[Community-service] Changing what it means to get things done!

[JKTomasell at aol.com]

the first time i read Darian's article when it was  published, I thought it 
was very insightful!! after reading it again, I still  feel the same way. 
Very proud of not only knowning Darian as a friend but  someone who moves and 
shakes the philosphy of "what it means to be  blind"!!
 
Sincerely,
Jaime Tomasello
 
 
In a message dated 3/28/2012 1:23:12 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
dsmithnfb at gmail.com writes:

Hi  all:
I ran across this article I submitted to the National Association  of
Blind Student  publication "The Student Slate".
In this   article I talked about my expirience in AmeriCorps NCCC
While I have  thought on it a bit and my views on something  things
have changed-  just realizing my growth and such-- I wanted to share!
(can anyone guess  the inspiration for  the title? - it is a
combination of two tag  lines*smile*)
let me know what you think!


Changing what it means  to get things done:
An AmeriCorps Experience

by Darian  Smith

>From the Editor: Darian Smith currently resides in California  and
attends the City College of San Francisco. He also serves on the  board
of the National Association of Blind Students. In this piece,  Darian
chronicles his experiences in AmeriCorps and demonstrates  how
volunteerism and community service can provide opportunities not  only
to better the lives of others, but also for personal growth and  the
education of our peers. Here is his story:

The  Beginning

The Idea of serving one’s country via team-based national  community
service was something that struck me as a very powerful way  to
positively impact individuals, meet new people, better myself  and
change what it means to be blind. The Journey started as a small  yet
ever-present thought that was fostered in the summer of 2002 while  I
was a summer student at the Colorado Center for the Blind. A team  of
AmeriCorps national Civilian Community Corps members and their  Team
Leader spent a project at the center doing construction work on  the
building. After a positive few days of interaction with these  great
people and positive role-models, the then- Coordinator of the  Colorado
summer program suggested I look into the program and its  benefits.

Many years past, and finally, six years later, fate brought  me back to
Denver; this time, a confident blind adult. I was a graduate of  the
center’s independence training program, had been a summer  instructor
in Colorado, and was, soon to be, a fully inducted Corps Member  of the
AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, to serve on the  same
campus as those who first introduced me to the idea of  national
service.

Soon after returning to my home state of  California, I traveled to
Oregon to start training with my first dog guide.  Training was going
very well, and I had reason to believe that I was going  to graduate
from school. Unfortunately, after a planned meeting designed  to
strategize the best tools and techniques to make the transition  for
the dog guide/handler team a successful one, there came  some
noticeable uneasiness and a lot of questions about what a guide  dog
can do (in addition to the concerns of what a blind person can do)  and
concerns about how much accommodation would have to take  place.
Additionally, the question of if I was” 100% blind or partially  blind”
came up. While it may have been, in their mind, for  programmatic
reasons, I felt like the campus was already assuming what I  could or
could not do. After thinking, and realizing the amount of  ignorance
and uneasiness that people had displayed, I came to understand  that
some educating had to take place and that right now would not be  the
best time for a dog guide. So, with that, I bid farewell to  the
friends I gained and the amazing dog I had began work with  and
returned back to the bay area.

Once there, I began the process  of determining how to best go about
educating 200 people I’d never met  before. All the while, counting
down the days until I would begin a new and  exciting chapter in my
life; one that only those who are willing to push  their limits and are
confident about their abilities as a person, blind or  not, would ever
attempt.

CTI

Corps     Training  Institute marks the beginning of the AmeriCorps NCCC
Journey. As a Corps  Member, you soon find out that the first couple of
days are probably the  most hectic days one will have in the corps.
The First days were filled  with checking in and meeting your
roommates, the people on your team, and  the people in your unit. I met
a lot of corps members within the first few  hours of my arrival on
campus. For most of these wonderfully enthusiastic  and talented
individuals, who I would come to know as my corps mates and  friends,
it would be the first time they had ever met a blind person. The  same
could be said for the team leaders, unit leaders and office staff  on
campus, as well.

During training, Corps Members travel across  campus to different
trainings and meetings, which are put on to prepare  corps members for
the ten months that lie ahead. Some of those trainings  are diversity
trainings, CPR, First Aid and trainings on how to run a Red  Cross
disaster shelter. They also cover rules and regulations regarding  the
program. The very first days served as a sort of test not only for  me,
but also the other people on campus- as it gave me an opportunity  to
show how a person who is blind travels in both familiar and  unfamiliar
areas; among other things. Being a person who had, just two  months
prior to joining NCCC, been teaching blind youth the freedom and  sense
of empowerment that safe and independent travel bring, I  felt
especially confident in my ability to navigate this new  environment,
and felt the need to prove that traveling and problem-solving  were
things I was very capable of doing.

Campus life is, generally,  what u would see in a university. The
campus has a cafeteria and a set of  dorms. I was assigned a single
room that had a full bathroom and was  located by an emergency exit; as
the staff had a difficult time  understanding (after detailed
explanation) how a blind person can  effectively get from the bathroom
to their room or out of a building given  an understanding of its
layout. So they decided to put me (against my  request) in a “more
accessible room.”

After a few days of learning  about the corps, the campus, and the
people on it, I approached the  Director of the AmeriCorps NCCC campus
about putting on a one-person meet  the blind month event. While it was
not phrased in that manner, and the  conversation was a continuation of
a conversation I had had with her prior  to arrival, it was an idea
that went over well with her. The event was  spread out over the
duration of our month of training and consisted of meet  the blind
month literature that was displayed in the main dorm lobby, a  informal
introduction to goal ball, a question and answer session during  a
corps wide community meeting, and finally an activity which,  in
keeping with the month long theme, I called “Cane Travel Training.”  I
was very fortunate to have been able to get sleepshades and  canes
loaned out to me by the Colorado Center for the Blind. Let me  assure
you that time and energy put into this activity were time and  energy
well-spent. Corps members, team leaders, and office staff  alike
participated in the series of informal trainings. In these  trainings,
they learned how a blind person safely and effectively navigates  both
familiar and unfamiliar areas and does so with a high degree  of
confidence. They also learned about proper cane technique, how to  move
about in a building, go up and down stairs and travel outdoors.  One
activity that proved to be a highlight was a session that took  place
during my unit’s team bonding time at Rocky Mountain National  Park.
Individuals learned how to navigate rocky paths using a cane  while
listening to the birds and the wind through the trees and feeling  the
sun on their faces. Everyone who took part enjoyed the event,  those
who didn’t, express interest in taking part in the event if there  was
to be another one.

Once the month of corps wide training and  team selection process
ended, I sat down with my Team Leader, and as is  normal practice with
team leaders and corps members pre- project round, we  talked about
expectations and goals for the upcoming round in Boulder,  Colorado. We
discussed keeping an open line of communication and she  stressed to me
that she understood that at times it may not be as easy  interacting
with individuals who may not allow me to push myself out of my  comfort
zone and try new things on the work site, as they may feel  nervous
about my participation. She also assured me that, while she knew I  was
a self-advocate and supported my advocacy efforts on my own  behalf,
she was going to advocate for me as best she could, as  well.

My team leader grew up with a friend who was blind. This friend  is
currently in law school; and her positive views of blindness  clearly
have pushed her to this point in her education. It is, I believe,  this
personal interaction with a successful blind person which has  shaped
my team leader’s views on blindness, and that has made my team  leader
one of the more open-minded team leaders, relative to disabilities,  in
our corps. She always worked to keep me in the loop on little  yet
important things. As one Example: When I was first arriving on  campus,
I received a folder that was the same as the ones that all of  the
other corps members in my unit had gotten. However, mine had a  message
in Braille welcoming me to the corps. And who wrote it? My  team
leader. She knew Braille. This was a very nice surprise that meant  a
lot to me. She was always there to listen when I was having a  tough
time understanding a situation, or needing to vent. She sometimes  did
not have the answers, but she would not let me give up on myself  and
gave me time to figure out problems, where other people may not  have
had that kind of patience. When it came to being on the work site  she
always took the time to explain its layout and explain how I might  go
about doing something on the site.

Boulder, Colorado

My  team’s first project was an environmental service project in
Boulder  working with the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain
Parks. On this  project, we worked on building two new hiking trails,
cleared out a few  irrigation ditches, and removed invasive species
(which really just  translates into pulling weeds).

On most of these projects, it was best  to stick with a member of the
team and work on a part of the project  together, as otherwise it got
rather boring and repetitive quite quickly.  When it came to hiking to
and from some of the sites with rougher uneven  paths, I alternated
between traveling alone and traveling with a human  guide. I found that
walking to the site with someone via human guide was  simply a matter
of keeping pace and having a conversation as  well.

On one of our work sites, I was asked to clear grass patches out  of a
trench. The way I went about this was to first have my cane be  stored
in a safe place by a project sponsor, and then, I would walk along  one
side of the trench, feeling with my foot for broken up patches  of
grass and damp dirt and throw them in an area that was pointed out  by
the sponsor. The project introduced me to new tools that I had  never
used or heard of before, such as a rockbar and mcloud. I was  also
educated as to the socio – economic and recreational  considerations
people must think about when developing or not developing  land for
recreational usage or preservation reasons. I learned a lot  about
Colorado and its water conservation plans, as well.

During  this Round, I visited the Boulder Valley Chapter of the NFB and
told them  about AmeriCorps NCCC and the great benefits of giving back
to one’s  country through national service. As one of my team roles was
recruiter,  the concept of talking-up our program was not too
unnatural, but the best  part of it was letting people know that this
program is out there and, yes,  blind people can be a part of it and do
great things as well.

As for  my project sponsors, they were all great helps and enabled me
to learn  while learning along with me. The lesson? Given the
opportunity and  training, a person who is blind can do most of the
same jobs a sighted  person can do, and do them just as effectively as
anybody.

Brazoria  County, Texas

My team and I went to Brazoria County, Texas and started  work with the
United Way. We were told we were going to be doing canvassing  work and
talking to residents in the community about resources which  were
available to victims of hurricane Ike. This, of course, meant a lot  of
walking and a lot of talking. I had two primary roles on this  project.
While in the field, I mainly did most of the communicating  with
clients, as I have a good skill for relating to people. While  away
from the worksite, I would write out weekly progress reports to  keep
track of where we went and what we did.

In this round, my  skills as a recruiter were taken to new heights.
Normally, a recruiter on a  team will research places that would be
good to talk to the youth of the  community and contact those places
and set up a time to come in and talk  about the program. I would do
research (via a laptop with JAWS and an  internet connection) about
these places, call them, and get the logistics  squared away so an
event could take place. During This round I, along with  different
members of my team, would go out to high schools as well as work  with
and talk to venture crews to talk-up the program.

What made  this round so special was my ability to be personable and to
make every  aspect of myself and the program a shining positive. One
thing which  generally made otherwise shy people want to find out more
about the program  was when I would mention all of the great aspects of
the program and all of  the great things I’d been able to do as a blind
person. I don’t know if  they joined or considered joining with the
hopes of meeting a blind person,  or if being confident and showing
your personality makes the program sound  like it’s worthwhile. But,
either way, youth that would not normally have  considered the program
at first glance either seriously considered the  program or planned to
do it as soon as they graduated high school or  college. To me, that’s
a great feeling. I believe that during this round I  showed many youth
that anybody who wants to serve their country can do it;  that ability,
race, creed or anything else does not have to be a reason to  not help
others any chance you get.

Over this round I learned to  work with the skill saw, sawzall, drill,
axe and nail gun on various  construction and debris removal projects.
The best part of this was that  team mates and my team leader had all,
by this point, taken the time to  teach me skills I normally would not
have thought I would ever be able to  learn. As was the case on my
previous project, the people in the community  came in with no idea of
what to expect out of me. In the end they were some  of the best
teachers and best people I worked with during my Corps year.  They
never over reacted, they were always so nice and helpful to  everybody,
and they treated me as if blindness was the last thing they  thought of
when they saw me.

Hale County, Alabama

This  Project round presented an opportunity and a bigger challenge
than most of  the others I had worked on. Hale County is the fifth
poorest county in the  country, and the town I lived in was like most
towns in Alabama, very small  and not notable to anyone who didn’t live
there. The nature of this project  was construction work and painting.
In previous projects I had done both.  The biggest challenge was
convincing a new team leader, team, and the staff  back at my base
campus that I could do these things. Another added  challenge was
convincing them that I could climb scaffolding with ease  and
confidence. Though I could show my team leader and project  supervisors
that I could do the job, the campus management still had their  doubts.

During this round, all AmeriCorps campuses were filling slots  for
their incoming class of team leaders. During this process, I  was
interviewed by four different campuses, who were all considering  me
for open positions. In the end I was not offered a position by any  of
the campuses, with some not even bothering to notify me. One  campus
admitted to altering the general set of questions they ask all  their
candidates, saying they were not confident that I, as a blind  person,
would be able to answer them. It was at this point that I started  to
return to questioning the true belief that this campus  and
organization had in people with disabilities in general and in me as  a
blind person. It seemed to me that they felt a person with  a
disability could certainly become a corps member, but would not  be
able to lead a group of ten young adults on challenging projects.  It
felt to me as if they saw this opportunity as something that  someone
with a disability, especially blindness, could not be trusted to  take
on.

I continued with the project in Alabama, working with  volunteers on a
piece of history in the area; an old Rosenwald school house  that was
ninety-five years old. I also worked in a local thrift store  that
benefited the community members. Most of my job this round  was
recruitment off the worksite, though I still carried out minimal  tasks
on the site. On hot days, which reached 95 degrees, I found  myself
near hot tin pulling old rusted nails out of old two-by-fours,  while
my team mates were climbing the side of the old school house to  nail
or paint. While one can justify this by saying the work had to  get
done and I was doing a job, I often found myself in just the  situation
I had worked so hard to avoid. I didn’t want to be sitting on  the
sidelines while my teammates got to challenge themselves in ways  they
never thought they’d be challenged.

This is not to say that I  didn’t see some really interesting things. I
had been to my first crawfish  boil, and had been through more tornado
warnings then I would have liked.  There were some truly great people
who were working to help people in this  county change their way of
life, and I had been fortunate enough to get to  know some of the best
folks in this small county. I learned that housing  and education were
not the only problems the county was facing. I was on a  ride-along
with a post-grad student from the University of Alabama who  was
testing water purity in the area. The student told Me that  many
residents in the county often drink and bathe in darkened water  from
their pipes and never know how unhealthy it is, nor know  any
different. Overall, I think that our Alabama project was a  very
educational time for me. I learned about my country, what we take  for
granted and the challenges we face in closing the gap between  the
haves and have nots.

Colorado.

In our fourth project  round, I was one of the fortunate few corps
members to be selected to work  in AmeriCorps NCCC’s Summer of Service
program (the only program of its  kind to be run in the country in
2009). The Summer of Service program (SOS)  gives at risk youth the
opportunity to serve their local community and gain  invaluable skills
and an awareness of community needs. It also provides a  small stipend
which the youth often use to support their  families.

In the three weeks prior to the youths’ arrival on campus, I,  along
with my team mates took part in training and then a two-week  camping
trip in the mountains of Jamestown, Colorado. Aside from the fun  of
getting to set-up a tent and hike on this project, within these  two
weeks, my new team and I worked on moving tree limbs to the side  of
the road to be gathered. Most of this involved dragging limbs  from
down a hillside (or “hauling slash”), and using my cane with my  left
arm, sometimes following the voices of my team mates. One fun thing  I
did was use a hydraulic wood-splitter. This machine was designed as  an
easier, less labor intensive way to split wood.

After the two  weeks of work and bonding were complete, we returned to
Denver and got  ready for the Participants. Once the program started, I
was asked to serve  as a crew leader with three other co-crew leaders
overseeing a team of  seven to ten youth. Crew leaders had the
responsibility to supervise the  Participants, making sure that they
stayed on task on the work site and  maintained safe habits and
respectful manners both on and off of the work  site. It was always a
bit of a challenge with the Participants, as they  would often
challenge my abilities as a supervisor. They worked hard and it  was
rewarding to see what great young people they grew into over just  one
month.

Three short weeks later, it was time for each corps  member who had
made it through the long and challenging journey of an  AmeriCorps year
to look around, look ahead, and say goodbye to the family  that they
had for ten months. I, to this day, will never forget the feeling  of
crossing the stage and thinking, “This is it! All of the challenges  I
faced, all of the friends I found, all of the places I’ve gone  and
experiences I’ve had … this is it.” I had finally completed a  journey
that on more than one occasion, I had considered walking away  from.
But in the end, when I heard in the crowd the roar of applause  that
was lead by the very Summer of Service Participants that we helped  to
graduate just weeks before, I felt so many things. When I stopped  to
consider it I felt finality, pride, and accomplishment. I  had
completed this program with so many people whom I had grown to  care
for and respect, and who had grown to respect me. On that day I  felt
like I did change what it means to be blind in the National  Civilian
Community Corps, a program where blindness was truly  uncharted
territory.



-- 
Darian Smith

"To dream  what is possible and to put oneself in service of that dream is  
the
formula
for a life well lived."

- Dr. Peter  Benson

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