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Service Learning Project Individual Reflection Paper

Noticing and Interpreting


Going into this experience I was not expecting to be the group leader; I
would describe myself as a leader when no one else steps up, which I dont think
is necessarily a bad thing. I dont mind being a leader but often times I have noticed
there is someone else in the group who more naturally takes on the leader role.
So after not many suggestions or direction within the group, I started throwing out
community service opportunities that I was aware of within my own local
community. I live very close to Petersburg, VA, which is an extremely vulnerable
community and full of deserving agencies that could benefit from our time and
services.
I suggested contacting a local womens shelter named C.A.R.E.S. that I have
donated to in the past. I felt that being all female nursing students we would have a
special connection to the women that this agency serves. With assistance from my
group I contacted the agency and we planned to prepare and serve the members of
the shelter a meal, as well as, purchase some items on their needs list to donate.
I was expecting that my group would work together to hopefully have a
positive impact on the members of the shelter and the agency itself. In the
hierarchy of needs shelter and food are required before someone can achieve the
higher levels on the way to promote good health, so that is where we started.
There is a significantly high poverty rate in this community and many members go
without things that a lot of us consider basic. With the help of community
agencies such as C.A.R.E.S. some of the basic needs of the most vulnerable citizens
within the community are being met.
After researching the resources within the community and talking with the
administrators of C.A.R.E.S. I learned that a lot of the programs are directed at
promoting self-sufficiency. Often times it can be easy to have a negative outlook or
many questions regarding homelessness. People often picture a panhandler on the
side of the road asking for a hand out. However, this is not necessarily a true
representation of the homeless community. At C.A.R.E.S. many of the women have
been displaced are in crisis or seeking refugee from violent relationships. The
shelter is not just giving a handout, but provide shelter and services to help
women obtain jobs and promote independence.
Responding
I have learned that many people within this community are at risk for
becoming homeless, and more organizations and shelters such as C.A.R.E.S. are
needed. The C.A.R.E.S. shelter can only accommodate about 20 women and
children, but within a year they assist up to 200 women and children. This service
learning opportunity was truly relevant to the community as more than 70% of

Petersburgs population is African American, and more than 53% of the population is
made up of females and the C.A.R.E.S. shelter only serves females and children with
their member population being predominantly African American.
This community has strengths in that it has organizations such as C.A.R.E.S.
who want to help build the community to have healthy, self-reliant women;
however, they cannot do all of the work on their own. The city of Petersburg has
recently been in the news for missing funds and corruption within their government
officials. The government and its officials must step up and be strong in moral in
values to do what is best for the community. Petersburg, VA is full of rich history,
starting to boom with small business, and can be full of great opportunities if the
government can work in favor of the community and promote health and
independence and extend resources to its citizens.
Reflecting on Service Learning
This experience has taught me that I am more of a leader than I thought I
was. Because I stepped up to lead the group in our community service activity with
researching, reaching out to the shelter, delegating tasks, and creating the
presentation I feel much more confident to take on a leadership role in the future. I
also felt that the entire community service was a humbling experience by helping to
provide these women and children with just the most basic things in life such as
food and basic hygiene items.
Completing the project really took all 5 of the practices of exemplary
leadership from modeling the way by showing my commitment to the group, to
inspiring a shared vision by listening to what my group members wanted to get out
of this experience and offering up my ideas. I even challenged the process by doing
something different from the service learning opportunities we have done in the
past and by leaving the Richmond/Henrico area that we typically stay in. I also feel
that I enabled my group members to act by stating what all needed to be done and
letting members divide the work up however best suited them. I believe that the
experience from our activity gave us all a little more humility and we all felt
rewarded after talking with the ladies from the shelter.
We all applied the principles from Leading Like Jesus within our project by
using the our head- knowing our own belief system and using that to decide an area
in the community we wanted to help and how we could help them. We used our
heart- by practicing generosity in each of us using our own finances to supply the
shelter with additional items we knew that needed. We all utilized our hand in
planning and setting goals for our service learning project, and practice habit
through our reflection after preparing and serving the meal at the shelter and
talking with the women.
Reflection on Action

What surprised me the most about the service-learning experience was the
positive attitudes of the women we were serving. They were all so thankful,
cheerful, and appeared to have a positive outlook and aspirations ahead of them,
despite whatever set back they had experienced. I will continue to utilize these
skills by remember the positive attitudes of those who had less than me and
remaining humble and understanding of my patients situations to never judge. I
feel that we were able to have small positive impact of the community by
completing this project, for a night the women and the shelter did not have to
wonder where their next meal was coming from and the women were able to chat
and share with us during our visit.

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