Hi all! I have set up this page so you can keep track of me throughout my year in Chicago with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. At this point I am excited and nervous. I have just two days left until my orientation begins! In this entry I'll describe what I think I am getting into. It will be interesting to see how the actual year compares! I don't know yet how often I will be able to update the page, but hopefully I will know that, and many other things, within the next few months.
All of my United Methodist friends and family (and there are a lot of them) wonder how I ended up in the LUTERAN Volunteer Corps. I am about as Methodist as they come, but fortunately LVC didn't seem to mind too much. This May I graduated. While I was very glad to be done with this round of school, it also posed the dilema of "now what". I looked around at several possibilities including a "real" job, attending seminary (the UM flavor of course), and missions/volunteering.
I felt most called to volunteer/mission work. I looked at the PeaceCorps, but despite my earlier experiences as an exchange student I wasn't too sure that I was being called to work overseas. I checked out Americorps, and found out that you basically found a volunteer place and then became an Americorps volunteer. None of the positions I saw really seemed to fit what I wanted to do. Being a good UM, I looked at the website for the US2 and other UM mission programs, but found to my dismay that I had missed the deadlines for application and also heard rumors of budgets limiting the number of missionaries being funded. Then my chaplain, Kim told me about LVC.
I immediately was intrigued. LVC is a service program, but they are also mor than a service program. According to the literature (I haven't had real experience yet of course) there are three components to an LVC year. One is social justice, my volunteer work. Another is simplicity and a third is community. It just seemed like the place for me, and they didn't seem to mind that I was a UM. I figured, if they could handle Wesley, I could handle Luther. After all both were trying to make the church more relevant in the lives of people and bring them into closer relation with God.
My social justice portion will be carried out at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. I found the Foundation on a list with lots of other potential agencies. While I have never worked with AIDS/HIV before, after I read the description of the volunteer they needed, I was convinced that I had what they needed. It felt to me like their job description was a description of the training I had at UMD and in my previous work. The feeling of a good fit was enhanced even further by the phone interview I had with my future supervisor and the foundation's AmeriCORPS coordinator. When I hung up the phone I wanted to work for them. Here was an agency that knew what they were doing, had values and philosophies that reflected my own, and an agency that could really benefit from my skills. I can't wait to start! Here is the job description (with the caveat given by my interviewers that non-profit job descriptions rarely describe the true scope of a position):"Assist program staff in conducting needs assessment and evaluation of case management, housing and direct services for people living with HIV/AIDS, including accompanying program staff on site visits, administering provider and consumer surveys, and review of service utilization. Maintain and update housing resource listings, including eligibility requirements and available units. Support the provision of technical assistance to corrections initiative-funded agencies and case managers. Research and disseminate information on best practice models in HIV prevention and testing, housing, and innovative case management services. With program staff, participate in SPC committee work including assisting with forums and special events, preparing written materials, and disseminating information..."
The simplicity component of the LVC program struck a chord with me. For me this component takes the year from just being a year of making the world better by changing the lives of others, but also calls on me to make it better by changing my own life. On my own I have tried to practice a "mild" version of material simplicity, trying not to buy and accumulate mass amounts of junk with which to clutter up my home. This year will be an even greater challenge. Not only will I have to learn even more ways to reduce my material consumption, I will also have to consider how I use my time. Gone are the days of wasting too many precious hours playing online computer games, and perhaps even harder gone are the days of booking my life with every possible activity I can possibly get my hands on. AHHHHHH!
Community ought to be an interesting one. I have never really lived with people other than family and this year I will be living with four other volunteers in a 3 bedroom flat. I keep joking I am going to have to develop a snoring habit so that I end up the odd woman out :) We are commiting to cooking, cleaning, and meeting together. I am excited because I know it is a lot easier to accomplish goals (like living simply) when you have friends supporting you - esp when they are also going through it. They will also know the frustration of encountering pain which my sheltered suburban life kept hidden away in the "innercity" where we rarely went. At the same time I am scared. What if I don't get along well with my community??? We are also living in our larger community. Mine is in north west Chicago (I think) pretty close to Lake Michigan (Mom and Mary Lu did you hear me moan?) and about 8 miles from where I will be working. I have scoped out the location of the library, the transit station, bike lanes and of course, the UM churches. I've never been to Chicago, so again this ought to be interesting.
Pray for me as the journey begins! Its a lot of new stuff for me, so I will need God's help!
Bye, Keri
I made it to Chicago after a week of orientation and a LONG train ride. Fortunately there were a bunch of other volunteers on the train so it wasn't too bad. As you can see, I have found the library! The next few days promise to be filled with small discoveries of my new neighborhood. I have 10 minutes left on my Internet time to tell you all about it, so don't know if I can get it all in!
Orientation was a full week of information including worship times, workshops, panelists, lectures, walks, and lots of discussions. Tuesday we were given a history of LVC. It was really cool realizing that this year there are 97 volunteers going across the country all because one church had a vision and desire to start LVC. It is still officially a ministry of Luther Place Memorial Church, although they are currently exploring becoming a separate organization. Wednesday we had panelists who work for Social Justice share their experiences with us and we took a walking tour of neighborhoods in DC as part of our Anti-racism training. Thursday we had three workshops. My favorite was the urban safety one where we learned to spot potential violence before it even happens so that we have a better chance of diffusing it. Very empowering! The other two were about consensus (the method of communication we use to lice in community) and simplicity where we had a great discussion with our new housemates. Friday we explored further the problem of racism and also learned to recognize privelege, and how to responsibly deal with it. We also had a game-show style presentation on the basics of non profis and got to enjoy the talents of fellow volunteers in the open mic night. Saturday we joined the march in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the March on DC. It was amazing to see the number and variety of organizations that came together to strive for social justice. Sunday we were commisioned in a beautiful ceremony at Luther Place.
Oops my time is up! I'll try to get on again soon...
Ok, back at the computer with a whole 40 minutes to spend today!!!
During orientation week I was really alternating back and forth between "what in the world have I gotten myself into" and "can we start yet?". I learned some stuff, but mostly I just wanted to get here and try it out, to see if this is really what I am supposed to be doing. Now I am here in Chicago. I really love the city.
Our neighborhood (Albany Park) is great. We are less than a block from a major commercial street that has a constant flow of people. We are not far from the brown line of the train(which is also close to where I will work - I think). People are also very friendly. We have a great landlord, and our next door neighbor also seems like a neat guy (his dog Rocky is a little intimidating although he says that the littler one, Dino, is the real terror). Today I tried to take my bike down to a shop to get it put together. I had no clue what I was doing on the bus or how to use the bike rack. I was also carrying a bunch of bike pieces. Everyone around me on the bus was friendly even though I had probably delayed their journey trying to get it figured out. They even struck up a conversation with me! I am so glad to be back in the chatty midwest :) Ends up the shop is closed on Wednesdays, so I had to do the whole routine over again. Ended up having the same bus driver and he was really cool about it.
The Carter Heyward house is great. We joke we have the "pent house" because we are on the top floor of the building. Our building is a little taller than the surrounding buildings so we even have a view! There is a beautiful front room that is like a windowed porch, lots of sun and usually a great breeze. That is definately my favorite room in the house. I share a room with Leah, a very fun gal from Iowa. She can, and does, make friends with anyone who walks by. Great for me since I am a little shy with meeting random new people. She also keeps us in good conversation in the house. Our room doesn't get much breeze but is a lot more spacious than I was expecting. The guys are just down the hall, and our last gal is tucked around the corner behind the kitchen. The kitchen is a good size but has hardly any counter space, so I am going to have to find a creative way to make bread!
We took a ride on the brown train to open a joint house bank account (we decided that it would be easiest if we all put our rent, utility, and food money in a joint account and put our personal stipend in our own accounts). I think we scared the lady at the bank. We were probably the first account she had made for five people! You should have seen us trying to fit 5 names (esp when a couple of us had long names) into three lines of 25 characters each. I think we finally found a way to make it fit. On the way home we decided to take the long way around home so we could see "the loop" (downtown Chicago). It was really neat. The train snakes through the buildings, sometimes so close I had to hold my breath! I think I found the station I will have to get off at tomorrow for my first day on the job.
Speaking of tomorrow, I am really excited! I can't wait to get started! All of us in the house are just wishing we could start now. Hopefully we will like our jobs as much as we think we will!
I'll try to get on and tell you all about my first few days of work in the next few days...
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