Answer

SOSC 300 Assignment

Personal Story

My placement was at the Baptist Housing, an affiliate of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches, Pacific. This organization does not discriminate and welcomes individuals from all religions to work and stay with them. My role within this placement was to work with other volunteers such as Maria Tomlinson and Linda Bartel. The two worked in different regions with Linda in Shannon Oaks while Maria was designated to work in the Marion village. The two villages are all part of the Baptist Housing community. As such, the two communities are concerned with the fulfillment of the mission of Baptist Housing. Although I did not understand the mission as well as the goals of the organization in the community, as I continued to interact with Maria and Linda, I got a clear picture of how the Baptist Housing community played a critical role in the lives of the community residents. Specifically, the help of Linda and Maria was significant as it aided in my understanding of the residents as well as the activities that I was to take part throughout my placement. The various features of Maria such as those of patience and understanding were crucial in enabling me easily get in touch with the community residents.

I was supposed to perform a variety of activities during my placement with the communities. One of my primary roles was to assist Maria in the action that she had initiated. Specifically, I helped in the arrangement of seats for what she termed as “Sit & Be Fit” exercise. This activity was a form of yoga that enabled individuals, especially kids from the community, to remain healthy and avoid various conditions through exercise and workouts. Notably, some of the residents had special needs and, therefore, I had to ensure that their seats leaned against the wall to avoid them falling and being injured. Apart from this activity, there was the “Friday Coffee,” which was an interactive session, held every Friday when as we shared coffee, the residents shared their stories and tribulations. This session was a very critical one as it aided in the knowing of each other. At first, I was surprised that Maria knew the names of almost all the residents. However, I came to understand that she managed that through interaction during the Friday Coffee sessions. Indeed, I heard many stories about the residents and shared mine with them hence leading to a free and open communication.

Apart from the activities mentioned above with Maria and the residents, I was involved with Linda in the preparation and design of bookmarks for children from the low-income families. Additionally, before I left after placement, I engaged in the making of Valentine cards with the residents to be given to individuals and their families during the Valentine’s Day. I was able to help Maria in the entrance of data and other studies on the populations in the community. Moreover, my central role in the collection and organization of clothes for sale taught me some business concepts. We used to move big boxes, which continued various food supplies from one building to the other. Such experiences in the Baptist Housing organization were fundamental in my engagement with the residents. From the experience of interacting with the residents, I gained various skills and lessons.

Learning Journey

Throughout my placement, I hoped to achieve a variety of competencies. One of those is the expertise required for community engagement and development. Specifically, I expected, at the end of my placement, to freely interact with the residents of the organization and share my views as well as earn their trust so that they could share their stories with me. Additionally, I wanted to refine my communication skills through the various sessions. Moreover, the skills of relationship building are some of the important concepts that I hoped to learn from the placement experience. I was not disappointed at the end because I learned various things. One of those was the plight of people in the communities especially the homeless and those in poverty. From my engagement, with the residents, they told me how they had to endure various hard conditions before they were admitted to Baptist Housing. Living in the streets for them was not simple because they were subjected to ridicule and mistreatment (Lenihan, 2012). Having no place for them to live served to enlighten me on the importance of helping the needy. This experience taught me that I am a very quick learner. Specifically, I did not take a long time to understand the operations of the organization.  The surprise in my learning was the speed at which I became attached to the populations and how we quickly created a mutual emotional connection.

In class, I had learned various concepts on volunteer work. These were related to how I should engage with the community members. Additionally, I had theoretical concepts of how to address the multidimensional problems affecting the communities such as climate change, poverty, hunger, homelessness, transportation, health, and human as well as non-human relationships. Through these concepts, I was taught to deploy various methodologies aimed at community empowerment. The ideas of engaging with the residents on activities of empowering them financially helped me in creating an enabling environment. Concerning economic empowerment, the theoretical concepts helped me to show the residents how they could use their artistic talents to become independent. Additionally, on the question of health, my theoretical knowledge helped me assisting the residents with some form of yoga, which made them healthy and prevented them from diseases. The ethical situation I encountered, however, was helping the drug abusers in using clean and disinfected syringes despite substance abuse being against my ethical and professional beliefs (Spurgeon et al., 2009). I solved this moral situation by being focused on advising the residents to stop drug abuse.

My proudest moment was when I helped the residents be independent economically through the sale of various clothing and preparation of bookmarks. Additionally, when I watched the residents perform some yoga, I was very impressed and proud that their health was not at risk. Some of the highlights during my placement were the increased interaction with the residents, which made me more experienced on their plight and stories. Additionally, the increased confidence after economic empowerment was a highlight during the placement. However, I at first encountered the challenge of winning the confidence and trust of the residents. Specifically, they were suspicious of me especially before I shared my story with them. However, I overcame this challenge through being free and open to them and sharing my life events with them. Next time, I would perform a thorough background study of an organization as well as the attitudes and beliefs of the people before I volunteer to work with an organization

Reading Reflections

The course readings offered me various Insights in my overall learning. The concept of arts-based community engagement served to enlighten me on the importance of using various arts in engaging the members of the community. For instance, the use of the talents of the residents is critical avenues for interacting with the community. According to Spurgeon et al. (2009), the use of arts such as digital stories and storytelling is crucial as it encourages “young people to speak about themselves.” Additionally, Cahill et al. (2007) posit that “Participatory research starts with the understanding that people – especially those who have experienced historic oppression – hold in-depth knowledge about their lives and experiences.” Such concepts were critical in my engagement with the residents as they guided my actions. The other important concept is that of social economy (Poirier and Kawano, 2008). Specifically, the insights from the course readings helped me know to encourage the residents to embrace a people-centered economy. In particular, according to Amyot, S. et al. (2010) the concept of a social economy should be based on the “values of participation, justice, and democracy” as opposed to capital accumulation and greed. Such concepts taught me that the achievement of the objectives of social work is not easy. Beyond the classroom, these ideas enabled me to apply them in the placement and practically understand their effects. Using them in my job ensured good relations with the residents through addressing their concerns of poverty and health and giving them confidence.

Various structural changes are required to enhance community engagement and development. Specifically, there is a need for global education on justice and democracy. According to Jennifer Chan‐Tiberghien (2004), “social justice is not possible without cognitive justice, without recognizing the presence of different forms of understanding, knowing, and explaining the world.” To make communities understand social justice, a need arises for them to be educated and engaged (Hsu, 2015). Governments should thereby put measures for community education and engagement on issues os social justice and participation. Additionally, there is need to engage the public on policies affecting then instead of the government imposing policies on people without their knowledge and approval. Amyot et al. (2010) admit that public policies should be based on “environmental sustainability, poverty reduction, social inclusion, employment creation, and as a mechanism to address the needs of marginalized populations.” Such changes should be made for the enhancement of community engagement as well as development.

From my community placement, I can offer several insights that can be used to enhance overall learning. Specifically, the difference between theory and practice should be made. For instance, some of the theoretical concepts were difficult to implement in practice considering the different beliefs and practices of people. Additionally, volunteers should expect various changes and should thereby be prepared when they encounter scenarios that they may not have anticipated. For instance, I did not foresee the challenge that I would face if I did not share my story with the residents. Moreover, the reading of concepts is not relevant but rather the understanding of how they can be implemented. Although theoretical knowledge is critical, volunteers should think about how they can apply their knowledge. The reality is different from the theory, and thereby preparation is essential before placement.