The last four days have been full of new experiences! Vogel Alcove has one of the best missions I have ever heard of. In preparation for this trip, our group discussed how important it was to understand the people we were serving were not broken. Our group was not going to ‘fix’ any issue. Instead, we were providing support and resources to those who needed it. Vogel Alcove’s mission was to provide those resources. I was impressed with the organization’s ability to provide so many services for people who had nothing.
To receive assistance from Vogel Alcove, a family must be living in a homeless shelter. Many parents start working minimum wage jobs but are trying to build better lives for their families. I worked with infants 1 and under during our time there. None of the children in my classroom could tell me about their experiences but, I could only imagine what their home life was like. From the brief interactions I saw between parents and children, I learned a lot. One mom was going to school to become a social worker because she was so impacted by her experience. Another mom had to turn down a second job because it did not work with her first job as a server. That same mom also sent her child to school with soda in his cup. In that moment I found myself getting upset with the parent but, I had to realize that she is doing the best she can. We were placed in our classrooms for two days in order to build a relationship with our children and provide them with some sort of consistency. Two days was not long enough. I was learning their little personalities and enjoyed giving them all of my attention.
After day one with Vogel, I was already ready to come back next year and volunteer. I’m amazed by their dedication to building up people. They made me understand that people need resources and opportunities, not people to ‘fix’ them.