My Project I Started Volunteering At St. Vincent De Paul

Miss Brenda and the Loveladies is a story about a woman – Brenda who had a very comfortable life; she was an entrepreneur and was very prosperous. At one moment of her life, she is threatened by the prison life which according to her was an eye opener since it was during that tough moment that she made a promise to God concerning the group of people that she had totally forgotten about. I favor chapter 3 of Religious Faith in Correctional Context by Kent R. Kerley the most. Prison Ministry as a Divine Calling is my favorite subcategory. I feel that this subcategory goes perfectly with Brenda. Working in a prison is more than just doing public service and it is also more than a career, it is a divine calling (Kerley 2010:32). She had narrowly avoided going to prison and for that, she became sympathetic to the other women in the prison. She became determined to go and help them recover and begin new lives after leaving prison. She started out by inviting seven female ex-convicts to her home and showed them how they could survive in the outside world. Being a courageous and a determined woman, she used her resources to build a place for the ex-convicts to start their lives. In the process of helping these women, she too became renewed through her perspective of life. The small institution she had started amazingly expanded over time and became one of the largest faith-based rehabilitation centers.

At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.

During the Fall 2016 semester I had the opportunity to intern with Centro La Familia Advocacy Services, Inc in Fresno, California. Centro La Familia is one of a few organizations/agencies in Fresno County that not only provides social services, educational programs, but they also have advocacy and intervention services in rural and urban areas in Fresno County. I was allowed to intern within the victim services department of Centro La Familia, which is responsible in assisting victims of all crimes.My primary task as an intern was to learn and to help the victim advocates of Centro La Familia.Over the course of my internship I have participated in community outreach and attended meetings. In addition, I have done numerous filings, copies, translations, interpretations and filling out forms for clients. I worked closely with two very experienced victim advocates that help me transition to working in this environment, but also worked with other victim advocates to gain even more insight about the victim services they provide.

Visiting the Prairie du Chien Correctional Facility was a truly eye opening experience. I could go on all day about the things that I saw, heard, and learned. Immediately following the experience, I called my mom to tell her all about it. She really doesn’t understand what is going on in the system, which is frustrating for me, so I talked to my Grandpa instead, as he seems to know a little more and be more open to new information and ideas.

During the week in Chicago, I grew closer to God, learned how to be a better leader, and learned to put others before myself, which is what helped me become a better person. Serving others that had situations worse than I could imagine was life changing. The idea I could make such a tremendous change in someone’s life while doing activities I enjoyed, opened my eyes to the potentials of serving. After the week ended and I returned home, I wanted to do more for the people around me who were less fortunate. Going into freshman year, I made the decision to volunteer at Urban Vision. I help kids who have newly immigrated to Akron and the United States find items at a holiday shop for their families and themselves. Many of these kids went directly to the necessity aisle, (i.e. toilet paper, laundry detergent, and soaps) to get these items for their families, even though there were plenty of toys for the kids themselves. These kids helped me realize I should be grateful for everything in life, from shelter over my head to the clothes on my

So, my friend and I gladly agreed to help him carry all his food and followed the boy to his apartment. When we got there, he opened the door and I was absolutely astonished at what I saw. Never in a million years would I have guessed that this boy who was always smiling and as happy as could be lived in a place that had only two pieces of furniture, an old falling apart couch and fridge with no food. This showed me that you can never really know what's going on in someone's life. The happiest of people could be going through some of the worst times of their lives. This experience and many others that I’ve had through my NCL experience are the reason that I love community service so much. Not only do I have the ability to impact someone's life through each charity I help, they also have an impact on me. I find charity work to be my biggest interest because I love seeing the impact I can have on someone’s life that they may have never had before. I am excited to continue my community service work throughout my college experience and look forward to finding a way that I can include this passion in my chosen major or future line of

Since volunteering I have meet some admirable, nurturing, and complexed group of people who have devoted their careers to helping families in crucial situations. These group of inspiring people have influenced me in so many ways- especially everyone at the Juvenile Detention Center. When I look around in a room at a meeting for a case, I am absolutely amazed by the number of people that really want to actually help these children get back home or find a safe place to live and improve every aspect of that child’s family life. And we did even know these people but we are all here for the same coming good no one is against

The reality for these teens is, “death isn’t just a possibility–it’s a reality they accept.” But Piquero hopes government officials see the urgency in his research and will help give disadvenataged teens more opportunities to become productive members of society. These kids need education and jobs. Chad Houser, exectutive director of Dallas-based Cafe Momentum, offers young men coming out of jail internships. Many of the men he helps realize the pride of completing an honest day’s work. “A simple pat on the back can make all the difference for disadvantaged juvenile offenders.” For many, they “feel a sense of approval and joy that comes in living up to expectations.” Their attitudes begin to change when they see they have something to live and word towards, instead of “accepting their dismal circumstances as fate.”

I talked to the man, who asked to go by “Richard”, after the meeting concluded. We sat outside the conference room and drank coffee while he told me about his lifelong battle with alcohol and drugs. I think what struck out the most to me was just how sad and regretful his tone of voice was as he told his story to me. He recalled how he first shot up with heroin at the age of fourteen, and how his life was a vicious cycle of drugs and depression afterwards. “Richard” told me that he was in and out of juvenile halls throughout his teenage years and how, when he was supposed to be in school, would skip classes to drink on the curb or inject himself with heroin in some dirty gas station bathroom. “I was in and out of prisons too, once I got old enough.” I remember him telling me. After two three year stints in prison on drug and alcohol related charges, the correctional

I was so nervous, I kept mapping out the exit plans in this room. I didn’t want to be there because I had just got heaps of new toys. We hosted two wonderful ladies named Dolly and Betty. We made a desert and decorated the table while the shelter provided the Christmas dinner. As I sat there, I was just counting hours, eating my food, and dreaming about which toy I was going to use first. As boredom overtook me, I began to listen to the conversations at the table. Dolly was a woman who had been homeless for 6 months. Her husband had died and he was the main source of income, so without his money she had lost her home. She had just started the Bridge to Life program that helped homeless people get their life back on track. Through 10 months of different steps, the shelter helped get them a job and pay off debts while housing and feeding them. As I heard this, I began to realize that some homeless people were not just druggies. They were people that had stories. They had fallen on hard times and couldn’t get back on their feet. I could feel myself soften and become more interested in what was happening with them. I began to ask questions and Dolly told it like it was, without sugarcoating the cold hard truth. I felt guilty for previously complaining about not being able to play with my new toys and these people didn’t even have a home much less security like I did. I had such a perspective shift the next year I asked to serve on Thanksgiving. We volunteered to be servers and take the shelter occupants’ order. We then got the food and served it to them like a five-star restaurant. As I served more people, I began to see the gratitude and thankfulness in these people’s heart. I tried to locate Dolly but she had done so well in the program and moved out in her own house. Hearing about her success

Sometimes you walk through a door, unsure what is waiting on the other side. You have to believe all will work out somehow. As I left correctional health after 28 years, I was lost. Still too young to retire, I didn’t know in which direction to go. A week before my last day, I saw Christine, a social worker who had a case load of Hepatitis C inmates at the jail. I was always fascinated with her no nonsense style, which at times bordered on the crude. She worked for Body Positive, an HIV/AIDS non-profit agency. I liked her spunk and the freedom she had to be herself.

A few times a semester I would volunteer at the Prison Book Program, where I would read letters from incarcerated individuals from all over the country and find 2-3 books that match their interests and reading criteria. Opening each letter and hearing people’s stories reminded me of the harsh realities of our world today, and the difficulty many people face in preserving their human dignity and self-worth.

The community engagement and service I’ve participated in has been unique. My community of Hudson, NY is home of the formerly know New York State Training School For Girls opened in 1904. The reformatory school housed “juvenile delinquents” ages twelve to sixteen, and among the most notable was jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. Through The Prison Public Memory Project my team and I were able to exhume the history of the prison through records kept by the institution. At the NYS Archives located in Albany, NY we analyzed legitimate documents recovered from the institution itself. We helped some local family members find record of their loved ones who had been detained in the reformatory. Some of the material unearthed seemed to suggest the institution

The St Vincent de Paul community was discovered in 1833 by a 20 year old man named Frederic Ozanam. It was established by like minded people that both had the same wishes to put their faith into action. The St Vincent de Paule society in Australia has over 40,000 members including volunteers and over 800,000 members internationally. St Vincent de Paule reaches out to the most needed with their Conferences, Special Works and Vinnies shops. They help people in need and do not discriminate against cultural or religious beliefs.

Upon arrival, our first activity was to work in the trailer park. While these people were not homeless, they were in quite severe poverty. However, they were nothing like one may expect. One was a very friendly older woman who had worked and gone to college in her younger days but she had been abducted and hurt severely in her twenties. Even though that happen, she was cheerful and had poetic talents. Another was a family whose screen door we replaced because they could not afford a new one. The father was hard working and was made sure all of his children had an education and a roof over their head while the mother cooked and cleaned. Each was doing their part to make the best of their lives. The last was a middle aged couple who needed their trailer badly cleaned. They not only were thankful but they prayed over our group before we left. We a blessing to each of their lives but, they were to ours as