Ashley’s
Paper | Maribeth’s Paper | Aliza’s Paper | Brandi’s
Paper | Lia’s Paper
Ashley’s Paper
El Centro
is an after school program center for children in grades first through eighth.
These children are drawn from the
Gettysburg School
District, mostly representing a low socio-economic
background. El Centro is able to
provide services free of charge to these young, growing minds and their families
through grants, private funding and volunteers. This non-profit model is an
excellent center which caters to the needs of these children and their families
as well. Miss Axa
Jones, the center’s executive director, stresses the importance
of these volunteers in the continuing success of El
Centro. If numbers allow, each child is paired with a
tutor, mostly Gettysburg
College student volunteers, who
regularly come to the center at least once a week. Here I have spent each
Wednesday afternoon the last few months with a fifth grade girl named Dejonia. I have assisted her with her homework, read, drawn,
played games with her and even once helped her to prepare a meal.
El
Centro’s main principles stress learning, building
character, addressing special individual needs, but also developing a strong
relationship with the children’s families. By staying close with each family,
the center often has the opportunity to help with family issues as well. For
example one afternoon a woman, whose children attend the center, came in with
her sick baby. She primarily spoke Spanish, which posed as a problem to her sick
baby and its bottle of medication with directions written in English. One of the
staff members, fluent in Spanish, quickly translated the medication’s directions
and the problem was solved. In addition, El
Centro holds monthly dinners for the parents all to
attend and to learn about different issues affecting their children, their needs
or the community.
El Centro
runs is obviously not your typical after school homework center. Children
participate in play time, helping prepare snacks for their peers, group
learning, and computer skills training just to name a few. When the children
first arrive from school snack is served, followed by the scattering of each
child to their specific assigned homework room. Homework time takes place from
3:30 to 4:15. Often times by 4:00 the kids are itching to have play time, but the staff
members in charge of each homework room always enforce the rule that they work
until 4:15, often by suggesting they
read a book. Dejonia and I have repeatedly ended our
work time reading a small book to each other, alternating every two pages. Play
time is usually the best part of the afternoon at El
Centro. During the warmer days we would go outside and
play soccer, dodge ball, basketball or jump rope. Now that the weather has
gotten a little colder we sometimes play games on the computer like “Where in
the world is Carmen San Diego” or the “Oregon Trail”, a
personal favorite of mine. Other times we’ll just draw or play a board game with
some of the other kids. After play time, around 5:00, a larger dinner-like snack is prepared by the kids.
The children have their own scheduled days about once a month to help prepare
this snack. One particular day Dejonia and I had to
help prepare snack. I taught her the right way to cut oranges into eighths.
Initially she was pretty bitter with having to prepare the food, but I think I
helped make the process fun for her, and by the en d of it we were laughing.
There are
two age-specific divisions of the after school program at
El Centro. The first through fourth
graders work at El Centro daily on their homework while taking part in other
special programs designed to teach them how to work with others. Their daily
agenda consists of anything from arts and crafts, to gardening, to putting on
plays and other performances. The older age group, fifth through eighth graders,
take part in the “Across Ages” program. This program is designed to allow the
older children still to take part in the regular daily agenda at
El Centro but also to gain further
mentoring from an older volunteer, learn about issues affecting their age group
and instill values of community service. Once a week each child goes along with
a few of their peers to a local home for the elderly where they volunteer their
time and give back to a community that gives them so much. These children also
partake in a weekly prevention training program about the dangers of drugs and
alcohol.
El
Centro is a perfect example of an extremely successful
non-profit organization built with the intentions of helping the needy families
of the community. The center is run entirely on private funding and grants, and
is almost completely operated by volunteers devoted to the service of helping
children. As we have discussed in class, due to low government funding the most
successfully run outreach services are often privately funded.
A service
like El Centro is so important
because children truly are the future. For a family experiencing homelessness in
Gettysburg, for reasons such as low
wages or the inability to read English, a place like El
Centro can increase their child’s odds of having a much
sounder future. By helping to educate a child, and often by assisting them in
increasing their grasp of the English language, that child has a greater chance
of succeeding in school, perhaps going on to higher education and finding a
better job than their parents held. The mentoring program also allows a child,
who may lack responsible role models in their life, the company of a positive
influence.
El
Centro’s services are not only geared toward helping
children, but are also designed to assist their families, who are often
abandoned by other services. Due to the high migrant working population in
Adams
County, there are many strictly
Spanish- speaking families. In Kozol’s case of Laura
in Rachel and her Children,
her inability to speak English was one of the main reasons she was in such a
poverty stricken state at the Martinique Hotel. This language barrier made it
impossible for her to fill out the proper forms for her welfare benefits. She
didn’t even know that her son was gravely ill with lead poisoning because she
couldn’t read the medical report sent to her in English, a story strikingly
familiar to the scene I described of the woman and her baby’s medication
directions written in English.
El
Centro’s mission, “To enrich the lives of children and
their families in the Borough of Gettysburg by providing educational,
recreational and multi-cultural activities”,
has succeeded since its founding in 1997. The Center’s ability to provide
services that might otherwise be unavailable to many low income families in this
area has served hundreds of individuals in a way few other organizations can.
Not only does El Centro provide an
after school haven for children who might be considered “at risk”, it maintains
a strong relationship with their families for further assistance and help.
Without El Centro there would be
about thirty children in the
Gettysburg School
District without a place to go after school or some
sort of positive enforcement to in their lives. Their parents also see the
center as place where of help and acceptance in a community that often excludes
them.
Top
Maribeth’s
Paper
When a
pebble is thrown into a lake, it creates an endless stream of ripples that grows
larger and larger as the small force expands. Sometimes a person walks away before he
or she has the chance to see the ripples, or perhaps the ripples grow so immense
that they cover an area too expansive for the eye’s view. Community service can be that small
pebble creating a ripple effect of benevolence. One can throw a rock into a pond and
never see the ripples it creates, never see how his or her action has
spread. Likewise, one can touch a
life and never truly see the full effects.
This semester, I have had the opportunity to work at
El Centro (The Center) as a tutor
for an eight-year-old girl named Sarah*.
Over the course of the term, I have left El
Centro on top of the world, consumed by grief and
frustration, and dazed with a plethora of emotions in between. The experience has taught me patience
and determination, and I now know that trust is a bond that only time can
create. My relationship with Sarah
has blossomed each week as she gradually tells me more about her day at school,
her favorite hobbies, and her family situation. Today, I look forward to attending
El Centro and having the chance to
see the girl who is now like a little sister to me. However, I will never forget the first
time I walked into the facility.
El Centro is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to serving
today’s youth by providing after-school and summer care for children who are
poverty stricken, at risk of becoming homeless, or are already homeless. It aims to provide not only a shelter
but a stable family setting for children that may not have a good home life and
acts as a free after-school program helping those families who cannot afford
childcare. Perched on South
Washington Street,
El Centro appears to be nothing more
than a weathered, old house. I was
somewhat apprehensive about going to El Centro and wondered how one house could
possibly hold over 30 elementary and middle school students without mass havoc
erupting. I soon learned the
answer. When I entered the
facility, the humdrum of voices, shuffle of feet, and sounds of laughter filled
the air. I was introduced to Sarah,
and we instantly began homework.
Structure is the key to a smooth day at El
Centro, and I quickly discovered that the children are on
a very strict schedule. They must
complete their homework and work on other academically-oriented activities until
4:15 pm each day. Then, they are allowed to participate in
a sport or craft, thus teaching the children good study skills. However, the facility does not just
teach excellent homework practices, but it strives to edify necessary life
skills as well. The children are
expected to help prepare the nightly meal, which is served to everyone at
El Centro, learn simple computer
programs, participate in gardening programs, and attend a local nursing home to
talk with elderly people.
Additionally, older students are expected to participate in community
service on a weekly basis. The
detailed schedule at El Centro
reminded me of the routines present in most of the homeless shelters we have
either read about or visited. In
N-Street
Village, the staff encouraged
residents to attend meals at assigned times, participate in crafts and other
stress-relieving tasks, and do their share to keep the facility tidy. Everything is carefully planned, and
there is little, if any, leeway. An
organized routine seems not only to be a good coping mechanism but can pave the
way back into society. Often, for
one reason or another, homeless people lack the life skills necessary to survive
in society. They may struggle with
time management, multi-tasking, social skills, or a combination of ills. El
Centro acts as early action program that strives to teach
necessary life skills before the children fall into the downward spiral that
could lead to homelessness.
I attend El Centro every
Wednesday and Thursday for approximately an hour and a half each day. During this time, I help Sarah with her
homework, teach her to read, play sports and games with her, and participate in
crafts. Each week, I pay particular
attention to Sarah’s behavior.
Sarah is the youngest of four children, and sometimes her cries for
attention can be overwhelming.
Nonetheless, she is spunky, full of life, and has a laugh that resonates
throughout a room. However, for a
second grader, her reading and math skills are underdeveloped. Over the course of the semester, I have
observed much improvement in her reading and calculations, but she is still
behind the “average” second grade level.
I have noticed that it is not her lack of intelligence that holds Sarah
back but rather her inability to focus.
She always seems distracted by something, bothered by outside
thoughts. To a passerby, she may
seem like your ordinary eight-year-old girl. However, upon closer examination, one
may discover that Sarah is troubled about something. In Rossi and Kozol’s books, these authors state that homeless children
often have trouble concentrating in school. How could a child possibly concentrate
when he or she is worried about where he or she will be resting at night? In addition, she has severe mood swings
and often goes from happy to sad in a matter of minutes. I know she enjoys my visits, but
sometimes she seems not to want to express emotions. One week I treated her to dinner. We had a nice time, her grinning all the
while, but when we arrived back at El
Centro and someone asked her if she had a good time, she
simply shrugged her shoulders. This
behavior left me temporarily frustrated, but my feelings quickly dissolved when
I reminded myself that she does not have the Brady bunch life to which her smile
and laughter sometimes allude.
Additionally, Sarah has insulted my size on countless occasions which
leads me to believe that some influence at home has given her the idea that it
is okay to affront other people or that being thin is an important feature to
possess. I frequently questioned
why Sarah’s behavior was so peculiar, until one day the answer was
revealed.
In Rachel and Her Children,
author Jonathan Kozol introduces what he believes
is the new type of homeless – homeless families. He declares that the lack of affordable
housing combined with low-paying jobs has resulted in thousands of families
being unable to find an affordable place to live. Often, families are forced to illegally
double-up in houses in order to avoid going to a homeless shelter. In class, we have evaluated that in
Adams County the living wage is over $10, while the minimum wage is a mere $5.15
an hour. Sadly, even
Gettysburg
College pays its employees very
little. We had just had our
discussion about affordable housing and our area, when I discovered the reasons
why Sarah is at El Centro. I was coloring pictures with Sarah and
her sister when they asked me to draw a sketch of my house. I, having little artistic ability, began
to draw a square with the cliché windows and rectangular door and proceeded to
explain where everyone in my family slept.
Then, Sarah’s sister began drawing their house. As she drew, she began to explain that
her family lives with her grandmother and uncle’s family. Her dad recently disappeared; they think
he is in Texas, but they did not
say if or when he was returning to
Gettysburg. Sarah and her three siblings
do not have beds but sleep nestled on the living room floor in sleeping bags,
and their mother spends her nights on the couch. Even more ironic, their mother is an
employee of Gettysburg
College. She is most likely a diligent worker who
does her job to the best of her ability.
Yet, that is simply not enough to survive. After my short conversation with the
girls, it was as though everything we had discussed suddenly had a face. It was no longer just homeless families
doubling-up to survive; instead, it was
my Sarah who was forced to face these conditions.
Additionally, I have realized that elementary schools place a lot of
emphasis on the holiday season; it seems as though the school system forgets
that not everyone is excited about the holidays, not everyone is overwhelmed
with feelings of joy and excitement.
Before Thanksgiving, Sarah and I completed a whole packet of worksheets
about the traditions associated with feasting. Yet, Sarah’s Thanksgiving was not the
picture-perfect description to which the worksheets alluded. She and her family spent their holiday
at the local soup kitchen eating with others too poor to afford their own
supper. Directly after
Thanksgiving, the Christmas packets began rolling in. One day, Sarah was asked to draw the
items she was dreaming of receiving for Christmas. She began sketching a vast array of junk
food- pizza, ice cream, cake, and more- in her dream bubble. I asked her if she wanted anything else,
and she replied that she may not be receiving any real Christmas presents this
year. I was heartbroken. How does a second grader return to
school with a bubble not full of her true Christmas dreams?
For Sarah’s family and thousands of other families around the
United States,
holidays bring nothing more than sadness and a yearning for a more privileged
lifestyle. Studies have been
conducted that illustrate that people who are alone or poverty-stricken
experience larger amounts of depression during the holiday season. I worry about children’s mental health
when they are constantly reminded of the artificial meaning of Christmas through
the media, the environment, and school.
If being poor does not make one stand out enough, let us add the
commercial aspects of the holidays as a reminder of his or her poverty.
I fear what will happen to Sarah if the
government finds out where her family is living. What would a mother with four children
do without a roof to protect her children?
I have now realized the true purpose of El
Centro. The
facility is not simply providing a nice setting but a mechanism to help get
families back on their feet, give them hope while providing safety and security
for their children. The one-on-one
tutoring program allows the children to have that one special person who comes
to El Centro strictly to visit them,
but the monthly family dinner parties prove that the facility is not just
thinking of the children but attempting to solidify the family bonds as
well. There is no bond more special
than that of a family. When one
feels alone, family is the place they turn. So often, homeless people do not have
the family support they need, and El
Centro should be an icon for the
United States on
how to not only temporarily solve the issue of homelessness but to create
long-lasting, promising solutions.
Not only does the service help the children in need, but it has enriched
my life as well. I now have a
greater appreciation for my family, my educational opportunities, and my
possessions, and I now realize that I have learned just as much from Sarah as
she has learned from me.
El Centro’s motto is
“Enriching the lives of our youth,” and I feel that it does just that, creates a
place of love and compassion for all.
Top
Lia’s Paper
The virtues of tolerance and open-mindedness have been
thrust upon me since early childhood, yet these are not qualities which seem to
be particularly prevalent in society today. It is odd that a society formed with
such a strong emphasis on the equality of all people and the devotion to
righteousness should fail to acknowledge the discrimination and injustices in
which we have submersed ourselves.
Studying homelessness and volunteering at El
Centro, as different as these two experiences appear to
be, are parallel in many aspects.
While developing a greater understanding of society, however, I have also
come to realize the high degree of obscurity and complexity inherent to this
system. Because things are not
always what they seem and there is always more than one perspective from which
to examine a situation, possessing an open-mind becomes crucial for greater
understanding. To the dozens of
children who are involved in the program, El
Centro is simply an after school center where they are
urged by pestering adults to do their homework, able to play with friends, and
guaranteed a satisfying dinner. To
me, however, El Centro represents
much more; it is symbolic of all the organizations which strive to serve the
less fortunate, whether they operate for children within a simple building by
the efforts of a few dedicated volunteers or for hundreds of homeless on a
national level by an extensive system of employees and funding.
El
Centro, also known as The Center, is a non-profit
community center created in 1997 which aims to serve youth in the
Gettysburg community by providing
educational after school and summer programs on a daily basis. The program was specifically created to
serve children from low-income families who find existing programs and agencies
to be inadequate. The participants,
all residents of the Gettysburg
school district, represent a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and age groups.
The mission of
El Centro is “To enrich the lives of
children and their families in the Borough of Gettysburg by providing
educational, recreational, and multi-cultural activities.” Another primary goal of the
El Centro program is to maintain a
strong, nurturing relationship with each child and his or her family, beginning
as early as first grade and continuing until high school graduation. In order to build and create the bond
between The Center and its families, monthly parent dinners are served at which
guest speakers address topics that “relate to the needs, concerns, and
importance of children, family, and the community.” These core values guide the functioning
of the El Centro program.
Approximately thirty students between
first and fourth grade are enrolled in the daily after-school and summer
elementary programs at El Centro,
where they are able to participate in activities such as tutoring, mentoring,
arts and crafts, computer skills, cooking, gardening, social skills, and
drama. In order to enhance these
learning experiences on a personal level, children work with volunteers from the
community, providing the students with one-on-one tutoring and guidance. These volunteers are primarily students
from Gettysburg
College. Fifth through eighth graders participate
in the “Across Ages” program at El Centro, which is “an intergenerational
approach to mentoring where caring adults (age 55+) and youths spend time
together participating in recreational, educational, and social activities.”
Also, these students complete
community service at a nearby nursing home and receive regular instruction
concerning the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse. In order for these programs to operate
smoothly, adequate funding and a system of patient and energetic volunteers are
essential.
The Center is able to offer its programs
to all families free of charge due to generous contributions from the local
community, which come in the form of both volunteers and donations. Grants and private funding have also
helped El Centro to operate
successfully. The duties of a
volunteer are relatively simple, yet the implementation of these
responsibilities is often unpredictable and challenging. As a volunteer/tutor at
El Centro, I am paired with a fourth
grade female of African-American ethnicity, whom I shall refer to as
“Tina.” Each Tuesday, I walk to
El Centro, which is located on
South Washington Street a
few blocks away from the college campus.
I walk to a nearby elementary school with one or two other volunteers,
where we gather the sizeable group of children upon their dismissal and herd
them to The Center. There,
they are given a snack and then report to assigned homework rooms, each room
supervised by a staff member or volunteer.
My role is to make sure that Tina completes her homework, offering
assistance if it is needed. In
addition to this, I am there simply for encouragement and to serve as a positive
role model, both for her and for the other students with whom I interact. As a volunteer, I have also been asked
to help with games and crafts.
Having a volunteer position at El
Centro demonstrates the combination of physical and
emotional investments required when one is involved in public service.
Often, people
are categorized according to their economic status or living conditions and
treated without consideration of individual needs. For example, the “homeless” are often
addressed as a homogenous portion of society, when in reality there are many
types of people who lose their homes, and each has specific needs. The condition which unites them is the
lack of a permanent home. I have
found a similar situation at El
Centro. An
initial glimpse reveals a group of difficult kids, nearly all from Hispanic or
African-American descent, from low-income families. Upon repeated interaction with the kids,
however, the individuality of each becomes apparent. Each child has its own unique
characteristics, talents, and needs.
In my eyes, Tina was initially just the student whom I tutored. After several weeks of getting to know
her better, however, I started to see Tina as more of a person. Interacting with the students has
humanized them as a group, just as learning about the homeless has helped
identify them as real humans with real emotions. When a person is viewed as an equal, or
as a fellow human at the very least, he becomes easier to understand and seems
somehow more deserving of respect and attention. In all situations, listening to others
and viewing them as individuals makes it easier to understand and help them.
Another way in
which my experiences at El Centro
relate to class material is the examination of children in an at-risk
situation. Granted, most of these
children have homes and at least one working parent, yet their low-income status
puts them at risk for homelessness or other serious problems in the future. Also, I was told by a staff member that
the road on which many of them live is frequented by drug dealers. Comparing my placid and secure childhood
to that of these students heightens my awareness of a world to which I was
previously oblivious. I am
continually amazed and often amused at some of the things the students say, as
well as the boisterous way they act.
Many of the kids are extraordinarily strong-willed, independent, and
tough. Fights, both verbal and
physical, are not uncommon, and many of the children offer little in the way of
respect toward the volunteers and staff.
It seems unavoidable that children will be products of their environment,
whether homeless or wealthy. It is
not difficult to be concerned for the future of many of these children, yet the
benefit to being young is that their lives are still full of hope and
opportunity. Hopefully, programs
such as El Centro will be valuable
in the lives of these children, instilling in them values and social skills they
may not have developed otherwise.
Even though I
did not relate well to most of the children at El
Centro initially, I have realized that many of the traits
they exhibit are common to children everywhere. They all are seeking acceptance,
comfort, and assurance. They all
have insecurities, vulnerabilities, fears, and needs. When this is acknowledged, the contrasts
between children from a wealthy family and those at El
Centro and are greatly reduced. Contrast is a pervading theme in our
society, particularly when referring to the division between individuals of the
upper and lower classes of society.
Being a part of a college community such as
Gettysburg makes this more apparent,
for the atmosphere on campus is quite different than that in the town
itself. When college students
volunteer at The Center, however, these differences hardly matter. It is much the same with the
homeless. In a city such as
Washington, this distinction
between affluent and deprived is alarmingly apparent and often ironic. These disparities are reduced when the
two groups are brought together, such as in a public service situation. When this occurs, it will be seen that
the rich and the poor are not so different after all—humanity creates a bond
among us all that can be strained, but is not broken.
Through my experiences with the children
at El Centro and the homeless, I
have arrived at the conclusion that humanity is like a long rope. One end represents the very rich, the
opposite end represents the extremely poor, and the remaining rope represents
any status in between. A rope is a
continuum, for differences between groups are gradual rather than sharply
distinguished. It is not common to
stay at one point along the rope at all times, for conditions in this world are
unpredictable and subject to change.
It seems as if, by means of social injustices and certain public policy,
a large knot has been tied in the center of the rope. Although this creates a significant
barrier between the rich and poor extremes, we are all still a part of the same
rope and always will be. In order
to avoid future tangles, though, each end must attempt to understand the
other.
Although my
service placement at El Centro was
originally to help a child learn, it has also been an important learning
experience for me. I have found
that, although the situation of these children is different than that of the
homeless, there are many similarities.
There is a great need for willing volunteers in society, and I feel that
one of my responsibilities to my fellow humans is to use my gifts to help
others. I have experiences the ups
and downs of volunteer work and the patience required, but at the same time I
have felt the satisfaction of being able to help someone, even in ways of which
I may not be aware. Consistency in
any volunteer situation such as this is essential for the necessary
establishment of trust and understanding, for in order to better serve others,
it is important to consider their perspective. The problem is that everyone wants to be
understood, but few are willing to make an effort to understand. By volunteering for programs such as
El Centro, hopefully more people
will begin to make the time and effort to consider others.
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Aliza’s Paper
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Brandi’s Paper
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