As the semester began and I got hold of the syllabus for our State and Local Government class, part of me was excited on taking part of a Community Outreach Project. Ever since childhood my parents made sure that both their daughters became proactive and well rounded individuals. They encouraged us to become leaders while becoming proactive with various community organizations.They believed that engaging with our community would benefit us, developing a strong work ethic, communication skills, empathy, and courage to become independent women in a patriarchal society.
From the moment our community outreach project was assigned, there has been unprecedented obstacles that seem to continue to occur. In the time that I have invested between personal research on Life Moves, and creating spread sheets on Google Drive to help organize fellow students there alone I have invested minimum of 10 hours. Other task that I took on were to establish a line of communication between Maple Street Shelter and our group. Even after sending two emails to our main contact Jessie, with no reply delivered we did not lose faith on completing our mission. Since communication is key when working in a group, I made sure that the group of students assigned, and the professor were always maintained in the loop of our progress, here alone invested roughly 5 hours. If it was not for the assistance of Jade Rosa who has shared the workload we probably would have fallen behind even more. Jade reached out to Bon Appetit, only to find out that the company has a contract with an organization to which they donate their leftovers. Jade attempted to reach out to a former employer, who is also part of the Life Moves organization, only to return empty handed and also receive no reply back to her email. I can only speak on my behalf, desperation is beginning to take over, I am afraid that the lack of organization from outside parties, and the resistance from other members of the group to take on any real responsibility is making this project difficult to manage. One other member of the group has gone rogue, and has decided to sign up with Cake4Kids. After doing some lite research of 2 hours, the objective of organization is to bake birthday cakes at home for foster children ages 5-18. I was unable to get more information pertaining to its relevance to state and local government, and will have to get approval first before following suit with encouraging others to sign up.
From personal reasons I was hesitant to volunteer with Life Moves also formally known as Innvision Shelter Network. I was willing to put my personal grief aside and make the best out of the situation. Unfortunately, do to lack of professionalism from their part I am discouraged from ever partaking or donating to this organization. Regarding the time left to complete the assignment and reach the appropriate milestones that is expected by the due date on the syllabus it is becoming clear that I may need to join another group, only this may be difficult since some of these project require physical labor which I am unable to do, because of medical reasons. The alternative option would be to independently find a volunteer project, only problem that may arise is meeting the deadlines for the upcoming assignments. My best hope is to speak with the professor and pray for the best result. After investing an estimated 17 hours, only to show up empty handed, leaves me fearful for my grade and scared that I may not be able to graduate in May.
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