http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/06/19896535-obesity-declining-among-low-income-preschoolers-in-some-states-cdc-reports?lite

Poverty Simulation #1 Ludington Michigan.

This week is only half way done and is already a long week. Monday my coworker and I drove up to Ludington Michigan, which from Kalamazoo is a two and a half hour drive. Between here and there isn't much in way of scenery and excitement so it was just a very long boring drive. The one really interesting thing that I did see on the drive up there was once we got closer to Ludington we saw a wind turbine field which I had never saw before. There had to be about 50 of them in the field. Once we got to our destination we checked into our hotel, which was very nice. We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express which was very lovely. It was clean and they give you free breakfast, and it was a good breakfast. After we checked in it was time to head to the upper elementary school to meet Brandi so that we could set up for the simulation that was to take place the next day.

The upper elementary school was a newly built building which was very lovely. The one downside of the building is that there isn't any air conditioning, which made the day very hot and very long. When I first walked into the building though the first thing I saw was an anti bullying pledge signed by all the staff and students. This was the first time I have every seen anything like that before anywhere. After my coworker and I set up our tables and such we got some Chinese food and headed to the lake! It was beautiful and smelled so lovely.

End of the first week

Today marked the end of the first week at my new job and I have to say that it is an amazing place to be working. This week has been so incredibly busy, but a good busy. Today I finished prepping for the poverty simulation that we're putting on in Ludington Michigan, which actually takes a lot of preparation because you have to make sure each simulation packet contains a specific array of materials, then you have to prep not only the "families" but also the "services". Then you have to prepare folders that contain information about what my organization is about and how poverty is effecting the community. So there is a lot of things that go into planning one of these simulations.

Not only did I have to prep for this simulation but also I did some outreach so that I can hopefully schedule some new simulations in the future. My personal goal is to schedule ten in county simulations and five out of county simulations. That would bring in approximately  $17,000 for the organization, which would be a great start. Plus I'm trying to reach out in the community because I want to build the relationships with other organizations as well as companies and people in the community which can help me in the future. I obviously didn't get into non profit for the money, but I do need to think about my future as well, so the more connections that I make it more likely that I will be able to join another non profit if our proposals don't get passed by the board. I'm taking this career very seriously and I don't want to slow down at all because I want to be recognized for my accomplishments and I want to make some sort of dent in my community that can make a difference.

Another thing that make my day quite nice today was that I researched my health insurance that is given to me by the Americorps VISTA and was happy to find out that my doctor takes my insurance. This is quite amazing because of the fact that I didn't really want to find a new doctor since I have a great relationship with my doctor and he understands me. Also further researching it I learned that my insurance covers preventative care as well as doctor visits for being sick. The only downside is that it doesn't cover pre-existing  conditions, which means it won't cover mental health treatment. That's a bummer, but hopefully the other form of insurance that I applied for will come through. A definite bonus about my insurance is that I won't have to pay for my prescriptions at all, and that in itself is a good thing.

As we can see, there are pros and cons to being in the VISTAS but so far Im not even really feeling like I'm a part of the VISTAS, I feel more like I'm a part of my NGO and that makes me feel amazing. I can't wait to see what happens in week two.

First things First

 Today was my first meeting with our soon to be interm director Barb and to talk about the future of the PRI. The reason we talked about the future of our organization is because the board of trustees is trying to figure out what the future direction of PRI will be, whether or not we will stay an independent entity or merge with another organization and run along side them as collaborative organizations sharing the same vision and mission. I suggested that instead of hiring a new director for the organization we should take those funds and put them into the organization as a foundation for our general operations funds. Another thing that the PRI wants to do is do away with using VISTA members and instead have an actual staff so we can develop an actual structural core. So basically I suggested that instead of hiring a new director, to hire the four of us as that core structure.  Jason, who is our Accountant guy is writing up a proposal for the board to lay out our plan for being a self directed team. Not only would this be good for the organization and it's development but it would be good for us personally because it would give us a job, and a higher salary than what VISTA is giving to us.

  Also today I began working on the poverty simulation packets, which basically are mock budgets for families who have to work with the types of road blocks that families in poverty have to face in every day life. Afterwards I went through my files and found some potential partners that could do some poverty simulations. Tomorrow I have about ten people who I will be calling or emailing to hopefully get some simulations scheduled. My goal is to schedule ten in county simulations and 5-10 out of county simulations. I think that will bring in a reasonable profit and show the board that I am serious about my job. 

Kalamazoo Poverty Reduction Initiative: First Day

So today was my first official day working for the non profit organization in my community, and I have to say that it was a pretty decent day considering that it was mostly reading policies and previous VISTA member's notes on their procedures.

There is a woman that I share my office with is quite nice, she's the communications leader and has been doing the event coordinator job while the position was vacant. She is pleasant to talk with and was very helpful in explaining everything that I needed to know in order to do my best. The one thing that I did find out today was that the director of the PRI had put in his resignation and this would be his last week. The Vice chair Barb will be our interm director part time until they find someone else. I'm quite disappointed in the fact that I won't get to work with Patrick while being there because he seems like he would be a really good leader to be work with. He's very passionate about his job and the cause, I mean he travels from Flint every Monday to work and then drives home every Friday. That takes dedication in my book.

There was one thing that I was disappointed in today and that was finding out that I won't actually be doing direct service with the community, but instead just building capacity within the community and educating people who are already employed about poverty. I understand that getting them to be more sensitive to the plight of others is a good idea, but I think that the poverty simulations that they do now don't really capture what it's really like to be in poverty. I agree that it gets people thinking about it, but I think that it's different when you actually experience it, so what I want to do is change how we do the poverty simulations, or add a different perspective to them. Currently the poverty simulations are more like team building exercises, but what I want to do is get the people more integrated within the homeless community. So I want to do a day long simulation where a small group around 10-15 people where they have to begin at 8:30 with talking to the homeless people who are standing outside of the mission or at Martin Luther King memorial park to find out their story and possibly accompany individuals in their every day life. They around dinner, the group would join the homeless people for dinner to experience the quality of food that the homeless have to eat. Many individuals don't know what it's like to eat a three day old doughnut or what it's like to eat stale bread. I believe that when people who wouldn't normally give an actual thought to these condition would benefit from these experiences because it actually opens their mind about what it is like to be homeless. I'm going to add this aspect to the poverty simulations, I think it will be so much more effective and it will give the organization a more wide spread name.

As I stated before, I'm a little sad that I won't be doing direct service in my community, but I'm still hopeful that I will be making a change in my community.  

Taking a step for change

What is poverty? What is the cause of poverty?

 Everyday we look at the face of poverty without even realizing it. Next to us in the shopping check out lane, behind us on the train, the woman playing with her child in the park or the elderly couple living next to you. These people could all be living in poverty and you wouldn't know. I have seen the different faces of poverty and they are many. You're probably wondering as to how I could know these things, how could I, a girl from Kalamazoo relate to these people? When I was 16 I was living with my grandmother in a one bedroom apartment. At one point we had my aunt, her boyfriend and their child living with us as well. My grandmother worked, but she didn't seem to like to pay bills. So as time went on my aunt and her family moved into a two bedroom apartment, but soon after my grandmother and I lost our one bedroom apartment so we moved in with my aunt ( seems to have a cycle established, right?)To make a long story shorter, eventually due to my aunts and grandmothers inability to pay their bills my grandmother and I ended up living at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, which is the homeless shelter located in downtown Kalamazoo. The building is divided into a women's building and a men's building. Women who have children are able to have their own room, but women who don't have children share a dorm type room that has bunk beds. Your personal items are not protected in those rooms. At 8am you must leave the building and aren't allowed back in until 6pm when dinner is served in the cafeteria. Dinner was usually old bread and whatever was donated to the shelter at that time. After dinner the genders went to their designated buildings and then prayer circle in the main lobby of the buildings. Obviously since this is a faith based shelter it would have prayer circles and have sermon. Women would talk about how they had ended up where they were and they would talk about the challenges that they have experienced. Many of these women were women of color when I was there, it was so weird being in that place because all these women hadn't had an education or any sort of emotional support. Then we were there, my grandmother who was a well educated woman working in insurance claims and me being of higher intelligence than most of the people there just seemed to be out of place. I have never have known anything other than lower middle class to poverty class growing up, but I have always held myself higher from my socioeconomic status. My grandmother and I were living at the homeless shelter for about three months until my grandmother found an apartment downtown. Another one bedroom, but very large. The landlord had given us a bed ( which we later learned was infested with fleas)as well as a pet cat named Myra. The only things we had in our apartment was the bags that we had from the shelter, a sofa and the flea mattress. For awhile things went well, but within a few months the same cycle happened. My grandmother for some reason didn't pay her rent, and then my aunt lost her apartment and moved in with her baby. Things went further downhill from there to the point to where we were homeless yet again until my grandmother's friend Mary allowed us to live with her. So my grandmother and I shared a single bedroom for about four months until my grandmother found yet another apartment which was a studio apartment in the basement of someone's house. After awhile which went well, my aunt found herself living with us yet again. So we had four people living in a studio apartment and I will say that it was very very uncomfortable. The stress that comes along with having no privacy, no say is what happens and no choices or way out. At 16/17 you really have nothing you can do because you don't know where to even start. Though even though this apartment was alright, it of course didn't last very long. The cycle happened and we found ourselves homeless yet again. Luckily at this point, I had a friend in high school whose mother allowed me to live with them. So throughout my senior year I lived couch to couch with friends. Then as I graduated high school I finally got my own apartment and decided to end the cycle (I pay my rent first and foremost). So, what does going through that experience show? what credentials does it give me? It doesn't give me anything tangible actually. What it gives me is insight as to how to help and relate to people who have gone through experiences like these.


 So you're probably wondering why I've shared one of my stories with you, complete strangers, I've shared this story with you because I want to make change. I want to help people who are living in these conditions learn new skills to not only improve their chances of gaining employment, but also skills to help them lead a more self sustainable life. As of August 16,2013 I decided to take my oath and join the Americorps. to help my country help itself. I will be working with the Kalamazoo poverty reduction initiative that focuses on economic development and education. I'll be helping coordinating events to bring awareness and services to the impoverished population. I have a couple ideas that I would like to try and get off the ground, not only do I want to share the developments of these projects, but joining the Americorps. comes with several limitations including terrible wages, but also forbidden to have any other outside employment. Our health insurance is not very good either, considering that it only covers emergencies instead of preventative care (which is less expensive). I do have to say that there are people who have so much less, so I shouldn't be complaining too much, but I will occasionally. Anyways, I have several ideas and I hope that they will be successful. I encourage you to join me on this journey and give me your suggestions, criticisms, or support.