Public Allies Mid Year Retreat 2012

Ah, Public Allies. This year's retreat was a welcome repose among days of busywork and self-inflicted pressures.Some choice photos:

Good times.

Life is a Marathon

It has been intense since I returned for a second year of AmeriCorps Public Allies. My placement is experiencing some changes, namely my supervisor moved to Wisconsin and her job was spliced up and given to various employees, including myself. I now oversee an after-school program that is understaffed and over-budget. I am supposed to be giving art classes to our students while managing staff and doing payroll. However, I find between meetings and administrative work, I am rarely available to give the art instruction. I am also organizing parent nights, staff trainings, and finding activities and funding for our students. My capacity as a supervisor of staff is growing, and my brain is learning how to juggle a thousand different balls.

The job that I actually came on to do was to start a Peer Educator program. And I'm still doing it. I recently held a student focus group and am now blasting out the job description in hopes of interviewing candidates and commencing training in mid January. Peer Educators will receive 25 hours in training and then have the opportunity to coordinate two community projects related to my organization's mission - to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of HIV and AIDS. They get a stipend dependent on their participation in outreach, and they will also have an arsenal of skills to get them into college and higher employment. I'm really excited about this program, but it is overshadowed by the colossus of the after-school program. Oye.

I also am coordinating our second teen event - our first was a city-wide talent show and art exhibit that drew in 60 contestants, 25 volunteers, and over 70 audience members. This time we're doing a Poetry Slam.

Did I mention that I am in charge of our social media and quarterly newsletter?

I'm still me, though. Recently painted a picture for this year's holiday card to send out, been running like crazy, starting to see muscles everywhere (I'm also lifting), and I lost ten pounds in a month and a half. I was eating really well for a while, clean, healthy wholesome, eating, but the holiday parties have me a strange schedule of chocolate binges. Been knitting and reading and hanging out with friends. Thinking of next year's garden, and I can't wait to build a coop and get chicks. My love and I finished the painting upstairs and moved our bedroom up. It's super cool - all the colors found in a peacock's tail feathers. I've met all my resolutions for 2011 (more on that later) and am making new ones for 2012. The pets are healthy and whole, and our lights are up on the house for the holidays. I'm sure soon there will be a Hanukkah dinner with Lover's parents, Christmas Day with my mother and sister, and Festivus for Lover and I.

Did I mention I was accepted into a Graduate Studies program? I will start earning a Masters in Science for Environmental Education in the summer of 2012. Pretty f-in awesome.

Also, Lover and I made our first homebrew - a stout, that turned out successfully delicious.

So, in a nutshell, life has been a marathon. I keep having to check my pace, my form, and take a sip of gatorade, but I'm moving forward all the while. Can't get better than that.

Park City Sweep

Public Allies Bridgeport had an awesome weekend! We had our big Park City Sweep*, where we had over 200 volunteers out at 21 sites on Saturday for street clean up, plantings, and painting. Participating groups included United Way of Coastal Fairfield County's Wi-Mentor Program, high school teams from buildOn, and groups from Alpha Community Services, Sacred Heart University, and Fairfield Prep's Fathers & Sons Program.

 
 Even Mayor Finch decided to get in on the action and plant a tree at Washington Park!

There was a lot of fun to be had as we did our part in caring for Bridgeport.

We planted seedlings in the Library's new "Michelle Obama Garden."

The results of our Stone Sculpture workshop were laid out in the Library Garden.

These pickle barrels were repurposed into planters.

We send out a heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers and organizations that made this day possible!

For the big celebration, we will be having a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at the downtown Bridgeport Public Library on June 4th, from 12pm-3pm. Come out and have a good time!

*Even though the Sweep is over, you can still do your part! If you would like to continue participating in Groundwork Bridgeport's biannual Park City Sweep, please contact Jack Dillon at director@groundworkbridgeport.org or 203-335-6126. I've already signed up!

Mural Painting at St Francis Lead Safe Home

Public Allies (an AmeriCorps program) has given me amazing opportunities in service. Last fall, I got to participate in the making of a new community garden. On Martin Luther King Day, we showed a film on the Children's Marches and then played scrabble in an elderly home (I love Scrabble, and I love listening to the stories of old folks).

For our spring "Global Youth Service Day," I was asked to lead a team to provide a mural for a lead-safe home in Hartford. Honored, I accepted and planned for the day": a simple, but colorful mural for the children who live in this home to enjoy while they spend time in the small, fenced in yard.

With paints and brushes at the ready, the team arrived as I was drawing the design onto the six 4' x 8' sheets of plywood. 

We blocked in a lot of the colors pretty quickly. Then the wind started, and the temperature began to drop quickly. With the gusts of wind came spilled paint.

The first 4' x 8' panel:

The third (apparently I am missing a photo of the second!):

The fourth:

The fifth:

The sixth:

None of them are finished! The cold and wind soon drove everyone inside, and the coordinators and I decided to call it a day. I've decided to return in a couple weeks to add the finishing touches - more trees and animals, and people enjoying their day along the rainbow hills.

 
Poor grass...

With hope the murals will brighten up the days of children who will come to live here. Go Mural Team!

On the Job Scene

Some of you may know about the program I am in, but for those of you that don't, here's the general rundown: I was accepted into an AmeriCorps program (in partnership with RYASAP) known as Public Allies. As a Public Ally, I work Monday through Thursday at a Bridgeport area non-profit. This is called my placement. Every Ally has a placement mostly suited to their preferences and skills. At my particular placement, I am implementing their new marketing strategy and teaching reproductive health in Bridgeport high schools (sex ed). In addition, I am spearheading the organization of their annual teen talent show and art exhibit. On Fridays, Allies meet in New Haven for professional development workshops. On top of this, we are committed to a Team Service Project (TSP) to implement in our city. For Bridgeport, we have developed the project "Bridgeport Beautifies," an initiative in urban beautification. We've partnered with other organizations and individuals to bring about gardens, murals, and city clean up. It's awesome.

The thing is, this program is a ten month program. Come the end of June we are all jobless. Stellar people, but jobless stellar people. Unless we've worked it out ahead of time...

I still work at my old part-time job, ESCAPE to the Arts, in Danbury. I will be enjoying yet another SPARKS trip this year, this time to San Francisco and Los Angeles! (More about this later.) But it certainly won't pay the bills for the summer.

The other issue? My beloved placement wants me to come back for a second year. (WIN!) Again, this means another ten months, starting in September, in Public Allies (though the year works differently when you have the privilege of being a Second Year Ally). Which leaves this eight week gap of little-to-no income in the summer.

I saw another AmeriCorps opportunity with a program called MYO. Conveniently, an eight week summer program to produce the play Othello with a targeted audience of teenagers. Conveniently running through July and August.

You know I had to try.

Well, the work and effort paid off, because I was offered the Team Leader position for the production crew! I accepted, and now this is one more thing to celebrate!

Feel free to tell me something that's going on good for you. I love celebrating other people's successes as much as my own!

Kickin' it Off!

Public Allies Bridgeport held their Bridgeport Beautifies March into Spring kick off this past Thursday! Despite this surprisingly snowy spring, we are looking forward to getting into the streets and gardens.

Mayor Bill Finch stopped by to say some words of encouragement. This guy loves beautification projects.

We had all kinds of food, snazzy music, and a wealth of spirited Allies. Kick it off, Bpt. We are rising.