Okay, not really near death. But it was scary, nonetheless. This week I started working at one of our other AmeriCorps sites, Seward Towers. We used to have two members placed there, but both of them ended up leaving so they have been in desperate need of extra help. Seward is part of CommonBond Communities, a nonprofit developer and provider of affordable housing. It also happens to be where Multicultural Communities in Action (MCA), my Corps, gets our funding. Many of us are placed at schools, but we also have a number of members at various CommonBond sites. The CommonBond sites are much like Bayview, where I did my undergraduate social work internship. Within the housing communities, they have a center where services are provided for residents, such as youth programming, career support, computer access and mentoring. Many of the CommonBond sites serve Somali and other East African families. The sites where we have members serving are Cathedral Hill (in St. Paul, close to the St. Paul Cathedral), Westminster Place (St. Paul), Torre de San Miguel (West St. Paul), Skyline Tower (St. Paul, about a mile from where I live) and Seward Towers (in Minneapolis).
Anyway, as I said, Seward needed extra help after having both AmeriCorps members exit. Since Museum's after school program finished up at the end of April, I volunteered to help out in the after school program three nights a week from 4:30-6:30. So on Mondays I am at Seward Tower East doing Camp Fire USA (a youth development organization that does after school activities), Tuesdays I am also at Seward East doing homework help and on Wednesdays I am at Seward West doing Camp Fire. Monday was my very first night, and after doing some indoor activities we went out to the playground to do some outdoor games. We were in the middle of a game when a couple of the other adult leaders suddenly made all the kids start running down to the end of the field. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, then I heard shouting and looked over and realized that there was a group of people arguing in the alleyway of one of the houses right near the Tower. One guy came running out with a baseball bat, shouting. We had moved pretty far away by then, and were encouraging the kids to ignore what was going on. In the meantime, one of the leaders called the police who arrived within a minute. As soon as the police got there, two guys fled across the street to a gas station. We went inside pretty soon after, passing by the alleyway where we could see a mass of police. I found out afterwards from the girl who called the police that there had been a big fight going on, with knives and guns involved. Yikes!
So that was an exciting/scary way to begin my volunteering. Apparently there has been trouble at that house all year, according to the program coordinator. Needless to say, we didn't go outside the following day. It doesn't seem like that's a normal occurrence, as the kids were all really shocked/interested in the whole thing. So no one needs to worry that I'm working in some den of gang activity. Other than that, things are going well. It's tiring to work so late every day, but it's only for the rest of May. The kids are all really cute and fun. So far they are all Somali/East African, which is a population that I haven't worked with much before but is quite large in the Twin Cities.
In other news, I am mailing in my field placement form tomorrow. Looks like I might be only putting two places on it, and hope that I get placed at one of them. If I don't, I'll have to go through the second round of interviews in June. I spoke with Mira and a couple others, and they all suggested that I shouldn't put down any of the places that I wasn't really enthused about. In the end I think I agree.
Hopefully in the next couple days I'll get around to putting in a post about May Day, the parade/celebration that I went to on Sunday. I have lots of wonderful pictures to share. So stay on the lookout for that!
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