Volunteer with the BOys and GIrls Club: wattles (this page is a work in progress)
Welcome to my Weebly Page!
My name is Dara and I am a senior at Portland State University. I am taking a senior capstone course called Effective Change Agents where I have partnered with the Boys and Girls Club: Wattles as a volunteer. The Boys and Girls club is a national organization with chapters in all 50 states including Puerto Rico and The Virgin Islands. They offer after school and summer programs for youth to give them opportunities to express themselves through art, sports, music, and leadership positions. The club was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860 by Elizabeth Harmesley, and sisters Mary and Alice Goodwin and was originally a boys club called "The Dashaway Club". Girls were admitted in 1950 before the official name change in 1990. As a volunteer I...
- Assist the enrichment leaders in activities
- help kids with their homework
- Help create enrichment content
- Lunch Count
- Be the extra pair of eyes the staff need
I chose to work with the Boys and Girls Club because as a kid I grew up going to after school programs and summer programs because my parents worked a lot. As I grew up and was able to take care of myself after school, I worked at an after school program as a youth program assistant which gave me an employee perspective. The volunteer program has been an interesting perspective because although my main responsibility is to be an extra set of eyes and to notify full time staff when something needs to be addressed, I feel instinctual with my other responsibilities like planning activities and attempting to resolve minor conflicts with the students. I chose to work with this organization because I thought their history was inspiring. This organization has served for 160 years and has managed to maintain their original goal and expand to be an important community resource.
Effective Change Agents is a course that organizes itself around 4 main goals
- Diversity, Equity, Social justice
- Communication
- Social Responsibility
- Critical Thinking
A goal I have for my work with the Boys and Girls Club is to be a bigger influence that surpasses my volunteer role. The volunteers are not required to be the main staff to resolve conflict amongst students, but the amount of students outnumbers the staff. To become a better mediator thinking about the university studies goals helps with these situations. A lot of the kids come from different home lifestyles, and schools which means classroom culture is different. Taking diversity, equity, and social justice into my thought process helps manage the situation because acknowledging that kids react differently to confrontation helps my strategy when trying to discuss how to fix issues like arguments. This thought process flows into communication. How we react to a kid doing something that could potentially be dangerous to themselves and to others is important because that kid could feed off the negative energy. Communication is important because as an adult trying to teach a kid a life lesson, I need to communicate the message in a serious way to help convey the importance of the lesson, but light enough where the kids do not resent an adult based on the delivery. Social responsibility is important when working with kids because as an adult figure, teaching lessons on what is reasonable and unreasonable is something that influences the kids choices as they get older. To be the best version of yourself around them is an inherent social responsibility. Critical thinking plays into my goal because communicating with kids is not the same as communicating with adults. To hear what the kids say and to think about what it means from their perspective. The staff use the 4 goals as ways to guide resolution even if they do not word it the same way the class does.
This work has reminded me why after school programs have a special place in my heart and why I have fond memories of my own experience growing up. I remember a time when I stuck with my after school program job because it was the only job available, but this specific group of staff and students make the volunteer work fun and enjoyable. The kids and staff have made me feel apart of their family and apart of something overall. I hope I had a positive impact on the students and i know that i have progressed with my relationships with everyone. I hope that when I leave that other volunteers can attempt to make the extra effort to help full time staff.
My name is Dara and I am a senior at Portland State University. I am taking a senior capstone course called Effective Change Agents where I have partnered with the Boys and Girls Club: Wattles as a volunteer. The Boys and Girls club is a national organization with chapters in all 50 states including Puerto Rico and The Virgin Islands. They offer after school and summer programs for youth to give them opportunities to express themselves through art, sports, music, and leadership positions. The club was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860 by Elizabeth Harmesley, and sisters Mary and Alice Goodwin and was originally a boys club called "The Dashaway Club". Girls were admitted in 1950 before the official name change in 1990. As a volunteer I...
- Assist the enrichment leaders in activities
- help kids with their homework
- Help create enrichment content
- Lunch Count
- Be the extra pair of eyes the staff need
I chose to work with the Boys and Girls Club because as a kid I grew up going to after school programs and summer programs because my parents worked a lot. As I grew up and was able to take care of myself after school, I worked at an after school program as a youth program assistant which gave me an employee perspective. The volunteer program has been an interesting perspective because although my main responsibility is to be an extra set of eyes and to notify full time staff when something needs to be addressed, I feel instinctual with my other responsibilities like planning activities and attempting to resolve minor conflicts with the students. I chose to work with this organization because I thought their history was inspiring. This organization has served for 160 years and has managed to maintain their original goal and expand to be an important community resource.
Effective Change Agents is a course that organizes itself around 4 main goals
- Diversity, Equity, Social justice
- Communication
- Social Responsibility
- Critical Thinking
A goal I have for my work with the Boys and Girls Club is to be a bigger influence that surpasses my volunteer role. The volunteers are not required to be the main staff to resolve conflict amongst students, but the amount of students outnumbers the staff. To become a better mediator thinking about the university studies goals helps with these situations. A lot of the kids come from different home lifestyles, and schools which means classroom culture is different. Taking diversity, equity, and social justice into my thought process helps manage the situation because acknowledging that kids react differently to confrontation helps my strategy when trying to discuss how to fix issues like arguments. This thought process flows into communication. How we react to a kid doing something that could potentially be dangerous to themselves and to others is important because that kid could feed off the negative energy. Communication is important because as an adult trying to teach a kid a life lesson, I need to communicate the message in a serious way to help convey the importance of the lesson, but light enough where the kids do not resent an adult based on the delivery. Social responsibility is important when working with kids because as an adult figure, teaching lessons on what is reasonable and unreasonable is something that influences the kids choices as they get older. To be the best version of yourself around them is an inherent social responsibility. Critical thinking plays into my goal because communicating with kids is not the same as communicating with adults. To hear what the kids say and to think about what it means from their perspective. The staff use the 4 goals as ways to guide resolution even if they do not word it the same way the class does.
This work has reminded me why after school programs have a special place in my heart and why I have fond memories of my own experience growing up. I remember a time when I stuck with my after school program job because it was the only job available, but this specific group of staff and students make the volunteer work fun and enjoyable. The kids and staff have made me feel apart of their family and apart of something overall. I hope I had a positive impact on the students and i know that i have progressed with my relationships with everyone. I hope that when I leave that other volunteers can attempt to make the extra effort to help full time staff.
Link to Official website: https://www.bgca.org