In Module 1, we spent time learning about the "Triangle of Quality Service" model. This model contains three aspects to quality service including education, direct service, and reflection. The model focuses on the importance of having all three components when it comes to service work. Without education, the service may feel unprepared for and could hurt the community. Without service, the education learned may feel like it does not have a bigger meaning. Finally, without reflection, the service and education could be easily forgotten. Our education before traveling to Des Moines mostly consisted of in-class discussions regarding service work. We discussed how we should approach the trip in order to make the most out of our time at the YMCA. When we were actively participating in direct service during the week, we made sure to incorporate what we learned from the class into our volunteering. Finally, each night during our trip, we would reflect on our service from that day. We would talk about the things we enjoyed, things that were surprising to us, and new things we learned. We also talked about how we could take what we learned and use it for support back home in Iowa City.

In Module 3, we learned about the "Deprivation Trap" (pictured to the left) and discussed a paper titled "Babies in the River." Both of these works focus on the idea that community issues are multi-layered. The deprivation trap looks at how a lack of stability in one area leads to downfall in another area. On the first day of our service trip, Brooke—the community engagement director, discussed this very idea with us. She talked about how if someone is out of employment, they can easily lose their home. It is also true that if someone loses their home, they could lose their job because they may not be able to meet their same work demands when dealing with the stressors of losing a place of residence. Even more, Brooke talked to us about how rent is much higher the further you get downtown, so it becomes difficult for those with low income to live downtown, but then they are met with issues of finding transportation to jobs and stores. We were able to see how the YMCA SHC has met some of these needs through their various programs. The YMCA is right near downtown for easy access. Many residents travel by bike, so they also have a new bicycle fix station so that their community members do not have to worry about transportation.

In Module 5, we learned about the "Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)" model. In it, an Asset is a "resource that an individual, organization, or entire community can use to reduce or prevent poverty and injustice." We went over how people need their basic needs yet to adequately meet any other demands such as school (why we have a Food Pantry at the University of Iowa), securing a job, or taking care of others. The YMCA's Supportive Housing Campus is just that, both a hub of resources for the Des Moines community, which has become a community in it of itself. When a person leaves the SHC, they are called a Graduate, and it is not uncommon for them to keep in touch with the workers and other residents, or to return to the SHC as a visitor sometimes. We see this as a Social Asset: the public areas that visitors can enter (the dining area, game room, and outdoor area) so that residents can maintain outside connections, and these public areas also encourage interaction of the current residents with one another. They can eat together (and or sometimes with workers and volunteers) when they serve a hot meal and come together for events such as when they celebrate everyone's' birthdays for that month, Christmas, or pop-up shops. They also have the Walking Club as a low-stakes opportunity to get to know each other, and might take classes together in the classroom that we got to spend time in. In the ABCD model, there are Social Assets as mentioned, but also Physical, Human, Environmental, Political, and Cultural Assets as well. On Day 1 of our service trip, we received a tour on the SHC's Physical Assets: The 140 housing units (including a bed, bathroom and kitchen each), the laundry room, the pantry which holds food, clothing, and hygiene all at once (fueled by donations), their outdoor area that includes a garden that the residents use to grow more food, the game and dining room, the classroom, and the kitchen where workers and volunteers cook meals at least once a week for the residents, sometimes more if extra help is available. Human Assets are people holding skills and knowledge. The SHC had the Human Assets of the case managers running classes and individual plans for the residents. One resident shared his skill of singing and playing guitar for everyone before those weekly meals, and another helped paint the origami swans we saw on the wall outside, and that you can see on our Home page. For Environmental Assets, they had the Walking Club as an easy option to spend time outdoors, and their garden. The Political Asset we learned about was the lobbying and voting that Brooke said she did often, all for the goal of a more supported community. Cultural Assets I saw were the kindness rocks residents painted together and kept both inside and outside and the puzzles they do that get hung up on the wall in the dining area.