Social Change Project: Greek Rehabilitation Center

Veasna Kim, Ted Balca, Mukund Patel, Michelle Golojuch, Jessica Stewart Business Ethics 248 Professor Laura P. Hartman

May 21, 2012 Our group chose to make an impact on society by interacting and helping people directly. By setting this as our goal, our group chose to volunteer at the Greek American Rehabilitation Center in order to interact with the senior citizens. As a group, we considered other options such as cleaning up a park or even helping out at a soup kitchen. However, because of the lack of human interaction in cleaning a park, and the limited availability at several soup kitchens, we chose the rehabilitation center. Once we arrived at rehabilitation center, the activity director gave us the responsibility of leading the activity period of the residents. The activity period consisted of introducing ourselves to the residents, socializing with them, playing a few games of trivia, and then preparing them for dinner. In doing this, our group discovered that not only did we help by getting to interact with these residents; the residents were able to help us too. When we interviewed the activity director a few days after we volunteered, she emphasized how much our presence meant to the residents. She explained that many of these residents have family, but are not visited as often as they would like. Therefore, they really enjoyed the fact that a group of young, college students came in just to play trivia with them, and constantly give them all the attention that they wanted. Also, the activity director emphasized that we did not unintentionally neglect any of the residents. In filling out the volunteer paperwork, there were various things that accounted as harassment, such as sexual, verbal, mental, and unintentional neglect. The activity director explained that unintentional neglect was the most common act done by volunteers, and was appreciative that we did not do that. Although all of these activities completed our goals that were set for this project, we also were able to learn many things from the residents. Many of the senior citizens shared personal stories with us about their successes, what they did and did not do, and also a few words of advice. For example, one of the residents told us that in the workplace, a sense of humor is very important,

because showing enjoyment in the workplace will take you very far in life, and make every work day that much more bearable. In addition to that, the residents showed us how important every little thing meant to them. Things that were important to them such as company and everyday conversations are things that everyone takes for granted. However, these residents often feel neglected and stuck in this rehabilitation center, and to them, they know they do not have every day to wait for someones company. Therefore, because the residents enjoyed our company and activities, it is fair to say that by our group volunteering at this institution, we did the greatest good for the greatest number, which represents utilitarianism (Week 2 Theories). We feel that this theory is what applied most to this impact of social change. The sustainability of our project is important in creating a social change. As much as we helped these residents throughout their day, there was only so much we could do for them. They were so grateful to see us, and it was easily shown how much our visitation meant to them. The fact that they do not get as many visitors creates a greater chance for our impact to outlive our activity. These residents were overjoyed when we walked into the dining room right after they finished having a snack. One resident told us how she will not forget this day for a while because she does not get to see her own children as much anymore, so by seeing us, it was a great gift. We believe that our impact will survive for a long time. We know this because they were so overjoyed when we arrived, and even gave us a round of applause when it was time for us to leave. We know that our impact outlived our activity because the activity director told us when we went back to speak with her that the residents talked about our visit for days afterward. Not only did this make an impact on their lives, it also made an impact on our lives. We enjoyed our time with the residents so much that we want to try to make this a regular event. If we only do this once, we turn into any other visitor that only check on these seniors once in a while. However, if we turn

this into a regular act, we can continue to make an impact on them every time we visit. We could really tell that we had a strong impact on these residents because of the way they interacted with us. One woman sat down with us and gave us her words of wisdom. She told us to live without regrets, and love the ones who mean the most to you. These words will stay with us because she sincerely meant everything she was saying. She has learned a lot over the years, and she was so happy that she could share her story and advice with others that were willing to listen and take it into consideration. The success of the project is also in part due to the open minds with which we had going into this. We were not judging, and we were not wondering when it would be over; we were there to fully immerse ourselves in this group of people. Overall, our experience had many successes. The residents were not expecting us to come in that day, and so they were very excited for our presence. We were able to socialize with many of them individually, which allowed us to get to know them on a personal level. Each of us heard many stories from the senior citizens past, and they really enjoyed sharing all the stories of which they could think. After hearing several stories involving deaths of children and spouses, we all gained more appreciation for what we have in our lives today. The trivia game was greatly successful because it allowed the residents to use their memories and gave everyone a good laugh. At the end of our time with them, the residents thanked us for coming, and they expressed their appreciation for us taking the time to come in to see them. Unfortunately, we did face some challenges during our experience. Since this rehabilitation center is centered on the Greek culture, it was hard for some of us to interact with the senior citizens. Many of them had very strong accents that made it hard for us to communicate with them. This made it harder for us to understand exactly what they were saying or needed. Several individuals were hard at hearing, which also created a big communication barrier. At times, it was

difficult for the residents to talk to us about their past because they could not remember it, or they did remember it, but were saddened by the bad memories they remembered. However, we were able to turn these failures around and make this experience as memorable as possible. It was not the easiest process, but these residents gave us a new perspective on life. This project has transformed our thinking around social and ethical issues in business. Every day thousands of thoughts fly through our minds. Whether to make these thoughts a reality through our actions is a decision that everyone faces. There are multiple ways that influence can change our thought process; the most drastic being an experience in our lives that modifies or transforms the way we think. When we decided that we would visit the rehabilitation center for our social change project, we knew that we would be expanding our horizons. The social change project is a basis to feel our impact on society through a certain experience. We were asked to fulfill some kind of social responsibility that challenges our comfort zone and our though process behind society. When we visited the rehabilitation center, our thought process was very restricted. We went into this with a goal to fulfill a project and have a benefit towards ourselves. We scarcely looked at how the people of the center would react to our arrival. Through our visit, we were able to truly get an insight on a different generation. It was apparent that the impact that we made simply by our presence had made a difference. They were astonished that we just came to spend time with them without much of a tangible benefit. Each person whom we came in contact with came from a different background and brought a new viewpoint on life. One lady came up to us several times to thank and invite us back again. Her eyes were nearly filled with tears from smiling so much. It is those instances that really hit your heart, and you can feel the real impact on the lives of other people. Many residents were unaware of how the world around them has changed, and we

were able to share a part of our lives in exchange for a perspective from theirs. In the end, we were able to create a network of new connections; we had created a bridge between two different generations. Overall, this experience really transformed our thinking about social and ethical issues. We were able to see that it is not possible to pretend to live in our world. We learned that we have a social responsibility to think beyond ourselves. An ethical issue, which we faced on this project, was our reasoning behind the visit. One way of looking at it is that we maybe only visited these people for a grade on a project; that action would be unethical and selfish. Another way of looking at it would be that we were given an opportunity to impact the lives of a certain group of individuals; an opportunity in disguise. If we look at the facts, we did visit the center, we did give up our time, we did make the residents happier. But, ethics is based on reasoning, and the reason for our visit comes into question, not to perplex us, but to make clear the real reason of our visit. The question then arises: In future decisions are the facts really that important? Or does intent play a role? This class has taught us that intent certainly does play a role, and our intent for the visit was to socially and emotionally impact these people by being a change in their lives. We quickly learned that we were able to impact these people in ways that we never thought possible. Similarly in future business decisions, we must be able to clearly analyze the impact that our actions will have on every piece involved. Initially we went into this project considering our benefit from the people of the home. This is not a one-way road. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and this experience truly modified our thought process. References Hartman, Laura. "Theories." Business Ethics 248. DePaul University, Chicago. 2 Apr. 2012. Lecture.