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Community-AID Blog

Programming Innovation for Youth-serving Organizations​

" 'Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.' (William James)" by Mitch Lindstrom

11/18/2016

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Growing up, parents are constantly reinforcing behaviors and societal norms, which hopefully, will equip their kids to develop healthy habits allowing them to integrate seamlessly into adult society. For many of you, I’m sure you can relate to hearing at least one of the following phrases:  “make sure you eat your vegetables,” “brush your teeth,” “say please and thank you,” “don’t stare,” “use your inside voice,” or “no, you can’t wear your Spiderman pajamas to school.” Aside from those, something I heard my mother constantly reiterate to me was, “what you do with your time matters.”  

From a young age, my mother spent a lot of time getting us actively involved in the community by highlighting the importance of volunteering. For my mother – a single mom working in corporate America – volunteering as a family was a wonderful way to spend time with my brother and I, while still contributing the local community. However, as I’ve grown older, I’ve started to realize the importance of those early volunteer experiences in shaping my life. Whether my mother knew it or not, she was teaching me about compassion, empathy, tolerance, gratitude, diversity, and the importance of building relationships. Not to mention, I learned a lesson that has guided me throughout my life: I learned that I have the power to make positive change. 

My mother would emphasize volunteering as important to building our resumes, when in reality she was trying to provide us with experiences that transcended job readiness. Serving meals at the local homeless shelter or collecting school supplies for underserved kids didn’t build my work ethic as much as it exposed me to critical social issues and societal inequalities. By showing children the individuals and areas where help is needed in the community, you can tap into how they would like to make a difference. 

Taking this all into consideration, it only makes sense that I’ve found myself working in the Community-AID Lab. Even though I never envisioned myself as a researcher, the Community-AID lab has shown me the role of research in guiding service work to make a measureable impact. I now find myself surrounded by likeminded and compassionate individuals who are also eager to create positive change in their communities.  
Whether you’re a college kid conducting community-based research or a seven year-old handing out water at a 5K race, you’re bound to learn something from the experience.  
​

So, what are you waiting for?

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"Emphasizing 'Community' in Community Psychology: Using community engagement to harness energy and motivation" by Sara Stacy

11/4/2016

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As a graduate student in a PhD program, I am often overwhelmed by the amount of demands that I must attend to. On any given day, I am trying to juggle what feels like a tidal wave of responsibilities, such as: coursework, class readings, project leadership tasks, data organization, literature reviews, thesis writing, manuscript writing, etc. etc.  Not to mention, I try to maintain a healthy(ish) lifestyle of eating well and exercising at least 4 times a week. Additionally, there are friends, family and a partner I to try to maintain relationships with, somehow. Current and past graduate students everywhere would echo my sentiment of how stressful these competing demands are, this is not a new topic of concern.
 
But how can one possibly find the energy to wake up and be ready to tackle the endless list of To-Do’s?
 
In my work as a budding Community Psychologist, I find energy and motivation in just that: Community Psychology. While the demands of a graduate program become overwhelming, I often long for those community experiences with various partners, practitioners, leaders, and youth that I work alongside. These are the individuals that live and work within the community that I aim to support, evaluate, partner with, and learn from to support youth. I yearn for the powerful moments when a community partner considers the work I do as an “asset” to them. I find energy to keep moving forward in my career when I experience first-hand a program I help to evaluate transform youth and motivate them to be change agents. I find motivation to get up in the morning when I remember an instance when a community partner reminded me of what a great job I did in our work together. I find that these experiences are invaluable to remembering why I do the challenging and exhausting work that I do every day. These experiences help to ground me in the work I am doing and give me that extra push when I need it most. 

​This is why I am a Community Psychologist.
 
This is why I am here.
 
And this is how I tackle the endless list of To-Do’s. 


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