Helping Build Community at MassArt…One Paintbrush at a Time!

Beloved community activist Bob Moses once asked a family living in the Mississippi Delta during the tumultuous Civil Rights era,

“How do you build and organize a community?” He answered, “By throwing a ball into your neighbor’s yard; that way you have to cross the fence and engage in a dialogue with them. And then your neighbor throws the ball into their neighbor’s yard.”

I took Bob’s spirit to heart when I showed up at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) for day one of my AmeriCorps*VISTA service with the Massachusetts Campus Compact (MACC). As my supervisor and I walked around the bohemian campus I could only imagine the creativity and ingenuity behind how MassArt builds partnerships and community.

My thoughts became more defined later that day when I met a cohort of MassArt and Harvard students (working with the Phillips Brooks House Association) running a summer art camp for a throng of underprivileged Mission Hill kids. I stood back and witnessed three worlds ally in perfect accord: Harvard, arguably the poster child of wealth and prestige; MassArt, the artistic capital of Massachusetts; and, kiddos from one of Boston’s most high risk neighborhoods. Sure, the kids concentrated their attention on the fun painting and printmaking activities (much of which ended up all over my clothes), but much more happened that day. Everyone learned a lesson on what it means to be part of community and a neighborhood; whether as a public or private institution providing services to a certain demographic or as a low-income family tapping the neighborhood’s resources. That experience properly oriented me to the notion that MassArt is not just an art school. The institution cultivates strong relationships with its Mission Hill and Roxbury neighbors, and to Bob Moses’s delight, the university community is constantly throwing balls (or maybe paintbrushes) to learn more about them and their needs.

So…what fun things will I be doing in my year of service? The Center for Art and Community Partnerships (CACP), the department wherein I work, needs me to research the impact MassArt’s public art initiatives (colloquially known as the Neighborhood ArtZones) have on the communities it serves. In other words, MassArt wants an official university publication illustrating the difference it is making in Mission Hill and lower Roxbury. The CACP also wants me to explore further community partnership opportunities and hone in more closely on the needs (affordable housing, educational opportunities, etc.) of the neighborhood and how MassArt can address those needs by facilitating public art programs. All that said, the President of MassArt, Kay Sloan, gave me her blessing and sent me to my 12^th floor office to begin this important work and make a difference in the world.

I will also work on other public art programs and student initiatives. Last summer, the CACP invited the Combat Paper Project, a program where returned veterans turn their uniforms into paper and participants make art projects on the paper, to come and work with the community. We want the Vermont based organization to come next summer, so I plan to assist in the logistics and writing the grant to make that a reality. In the coming weeks I will also play an important role in the New Student Orientation. I am assisting with a “creative mapping” activity with 400 plus students, which will orient them to the community and reasons why MassArt works so closely with its neighbors.

When I finished graduate school at the University of Massachusetts I never thought I would embark on this journey. In fact, I thought I was bound for a doctoral program in American History, but I needed to make my education practical and useful for humanity, which is why I applied for this MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA position. I think it is everyone’s civic duty to vote and do some small feat to make a difference in the world, whether that means serving your country or your community, those of us privileged with education (and housing for that matter) should disseminate our skills to those who do not have fair or adequate access to basic necessities. So here I am! I plan to write bi-monthly on the projects I am working on and discuss ways that others can be involved. Please stop back often because the other bloggers have pretty awesome posts too. And if you’re ever in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston make sure to visit MassArt and come say hello.

Feel free to contact me at Jeffrey.Robinson@massart.edu.

In Peace and love,

Jeff Robinson
MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA serving at MassArt

Updates from William Dowd at North Shore Community College

Yesterday wrapped up our Haiti relief efforts here at the North Shore Community College. I must admit the planning stages were a bit tedious; our committee had been meeting since January, all went swell at last night’s benefit though, as MC of the night, and it having been my first time ever, I was totally nervous. We pulled it off by raising over 3,100 dollars for Partners in Health.

The evening was slated with back to back performances by local Lynn performers with cool names like Lois Lane and the Daily Planets, Historic Hysteria, Sadi, a poet, that goes by the name of “Big Brother,” Lynn’s St. Mary’s Choir, and guitarist/singer Julio.

Our keynote for the evening, Dr. Annekathryn “AK” Goodman, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and member of the International Surgical Response Team, elegantly and gently read from a piece she wrote of her time in Haiti. Dr. Goodman was one of the first responders. Such a selfless and kind person, wish you could have heard her. I told her she had a perfect radio voice. She laughed.

During our planning stages the committee worried that too many benefits were happening simultaneously, deciding to hold off until April, but with that we considered media repercussions. As with most catastrophes, media outlets tend to cover them unfailingly until the next big story. Until big stories like Lady GaGa’s new outfit, Tigers new mistress, Sandra Bullock getting a divorce, which certainly takes precedent in headlines over the current state of Haiti or international efforts. It’s quite sickening. Our challenge was getting people to still actively pursue helping Haiti despite the dip in media attention.

It’s been a while since my last blog post, and I think that’s reflective of how busy I’ve been in the past couple of months. In working to build a Civic Engagement Center at Salem State, I spent much of my fall semester hearing the needs of local community-based organizations, and am now starting to help make the connections between those organizations and the people at Salem State who might best be able to work with those identified collaboration opportunities. The hope is not one-time opportunities, but rather long term relationships between the institution and the community.

The other half of my role is to support student civic engagement efforts, which has been anything from planning a volunteer fair, to helping plan a Habitat for Humanity Alternative Spring Break to southern Georgia, to encouraging students to give urgently needed blood to Red Cross. Obviously Haitian relief efforts have been a focus of service efforts across the country over the past month, and Salem State is no exception. With over 150 students who identify as Haitian or Haitian American, the crisis has significantly impacted many on campus. Several student organizations have sponsored fund raisers which have raised over $5,000 for the Red Cross and other relief agencies. It has been incredible to see the outpouring of support on campus during this time of need.

- Jay Helmer

I attended one of my favorite events for this MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA year. I held an information table at the Dorchester FAMILY School Initiative (DFSI) Community Night. If you don’t know, DFSI is a partnership connecting three Boston public elementary schools (Holmes, Lee, and Fifield) to health and social service organizations (SCI and Dotwell among others).

I first learned about DFSI at an event run by the Office of Family and Student Engagement at Boston Public Schools. There I met the Family and Community Outreach Coordinator at Holmes, who connected me to staff at Lee and Fifield. In the fall, I had the privilege to meet parents and lead presentations about the Scholarship for Parents at parent council meetings, open houses, and other special nights for these schools.

At quite a few events, I kept running into the DFSI Community Liaison/AmeriCorps Member, who invited me to this community night. It was held at Lee Elementary and included families from all three schools in the initiative. There was dinner, raffles, performances by the students, and a speech from Mayor Menino! The purpose of the DFSI Community Night was not only to have fun but also to connect families to organizations in Boston. MATCH Charter, Boston After School and Beyond, and TechBoston were among the numerous organizations sharing resources with families.

I knew the event would be big, but it was much larger than I had anticipated. Even Mayor Menino mentioned how he was pleasantly surprised with the high turnout for the community night in his speech.

Thinking back about the night, I can’t be too surprised with the turnout. It’s just a testament to how effective partnerships like DFSI can be when community organizations and schools proactively collaborate to engage families.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a fan of the initiative. To learn more about DFSI, check out http://www.mydorchester.org/DFSI.

Peace,

Lindsay

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote, but it’s not for a lack of things to say. Wrapping up the Fall semester and then preparing for the Spring semester kept me very busy! As I discussed the areas of greatest need with community partners, talked to professors about the setup of their Community Based Learning courses, and helped students to choose the appropriate community projects for the semester, I couldn’t help looking back to August and September, when I first started as a VISTA at Holy Cross. I was performing the same tasks in September as I did in January, yet the process seemed entirely different the second time around. It was a great feeling to understand my responsibilities and even suggest measures for improvement, especially when I remembered feeling lost and confused during my first month as a VISTA. It’s truly remarkable how much you can learn in a mere few months.

At the end of January, our office hosted a visit from Peachy Myers, White House Liaison to the Corporation for National and Community Service and a former MACC VISTA. In an address to students, Ms. Myers shared her remarkable story, beginning with her service as a VISTA at UMass Boston, and ending with a job at the White House—and she’s only 32 years old! In ten years after graduating from Vanderbilt, Ms. Myers advocated for the homeless in San Francisco, aided Hurricane Katrina victims in Austin, played a key organizing role in Obama’s campaign, and started working toward a Master’s degree—though opportunities to serve all over the United States have delayed her from completing her degree so far. In a roundtable discussion, Ms. Myers urged students to give up on the idea of a five or ten year plan, and instead to consider life after graduation one year at a time. If she had set her mind to completing a degree or working in a specific field immediately after graduating, Ms. Myers would have missed out on the amazing opportunities she’s squeezed into a short ten year timeframe. A very recent graduate myself, I was inspired and relieved to hear about Peachy’s many successes and the roundabout path that has led her to each of them.

Yesterday, I was able to visit Kate Rafey, the VISTA at Stonehill College, whose work is very similar to my own. MACC encourages VISTAs to visit one another and trade ideas, but this was the first time I’ve taken advantage of such an opportunity. While Kate’s office has a very similar set up to my own, she’s taken different approaches to many of the same issues that I’ve come across (transportation, for instance, which seems to plague most service learning and community service offices). Chatting with Kate about the structure of her office, her process for placing students at community sites, and even the CBL courses that Stonehill offers has given me new ideas that I’d like to implement at Holy Cross. It seems that every college or university has an entirely different structure of offices, especially when it comes to community engagement, and I find it fascinating to discover where VISTAs sit at their institutions and what role they play in community engagement. It’s hard to believe that half of my VISTA term is over, but I’ll definitely take advantage of more VISTA visits over the next six months.

Recently, I sat down with Ms. Cate Kaluzny, Coordinator of Service-Learning, at North Shore Community College to write a story on NSCC service-learning. Ms. Kaluzny and I met early in my year of service and found ourselves coming to the conclusion that people often confuse service- learning with community service. We decided that a story would be a good idea to combat ignorance.

The story I wrote below will run in the NSCC student newspaper, The Pennon, in February 2010. After being approached by Ms. Dana Lyford, ex-contributor for this Blog and now my MACC *VISTA Leader about blogging for the month of December or January, I thought that this story would be relevant to the blogs purpose. It gives a good idea of what service-learning is, the importance of reciprocity and reflection; furthermore, the intrinsic and tangible benefits one attains when taking service-learning courses, which Ms. Kaluzny so elegantly and thoroughly explains. Okay, lastly the latter part of this story is relevant to most schools with a service-learning component. Enjoy!

NSCC’s service-learning program is going into its ninth year. The program started with a just handful of faculty members, has now grown quite a bit; with 50 faculty members on board and 400 students participating in service-learning activities in their communities every semester.

If student service-learning participation at NSCC were added up, the tally would be well over 20,000 hours of service. Last academic year alone students completed 5,000 hours of service.

With all that written, you may be asking: “Okay, what is service-learning?”

Service-Learning, for many, has been an experimental form of teaching and learning, because these classes are not taught entirely in the traditional sense. There are parts of the course where students are learning in their communities. Not within the walls of the classroom

The service being performed always has relevance to the course. Students are assessed or graded, through reflection, with a follow up paper on their experiences with service, but not always.

According to Cate Kaluzny, NSCC service-learning coordinator, “Students can reflect by creating artwork, participating in discussion groups, and using online methods.” Reflection is absolutely essential to service-learning. These courses give students a deeper understanding of the course their taking and its subject matter.

Take for instance, Professor Linda Bassett’s American Cuisine course provides, an excellent example of service-learning, nine of her culinary students volunteered at Inn Between/Inn Transition to prepare frozen meals for the community based organization’s 40 residents.

The staff at Between/Inn Transition were grateful for students’ help; likewise students were able to expand their knowledge of cooking American Cuisine.

Another example, Professor Kathy Yanchus’ Reading Two course travelled to Stewart School in Topsfield, Mass., last semester to read stories in front of 2^nd graders.

NSCC students engaged children in discussion and lead activities related to topics on the books they’d read. Students performed a great community service, while at the same time enhancing their reading skills.

Service-Learning not only compliments the classroom, but transcends it, offering students benefits outside of their academics. At the beginning of each semester Kaluzny visits classes to communicate potential benefits.

Such benefits from service include: building social capital, becoming civically engaged citizens, active-real life experience. Maybe even help a student find their passion in life.

“It doesn’t happen all the time, but sometimes students find their passion in working with a specific population or a specific setting,” said Kaluzny.

One thing is certain, volunteer work can definitely give direction to those uncertain as to what career path they want to take; moreover, service-learning helps narrow down choices.

It’s not a guarantee students will always find their passion when doing service, but it will definitely give them life experience and direction.

During Kaluzny’s classroom visits she encourages students to place volunteer and service-learning on resumes/transfer applications.

“This tells potential employers or admission people at a four year school that you have work experience, but it all tells them something about your character, that you are willing to give of your time, your skills, and your heart to help others,” says Kaluzny, further noting, volunteering gives job experience, such experience as: people, time management, and organizational skills.

With as many faculty members placing a service-learning component in their course these days, there’s a good chance most students will end up in one of those classes during their time on campus.

“When you do, I encourage you to embrace the opportunity and learn from it,” said Kaluzny.

Happy Holidays!

The past two weeks have finally got me into the holiday spirit.

Last week I sifted through holiday cards at Barnes & Noble for half an hour. I didn’t want to be picky, but I’m not someone who just grabs the first box of cards in sight. Plus it was hard to find a card with a pretty design and thoughtful message. After finally deciding on a set of cards, I dedicated a day and a half to writing personal cards to community supporters.

These supporters have been championing BU’s Scholarship for Parents anywhere from a few months to more than a year, and I owe them a huge THANK YOU. Although recruitment events can make life hectic, they have been rewarding. With these cards, I wanted to acknowledge people who’ve made the first half of my service year eventful. That’s why I didn’t mind writing messages to every supporter till my hand felt like it would fall off.

This is my last week of work for 2010, and there has been no shortage of bonding time with coworkers. The holiday party for my college was Tuesday, the holiday party for my office was Wednesday, and the holiday party for my university was Thursday. It reminded me of what I like about this work environment.

People at my university work hard but make time for relaxation. Many employees balance school with work, and that is no easy feat. I couldn’t complain about balancing one class with work because some employees balance two to three classes with work … and they manage their responsibilities well.

Our Parent Scholar JoAn Blake (pronounced “Joanne,” not “Joan”) does an excellent job at managing her time. This semester, she worked, took a few classes, spoke at outreach events for the Scholarship for Parents, AND of course manages parental responsibilities. She continually amazes people that meet her, and I also owe her a big THANK YOU for taking time to share her BU experience with the community.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!

Peace,

Lindsay