Almost the end?

It all comes down to this final week. I still can't believe how fast the past ten weeks have flown by. Looking back, it has been jam-packed with volunteering, meetings, fun and much more. Today was my last day at NeighborWorks and we had a really nice celebration with the whole office (over 15 employees), fancy carrot cake and a HUGE card that I had to manage to get from the office back home on my bike. One of my coworkers that I've grown close with even brought me flowers from her garden! I was definitely sad to say goodbye and see it come to an end. Luckily, we still have about a week left of the program with presentations and a graduation ceremony and such!

Some of my coworkers asked if we could be friends on Facebook and told me that I MUST send them a postcard from Spain. I got to finish off my internship at the Westside Farmers' Market, working on exciting crafts with kids.

Over the past week, I've seen the inner nerd come out in myself. NWR collected lots of data from surveys and wanted me to look at it and come up with a powerpoint with conclusions with statistical support for them to use in the future for presentations to the board and for grant proposals and more. This past spring, I took a course at Gettysburg on Sociology Methods, where we were introduced to statistical analysis and different techniques for surveys and the like. It was really quite cool to be looking at these real-life surveys and try to draw conclusions and connections between it all. Call it what you may, but I have found it to be extremely fascinating!!
Here are some of the indications of success of the Healthy Blocks Program (this data is from a neighborhood that they were in from 2005-2010):
-From 2005 to 2010, there was a significant increase in amount of neighbors that respondents socialize with. In 2005, 0% socialized with more than 6 neighbors. By 2010, over 13% socialize with more than 6 neighbors.
-There was an increase in residents who can turn to 1-3 neighbors in case of an emergency. 42% in 2005, 55% in 2010.
-In 2010, over 55% of residents reported believing that their neighborhood is a better place than it was in 2005.
-There was a significant increase in attending cultural programs sponsored by the neighborhood association. 5% in 2005, 36% in 2010.
-Overall, residents reported an increase in feeling good about being part of the neighborhood. [strongly] agree: 92% in 2005, 96% in 2010.

Last week's Wednesday session was on Empowerment in Community, based on a book entitled, Going Public. Professor Richard Dejesus from St. John Fisher College came and lead a discussion in the morning essentially about how to make things happen through organizing and power. Somehow, our discussions tend to lead to the theme of housing and sure enough this week was no exception. He made it clear that you must work with the common interests of people and having a quality life is something that most people value, yet housing affordability can alter quality quite drastically. One's neighborhood truly defines their opportunities based on available resources, such as access to jobs, schools, health and food services. Once individuals have better access to these valuable resources, they gain the ability to make things happen with power.

Another interesting issue was one that came from a chapter in the book called Merit means (almost) nothing. Part of the American myth is that merit is everything, from politicians to business workers to celebrities. Yet, who defines what merit is? How do you gain the highest merit? We looked at the college application process, something that we all went through not so long ago, and thought about why we were accepted to our current schools. Was it because of our grades? our financial situation? our SAT scores? our extracurricular activities? [This will be something I will probably learn about at my externship at Gettysburg College Admissions in August...stay tuned!!]

We even had a Harry Potter reference (considering it was a few days before the last movie hit the theaters, how could we resist?). Lord Voldemort is extremely powerful, but he doesn't do it alone. He has his army of Death Eaters organized behind him, distributing power within the wizard world. He may or may not win in the end (I don't want to spoil what happens...). Regardless, because he uses his advocates, he is able to last much longer against Harry and his supporters than if he had been flying solo.

In the afternoon, we went to Cameron Community Ministries, where an Urban Fellow, Justine, has been working this summer. They are a neighborhood outreach program that provides basic needs, such as food and clothing.

The day we were there they had just served 162 people within just an hour and a half for lunch in this small kitchen, which is pretty impressive! They serve free lunch and dinner to anyone 18 years old or younger every day and provide lunches to almost anyone. Foodlink, a local food bank that we had visited earlier in the program, provides snacks and dinner.

After having a brief tour of the building, we met the kids, from kindergarteners to 6th graders. Of course, they were all super energized and quite a change to our regular educational sessions. We got to spend the afternoon with them and headed out to a nearby park that has a water spray park.

As you can see, the weather didn't look too promising, but we decided to persevere. As soon as we got to the park, though, it started absolutely pouring, so we quickly grabbed our student buddies and headed to a nearby school building.

Of course the kids were [mostly] ok with it because they had their bathing suits on, but we weren't exactly prepared for walking through a rain storm. Our plan B was to have the kids go swimming at the school's indoor pool. I think we all still had a great time spending time with kids who love attention and piggy back rides from older kids.

I just wanted to include this picture of when some of the Urban Fellows came out to my house for a BBQ. It was lots of fun and a perfect night for kan jam, ladder ball and good food and conversation!