Adam Fink’s Ten Commandments for Volunteers
- Be purposeful. Know what skills you have to contribute before you arrive on the scene.
- Be flexible. This includes being prepared to do administrative grunt work. (Sorry, not all aid work involves washing babies and hugging orphaned children.)
- Be reflective. Constantly question your motives. Ask yourself why you are helping, think of your motivation, and keep that at the forefront of your mind.
- Be receptive. Learn as much as you can. That said, be wary of engaging for too long with NGO veterans who have become hardened and cynical from their work. Instead, find long-termers with hope still gleaming in their eyes. Then, latch on with open ears.
- Be positive. Take pride in your idealism—it’s the only thing that can ward off the inevitability of cynicism’s approach in your difficult environment.
- Be realistic. Your idealism can be balanced only by the knowledge that you are not here to save the world, but to play one specific role and that you may never witness the effects of your efforts.
- Be independent. Much of your work will depend on your personal initiative. Be a team player, but do not rely on others to guide you every step of the way.
- Be empathetic. Your ability to succeed will depend entirely on your connection to and understanding of the people you work with.
- Be humble. Don’t speak much. Listen. Avoid grandiose conclusions about a problem, community, or philosophy that you were recently introduced to. Act. Think. Feel. But don’t come to too many conclusions—they will only halt your experiential learning process.
The New York Times Opinion page and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services recently shared their perspectives on the naturalization process. The articles specifically address the processing of naturalization applications and the question of whether applicants are waiting longer, or too long, for their applications to be processed in order to naturalize. Literacy Source citizenship students recently wrote a letter to President Bush addressing the same issues. In the letter, dated December 12, 2007, the students wrote: "We would like you to know that we are all studying hard so that we can pass our citizenship test. We would like to know why it takes so long for us to be notified about our interview. Two students completed their fingerprints and citizenship application in the summer and they have been waiting several months to find out when their interview will be scheduled."
Read the NY Times editorial here.
Read response from USCIS director Emilio Gonzalez here.
From Salon.com: The Bible counsels misers that it's better to give than to receive. Science agrees. People who made gifts to others or to charities reported they were happier than folks who didn't share, according to a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Free or Low-cost Resources for Tutors, Students, and Program Managers - Check out the Fall 2007 issue, packed with online and other low-cost resources for all of those involved with literacy work. Also, find out our future depends on today's literacy efforts!
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced the 100 questions and answers that comprise the civics component of the new naturalization test. USCIS will administer this new test to citizenship applicants beginning in October 2008.
Vincent's story begins in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where people knew him as a roughneck, a troublemaker. He was a rap singer with muscles and tattoos and a scar from a barroom brawl.
But one day, Vincent says, someone convinced him to read a book about facing fear. It was the first book he ever read from front to back -- and it awakened a hunger in him.
"I was a kid from the 'hood, and all of the sudden," he says, "I realized I didn't know anything."
He stopped fighting. He left New York. He moved to Charlotte.
And he opened a bookstore to open other people's eyes
Queens Community House in Jackson Heights, N.Y., doesn't advertise its free English courses, but for many years its lotteries for places in the class drew hordes that required police presence. A new system has eliminated the crowds -- and the need for cops -- but competition for spaces remains fierce: Three out of four interested applicants are turned away.
This article outlines Literacy Source’s collaborative approach for providing instruction to underserved adult immigrant and refugee learners in our community. Strategies for Collaboration highlights lessons learned during the implementation of the Community Literacy Project and outlines five promising practices for successful partnership. This resource for volunteer literacy programs includes an appendix of sample materials that can be adapted according to program needs.
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