This semester I have been working for Westminster Children’s society as a volunteer/intern at their Charing Cross branch nursery. Westminster Children's Society is a charitable organization set up to provide childcare, training and family support to local families in Westminster. The nursery fees at WCS are highly subsidized so that low income families can afford the service. The nursery fees are just over 1/3 of the average fee at private nurseries. Westminster Children’s Society was founded in 1903 as a child welfare clinic. It opened its first nursery at the beginning of World War II. Today, the Society boasts 15 nurseries and a beautiful new building for headquarters and training which will be opening in June of 2006. WCS is growing at an incredible rate, offering this wonderful service to hundreds of children and parents in the city of Westminster. In the nursery, I assist the nursery officers with all of their daily duties; I read to the children, help with activities, aid in cleanup, supervise outdoor play, and help with teaching the children simpler things like numbers, manners, names, and letters.
My first few days at work were slow going because the children were shy and I didn’t know any of the staff members. Over time the children and the staff got to know me more and we started to have a lot of fun. These days, when I arrive the kids all call my name and invite me to play whatever game they are playing or help them create a masterpiece of some sort. I have also attended several staff training sessions in order to get to know the staff and the organization a bit better. These have been great because not only do I get a chance to learn more about Westminster Children’s Society and its staff, but I also get to know some great people who live in London. Chatting with them gives me a better sense of what living and working in this city is like.
The children at the Charing Cross nursery are an amazing and diverse group. The children come from many different ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds, yet all these differences ignored when it comes time to have a picnic or build a Lego castle. The nursery enrolls children as young as six months so many of the children are just babies when they begin to come to the nursery. These younger children require a lot more attention and affection during the day; including handholding, reading, and many, many hugs. The enthusiasm and optimism of these children makes me smile and lightens my heart each day that I work at the nursery. I feel lucky to have this wonderful break, from this big city that can seem impersonal and busy at times, to go play and laugh with these loving, smiling, happy children. I look forward to my last few meetings with the kids and will be very sad to leave them at the end of my term.
]]>
My name is Jason Lemons and I have been interning with BTCV, an international environmental volunteering organization. Their goals involve creating an active citizenship of strong communities and enhancing a person's sense of place.
They do this through different types of conservation projects as well as motivating youth. The BTCV strategy creates a connection between a person's place and themselves, and helps involve them in active protection of their place. And they show volunteers how local projects have a global environmental context, how their involvement is significant to global environmental change.
I personally have been working within BTCV's London office. It is a wonderful atmosphere full of kind, motivated people who all take an active role in living a more sustainable and healthy life.
One issue I have discovered while researching this organization is the instability of jobs for project leaders. Monetary support is a large issue, so when a project runs out of funding, BTCV no longer has a job for them. I happened to be at work on one of the last days of a project leader. This was also the day to ship out the Environment for All magazine, the BTCV publication that advertises conservation projects.
The task of help to mail the magazines became a whole office task because everyone volunteered their support. They really made it a community effort! Olivia directed mailing and brought food and drinks. For roughly an hour the floor filled up with those from the rest of the building and everyone sat around chatting and stuffing envelopes. Though I had only been there a few weeks, I was welcomed as part of this community effort. It was great to see the BTCV philosophy in action!
This BTCV office is a strong community. It is a shining achievement of BTCV goals.
]]>
It is Tuesday morning and legos, finger paint, storybooks, and 24 busy 2-5 year olds surround me. In the ninth week of my internship with Westminster Children's Society's Queensborough Centre, I have gained a new appreciation for the art of multi-tasking. Like any nursery school, the Queensborough Centre is full of activity and I often find myself tying shoe laces, singing nursery rhymes, and praising artwork all at once.
However, in addition to the job of caring for 24 pre-schoolers, the Queensborough Centre faces the unique struggle of caring for children whose first language is not English. Three children, in particular, lack even basic English language skills and providing daycare and education to these children is a significant challenge. The staff at Queensborough have done an excellent job of using alternate means of communication, including singing, dancing, and sign language, to help educate the children and develop a basic daily routine. The implementation of experiential learning rather than individual English lessons has proven to be incredibly effective over the past nine weeks.
The importance of this education was fully revealed to me in recent weeks while visiting a primary school in central London. According to staff members, only one of the 60 children (ages 4-5) speaks English at home and many of the children enter the school system with no prior knowledge of the English language. Therefore, the education WCS is unique in that it provides children with the skills essential for a smooth transition into the primary school system. I look forward to exploring this more thoroughly throughout the rest of the semester!
]]>
Hello Eckerd!
Kristen Van Slycke from Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas here. I've been living with your fellow classmates at 35 Gower Street and traveling throughout Europe with them. Each of us has a place where we volunteer a few hours a week, and I am so lucky I stumbled across the Holborn Youth Project.
The Holborn Youth Project is located down a little alleyway in the Bedford House Community Centre. The Bedford House allows the HYP to use their facilities, along with other groups like the Good Neighbour Scheme, the Bangladeshi Community Project and the Under 5's group. The Under 5's group is precious, especially when they get all dolled up in their ballerina outfits!
My boss, Kim Sutton, is an Australian who seriously cares about giving the youth a positive place to go to in the evenings instead of hanging out on the streets. She has been with the HYP since it started almost three years ago, so she has seen how it has evolved and basically built it up from nothing. We cater to youth 11-19 years old by providing them with different opportunities like drop-in sessions 2 nights a week, a rowing team, dance lessons, spray art sessions (giving them a safe place to spray paint other than walls), rap workshops, a Youth Forum (that decides what the HYP should do) and a Friday Night Girls Group.
The Youth Forum is a recent addition to the HYP's line up. In order to be in the Youth Forum, the youth member must be nominated and accepted by the youth workers, and they are provided a voice in the Project. Last week while I was making a flyer for the Friday Night Girls Group, I sent it to the Youth Forum, and they decided exactly what they wanted the flyer to say and how it was to look. The corrections took a while, but I had no problem because I knew that was what the Youth Forum decided. I think the Youth Forum is a brilliant addition because it allows the youth to have a voice and decide what goes on in the HYP, since it does serve them.
The Friday Night Girls Group is something I was recently asked to lead. I was unsure about it, because I was unsure about giving up my Friday nights, but after realizing it's sole purpose was to help Bangladeshi girls have a social life, I decided I would help. Kim was explaining to me that the Grils Group was set up because many of the Bangladeshi girls in Holborn are not allowed to join any activities we have because of the boys in attendance. The Girls Group allows the girls to be girls without the worries of boys hindering their fun. This starts up on 28 April, and our way of promoting it was through sending some Clinique products in the mail to the girls. Kim scored a great deal with a program that sells cheap name brand stuff to non-profit agencies.
I love my job because I know what I am doing is making a difference in the youth's lives, even if it is something as simple as making fun flyers. I am going into the teaching field, so this experience allows me to see what working with "at-risk" (I hate that word) students really is like. The youth I work with give me a hard time about being a Texan, but when they find out I want to be a teacher, they start acting up more, just to push my buttons, which doesn't work. Having an American at the Project is great, because I honestly don't know how many of the youth will have the opportunity to travel to the States. They are very interested in what my life in America is like, and they want to know how American students live differently than those in London. These kids are so smart, and I am happy to work for a place that provides them a safe and positive place to go every night during the week.
I hope everyone at Eckerd is having a great day. I wish I could send pictures of myself with the youth, but rules with the HYP do not allow photographs or film. You must take my word that the youth are amazing, and they might not remember me (even though I am the only American and one of the only white people around the HYP offices) in the future, but my work will have an impact on their lives. I won't know about how my work has changed their lives, but just knowing that it will make a difference is all that matters to me.
]]>
This web site is an opportunity to share the students' progress. Please visit this site throughout the semester to see, hear and read accounts of their projects in London ths spring. Start now by meeting them in the video.
