In an organization that is amidst its 5th year of existence, one can only imagine the effort that goes into a day as a non-profit worker. At SPARK the Truth we seek to ignite social action amongst Boston students, and create environments that foster our living philosophy of UBUNTU. Ubuntu is a word from the Bantu language of South Africa that gives light to a way of living; it simply means “I am because you are”.
Being placed in an environment where this is a guiding principal it is our sole mission as workers that all of our actions reflect a communal thought process. One large component of communal interconnectedness is the presence of a support system. But what’s a support system without people? SPARK thought about this years back when they applied for a MACC/VISTA. The organization knew they needed a backbone for its growing membership but obtained little to no fiscal foundation that would permit a full time employee to support the organization. With that said, every time I walk in my office I am reminded that my position is not for me but rather to sustain a message that has to spread. This means that my role here is important to me but vital for our community.
When I attended SPARK the Truth’s first Board meeting, I was overwhelmed with much anxiety and questioned if I would even be good enough for the task at hand. My thoughts began to clutter my mind and before I knew it I was walking into the meeting. Upon my entrance a young women quickly sprouted from her seat and exclaimed “You must be the New MACC/VISTA!” I was enthralled by her excitement and every negative thought quickly vanished. It was at this moment that I realized the significance of my role and the importance of belonging in an organization that truly needs your time, talent and input!
At our first board meeting I wasted no time and began to help with strategic planning for the New Year. I was so comforted by the warmness of the founders, advisory board members and my new supervisor. They have all made things begin to click for me, I have thought a lot about “doing service” as an AmeriCorps VISTA member and I have realized that I am suppose to be doing this, I am suppose to be at SPARK, because SPARK is serving the world. I recognize that my role as a vista helps sustain UBUNTU, and there is no better solution to a problem than filling organizations with individuals who want to work, serve and change their communities.
I cannot offer a specific story but I can convey a feeling that has evolved in me over the last month. I presume this is something that my fellow MACC/VISTA’s have experienced. I encourage us all to remember our stories, but most importantly for us to capture the feeling of knowing you’re doing what is right!
We are doing what’s right, we are making progress and we are growing.
- Brittany Wheaton
MACC AmeriCorps *VISTA at Wheelock College
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Rebuilding After the Tornado - Rose Delorme
My impact story is one, which will continue even after I write this blog. My impact story involves the South End Community of Springfield and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, more specifically the Student Bridges agency.
After the tornado went through Springfield, MA, it left devastating impacts on the community of Springfield. There were many homes destroyed and many lives left upside down. The South End community is one of the tornados victims. The place we will focus on for the story is the South End Community Center. The community center was a hub for all community events. It housed one of Student Bridges 4-H after school programs; it was where all the community youth came to play basketball. The community center was a safe haven a place where families knew their children could go to escape the dangerous streets of Springfield. After the tornado the building was condemned. No longer could the children play basketball and no longer was there a safe place to go in the afternoons after school.
As I entered my MACC Americorps *VISTA year I was faced with a new project: get a large scale project going to help get the South End Community Center back on its feet. How could I possibly do this I thought? What is it specifically that the South End community center needs in order to get back on their feet? After meeting with some of our community partners I learned that the center lost all of its computer equipment as well as all their gym equipment, it was all stolen after the tornado left the building without a roof. Yet, the community center was swamped with work and could not find time to set aside to focus on raising funds to get these items back. While in the Bridges office we brainstormed fundraising ideas and came up with having a basketball tournament. In many ways this was a metaphorical way of bringing the community back on its feet doing the one thing they love the most, playing basketball.
I sent out an email to every person I knew from Amherst, Springfield, Holyoke and even Boston. I immediately got rapid responses back of people offering services to get this event rolling. The most powerful and inspirational phone call came from the Umass men’s basketball coach. Brian Kellogg is the Umass basketball coach. He is a Springfield native himself. On a sunny day as I was sitting in the office I get a phone call and the voice on the other end stunned me. It said, “Hello, this is coach Kellogg can I speak to Rose Delorme please?” I was breathless. Often times we turn certain people in our communities into superheroes and we can never imagine them as agents of change. However, Coach Kellogg went from just the Umass basketball coach to me into a Springfield native looking to get his community back on his feet.
My impact story doesn’t have a resolution yet because the event date has been pushed back to April in order to allow for more successful planning. However, my story speaks to an impact story that will span over the entire year. We will be having monthly meetings to plan out every detail of the event. Our fundraising goal is 10,000 dollars. I know we set it high but does community engagement really have a price tag?
-Rose Delorme
MACC VISTA with Student Bridges, UMASS Amherst
After the tornado went through Springfield, MA, it left devastating impacts on the community of Springfield. There were many homes destroyed and many lives left upside down. The South End community is one of the tornados victims. The place we will focus on for the story is the South End Community Center. The community center was a hub for all community events. It housed one of Student Bridges 4-H after school programs; it was where all the community youth came to play basketball. The community center was a safe haven a place where families knew their children could go to escape the dangerous streets of Springfield. After the tornado the building was condemned. No longer could the children play basketball and no longer was there a safe place to go in the afternoons after school.
As I entered my MACC Americorps *VISTA year I was faced with a new project: get a large scale project going to help get the South End Community Center back on its feet. How could I possibly do this I thought? What is it specifically that the South End community center needs in order to get back on their feet? After meeting with some of our community partners I learned that the center lost all of its computer equipment as well as all their gym equipment, it was all stolen after the tornado left the building without a roof. Yet, the community center was swamped with work and could not find time to set aside to focus on raising funds to get these items back. While in the Bridges office we brainstormed fundraising ideas and came up with having a basketball tournament. In many ways this was a metaphorical way of bringing the community back on its feet doing the one thing they love the most, playing basketball.
I sent out an email to every person I knew from Amherst, Springfield, Holyoke and even Boston. I immediately got rapid responses back of people offering services to get this event rolling. The most powerful and inspirational phone call came from the Umass men’s basketball coach. Brian Kellogg is the Umass basketball coach. He is a Springfield native himself. On a sunny day as I was sitting in the office I get a phone call and the voice on the other end stunned me. It said, “Hello, this is coach Kellogg can I speak to Rose Delorme please?” I was breathless. Often times we turn certain people in our communities into superheroes and we can never imagine them as agents of change. However, Coach Kellogg went from just the Umass basketball coach to me into a Springfield native looking to get his community back on his feet.
My impact story doesn’t have a resolution yet because the event date has been pushed back to April in order to allow for more successful planning. However, my story speaks to an impact story that will span over the entire year. We will be having monthly meetings to plan out every detail of the event. Our fundraising goal is 10,000 dollars. I know we set it high but does community engagement really have a price tag?
-Rose Delorme
MACC VISTA with Student Bridges, UMASS Amherst
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Where Bus Routes Lead - Kelleyanne Curley
“Keep walking down Maple, turn left on Appleton, then right on Nick Cosmos Way; after three blocks, the building will be on your right.”
I spent my day compiling directions like these to locations I do not intend to visit. This may seem futile, useless, redundant even? Now, if you knew where these directions were leading you, and how, you might understand their value, and how I was able to sustain interest in the seemingly mundane activities of my Monday.
Before you can even begin traveling these streets, you must get on a bus. Many of us are guilty of taking buses for granted, if we even use them at all. I myself, take a free bus to my office every day. With my headphones and novel, it becomes easy to forget that I am on a bus, let alone think of their history. I know that buses have been segregated, that their design once ironically ignored wheels significant to those using wheelchairs and strollers. Transportation was a restricted privilege. People have fought for the mere right to ride the bus, to make them accessible and inclusive, it seems easy to overlook, easy to forget that buses bring us to places that, otherwise, we might not be able to get to.
My most common experience with buses has always been related to school. That is where they usually bring me - home to school, school to home. This bus that I am talking about, the one that brings you to Maple Street has the unique pleasure of bringing people from one school to another. This is the pilot year of a bus route that travels back and forth from the five colleges in the Pioneer Valley to various schools and social service agencies in the city of Holyoke. This specific route brings you to the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club and well as to Girls Inc, both organizations founded to improve the lives of young students by providing college-positive messages and giving them the space to realize and develop their skills.
Like the fight to ride the bus, there is a fight in Holyoke to equalize accessibility and get people places. In a city with one of the highest drop-out rates in Massachusetts, it is easy to look at community though a lens of needs and limitations, or maybe to not see it at all, but the people that I have been working with refuse to be restricted by negativity. We reject the idea there is a finite quantity of resources and there are “needy” individuals uses these resources without any contribution. The problem of accessibility is usually hidden behind the assumption that problems are linked to individuals and not the systems that are influencing them. We see this problem as one we can solve together with the assets of the colleges and the city of Holyoke. In the past month, I have found myself sitting with a table of VISTAs, former VISTAs, campus community-based learning coordinators and community partners working to get this bus route running. Our programs seek not just to lower the drop-out rate, but to get students into college. We are working to make education accessible and inclusive, and the buses are integral to that process.
Western Massachusetts is a geographic region full of resources, many of which are held at the institutions of higher education. The students at these institutions are limited in that they cannot easily leave the bubble of the college they attend. The people of the community are limited in that it is nearly impossible to travel the relatively short distance to a college environment. Both are limited by resources and people that are just far enough to be out of reach. Through this bus route, we are able to extend those resources to our neighbors. In return, we meet highly qualified students and community members and learn about what is going on around us. All of this done through a simple (though complexly configured) bus route that will remind us that buses and people can bring us to places that, otherwise, we might not be able to get to.
-Kelleyanne Curley
MACC VISTA at UMASS Amherst
I spent my day compiling directions like these to locations I do not intend to visit. This may seem futile, useless, redundant even? Now, if you knew where these directions were leading you, and how, you might understand their value, and how I was able to sustain interest in the seemingly mundane activities of my Monday.
Before you can even begin traveling these streets, you must get on a bus. Many of us are guilty of taking buses for granted, if we even use them at all. I myself, take a free bus to my office every day. With my headphones and novel, it becomes easy to forget that I am on a bus, let alone think of their history. I know that buses have been segregated, that their design once ironically ignored wheels significant to those using wheelchairs and strollers. Transportation was a restricted privilege. People have fought for the mere right to ride the bus, to make them accessible and inclusive, it seems easy to overlook, easy to forget that buses bring us to places that, otherwise, we might not be able to get to.
My most common experience with buses has always been related to school. That is where they usually bring me - home to school, school to home. This bus that I am talking about, the one that brings you to Maple Street has the unique pleasure of bringing people from one school to another. This is the pilot year of a bus route that travels back and forth from the five colleges in the Pioneer Valley to various schools and social service agencies in the city of Holyoke. This specific route brings you to the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club and well as to Girls Inc, both organizations founded to improve the lives of young students by providing college-positive messages and giving them the space to realize and develop their skills.
Like the fight to ride the bus, there is a fight in Holyoke to equalize accessibility and get people places. In a city with one of the highest drop-out rates in Massachusetts, it is easy to look at community though a lens of needs and limitations, or maybe to not see it at all, but the people that I have been working with refuse to be restricted by negativity. We reject the idea there is a finite quantity of resources and there are “needy” individuals uses these resources without any contribution. The problem of accessibility is usually hidden behind the assumption that problems are linked to individuals and not the systems that are influencing them. We see this problem as one we can solve together with the assets of the colleges and the city of Holyoke. In the past month, I have found myself sitting with a table of VISTAs, former VISTAs, campus community-based learning coordinators and community partners working to get this bus route running. Our programs seek not just to lower the drop-out rate, but to get students into college. We are working to make education accessible and inclusive, and the buses are integral to that process.
Western Massachusetts is a geographic region full of resources, many of which are held at the institutions of higher education. The students at these institutions are limited in that they cannot easily leave the bubble of the college they attend. The people of the community are limited in that it is nearly impossible to travel the relatively short distance to a college environment. Both are limited by resources and people that are just far enough to be out of reach. Through this bus route, we are able to extend those resources to our neighbors. In return, we meet highly qualified students and community members and learn about what is going on around us. All of this done through a simple (though complexly configured) bus route that will remind us that buses and people can bring us to places that, otherwise, we might not be able to get to.
-Kelleyanne Curley
MACC VISTA at UMASS Amherst
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