This was my first week volunteering at Norris Square! I shadowed Eli who was a group leader that was responsible for organizing the program for the younger kids. He shared with me that he comes from a low socio-economic status background with a rough home life. He wants to have an impact on the children to be respectful to adults and to others. He sympathizes with the children and has shared a lot of their hardships. Working at Norris Square is currently his full time job. Out of high school, he decided to start working for another branch of Norris Square as a transportation driver. He transferred to this Norris Square location where he started out as transportation and has now moved to group leader. His main goal is to benefit the children’s lives in a positive manner and maximize their potential at life. I arrived at 3:30 to help set up for the day until the kids got there at 4. Eli and other group leaders were cooking meat for homemade tacos. Every day the center provides dinner for the kids and for the past weeks they have been ordering out from restaurants for hoagies, pizza, Chinese, and other meals for the kids. It is cheaper for the organization to make the food, so they are trying to get in the habit of making their own food as much as possible. There are seventeen children in the younger group and only four kids ended up showing! The staff shared with me that on good days with nice weather the children sometimes do not show up.  

The group leaders were educating me about the program and the trip van problems. I learned that the organization has a twelve-person van that they pick up the younger kids that are not within walking distance and a few of the older children. They are picked up from all sides of the city and since there is only one van and one driver it takes out almost an hour of the program time. The children were supposed to be picked up at 3:30 and ready to start the program at four. The children did not arrive until 4:50! Some of the older kids are picked up because they have had things stolen, been tormented, or bullied on their commute to the program so special considerations have been granted. I learned that the trip van has caused some problems within the program with regards to scheduling. It is not just used to pick up children, but used by many different departments for other errands. The program is desperately in need of another van so they can pick up the kids earlier. Eli said that if there are enough funds at the end of the school year then they can look into investing into another trip van.    

            I sat in with the younger kids during their dinner and their art class. When I first came, I was expecting children that were very hyper, active, and willing to talk about their experiences. What I found, however, from experience and other group leaders is that many of the kids are apprehensive about discussing their home life and do not like to have deep and open conversations. There were three boys and one girl in the program that day. The boys were all very hyper and were running around the dinner room throwing quarters at each other. The boys were not afraid to hit, slap, and throw things at each other when the group leaders were not looking. The girl was very sweet and quiet and stayed away from the boys’ antics. After dinner, the kids went to art therapy for an hour. Joseph had to be kicked out of art therapy because he was being disruptive. When we went to intervene he pretended that he was passed out sleeping in his chair. When the other group leader threatening that he would not get an icy pop tomorrow he decided he would get out of his chair. It took coaxing by an iPhone game, however, for him to actually come out of the room. She shared with me that these are normal behavioral problems that they work on everyday. She said she sometimes has to treat the kids as if she is talking to her three year old and gives them incentives and bribes to do what she wants. His antics took away five minutes from the art therapy session. The art therapist was having the kids draw their interpretation of essential characteristics for a house.

            The children were very interested in my presence, but I did not have the chance to interact with them as much because they were pressed for time. Next week I hope to have a more active role at the center because I will be coming in at a later time when the children are actually at the center. I am very excited for next week. With the few interactions that I had, I felt like my open mindedness and active involvement will help them open up to me. I did leave the center wanting to come back for the long run. I would like to continue doing this service while I am living in Philadelphia. I see opportunities to help the group leaders with ideas, implementing his fantastic ideas and having an impact on the kids. Overall, I had a great first day at Norris Square.