Jenny's
AmeriCorps/Nonprofit Blog
Monday, May 10, 2004

Another week begins.  So far this morning I have emailed two new volunteers and unsuccessfully attempted to find contact information for the group of volunteers that are supposed to be coming out this Wednesday.  However, I haven't spoken with the contact person since we orginally scheduled the date back in March, and she gave me only a mailing address, not a phone number or e-ddress.  I have tried numerous times to locate her, all to no avail.  I don't know if she ever got the letter I sent her, either.  In it I requested that she contact me at her earliest convienence (three months ago!), but I've never heard from her.  Moral of the story: always make sure you have a phone number!  Sheesh.

So the fact of the matter is that I don't know if there is a group coming out, and now we pay John to be on site on Wednesdays to work with the volunteers that I lined up before realizing that I shouldn't have done that.  Great.  I'm a super volunteer coordinator.

On the bright side of things, I had a great time on Martha's Vineyard and met up with AmeriCorps from western Massachusetts and from Boston.  I love staying at hostels because there is always such an eclectic bunch of people.

But back to what's really important: I don't know what to do about Wednesday and my disappeared corporate group of volunteers.  And what if I set up a donated lunch?  What a waste!  Not the food, really, because we can always just give it to a shelter, but a waste of a restaurant contact and lunch for our volunteers.

Ho hum.
Here it is: the continuing saga of my experience as an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer in Worcester, Massachusetts.  I would love to hear from any other AmeriCorps volunteers or nonprofit employees--especially volunteer coordinators.  Email me--tell me what you think, or share your own experiences.  Together we'll survive this crazy world of NGOs!
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Tuesday, May 11, 2004

The case of the missing coporate volunteers remains unsolved, and I have chosen what seems to be my only course of action: wait and see.  If they show up, well then I'll take my hard-earned stipend and by them all pizza.  If not, so much the better.

Meanwhile, I have been so much more productive today--Tim too, incidentally.  I spent the majority of my day working on the Hoche-Scofield Founation grant proposal and application (due date: Thursday).  I just need Wayne to look it over and help with the budget stuff.  I also dropped off the thank you certificates to the restaurants who donated food.  Not at all a chore today, thanks to the beautiful weather.  The trees have their leaves now, which means I nolonger have a view of Institute Pond and the swans, but that is probably all for the best!

Yesterday after work--I know, technically I don't "work," but damn it, I sure work hard! (well, usually, anyway)--I attempted to reassemble my bike, but in the end I took it to Barney's Bike Shop down the street to have them do it.  I don't need the wheels flying off my bike while riding down Park Avenue.

This evening I play with the kids at the shelter (hooray!).  They're such fun, but currently the older kids are really stuck on the idea of a piņata, and Beth and I can't seem to dissuade them.  Speaking of kids, I need to make a birthday card--it's one of their birthdays today.  I can't believe I almost forgot.  She would have been crushed!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

OK, the Hoche-Scofield Foundation proposal is set to deliver tomorrow.  I hope this one gets approved.  I'm still irked about the mini-grant.  They made it sound like it was so simple.  Whatever.

Whew, it's warm out.  Wish my bike was ready, although tonight is the Ghetto Fab-u-lous Potluck.  Very exciting.  Should be a good time.  We've got a freezer stocked with freezie pops!  Yum, yum.

Anyone taking bets about the probablity of the coporate group showing up onsite hopefully collect now.  They were, of course, a no-show.  Although one of the volunteers who did show up said he thought he heard that they were being sold off or something.  If that's true, I suppose they have better things to do than notify organizations of their status.

As the weather gets nicer it gets harder and harder for me to sit here in this office!  I want to be out roofing!  Saturday I will be up on the roof!  Can't wait.  But I better find some sun screen.
Thursday, May 13, 2004

The grant application is in.  I only had to resubmit the application form twice.  Good thing the very nice woman taking in the applications double-checked everything.  Turns out that somehow our application was missing the last four questions.  Oops.  But I am now quite familiar with the location of Front St. in Worcester, and where I can easily find a parking meter (25 cents for 15 minutes--what a ripoff!)  And I bought myself a bunch of roses for $2.00 from an old man sitting out on the sidewalk on Main Street.  Because I'm worth it.  If noone's going to offer to buy me flowers, well, then I'll just do it myself!

Other than finishing up the foundation application, I haven't done much else today.  Oh, I did finally pick up the Habitat pictures from CVS and scanned some of my favorites onto the computer.  The house is coming along quite well.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I don't know what I'll do with myself.  Everything is set for Saturday, and Tim's not even here to keep me on track.  But I'm sure something will come up.
Friday, May 14, 2005

Well, it's not a good day here at GWHFH.  I was just informed that one of our families has chosen to take themselves out of the program.  They won't be moving in to the duplex when it's finished in a few months.  It's tough for us--it feels like such a failure.  But I don't know what else we could do.  There are guidelines we have to follow; we can't help it if people who won't help themselves.  That is really the whole point of Habitat: helping families who are trying to help themselves but just need an extra boost.  The funny thing about this family is that the mother had already worked so hard to get to this point: getting herself career counseling and finding a full time job.  There's definitly something going on behind the scenes.  I wish her all the best.

Poverty is a cycle with no exit.  It's hard.  It's tough--especially if you are getting government help, or living in government housing.  The more money you earn, the more they have you pay, which seems fair until you think about it.  If a single mother starts earning more, then she could start saving to get out of public housing and on her own.  But if she is then required to pay more, she still can't put anything aside to save, and she's still stuck.  It's no wonder some people think there's a conspiracy to keep the poor, poor.

People against welfare or government assistance will argue that "those people" are lazy, that they like to live off the system.  That is such slander, such a falsehood.  I met a young single mother and she--without any comment or prompting from me--felt she had to spell out that she's not like that.  That she felt it necessary to defend herself is so unfortunate.  You have to be so strong to be poor.  How is anyone supposed to keep up the constant struggle to survive--let alone get ahead--if s/he also has to fight a societal perception that s/he is no-good?

We need to develope a spirit of good will and charity--and I'm not just talking money.