I was invited to keep a personal touch on my updates.
So far, this summer has been really hard for me. My internship, though challenging, is really good. "Fulfilling," I tell people. And my housemates are wonderful people. Externally, things are great... it's internally that I find challenges. I should invest some learning into the "taking care of me" element of peacemaking.
For some background, since for some people who may read this I might have fallen out of the sky, I spent the last year studying in Mexico and have only been back in the country for four weeks. So I'm probably going through some reverse culture shock, though I don't know how I'm supposed to discern it.
I'm having trouble finding my own space in such a crowded house. I'm really apprehensive about going back to Manchester in the fall (and by apprehensive I mean terrified).
Ironically, the thing that I feel best about is the thing I was most worried about four weeks ago: the internship itself. I'd feared being completely over my head, but I've really surprised myself in how I've been able to work through some of my weaknesses (like anything people-related) and feel really good about how things are progressing.
I'll try and write up some good posts next week, since I have some meetings and lessons to set up and will be really starting to add more of me to my work at AIM.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Day 14
My first few days working at the academy, there was a gigantic elephant in the room: race. At one point, the AIM Academy was Stacy and me, two White people, telling three Black kids how they were supposed to behave. I think it's often taboo for us to talk about race these days - we like to sweep all the race-related problems under the rug, but they're there. And you'd better believe those three kids noticed that they were Black and we were not.
Now, the majority of our mentors are Black. It shouldn't matter, but I think it helps.
The student group is more diverse at the moment.
Interestingly, it seems most of the people working with AIM are also women. One of my tasks this summer is going to be investigating why young men don't seem to be interested in mentoring, and how we can attract them to this job. I'm personally not surprised to learn it's hard for us to get men, but I can't think off the top of my head why that might be.
The last three days have been a sort of breakthrough for me. Things were pretty challenging at the beginning - I struggled to relate to these kids, fought to find a way to work with them. Then, this Tuesday, everything seemed to flip. It was a good day in general, with all the students being pretty engaged in what was going on, but it was a great day for me. Suddenly, I had their respect. Not their grudging deference as someone they had to listen to or go back to jail, but their respect. That was great.
We just got a few new students who seem to be pretty good guys, so I'm looking forward to the next ten days.
Today I had a meeting with my mentor to outline what I'll be doing. I've solidified my role helping facilitate the academy, both by leading lessons and by designing some new stuff. I'll also be doing some research on the side on how grassroots movements grow, which I'm afraid will highlight my stunning incompetence as a researcher. But the part I'm most excited about was an idea brought up by my housemate Ben last night. Ben is an intern at Big Car, an art gallery downtown with a bit of a social mission. We're going to try to work together to come up with an art expression workshop for the students. It will be challenging, but I'm interested to see where it goes.
Now, the majority of our mentors are Black. It shouldn't matter, but I think it helps.
The student group is more diverse at the moment.
Interestingly, it seems most of the people working with AIM are also women. One of my tasks this summer is going to be investigating why young men don't seem to be interested in mentoring, and how we can attract them to this job. I'm personally not surprised to learn it's hard for us to get men, but I can't think off the top of my head why that might be.
The last three days have been a sort of breakthrough for me. Things were pretty challenging at the beginning - I struggled to relate to these kids, fought to find a way to work with them. Then, this Tuesday, everything seemed to flip. It was a good day in general, with all the students being pretty engaged in what was going on, but it was a great day for me. Suddenly, I had their respect. Not their grudging deference as someone they had to listen to or go back to jail, but their respect. That was great.
We just got a few new students who seem to be pretty good guys, so I'm looking forward to the next ten days.
Today I had a meeting with my mentor to outline what I'll be doing. I've solidified my role helping facilitate the academy, both by leading lessons and by designing some new stuff. I'll also be doing some research on the side on how grassroots movements grow, which I'm afraid will highlight my stunning incompetence as a researcher. But the part I'm most excited about was an idea brought up by my housemate Ben last night. Ben is an intern at Big Car, an art gallery downtown with a bit of a social mission. We're going to try to work together to come up with an art expression workshop for the students. It will be challenging, but I'm interested to see where it goes.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Full speed into week 3
I've now worked ten full days at AIM, most of them with the AIM Academy. If I were a participant, I'd be done and have my certificate of completion!
The difference between my first couple of days and my last few is astonishing. At first, I felt like I was either drowning beneath everything I didn't know, didn't know how to do, or was afraid of, and I felt just about useless to the organization. In retrospect, I shouldn't have expected to be their most valuable asset on my first day.
I'm still doing a lot of observing, though I'm starting to pitch in a bit with the academy. Nothing major yet, but I've been trying to sense the group dynamic and help to shift things productively. I'm not sure what skill set you'd say I'm using... diplomacy? Teaching? But I've been feeling good about it.
I'm sitting down with someone - either the director, Joann, who's officially considered my mentor; or Amy, the facilities coordinator, who has been sort of my de facto mentor and has more time to meet with me - to more officially figure out my long-term schedule and responsibilities some time this week. I've been offered a chance to start facilitating the academy (not by the actual facilitator, but by her boss). I'm a little scared at the prospect, but I'm also excited. It's certainly something I'd instinctively try to avoid, but I'm making a point to dive as deep into this stuff as I can this summer, so I say bring on the responsibility and I'll just find out whether I sink or swim. Teaching is never something I saw myself doing in any respect, but this stuff does interest me. The thing I really need to work on is two sided: I need to make sure I know how to control a group, especially with these kids, and I also need a little patience for when the environment isn't exactly a stone-silent lecture hall. I definitely can't get angry or aggressive with someone whose go-to solution is to beat someone up.
I also want to take a look at their mentor manuals and such... I haven't really gotten a taste of any of their training yet.
The difference between my first couple of days and my last few is astonishing. At first, I felt like I was either drowning beneath everything I didn't know, didn't know how to do, or was afraid of, and I felt just about useless to the organization. In retrospect, I shouldn't have expected to be their most valuable asset on my first day.
I'm still doing a lot of observing, though I'm starting to pitch in a bit with the academy. Nothing major yet, but I've been trying to sense the group dynamic and help to shift things productively. I'm not sure what skill set you'd say I'm using... diplomacy? Teaching? But I've been feeling good about it.
I'm sitting down with someone - either the director, Joann, who's officially considered my mentor; or Amy, the facilities coordinator, who has been sort of my de facto mentor and has more time to meet with me - to more officially figure out my long-term schedule and responsibilities some time this week. I've been offered a chance to start facilitating the academy (not by the actual facilitator, but by her boss). I'm a little scared at the prospect, but I'm also excited. It's certainly something I'd instinctively try to avoid, but I'm making a point to dive as deep into this stuff as I can this summer, so I say bring on the responsibility and I'll just find out whether I sink or swim. Teaching is never something I saw myself doing in any respect, but this stuff does interest me. The thing I really need to work on is two sided: I need to make sure I know how to control a group, especially with these kids, and I also need a little patience for when the environment isn't exactly a stone-silent lecture hall. I definitely can't get angry or aggressive with someone whose go-to solution is to beat someone up.
I also want to take a look at their mentor manuals and such... I haven't really gotten a taste of any of their training yet.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What is AIM?
Alright, let's see how well I can explain what I understand about AIM so far.
AIM was founded by a professor at IUPUI, so for a while it was considered to be under the university. However, it is now under the umbrella of the Indiana Juvenile Justice Taskforce. I do not know what that means.
AIM is a "juvenile re-entry and mentoring program" which is largely (but not entirely) a part of the Community Transition Program, which exists in Marion county and (I think) one or two others. All students assigned to CTP are put on probation and sent to AIM, which gives them a mentor while they're locked up (and afterwards, I think) and, once they get out, a ten-day life skills academy. Each student is also assigned an in-home therapist, but I don't think we do that.
So that's the rundown on the organizational structure. Most of my work has been with the AIM academy, which today involved talking about our favorite movies and playing Monopoly.
That's all for now.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
My first days
Monday was my "first day" at AIM, though I really just went in to the Juvenile Task Force office and met with my mentor, Joann, for about an hour. We talked about the different things I might do with the organization - I told her I wanted to see various aspects and that I was open to whatever work she had for me. I also got a chance to talk to the director of the task force, who suggested I might come give a presentation about cultural awareness based on my experiences in Mexico.
I also learned that I cannot at any point be a one-on-one mentor for the incarcerated youth due to my arrest last year. Due to training and everything, I wasn't going to do that anyway, but it was interesting to learn.
Tuesday and Wednesday I went along with Stacey, the woman who facilitates the AIM Academy. AIM Academy is a court ordered ten-day life skills class that juveniles going through CPT (the Community Transition Program) must complete as part of their probation. Tuesday we had two students and talked about interview skills.
Also on Tuesday I made a few phone calls to confirm that we would be picking up new students and got to talk to a parent who for some reason had never heard of AIM and wanted to know all about the organization. Other than assuring him it didn't cost anything, I couldn't tell him much. Just my luck that I'd get someone like that on my first day, when even I didn't really know what the organization I was working for really did. One of my co-workers called him back and he told her he had no intention of making his son go through our program. "Be sure to bring that up in front of the judge tomorrow," she said.
Wednesday we picked up a third student and went to a job fair, which was sort of a disaster. The job fair was at the airport and probably had several thousand applicants show up over the course of the day. The students found this very disheartening and quickly gave up on finding a job, and were challenging for me to deal with for the rest of the time we were there (I will withhold details at this point).
The rest of the day we just drove them around to anyplace they were interested in applying for a job, and they each managed to get a handful of applications. One student wanted to apply at a store where he'd been caught multiple times for shoplifting, but we suggested he search in other areas.
Today I went along with Amy, the "facilities coordinator," for her one-on-one (two-on-one, I suppose) meetings with a couple of incarcerated youth. One was new to us and didn't have much to say, but we had a good conversation with another one, with whom Amy was familiar. Again, at this point I'm going to err on the side of not saying much about the kids.
After that we went to the juvenile court, which is in the same building. We ran into one of our mentors there and were able to sit in on a students' court hearing. Since juvenile hearings are not open to the public, I felt pretty important - I even got to identify myself to the court. Nick Kauffman, I'm with AIM.
In just a few short days, I feel like I've learned a lot about our organization and the juvenile criminal justice system. Whereas Tuesday I couldn't even explain to someone what AIM was, today (thanks mostly to Amy) I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for the incredibly complex answer to that question. I'll post that next chance I get.
Also, I already know a workplace secret!
I also learned that I cannot at any point be a one-on-one mentor for the incarcerated youth due to my arrest last year. Due to training and everything, I wasn't going to do that anyway, but it was interesting to learn.
Tuesday and Wednesday I went along with Stacey, the woman who facilitates the AIM Academy. AIM Academy is a court ordered ten-day life skills class that juveniles going through CPT (the Community Transition Program) must complete as part of their probation. Tuesday we had two students and talked about interview skills.
Also on Tuesday I made a few phone calls to confirm that we would be picking up new students and got to talk to a parent who for some reason had never heard of AIM and wanted to know all about the organization. Other than assuring him it didn't cost anything, I couldn't tell him much. Just my luck that I'd get someone like that on my first day, when even I didn't really know what the organization I was working for really did. One of my co-workers called him back and he told her he had no intention of making his son go through our program. "Be sure to bring that up in front of the judge tomorrow," she said.
Wednesday we picked up a third student and went to a job fair, which was sort of a disaster. The job fair was at the airport and probably had several thousand applicants show up over the course of the day. The students found this very disheartening and quickly gave up on finding a job, and were challenging for me to deal with for the rest of the time we were there (I will withhold details at this point).
The rest of the day we just drove them around to anyplace they were interested in applying for a job, and they each managed to get a handful of applications. One student wanted to apply at a store where he'd been caught multiple times for shoplifting, but we suggested he search in other areas.
Today I went along with Amy, the "facilities coordinator," for her one-on-one (two-on-one, I suppose) meetings with a couple of incarcerated youth. One was new to us and didn't have much to say, but we had a good conversation with another one, with whom Amy was familiar. Again, at this point I'm going to err on the side of not saying much about the kids.
After that we went to the juvenile court, which is in the same building. We ran into one of our mentors there and were able to sit in on a students' court hearing. Since juvenile hearings are not open to the public, I felt pretty important - I even got to identify myself to the court. Nick Kauffman, I'm with AIM.
In just a few short days, I feel like I've learned a lot about our organization and the juvenile criminal justice system. Whereas Tuesday I couldn't even explain to someone what AIM was, today (thanks mostly to Amy) I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for the incredibly complex answer to that question. I'll post that next chance I get.
Also, I already know a workplace secret!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Welcome to Indianapolis
Late this afternoon, I arrived in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. My family used to come here a lot when I was little, but I don't spend much time here anymore. As far as big cities go, this is really a great place.
As it turns out, Indianapolis is the thirteenth-largest city in the United States and the second-largest state capital. (This does not include the outlying incorporated areas that are considered part of Indianapolis but are not technically within the city limits.)
I had no idea that we had such an impressive city in Indiana. Finding this fascinating, I had to see what the twelve cities beating us are. As of 2007, the only cities with populations larger than Indianapolis are:
New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit and Jacksonville.
I'm still getting settled here in Peace House (I really must post some pictures). The bad news is that I got the address wrong when I was playing with MapQuest a while back, so instead of being a mere couple of blocks from my internship site I'm really quite far and will have to drive, bringing me into the fold of people who will be bemoaning our high gas prices. This should start tomorrow, since I just about ran out of gas on my way down from Goshen.
The "good" news is that my minivan suffered some horrible fate yesterday and began literally spraying gasoline onto the road in what I arbitrarily choose to call a "ruptured fuel line" (in reality, I know nothing about cars). That means that, for the time being, I at least have Mom's more fuel-efficient Nissan Altima.
UPDATE - I just loaded the addresses into MapQuest, and I think when my coordinator told me that it would be too far to walk, she was thinking in Indianapolis mode. I'm still thinking in Mexico mode, so I feel like any distance I can walk within an hour is "walking distance." That's probably a really good attitude to have, but I seriously doubt I'll be walking the 0.95 miles to my placement on a regular basis. HOWEVER, my parents are bringing my bike down on Friday, and a mile is definitely within biking distance. Score one environment.
The people here are friendly and outgoing, and immediately put me to work chopping red peppers for a salad. I currently have no spot on the chore wheel, and it's uncertain when I'll get one - apparently it's perfect right now, and as the thirteenth member of the household I'm throwing everything off.
I've just started to meet my housemates and can't really say much about them at this point, but I'll post a more detailed commentary on my living situation at a later time. As for now, I'll just say that I'm here in Indy and I'm looking forward to everything that's soon to come.
As it turns out, Indianapolis is the thirteenth-largest city in the United States and the second-largest state capital. (This does not include the outlying incorporated areas that are considered part of Indianapolis but are not technically within the city limits.)
I had no idea that we had such an impressive city in Indiana. Finding this fascinating, I had to see what the twelve cities beating us are. As of 2007, the only cities with populations larger than Indianapolis are:
New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit and Jacksonville.
I'm still getting settled here in Peace House (I really must post some pictures). The bad news is that I got the address wrong when I was playing with MapQuest a while back, so instead of being a mere couple of blocks from my internship site I'm really quite far and will have to drive, bringing me into the fold of people who will be bemoaning our high gas prices. This should start tomorrow, since I just about ran out of gas on my way down from Goshen.
The "good" news is that my minivan suffered some horrible fate yesterday and began literally spraying gasoline onto the road in what I arbitrarily choose to call a "ruptured fuel line" (in reality, I know nothing about cars). That means that, for the time being, I at least have Mom's more fuel-efficient Nissan Altima.
UPDATE - I just loaded the addresses into MapQuest, and I think when my coordinator told me that it would be too far to walk, she was thinking in Indianapolis mode. I'm still thinking in Mexico mode, so I feel like any distance I can walk within an hour is "walking distance." That's probably a really good attitude to have, but I seriously doubt I'll be walking the 0.95 miles to my placement on a regular basis. HOWEVER, my parents are bringing my bike down on Friday, and a mile is definitely within biking distance. Score one environment.
The people here are friendly and outgoing, and immediately put me to work chopping red peppers for a salad. I currently have no spot on the chore wheel, and it's uncertain when I'll get one - apparently it's perfect right now, and as the thirteenth member of the household I'm throwing everything off.
I've just started to meet my housemates and can't really say much about them at this point, but I'll post a more detailed commentary on my living situation at a later time. As for now, I'll just say that I'm here in Indy and I'm looking forward to everything that's soon to come.
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