Today started with breakfast and getting to know our group better before heading out on our day full of service. Today we went to Rare Breed, cooks kettle for lunch, and finished our day of service off at Boys and Girls Club.
We arrived at Rare Breed's Street Outreach Drop-In Center and received a tour before starting off our service. I was amazed at how nice Rare Breed was and how much they offer to the homeless youth of Springfield. The drop-in center has a gathering room with a television, computer lab, art room, Foosball and pool table room, professional staff to help out with anything needed, and counseling services. Rare Breed also offers GED classes three days a week along with child care for those taking GED classes. Rare Breed is a service offered through The Kitchen and they serve homeless and high risk disconnected youth. After receiving a tour we started organizing and cleaning up the drop-in center. My group worked with organizing the donated clothes, placing the correct sizes and genders on the correct shelf and bin. After we were done organizing and cleaning, we spoke with the outreach and services coordinator who spoke with us about what Rare Breed does, who they help, and answered all of our questions. Rare Breed helps youth leave the
streets and serves to reduce sexual abuse, exploitation and dangerous
behaviors. The coordinator explained to us how big a problem sexual exploitation is in Springfield and that there are a large amount of youth that come in you have been sexually exploited. Rare Breed has case workers and youth staff who work with the youth and help mentor and make them feel empowered. We heard success stories about youth who felt useless and once they learned that they were capable and smart and they can do anything they wanted, they started to change and grow as a person completing tasks they never thought they would have been able to do. I was surprised to hear that Rare Breed gets about 80 youth a day who come in looking for a place to stay for the afternoon, dinner, and a shower to use. Rare Breed also offers a transitional living program. The one thing that stuck with me with the speaker was that "their" normal or "their" clean is not "our" normal or "our" clean. We need to be culturally competent and understand that poverty is a different culture and most of these youth have lived on the street most of their life and this is their normal.
After we were done with Rare Breed, we ate lunch at cook's kettle. The people who work at cook's kettle are students at the victory trade school. Victory Trade School provides men and women an opportunity to learn in a Christian environment and gain the skills necessary to be productive members of society.
Our final stop of the day was at Boy's and Girls Club. When we arrived, the kids had not arrived yet from school so we first got a tour of the building. The building was amazing and I think it is a great after school program for kids. The building had two gyms, a pre-teen room, a game room, a teen center, a learning center, an art room, a computer room, a pool, and a cafeteria. The tour guide explained how an average of 280 kids come to Boys and Girls club daily. The majority of the kids in Boys and Girls Club have parents who work and need child care for their children. The price of Boys and Girls club is very reasonable and they offer many scholarships and payment plans. The tour guide told us that Boys and Girls club is like a family and they relate to each other. After our tour we cleaned and did several tasks around the building before the kids arrived. Once the kids arrived we spread out and when to different sections of the building to play and tutor the kids. I went to the learning center first and talked to a few girls about their classes and what musical instruments they play. One little girl even played her violin for me. These kids love the attention and love showing us what they can do. I than spent some time in the teen center and saw the complete difference in atmosphere and attitude. This was a place for the teens to go and relax and spend time with their friends. After, I watched some girls learn how to cheer-lead. This was awesome because I could see how much passion they had and how much they loved cheer leading. Overall, I had a great experience at Boys and Girls club and I think it is a great safe place for children to learn and play after school.
After dinner, our group talked about cultural competence and did a poverty stimulation online. This was great and opened our eyes to the different choices and sacrifices one has to make when they are struggling with poverty. Both of these agencies we went to today deal with youth daily. Boys and Girls Club deals with prevention and keeping children on the right track while Rare Breed deals with putting the youth back on the right track. These agencies are very helpful for youth and are a necessity.
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