Community Service
This year, I was blessed with more knowledge about my community ever since I have decided to go to volunteer at two programs in Los Angeles. The eighth graders were required to improve and help our community in some way. The requirement was to fill out 20 hours of community service in order to go to the EOTY LEL. In order to receive my 20 hours of community service, I volunteered for Serve the People and Say Yes!. The purpose of Serve the People was to deliver fresh groceries to a poorer neighborhood in Los Angeles. Say Yes! is a program in a Christian church for the youth of Los Angeles in a neighborhood with gangs. Volunteers help the kids with their homework and create a safe, religious environment for them.
I chose these two sites for community service, since I was interested in getting to know more about my community. It was a bonus to do so meanwhile being somewhat of a nice change to the community. I got to learn beforehand that the neighborhoods I was going to be volunteering in were not very good ones. The neighborhood of Say Yes! is in a gang neighborhood, and it interested me to see what I could do to help the kids with whatever I could be of help to. Serve the People was in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles, and it seemed nice to go and serve food to people who may not always have the money to buy proper grocery. Serve the People also reminded me of a book we were reading in English class, Reaching Out. In the book, the main character is shown to be living in poverty, and I thought of this character and his surroundings, and thought how rough it would be to live with little money with struggles to put food on the table. With this thought in mind, the book inspired me to help out the people in the neighborhood of Serve the People.
The experience of volunteering at these two programs gave me a heartwarming feeling. It was a great feeling to see the smiles on the kids’ faces in Say Yes!, despite the bad things happening around them. In their neighborhood, people, even kids at the age of 7 are being recruited into gangs. While their parents are out working, these kids come to the church, where Say Yes! is held, so the kids will be in a safe environment while their parents are away. To see these kids happy and safe is an assuring feeling that while bad things do happen around us, there is always happiness and innocence lying around somewhere midst all the negative. Besides that, volunteering at the two programs made me feel like a better person when I gave help after I learned about the people’s situation, which was different than mine.
Because I have volunteered in these programs, families were able to have food on their table without any struggle for a few weeks after I delivered groceries to them during Serve the People. In Say Yes!, kids were able to finish homework and not go to school with an empty paper, while they were able to have a clean church to come to after school. This may not have affected the community too much, but the some people of my community were able to feel better about something, despite the conditions of their neighborhood.
In the future, in order to serve the community, I plan on helping more kids with homework and education related things. Sometimes students don’t have any help at home with their homework and usually do not come to school with completed work, which lowers their grade and usually neglect school work because of the dropping grade. With my knowledge of education, I can help them with their homework or school work, and hope that they will be able to help others in the future as well. I hope that my help can cycle into more help to others in the future.
I chose these two sites for community service, since I was interested in getting to know more about my community. It was a bonus to do so meanwhile being somewhat of a nice change to the community. I got to learn beforehand that the neighborhoods I was going to be volunteering in were not very good ones. The neighborhood of Say Yes! is in a gang neighborhood, and it interested me to see what I could do to help the kids with whatever I could be of help to. Serve the People was in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles, and it seemed nice to go and serve food to people who may not always have the money to buy proper grocery. Serve the People also reminded me of a book we were reading in English class, Reaching Out. In the book, the main character is shown to be living in poverty, and I thought of this character and his surroundings, and thought how rough it would be to live with little money with struggles to put food on the table. With this thought in mind, the book inspired me to help out the people in the neighborhood of Serve the People.
The experience of volunteering at these two programs gave me a heartwarming feeling. It was a great feeling to see the smiles on the kids’ faces in Say Yes!, despite the bad things happening around them. In their neighborhood, people, even kids at the age of 7 are being recruited into gangs. While their parents are out working, these kids come to the church, where Say Yes! is held, so the kids will be in a safe environment while their parents are away. To see these kids happy and safe is an assuring feeling that while bad things do happen around us, there is always happiness and innocence lying around somewhere midst all the negative. Besides that, volunteering at the two programs made me feel like a better person when I gave help after I learned about the people’s situation, which was different than mine.
Because I have volunteered in these programs, families were able to have food on their table without any struggle for a few weeks after I delivered groceries to them during Serve the People. In Say Yes!, kids were able to finish homework and not go to school with an empty paper, while they were able to have a clean church to come to after school. This may not have affected the community too much, but the some people of my community were able to feel better about something, despite the conditions of their neighborhood.
In the future, in order to serve the community, I plan on helping more kids with homework and education related things. Sometimes students don’t have any help at home with their homework and usually do not come to school with completed work, which lowers their grade and usually neglect school work because of the dropping grade. With my knowledge of education, I can help them with their homework or school work, and hope that they will be able to help others in the future as well. I hope that my help can cycle into more help to others in the future.