Consulting with Community Partners, Part 1

Working at my dining room table today.
by Ann Abbott

 When you hear the word "consulting," you might think of business suits, first-class flights, briefcases and PowerPoint presentations.

But when you do community service learning, consulting with your community partners usually looks very different. It might be:

  • Chatting about a project when you run into each other picking up your kids from the same art class their kids go to.
  • Showing solidarity when you show up at the same march and march a couple of miles in a cold, hard rain together.
  • Liking and commenting on the information they share on Facebook. Even personal information. It has been heartwarming this year for me to witness one of my community partners fall in love via the pictures she has posted.
  • Hosting a bridal shower for a friend who is friends with one of your community partners and so you get to talk to her and celebrate the bride-to-be at the same time. 
  • Staying abreast of activities, problems and celebrations in the community through a Facebook group that one of the community partners formed.
This weekend, consulting with my community partners has looked like this:

Facebook
Via private messages, one community partner asked me for information about who to contact at the university to inquire about a Dreamer's tuition. All of a sudden the university switched the student's status to an international student...with much higher tuition. I tried to think of the people on campus to contact, but I'll also try to move things myself if the community partner doesn't get very far her/himself.

Facebook
In another private message, a different community partner asked me a few questions about a service recipient that she and others in town are working to help. I won't go into details on this public forum, but suffice it to say that it is a story of someone who is panicked, confused, desperate and totally reliant on the grace of strangers. And you know what? That could happen to any of us. (Although most people probably think it won't. Not really.) Some of the questions were about housing, employment and legal assistance. I only wish I could have done more.

Phone
I spoke on the phone with another community partner. We talked about technology issues, information issues, and as usually happens, those issues are tied very tightly to organizational issues. In other words, when you start asking questions about, let's say, a website, you quickly find that the answers lead you to more questions, often unanswered, about an organization's mission, staff, turnover, resources, trust, and more. I am always sorry when I am asked a direct question and cannot give a direct answer! But sometimes it takes an outsider's eye to see that we're not ready to ask that final, definitive question yet. I'll write another post about this with more detail.

What do your relationships with your community partners look like? What do you talk about? Do you provide more to them than just students? Do you interact with them even when you're off duty? Or do you find it important to draw lines around your time? I'd love to hear from you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vocabulary for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Image
I'm very happy that so many students responded to our community partner's need for help. Our students' language skills will help Central High School's Latino parents better communicate with the teachers during the parent-teacher conferences next week. Central's secretary will contact the students directly to schedule times with them. Here is some vocabulary help for students. Materias. School subjects are "materias" NOT "sujetos." You should remember subjects from your intro Spanish courses, but here are some reminders: historia, matemáticas, inglés, física, química, biología, educación física, etc. General vocabulary. Notas = grades; aprobar = to pass; suspender = to fail; conducta, comportamiento = behavior. Topics. Ms. Citraro offers the following advice: "The topics and vocabulary that would come up are about the subjects at school. For example: no ha entregado las tareas tiene que tomar el examen otra vez habla mucho en clase falta muc
Read more

How to Correctly File Hispanic Names

Image
I know that community-based learning students don't like it when they are asked to file during their time in the community. However, their learning goals are to improve their Spanish and knowledge of Latino cultures. Filing information on clients with Hispanic names helps them with both. And imagine the impact of mis-filing for the organizations where our students work and and their clients. That's why I was unhappy to learn that many SPAN 232 students did not do well on their exam section asking them to put some Hispanic names in alphabetical order. I can imagine that some students feel that putting names into alphabetical order isn't important. It is! It is especially important in the organizations where they work because they are dealing with clients who may not have "accommodated" to the American system of using only one last name. And it is especially important for clients whose papers are so important for their legal status, medical information and oth
Read more

Interview with Jessica Horn of ACCIÓN Chicago

Image
By Carolyn Kloecker , Span 232 student This past week I completed an assignment for my Business Communications class (SPCM 211) which was to interview someone in a field that I am interested in working for in the future. I asked her many questions about the organization, and lots of information can be found on their website www.accionchicago.org . This organization is a Community Partner with Spanish & Illinois, and has an extensive connection with the Spanish-speaking community in the Chicagoland area. Here are a few of the questions and answers from Jessica: Is ACCIÓN a fairly new organization? How did it begin? ACCIÓN Chicago started in 1994, but the parent organization, ACCIÓN was started in 1961. It is the largest micro-lending organization, and it began in Venezuela, and took root in the U.S. in 1991. How do loan officers communicate with clients? Mostly by phone, as people call in to the office to get a loan for their small business. The website is also a main form o
Read more