Active Citizenship
When it comes to our place and role in society or a community it is too often common for people to consider themselves solely as members. There is nothing wrong with being a member of a community, so long as that membership is of value. In today’s society we have created a world where many believe that it is not up to them to make a change, but the responsibility is put in the hands of our leaders. In his essay “From Leadership to Citizenship”, Peter Block states that “our attraction to leadership, our very interest in it, becomes the obstacle to authentic change or transformation” (Block 1). We rely on those in charge to change the social issues surrounding us and put our communities in their hands. All too often we forget that we are the people living in these communities and that we possess the capacity to take matters into our own hands. If we want change, we must start to make that change. As put by President Obama, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” In order to obtain the meaningful change which we seek and to get the best results out of our communities, we must offer up our participation. It is necessary to participate in social engagement and activism in the form of active citizenship and involvement. The obstacle which we face is changing our position in society from members to active citizens. It takes much more than just referring to oneself with a different title. To reach the point of active citizenship, we, as members of a community, must embark along the path that is called the Active Citizenship Continuum. Beginning as members of a community we have already reached the first step in the Continuum. We do not have any particular interest in our involvement with society at this stage and are not concerned with the social problems and issues surrounding us. However, somewhere along the line something sparks our interests and opens our ears to the call of participation within our community. Social issues become visible to us now and we recognize the impacts they have and the tolls they are taking on our surroundings. Once we reach the point where we feel that it is necessary to lend a helping hand and become involved in order to diminish and prevent social issues, we move forward from our membership status and become volunteers. As volunteers we choose to participate in the attempt to better our communities. Our hearts are in the right place and our efforts are well-intended. We try to focus our energy and services on the issues which need to be addressed and tailor our actions to meet the requirements of that specific issue. At this stage in the Continuum, social issues are apparent to us but not fully understood. We lack the proper education about the issues needed in order to bring about a successful positive change. As we begin to grow as volunteers and become more passionate and knowledgeable about social issues, we begin the transition into conscientious citizens; the third and second to last step to active citizenship. Being conscientious citizens, we dive deeper into the social issues at hand. We ask questions and investigate the potential causes of certain issues. We are concerned with finding the root cause by asking “why is this happening?” and “how did this happen?”. We begin to connect the dots between different factors and analyze the issues from all different perspectives in order to gain a complete view. This is very important because understanding something based simply off of face-value will lead to significant gaps in our understanding and knowledge of the particular issue. In order to make a real impact on the community we must be fully aware of what it is we are trying to change. The fourth and final step in the Active Citizenship Continuum is the achievement of active citizen status. This means that all of the knowledge which we have gained along the Continuum all adds together and forms a true passion and devotion for one’s community. “Citizenship is our agreement to receive rights and privileges from the community and, in so doing, to pay for them through our willingness to live within certain boundaries and act in the interest of the whole. At the core of citizenship is the desire to care for the well-being of the larger institution, be it an organization, a neighborhood, or a country” (Block 3) We recognize how our actions may impact others and make a conscientious effort to act in ways which will lead to positive outcomes for those around us. The community becomes a leading aspect of our lives. Some active citizens may go so far as to devote their career to helping relieve the impact and root causes of certain social issues which the community may face. Active citizenship is utilized in many ways throughout the community. When it comes to service and serving others, active citizenship plays a vital role. Without a full understanding of the issue which one seeks to change it is easy to fall down along the negative spectrum of community development. Award winning medical essayist Lewis Thomas summarized this with his statement “If you want to fix something you are first obliged to understand … the whole system.” (Stroh 14). Lacking the proper perspective of a community can lead to an understanding formed by a single opinion. When a community is considered to be in need, the community development work done in that area will be focused on their problems and deficiencies. Need-based community development is ineffective and can lead to unwanted results. For example, one of the big issues is that people are told by outside forces that something in their community is wrong and needs to be changed. They may have never viewed this particular something as being wrong before and were perfectly happy with the way everything was currently going. But when we go in and tell them that there is something missing and that they need help, “they begin to see themselves as people with special needs that can only be met by outsiders. They become consumers of services, with no incentive to be producers” (Kretzmann & McKnight 23). In order to truly make a positive change in a community it is important to utilize asset based community development tactics. According to John Kretzmann and John P. McKnight in their work titled “Assets-Based Community Development”, “significant community development takes place only when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in the effort” (Kretzmann & McKnight 25). This means that it is the community which seeks to make a change, not those telling them what to do. Active citizens take matters into their own hands and join together to serve those around them. They unveil the existing skills, talents, and assets of a community and build upon them in order to make the positive change which the community members want and need. Virginia Tech’s motto is “Ut Prosim”, which, when translated from latin to english, means “That I May Serve”. “Ut Prosim” is not only our motto, but also one of the eight pylons which sit above War Memorial Chapel overlooking the Drillfield and center of campus. The other seven are Brotherhood, Honor, Leadership, Sacrifice, Service, Loyalty, and Duty. I truly believe that service is what sits at the core of this University. It unites all students together to work towards a common goal of giving back to our community. Our everyday academic lives are oriented towards an education which can be used to help give back. We are taught the importance of taking what we learn in the classroom, lab, or lecture hall and sharing it with the world. The careers which the school prepares us for involve forms of service in one way or another. Even if the service aspect of one’s degree isn’t immediately apparent to them, it is still there. Virginia Tech’s devotion to service exceeds far beyond the classroom and is portrayed in many different ways around campus and through clubs and other extra curricular activities. During Gobblerfest at the beginning of this school year I noticed that there were many booths for clubs focused on community service. There are all sorts of outreach programs to get students involved with the local community and to get to know Blacksburg a bit better. There are two different activities that come to mind when I think about Tech’s service to the surrounding communities. The first activity that I think of is a program through the Women’s Center called AWARE. This program is a mentoring program which connects female college students with girls in the local middle schools. AWARE volunteers go to the schools at lunchtime at least once a week and meet with the girls. They provide positive role models for these girls who may not have been provided with ones previously. The second activity is Reading Hour which is an activity where Tech students go to local preschool and elementary schools and spend an hour reading to students there. Not only does this promote involvement with local schools, but it also promotes literacy in the surrounding communities. The students involved in Reading Hour typically go read to the children once a week. Because they go so frequently they are able to build relationships with the people whey see while at the schools and make connections within the community. The volunteer experiences which I have both participated and heard of this semester all seem to promote the values of active citizenship. When a student volunteers with a group that meets more than once they begin to become more and more familiar with the social issue they are working against. They become aware of the presence of such issues and begin to think more in depth about them. Tech provides students with the opportunity to do more for whatever cause they are fighting for, whether it be through research, field studies, or raising awareness with booths on the drillfield. Although Tech does provide students with the opportunity to foster the values needed to become an active citizen, it is not always apparent to students. If you are looking strictly for service throughout the University you will find it. However, if you aren’t specifically looking for it, the service opportunities and education are easy to miss. I believe that in order to promote active citizenship around campus there needs to be more advertisement for service and volunteer opportunities which will help to open students’ minds to social issues and problems in the local community. Throughout the course of this past semester I have learned so much about service and volunteerism that I had never considered before. The topic which we covered that was of the greatest interest to me was the downfalls and criticisms of volunteerism. There was only one other instance in my life that the potential deficits to service actually occurred to me. Learning about it in class and all of the readings and ePortfolio writings that we were assigned broadened my knowledge on the topic. I feel as if I now have a more well rounded view of community service and have a better understanding about what it takes to carry out a successful project that will make a truly positive lasting impact on whoever it is that you are working to serve. A passage from one of the readings that really hit me hard was in Ivan Illich’s “To Hell with Good Intentions”. He wrote, “At worst, in your "community development" spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends and you rush back to your middle-class neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about "spits" and "wetbacks."” This made me think abiut the potential negative impacts that what you believe to be positive service actually can have on the community who you are serving. I think that this kind of sitiation is more common when it comes to international service because the volunteers are unable to watch the progress of their work and it is less likely that they will follow up with what htey have done but will instead just assume that they helped the people and feel good about themselves. Although the volunteers will not be there to see the impact they have made, it still exists and can bring along with is some negative consequences. Another one of the readings that I found compelling was Adam Davis’ “What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service”. Towards the end of his writing he discusses inequality and how although we say we do not like inequality, we actually cherish it. This was someting that I had never really considered but I now that I have to somewhat agree with his statement. No one wants to believe that they need inequality, however service relies on it. Even though we don’t like to admit it and sometimes might not even be aware of it, we view others as lesser than us. Why else would we be helping them? He writes, “It feels good to look down, better still if I can tell myself I’m ready to serve those less fortunate (that is, less) than me. That way I’m not just better, I’m also good” (Davis 6). This is something that will always bother me because I do not like the idea that I am actively participating in broadening the gap of inequality through service but when I think hard about it I have to give in and admit that there is some truth to it. This past semester I was unable to so all of the service activities that I was interested in due to scheduling conflicts. However, for the upcoming semester I plan on participating in those activities because I will actually have the time in my schedule to do them. I am excited to get more involved on and off campus and serve my community through participating as an active citizen. Works Cited Block, Peter. "From Leadership to Citizenship." Insights on Leadership: Service, Stewardship, Spirit, and Servant-leadership. Ed. Larry C. Spears. New York: Wiley, 1998. N. pag. Print. Davis, Adam, and Elizabeth Lynn. "What We Don't Talk About When We Don't Talk About Service." The Civically Engaged Reader: A Diverse Collection of Short Provocative Readings on Civic Activity. Chicago: Great Foundation, 2006. N. pag. Print. Illich, I. To Hell With Good Intentions. 1968. McKnight, J. and Kretzmann, J. Assets-Based Community Development. 1996. Stroh, David Peter. "Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough." Systems Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2015. N. pag. Print. active_citizenship_.docx
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“Do not ask what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Harold Thurman
The part of any service experience that makes me feel alive is interacting with the community who is being served. Hearing the different stories and learning about another person’s life is so fascinating. While I am talking with someone all of my attention becomes focused on them and what they have to say. I follow along with their stories and feel as though I am getting a glimpse into their life. Each person that I have met and have had conversations with has helped me grow into the person that I am now. Talking with someone about their life experiences which could be extremely different from mine helps me to view and understand situations from various angles. While I was in highschool I volunteered with an organization called Georgetown Ministry Center in D.C. One of my favorite things that I got to experience while working with GMC was accompanying the director of the program and the psychiatrist who volunteered there as they walked around the streets of Georgetown on Monday evenings. We would walk around to the different areas where various members of the homeless community would usually hang out and check up with them. There was one evening when it was particularly cold out and we were walking around bundled up in our winter jackets. We ran into a man who I had seen before while walking around or while I was at the Center but I had never spoken with him. When we walked up to him he commented on the Uggs that I had on and told me that he had the same pair. We then proceeded to have a 10 minute conversation solely about Uggs and whether it is best to wear socks with them or not. Although the conversation was about a pair of shoes, it meant much more. While we were talking I was solely focused on him and the information he was sharing with me. I was able to relate to a man who one would assume I had nothing in common with. I still see that same man sometimes when I am walking around Georgetown with friends or family and every time I do I am reminded of his friendliness and the Ugg opinions that we shared. This is just one example of the many conversations with people that I have been involved in which have made me feel alive and like I was right where I was supposed to be at that given moment in time. Another was a conversation that I had while on a VT Engage weekend service trip to Durham, North Carolina a couple of weeks ago. While in Durham, our group worked on refugee resettlement and volunteered with an organization called World Relief Durham. On Saturday afternoon we had a picnic lunch with a Syrian refugee family and their good neighbor team who had taken them under their wing to help ease the transition into American life. While we were all standing around the picnic tables waiting for lunch to begin I began to speak with an elderly man who was standing with us. He was one of the members of the family’s good neighbor team and talking to him I learned about his passion for the family and the love he has for them. He was so proud of them all, especially of the oldest sister who was a sophomore in highschool. Listening to him boast about how well she was doing in school and how smart she was and how proud he was of her was immensely heart warming. I was witnessing the beauty of pure love being expressed for a young girl who this man chose to incorporate into his life. One of the central topics we have been discussing in class lately is the criticisms that come with volunteerism. It is a complicated subject to discuss because there is no direct answer to the question of whether volunteering is ultimately positive or negative. In this post, I will try my best to explain my personal take on the convoluted criticisms of volunteerism as clearly as possible.
Volunteerism is most commonly criticized through the use of four arguments; the corruption of volunteer/service organizations or the ones being served, the central focus on money, the likely potential of insulting the community being served, and that people volunteer for selfish not selfless reasons. The most common application of these arguments is when discussing the negatives of a growing industry known as “Voluntourism”. Journalist Natalie Jesionka describes voluntourism as, “the notion of inexperienced volunteers who use their privilege to go abroad for their own egos, and who are doing more harm than good on the ground”. Many use volunteer opportunities as a means for getting to travel and see the world while also “changing” it. This can lead to a handful of problems which are used to facilitate the argument against the good of volunteering. Organizations which provide service opportunities may seem like they are focused on bettering the world when their primary focus is on the profits being brought in. Blinded by money, it is easy to lose sight of the true purpose to serve others and end up going about it in a negative way which leads to negative outcomes. There is also the possibility of corruption on the opposite side, within the group being served. The increasing number of travelers who are partaking in short service experiences has fed the growth of places like orphanages who put on a front to draw in volunteers willing to donate money. In many cases, the orphans have families and are just there for the day to interact with the visitors. If this isn’t the case though, it can still be detrimental to the child’s psychological health to constantly have people showing them affection for short periods of time and then leaving and never coming back. Forms of unwanted service in lower income communities can be demeaning and insulting. Essentially volunteers are encroaching on someone’s space and telling them that the way they are living is wrong and needs to be fixed. What if those people were already content with their way of life? What if they had never viewed themselves as poor, underclass, of impoverished? If they hadn’t thought this way before the volunteers came, they most certainly do once the volunteers leave. The damages can be great and throw off the entire way of life for a specific group of people. In his speech titled “To Hell with Good Intentions”, Ivan Illich uses colorful language to describe a potential outcome of volunteerism. He says, “At worst, in your "community development" spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends and you rush back to your middle-class neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about "spits" and "wetbacks."”Although the volunteers will not be there to see the impact they have made, it still exists. The indicators that a certain community service project will only lead to negative outcomes may be there warning a group of volunteers, but they can choose to ignore them. Focusing on how they will be doing something good and self fulfilling leads them into a community to “help”. Participating in any sort of service project for selfish reasons rather than selfless reasons, will lead to a lower positive impact on the community. In order to feel accomplished, volunteers may completely ignore requests or suggestions from the members of the community and do work that they personally think will benefit the people in a greater way. I both agree and disagree with the criticisms of volunteerism discussed above. If the service is done improperly and for improper reasons then I agree with the criticisms. However, service and volunteerism can be done correctly with the correct outlook and proper form of serving a community. In order to do this, volunteers and organizations must be cognizant of the potential pitfalls from which the criticism stems, and they must be ready and willing to work around such potential. Strategies to avoid such outcomes are focusing on asset-based community development, engaging in an open dialogue with the community being served, and providing solutions that are not just quick fixes. In their discussion of asset-based community development, Kretzmann and McKnight state that, “Historic evidence indicates that significant community development takes place only when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in the effort”. The impact of asset-based services is that the community being served supports one another and comes together to make a difference in the future and not just for the now. They focus on their strengths and not their weaknesses and form greater bonds among one another in order to make a lasting change and a greater impact. Volunteers play the role of utilizing their individual strengths and assets in order to better assist the community. They also focus on the positive attributes that are already at play among a community and build upon those in order to bring people together to make a greater positive impact. In order to work together, volunteers and those who they are serving need to have an open dialogue to discuss the wants of the community. Service done without the input of those who it is being done for is somewhat worthless. You can’t give a community something they don’t want and expect them to use it and for it to be the answer to all of their problems. Projects done without consultation often end up being temporary solutions for larger problems. Although there may be some occasions where quick fixes are necessary until the true solution comes, it is important to keep in mind that you can’t continue to pile temporary solution on temporary solution on temporary solution so many times until it begins to seem as if the temporary solution is actually the true solution. Volunteerism is and will continue to be a controversial topic, especially as the voluntourism industry begins to grow. However, just because there are criticisms attached to service, it does not mean that service and volunteering is bad and that no one should do it. It is written in the Bible that, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). As humans we are called to serve and love one another. We should not let criticisms stand in our way, but we should overcome them by keeping them in mind and striving to avoid the pitfalls. Works Referenced: TheRealityofVoluntourismandtheConversationsWe're Not Having https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-reality-of-voluntourism-and-the-conversations-were-not-having Illich, I. To Hell With Good Intentions. 1968. McKnight, J. and Kretzmann, J. Assets-Based Community Development. 1996. Looking back upon my childhood, I can recall various moments when my mother told my sister and I that we had Cherokee blood in our veins. She would tell us stories about her grandmother, our great great grandmother, who was born on the Cherokee Reservation in Oklahoma. She left the Reservation and moved to Texas after falling in love with my great great grandfather. Whenever I would think about the two of them, I would imagine a great love story where a man in a truck drives onto the reservation, meets my great great grandmother, they fall madly in love, and the two run away together to get married. For the longest time my identification with the Cherokee was much like the romantic tale I would picture, it was always something nice to think about, but it was never a concrete reality for me.
When I was around twelve years old, I became a registered member of the Cherokee Nation. The stories I had heard from my mother while I was growing up became more realistic to me. I felt a deeper connection with them and wanted to know more. I wanted to learn about my heritage, about any family members still living on the Reservation, about my ancestors, and about the culture. The most I knew at the time was that the Cherokee originally resided along the East Coast, but because of the Indian Removal Act they were forced to move west and many died during the Trail of Tears. I also found myself interested in the many different tribes and the differences and similarities among their various cultures, and wanting to know more. Over the next few years, my interest in Native American history grew. As my knowledge on the subject began to expand, so did my awareness of the extremely large amounts of misconceptions associated with Native Americans. It became clear to me that in history classes, the story we were told was from a single perspective. Historical events however, can not be accurately relayed if the viewpoint is from a single perspective. History is written with bias. There is more to the history of the Native Americans, which is not depicted through the single story that we are taught. Had our textbooks been written from their perspective, the portrayal of history would be much different. Only hearing the one story, we are deprived of the potential to view the complete picture and determine our own personal opinions and views of the events. I can still recall the first time I told one of my friends that I had recieved my identification card from the Cherokee Nation. His immediate reaction was to ask, “How much money do you get from all those casinos now?” This question was an example of the perception that people have of Native Americans because of the single story that they have heard and been taught. The story begins with how the Natives were perceived as violent to the early American settlers and leads all the way up to present day, where they are commonly perceived as are alcoholics, own casinos, receive special benefits from the government, and live on reservations. The single story is one of stereotypes that do not all ring true for every tribe and every individual Native American. Many have done well for themselves and many have not, but that still does not change the fact that overall, they are viewed and treated a certain way only because of what one story says. Sophomore and Junior years of high school, I volunteered on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Pine Ridge is unique for many reasons. It is home to the Oglala Lakota Nation, site of Wounded Knee, and it is the poorest reservation in the U.S. While working with and talking to members of the community, I learned that in a majority of cases, it was easier for them to succumb to the stereotypes instead of prove them wrong. For example, one young woman I met told me about her father who fell victim to and died from alcoholism. When he would leave the reservation and venture into the surrounding towns, he would be treated as if he were a drunk. Eventually he decided that if the world around him labeled a drunk, he might as well become one. Situations like this are way too common on the reservation. When everyone surrounding you has a negative preconceived idea of who you are and treats you based off of that idea, it becomes extremely difficult to prove them wrong. This preconceived idea comes from the trust and belief in a single story. |
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