Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

The shed broke. All of that time spent putting up a shed last week to have a weekend of rain and the structure is toast! Granted we didn’t have the roof on because it required more expertise and time but still, I am a little bummed. I drove into work yesterday in a torrential storm with the sheds walls flimsily hyperextended, only 5 screws holding in each piece of it. I think it will be more of a long-term project than a quick task now.

Other than the shed mishap, the job is going really well. I am staying busy and interested in what I do and that is key for my happiness in a job. I am now inputting some of the data collected from the surveys that I did at the produce markets. It is really interesting to see the results. The surveys ask questions about what resources the clients would want to receive information on at each site. Ideally we would be able to have a general idea for each location what that specific population wants and needs in terms of services and information on resources that they can access. I recently was listening to an NPR story yesterday about a young woman in New York City who has a child and it living day to day on poverty. The article was about cognitive bandwidth and explained the taxing mental stress that being in poverty has on your brain. It actually inhibits you from being able to think long term or remember things well. What this woman says is her biggest regret is going on welfare when she first well into the situation because she didn’t take the time to look into all of the options she had in terms of what services she should apply for, what the stipulations were for each one etc. She ended up applying for cash assistance but this program requires you attend job training every day. This merely added to her stress and hurt her ability to get out of the poverty she was in in the first place because she would have to sacrifice school and a job to attend these sessions daily just to get a $142 check twice a month, much needed supplemental income.

Not having information or knowing all of the options is especially dangerous for people in poverty because they are so mentally and physically stressed. It is harder to think long term when you have to survive day to day. These resources I am hoping to provide information on are extremely important because the odds that clients will find them on their own is very unlikely and we have the contacts of great social workers at the foodbank that can help them navigate the complicated welfare and social services system. I am hoping that the data I collect and analyze will lead to a better use and efficiency of the services provided.

Story on NPR below:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/07/14/330434597/this-is-your-stressed-out-brain-on-scarcity

This was the first week I drove the van, and boy did I drive it a lot! The Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbus (BGCC) has a summer site at Pheasant Run in Pickerington, OH. It is about a 25 minute drive from downtown Columbus. I had not been to the site yet, and I definitely wanted to make it out there before the summer was over…needless to say, I looked forward to visiting it. On Monday morning I was asked to pick up the teens at the Pickerington site and take them to Bank of America’s office location near Polaris. Although the task was daunting, I looked forward to the trip! I drove 30 minutes to Pickerington, another 30 minutes to Polaris, 30 minutes back to Pickerington, and 30 minutes back to our Westside location! After driving the van, navigating my little Saturn was a breeze! The trip to Bank of America was part of a 4 part career preparation program operated by the Boys and Girls Clubs. The official name is “Career Launch” and the program aims to prepare club members for professional careers and life after high school/college. BGCC partnered with the Attoney General’s Office to bring in personnel to give resume and cover letter workshops. Participating in these workshops was a prerequisite to attend the “field trips”. During the visit to Bank of America , club members had the opportunity to meet with senior executives as well as participate in mock interviews with full time staff-members ranging from mid-level to senior-level employees. The other two events will be held at Nationwide, Chase, and Huntington.
Later in the week I also got to drive the van to COSI, and help pick-up BGCC members at the Southside location for the weekly basketball league game!

I can hardly believe my time is more than half-way over! I continue to be amazed at the wonderful events I can partake in as well as the skills I am always learning or developing. Since my main job this summer was and still is the Brain Gain Coordinator, I am preparing a summary of the program to present to the Board next week! It will be a good review of my summer thus far and provide practice for my presentation to the Columbus Foundation at the end of the Fellowship!

Summer Brain Gain Read books for the elementary school members!

Looks like I have some organizing to do!
-BG supplies

Kayaks on the River

On Saturday FLOW partnered with HERO USA to do a kayak/canoe paddle on a 3.5 mile stretch of the Olentangy River. HERO USA is a fellow non-profit that was “formed to provide access to sports training and educational resources for children facing social, physical and economic obstacles” and they provide kayaks and canoes for our canoe floats. FLOW does a second Saturday float each month and this month it was a wildlife based float with a macro invertebrate display at the Kenny Park riffle and a fish shocking near the end of the river float.

The morning started by meeting at Northmoor Park which is where the float would end. After signing a waiver and picking up a life bus we all boarded a school bus and were bused up river to Broad Meadows Park where we would get in the river. For quite a few of us this was the first time on a school bus in a while. After a brief lesson on kayaking we were allowed in the river with our group. 

The river had some shallow areas where it seemed like we were gliding through the waterway with only six inches of water beneath us. Other parts we got stuck and needed to be pushed through to make it over some large rocks or shallow areas.  

Searching for Macro Invertibrates

Picking from the net

The macro invertebrate stop was a hands on stop where we were given nets and could go and kick around some rocks in the river. The person with the net stands downstream and the person kicking is upstream. The kicking helps pick up macro invertebrates that are living on the river bottom. The net is then taken over to shore and you try to identify what was kicked up. 

Several people were able to find crayfish, damselflies, various water worms and other bugs. Ohio EPA and water quality researchers can determine the quality of the water based upon what they find in the testing. A three tiered system is used which indicates that some tolerate poor water quality, good water quality, and excellent water quality. Also at this spot a freshwater mussel that was estimated to be more than 20 years old was found and put back into the river. 

Does this mussel and I share a birthday?

When we reached Northmoor Park we got out of the river and then walked to the river’s edge to see what fish the division of wildlife had shocked for us to see. In their shocking tank they had over 12 species of fish, including various species of carpsuckers, a few grass carp, smallmouth bass, and different varieties of sunfish. Carpsuckers look just like carp, except are native and have a mouth which is made for sucking insects off the bottom of the river. 

Holding the catch

A species of Carpsucker

This was a fun and education filled day, the more people that get on the river, the more they will appreciate its beauty and will care what happens to it. 

Finally backpack stuffings have arrived!  I have spent the past weeks, maybe even month, sorting, analyzing, and imagining every possible aspect of backpack stuffing events.  As I mentioned before Backpack Distributions are a big part of the services we provide for the families living in Homeport communities.  In the three or four weeks I have not only been scrutinizing every step of the process, but actually creating and forming many of the processes myself.  One essential step in the process is stuffing the backpacks so they are ready to be distributed to children.  Since no current employees have been involved in the backpack stuffings or distribution events in past years my boss and I have been completely in the dark about what to expect.  We have been calculating and guessing along the way to plan out each backpack process, most specifically the backpack stuffings.

This past week our first backpack stuffing event arrived, after tireless preparation and calculation.  I had planned every aspect of the night: where everything should be setup, how backpacks should be passed through an assembly line, how many volunteers we would have at each station, etc.  I had no idea what to expect, so my solution to preparing for unknown outcomes was to plan as thoroughly as possible.  The preparation paid off in some ways, but, as with any great volunteer event, the night was full of surprises.  We were expecting 10-12 volunteers to show up from the Chase Adelante volunteer group; two hours before the event we found out there were 30 people coming.  I had created backpack checklists for each backpack, but when it came time to print them off, my computer would not allow me to sign-in (apparently summer fellows aren’t expected to want access to their computers after hours…)  The evening went on like this.  I had planned how backpacks would be stuffed and how the evening would run, but of course nothing went exactly according to plan.  Luckily We had an amazing group of Chase employees and their families who were flexible and adapted to the evening’s task to ultimately stuff almost 250 backpacks, helping to put us well on our way to reaching our goal of stuffing 1,500 backpacks.  As the checklist station was having trouble keeping up with the pace of the assembly line, everyone pulled together to join the checklist people and get every backpack checked and ready to be distributed.  It was amazing to see everyone adapt to get the job done and it was so fun to see the event that I planned so thoroughly come together in surprising ways.  I can’t wait to take what we learned from last week’s event into the upcoming backpack stuffing events!

Our wonderful Chase Adelante volunteers!

My first volunteer orientation explaining the backpack stuffing process

My first and least favorite job was a position as a sales associate in a golf clothing store. I was a great employee; I was awarded employee of the month four times in the one year I worked there. But my one – well, biggest – flaw, the one thing I didn’t do, the one thing I wouldn’t do, was suggestive selling. Our socks were $5 a pair. There was no way I was going to casually persuade customers to buy a $5 pair of socks. I worked for every dollar I had, and I assumed everyone else did the same. Pressuring people into parting with those dollars was not something I was comfortable doing.
That’s when I decided I wanted to work for a nonprofit! And Red, White, and Boom was a reminder of that.

Children’s Hunger Alliance was a sponsor of Boom 2014. We had a make-your-own trail mix table- of course M&Ms went the fastest- activity books, and a cookbook cover coloring contest for kids. Our main attraction, though, was dinner. We had 500 meals to serve to kids for free, and if we didn’t serve them, we had to toss them, per USDA regulations.
To attract 500 kids to come to our tent between 4-6pm we had to do a lot of walking and talking, spreading the word and encouraging families and groups of adolescences to take advantage of our offer. As I walked up to parents, their smiles froze and their eyes showed an inner battle between wanting to be polite and really not wanting to be solicited to. They were so uncomfortable for 45 seconds; they thought I was selling something.

But as I finished my little speech about a free meal with a weak, “…just so you know!” and they realized there wasn’t a “all you have to do is…” they relaxed, and they began to see me as a human being instead of a robotic salesperson.

I walked away so happy every time I upturned their expectations. It’s a great feeling to be able to connect with and help people without having profit as an end goal.

This week there were no cultural orientation classes at CRIS, so I spent some of my free time speaking to different employees to get a sense of the other tasks CRIS performs. I spoke to Nathan Szabados who works in resettlement as a program coordinator applying for benefits for clients through the county and coordinating with Church World Service (CWS) and Episcopal Migration Ministries to create case files before refugees arrive in the U.S. Nathan sat me down and explained to me the long and complicated AOR (Affidavit Of Relation) sponsorship program designed to help bring family members of refugees already resettled to the US who were left behind for one reason or another, or their cases were lost in the camps. Up until 2008, the AOR process was easy to apply for and CRIS was resettling upwards of 1000-1500 people a year. However, the government realized that some former refugees were committing fraud by claiming non-family members and so the whole program was nixed. Now CRIS resettles around 600 people a year and ZERO through the AOR program. Nathan attempted to explain the complex processes behind the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and their new form process. To explain the entire thing would mean writing a novel, but the main lesson I learned was that although it is necessary for immigrant and refugee resettlement to be determined at the national level, the bureaucracy and ambiguity of the AOR forms means a whole lot of wasted time with no results for refugee families in America or people living in the camps abroad. Of the hundreds of AOR’s the CRIS staff have completed, none of have resulted in refugees being resettled in the U.S., and this is true for all other non-profit refugee organizations in America. I feel like the AOR’s represent the frustration some of the CRIS employees feel with government bureaucracy, its size, complexity, and murky guidelines that makes reuniting refugee families extremely difficult and time consuming and result in wasted resources and overflowing refugee camps.

Another issue talked about around the office deals with President Obama and his asking for close to $4 billion from congress to deal with the Central American child immigration dilemma on the U.S.’s border with Mexico. The main concern for CRIS and other organizations like CRIS, is that the Office of Refugee Resettlement plans to reprogram $94 million from their budget for refugee services to deal with the child migrant dilemma which would mean a drastic cut to many of the services CRIS and other non-profits offer to their clients and the reduction in CRIS’s staff size. I realize funding and the loss of funding are problems all non-profits face, but in my mind this not only affects the non-profit employees and the people they serve in central Ohio, but also people abroad. Refugees living in camps who have been waiting to be resettled in the US or to be reunited with their family but are now told they have to wait because there just isn’t enough money for them, for their needs, their lives.

Below is a link with more information on the budget dilemma and below that are the numbers to Ohio’s senators. If you can call them and ask to approve the emergency funds President Obama has proposed, you would be helping to improve the lives of child migrants at our border and refugees abroad:

http://www.rcusa.org/www.rcusa.org/stop-cuts-to-refugee-services

Sen. Brown – (202) 224-2315   Sen. Portman – (202) 224-3353

History of Clinton Como Park

Olentangy Park Roller Coaster

In 1893 the Villa opened on what is now the Olentangy Village Apartments, and Clinton-Como Park. The Villa was a picnic space that was connected to the rest of Columbus by the High Street trolley line. The park began changing hands and its name likewise changed to Olentangy Amusement Park and grew into the largest in the United States. Gradually the park added thrills like a carousel, merry-go-round, and one of the largest swimming pools in the country. There also was an open air amphitheater, pony track, and arcade. The park continued to trade hands and in 1938 L.L. LeVeque purchased the park and sold off many of its rides, including the carousel which is now at the Columbus Zoo. The swimming pool was at first used by the apartments, but was eventually filled in. The area not used as part of the apartments became a wooded lot that was used as an illegal dumpsite for years until its cleanup.

Cleanup and Recovery
Starting around 2002 the first significant cleanups were held to remove debris that had been left over from the amusement park, and that had been illegally dumped over the last 50+ years. To this day the park still has occasional cases of dumping, but the community keeps a close watch over its park.
Cleaning up debris was just the first step in the restoration of this space. After the debris had been cleared invasive species were removed, and native trees and shrubs were planted in the newly created space. In 2012 some of the recently planted trees were threatened by the addition of a buried Columbia Gas pipeline. Though some of the trees were lost Columbia Gas invested more than $50,000 back into the park with larger replacement trees, native tall grasses and butterfly gardens.
Similar efforts have also been undertake at the neighboring Olentangy Village Apartments. There pesticides have been reduced, no mow zones instituted and 100s of trees have been planted to help protect the nearby Olentangy.
The community sponsors frequent cleanups and is home to many dog walkers who can enjoy the wild growing mulberries and black raspberries when they are in season. A search on Facebook reveals several group and event pages revolving around the park, and an independent community web page also exists which includes links for what to do if you notice illegal dumping. The park also has a printed natural resources management plan that should guide future management practices.

Timeline
1880-Robert Turner purchased the area that became the Villa and turned it into a picnic area
1893-Opened the park and named it the Villa
1895-The Villa is purchased by Columbus Railway, Power, and Lights
1899-Purchased by Dusenbury brothers, renamed Olentangy Park. “Figure Eight” rollercoaster installed.
1904-Park purchases the “Japanese Gardens” from the St. Louis World’s Fair.
1910-Park Zoo added with monkeys, elephants, and bears. Also arcade added.
C.1914-Grand Carousel installed.
1920-World’s largest swimming pool built.
1923-Park bought by Olentangy Amusement Company.
1929-Heanlein brothers begin to lease park.
1937-L.L. Leveque Company purchases park and begins to liquidate its amusements.
1938-Olentany Park closes.
1939-Park begins to be levelled for Olentangy Village apartments
1950s-Parklands not developed begin to be used as an illegal dumping site.
2002-First major park cleanups begin.
2007-Most major debris is cleared from wooded areas.
2008-1450 trees planted in park.
2009-Major honeysuckle removal, 240 native shrubs planted and 100 more native trees.
2010-507 trees planted, numerous litter cleanups and honeysuckle removals, $3000 donated between FLOW and Columbus Parks for Clinton-Como improvements.
2011-270 trees planted.
2012-Columbia Gas pipeline goes in through park. To help restore and repair the park, Columbia Gas spends more than $50,000 on trees, and native prairie plants.
2012-Various entities come together to make a Clinton-Como natural resources management plan. Julie Smiley, Jan Jacobs, and Laura Fay of FLOW are key resources.
2013-268 trees are planted.
2014-Experimental wild flower plantings done, tree planting continues to nearby Olentangy Village Apartments.

“Be an Apprentice” the theme of camp this week, but it really describes my experience for the whole summer.  At the Ohio Craft Museum and at the Columbus Foundation, I have learned so many new skills from the masters  around me, whether they be artists, local leaders, educators, or experienced non-profit professionals.  I am learning organization and planning skills from my boss, how non-profits function and operate from those at the Columbus Foundation, and new art techniques and ways of thinking from all the artists that I am meeting.

Additionally, I am trying to be a master in my own position, particularly by modeling good behavior and skills to the campers and the teen volunteers.  Managing the teen volunteers is one of my tasks for the summer, and this week it was definitely a challenge.  Some of the volunteers are pretty close in age to the older campers, so sometimes they forget that they are supposed to be classroom helpers and instead are goofing off with the kids or working on their own projects instead of assisting the campers.  Getting them back on track with little nudges and positive reinforcement instead of getting frustrated at them is the goal, but it is hard to be supportive and positive when there is so much else going on.  But good classroom skills and management are learned by experience, so I have to remind myself that they are learning by doing and watching, and make sure that when they are watching me, they are seeing useful and positive things. This is especially important to remember as I think about my future career, especially because I want to work in museums where people are constantly on display.

Being both the apprentice and the master is exhausting, but totally worth it!  This week there have been a lot of multi-day projects that require a lot of steps and supplies, so getting all of that ready wiped me out!  But, as usual, we have a great group of campers who are excited and ready to make amazing art, so it all pays off in the end!

Answering machines have always terrified me. They’re composed of the pressure to fill an empty space that we feel during an awkward pause in conversation or when staring at a blank Word document with an assignment due, but instead with limited time to do it in. I’m sure a lot of my fellow introverts will understand the other component: once you’ve said it into the answering machine, it can’t be erased. Your ums and uhs and awkward ramblings are preserved and floating in the ether, inaccessible to you but available for your professional acquaintance or the person you want to date (or whoever else, as long as you’re trying to impress them) to play again, and again, and again.

They probably don’t, rationally speaking, but we aren’t talking about rationality here. I put off making calls not because I’m worried about talking to the person, but because I’m afraid of going to voicemail.

I have to leave a lot of voicemails right now because I’ve moved on from the planning stage and into the preparation stage of the loan closet program overhaul. I find it hard to believe that I’m about to finish up week 6, but I feel like I’m exactly where I should be, answering machines aside. A lot of my time now involves feeling other organizations out and a lot of educated guesswork – are they open to a partnership? what would this business charge us for space? what do they want from us? what will this change, and will everyone at the ALSA go for it or will there be resistance?

This is much more cerebral work than what I’ve done in my previous jobs and for my social work field placement. I’m getting experience with cost-benefit analysis, with accounting and with data interpretation and customer satisfaction. It’s a grounding in business that my education has lacked so far, and I’m not terrible at it even if it doesn’t come as intuitively to me as knowing what to say to a patient (and even if there’s a little more anxiety involved). My accountant dad would be proud.