I have two weeks left in Northwest Indiana until I say goodbye to the region and state. I have tremendously enjoyed my experience at Valparaiso University, however, I have always felt a piece of the experience was missing. I loved the campus, students, and professors, yet I never knew much about the larger community in which Valparaiso University was located. After spending a semester in Chicago, being immersed into the community I lived in and exploring the different assets of the neighborhood, I always yearned to duplicate that experience at my home campus. When I was first introduced to the CAPS Fellowship, I knew right away that it would be a perfect opportunity for me to go beyond the campus bubble and learn more about the region and the communities throughout it. I interviewed and was placed with the Urban League of Northwest Indiana, located in Gary, where I have spent my time the past seven weeks.
From the bottom of my heart, I truely can say that I have never felt more welcomed and at home in a work environment than I have felt going in everyday to the Urban League office. It is a small office, with only three people on staff. There are also two Americorps interns and volunteers than come in throughout the week. After spending my last two interships at larger organizations, I love the small aspect of the office. I get to interact with everyone in the office on a daily basis, including the Executive Director. IT IS SO MUCH FUN and exactly how I want my work environment to always be like. I even got to sit in on a board meeting only a couple weeks into the summer, which was a great experience! Despite working with two other non-profits before the Urban League, it is always interesting to continue to be exposed to the different in and outs of how they are ran.
Urban League at the Railcats game!
Throughout time this summer, I have been working on two different projects. The first is the LEAD Initiatitve, which is an alcohol and other drug prevention program for youth in the community. As an adult facilitator, I helped train a core group of youth from the Gary Youth Services Bureau. The training included perceptions, consequences, refusal and resistance skills, community service, philanthrophy, mentoring, and advocacy, which were all related to the general topic of alcohol and other drug prevention. The youth then created their own program that they would teach to other youth throughout the city. At the time of this post, the trained youth have presented their programs at two different park sites in the city. It has been a blast! I have loved getting to know the all the students. They are great LEADers!
The other project I have been helping with is the Health and Wellness Seminar the Urban League is hosting at the Gary Railcats game on July 16th. We are bringing in six different community vendors, such as the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and Community Healthnet, to present on different health and wellness topics. The target population for the event is seniors and youth because it is senior and youth day at the game. I have been helping organize the community vendors and plan the events. The event is taking place from 10:30-noon on July 16th, with the game starting at 12:10. We are even providing our participants with a healthy lunch to compliment the theme of the events! Health and wellness is a particular interest and passion of mine, so it has been a great opportunity to help plan an event that promotes that!
When I am not working on those two different projects, I am doing a lot of miscellaneous work around the office. With my desk right up in the front, I get to interact with the community as they come in and out. The Urban League provides ten food vouchers a month to a local church, so a primary responsibility up front is taking those calls and working with individuals that come in to pick up a voucher. The Urban League office is also home to different community businesses, such as the Indiana Plan, a pre-apprenticeship program and Housing Opportunites, which assits primarily with foreclosure in the Gary area. Overall, the main focus of the Urban League is to provide job readiness to people in the communities, where we introduce people to job postings and help them create a resume and apply to the job. Much of my job up front allows me to provide this different information to individuals when they come in and sometimes assist them in a job search if the specific staff perso
n is not available. Another big thing the Urban League does is provide scholarships to high school seniors in the area. Right now, I am assisting in researching past scholarship recipients and contacting them to see if they attended the school they intended to and whether they were still enrolled. As you can see, staying busy throughout the day has not been difficult!
I still have another blog post left, so I will talk more about how this experience has developed me in terms of my vocational direction because this one has gotten quite long and out of control. I’m so proud of you if you are still reading this. Wow, you are great. Until next time!!
-Maria Wagenhofer