Directions

To get to VOA, take I-65 North to the Jackson St. Exit. Follow the Jackson St. Exit off the highway until you come to the light at Ormsby. Turn left at Ormsby. The VOA Family Shelter is the last driveway on the left, just before you get to the intersection at Preston. Let's plan to meet there at 4:00.

Post-service reflection

After our visit on June 28, please provide some follow-up reflection here about your experience (by July 15): How did you feel the experience went? How did your experience compare with your pre-service reflection? What surprised you about our visit? How might you take some of what you experienced and/or what we talked about in class into your classroom in the fall? Perhaps, more importantly, how can you take this information into your future role as an administrator?

Pre-Service Reflection

Please respond here, prior to June 28, (1) regarding your understanding of or experience with issues related to homelessness and (2) important ingredients for effective, critical, and more solidaristic forms of service.

Possible questions to guide your reflection (please do not feel compelled to answer all or most of these--a few will do! And, feel free to build from and/or constructively challenge your colleagues with your reflection):

• What is your understanding of the main causes of homelessness?
• Where have these understandings been shaped?
• What kind of work have you done with folks who have experienced homelessness before?
• What has been your experience with children in your classrooms who have experienced homelessness?
• What is a first experience you recall encountering someone who was homeless?
• What do you feel are important ingredients to a service experience?
• What, if any, is the distinction between community service and service learning?
• Why do some critical educators call us to move 'beyond empathy' in our service learning experiences? What is 'beyond' empathy? And, how might we do that?
• What do you hope to take away from this experience on the 28th?

June 28

OK--we've gotten the go-ahead from Volunteers of America for June 28. Dinner is at 5 and we'll need to serve between 35 and 50 people. I believe we talked about arriving around 3 to begin preparing.

Questions to consider:

• What should we fix?
• Who wants to bring what?

They'll pretty much allow us to fix whatever we'd like. They've got all the serving stuff we'll need and plenty of room to fix it. We can be as creative or as traditional as we would like.

Let the possibilities flow...

(Recall, I will be gone June 14-24, so I will only be able to check the blog sporadically while away, as most of the communities in which I will be working do not have access to the web. I will keep up best I can, but will be sure to jump right back in on Monday, June 25.)

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! Looking forward to the conversation.

I've already begun a couple of posting threads for which I would like you to respond (simply click on where it says 'comments' next to where it says 'posted by adam'.

One, we need to decide what we'll prepare on the 28th and who will bring what.

Two, we should engage in some pre-service reflection related to our initial impressions about homelessness and important ingredients to effective, critical, and more solidaristice service work.

Three, we should engage in some post-service reflection related to our experience at Volunteers of America and where we go from here.