Here's a story from my month in that aforementioned service organization that I have disgust for. Note: this relates directly to the specific program I was working with and not the Corps itself.
One day my site supervisor had asked me to come along to a meeting that had been arranged at a company. A program had been previously set up to match employees with local youngsters to mentor. I don't know what the point of me tagging along was at that point as I had never attended a volunteer recruitment meeting and had no clue as to what I was supposed to talk about. I expressed that before we left the office when my supervisor asked "What do you want to contribute?"
Anyway, we proceeded to the meeting, and on the way there I became suspicious as to why were were taking two seperate vehicles. He had said something about having another meeting directly afterwards. I was annoyed because I knew I wasn't going to be compensated any time soon (and never will be) for the mileage, but oh well. Another tax write-off, right?
When I arrived, I grabbed myself a slice of pizza (it was a lunch meeting), and organized myself to take notes or have some information on hand. Over the course of the next half-hour to fourty-five mintues, I listened to my supervisor sell the benefits of working with the kids and field questions from the employees. At times, he would be asked direct questions which he either answered erroneously or would beat around the bush at. I sat there thinking, "Wow, he's a trained social worker, and he doesn't know anything about black kids at ALL. Poor kids, either!" He could spew statistics, but the "common sense" just wasn't there.
I couldn't believe how flippantly he answered some of those questions about whether the kids were at any risk for gang involvement. Of COURSE they are! Why do you think people join gangs in the first place? I can assure you that it has a helluva lot to do with not having money.
I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to step on any toes (being new, and all). Keeping my raised eyebrows in check was a little more difficult.
Right after the last question was fielded, he gathered up his stuff and zipped out of there so fast that you could see a trail of smoke kicking up from his heels.
Two or three of the female employees start bring out some donated items that the company had collected for local students. Basically, it was enough stuff to fill the cargo area of my Jeep and the backseat. While these strangers, noting my pregnancy, had enough common sense to say "Don't carry that!" to me as we were loading the car, my site supervisor had taken off with no worry for my personal welfare whatsoever.
First of all, heavy lifting of materials that are NOT going to be used in the office fall directly under the category of "direct service." VISTA participants are NOT allowed to participate in direct service. They can go out and fundraise for hammers and nails to build houses, but they can't actually be out swinging the hammer.
Second of all, what the hell did he expect me to do with all that stuff in my car? I had already told him that I already had my guest bedroom filled with items that had been collected, and found the situation ridiculous. There was no way I was going to be able to park my Jeep in front of the building and make fifteen or twenty trips up the elevator with all that stuff. There was nobody to help me, and the idea of "recruiting" a volunteer for the purpose of doing that was asinine, especially when that stuff had to be distributed very quickly.
As soon as I could get a live voice on the phone at a school, I, with the assistance of a janitor and a 7th-grader, unloaded all the supplies out my car. Actually, I just stood there holding the doors open while they carried stuff. I quit immediately after that.
The stuff that was in the bedroom? I slowly, one bag at a time, carried all that crap back out to my car, and on the Wednesday after I quit, drove it out to another school where the security guard helped me unload it.
That may seem like one isolated incident of abandonment, but that actually happened at other times as well. I was actually on track to have to do one particuarly stressful heavy lifting task EVERY WEEK.
There has to be a balance and recognition of what AmeriCorps particiants can and can't do. Just like you wouldn't leave a new hire with less than one month at your company to give an important presentation to your board of directors (because you have to go babysit your kids), you also wouldn't devalue the fact that if your organization is lucky enough to get a VISTA with a college degree and solid work experience, you should USE THEM ACCORDINGLY.
To be frank, I knew I wasn't going to last at that agency when I was driving the guy back to the office from a high school one day. I made a right turn into the slow lane on a four-lane street. He clutched at the bracing handles in the Jeep and squealed like a little mouse, shouting "LOOK OUT!" I calmly finished my turn, and the car in the far left lane continued past. The car had always been in that lane and I saw that it would be safe to make my turn. I could never get out of my head that he freaked out like a little girl, and to this day I feel so sorry for him.
Posted by Tiffany at October 11, 2006 12:52 PM | TrackBack