Stanford University Urban Studies &
Urban Summer Fellowship
Student perspectives of community-engaged learning and research across the United States
As my time in Boulder quickly comes to an end, I find myself reflecting very seriously about the work that I did this summer. At a superficial level, I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to learn as much as I did from my experience. The entire time I was at The Community Foundation, I found myself pushing myself to quickly learn new skills in order to complete the substantive tasks that were asked of me. I feel an increased professional competence that I will one day carry with me into the workforce.
On a deeper level, knowing that I am leaving this Saturday is very difficult for me. I came into this position with the unrealistic expectation that the infamous achievement gap in Boulder County would disappear as a result of my work. It is now at the end of the summer that I soberly have to report that that is not the case; the achievement gap is still here and it continues to hurt the Latino community disproportionately. While it feels wrong to leave when I have not done enough to ensure educational equality in the community, I feel comforted by the hard lessons that I learned while I was here. Social change takes a long time happen. Social change is not about any one person. Social change is enacted step by step. Even though I didn’t singlehandedly close the achievement gap in Boulder County, I realize now that that was never going to be my role. Instead, I did my part by helping my organization move its mission forward. I used my unique skills, knowledge, and perspective to contribute my piece to the solution. This experience helped me gain invaluable insights on the role that I can play within a community. Social change is possible and I contributed to it in this community, but there is a lot of work left to do and I know that this community is strong enough to make it happen. I leave Boulder on Saturday, but I like to think that I am leaving my mark, and at the same time, taking with me many learned lessons. In order to better provide services for the Latino community, I have spoken out about Latino needs, not as spokesperson for the Latino community, but as a Latino myself who cares. I take with me a refined passion for public service, understanding that my role in the community is not to solve problems, but to find ways to empower my community to collectively find solutions to our problems. Most importantly, however, I leave Boulder with pride. I have once again seen my community come together and stand firm in the face of adversity. I have seen leaders born from a system that is unforgiving to anyone that looks different or has an untraditional background. I have seen my community’s strength, its will to persevere, and it resilience in the face of injustice. For that reason, I would like to echo the sentiment that one of our School Readiness Coordinators shared with me when we spoke about our Latino community. “Mi gente es mi gente, y la adoro.” And man, do I adore my people. Thank you, Luis
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Wow I can’t believe I forgot to write this post yesterday despite doing it for eight straight weeks before this one. Not trying to make excuses, but I think a part of me didn’t want this week to end. Everyone on the team seems to agree with me that the weeks go by faster and faster. Just the other day, our pharmacist jolted surprisingly, “How is it 4:30?? I thought it was only 3!” Especially up in Oregon, when we’re all logging medicine basically eight hours a day, five days a week, we don’t really know where the time goes. Because we want to clear out the storage room with all the donated boxes of medicine before we all head back to California next Friday, we try to log as fast as we can, but time somehow always ends up going faster.
So I just had to escape yesterday night into Portland with a friend and we hung out until midnight. I will say that nights here don’t make me the most comfortable. Coming from NYC, I’d never realized how much I took for granted that people will always be around. I come from the city that never sleeps. Well, everywhere else, cities do sleep. Usually, I’m pretty adventurous, but staring down a mile-long, pitch black, completely deserted path to the train station, I backed down. I called an Uber. And as soon as I pressed the “set pick-up location” button, my phone shut off. I thought to myself, maybe I should’ve just wished for the week to end, so that I wouldn’t be out in the middle of nowhere praying for the Uber driver to have gotten my message. (He did and everything ended up ok, though you could probably already tell because I’m writing this post.) Now that I think about it, this incident captures my summer crudely well. I had a (quite unrealistic) vision of what my summer was gonna be like, but nearing the end of the fellowship, I realized that I cannot possibly learn everything about healthcare in a summer. Healthcare is like that road I didn’t take to the train station in many ways. It’s messy, it’s complicated, it’s simply the road less taken. And while it’s hard for someone like me to accept the fact, I’m not ready to go down that path alone. I think I made the right choice yesterday night, but by the time I got back, I was so exhausted I completely forgot about this post (sorry!). Though I didn’t learn everything about healthcare this summer, I did learn that it’s my passion to ensure everyone equal access to quality healthcare. I guess things didn’t clear up that much for me since the beginning of this summer because “equal access to quality healthcare” is still fairly vague, but it gives me a solid direction to work towards and for that, I’m grateful for all my experiences and the people around me who helped me realize this direction. Sad that there’s only one more week left, but excited to have four weeks after that in NYC to do whatever I want. Hope y’all have a fantastic rest of the summer too! Peace out, Glenn Now that my teaching fellowship is officially wrapped up and I have returned home, this is the perfect moment to process the experience. In a word, it has been challenging.
In the classroom, I have been challenged as an instructional leader. My students needed me to be an effective communicator, to set clear expectations, and to inspire them to find the importance in the material. It was the ultimate test of leadership. I had moments of triumph and disappointment in this regard. But through it all I have undoubtedly grown tremendously. I am grateful to my students for pushing me each day to be a better teacher. Outside of the classroom, I have been challenged as a peer leader in my role on the teacher leadership team. My fellow teachers pushed me to be a better facilitator, a more critical thinker, and a stronger advocate for my students, my peers, and myself. There were times where it didn’t feel like I was doing enough in my role but I sought to do my best. This summer has been filled with growing pains and laughter in equal amounts. I have met some incredible, inspiring people along the way. As I reflect on the past nine weeks, I see a collage of beautiful moments I will cherish. I feel very lucky to have been an Urban Summer Fellow this summer and to have gotten the chance to do this work with Breakthrough Greater Boston. -Ngoc Well, I knew that this week would be busy, and it was! Almost every day I would come in with follow-ups, and it seemed that once, I finished a case, there would be another request to handle, and I’d be eating lunch on the subway to my next destination. By the end of the day, I’d have more unfinished requests lying around.
Though it was busy, this week’s urgency energized me. More of the attorneys realized how quickly the investigative team could handle cases, so they entrusted us with more last minute cases. As a result, we have started to communicate with them more. Because they work in a building across the street, we don’t interact with them typically, but this week, I got to hear more about how our work impacted theirs. It made me feel as though I was contributing to a larger process. Whether we helped them to get charges dropped or decide whether to go to trial, understanding the end results made all of our work seem worthwhile. It also reminded me to treat each request equally—no matter how farfetched—because of the off-chance that we uncover something. So that was the good part of my week. On the downside, I had more negative interactions than normal. Per usual, this week’s cases took me all over Brooklyn. I spoke to Latino taxi drivers at New Lots Ave, Chasidic librarians in Midwood, and daycare workers on Coney Island. Exploring different neighborhoods and speaking to different people is usually my favorite part of the job, but this week, I just ran into some rude people. For instance, some people kept interrupting us with “no”s and “get out”s before my partner and I could finish explaining why we were there and what we needed. The worst encounter was with a smug business owner. We had noticed that some of his security cameras might have captured an incident, and after we finished explaining our objectives, he pronounced in a over dramatic tone, “Ohhhhhh, I get it, so you’re representing the guy who did _[insert charge here]_.” He treated us as if we were scheming to get a *criminal* off the hook. I clenched my jaw so that I wouldn’t retort something that I’d regret. His tone and attitude made me think about all my experiences this summer. I wanted to explain to him what I’d seen, how the police report and the truth could be two totally different stories, how our criminal justice system rendered certain individuals vulnerable to abuses of power. It frustrated me that his ignorance of public defenders made him feel empowered to belittle us, but most of all, I was sad that he couldn’t acknowledge the potential consequences of his actions on other lives. The thought of that visit frustrated me for the rest of the week, which made me realize that I was feeling a little drained by the summer. So I’m looking forward to refocusing myself this weekend, and then diving into my next, and last, week is my last week here (and in New York)! -Bunnard In my very first blog post I discussed a philosophy to homeless services called Housing First, a model with which I’ve spent most of my summer working. I also talked about a man named Lloyd Pendleton, who ran Salt Lake City’s implementation of Housing First programming. This week, Lloyd Pendleton was a guest at St. Patrick Center—what better way to wrap things up than by bringing it full circle!
Pendleton gave a presentation to community members and St. Patrick Center staff on the importance of Housing First and how they implemented it in Salt Lake City. His presentation was very effective; he discussed how he was eventually persuaded by the harm reduction model (which Housing First uses as part of its main philosophy) and highlighted specific actions he and his colleagues took to address the problem of chronic homelessness. In about 10 years (roughly 2005-2015), Pendleton’s initiative successfully reduced chronic homelessness in Salt Lake City by 91%. If it’s not already clear by my previous blog posts, I firmly believe in the Housing First model. It makes perfect sense to me that the first step in helping someone experiencing homelessness is to give them a home. People will naturally be more successful working on mental health or substance abuse issues, or obtaining and maintaining a job, if they don’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep that night. Housing is a basic right, not a reward for good behavior. So Pendleton’s presentation didn’t persuade me of anything I didn’t already believe in—instead, I focused on how he presented the information. The three main components to successful implementation of Housing First, according to this presentation, were collaboration, compassion, and champions. Collaboration and compassion are pretty self-explanatory. The problem of homelessness is fixable if the community as a whole, with representation from all parts of society, comes together. And if we don’t have compassion for the clients, then we will not be serving them as they should be served: as human beings worthy of dignity and respect. But I was somewhat taken aback by his inclusion of “champions.” At first it seemed a little self-important—Lloyd Pendleton is one of the national champions of homeless services, so it was like he was talking about how important of a role he played in Salt Lake City. After the presentation, however, as I reflected more on what he said, I began to realize what he was talking about. Leadership of a project is crucial to the project’s success. Identifying and rallying around an individual with vision and drive is an important part of the community’s role in addressing the issue of homelessness. As I was convinced by his inclusion of the champions category, I began to get a little inspired. After a summer of working in the nonprofit world where money seems to dictate who gets helped and how, it was refreshing to hear someone talk about the importance of the individual. According to Lloyd Pendleton, an individual has the capacity to affect the outcome of a project as effective collaboration does. He reminded me not to underestimate my ability to contribute to making a change. That’s pretty inspiring to someone hoping to do something like this for a career. Thanks for making it to the end with me. I hope you all have a wonderful end to your summers! Emma I had my last day at Causa Justa, and I have to say, it was really nice. In the morning I spent almost 2 hours busing my way over and back from a bakery in the sunset to get an assortment of pastries to thank my coworkers and supervisors, but when lunchtime rolled around, I found that my coworkers and supervisors had actually gotten a cake for me and another volunteer who was also leaving. Then everyone got around in a little circle and said appreciations for the two of us, and gave us both a card with everyone's signatures.
I'm going to miss working at CJJC. I felt like I was just starting to get to know everyone there at the end, and now it's over. At the same time, it was really pretty exhausting and I"m glad to have the time now to do some more substantial reflection. And in any case, my work isn't over- there are things my supervisor wanted to be included in my research project that I hadn't had the opportunity to work on before, so I'll be finishing that up over the next couple weeks from home. Mostly I'm glad to have had this opportunity, this time at this particular organization. I'm looking forward to coming back and volunteering in the future; I have no doubt I will. Hello Everyone!
This week was just as eventful as the other weeks. I was out and about with my supervisor for the most part of every day. It's one of the best parts of this job, there is rarely a time where you're not on your toes exploring some part of Brooklyn on your way to the next meeting. I went to two big meetings this week. The first was at the Legal Aid Society with the Stand for Tenant Safety Steering Committee which is a coalition of non profit organizations, community leaders, and government workers who collaborate on how to best support tenants enduring harassment from their landlords. That includes turning off utilities, bringing false eviction cases against tenants, refusing to make necessary repairs apartments etc. This meeting featured a guest speaker who supports tenants who have conflicts with utility companies, a discussion on how to garner political support from council members on a bill the coalition has developed and a great discussion on how to use banks as an advocacy tool. This idea of going through the banks to pressure landlords to stop harassment had never occurred to me. But it is now a new tactic used by advocates to keep landlords accountable to their duties to their tenants. Apparently, there are stipulations outline in the mortgages of buildings that require landlords to upkeep the building a certain degree to protect their mortgages. Considering that a lot of our buildings are in poor condition due to lack of repairs, illegal construction etc. this could prove to be a very effective strategy for protecting our tenants. The landlords are often trying to kick tenants out anyway to replace them with tenants who will pay market rate rent, but they can't do that without a building ;). In the past, this tactic was not quite successful but someone shared in the meeting that they were making progress, and it is truly a big step in the direction of community collaboration and justice on all fronts as we tackle the issue from multiple angles. The second meeting I attended was a (soon to be Tenant Association) meeting with 3 new buildings that we with which we will potentially start cases. The meeting was in a community garden that has served the people in the area since 1978. The unity of the tenants was so strong that they seemed to have organized themselves without the help of an official community organizer. Most of the tenants had been there all there life and had grown up with the garden and now their children were making use of it. I just loved being in a space with that much support, growth and history. It was because of that history that these tenants from THREE different buildings could come together to stand up against the management company that owns all the buildings. These tenants were facing lack of repairs, fake eviction notices, buy-out offers, verbal abuse, lack of utilities on weekends, denial of renewal leases, and much more. The community is mostly Spanish speaking with Hasidic landlords (which explains the shutoff of utilities on the weekends, Shabazz/Sabbath). So we determined that we had a very strong fair housing case to present in housing court and even to supreme court. Things have been going wrong for so long and every tenant had documentation of it at the meeting (even though it was only a preliminary) that my supervisor and the attorneys with us decided that we had to move forward with these buildings fast. There were some concerns about how we were going to tackle 3 buildings at once, who make up over a hundred apartments without dividing the unified group that they've formed. One solution we we've designed is to meet with one building a week and then on the fourth week, meet with them all as a group. That way from our side we can tailor our legal approach with more specificity and from the tenants' end they can still operate as one united front. There were also a lot of individual cases that came up during the meeting. Things that weren't happening to the entire building but to one tenant but that doesn't work within our group model. My unit, the Group Representation Unit works with Tenant Associations because we've seen that in court when tenants work together to pressure the landlord it is much more successful than individually going against a landlord. Those cases may be referred to our Individual Unit but nothing is decided. As one attorney reminded me "We are going to determine how we can best approach such a large group of tenants in a way that ensures they are all heard and feel supported but that the law will also allow." That is our challenge. I'm sad this case came at the end of my internship because I'm eager to see where we go with this. But this just means the next three weeks are going to be pleasantly busy :). Finally, I'm sad that this will be my last blog post of the summer. I want to thank everyone for staying updated on this new learning experience that I've had this summer. I have come to truly appreciate the blogosphere as an outlet to reflect and share my thoughts. I hope you all have enjoyed my banter throughout the weeks and have been able to learn something worthwhile. I'll be in NY until labor day. Then off to school. I hope everyone gets some well deserved rest and relaxation before school frenzy commences. With Appreciation and Anticipation, Zora Hey All,
I hope you guys have had a wonderful week and have an even better weekend! It has been pretty lonely and dull in the office. All the interns are gone ( I miss Victoria and Helen cracking jokes next to me), and all most all of the advocates and attorneys are on vacation. The attorney who I continue to work closely with, Ms. Parish, is on vacation, but she told me to check her mailbox periodically to check for any further prison correspondence. Unfortunately, there has not been much this week, and I have responded to all those who previously requested our help. Hopefully, there will be more correspondence to be done in the upcoming weeks. While I have not been assisting incarcerated individuals through correspondence, I have been helping them in a more impactful way. On Wednesday I visited Rikers Island, New York City's main jail located between queens and mainland Bronx, alongside Alex Abell, one of the attorneys here at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project. We visited the Rose M. Singer Center (RMSC), which houses both female detainees and sentenced individuals. We only interviewed women who are receiving mental health treatment, since we focus on mental health issues. Alex and I asked these women about the mental health treatment that they receive in Rikers and boy is it some shitty treatment. One woman that we spoke to has an amputated leg, and the facility refuses to give her a proper shower chair to allow her to wash herself. Another women we interviewed was recently diagnosed with stage four cancer, and has not been given any medication despite pleading for it numerous times. It is abundantly clear that mental health patients are not getting the treatment they are entitled to. We also interviewed these women about the discharge planning services they are receiving. All incarcerated individuals, especially those living with mental illness are to be provided with services that will ensure a responsible, safe, and humane discharge from jails and prisons. For individuals living with mental health issues, the discharge planners are supposed to ensure that these women have housing, insurance, and get help with making appointment for mental health services and other benefits before they are released from prison. This is a result of the Brad H Stipulation, which is a legal agreement that helps people with mental illness who are incarcerated in New York City jails to get As you all can probably guess, the discharge planners were not doing their job to help these ladies. No one checked to see if these women were receiving Medicaid or had a place to stay before they were released ( some women are being released in a few weeks). It is now up to Alex and I to write to different people who work in the facility and advocate on the behalf of these women who are in a hopeless situation. All in all, my experience at Rikers Island was intense, but definitely humbling. It really made me reflect on my life thus far, and I realized that while my life has been difficult, I am definitely blessed. Until next time folks, Kaila |
AuthorThis blog is authored by Stanford University students engaged in summer fellowships through the Cardinal Quarter and the Program on Urban Studies. All writings and thoughts belong to the Fellows and do not represent the opinion of the sponsoring programs. Archives
September 2018
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