Personal Narrative: Growing Up In Public Housing

One night, during the cold winter, I walked along the side walk to reach the local store down the block. As I walked out, before I can realize it, I was dropping down onto the concrete while bullets swiftly passed me. I then began to run back home, but I wanted to keep running. Away from Chicago, away from the west side. Growing up in Chicago, it was easy to assume that there was nothing different beyond the blocks of my streets. Everybody lived the same way and talked the same way; not many people was different. I made my own decision, at the age of 10 to not be another statics of my community. When my mother moved my family and I to San Antonio, I devoted my time to school and bettering my opportunity to go to a Tier one institution which

Now we have around 200 people every night. Many people had too much pride to even come in at first. This is all happening due to the stock market crash. I started volunteering at the soup kitchen when I first saw the signs, “Help wanted new soup kitchen opening”. Yet the only reason I was here was to gain some kind of father-daughter relationship with my dad.

Summer brought a conclusion to AP exams, AP and Honors classes, and Swim Team. Although I grateful for the much deserved break, I had an overwhelming urge to become an active member for my community. I knew I needed to obtain my mark in the world in a special way during the summer large-scale or not. However, I never thought I would volunteer at a food bank. As an acutely withdrawn and self-conscious person, I’d much rather prefer to assist out behind the scenes, as a dutiful background member.

Although most of my involvement has centered around politics, where I have been an active volunteer in the current election cycle, my service also extends to the homeless community in the Quad Cities. After recognizing the extent of homelessness in Davenport, my friend decided to start a nonprofit 5K to benefit a local shelter and I immediately joined in the venture. By working with the shelter rather than independently, we were able to avoid the faults set forth in To Hell With Good Intentions. Our good intentions have donated over $10,000 to King’s Harvest Ministries, who uses funds in a way that raises the standard of living for the local homeless

What exactly is the hood? The hood is a slang term for the ghetto. Many people may associate the hood with the birthplace of criminals, people with no lives, and even what some people would call “gangsters”. From the outside looking in, one would assume the hood is a horrible place to be, and those were my exact thoughts in the beginning. Is the hood as dangerous as it is described? I never realized as a kid that I was different than everyone else who lived in my neighborhood, — different, but not better. Despite how scary it was at first, growing up in the hood caused me to appreciate life even more, and it introduced me to a new world. Its effects still stay with me today.

The volunteers are impacted by the different people they meet every day in the community. Knowing that they’re helping make a difference in the community is what motivates most of the volunteers in POTS. Many of them see the people as a part of their family. Taina Rodriguez has worked as the coordinator of food programs at POTS for the last six years, and she has formed friendships with many of the people in the community that go to POTS looking for help. “We see these people everyday.

I have lived in East Oakland my whole life. To the majority of people, the mention of East Oakland evokes thoughts of violence, shootings, and gangs. I was one of the people who believed in these stereotypes, and for a particularly long time. I was one of the people who saw Oakland as a wasteland, a place with nothing to offer me, and a place I had nothing to offer to.

Community Lunch on Capitol Hill has done an exceptional job at providing food, supplies, and resources to the local food insecure and homeless population. They are able to do this through their rhetoric on social media, which portrays them not as a “homeless feeding program”, but as a community-driven effort that helps everyone. This has proven successful in attracting widespread support from volunteers and food donors alike. Community Lunch has set an example for the fight against homelessness by asserting that the homelessness effort is a community driven effort. The American people need to know that homelessness is an issue that affects everyone and, therefore, is the responsibility of everyone to solve

For this service-learning project, I decided to volunteer at Meals on Wheels in Rocky Mount. Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit organization that deliver meals to individuals at home that are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. My grandmother who volunteers with them every Tuesday first introduced me to the program 10 years ago. Kara is a family friend who is the Director of Development for Meals on Wheels. She helped me get the volunteering opportunity.

I grew up in inner city Baltimore Maryland. Neither of my parents were or are followers of Christ. They divorced when I was very young. I spent most of my life moving from place to place with my mother and two brothers. I gave up on high school when I failed my freshmen year. I didn’t have a care in the world about anything except my own desires and needs. My mother started to get in trouble with the state of Maryland because I was not old enough to be out of school. She cut me deal by saying if I went to school until I was old enough to drop out, she would sign my drop out papers.

In the past I had volunteered at the Salvation Army so this was not my first experience in working with the homeless population. For that reason, I was able to tune into my own life experiences before my shift. I knew beforehand that I would not have the answer for everything, especially when it came to the referral aspect because I’m not fully aware of the resources we have nor the requirements for them. Which is where Liz would come in, I told myself if I ever had question I’d ask rather than give the wrong one. I also knew that I would have the ability to emphasize and engage when hearing their stories. They too are people just like everyone else and just because they might live on the streets or smell a little they shouldn’t be treated

Growing up in Detroit Michigan I learned early in life that it is important to strive to do your best. As a child I wondered how life would be once I grew up. Moreover, I dreamed about the destinations that I wanted to travel to, the career that I want to pursue after graduating from college. I knew that the life that my parents lived was not for me.

Volunteering on behalf of Habitat for Humanity was an eyeopening experience, as I was able to witness the positive changes I made. Habitat for Humanity strives to bring communities together, using volunteers to build homes for those in need. Upon discovering my local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, I instantly signed up for the next build and spent my entire Saturday helping a family in need. Hardly having nailed something before, I was suddenly tasked with building the frame and siding of somebody's future home. I took this responsibility seriously and spent the next 8 hours meticulously nailing away, making sure I made no mistakes. As I left the site I looked at the once concrete slab, now turned into the foundation of a person’s home, with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

For my service leaning assignment, I volunteered at the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival in support of the Montgomery County Food Bank receiving donations at the festival entrance. In volunteering at the event, I learned the differences in service learning, volunteerism and community service and will provide details in what I learned a about each. I will also provide details and examples of teamwork, communication and networking experiences gained while at the event. A brief overview of the Montgomery County Food bank will also be provided with information on the assignment task, measurable success and interaction with fellow students and organization directors.

It all started on a Saturday in the spring of 2016, April 30th. My best friend Hollie and I were walking down main-street in Sarasota, Florida when we saw this woman walking around begging for money from everybody she ran into—or should I say, “chased down.” This woman wasn’t polite. She was pushy as ever. It was hilarious. I wish I could describe the way she walked right up behind people’s backs; following them across streets, begging them for some money or food or whatever she could get from them. She was relentless and wouldn’t give up. You could tell she had done this for a while and had lost all sense of shame and concern for the people she was asking. She wasn’t worried about what they would think of her. She didn’t care if she was pressuring