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  adamsky 05:41:31 pm on October 24, 2008 | 1 | # |
  Tags: community service, injustice, protesting, rallies

  Last night, I attended a rally sponsored by DePaul’s Amnesty International and Students Against the Death Penalty. This event was created in order to support a man named Troy Davis. Yesterday marked Global Day of Action for Troy Davis and rallies were held all over in support of this man. 

  

  Troy has been on death row, living in a prison cell from more thank 16 years in a Georgia prison. Troy was convicted of the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia. There are some significant issues here that would make one completely reevaluate one’s perspective of the United States justice system. 

   
  According to Amnesty International’s website, ”There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state’s non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.”

  Over the last year, the issue of the death penalty has seemed to be something that I have really begun to look into more. This case brings up issues that we all need to look into. First of all, should the death penalty exist? Should we as humans be able to have the power to make decisions regarding the life and death of our fellow beings? I am truly beginning to believe that it isn’t our job to mess with the course of human nature. In cases such as Troy Davis, this shows that an innocent man may be killed. That scares the living day lights out of me. What if it was you? What if?

  

  I am so glad I went to the rally. All participants had a picture of Troy Davis in hand throughout the event. People were given the opportunity to share words about the situation regarding Troy and the issue of the death penalty. It was empowering to see the passion and dedication of the people present. After the speeches, a man played his trumpet as we held candles, walked in silence to the quad, in solidarity with Troy Davis. It is good to know that while this man is in Georgia and we are here in Chicago, people from afar care. I pray for this man and for those who are living injustice every day.

   

• adamsky 11:17:54 am on October 23, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service

  This past weekend, I took a weekend off from service. Instead, coordinators of the 19 different DePaul Community Service Association groups, along with service immersion trip leaders, spent the weekend at Lake Geneva on a retreat at George Williams College. The goal of this retreat was to build community among the coordinators, to share our various service experiences, and grow as individuals, spiritually, emotionally, etc… What I gained from the weekend was that we must look and foster the growth of ourselves within a community in order to foster the growth of the communities in which we serve.

  Take a look at Lake Geneva.  Life is crazy. Life is hectic. And when we do service in the midst of the chaos of our lives, it is so hard to reflect on the work we do. That is why we went on this retreat… to get away from that chaos and intentionally take time to relax and gain perspective. I have talked about this before in previous posts, but I am on the Senior Team for the DePaul Community Service Association. In this picture, you will find me along with the other members of Senior Team with our staff. They are my everything. These people keep me motivated and help me always keep perspective on the work that I do. They are the people that help me look further into the service I do, to see the injustice behind the service. They are the people that help me to question. Over 50 people came on this retreat. It is often very difficult to build community with coordinators while at DePaul. We don’t want service to be just service. We want service to mean something. We want the relationships to mean something. And this retreat was the perfect opportunity to build such relationships and community. Here is a picture of all of the students who particpated. It it truly a blessing to be surrounded by people who live the same passions as you. I feel that is hard to find in a world where the selfish seem to be everywhere and the genuine seem to be rare. Now that we are all back at DePaul, I think we have gained a powerful perspective. We have gained a perspective that we are responsible for our earth and the people in it. And it is this responsibility that we have chosen to live out.

   

• adamsky 05:54:56 pm on October 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service

  Today I did service at a shelter on Webster and Halstead called the St. Vincent DePaul Center. The center was built in the last five years. The St. Vincent DePaul Society, which runs the center, was actually established in the early 1900’s, working around Lincoln Park in a time when Lincoln Park was not ritzy, glamorous, and… yuppy. This center primarily focusses on working with children while their sister organization, the Laboure House works with the elderly.

  I had such an interesting afternoon working with the kids. One kid named Edgar would not respond to the teacher when she spoke to him. She told me that she thought his parents spoke to him primarily in Spanish and the teacher, Susan, had such a difficult time communicating with him. He was about 3 years old and was very hard to sit still. I asked her if I could speak to him in Spanish. I have a very basic knowledge of Spanish but enough to conversate with him. And this was something I didn’t expect I would be doing today. At three years old, kids generally have a fairly low attention span. When I asked him, “Hablas espanol?” he responded with, “NO!” Just with that small moment and his response, I felt some connection with him. Because he definetly does know Spanish even though he was trying to be difficult by saying no. I thought it was pretty cool. I think he was tired of his teacher talking to him in English so talking in Spanish just a little bit seemed to be refreshing for him.

  Today helped me to see the barriers that come with working in shelters. There are barriers such as race, religion, culture, and as proved today, language. I hope to continue working with Edgar in the future and I hope we can build a cool relationship in which we can take part in a dialogue.

   

• adamsky 01:40:46 pm on October 14, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service, homeless shelters

  Last week, my friend Nicole responded to one of my blogs about homeless shelters closing and the problems that come with it. She asked me if I had heard of the recent closing of a Salvation Army’s Tom Seay Center  in Chicago. She works at the soup kitchen at St. Vincent’s Church and due to this closing, she has seen an influx of people coming in. After reading her post, I decided to look further into this. Thank you for your post.

  For nearly 30 years, the Salvation Army of Uptown provided 400-500 meals for the homeless community. The building, which has seen and proudly served thousands and thousands people, is falling apart. And there just isn’t the money to fix it.

  What kills me is that rich condo owners living near the Salvation Army could care less about its closing. They actually are excited for a new Target to be built in its place. It is a shame that these people hold value in material things rather than holding value in human life. It truly is a shame.

  It is pretty interesting to look at the comments people posted about the article and the closing. Some people talk about how serving food is not solving the problem of homelessness. Yes, I see their point. In order for homelessness to end, I believe service and justice must be incorporated. Fundamental and systamatic change would have to happen in order for homelessness to end. Even still, these 400-500 people do not have food on a daily basis. And that, for me, is enough. That for me is enough to support places such as the Salvation Army.

  The Salvation Army is proving new mobile units to serve as a replacement for the recent closing. I plan on keeping up with what is going on with the units. I hope they are effective… but I am skeptical. In my next post, I hope to uncover a little bit more how these closings affect varous soup kitchens and shelters around Chicago.

  
  Chicago Sun Times Article
  

   

• adamsky 01:04:47 pm on October 10, 2008 | 2 | # |
  Tags: community service

  Lately, I have been browsing the internet to see what is going on in Chicago. I have been looking to see about any updates with local homeless shelters and came across an article that deeply saddens me. As I was reading an article called  ”Are we more hard-hearted these days” from the Chicago Sun-Times, I came to find that shelters are closing down by the minute. While funding has always been a difficult area for shelters, the recent economic crisis has strained shelters beyond belief. This passage explains it all: “A sinking economy and soaring energy costs are putting the squeeze not only on the poor but also on nonprofit groups that care for them. Homeless shelters are increasingly coming under financial pressures. This eviction is due in part to a dispute over high heating costs.” 

  And this scares the living daylights out of me. Winter is approaching. We can all tell that the lovely warm days of summer are now gone and the dry, cold winter is creeping up on us. What will these people do? As shelters close, where will they go? 
  Go to Sun Times Article Here
  

   

• adamsky 02:27:22 pm on October 9, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service

   

  These young ladies are Stacee, Monsi and Elois. They are sisters and have been living at the Chicago Christian Industrial League since around the time I began volunteering there about 8 months ago. And they epitomize what it means to care for family. I wish I had the camaraderie with my siblings as they do for each other. These pictures represent the good times I had volunteering here. And I am so glad that I can say that. But working with these young ladies was not always easy. Some kids you work with are so happy that you are there. They smile, laugh, jump on you, hoping and pleading that you will give them the time of day. Others on the other hand, could care less that you are there. They don’t want to waste a second with you. And it brings me to a question that I think about often: who am I to think that these kids need me?  After thinking about it a lot, I think that that is the wrong approach. I think that just “being” with these kids makes a difference. Just listening and being aware of the surroundings, being aware of all of the elements that factor into children living in places such as CCIL.

  What I have gained from this work is that understanding is crucial. I will never fully understand what the kids here go through. But I can learn from them. I can learn from these young ladies and their story. And their story is quite amazing.

   Stacee, Monsi and Elois are from Africa. They each speak French. Their mother does not speak any English. It took me a long time to find out that Elois could speak French. After talking with her week after week, I came to find that she was embarrassed of speaking French. She feared that the others would make fun of her. And I am thinking… how can this be? She has this hidden and beautiful talent and yet, she fears it. But in looking at her, I began to see myself at her age. We all had fear… we all have fear… no matter where we come from. I saw such magnificence in her and her sisters and hoped so much that I could help them see it too.

   

• adamsky 02:43:39 pm on October 5, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service

  In my last blog, I talked about how I am a senior coordinator for the DePaul Community Service Association. I serve as a mentor for over 40 coordinators that coordinate about 18 service groups around Chicago. While this has been such an amazing experience so far, I have come to see how difficult the world of service, especially in the college realm, can be. As part of DCSA, we have a reflection component of the work we do. For us, while direct service is crucial, it is just as crucial to reflect upon the service done and discuss the injustices behind the work we do. For example, we look at the work we do at a homeless shelter, tutoring and doing crafts with kids. Through reflection, we begin to look at the systematic injustice of homelessness. We look at the problems with affordable housing, health care, education, etc… And then we reflect on ways to tackle these issues. We reflect on ways to educate ourselves enough so that we can educate our DePaul peers. The struggle we have been having is that some people only want to do the serve but lack the motivation to advocate for the communities they are serving. For me, I must continue to think of ways to keep my peers motivated.

   

• adamsky 10:15:48 pm on October 1, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: community service

  I am a Senior Coordinator (along with 5 others) of the DePaul Community Service Association. I help mentor coordinators who coordinate our 19 service groups that go across the Chicago area. We have groups that focus on working with the elderly, youth, animals, environmental concerns, etc. It is truly a wonderful organization at DePaul and I am so happy to be a part of it. BUT somedays are harder than others and I have had a few rough days this week. I am learning about the difficult nature of organizing volunteer programs. Most of our groups take DePaul provided vans and they are pretty crappy to say the least. The other night, one of our vans wouldn’t start which prevented a group called Students Against Hunger and Homelessness from going to the site, Chicago Christian Industrial League, which I talked about in my first blog. It was so disappointing to have to call the site and tell the volunteer coordinator that we would not be able to come. What was even more heart-wrenching was that we could hear the children in the background all excited for us to be there… and we could not be there. I wish the process of volunteering could be easy but that just is not the case. Having to tell student volunteers that the reason they cannot serve the community that night is because of a van malfunction… well, that just should not happen. We should never have to turn volunteers away due a technicality. But stuff like that sometimes happens and that is just the nature of the volunteer world…

   

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