Civically Engaged

Last week and this week have been crammed with civic engagement! I recently had my volunteer training at Offender Aid and Restoration, and then volunteered the night after. Let me just say this: I LOVED it. I was offered an internship position at OAR a while back, but I had already taken the OAG internship so I had to decline. I wish I had taken the OAR internship in some respects because this organization is a hands-on, direct service type of organization. I’m not entirely sure what the interns do there, but I love the volunteering.

My first night after training, another volunteer and I helped a man in employability readiness. I know as a criminal justice major that I shouldn’t have preconceived images of people, but I was a little anxious about this man after the volunteer coordinator told me he had done ten years hard time in federal prison for conspiracy to traffick and distribute drugs. That is HUGE! So, this big man with very white teeth, a nice smile, a soft face, and who was dressed appropriately with his jeans pulled up to his hips, a t-shirt tucked into them, and a leather jacket on top rounded the corner of the OAR office. He looked to be around thirty-five years old. I assumed he was another volunteer until the volunteer coordinator told me this was the client. My mouth tried not to drop as he shook my hand and introduced himself politely.

All three of us worked on his résumé, reference list, and mulled over job search engines. The client was soft spoken and polite the entire night. After he left, I sat in with yet another volunteer on a literacy tutoring session. They were going over different sounds that letters make, such as “-ou,” “-ie,” and “-ir,” and reading them out loud in paragraphs to recognize certain words that contained these sets of letters.

Last night, there were no clients, so the volunteer coordinator, another volunteer and I had some training on how to instruct a client to disclose their offense. There’s a three step process to it: disclose the offense, take responsibility for the crime, and show that you have paid your debt; describe what you are doing to improve your life; and make your employer feel at ease in hiring you. This sounds easy to do, but harder in practice. One client had been convicted on attempted malicious wounding, and had anger management problems. This presents an obstacle in trying to disclose the crime. Eventually, the coordinator and client worked it out so that the disclosure was appropriate for the client and employer.

On to my weekend in pictures….

Ultrabar Friday night…let me tell you guys, Yes and I got in free cover, open bar, and VIP! All thanks to Sabrina!

Yes, Sabrina, and myself

Cherry Blossom Festival Saturday afternoon...

The Tulip Library was seriously even prettier than the cherry blossoms.

Advice for the day:

If you live in D.C. in the spring and want to see the cherry blossoms, wait a week or so after the cherry blossom festivities. They will probably be prettier than they are that weekend, and there aren’t as many people there gawking at them. Seriously, we had to sit on the Metro for at least two minutes before the doors opened to let us out because the platform had to clear of all the people. Then, there was a LONG line to get back into the Metro station.