Volunteering with Homeless and Refugees

I decided in the middle of the summer to choose a new volunteer "job".   Last year I volunteered to work with a refugee family that came from a camp in Nepal.  They had been there 18 years.  I helped them learn English, but also get winter clothing ,  get library cards,  and other odds and ends.  I hear that two of them have jobs now. The committment was for 3 months. 

I told the other members of the volunteer group I wouldn't do it again.  I was shocked that when so many Americans are out of work and losing their homes,  we are footing the bill for refugees to settle here.  It's extensive.  They get welfare benefits with medicaid, and food stamps.  Here I was with probable cancer,  working about 75% of the available days as a substitute teacher and on ebay and I had NO health insurance! There is no way I could afford to pay it , either. Then they had everything in the apartment including food,  donated by our church.  We also took up a Christmas offering to help them pay back their debt to the US government for their air fare.

 The group working with them continued to pay for this and that,  such as boots and antenna so a donated TV would work.  Refugee staff took them to clothes closets kinds of places where they got donated winter clothing.  Payless Shoes gave each child a new pair of shoes or boots.  They got free bus cards to get to English classes, with free babysitting.  And of course in our country school and the school busses are free.  Then they had various  paid staff at the Council of Churches and refugee services helping them. These are all paid people.  We have thousands of refugees arriving all the time in the Twin Cities.  I guess we have the largest Somali population of any where else in the US.   I am sympathetic to the refugees but I disagree with settling them here at our expense.  I really feel Americans should come first. 

For all the uproar about illegal immigrants,  one thing is sure.  They don't receive welfare benefits! They would get free medical attention in emergency rooms and hospitals and could get food at food shelves.  They attend schools free and get free bussing and meals.  However they are working and do work that most Americans will not do!  I have no idea what the solution is to the problem.

For 11 years I volunteered with Project Home.  It is homeless shelter for families.  It is a St. Paul Minnesota program under the St. Paul Council of Churches.  Two or sometimes three churches ( occassionally a school or synagoge) host up to 20 people per night. That church has a volunteer who organizes volunteer help from their church as well as surrounding churches to staff it.  I was that person for 2 of the years.  Generally we needed about 4 people in the evenings and then 2 overnight. 

I met a lot of great people who were "guests" but also some awful people.  People who would steal the supplies we bought with our own money that were meant for everyone,  people who horribly neglected their children,  people who sat and watched TV and let their children run loose unsupervised,  emptying out boxes of puzzles all on top of each other and then walking over them, and then dumping all in a toy box.  I made a huge Sunday meal once for the group and the volunteers.  For just 20 people including children and about 5 volunteers,  I bought 2 huge cat fish and 5 huge roasts.  I was stunned that all the fish and most of the meat was gone before the volunteers could eat.  Evidently this one woman who had 5 children had grabbed a bunch and then went out of sight to her area to eat.   I made a big mistake by not serving the food myself! 

I have a Master's degree in Social Work.  However,  I'm real tired of excuses.  The volunteers just want to put in their time they promised and go home.  The hired staff of Project Home are just paid to be there 1 or 2 hours and make sure new families get a short orientation and that beds are set up,  etc.  So parents are out of sight and don't supervise babies and toddlers eating.  It is beyond me how they think it ok to have a church take them in when they are homeless and then let their children run around the social area of the church with peanut butter sandwiches in hand,  or handfuls of cheetos. Last December,  I was aleady knowing I probably had cancer, and probably since it was uterine cancer,  my hormones were all over the place, but I had had it one night.  I left early and cancelled the other night I was supposed to volunteer.  I just cannot do it any more.  I won't be donating either.  With my low income I had donated just $20 when they said they badly needed toys.  When I saw all those puzzles trashed in about an hours time I thought... what a waste of money!

I've volunteered with five different families that were either under child protective services or that they decided needed extra support help.  I've done two internships while in graduate school.  I was a foster parent for a total of 9 years and a foster care social worker for 2 years.  I know that many of these people are in the shelter because their family and friends have had it with them!  My ex husband was from a poor rough area of Chicago.  One of his sisters,  who had 5 babies a year apart ( !!) and no man in sight to help take care of them or support them,  was homeless.  I asked him,  why doesn't your family help them?   Later he said he heard her step dad had taken her in with all 5 little kids.  He said the step Dad was sick and tired of her sitting on her butt watching TV and the kids making a total mess of the house.  She did not clean up after them!   She went out of state to get section 8 benefits for a year.  Then  she was eligible to get Section 8 benefits in Chicago.  She came back and got a 5 bedroom very nice apartment!  

I guess I am an officially older grumpy person now, but honestly if I were in charge,  they would have to be with and supervising their children at all times when in homeless shelter.  They are responsible for washing their kids up,  brushing their teeth, picking up their toys and putting them away, and serving their food and cleaning up after them... just like the rest of us do! 

I got two gallons of milk for the price of one and stopped at the host church from last December 2010 to give it to them.   The church people said they didn't host it this year.   I know I am not the only person who gets real tired of how it's run!
I do want to help the community and many are in need.  So I decided to tutor.  I called a local school and didn't get a call back.  I decided to volunteer at one of the jails or juvenile facilities.   New post on that subject.
































I decided about 6 months ago that I would like to volunteer some of my time tutoring.  There was a web site with information as to which organizations needed what kind of help.  I decided to email and get more information.  I  first applied online to volunteer at a county jail/ correctional facility.  I had to get 3 references and have them sent in and then go in for an interview.  Then there was a training.  Most present were interns. The volunteer trainer  told me that the men's learning center was in the greatest need of volunteers and was at the same location.  The very next day I heard from the head of the learning center.  I did go down there before Christmas to get a tour and find out a little more about it.

I was really impressed with how organized it was.  There are lots of math software CD's on the walls,  labelled in pockets as to the exact topic covered. There must be nearly a 100 of them. There lots of GED books as well,  by topic, level, pretests,  skills study and more.  There were maybe 15 computers for the men to use the software on. 

The head of the department explained to me that most of the work done there was towards completing GED's but that some were pre GED, ( not ready to start GED study yet) and others were preparing to apply to colleges. It is a very busy place!  I was a little self conscious the first day I was being shown around.  Today as I had a few minutes I went behind the men to see what programs they were using.  The majority were working on math software.  Everyone was working on something different!  She explained that they are all in different places so it would be near impossible to have a class on a particular area of learning.

Today was my second day of tutoring.  I was given a schedule with the name of the inmate, topic he wanted help with,  and the time slot.  Each day I had 6 one hour slots. The staff told me I was the only volunteer to say I would be willing to teach all subjects other than high level math.  I substitute taught in Minneapolis schools for over  3 years and learned to jump in to teach a lesson plan at over 40 schools and literally from special education 4 year olds to adults learning English. .  I certainly didn't have personal knowledge of all those topics, but gained  confidence in how many I was comfortable with.  I told them I would not be embarassed at all to tell someone I didn't understand the math,  for example.  I learned a great deal when I was teaching in Minneapolis.  I also found out how much I didn't know! 

So what was it like,  you ask?   Was I nervous?  The staff were all very friendly and so were the inmates.  I was nervous I'd do something wrong.   I asked in advance if the center  could use some pencils, for example, before bringing them in.  Today the inmates weren't coming in after lunch and the staff found out there was a lockdown.  I hoped someone wasn't hurt.  It turned out it was a medical emergency and once the ambulance had left,  things returned to normal.  There wasn't any tension between the inmates that I detected and none of them were acting crazy.  I mention this because I have known of attacks on staff by inmates in prisons.   The staff told me that if the inmates were every disrespectful,  the staff would remove them and they wouldn't be able to return for a week or so.  If it happened a second time,  they would not be able to come to the learning center.

Today I thought I'd try to find my way in without asking someone to come get me.  I signed the log and showed my volunteer badge.  There was a lady behind a screen.  I looked around to see if there was something I was missing.  She asked what was the problem?   I said I don't know how to get in!  There was a screen and doorbell kind of thing.  Then I got to those huge gates and only saw a man behind a "command center".  I heard a click and thought I'd try to slide the gate, and sure enough that worked.  It seemed strange to be moving it myself.

I got settled and got my schedule.  Two students I had last week.  About half of them mentioned when they were leaving and that they hoped to finish the GED testing before then.  They'd mention when they were having a test.  Then they talked about wanting to get a job to support their children, and a little about their lives.  One said to me,  you are the first person to ever help me with school work. I thought that was odd.  I said he's probably forgotten all the times a teacher tried to help him. Three were Mexican and English was their second language. `