[Community-service] Article from future reflections.

[Darian Smith]

This was the article featured in Future Reflections.  It touches on
the  group in what we are doing, but it also gives  people an idea of
the inspiration for the group's creation.  I hope that  you enjoy and
that you share  your  thoughts.  More than that, I hopeyou can find it
within yourselves to create your own story, to find what it is that
drives you to give to your community because I would love nothing more
than to hear many many  many more stories that I can hope to be
inspired by.
 My deepest Thanks to Debbie Kent Stein for allowing me the
oppertunity (I am honored) and helping to bring this to the attention
to parents and blindness professionals, as this can only serve  to
open more doors for our blind youth and give their parents real-life
examples of what we as blind people can do.
 -- Darian

The Service Effect: How Helping the Community Develops Strong
Leadership in Students

Future Reflections        Summer 2012

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The Service Effect: How Helping the Community Develops Strong
Leadership in Students

by Darian Smith

>From the Editor: Darian Smith is earning a degree in recreation
management at San Francisco State University. He serves as second vice
president of the
National Association of Blind Students (NABS).

I first got involved with community service when I was a teenager. I
helped create recreational programs for blind youth and seniors in San
Francisco. I
enjoyed the experience and appreciated what it gave me, but eventually
I wanted more of a challenge.

One summer, while I attended a program sponsored by one of the
National Federation of the Blind training centers, I met a group of
young people who were
serving with an AmeriCorps program called the National Civilian
Community Corps. They were doing various kinds of work in and around
the building. I learned
that they got the chance to travel the country, meet all sorts of
people, and gain new skills. I was excited by their stories, and
eventually I looked
into AmeriCorps for myself. I found out that I could go anywhere in
the country and challenge myself to learn new things and meet new
people.

AmeriCorps Basics

Darian Smith digs at a worksite in Alabama, his telescoping cane
clipped to his belt.
When I looked a little further into AmeriCorps, I learned that the
program offers many incentives for youth to give their time to
national and community
service. They include a small living allowance, skills and experience
to add to one's résumé, and education awards that can help pay for
college.

I discovered that AmeriCorps provided many opportunities for me to
serve close to home in the San Francisco Bay Area and all across
California. However,
I wanted to see as much of the country as I could and to get a mix of
experiences. I decided to explore the National Civilian Community
Corps (NCCC), the
program in which I ultimately enrolled.

NCCC (N triple C) is an intensive ten-month community service
experience. Members range between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-four. They work on teams
to address the most pressing needs of the nation's communities.

NCCC teams work on a series of service learning projects that last for
six to eight weeks. These experiences may involve education, the
environment, construction,
disaster relief, or unmet human needs. Each team is based on one of
five regional campuses. Team members train on campus and are deployed
to any state
within the region that the campus serves.

My Journey Begins

Of course, the prospect of trying something dramatically new was a
little scary. Fortunately, I had the longstanding support of my
family, my mother in
particular. She always encouraged me to try new things, especially
when travel was involved.

I would like to share an overview of my ten-month AmeriCorps journey.
It was a journey that allowed me to learn about myself and my country.
It showed me
that passionate, committed people, both sighted and blind, can take
part in changing society for the better. I also learned how my sighted
peers viewed
me as a blind person. I saw the limitations they set upon themselves
by setting limitations upon me.

Corps Training Institute marked the beginning of my AmeriCorps NCCC
journey. The first days were very hectic. After I checked in, I met my
roommates, the
people on my team, and the people in my unit. I met a lot of these new
people within my first few hours on campus. They were wonderfully
enthusiastic and
talented individuals, and I came to know many of them as my Corps
teammates and friends. I was the first blind person most of them had
ever met. The same
was true for the team leaders, unit leaders, and office staff on campus.

During training, Corps members traveled across campus to attend
various training sessions and meetings. Sessions included training on
diversity, CPR, first
aid, and how to run a Red Cross disaster shelter. They also covered
the program's rules and regulations.

Those first days on campus served as a sort of test for me. They gave
me a chance to show how a blind person travels in familiar and
unfamiliar areas. As
I look back on it, I realize I felt the need to prove that I was very
capable of traveling and problem-solving. I got the feeling that
people generally
didn't believe I could do those things.

In many ways, life on the Corps training campus was what you might
experience at a university. The campus had a cafeteria and a set of
dormitories. I was
assigned to a single room located next to an emergency exit, and my
room had a full bathroom. Despite detailed explanations, the dorm
staff didn't understand
how I, as a blind person, could find my way to a bathroom down the
hall or exit the building in the event of a fire. Ignoring my
protests, the staff insisted
on putting me in a "more accessible" room.

Darian Smith makes coffee at a foodbank.
A few days into training, I approached the director of the AmeriCorps
NCCC campus about putting on a one-person "Meet the Blind Month"
event. I had initiated
the idea with her prior to my arrival on campus, and she was very
receptive. The event was spread out over our month of training. Meet
the Blind Month
literature was displayed in the main dorm lobby. Corps members got an
informal introduction to goalball, and I held a question and answer
session during
a Corps-wide community meeting. Finally, in keeping with the
month-long theme, I conducted an activity called "Cane Travel
Training." I was fortunate to
be able to borrow sleepshades and canes from the Colorado Center for
the Blind. The time and energy I put into this activity were
well-spent. Corps members,
team leaders, and office staff alike participated in the series of
informal trainings. They learned how a blind person safely and
effectively navigates
in familiar and unfamiliar areas, doing so with a high degree of
confidence. They also learned about proper cane technique for moving
about in a building,
going up and down stairs, and traveling outdoors.

One cane travel 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 to navigate rocky paths using a cane while they
listened to the birds and the wind through the trees and felt the sun
on their faces.
Everyone who took part enjoyed the event. Those who didn't participate
expressed interest in taking part if the event were repeated.

First Assignment

My team's first assignment was an environmental service project in
Boulder, Colorado. We worked with the City of Boulder Open Space and
Mountain Parks.
We worked on building two new hiking trails, cleared out a few
irrigation ditches, and removed invasive species (which translates as
pulling weeds).

In most instances I found it was best for me to partner with a member
of the team and work on our share of the project together. Otherwise
the work quickly
grew rather boring and repetitive. When it came to hiking to and from
some of the sites over rough, uneven paths, I alternated between
traveling alone
and traveling with a human guide. When I walked to a site with another
person, I simply kept pace while we had a conversation.

At one of our worksites, I was asked to clear grass patches out of a
trench. First I had a project sponsor store my cane in a safe place.
Then I walked
along one side of the trench, feeling with my foot for broken-up
patches of grass and damp earth. I threw them into an area that was
pointed out by the
sponsor. The project introduced me to tools I had never used or heard
of before, such as the rock bar and the McLeod. I also became better
informed about
the socioeconomic factors that go into decisions about preserving land
or developing it for recreational purposes. I learned a lot about
Colorado and its
water conservation plans as well.

My project sponsors were a great help. They enabled me to learn while
they learned along with me. The lesson? Given the training and
opportunity, a blind
person can do most of the jobs a sighted person can do, and do them
just as effectively as anybody else.

As one of my roles on the team was recruitment, it was natural and
appropiate for me to talk to groups about the program. During my first
round, I visited
the Boulder Valley Chapter of the NFB. I spoke about AmeriCorps NCCC
and the great benefits of giving back to one's country through
national service. I
enjoyed letting people know that the program is out there and that,
yes, blind people can be a part of it and do great things.

Recruiting in Texas

>From Boulder my team and I went to Brazoria County, Texas, where we
worked with the United Way. We were assigned to canvass the community,
talking to residents
about resources available to victims of Hurricane Ike. This work, of
course, meant a lot of walking and a lot of talking. I had two primary
roles on this
project. I have good communication skills, so I did most of the
talking with clients while we were in the field. I also wrote out
weekly progress reports
to document where we had been and what we did.

During this round, my skills as a recruiter reached new heights. Using
a laptop with JAWS and an Internet connection, I researched local
schools and youth
programs. I arranged for us to speak to young people about AmeriCorps.
With various members of my team, I talked up the program with venture
crews and
high school students.

On this round I felt confident in my ability to be personable and to
make myself and the program shining positives. Even shy people
generally wanted to
learn more about AmeriCorps when I described the great aspects of the
program and the wonderful things it allowed me to do as a blind
person. Youth who
would never have considered the program at first glance gave it
serious thought, and some planned to enroll as soon as they finished
school. Their response
gave me a great feeling. During this round I showed many youth that
anybody who wants to serve their country can do so.

On various construction and debris removal projects during this round,
I learned to work with more new tools--the skill saw, Sawzall, drill,
axe, and nail
gun. By this point my teammates and team leader willingly took the
time to teach me skills I might not have thought I could learn. As was
the case on my
previous project, the people in the community started off with no idea
what to expect from me. In the end they proved to be some of the best
teachers and
best people I worked with during my Corps year. 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.

Construction in Alabama

My next project was in Hale County, Alabama. This project round
presented me with a greater opportunity and a bigger challenge than
any of my other Corps
assignments.

Hale County is the fifth poorest county in the country. The town where
I lived was like most towns in Alabama--very small and not very
notable to anyone
who didn't live there. The nature of our project was construction work
and painting. I had done both during previous projects. However, I had
to convince
a new team and team leader, as well as the staff back at my base
campus, that I could do these things. An added challenge was
convincing them that I could
climb scaffolding with ease and confidence. Though I showed my team
leader and project supervisors that I could do the job, the campus
management still
had doubts.

During this round, all of the AmeriCorps campuses were filling
positions for their incoming class of team leaders. I was interviewed
by four campuses where
I was being considered for open positions. In the end I was not
offered a position by any of these campuses, and some did not even
bother to notify me.
One campus admitted to altering the general set of questions they ask
the other candidates. They said they were not sure that I, as a blind
person, would
be able to answer them. I started to question the organization's true
belief in people with disabilities and in me as a blind person. The
organization
seemed to feel that a person with a disability could certainly become
a Corps member, but could not lead a group of ten young adults on
challenging projects.
AmeriCorps leaders seemed unwilling to trust a person with a
disability, especially a blind person, to handle such a
responsibility.

Most of my job this round was recruitment off the worksite. I also
worked in a local thrift store that benefited the community. In
addition, I carried out
some minimal tasks on the worksite, helping volunteers restore a
ninety-five-year-old Rosenwald schoolhouse. On hot days, when the
temperature reached
as high as 95 degrees, I found myself pulling rusted nails out of old
two-by-fours. Meanwhile, my teammates were climbing the side of the
old schoolhouse
to hammer nails or to paint. One could argue that my work had to get
done, but I often found myself in the very situation I had worked so
hard to avoid.
I didn't want to sit on the sidelines while my teammates challenged
themselves in ways they had never expected.

Nevertheless, I had some fascinating experiences in Alabama. I
attended my first crawfish boil and lived through more tornado
warnings than I would have
liked. I met some truly great people who were working to help the
local people change their way of life. I was fortunate to know some of
the best folks
in this small county.

I learned that inadequate housing and education were not the only
problems Hale County faced. One day I rode along with a postgraduate
student from the
University of Alabama who was testing water purity in the area. The
student told me that many residents in the county drink and bathe in
darkened water
from their pipes, having no other choice and not knowing how unhealthy
the water is.

Overall, our Alabama project was a very educational time for me. I
learned about things we take for granted and the challenges we face in
closing the gap
between the haves and have nots.

Summer of Service

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. That year,
2009, it was the only AmeriCorps program of its kind in the country.
The Summer of Service (SOS) Program gave at-risk youth the opportunity
to serve their
local community. The young people gained invaluable skills and an
awareness of community needs. The program also provided a small
stipend that the youth
often used to help support their families.

Before the youths arrived on campus, my teammates and I took part in a
week of training, followed by a two-week camping trip in the mountains
near Jamestown,
Colorado. Besides the fun parts--hiking and setting up tents--my new
team and I worked on moving tree limbs to the side of the road to be
gathered. Most
of the work involved "hauling slash," dragging limbs down a hillside.
I used my cane with my left arm and hauled with my right, sometimes
following the
voices of my teammates. One fun thing I did during the trip was to use
a hydraulic wood-splitter. This machine was designed as an easier,
less labor-intensive
way to split logs.

After two weeks of work and bonding, we returned to Denver and got
ready for the participants. I was asked to serve as one of four
co-crew leaders, overseeing
a team of seven to ten young men and women. Crew leaders were
responsible for supervising the participants, making sure that they
stayed on task on the
worksite. We also encouraged them to maintain safe habits and
respectful behavior on the worksite and off. The participants often
challenged my abilities
as a supervisor, but they worked hard. It was rewarding to see them
mature over the course of the project.

Three short weeks later, the SOS Program was over, and I approached
the end of my AmeriCorps year. It was time for me and my teammates to
look around, look
ahead, and say good-bye to our AmeriCorps family. I will never forget
the blend of sadness and overwhelming satisfaction that washed over me
as I crossed
the stage in the campus auditorium at our closing ceremony. On more
than one occasion over the year I had considered walking away. Now I
had completed
the journey.

Suddenly I heard a roar of applause. It was led by the Summer of
Service participants we had helped to graduate just weeks before. I
felt a sense of finality,
pride, and accomplishment. Like the young people I had tried to help,
I, too, had matured through my AmeriCorps service. I wanted to take
what I learned
about service and get more involved at home.

Passing It Forward

Since my Corps year, I have been more involved in service projects
than I ever would have imagined. I even lead a service-oriented club
on my college campus.

While I was in AmeriCorps, I got the idea of creating a place where
blind people of all ages could learn about getting involved in
community service. A
couple of years and some long hours with friends later, the National
Federation of the Blind has formed the Community Service Group. The
group has discussions
via conference calls and a listserv. Members learn about opportunities
for blind people to get involved in community service. By the time
this article
is published, we will have completed our first community service
project and held a seminar and organizing meeting at the 2012 NFB
convention in Dallas.

I firmly believe that community service has beneficial effects on all
those who participate. My AmeriCorps experiences were both positive
and negative,
but all of them helped me learn and grow. I now take part in any
service project I can fit into my schedule.

I highly encourage others to explore any opportunity that sounds the
least bit interesting. Give it a try! You may become a more
well-rounded person with
the drive to find the good and the potential for improvement in the
world around you. You just may go on looking for ways to make the
world a better place.

To learn more about AmeriCorps, visit  <
www.americorps.gov>.

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-- 
Darian Smith

"Let's work together to eliminate Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities"

http://www.nfb.org/fairwages


"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