There were a lot of factors in play as I applied for Americorps. The most weighing factor was that I really wanted to serve in my own community. I had spent the last year dedicating time and energy to a wonderful organization I cared deeply about in Nicaragua. However great that experience was, I left it wanting to serve in my community. I wanted to live, work, and serve in a place that was my home. Americorps provides the perfect opportunity to do this.
In my position I work side by side with the Home Repair Director to provide quality home repair for low income home owners. Every weekend we head out to project sites and work with volunteers from the community to help keep our neighbors warm, safe and dry. We often find ourselves building wheel chair ramps for disabled or elderly members of the community. Sometimes putting new metal roofs on homes that have leaked for years, or replacing pieces of flooring that have rotted out. In my position I help prepare for these work sites by ordering and picking up materials, organizing our supplies and tools, disposing of construction waste, and clean up.
Service provides such a wonderful community gathering point. We work with people of all different backgrounds and provide the opportunity for members of our community to do the same. We talk about fostering hope, and building community as being at the core of our mission, but that work really happens. It really truly happens here, and that has been a wonderful thing to be a part of. It’s a vulnerable moment to first of ask for help, and secondly to invite strangers into your home to help you. Engaging in this process with people has taught me a lot about what living in poverty looks like and all the stories along the way. I have gained a greater ability to facilitate conversations around some of these topics that we don’t tend to talk about a lot in our lives. I have learned how valuable service work can be as a community gathering point, that may be hard to find in other parts of our lives. I have also gained a wealth of on the ground training in the construction trade that will be valuable for my future.
Programs like the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board AmeriCorps provide incredible opportunities on multiple fronts. They increase the capacity of non-profits across the state to function at higher levels by providing a motivated and creative work force. At an even more valuable level it creates real opportunities for individuals to serve and engage in their communities in an area the feel drawn too. It can act as on the ground job training, community building, and social service work.
My coworkers benefit from another set of hands at COVER, the homeowners we serve benefit from a more efficient COVER staff with an Ameriorps member on board. Lastly our volunteer base also benefits from another person to help facilitate work, and foster relationships between volunteers and homeowners.
When you look at the big issues like housing and homelessness that VHCB AmeriCorps is addressing, I really think Americorp programs are an incredible resource for these issues. A service term with Americorps not only trains you in a field, and provides support and human power to organizations doing really good and interesting work, but implants an understanding and care for those root issues VHCB AmeriCorps is looking at. I know more about what housing opportunity looks like for Vermonters than I would anywhere else, I know how to address some of the physical issues of home decay, but more importantly I have been exposed to the greater housing issues in our state, and will carry that on with me beyond here. When you see at a daily basis, how hard non-profits work to recruit and train volunteers, work to fund there organization and commit themselves to educate their community, it is impossible not to become a better citizen of your community. I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve and excited about the expansion of the Americorps programs!
