NBC Dateline feature: America Now - Friends and Neighbors.

I feel like I am a part of truly making a difference with  OASHF and the Ohio Benefit Bank tool.  My program is also the largest VISTA program in the entire Mid-west, so that's kind of exciting as well.  What's more exciting?  Ann Curry travling to SE Ohio to report on poverty, feauturing people that work with OASHF and have benefitted from the OBB. 

THIS is an article about the news story.

There is a preview of the news feature HERE, but if you want to watch the entire thing when it airs, tune in to NBC Dateline this Sunday at 7 pm.  It's called "America Now - Friends and Neighbors."

NBC's Ann Curry travels to Ohio to examine poverty in the heartland, where the hardworking poor are increasingly seen in food pantry lines ashamed and angry.

Push the Limits. Turn off my brain.

One may think that to push the limits, ones brain should be ON and firing.  But for me to get up and present about the OBB for the very first time, expecting 15 people, seeing 75, I have to turn my brain off.  For me to cold call around 70 organizations in three counties and try to convince them to let me talk long enough to tell them about the Benefit Bank, I have to turn my brain off.  I can't think about what I am doing, I just have to do it.  As long as I am moderately successful, that's the plan.  Brain off, plow forward.

Image credit: boltonspeakersclub.org.uk

Swag

Look everyone, I got my very own snazzy new shirt!

They gave me clothes, yet I still have to deal out business cards that look like this:

 

It's all so very exciting and official.

First Training and Humorous Discoveries

Considering my mother now reads my blog is gets nervous when she sees the last post containing the words "I think I'm going to throw up," I'll quickly update everyone. All five of you.

My first training actually went well. There were two deaf women from Deaf Services, so it was a little awkward to have them facing away from me and watching the interpreter the entire time. I took sign language in college so I know some basics, but I can barely explain public benefits aloud in English let alone by signing. There rest of the group was comprised of women, pretty typical in the non-profit world I hate to say.


Zach sat in to observe and make sure I didn't steer the trainees completely off track. It was a great comfort to have him there and defer questions to. There are so many intricacies in public benefits. This is a position dealing directly with people, so there will always been differing circumstances and I will never have all the answers. (As hard as I try, I am a perfectionist)  I only had to defer to him a couple times, and he only had a few corrections and clarifications at the end.  Woohoo!

My lips were numb by lunch (seriously, how do people do this all day?), but all in all it was positive.  Gosh, it better have been positive considering this is my main job description!  I only have one more observation next week before I am officially certified.

In other news, I attended a presentation with Zach at a pregnancy care center here in Columbus.  While we were waiting, I found a brochure in their lobby entitled "10 Reason NOT to get pregnant."  Number seven on that list?

You could DIE.

I am not kidding you.  It had more explanation, I think linking contracting HIV/AIDS from having sex, but I was too distracted by their clever scare tactics to take note.


I'll leave it at that, as I'm sure this job will lead to plenty of other fantastic discoveries over the next year.  Like this!

(If you can't read it, the organization is trying to call itself HOPE, gaining the acronym from Helping Our young People connEct with God).  Yeah...

It's Here

Today is my first time leading the 6 hour training. I think I'm going to throw up. That is all.

Other VISTA/OBB blogs

I want to give credit where credit is due by linking out to the various blogs by VISTAs in the area and from OBB's Mobile Unit team that entertained and informed me in the first couple weeks of my position. Some bloggers are ending their terms, others are just beginning, and the mobile unit continues to have adventures all across Ohio. Enjoy!

525,600 Minutes: Measuring a Year as a Vista

My Life as a VISTA

Making [social] Change

Ohio Benefit Bank Mobile Express

Visualization!

I love data visualization and using media/art to understand concepts. Check out this Wordle (word cloud) I created from OASHF's About Us webpage: