VISTAs raise awareness about hunger, homelessness

Hunger and homelessness are two issues in the U.S. that don't often get enough attention. The National Hunger and HomelessnessAwareness Week brings these issues to the forefront of public discourse. Traditionally the week before Thanksgiving, this year’s awareness week took place November 15^th -23^rd.

At NC Campus Compact many of the VISTAs support projects seeking to improve food security, access to fresh foods, and nutrition education. Even those not directly involved in working with food insecurity can see its devastating effects in the neighborhoods they serve. Over 1 in 10 North Carolinians experience food insecurity and these rates are even higher for children. 1 in 4 children live in poverty in North Carolina. VISTAs at NC Campus Compact help break the cycle of poverty and the Hunger and Homelessness Week gave them an opportunity to organize events with member campuses and local communities.

Student volunteers at WFU prepared
Thanksgiving meals for Turkeypalooza.

Natasha in her turkey hat.

At Wake Forest University, VISTA member Natasha Vos organized the annual Turkeypalooza event. During the week students at Wake Forest prepared, cooked, and delivered 420 Thanksgiving meals to residents in need. This year, the meal included cooking 44 herb rubbed turkeys, autumn vegetable stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin cookies. As “head turkey,” Natasha guided student volunteers through the entire process. This Winston-Salem Journal piece includes photos and videos of the effort.

UNCG VISTA Kali Hackett led a week of HHAW events.

VISTA member Kali Hackett led students at UNC Greensboro in a variety of events to promote Hunger and Homelessness awareness. Kali moderated a panel of homelessness advocates in a discussion about perceptions and stereotypes of homelessness. Read more about the panel in this piece from UNCG's the Carolinian.

In addition to the panel, UNC Greensboro screened a documentary, held a food drive, and students volunteered at the Interactive Resource Center, a day center for the homeless. Over the course of the week, the HHAW programming engaged 86 individuals, including 16 volunteers who performed 48 hours of service in the Greensboro community.

In Cullowhee VISTA member Willie Jones led events at Western Carolina University, culminating in Food Talk where students had the opportunity to challenge the idea of what food is and gain new perspectives. One way the Food Talk challenged perspectives was by giving students had the opportunity eat crickets. One participant said "I've never eaten a cricket before, but it was good. I just don't want to see the actual body." 

Willie also led a drive to collect food and toiletries, a Hunger Games Dodgeball event to teach students about social injustice, and a Hunger Banquet. Over 90 students participated in the events at WCU.

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness was a success and the VISTAs at NC Campus Compact continue to grow and build communities. 

Looking Back while Moving Forward: Reflections from an "organized" VISTA

Throughout the month of June, North Carolina Campus Compact will be publishing articles written by our VISTA members. These pieces give readers access to first-hand experiences and reflections of VISTAs serving throughout the state. We are excited for them to share their perspectives on community and service with us! 

Please note: Any opinions expressed on the VISTA VIEW blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, or policies of North Carolina Campus Compact, the AmeriCorps VISTA program or the Corporation for National and Community Service.

By Devin Corrigan, NC Campus Compact VISTA at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Interactive Resource Center

Hello from Greensboro!  As I wind down my service, I am reflecting on this year and some of the things I’ve learned.  I figured to share a few in my blog post.

1. Get Uncomfortable
Prior to my year as a VISTA, most of my interactions with “homeless people” were confined to my own silent deliberations about whether to part with spare change as I passed them on the streets.  So weak.  Since working at the Interactive Resource Center, I have gotten much more close and personal with homelessness.  I have been privileged to have raw, vulnerable conversations about HIV, domestic violence, addiction, incarceration, and poverty.  These conversations have completely changed my views.  Homelessness is truly something that happens to someone, not something someone is born with.

2. Service is chaos
Service is an odd stew of people with different motivations, intentions, goals, skills, and passions coming together to achieve the loose end of “doing good.”  It is not linear.  It is not cause and effect.  It doesn’t lend itself to check-boxes.  As someone who loves order, structure, and writing blog posts in list form, this was originally pretty disconcerting for me.  Being highly organized (see also rigid) works for me and was not necessarily something I wanted to give up.  I adapted by structuring my to-do lists with more “relationship-oriented” rather than results-oriented tasks.  Instead of organizing myself to “accomplish x, y, and z,”  I started framing my days around “reach out to a new IRC guest” or “get this student’s input about MLK Day marketing.”  I got a lot more accomplished and was able to build more of the relationships that make service rewarding.  At the end of the day, “doing good” happens even if it doesn’t look like what you anticipated.

3. Ask for help
For someone who is driven to “help” others, I have a pretty big aversion to asking for help myself.  It feels uncomfortable (see #1) and screams “I can’t do something.”  (God-forbid!)  However, this year has made me realize how willing people are to help when asked.  For example, very early on in the year we contacted dentists’ offices to donate toothbrushes for care packages for our IRC guests.  I didn’t think anyone would donate, but we were able to fill more than 60 care bags.  Since then I have tried asking for help more, whether that means saying “I don’t know how to handle this situation.  Can you help?” or “Can you show me how you design those fancy flyers?”  Asking for help usually says “I want to learn” and not “I can’t.”


4.  Figure out your outlets before you need them
Bad days will happen.  Things go wrong.  Buses cancel two days before the big event.  You drop the ball on a project. It’s important to build your safety net before you are falling.  Some things that I have found particularly cathartic are weekly “family” dinners with co-workers, running along the lake, and baking pies while blasting Marilyn Manson.  It’s comforting to know when you are feeling yucky, that a few things will make you feel better, even if the situation doesn’t change.

5. Laugh
A lot of awkward, random stuff is going to happen.  And it’s going to be pretty hilarious.  Seriously, all of my funniest stories are IRC stories.  Embrace it.

Campuses, VISTAs serve and learn during Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week

The week before Thanksgiving is a time when many college campuses focus on the needs of community members who are struggling to find food and shelter. Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, an event co-sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness, takes place this year November 16-24; and many of our VISTAs are leading or supporting related programs on their campuses.

At Western Carolina University, VISTA Willie Jones coordinated a week of events, including an Everything Drive to collect donations for United Christian Ministries and the Community Table, an Oxfam Hunger Banquet, and a five-day interactive poverty simulation called Live Below the Line. Willie also helped organized a partnership with Aramark, so that for every $100 spent on Nov. 18 at the campus convenience, Aramark would donate a turkey to the Community Table.

In Boone, VISTA Brittany Johnson of the Hospitality House is working with Appalachian State University's ACT office to organize the 3rd Hunger Games, which raises canned food donations to support Hospitality House's Bread of Life Community Kitchen. Already, 1600 cans have been collected. The Hunger Games event takes place this Friday at 5 p.m. on Duck Pond Field off of Stadium Drive in Boone. Read the High Country Times article on the event.

At UNC-Greensboro, VISTA Devin Corrigan has worked with a team of student leaders to coordinate a week-long slate of events, including a panel discussion with local advocates, non-profit staff, and community members facing challenges of hunger and homelessness; a campus/community food drive to collect canned food items for the Spartan Open Pantry, UNCG's students/staff food bank; and a Thursday evening service event at Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem. Devin's VISTA work supports a partnership between UNCG and the Interactive Resource Center, a day-center in Greensboro serving people at risk of homelessness, and she drew on this relationship in planning the week.

 At Wake Forest University, VISTA Anna Donze has coordinated a screening of the documentary Inocente (Wed., 7 PM, Byrum Welcome Center), which tells the story of an undocumented 15-year old girl's struggle with homelessness and the San Diego arts organization that offers her a creative outlet. The film ties the issue of homelessness to Anna's work with her community partner, El Buen Pastor Latino Community Services, and an on-campus group, NERD (Network for Educational Resources and Development), a coalition of WFU student service organizations involved in community-based mentoring and tutoring. Among other WFU Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week events is Campus Kitchen's annual Turkeypalooza. Check out the Channel 14 local news story on Turkeypalooza!

At UNC-Pembroke, VISTA Dalton Hoffer has worked with a team of student mentors to host a community Thanksgiving dinner at his community partner, the Pembroke Housing Authority. Student volunteers will decorate gingerbread houses with children, then serve a dinner to the children and their families. Dalton expects about 100 community members to attend.

If your campus also recognizes Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week, please email us to share your story.

Graphic courtesy of UNCG's Office of Leadership and Service-Learning.

VISTA Starts Music Therapy Program

Today's post comes to us via the VT Engage website. It is written by Alejandra O'Connor, current Virginia Tech VISTA, and features her work and the work of Victoria Ho, graduate student at Radford University.

VISTA Starts Music Therapy Program
by Alejandra O'Connor

Radford University student Victoria Ho works with

several students in Roanoke

Once a week, Radford University graduate student Victoria Ho travels from Radford to Roanoke. She meets with children at the Jamestown Community Center to play music. Ho brings a trunk full of instruments including drums, tambourines, castanets, egg shakers and maracas. Her goal is to use music as therapy for children in the United States on refugee status.

Music Therapy is the use of music to reach non-musical goals such as promoting self and cultural expression, increasing social awareness, decreasing anxiety, promoting positive peer interactions and enhancing relationship-building skills. Practitioners must meet a minimum clinical hour requirement and pass a board certification exam. The Music Therapy program in Roanoke is part of Ho’s clinical practice at Radford University. Ho is supervised by her professor James Borling; a Music Therapy professional for over 30 years. Borling has seen music bridge cultural differences and encourages participants to use music to tell stories. “Vicky has a really unique perspective. She has been able to practice the skills that she learned in the classroom. Her desire to help people has been her driving force in this program and you can really see that in her work”.

Ho is the child of a Vietnamese family who first came to the United States as refugees. “I chose to work with refugee children because of my family background. I saw the hardship my parents had to go through in order to become acclimated to US culture. I know that kids in these types of families sometimes hear terrible stories of what life was like back home and it takes a toll on their emotional well-being. Music can provide a way for those emotions to get out so the child can heal. I also like that I can combine my initial career goal of practicing psychiatry with my love of music”. The participants are primarily from Iraq and South Sudan. Ho successfully uses music to bridge age, gender and cultural boundaries of participants. As they learn from each other, their fear of the unknown becomes significantly less prominent in their lives.

Music Therapy provides a safe place for children to learn how to play an instrument while confronting conscious or unconscious issues resulting from forced deportation. It also provides a unique way for children to integrate into their new homes and become successful students and citizens of the United States.

The partnership between Radford University and VT Engage: The Community Learning Collaborative is managed by AmeriCorps VISTA member Alejandra O’Connor.

For Alejandra, home is where the heart is. The daughter of a Marine, she lived many different places growing up, but for high school and college her family settled in North Carolina and she still calls the state her home. She did her undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and in 2011 earned a Global Master of Arts in International Relations from Webster University.

An interest in humanitarian issues, a strong background in service, and a drive to impact communities made VISTA service a perfect next step for Alejandra. She relocated to Blacksburg, VA to be one of two NC Campus Compact VISTAs at Virginia Tech. Initially Alejandra thought the relocation might leave her on her own a lot, but she's found a friend in fellow NC Campus Compact VISTA Wyatt Taylor and met some great people on and off campus who have made her job adventure amazing. She's also been impressed with how the students and faculty on campus take Virginia Tech's motto Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) to heart.

When she's not at work Alejandra is an avid reader and likes to exercise. She's recently picked up boxing thanks to an on-campus club. She also volunteers with her sorority, Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority Inc., supervising recruitment for several undergraduate and graduate chapters. After her year of VISTA service Alejandra plans to join the Peace Corps.

Four VISTAs attend CSNAP Conference

On November 2-3, four NC Campus Compact VISTAs attended the 2012 CSNAP Conference at UNC Wilmington. Sponsored by the Compact, every fall CSNAP (Citizenship, Service, Networking, And Partnerships) brings student leaders from campuses across the state together to learn and share strategies to address community issues. This year's event focused on the theme "Becoming Citizens, Becoming Community," and featured Paul Loeb, author of Soul of A Citizen, as keynote speaker. Nearly 125 students from 18 campuses attended.

Our VISTAs were on hand to lead discussion sessions, share ideas for community engagement, and support the learning of student leaders. Two of our VISTAs led open-space discussions. Lenoir-Rhyne VISTA Ariel Mitchell led a conversation centered around culture and cultural barriers within communities. She connected her work with the Latino community and key community partner, Centro Latino of Hickory, to the greater challenges of working in culturally diverse communities.  UNC Greensboro VISTA Anya Piotrowski facilitated a discussion about community gardening. Anya shared information and expertise she's gained from her project starting a community garden at a local homeless shelter.

Jacqui Trillo, Warren Wilson College VISTA, coached several students who delivered a workshop helping service participants connect their service to deeper community engagement. She also attended a session on building strong partnerships between institutions and their surrounding communities. Jacqui noted how excited students were between sessions, enthusiastically discussing ways to apply what they learned to their own institutions and communities. She believes conversations like these can help build a bridge between students and their communities.

NCSU VISTA Brianna Roach concluded the conference with a powerful recitation of her original poem, "The Elephant in the Room." Students who live-tweeted the event said they left the conference feeling inspired and motivated.

On Friday evening at the conference kick-off, Anya joined other conference participants for a tour of the Wilmington-based film studio, EUE/Screen Gems. The group heard from the head of the Wilmington Film Commission about his work bringing projects to the area, toured the facilities, and spotted Robert Downey, Jr. working on set!

VISTA Profile: Anya Piotrowski

Anya hails from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, but is quite the traveler – she’s lived in four states in the past four years, has moved at least once a year since 2006, and has spent time in Brazil and Mexico! She studied history at the University of Tampa (B.A.) and the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire (M.A.). Anya has been serving as a VISTA at UNC-Greensboro since February 2012.

SP: What previous volunteer or work experience led you to becoming a VISTA?
AP: I spent time living in Brazil as a child and went on a mission trip to Mexico the summer before my senior year of high school. I also went on two Alternative Spring Break trips and an Alternative Weekend trip when I was a student at the University of Tampa. I loved the experiences and ended up becoming very involved with a campus organization that revolved around service! All of the experiences have made me more aware of how lucky I am and have inspired me to serve within any community I live in.

SP: What is the primary focus of your project? Which community partner(s) or populations will your project serve?
AP: The primary focus of my work is food security. I spend roughly 30% of my time working at the Interactive Resource Center (IRC), a day center for the homeless in downtown Greensboro. I am the IRC liaison for the community garden. At UNCG I am planning a full week of events for Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week since UNCG does not have a week of events already established. My on-campus events will be a great way to connect the UNCG community with the IRC in another way.

A recent harvest from the IRC community garden!

SP: What are you most looking forward to during your term of service?
AP: I am looking forward to Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week at UNCG and seeing the fall garden grow at the IRC. I'm also looking forward to the NC Campuses Against Hunger Summit in October, for which I am facilitating a panel discussion. On a personal note, I'm hoping to make it to a Carolina Hurricanes game when they play the Tampa Bay Lightning!