What do I do?
For my CAPS Fellowship placement this summer I am working with City Service Mission as one of their City Hosts. As a City Host, my job is to welcome youth groups from across the country to Washington D.C., and serve as a guide and liaison for them during their time with us. On the first full day of their trip, I lead them on a prayer tour all throughout the city, where we discuss the impacts of phenomena such as gentrification, white flight, food insecurity/food deserts, and the intersectionality between each of those factors. As we go throughout the tour, we pray for the people of the city and for ourselves as we prepare our hearts for a week of service. Throughout the rest of the week, I take the groups to serve at several different non-profits in the city. At the end of each day, I lead them in a time of debriefing where we talk about what they’ve learned so far and how their outlooks on the city or on their own lives may have shifted.
Experience of my team
The information listed above is often really hard to swallow in a short amount of time, and is often overwhelming; however, having been a participant on trips with CSM before, and growing up in the surrounding area of Maryland, much of the information we cover is information I have been aware of for much of my life. This being said I did not experience too much of a shock this summer while we were learning everything we have to teach as staff. One of my co-workers had also been a participant at the DC location of CSM and lives nearby in Maryland as well so, he too was not too surprised by the information we trained over. Finally, our other co-worker had never been a CSM participant and grew up in Dallas, Texas so, all the information we had learned in training was brand new and a bit overwhelming for him. This led to very raw, insightful, and inspiring conversations with him as it relates to the racial, economic, and intersecting factors present in the district. Through this experience with my co-worker this summer, I have been able to, somewhat, re-live what it was like to first learn about the state of the district and rekindle the passion I have for this work.
Experience of our community partners
As summer has gone on, I have built personal relationships with the people who work for the organizations the CSM has as community partners. Some of these organizations include Martha’s Table, Seabury Age in Place, and the Garden Guild at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, to name a few. As I take groups to serve at these organizations, I introduce the groups to the organizations and vice versa before we begin working with them. This has become a very enjoyable part of my job as the groups are then able to see the relationship between CSM and our community partners, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience for everyone. The relationships I’ve built with the people at the non-profits are of great value to me. Many of them have helped me in personal ways during my stay in DC. Most importantly, my relationships with our community partners give me a great sense of pride for CSM because I often hear them say that they know they will have a good group of volunteers when they see one of us City Hosts walk in the door.
Experience of the youth
The most fulfilling aspect of my internship this summer has, without a doubt, been working with the youth that come in. So far, I’ve worked with ages 11 – 18, from New Jersey to Texas, and it has been an amazing experience to see all the different backgrounds they come from and the takeaways they go home with. A unique aspect of this work is that I not only get to experience a new youth group each week, but I also get to know and observe a new set of youth leaders each week as well. Given that youth ministry is the career field I plan on going into post-graduation, this is a very beneficial experience for me. From this experience so far, I have gained a new appreciation for youth ministry as well as new ways to engage the youth of today. All in all, this has been an amazing experience so far and I am greatly looking forward to the weeks I have left to come!
– Fox Wilmot, City Service Mission