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Jul. 3rd, 2005 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
electricpaladinSo, time for a real journal-style entry.
I am working at the National Federation of Temple Youth's Bay Area Mitzvah Corps (heareafter referred to as BAM Corps). The daily schedule is simple: I wake at the ungodly hour of 7:15 or so, because that's when the kids come into my room to get the breakfast food. While I shower and dress, the kids set up for breakfast and lunch. Then I amble out of my room and make myself a breakfast and pack myself a lunch.
After that, the day becomes a little hectic. Sometimes I go with the kids to their work site, which is interesting because I got assigned the train wreck of a worksite, and the kids there know it. Sometimes I hang around the dorm and coordinate, the word "coordinator" being a part of my title. Sometimes, at least in theory, I run around San Francisco on public transportation running errands, though thankfully that hasn't had to happen just yet.
I had better explain exactly what BAM Corps is. What I have here are fourteen kids between the ages of fifteen and eighteen who have decided to spend their summer volunteering in a variety (3, including the train wreck) of places across San Francisco. Evenings and weekends, they have fun San Francisco programs and Jewish programing, weekdays they work like the little dogs they are.
Of the three worksites, only one of them is really successful in all ways. That one is The Jewish Home for the Aged, where the kids work making scrap-books and generally helping out with the old folks. The second, slightly less optimal site is the Salvation Army. The name (and Catholic background) are not the only problem. Mor importantly, it's in a really sketchy neighborhood, so the staffperson assigned to that site has got to accompany the kids there and back every day, which cuts down on her productivity.
Then there's my site, Hayward Parks and Recreation. First of all, it's not even in San Francisco. The kids have an hour and fifteen minute commute, on Muni (basically subway that sometimes shares the street with cars) and Bart (think Long Island Railroad or any other suburb-urb train). Second of all, it isn't any fun. While the other kids come back with stories about playing with inner city kids and exciting delivering of meals through sketchy neighborhoods, with only overworked and underappreciate volunteers for protection, my kids have... cutting down thorny blueberry vines. And showing off the scratches delivered by said vines, which is, for them, less fun than it would be for me. Thirdly, despite my best efforts, most of the kids (with the exception of one boy who is a little shy and likes the idea of helping out in a way that doesn't demand that he interact with strangers) don't view their work as terribly meaningful. I understand how having a nice parking lot garden full of well-manicured ivy and no ugly, thorny vines is nice for a park, especially a park in a fairly lousy neighborhood, but the good they are achieving is removed from the work they are doing, and I can see how frustrating it is.
Apart from that problem - which we are solving for the next rotation - the program is running well. That, and my continuing struggles with disorganization, are really the only problems we face. For once, I am dealing with almost universally good kids. I mean, there are the good-natured troublemakers, the spoiled girls, the two girls from conservative synagogues who don't really fit in, the offbeat girl who annoys everyone, the nerdy fantasy fan girl who often doesn't interact with anyone but me, and so on, but these are good kids. By and large, they're doing this because they want to make the world a better place. Unlike most of my previous counselor jobs, these kids make it easy to feel like I know what I'm doing. At the counselor part anyway...
I should have known this might happen when I took a job with "coordinator" in the title. There's a lot of internet reasearching, a lot of phone-calling and arranging. A lot of setting goals and fulfilling them. You know; the things I'm bad at. The honest fact, though, is that the only way to solve an abiding problem is to challenge it. And so, I may not do the best job in the world, but I'll do a better job than the last time I had to handle something like this, and the next time I'll do even better, and so on.
That's it for tonight, I think. I'll be back later with some further reflections on my job and what I've seen so far. And, at some point - I won't make any promises when - I will present my life's story.
What can I say? It's a trend I've liked and wanted to contribute to for a long while. New journal, new courage... it's time to put some of my past into words.
I am working at the National Federation of Temple Youth's Bay Area Mitzvah Corps (heareafter referred to as BAM Corps). The daily schedule is simple: I wake at the ungodly hour of 7:15 or so, because that's when the kids come into my room to get the breakfast food. While I shower and dress, the kids set up for breakfast and lunch. Then I amble out of my room and make myself a breakfast and pack myself a lunch.
After that, the day becomes a little hectic. Sometimes I go with the kids to their work site, which is interesting because I got assigned the train wreck of a worksite, and the kids there know it. Sometimes I hang around the dorm and coordinate, the word "coordinator" being a part of my title. Sometimes, at least in theory, I run around San Francisco on public transportation running errands, though thankfully that hasn't had to happen just yet.
I had better explain exactly what BAM Corps is. What I have here are fourteen kids between the ages of fifteen and eighteen who have decided to spend their summer volunteering in a variety (3, including the train wreck) of places across San Francisco. Evenings and weekends, they have fun San Francisco programs and Jewish programing, weekdays they work like the little dogs they are.
Of the three worksites, only one of them is really successful in all ways. That one is The Jewish Home for the Aged, where the kids work making scrap-books and generally helping out with the old folks. The second, slightly less optimal site is the Salvation Army. The name (and Catholic background) are not the only problem. Mor importantly, it's in a really sketchy neighborhood, so the staffperson assigned to that site has got to accompany the kids there and back every day, which cuts down on her productivity.
Then there's my site, Hayward Parks and Recreation. First of all, it's not even in San Francisco. The kids have an hour and fifteen minute commute, on Muni (basically subway that sometimes shares the street with cars) and Bart (think Long Island Railroad or any other suburb-urb train). Second of all, it isn't any fun. While the other kids come back with stories about playing with inner city kids and exciting delivering of meals through sketchy neighborhoods, with only overworked and underappreciate volunteers for protection, my kids have... cutting down thorny blueberry vines. And showing off the scratches delivered by said vines, which is, for them, less fun than it would be for me. Thirdly, despite my best efforts, most of the kids (with the exception of one boy who is a little shy and likes the idea of helping out in a way that doesn't demand that he interact with strangers) don't view their work as terribly meaningful. I understand how having a nice parking lot garden full of well-manicured ivy and no ugly, thorny vines is nice for a park, especially a park in a fairly lousy neighborhood, but the good they are achieving is removed from the work they are doing, and I can see how frustrating it is.
Apart from that problem - which we are solving for the next rotation - the program is running well. That, and my continuing struggles with disorganization, are really the only problems we face. For once, I am dealing with almost universally good kids. I mean, there are the good-natured troublemakers, the spoiled girls, the two girls from conservative synagogues who don't really fit in, the offbeat girl who annoys everyone, the nerdy fantasy fan girl who often doesn't interact with anyone but me, and so on, but these are good kids. By and large, they're doing this because they want to make the world a better place. Unlike most of my previous counselor jobs, these kids make it easy to feel like I know what I'm doing. At the counselor part anyway...
I should have known this might happen when I took a job with "coordinator" in the title. There's a lot of internet reasearching, a lot of phone-calling and arranging. A lot of setting goals and fulfilling them. You know; the things I'm bad at. The honest fact, though, is that the only way to solve an abiding problem is to challenge it. And so, I may not do the best job in the world, but I'll do a better job than the last time I had to handle something like this, and the next time I'll do even better, and so on.
That's it for tonight, I think. I'll be back later with some further reflections on my job and what I've seen so far. And, at some point - I won't make any promises when - I will present my life's story.
What can I say? It's a trend I've liked and wanted to contribute to for a long while. New journal, new courage... it's time to put some of my past into words.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 08:59 am (UTC)I actually know where Hayward is. So do you. It's rather close - one town over - from the place - I hesitate to call it a town - where we got bad directions from a bum. Do you know what you'll do if BART goes on strike next wednesday? It's a ghastly thought.
No matter how charitable, yardwork still feels like yardwork. I honestly can't blame the kids for disliking it.
I look forward to hearing more, O electric one.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 11:48 am (UTC)Also, the work you're doing sounds wonderful. I'm glad you're working with kids. :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 03:20 pm (UTC)but anyway, yardwork suck no matter how you look at it, but i bet there having ten times more fun than they would normaly because there with you
"nerdy fantasy fan girl who often doesn't interact with anyone but me"
well, it seems everywhere you go you meet someone familier....
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 03:29 pm (UTC)