Over the last ten months, I have been serving at NMCAA in Petoskey. I was born and raised in a small community that I thought I was very familiar with; however, there are more problems than I realized. There are individuals, children and families that are literally homeless or some living in un-safe housing.

We have a shelter but it is much smaller than most and people are very hesitant to stay there. I have always thought that if you were truly homeless you would stay in the shelter. I was wrong. Many individuals believe that there are people that are suffering more than they are. I have also noticed that many homeless veterans would rather live on the streets or in the woods than stay in the shelter.

During the last few months, I have seen many working poor families that are facing eviction; they cannot afford rent, utilities, and take care of their families. They work full time but only make minimum wage, which is barely enough to pay rent. There are some affordable housing and housing programs in the community but not enough.   Many clients are being turned down because of past evictions, credit history, or criminal history. Clients feel as though there is never a way out because of their past even if they have done their time. People end up living in housing that either is not affordable or unsafe; therefore, only temporarily fixing the problem.

During my service, I have learned a lot about the causes of homelessness and many of the challenges people face. I have also learned the importance of volunteering and giving back to my community.

Learning and Awareness

As I have completed over half my service there has been many questions, issues and answers that I have come upon. While I have walked, more like ran, through my service I have learned that homelessness effects much more than the person, or family, going through it, but an entire community.

Before I began my term, I had no clue the amount of struggling people there are in this area. It seems that everyday presents its new hills to climb. My phone is full of messages, my mailbox is full of empty hands, and my emails are full of questions. I begin with how to solve these issues. For it is my service to provide housing help to all that need it, whether their credit is shot, they have more felonies than 10 people I know together, and whether they have any money. These are the questions and issues that have become a part of my life, as I dig further into answers.

Being a part of AmeriCorps, Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, I’ve been taught to find answers. I have had to become more outgoing and persistent to find the necessary resources to help folks in crisis using good case management. That meant becoming more of a part of the community with the C.O.C., doing outreach at the shelters, and getting my hands dirty. That I need to influence people of the community, that everyday there are struggles beyond what we usually see; trying to build a connection of people to go to when I need an extra hand or a thought. My goal has been to make more eyes open to the reality of the homeless situation going on right now in my community.  

My hope is that by the end of my service that this small community will really understand the devastating toll homelessness takes on members of “us”. It is important to think further than ourselves, to think of everyone, and turn that awareness into action.

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.

When I was younger, I was certain that I was going to be a journalist. I'm not sure if it was my desire to stir the pot, or my desire to tell the untold stories- I wanted to expose it all. While their is virtue in digging to find the story, to share someone's experience, it was never enough. I didn't want to stop there. Deep down, I realized that what I wanted was to help people- to reach out my hand for theirs and walk alongside them. I wanted to be a friend, a mentor, a sounding board. Working on the 2008 campaign where we targeted vulnerable populations not only for voter registration, but for employment, I again found joy in learning the value of an individual's story. Working with at-risk youth at an after-school program, I learned the value of a family's story- of the relationships among brothers and sisters, aunts and nieces and nephews, foster parents and family friends.

Serving with AmeriCorps, I have learned the value of a community's story- one made up of vignettes about a single person struggling to find employment, about a family with children who lost their housing voucher, about a married couple cycling through episodes of homelessness. The story that the community often tells, however, is not complete. It is billed as folklore about "the homeless."

Since I began as an AmeriCorps member, one things has always hit my ear with a certain amount of dissonance. The vibration never sounded right- it always had a ring of judgment to it. "The Homeless." I've spent a good part of my personal life re-evaluated the use of labels- positive, negative and neutral- as a destructive practice. When I say a person is homeless... I'm defining them by their housing status. They are no longer a person who is experiencing homelessness... they ARE homeless. I find this odd. I don't define myself by my housing status. People don't pass me on the street and whisper to their friends, "hey, look at that person over there- she must be housed. Let's not feel obligated to give her anything, or feel the need to cross the street to avoid her." I am not defined by my housing status- so why are others?

To me, the people that we all serve are in need of housing. They are not defined by homelessness- they are simply experiencing it. I am not saying this to diminish the severity of the experience, or the need. I'm saying this to diminish the harshness of judgment placed upon someone in that situation. Everyone who walks through my office is a person first- and that's how I feel each and every one should be treated and referenced.

Much good has come of my tenure here at My Brother’s Keeper. The few colleagues that I have are delightful, and working alongside them has helped mitigate the stress of volunteering at a homeless shelter in such a city as Flint. It also helps, of course, that we’re all from here, which is the source of our unfeigned rapport.

I can honestly say that nothing particularly staggering, within the organization itself, has (as of yet) transpired—or rather, I should say, nothing that outright defied my expectations has yet happened. In fact, nothing uncomfortably surprising has happened during any of my involvement in any of the areas of the organization where one might think such things would happen: not working with the parolees of the transitional house, not with the clients of the emergency shelter, and especially not the regular volunteer quasi-staff of the lunch program (i.e. soup kitchen). The aforementioned have all been the consolation of my experience, especially a few of the residents of the transitional house. I’ve been placed in a privileged position to learn about issues with which I had been only vaguely acquainted, and would have remained so if it weren’t for my enlistment in the Americorps. And for that, I am immensely grateful.

However, the bane of my experience mostly derives from some of my involvement with some of the volunteers themselves. [Let me emphasize—some!]. I was agitated, e.g., by the gentleman who thundered his colossal diesel truck into our parking lot one Saturday—agitated, not by the truck itself, nor even by the obnoxiously emphatic bumper sticker on the rear window stating, peremptorily, “Extremely right-wing.” Rather, what agitated me were his statements, as he walked in the side entrance, carrying a cardboard bookshelf, about the city in which our shelter is located, namely, Flint. He said—roughly quoting here—“I can’t believe what these people have done with this place after so much has been given to them,” as he desperately sought an affirmation from his discernibly blushing companion. By “this place” (let’s not inquire into what he meant by “these people”) he meant not the shelter itself—though perhaps he was withholding his judgments in that regard—but the city. He then proceeded to set a stack of gun and rifle magazines on the shelf of the room his church had adopted. I promptly removed them. [Explanatory side note: with the assistance of the DMVA, we’ve been slowly and painstakingly developing a program for homeless veterans, schedule to commence imminently. This program involves an adopt-a-room option, much like the State’s “adopt-a-highway” program but with people and rooms,  where groups or individuals can…well…adopt a room and the person(s) residing therein.]

Well clearly, this gentleman failed to comprehend how little has in fact been done, and how little is being done, for the city of Flint. Alas, Flint is not Detroit, and helping Flint is not quite as glamorous as helping Detroit. We don’t, after all, get the benevolent hipster population Detroit gets; and let’s just say gentrification hasn’t become a problem yet, and probably won’t ever even be one. Either way, his statements (not all of which are being quoted) were inaccurate and, of course, personally offensive. It displayed certain of his assumptions quite perspicuously, which might have also been manifest in other of the aforementioned facts. 

Now, we here at MBK do not discriminate according to political or, even, social views—who knows what mine even are! Nor did we in this case. The volunteers must be treated with the same dignity, compassion and respect that we demand, uncompromisingly, be extended to the homeless population of our city and county. Though such treatment of volunteers most often comes with ease, occasionally one must summon the nobler parts of one’s soul in order to maintain such treatment towards certain others. But I’ve learned that such equitable and unconditional treatment of people requires a certain blindness to the particular defects of the individuals involved. This has assured me that others must have in the past exhibited such blindness toward my own particular defects. Nevertheless, I’ve learned, through the dismay of a few unfortunate encounters, that in this business one can be neither self-righteous, i.e. one cannot regard their own character or personality as without defect, nor intolerant, i.e. one cannot even regard—or rather, entertain, whether privately or publicly (blogs excluded!)—the defects of others. But as Nietzsche once wrote (since we’re quoting him already), “Many a peacock hides its feathers—and calls that its pride” [BGE 4.73a] So I must remain particularly wary that I’m not intolerant in my tolerance, that is, that I don’t act intolerantly toward some in the name of my “tolerance” for others. 

SOS Presents Global Youth Service Day

Hello Everyone! My name is Corey Saylor. I am the LeaderCorps Representative for the Michigan AmeriCorps Campaign to End Homelessness. This is my second year serving in AmeriCorps.My service year thus far has been awesome! I feel very fortunate to serve with this campaign and it's members. I am also very fortunate for the opportunity to network with so many other great AmeriCorps programs and members through my LeaderCorps service.  

Currently, I serve at the South Oakland Shelter (SOS), which houses 30 men, women, and children year round. I like to call SOS the AmeriCorps powerhouse because currently we have 3 State members and 3 VISTA members serving this year. When Global Youth Service Day rolled around this year our little AmeriCorps powerhouse came together and organized the event. 

This was SOS' first year hosting Global Youth Service Day. This event took place over a two day span. It was created, planned and implemented by myself, Katie, Chaun- Xing, and our 3 VISTA members, Michaele, Erin, and Ashley. We also partnered with Gleaner’s National LeaderCorps member, James for the events planning and implementation. In organizing this event we reached out to the community to bring awareness to homelessness, include those with disabilities in service learning, and to involve youth ages 5-25 to participate in service learning.

On April 20, 2012, two local schools came together, in partnership with SOS’ Global Youth Service Day, and hosted their very first overnight “Box City”, as a way to raise awareness for homelessness. Over 30 students, grades fifth through twelfth, participated in the “Box City”.  Those students whom participated, collected card board boxes and arranged them in a city type fashion in a local middle school’s gymnasium. They then slept in their created city that night to try to understand and experience what a homeless individual may experience living on the streets. Students, parents, school staff, and community members brought hygiene donations to the gymnasium throughout the night. These items were all donated to SOS to benefit the clients the shelter serves. I presented to these students about homelessness and how they can help the homeless population. The students were very responsive to the presentation and shocked that so many people in their community are affected by homelessness.

On April 21, 2012, SOS’ AmeriCorps team welcomed Tamika, 50 volunteers ranging in age from 5 – 65 years old (some with disabilities), 2 media outlets, and the Southfield City Mayor. After the welcome introductions, volunteers split into project groups. Each group was led by an AmeriCorps member and was assigned tasks to accomplish for the day. In an 8 hour service day the Global Youth Service Day volunteers remodeled SOS’ playroom, health room, and educational room. They also installed a bike rack, repainted the parking lot lines, planted a flower garden, and assembled 100 health kits to be distributed to SOS clients. The items for the health kits were collected and fully donated by Oakland University’s Nursing Program students and St. Joseph’s hospital.

What these volunteers accomplished the third weekend of April is truly amazing. Yes, the physical changes made to the SOS building turned out to be remarkable; however, it is the changes that you cannot see that made all the difference. Volunteers of all ages, backgrounds, races, and capabilities came together that weekend to make a difference. In doing so they learned about how to better serve their community, how to work together, and how to be the change. At the end of each day I was approached by several volunteers asking how they could do more and eager to know when the next volunteer event was.