Civic Identity
PERSONAL SKILLS, ABILITIES, AND INTEREST THAT ALL AIDE IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP
Liz Saathoff, Haley Gion, Nathan Nowzari
Volunteers of America
At Volunteers of America, our group split up throughout the facility to utilize all of our individual skills. Some team members prepared needle exchange kits, others participated in activities with the children on site, while some worked in the kitchen. Overall, tasks were chosen by each volunteer to fit their personal skill sets. The allocation of tasks allowed the group to be as efficient as possible throughout our time with VOA.
Louisville Grows
Our experience at Louisville Grows allowed us to be split up into small groups, with each group assigned to one of the stations that are essential to planting seedlings. We were sifting soil, packing pots, planting seedlings, and properly labeling them. Members that were more experience in gardening could share with others what the proper depth for each seedling that was planted. Those were not as experience could rotate between the other three tasks, allowing everyone's abilities to intermix. Many of us were able to learn more about public health and realize that our interests in helping others makes a difference.
House of Ruth
At House of Ruth, we helped clean up the yards of the houses they provide for homeless people with HIV/AIDS. Raking leaves and collecting fallen branches wasn't our first expectation for volunteering with a public health organization. However, it was something we could all do effectively and together, we were able to really improve the state of the yards. Now, cleaning up their yards is one less thing people being helped by House of Ruth have to worry about.
Dare to Care
A mini assembly line was formed at the Dare to Care food bank while packing over 1500 bags for the Backpack Buddy Program. Individuals jumped into roles that would increase the efficiency of our packing speeds from labeling/taping boxes to packing individual bags to be sent out. Everyone's skills meshed together to create one large production. Everyone worked extremely hard and understood that their specific skills contributed to the whole outcome.
As a group, we were able to utilize each of our civic identities to build a team that made a small difference in the Louisville community. Our experiences allowed us to build a group understanding of the importance of public health and apply it to something larger than ourselves. Being able to allocate tasks and recognizing the leaders at each point throughout the trip allowed our group to build a civic identity that made us stronger and more applicable within Louisville.