When we were first asked to find things problems in the world and choose one to address, it took me awhile to come up with a solution. When I see poverty, it is so much easier to just hand out money or write a check and have someone else do the work. But I’ve realized that this only circles around the problem instead of addressing it. I’ve always enjoyed the quote about a starving man. It said, “Give a starving man a fish and he’ll for a night. Teach a starving man to fish and he’ll eat for life.” When I thought of this quote and trying to find an appropriate project it made me realize that the only way to really conquer poverty is to teach people how to stay out or get out of poverty. By teaching them survival skills they won’t become dependent on the good will of others to feed them. In our technology driven country I thought it would be best to teach the current technology that so many people who are seeking technology driven jobs would have a chance to complete with the growing competition of today’s job market. When it came to narrowing down the age group I wanted to target that was a little more complicated. At first I thought teens to early adults, but so many of them at least know of the technology and able to seek help and classes if the need them. The seniors age 55 plus are the group that struggle the most with keeping up with current technology trends. As the number of seniors increases so does the poverty rate. The cost of living and lack of technological knowledge continues to hold them back. America has progressed to where it is now because of the people who’ve come before us. Some of these people have fought wars for us and are now living on the streets unable to provide for themselves because they are not able to keep up with the intense speed of our society. It was after this reflection that I decided to help teach seniors what they needed to know about technology and if they needed a job to help them in their search.
For my project, I have been volunteering at The American Society on Aging in Baton Rouge and Aging and Adult services in San Bernardino Country, CA. Before coming to New Orleans for school, I was already working as a volunteer at Aging and Adult Services. As a volunteer there I was more involved with the fundraising events that providing money for different activities. The programs included things like home placement, special assistance, financial and legal advisors, fun activities and events at the senior centers and job training and placement. The last event I planned took place in November. It was a complete success. We sold over 200 tickets for our 3rd annual casino night. I helped organize and orchestrate the event. I took care of the tickets and invitations, finding appropriate dealers, a caterer and a live band instead of a D.J. At the beginning of the event sponsors, local business members and local residents bought play money to win real money that they in turn donated back to the program. For every $100 of play money they spent $10 of their own money. There was also a bar serving mixed drinks and champagne for a small fee. That night we rose over $25,000 for new equipment in the job training facility.
As for my work with The American Society on Aging, that was more slowly moving but equally fulfilling. When I decided that teaching seniors would be my project for this semester I did a lot of research on possible volunteer sites. When I found The American Society on Aging in Baton Rouge, I called and got some information about the different programs they sponsored and how I could become an active volunteer in their technology/ job training courses that they offer. Many of their projects were similar to that of The Aging and Adult Services in California, so I knew working with them would be challenging but fulfilling work. After I went in for a brief interview, I was asked to take a 6 week training course that would re-teach me the information that I would need to know for the class. This was the slowest moving class I have ever experienced. It was taught at the level that we would be teaching it to the seniors, so it was a very slow paced step by step learning environment. In addition to re-learning the equipment, we were also taught how to address questions, how to conduct the classroom and skills for diffusing frustration in a student. After the six week program I shadow taught with an instructor who had been doing it for over 6 years. The week after that, I was given the opportunity to teach on my own. It was such a rewarding experience. The first time I stood up there I had butterflies in my stomach but eventually worked through it and began enjoying myself. They were very attentive and eager to learn but also very slow to learn. It took a long time for them to really get in the swing of things but eventually by my 4th time they were improving. Lately I haven’t been going but I took another trip up there last week and help a few elderly women who were preparing to apply for office assistant jobs. We worked on resumes the whole time. They had the most trouble with the formatting and figuring out what to put where on the template. But in the end we were all satisfied with the results.
When people mention the crucifixion of Jesus they have the misconception of thinking that it was because he was claiming to be the son of God, but although he did make this claim he was not sentenced to death for this allegation. What was considered to be blasphemy was not a condemnable crime under Roman law. When blasphemy failed to get him sentenced, the high priests also charged him with trying to cause a rebellion. This accusation held justified evidence when Jews from all over had begun to fill Jerusalem singing praises about the king of the Jews who was destined to free them from the Romans. It was for this that Jesus was lawfully crucified.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Week 13: Accomplishments/pics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.