Leadership

Authors: Alyssa Bohlken, Mimi Stubbs, Gustave Stewart

Community Partners and their leadership

Teacher's Desk

The Teacher's Desk was founded by John Mika in October, 2011. He was about to retire but he decided to keep giving back to his community and become a substitute teacher. While as a substitute teacher, he noticed that teacher's didn't have the adequate resources to give to their students. He noticed the difference between private Catholic schools and poor public schools. Some of those schools didn't even have tissues.

This problem motivated John in founding the Teacher's desk. The Teacher's desk serves as a way to distribute free school supplies to students in need. These supplies were given to teachers that were a part of schools that had a minimum 70% free or subsidized lunches.

What makes John a leader within the community is that he was able to see a problem and came up with a solution. He used the resources that he had and he dedicated himself to taking initiative on the issues that are able to help the greater community and school system. John had a character of self-determination.

Community Garden

A Community Garden is a garden that is shared by the community. It is something that takes effort and needs care throughout the seasons. It serves a community building activity throughout the community by allowing the neighborhood to unite in a common cause. It serves as a way to combat food insecurity. Lastly, it serves as a way to better the community's well-being. Community Gardens benefit neighborhoods and cities just by being there.

Even though there are many benefits, they cannot survive on its own. They need community effort by maintaining the garden throughout the year. Without individual effort in planting, watering, and looking after this area, the garden could not survive. It takes leadership to be able to do this. This leadership is consistent and it is dedicated. People that are looking after the community garden need to be strategic to ensure the long-term sustainability of the place.

In Buffalo, we stopped at two community gardens. The first garden we stopped at was placed in the University Heights neighborhood which was located close to the University at Buffalo. This neighborhood was the same neighborhood that the Tool Library was located. The second garden we stopped was the Riverside Community Peace Garden. This garden was located in the neighborhood of Riverside. Both of these neighborhoods had to get resident initiative as they were both located in a residential neighborhood.

Matt Urban Hope Center and Friends of Night People

The Matt Urban Hope Center and Friends of Night People were established to serve the communities with families/and or individuals in need. The key services offered at both locations are daily lunches & dinners and meal distribution to receive along with clothes from donations as well. Additional services at Friends of Night People include free eye exams and free medical examinations from key volunteer doctors from the Buffalo Hospital and/ or professional student volunteers. Gaining help is fairly easy and accessible to the members in the Buffalo, NY communities because many of the services are on a ''no questions asked'' basis (expect if documentation is needed for household and income amounts needed for legal review).

Key task conducted at the Matt Urban Hope Center consisted of painting key areas such as the doorways and stair cases, cleaning and organizing key rooms, rearranging the pantry, and redecorating the boutique area. The true insight that was effective to take away from this experience is knowing the power of change in key communities. For instance, as the group reflected on the day of service many believe they were happy to conduct the service but some also felt the vibes that the people in those centers felt ashamed to ask for help. However, my positive turn around this viewpoint is that many representatives at the centers were amazed that a group of college students were dedicating their spring break to serve others instead of going to a warm beach with friends. Moreover, the impact at the Matt Urban Hope Center was amazing to do- some group members even brought Girl Scout cookies afterwards to help young girls in the community.

As for the Friends of Night People location the key tasks were similar such as clean up, organizing and food preparation,etc. What was enjoyed most were the key interactions the group had with members from Buffalo and this created the active citizenship interactions. Also, the leadership interactions on this focus was recognizing that relationship building was effective connected to service and creating the fellowship at the center was extremely important.

Group Member's Leadership Styles

How were we leaders in our ASB trip in Buffalo?

Alyssa Bohlken

Gustave Stewart

I believe that my leadership style is concentrated around collaboration and being able to serve as a role model within my community. I tend to want to include other people in activities but at the same time take on a responsibility throughout any of the projects I had during the service trip. Within the trip, I noticed that I was always motivated to do the best I could with the project that I was doing.

Mimi Stubbs

My leadership style is with the supporting role. For example, some of my top strengths are connectedness and harmony and I enjoy including others and taking on relationship building roles. Some weaknesses of my leadership style includes not being dominant in common spaces however I can be very understanding of other's perspectives.

"Leadership is not about a title or designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire teammates and customers." - Robin S. Sharma

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