Moving and Shaking from Michelle B

Just one part of my Connected Community Project here in Winston Salem is working with the local library's Computer Training Bridge, which is a network of the library branches and local rec and community centers that host free computer classes. The coaches are all volunteers who tend to range in age from early twenties up and represent multiple races and both genders. I have been helping OE's contact at the library to organize the program.
So far I have noticed that the coaches lacked a personal connection. Although they have a google group where they can post if they need help with a class, they don't seem to have personal connections with one another. My partner at the library said that she has organized group meetings in the past and would like to do so again.
I jumped at the chance to organize one as I have also started thinking of the volunteer computer coaches as excellent resources for the other parts of my Vista project. They might be able to introduce me to new parts of the community a newbie like me wouldn't see otherwise, perfect material for the Beehive. Or maybe they would like to be involved when I (eventually) start a Digital Connectors program.

I posted the information for today's meeting on the google group with hopes that many of them would show up, ready and willing to hear and share what's working about the program, what needs to be improved, and in doing so make connections with one another. Overall, I believe it was a success. The turn out was not as good as I'd hoped, but some people came. There were a few points where my partner and I were struggling to find things to talk about, but conversation was mostly steady. We talked about issues with the various skill levels of their students, and how some people were signing up for classes that were too advanced for them. We discussed having an online quiz to be sure that students have a good grasp of how to use the mouse, check their email, save and manage files, and other skills needed for the advanced classes. One coach was even able to find another coach to serve as an assistant for a class she has tomorrow. I got exciting watching them exchange cards. Hopefully they will keep each other in mind if they need support in the future. My partner is wonderful, but sometimes very busy. I think it will ease her load to have the coaches communicate directly with one another.

When I asked if we should have another meeting soon everyone seemed very open to the idea. Overall, I am encouraged to continue working with the coaches. I can see they are a diverse and committed group of people that I will be proud to be a part of.

My only concern at this point is how long I have been here (about two months) and how little I feel like I've accomplished. Still, some progress is better than none. At least I have a better idea now what I'm doing.

Good luck with your projects everyone. I'd love to read about how the new people are feeling. Have a great day!

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

While auditing another Habitat for Humanity affiliate, John Lennon's song lyric strikes a familiar chord. Here we are on the *first final day* of the three-year-long AccessAll program, haunted by the ghosts of participants past as we sort, stack, and file folders away for the program assessment. It was a success in my eyes. My eyes glaze over and I break for a Sonic milkshake run.

Ahh, that was yummy. Now back to papers, back to the rows of names in the audit spreadsheet. Lots of names. Back to thinking about my weekend on this TGIF. Sort, stack, file. Can't wait to play some Wii Fit tonight. Gotta get in shape for the warm months ahead. Sort, stack, file. I shouldn't have had that milkshake. Sort, stack, file. 2:28pm.

Does anyone have the Memorandum of Understanding for Claremore Habitat? I'd really like to get that folder off my desk. Sort, stack...file later. What am I going to do after my year of VISTA service ends? Sort, stack, file. Wait, the Vice President is having an email issue again...brb. Back, where was I? Sort, stack, file. Wow, we've connected a ton of Habitat partner families with broadband Internet. Wonder what they're all up to? Sort, stack, file.

-Kevin Corbett

Obama Tells Congress to Pass Bold Service Bill

I received this email from my friends at Servenext.org - CHECK IT OUT!!

Last night in front of Congress and live cameras, President Barack Obama called for a renewed commitment to service. This was a huge moment to watch him make a specific appeal for service to become a priority as a strategy to tackle challenges that communities are facing across the country.

President Obama called on each of us to get involved and he called on Congress to pass bold service legislation. Immediately the audience gave a roaring ovation.

You can watch the clip here: www.servenext.org/JointCongressSpeech/

The bill that the President mentions is the bi-partisan Serve America Act authored by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch. It is arguably the boldest civilian service legislation in over seventy years.

Here are some of the details:
• Create new corps focused on areas of national need, building on the success of AmeriCorps. Will support 175,000 members, expanding the number of participants to 250,000;
• Enhance incentives for participants who are age 50 or older to serve and establishes "Encore Fellowships" to help retirees transition to longer-term public service;
• Establish a National Service Reserve Corps to deploy trained alumni to natural disasters and other emergencies;
• Expand opportunities for secondary school students and out-of-school youth in low income, high-need communities to participate in service-learning programs;
• Create "Campuses of Service," where students engage in service and service-learning; a larger percentage of Federal Work Study funds will be used for community service positions;
• Strengthen the current "Volunteers for Prosperity" program, which coordinates and supports short-term international service opportunities for skilled professionals to serve in developing nations;
• Establish a "Volunteer Generation Fund" to help nonprofit organizations recruit and manage more volunteers;
• Provide a tax incentive to employers who allow employees to take paid leave for full-time service;
• Provide a funding mechanism that helps scale effective programs; and
• Develop a social entrepreneur fellowship program for AmeriCorps alumni and veterans.

This is another exciting moment in the effort to pass new legislation that will help address the enormous, but solvable challenges America is facing. Stay tuned!

In Service,

Zach Maurin, ServeNext.org

Supplement to your VISTA Stipend

Hey Team!

Laurie sent me this site to get a *free* sub at Quizno's! Ch-ch-check it out :)

www.millionsubs.com

<3 Holly

BEHIVE TAX TOOL EVENT

The AWESOME Digital Connectors introduced people from their local community to thebeehive Tax Tool. The DC's trained weeks prior to the event and it showed. They were responsible for creating flyers, and distribution. This picture is one of my favorites, the young man shown here connected both mother and daughter to the Tax tool and really knew his stuff. He's the Man!!!!
We will hold another fantastico Tax event in March I wish for much success....

Danielle

"WHY I SERVE" & Pictures from Atlanta Training - posted by Elizabeth Egan

WOW! I am so inspired by Mamie's story - her faith, courage, and excitement are quite contagious. I have goose bumps!

WHY I SERVE:
I am originally from NH, but have lived in Boston, Philadelphia, Vermont, and now...New Orleans. I consider each of these very different places home. Although I had always been engaged in community life and various community service projects - My first experience with full-time National Service came when, needing a sabbatical from providing direct service to survivors of violence, I joined the Recruitment Staff for an AmeriCorps program designed specifically for 17-24 year olds.

My first major service project with City Year New Hampshire came when they flew me to Little Rock, AK to help the CY Site there implement 24 service projects at 15 locations around the city in celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the Little Rock 9 -highlighting the struggle to integrate Little Rock Public Schools and the brave journey of the first students to break barriers, leading the way.

I will never forget how amazing it felt to be a part of something that huge, that transformational. I felt a re-surfacing of my youthful idealism, now no longer intangible and fragile, but rather rooted in the witnessing of practical strategies of how to use powerful entrepreneurial tools, skills, and networks to move ideas into reality. I was deeply moved by the power of collaboration - hands, hearts, and minds coming together to leaving a lasting impact in that city.

It was an amazing year, to say the least - I learned so much, but I think the most important lesson was about WHO I AM. WHO I AM is SERVICE. And I believe, with all my heart, that National Service and the ingenuity & passion of those who serve, will be one of the many answers we will use to bring transformation for the many issues individuals, communities, our country, and indeed, the world face.

This belief has only been furthered validated with the experiences of my first two weeks as an AmeriCorps Vista with One-Economy and Central City Renaissance Alliance. In Atlanta, last week, I had the pleasure of coming together at PSO and On-Site Training with a great group of Vistas, including my fellow in-coming One-Economy Team: Sonja, Benjamin, Brian, Mamie, and Katherine (and our leader - Holly)! I can't wait to get to know them better - to benefit from their knowledge, their passion, their support, and their friendship. I believe this year will even better than the last and while I am sure it will also be difficult, I am able to embrace the experience, secure in the knowledge that I am not alone in this and we can make a difference.

Meet the incoming One-Economy Vista class!

(bottom row, left-right:
Sonja & Katherine)
(top row, left-right: Holly, Mamie, Benjamin, Elizabeth, and Brian)

My Favorite Recipe

I imagine I know how some of you brand new Vistas are feeling, as I am still pretty new myself. Everyone here in the North Carolina office continues to be amazing, the glue that holds me together. I get what Mamie is saying about feeling incompetent. It's always been hard for me to ask questions. But it really will save you time if you just swallow your pride and ask for help.
In the last month or so I've gone from feeling overwhelmed, to struggling to figure out what to do next, to struggling to figure out how to get done all I have to do. Now that things are slowing down again, I'm working on getting back to my project. My work on the mobile tax lab project has held me up a bit, but I realize it's given me some important skills I will need to tackle my project.
With the tax van project, I have been booking hotels for the five drivers and helping ship them supplies. It seems simple enough, but my work relies heavily on input from other OE people and the drivers themselves. Since the project is so new, and the drivers get very little notice on where they will be setting up their sites (to help low-income people file their taxes online for free, in case you don't know) it's difficult to figure out where to place them. I also got a chance to help with marketing the project, talking to the drivers about their compensated volunteers (Community Fellows) and drafted a lot of the marketing tools, sign-in sheets, etc. that make the whole thing work (hopefully). This was difficult as I have never even filed my own taxes, let alone seen a site in action (mostly because this is the first year we've ever done this).
The most important thing I've learned is also my answer to Holly's request for a recipe posting.

I can't cook, but here is my recipe for dealing with grumpy people (including one's self) and stressful situations.

Ingredients:

Courage

Positive Attitude (imitation is good, but the real thing is better, just like Vanilla Extract)

Good Sense of Humor

Patience (make from scratch with a lot of deep breaths)

Time (you may not be able to find enough this, feel free to substitute apologies and a big smile)

Yoga (optional)

Directions: Sometimes people will come at you with a million things for you to do. Sometimes no one will give you anything to do (except maybe a vague idea of your project). Mix in courage and a positive attitude and ask for directions (as I had to do this week). Keep a healthy dose of patience handy (as I've had to do since the tax project started). Slowly fold in a good sense of humor and sprinkle with time. If things don't come together right away, you may need to "let stand" for awhile or repeat these steps as needed.

Good luck everyone. Sounds like we're all off to a great start. (Great: read rocky). Keep up the good work.

Michelle Brasseur

VISTA Dream House - so hot right now!

Not Seeing the Staircase

This is my first official week as a VISTA. WOW! Why did I title my blog "Not Seeing the Staircase." Well, its because I'm stepping out on faith by taking the first step with out seeing the whole picture. I'm encouraged!

Here's what I want you to know. I left a job that I knew very well. I was one of the very best Instructional Specialist in the school system. I made a decision to leave even through I could have been a principal. A good leader stands by the decisions he/she makes. I have no regrets.

I am scared because all of this is new to me. I am not use to making so many mistakes and feeling so incompetent . I think I understand why I feel the way I do. I am not use to asking so many questions. I am use to people asking me questions and me giving the answers. I am not use to making so many mistakes. I am use to finding the solution. I am not use to feeling like I can not get anything right. I am use to being prepared and organized at all times and checking things off my to do list. Right here! Right now! I am laughing and crying at the same time and there is one thing I know for sure, I have you to listen.

Have the best day of your life.

Mamie

Favorite Recipe

Hello all!

I had an awesome time on our conference call today! Please post your favorite recipes to share with the team.

Holly's Special Guacamole
(Serves 4 people)

Ingredients
3 avocados, cubed (I prefer this to mashing)
1 red onion, diced
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 lime
Salt
Tabasco Sauce

Holly's Special Method
Squeeze lime juice into a large bowl. Once garlic cloves are diced, mix those in with the lime juice. Mix in avocado cubes, red onion, and tomato into the bowl. Splash in Tabasco Sauce and Salt to taste.

It's VERY easy! I'll have to post a video blog of how to make it soon...it's a crowd pleaser!

Walltown

Earlier in February, as noted on the awesome VISTA calendar Holly put together, I put together several focus group meetings in a neighborhood call Walltown. Walltown is a historic neighborhood, located in Durham, NC, that has gone through some ups and downs over the past 60 years. Cisco, Duke University and One Economy are all coming together to help bring a connectivity project, with affordable internet and computers, into the neighborhood to help improve it even more using 21st century solutions.

The focus groups were co-hosted by members of the Walltown community and One Economy employees. Each Walltown resident host invited 8 other community members into their home to discuss different issues facing the community, what they wanted the community to look like, what role technology played in their lives, and if they saw technology as a resource that would help improve their quality of life and the quality of the community. Although it was extremely nerve-racking calling the community members to recruit them to organize everything and waiting for everyone to show up that night, the group meetings were a huge success. Every meeting's conversation flowed as the neighbors chatted together.

The focus group meetings helped us to hear the concerns and wants of the community and have got us thinking about the best ways our connectivity project can help with some of their major concerns. It was also great getting to have the meetings inside the residents homes and be a part of the hospitality that helps make the community so special.

-Laura Parewski

This week's quote comes from Kevin Corbett:

My encouragement comes from a Dr. Seuss quote, from “The Lorax” … “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

VISTAs are the grassroots that everybody talks about in their campaign speeches. Our roots connect, nourish, and revitalize the apathetic nation. It takes a lot of energy to care.

Whirlwind

Today has been ABSOLUTELY crazy with the mobile lab efforts. Currently, 5 people are in training to take these vans across the country to get people connected to the tax tool on the Beehive.

Michelle has been doing a totally amazing job with the mobile lab work, and Laura organized some awesome focus groups in a community in North Carolina. We have an all star team!

~Holly