interested in having to filter through so many different suggestions then I think it would be really good to either have Suzy take the lead on this or at least guide us through the process. I think having Suzy help us would be really great because she has a good deal of experience working with different organizations and so she can help us understand how they work and if they might be a good fit for us.
I certainly don’t want to prevent anyone from doing something they have their heart set on, however I do think it is important for us to explore a few different ideas, so the following suggestions are some projects others might not have thought of but still might be really interested in:
Amnesty International: this is an organization that works to correct civil rights injustices throughout the world. You might have heard about them in history class from their attempts to raise awareness about Nelson Mandela and other “forgotten prisoners” of South African Apartheid in the 1960s. The USA branch of the organization has a bunch of interesting suggestions and ideas of how to get involved on their website, including those especially for college students. Of particular interest to us might be lobbing congress, educating the public, and starting a letter writing campaign. For more info check out http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-activist-toolkit/page.do?id=1031046.
Lone Star Circle of Care: this is an organization here in Williamson County that provides healthcare for people who are uninsured or underinsured. They have clinics in Georgetown (literally walking distance down 29), Round Rock, and Granger. I’ve work with them through APO and done things like filing, making folders, and reading to kids in their pediatric waiting room. They have a website too, it’s http://www.lscctx.org/index.html.
R.O.C.K. (Ride on Center for Kids): This organization is here in Georgetown and they do hippotherapy (therapeutic horseback riding). This would be really neat if we wanted to work with kids and animals. R.O.C.K. works with kids that have cognitive and mental disabilities. Also, the staff always has organizational stuff they can use help with if you don’t feel comfortable working with kids. Website: http://rockride-org.doodlekit.com/home.
That’s pretty much all I have to say for now, but I can’t wait to read everyone else’s ideas!
--Margaret
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