The importance of being involved

My name is Brendan Ehrlich and I am an Americorps member currently serving Midland Area Homes in the city of Midland. It has been roughly eight months since I began my service here and the experience so far has been rather eye-opening.  I grew up in Midland and I’ve been a resident for nineteen years. Before my experience with Americorps, I actually never liked this town. In fact, I had a strong urge to leave as soon as possible. However, this urge began to fade once I started serving almost eight months ago. Americorps really forced me to be involved with this community in a way that I had never been before. In a short amount of time, my service was showing me many new aspects of the town I had lived in my entire life. 

My first eye-opening moment of my service occurred at Midland County’s 2011 “Housing Connect” event. I was amazed by the number of people from the Midland area that had shown up for help. The lines of people stretched far outside and wrapped around the building. This made me realize how out of touch I was with the community. My previous notions of homelessness in Midland were inaccurate to say the least. As I watched the faces of people light up after receiving a winter coat or a small bag of toiletries I wondered why I never knew that this much help was needed. I soon realized that many residents in Midland were just as out of touch with the community as I was. This realization really motivated me to help spread awareness of these issues in Midland where ever I could. Following the “Housing Connect” event, I began to partake in numerous local events and fairs to help bring awareness to my agency and the issues of homelessness in Midland.

Shortly after I was introduced to some of my community’s toughest issues, I met many of the great people trying to tackle these issues. I started attending Midland county’s C.O.C. meetings on a monthly basis and listened in as different local agencies worked out plans in cooperation to better serve the community’s needs. Each agency would bring up the problems they were facing when serving clients and together, the C.O.C. would try to address those problems. I came to admire many people from those meetings and made connections that I never would have without Americorps.

 

My Americorps service has taught me so many things, but I think the most important lesson I’ve taken from this is that I have to be involved. I realized that my dislike for my community when I was younger was simply a result of me not trying. I will take this lesson with me for the rest of my life and use it to work with others to make my community a better place.

Just for a little background – my name is Melody Dickinson and I am an AmeriCorps member serving at the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

Recently Jeanine made a site visit here at the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness (MCAH). One of her questions stirred my mind, triggering me to reflect on my AmeriCorps service. Her question was simple and along the line of, “how has your AmeriCorps service impacted you?”  Although my AmeriCorps experience has had multiple impacts (building professionalism, stability, routine, etc.), the answer that came to my mind at the time was an increased level of volunteerism.

                I’ve always been interested in the idea of volunteering, but I can essentially count on one hand the number of times I have actually volunteered. I recognized volunteering as nice and ethically responsible, but it required time and commitment, something I seemed rarely inclined to give. I did have some volunteer experience that I was proud of, both one-time and long-term positions. Overall, however, I can admit that prior to AmeriCorps, my rate of volunteering was embarrassingly low. Nevertheless, since my term started, that rate has gone up and I can confidently attribute most of that change to my AmeriCorps service. Here’s how it happened.

                One major role as an AmeriCorps member serving at MCAH is to manage the Project Homeless Connect grant process for counties across the state. For those events occurring within a reasonable distance of my host site in Lansing, I make it a point to make an appearance. Being physically present at PHC events allows MCAH to not only act as a source of monetary support, but also to show their support through volunteering at the event. After the first couple PHC events, I grew familiar with the types of volunteer positions and now look forward to going and fulfilling one of those roles. I love being a part of the planning and the implementation. I find great joy in volunteering at PHC events, both as a representative of MCAH and AmeriCorps, and as a citizen looking to be a part of something positive.

Furthermore, as the Volunteer Coordinator, I’ve been doing reading and research on volunteerism and have realized that finding volunteers, especially for smaller non-profits, is not always an easy task. Keeping them is even harder. As a result of this realization, I have made an effort to find volunteer positions that I would be interested in, outside of my service time, and commit to them. I’ve been working a lot with refugees teaching ESL and helping students with their homework. I’ve also volunteered at various “one-time” service events, some relating to AmeriCorps and others not.

My point is not to toot my own horn. Rather, I hope to demonstrate just how AmeriCorps has influenced me to not only appreciate the idea of volunteering, but the act as well. I am confident that volunteering is going to play a key role in my future activities and I am really excited to see where it will take me.