Olivia Hammes

Over the span of 2 days, I assisted the Memphis Office of Youth Services in sorting through Hygiene Donations and putting together Hygiene and Self-Care kits for program participants. I sent 3 hours on the 1st helping to sort through over 200 donated items and 3 hours on the 2nd putting together hygiene packages. We were able to provide hygiene packages for students at Hamilton High School, Trezevant High School and Glenview Community Center.

This service activity had a significant impact on me, it was very eyeopening to see how many students were in need of everyday hygiene products that we typically take advantage of. As a leader in a student organization I shared this experience with my organization and we are planning to host more supply drives for the Office of Youth Services in the future.

The mission of the Office of Youth Services is "TO TRANSFORM THE OFFICE OF YOUTH SERVICES TO MEET THE DIVERSE NEEDS OF THE TOTAL PERSON AND SOLVE SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES THAT YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS ARE FACING IN MEMPHIS. WITH DEEP COMMITMENT TO COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMS, CREATING MORE STREAMS OF INCOME, ADVANCING EQUALITY, AND HEALING TRAUMA. WE BRING TOGETHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, PRIVATE SECTOR, FAITH-BASED AND NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS TO BUILD STRONGER FAMILIES AND STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITY." This service experience directly contributed to the organizations mission and goals of addressing the needs of youth and their families by providing a significant amount of hygiene items to students.

I plan to continue volunteering with the organization in the future. I really admire all of the work that they're doing to serve Memphis youth and I hope to continue my involvement with them!

I assisted the Elevate 901 program with their canvassing efforts in Westwood. Elevate 901 is a new youth enrichment program that will rotate throughout underserved communities in Memphis. The pilot program is taking place in Westwood this summer so we canvassed several neighborhoods in Westwood, passing out flyers and informing community members about this opportunity for the youth. The Westwood community was extremely welcoming and excited that this opportunity was coming into their community.

I learned alot about the Westwood community during this experience. Westwood is one of Memphis's most underserved communities and it became very evident by walking through the neighborhood and interacting with the community that there is a severe lack of resources accessible within Westwood. However, the sense of community in Westwood is strong and the community welcomes programs such as Elevate 901. Westwood has had a bad reputation but this shouldn't stop us from going into the community to help advocate and provide resources for youth and their families.

I worked in a a team for the duration of this event and I think that really enriched the experience. While walking around with my group we were able to engage in good discussions about how Elevate 901 can best serve the community and being with other people made it easier to interact with community members.

This experience definitely helped improve my conversational and networking skills. I'm typically shy and don'y go out of my way to talk to people that I don't know but this experienced forced me to step out of my comfort zone and I was able to meet alot of great people!

I had a great time volunteering at the Kroc Center! I assisted in sorting and organizing the Angel Tree donations.

I had a great experience at Bartlett Ninth Grade Academy in Ms. Kaela's Functional Skills Class. This class is apart of the Special Education program at Bartlett Ninth Grade Academy and working in this class I was able to observe math and transitional skills lessons, I also had the opportunity to sit it on an IEP meeting. Throughout this experience I had the opportunity to interact with students and assist staff wherever help was needed. All of the students we extremely welcoming and enjoyed interacting with me throughout the week. This experience had a significant impact on me, as an aspiring school social worker, it was a great experience to get to interact with students who have IEP's as well as physical and learning difficulties because I will likely work with many students like this in the future. I learned a lot through this experience about the needs of exceptional students and the importance of spaces such as the functional skills class. Ms. Kaela Zink oversaw this experience and was extremely welcoming and supportive. She clearly explained the class schedules, needs of students and was helping in making sure I had a positive experience! If given the opportunity, I would love to come back in the future!

Rebekah Fahey  3 years ago Hi Olivia, please update your reflection according to the guiding questions outlined on page 18 of the EL Handbook.

I had a great time volunteering at Binghampton Community Church. It was great to see so many community members come out to support each other! Binghampton Community Church is a community run organization providing food, clothing and religious services to its community members. Through this event, myself and a team of other volunteers assisted community members in getting the clothing items that they needed. We also picked up trash around the church to make it a cleaner an safer space for community members to gather. Working with a team of people made the experience very enjoyable and it was great to network with different people and hear about their experiences. The person over the Church is Ms. Lisa, she was very clear on what she needed us to do and made sure we had all the necessary supplies and information to do so. I spent some time at the end of the event getting to know her and all that she does in the community, I also got her contact info and I plan to connect with her for future volunteer opportunities soon! This experience had a big impact on me because this is the community that I live in and I've seen first hand the issues that members of that community are facing, so to see so many people come together and provide this service to them was very heart warming and it made me want to get further involved.

I engaged in a community clean up at Glenview Community Center! It was a great experience to interact with Memphis youth while helping to clean up the park and surrounding community!

Volunteered with a Cheer Stunt Clinic event from 1pm-9pm in Olive Branch at the DC Dragons Gym! It was so fun to be able to work with youth of various ages and skill level to achieve their cheerleading goals!

I cooked and distributed thanksgiving meals with my family to community members in need. I am so grateful I was able to help others enjoy a warm meal this thanksgiving!

This was such a great experience! I spent the afternoon with Hyperion, a super sweet 2 year old pup. I took him to get a pup cup from Starbucks, then we walked around UofM Campus. He wasn’t sure about all the tigers on campus but he had so much fun walking around. Then I took him home where we enjoyed some chicken nuggets and snuggles. Hyperion is such a good boy and I hope he finds his forever home soon!

I had a great time volunteering at Sweet Cheeks Ministry! It felt great to give back to families in the Community. I was surprised to see how many families came out and it made me want to volunteer with Sweet Cheeks Ministry more often!