[Community-service] Question about Techniques for Painting and Renovation Projects

[Sarah Meyer]

Good evening,

Some of you may know me even though I haven't posted to this list
before. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sarah and I am
a graduate student working on a Master's in Clinical Mental Health
Counseling at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I don't get to
volunteer as much as I'd like, but some of what I have done more
recently has included using my time to do outreach for the clinic that
my counseling department runs to inform the community about our
low-cost counseling services and to educate about mental health
issues. We provide individual, couples, and family counseling to
Muncie and the surrounding cities/communities, and since we are a
training clinic and don't deal with insurance, we offer sessions for
$10 but will go down to as low as $1 per session of clients are not
able to pay more. It's a win-win for clients and for those of us who
are going into the field of counseling. The counseling we provide is
all supervised and recorded.

Anyway, I am writing because I have a couple of questions. I apologize
if this is already a topic that has been brought up by others. My
church is getting ready to do a local mission trip to our community,
and the projects include working with Habitat for Humanity and another
local coalition that works to strengthen neighborhoods and
communities. The projects primarily include painting, renovations
(those will be at our church's children's ministry building), and
organizational projects with the civic theatre...and more painting.
What I am wondering is, have any of you done these kinds of projects
as a part of volunteering with a group, and if so, what challenges did
you face and what alternative techniques did you use? What stereotypes
did you encounter, and how did you handle those?

When I was in high school, I tried to volunteer with Habitat once, but
I didn't feel I was able to really contribute. I honestly don't
remember what I did do and what others were working on, but I think I
helped carry things to people. I remember feeling like I was in the
way and not able to fully participate or make a difference. Granted, I
hadn't had solid training or blindness philosophy; I did the best I
could, was fairly independent, and had a pretty positive attitude, but
I sometimes saw more obstacles instead of opportunities. I'm wondering
if that might be part of what is happening now...if I might be seeing
more obstacles than opportunities.

If I can be transparent, I think I'm a bit nervous that I would not be
able to contribute, that I might actually get in the way or cause more
work for the team I'd be working with. I don't want to slow them down
or be a burden in any way. The work days are 8 hours long, so it would
be one thing to help for just a couple of hours, but if I take longer
to do things or miss spots with painting, for example, and create more
work for them, well 8 hours is a long time to have to put up with
that.

I am curious what others' thoughts are on this topic and the questions I posed.

Thanks so much, and have a great evening!

Sarah

-- 
Sarah K. Meyer
Graduate Student, Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Ball State University
sarah.meyer55 at gmail.com
(317)402-6632

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. You can live the life
you want; blindness is not what holds you back. Together with love,
hope, and determination, we transform dreams into reality.