Sneak Peek: BCSL flyer

Incoming Freshman: It's not too late to sign up for the 14th annual Day of Service! (you may also fill out page 57 of the Big Book of Forms).

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Designed by Claudine Brenner (which is mighty impressive since she only had a 20 minute tutorial in Illustrator as preparation), fine tuned by the BCSL staff.

Ondrea is currently at a Benefit Bank conference and/or at her friend's wedding.

Regular posting will resume shortly.

Swimming in statistics

Incoming Freshman: It's not too late to sign up for the 14th annual Day of Service! (you may also fill out page 57 of the Big Book of Forms).
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Welcome, LEADS students!  :)
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This weekend I sifted through all the wonderful research and articles Claudine left behind for me on poverty in Ohio, Lorain County, and Oberlin.  I'm trying to put together some informational sheets to hand out this week at LEADS.   What I'm discovering is poverty is such a complicated issue with so many aspects that it is hard to boil it down to simple statistics. 
 
The argument over how to measure the number of people in poverty is the best example to begin the conversation.  Currently the U.S. government looks at how  much it costs to eat cheaply and nutritiously for a year (as determined by the USDA standards).  This number is then multiplied by three to calculate the income below which people are considered to be in poverty.  The total number has been readjusted each year to account ONLY for inflation.

Cost of food in the 1960's      x    3    =    Federal poverty level

When this measure was established in the 1960s, it was estimated a family spent 1/3 of its income on food.  Do you spend 1/3 of your income on food?  I don't.   I spend more on rent and my cell phone and my car insurance.  There are many costs we pay today that I doubt were as significant in the 60s.  If I can get people to think deeply about how poverty is calculated, I think I can make them understand how many things poverty affects and hopefully get a glimpse of how many facets poverty has.  The more an issue is understood, the better and more nuanced the solutions are...in summary:

This logo belongs to NBC

Dear Sandman

Incoming Freshman: It's not too late to sign up for the 14th annual Day of Service!  (you may also fill out page 57 of the Big Book of Forms)

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One of my current projects this week has been updating, organizing, and refining a poverty simulation.  The goal is to have it ready so that LEADS participants can play it at the end of the month.  The simulation gives each player a family financial scenario, and the goal is for the player to create a budget to find out how much money they have for food, and then travel around to stores, food pantries, and social services to obtain 2000 calories of the most nutritious food they can find.

The first thing I noticed about the simulation when Claudine and I started organizing it from the last time it was played was that it has a lot of little, tiny paper parts.

The simulation barely fit on the conference room table.

I am rewriting all the instructions and descriptions to make the simulation specific to Oberlin.  I've revamped the transportation system, and I'm excited about the new cars I've added to the game.  Here is the description I enjoy the most:

It's got a Grim Reaper graphic!

Though I still want to tweak the car rules a little bit, I think I might be done with all my re-writing and am ready to move on to crafting the discussion that will follow the simulation.  I'm hoping that since I read all the background information yesterday and today, when I wake up tomorrow all the information will have coalesced while I slept and I will have a brilliant idea for what stats to include on my Lorain County/Ohio poverty and hunger information sheet.  This will probably translate into reality as waking from a cold sweat at 3 AM from a dream where I walked into the room with all the LEADS participants waiting expectantly only to realize:

• I've forgotten all the materials at the office
• I've forgotten I was supposed to give it that day
• I'm naked
• I forgot to put the little Grim Reapers on the old car transportation card and put a Miss Piggy image instead

But I can always hope!

Realizations

I was incredibly lucky to snag a VISTA position with so much support. I overlaped with Claudine, the previous VISTA who established the whole position, by a whole glorious month so she can show me the ropes, tell me her visions for data collection, and answer all my nagging questions (apparently the scissors were right behind me...who knew). My supervisor, Beth, has a good memory of what Claudine did and what needs to be done so I don't have to float in some vague, goal-less void. As for the rest of the BCSL staff...they're just fun co-workers.

Mine is a unique position among Benefit Bank VISTAs (and potentially all other VISTAs). I'm working primarily with two organizations--the Benefit Bank and Oberlin College--to build connections and partnerships between the two. I do this by training Oberlin College student volunteers to navigate the Benefit Bank software for clients at Oberlin Community Services. So really, I'm responsible for trying to tighten these relationships:

• Benefit Bank/VISTA
• Benefit Bank/Oberlin College
• Benefit Bank/Oberlin Community Services
• Benefit Bank/clients
• Oberlin College/Oberlin Community Services
• Oberlin College/greater Oberlin community

That's a lot and I probably missed a few; I hadn't even realized how much that was until I typed it out. And that's not even counting the outreach work to LCCC and the other random Benefit Bank sites.

It's a long-winded partnership to explain since I am paid, supported, and housed by at least 3 or 4 different organizations --only one or two of which your average relative at a wedding probably hasn't heard of. I tried out several elevator speeches on new acquaintances this weekend and I'm still not sure which version is best.

Headed off to build relationships,
Ondrea
Americorps*VISTA, BCSL Enthusiast

Dear Claudine

Dear Claudine,

We hope your first day at Legal Aid has been awesome, exciting, and informative. The BCSL was very empty without you today. Make sure you come back and visit!

love,

The BCSL staff

Dissecting my job: What is VISTA?

Let's start with the basics, because I didn't really have a grasp of what VISTA was until I went to the Pre-Service Orientation in Chicago.

Official VISTA logo

VISTA stands for Volunteers in Service to America. I often tell people it's like a domestic Peace Corps program--both have the goal of making the world a more peaceful place to live but Peace Corps is international and VISTA is in the USA. Founded in 1964 by President Kennedy, VISTA takes volunteers with a college degree, pays them a small living stipend, and places them for a one-year stint in projects that are designed to fight poverty. VISTA projects range from working with refugees to working with Native American reservations to working in local communities to link people up with the apropriate resources (mental, monetary, medical, etc).

www.americorps.gov

VISTA is a subprogram of Americorps (hence the proper name of Americorps*VISTA, though I have also seen it referred to as *VISTA). Americorps also pays volunteers for service, but there is a crucial difference between the two programs. Americorps is for direct service, which is actually working with people and completing one-time tasks. Examples include tutoring, weeding, and grant writing. VISTA is about capacity building, which puts infrastructure into place that lets the Americorps people do their job. In includes doing all the behind the scenes work to keep a program running. It includes doing all the behind the scenes work--training, program development, networking, planning and all those other good things. When I help someone fill out a food stamp form it is direct service; when I train someone on how to help people fill out food stamp forms it is capacity building. To relate it to that famous fish quote: VISTA is about teaching people to fish so they can eat for life, not giving them fish so they may eat once.

How all this relates to me

VISTA pays my living stipend. For my VISTA project, I am fighting poverty by working as a Benefit Bank counselor to help people sign up for government benefits like Food Stamps and Medicaid. I am working on the capacity building part by training other Benefit Bank counselors, building new connections in the community and Oberlin College, and leaving behind plans for what to do when I'm gone--all of which I am able to do because of the infrastructure that Claudine, the previous VISTA, is leaving me.

I'm off to observe a Benefit Bank training so I can do it myself,
Ondrea
Americorps*VISTA, BCSL Enthusiast

Hurryupandsit

I can't help but feel that a large part of my VISTA year so far has been hurryupandsit in meetings/trainings. Many of the meetings/trainings are useful and I get to meet cool people, learn new things, and eat free tasties, but it's frustrating to be nagged by my ever growing and fun filled to-do list while I'm trying to enjoy the food and company at a lunch meeting. Yet I am learning so much of networking that takes place over a meal is crucial to program development and partnerships that I cannot dismiss them in favor of my to-do list.

Yesterday was such a day where I had to sit in more meetings than planned and so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, so today I had to miss a networking meeting to get my tasks done before Beth (supervisor) needed it for her meeting with a Dean. So it goes. What Claudine and I got done on the BCSL annual report, though, was really cool. I am a graphics nerd and love projects like these. What made it extra fun was trying to get it done by the deadline--some days I really enjoy working within time constraints. Here are the front page designs we came up with (and I suspect Claudine is downstairs making last minute changes as I type):

New graphic element, black and white

New graphic element, school approved colors

Old graphic element, school approved colors

Our theme is "Beyond the Bubble" and I'm really excited about some of the graphic things we're doing with it.

Now! To tackle more time sensitive to-do list items before Enterprise comes to pick me up for my car rental for tomorrow's Benefit Bank training observation.

Ready, set, go!

Since we last met

Goodness, if I'm going to get this blog of the ground I have GOT to post more. Fortunately I started drafting up posts last night and there is the ability to schedule posts on Blogger. Hooray for the ability to stockpile blog posts!

Things that I have done since I last posted:

Benefit Bank: Crash Course on Counseling

1. Served as a benefits counselor at a resource fair at the Lorain County Adult Parole Office (1st official day out of training, excellent start....)
2. Served as a benefits counselor for 2 clients down at Oberlin Community Services
3. Gone to a regional Benefit Bank group meeting in Medina
4. Introduced Benefit Bank people to the unique position that is the Oberlin College Benefit Bank VISTA (more to come on this later)
5. Printed posters to advertise a Benefit Bank event (to do: poster downtown)
6. Rented a car so I can observe the Community Training this Friday

BCSL: With The Generous Help of Claudine (VISTA who started my position)

1. Drafted a BCSL annual report newsletter with the help of Claudine
2. Drafted a report for the Carnegie Foundation with the help of Claudine
3. Learned how to make meeting agendas with the help of Claudine
4. Helped out at a food distribution at Oberlin Community Services with the help of Claudine
5. Attended staff meetings and lunches (Claudine was there)
   
6. Argued with the oberlin.edu server about it not wanting to upload pages to the website (while Claudine was on a well-deserved vacation)
7. Sliced my finger open while cutting cardboard for the BCSL Science Center display cabinet (NOT with the help of Claudine)
   

VISTA: In the Background

1. Faxed in time sheets
2. Got paid

Off to meet with Benefit Bank directors,
Ondrea
Americorps*VISTA, BCSL Enthusiast