Table of Contents Critical Service-Learning Intention vs. Impact Cultural Humility Critical Reflection The Golden Circle Approach What Does “Doing Good” Look Like? Sitting at the Feet of Community Ways of Being Feldman’s Rules of Thumb Author Biographies Acknowledgements
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“Leadership is knowing the difference between the ideal and reality and service is making an effort toward closing the gap between those two differences.” –Past Cal Corps Leader 2
“When I view the relationship between those I am serving and myself as mutually beneficial, the mindset I take with me has helped me cross power divides.� -Cal Corps Assistant Director Mike Bishop 3
“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”
“If you come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together”
-Cicero, Philosopher
-Aboriginal Activist Group, Queensland, Australia
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Intention versus Impact by Omri Avraham So you really want to go abroad, travel and see new places. And you want to make a difference in the world, or at least on a community level. Well, why not combine both aspirations? Why not travel to a foreign destination to volunteer? Don’t other places need some of the services and luxuries we have readily available in the US? Whether we are serving in our own communities or communities abroad, we need to be mindful that we don’t exoticize the “other.” Voluntourism often treats foreign communities as “less than” or inferior. In other words, we like to impose our ways of life because we think the developed world’s ways of doing things are better. But few ever stop to ask and then listen to what the communities themselves have to say, or what they might actually need. For example, the idea of paying to volunteer has the potential of commodifying the experiences of individuals living in poor conditions. Understandably so, there are some costs associated with travel, room, board and training, but a there are some organizations out there that intend to make a profit because you have paid them to coordinate your volunteer efforts. What are you paying for anyways? Ask yourself, are you buying the experience and the ability to say that you volunteered abroad? If so, the money spent on airfare might be more beneficial if it were donated to an organization that has a long-term commitment to fighting for certain causes. Or perhaps it could go towards paying teachers and other community members to do the work that you plan to accomplish. Voluntourism (n) the practice of taking a holiday which combines leisure and sightseeing with the opportunity to work for a charity or other worthwhile cause [MacMillan Dictionary] also Voluntourist (n) and Voluntouring (v)
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Examples of common challenges with voluntourism:
Sometimes, the services that we provide can be done by skilled craftspeople within the community, but they simply lack the material resources to carry out projects. Imposing “modern” worldviews can compromise long-standing traditions and introduce practices that undermine local economies. Building a school won’t be helpful if the reason kids don’t go to school is because they need to work. And by recruiting foreign volunteers for building efforts, jobs are taken away from individuals who live there and have no opportunities to leave. There are instances where we can do more harm than good. Helping in an orphanage will give kids opportunities to experience things they wouldn’t have a chance to do, right? But maybe it also produces rapid volunteer turnover resulting in kids being unable to develop the capacity to trust adults. The work that is done on volunteer-vacations is often work which, in another context, would require extensive training and background checks. Nearly anyone can sign up to teach in impoverished countries, but getting teaching credentials is a lengthy process. Is there a better way to support improvements in education if you do not have a teaching credential? Maybe you can support them in raising funds for a new afterschool program they want to start or in lobbying politicians to change policy.
As you can see with these examples, we may come into a service experiences with good intentions but still have a negative impact if we fail to acknowledge that these questions have tricky answers and long term solutions that cannot be executed in a few months of volunteering. There is a lot of knowledge and information and wisdom contained in other communities, if only we stop and listen. For example, have you ever asked anyone from the communities you desired to serve what is it that causes homelessness in the first place? Why is it that so many people are food insecure? How come schools are disheveled and education hard to come by?
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Before going on any service trip, the first step is some serious personal reflection (more in this guide later). Why are you going on this volunteer-venture? What might be some of your hidden assumptions about this community/issue? What are you hoping to gain, and what are you willing to give? Not all service programs are created equal. It is your responsibility to research different programs that exist and ensure that they work along with the community instead of apart from the community. You can read more about these tensions in “Non-Profit Industrial Complex” and “The Golden Circle Approach to Choosing the Right Community Partners.” Understanding and meeting community need is the core of quality service. Let go of your own ideas about what needs to be done and find ways to connect with the people who have a stake in the problem you are trying to solve. The work that you end up doing may not be exactly what you had in mind for your “dream” volunteer experience, but isn’t it more important that you are helping to accomplish the dreams of the community rather than your own? Some good places to start are listed below. They offer various links and resources to the serious voluntourist. ·
http://voluntourismgal.wordpress.com
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http://lessonsilearned.org/
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http://www.pepytours.com/responsible-tourism/
Finally, just realize that the ability to take a time off and spend it in a volunteer endeavor is a privilege, and not afforded to every-
"By liberating the past we are liberating ourselves, The limits of our imagination needs to be taken down brick by brick by chipping away at the cultural embeddedness that pre-determines the meaning of the past in ways that hold us captive in the present” -Susan Buck-Morss 7
Cultural Humility: What is it and Why Does it Matter? by Chika Kondo Cultural humility is a dynamic practice that allows us to respectfully engage with community partners who are our guides in sharing their own personal and community wisdoms around social justice. What we’ve come to learn is that meaningful service requires mutual relationship building between us and our community partners. If we want to have authentic relationships built on high positive regard, we need to be mindful; actively reflective about how our assumptions and prejudices about people who come from communities different than our own influence our actions; and embrace the “messiness” of living in society that privileged some over others. In this way, we move towards a goal of collective liberation and work to avoid the all-too-common parachuter metaphor where outsiders dive in with bundles of resources without a working knowledge of the histories of trauma and hardships many communities have long endured. We might engage in service because it is the right thing to do or makes us feel good about ourselves, but if we are not critical of why there is a need for service and what the root of the problem is, then we are merely engaging in “band-aid solutions.” This is why we encourage those wanting to do service to learn and gain a better understanding of the social issues at hand. But just having knowledge about an issue is not enough. This is an ongoing journey and process: there will never really be a point where you’ve “arrived.” In many of the communities we wish to engage with, community members may not have “equal” access to opportunities such as education, safety from violence, affordable housing, civil rights, food security, job training programs, recreational and cultural programs, and culturally competent health care. We cannot really escape or diminish that we will undoubtedly have greater societal privilege than those in the communities we are engaging with. There is privilege that comes with being a student from UC Berkeley and assumptions people make about Cal students. Privilege can show up in a variety of forms (race, class, age, ability, education level, etc). To deepen our engagement with community partners, we must be willing to take personal responsibility, create systems of accountability, and accept some sense of vulnerability in acknowledging our own pain and past hurts. We must also be willing to face the guilt and shame we might feel about our privilege so that we don’t get stuck in doing nothing. So now, what is cultural humility in practice? There are multiple parts and I believe it must start with our own self-reflection. This is a powerful tool 8
in understanding our own backgrounds and how our own perceived identities carry various types of privileges and if some of those identities align with dominant groups then also power. Taking this additional step to acknowledge when part of your identity belongs to the beneficiary of unearned privilege (i.e. white, male, heterosexual, physically-abled, college graduate, citizen, wealthy, etc.) can be challenging because we are socialized into assuming that our experiences and backgrounds are shared by others and that everyone has access to the same level of benefits we enjoyed. It is difficult to understand what we don’t know. So give yourself a pat on the shoulder for having this willingness to see where you have room to grow. Keep in mind that self-awareness is a never-ending process because the world is never static and as people, we are always growing. Growth only occurs when you are willing to challenge yourself to ask the deeper questions. When we are engaging in service, we must allow for community members to define their cultural identities for themselves. Put your own prejudgments and assumptions aside and enter with a humbled open mind. Displaying signs of respect is extremely important in order to reach mutual trust and understanding. One way to think about it is...if you were the guest at your professor’s house, how would you behave? Would it be different the way you normally behave at a well-known friend’s house? Probably. This mindfulness comes into play as we become observant of our external behaviors and even the types of questions we inquire when interacting with community members. For example, a question like: “So how did you become homeless?” makes the assumption that the community member is willing to share his or her life story with you and doesn’t provide the kind of respect that person deserves. Instead, try to put the subject at the center of the room. For example, a question like, “Would you be willing to share your opinion on how the local city council views homelessness?” might provide a better way to put building mutual relationships into practice as is it a question you can both explore without putting someone on blast. I’ve said a lot here in just a page or so. But cultural humility is a way of being, a never ending process, and a necessary component for social justice work if you see service learning as part of a movement centered around collective liberation. The bottom line is to be mindful and humbled when entering into different communities and understand that under surface level interactions, there is much more embedded within different cultural principles and practices. 9
Critical Reflection: Walking, We Ask Questions by Kati Hinman So you’ve learned all about cultural humility and educated yourself about the communities you serve, you may think that the learning portion is done and now it’s time to just get busy, but it’s not that simple. In order to continue to serve effectively and grow as an individual, you need to engage in constant reflection. Why? Well, simply put, nothing is ever perfect. The Zapatista movement in Mexico, a movement founded by indigenous farmers to reclaim their land and political autonomy, has a saying, “Walking, we ask questions.” To me this means that we should never accept the status quo. We need to always question our actions and our society, and we need to always be open to learning something new and looking for a better solution, because that is the only way we will continue to grow. In reflection, we have a chance to do this on an individual level and as a group. In order to have critical reflection you should be willing to think deeply about the strengths and weaknesses of what you are doing and examine your work in a larger structure of social oppression. For example, let’s say you decide to serve at a soup kitchen. Without reflection, you may end on the simple note, “That was a nice thing to do.” With reflection, you and your group can discuss what it really meant to serve in that soup kitchen. You can discuss, among other topics: 1.) Did you notice anything unexpected? 2.) What was the organization’s thoughts on homelessness? 3.) How did the staff treat the people being served? 4.) What was the attitude of the people being served towards each other? 5.) What sort of food was being served? Who decided on the menu? 6.) What were the demographics of the people present? How might this relate to larger structural injustices? 7.) How did you feel about being the one to serve meals? What were people’s attitudes towards you? 8.) Has this experience changed how you viewed homelessness? What can you do in the future to learn more/do more about this issue? 10
With questions like these, a simple volunteer experience can become an opportunity to think more about the complexity of the problem and your own assumptions, as well as deepen your commitment to finding long-term solutions. Reflection is a tool that should be used before, during, and after any experience because we are constantly changing, just like this crazy world we live in. Even right now you can reflect: take a moment to process all this information you have been reading and start asking questions: how does this apply to your work?
The Golden Circle Approach to Choosing the Right Community Partners by Kati Hinman If we only have a limited time to do service, it is critical that we choose the right community partners to work with. The Golden Circle, by Simon Sinek, is a new way to think about the work that we do. Often times we get so overwhelmed by the logistics of what we are doing that we forget why we bother in the first place. He argues: “It doesn’t matter what you do, it matters WHY you do it.” Think about it, how in the world did iPods and iPhones become something that everyone has to own? It was not because Apple could do things that other companies could not do as well; it was because they made you believe that being innovative was cool. In short, if you had an iPod, you were identified as someone on the cutting edge of innovative technology. So what in the heck does that have to do with service learning?
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Simon Sinek urges us to do business with people who believe that what we believe because if we share core beliefs, we will have real motivation to accomplish our collective goals. That means that before you can choose the right organizations to work with, you need to figure out why you want to do this work. Think first about why this matters to you and why you believe that this service is important. Once you find your why, you can look for organizations that share those same beliefs. From there, you can reflect on how you want to act on your beliefs, and then you can think about what concrete steps you need to take to make that happen. If you want to learn more on this model, check out http://tinyurl.com/29nuvxh. What does this look like in practice? Well, one big “why” we have for doing this work is that we believe that all people are inherently equal and deserve the same opportunities and rights to a full and dignified life. However, we also believe that this is not the reality, and we live in a society with structures that privilege an elite group based off of the situation into which they are born. We value the wisdom of communities and believe that they know what they are doing well and what they need better than we, as outsiders, ever can. Because of this, we try to work with organizations that do not just “serve,” but give people in oppressive situations a chance to take part in the decisions that affect them. It is difficult to tell if organizations are actually doing this until you begin to work with them. By asking questions to the organization you are aligning yourself with, you can at least start a dialogue about their values and begin to understand if their beliefs align with your own. Also keep in mind that an organization might share the same “why” as you, but have a completely different “what” or approach to solving the problem. Do not instantly write them off. Take the time to reflect on their mission and vision and question if you can still serve the community through their different approach. That is why it is so important to always reflect and be willing to learn from our own mistakes.
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Who Decides What “Doing Good” Looks Like? by Kati Hinman When you think of “non-profit,” you probably think of a sort of RobinHood image: a bunch of people bravely fighting for the rights of the oppressed and sacrificing all they have to help those in need. That is unfortunately not always the reality. Nonprofits still need finances to function, and even when they have great ideas, funding is always a challenge. Where do they get that money? Usually from private donors and government grants. And there is no way that those donors are just handing nonprofits the money and saying, “here, enjoy, we trust you to do the right thing!” Many times, the donors have one idea of how to solve a problem, and it is very different from the community’s idea. And since donors are the people with the money, the non-profit may be forced to use the methods that the donors want to use. These methods aren’t usually looking at changing the system. They are usually about providing results that look nice in a pamphlet, but don’t accomplish the goals that the community wants to accomplish. Make sure to look at where organizations are getting their money from and how they hold themselves accountable not to their donors but to their communities. Who decides on new projects? Who decides if current projects are successful? What is their end goal? Asking these questions will help you weed out the organizations that may just be doing “good” rather than creating real change. You may also need to look beyond their inner politics at the relationships of organizations in the area. Consider what other organizations and groups your organization is working with. In certain places you may find non-profit “hot spots,” with a lot of similar non-profits working on similar problems. This can create a sense of competition rather than collaboration, because they are all applying for the same grant money. I know these are very critical questions, but the purpose in asking them is to help you discover which non-profits are doing the work you believe in. Creating sustainable, structural change to eliminate injustice is no easy task, but there are people working on it. It’s just a matter of finding them. For more on this, see The Golden Circle Approach to Finding the Right Community Partners! If you want to read more, check out: Laurah Nader’s “Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained from Studying Up,” a piece that describes how we need to start looking “up” at the power dynamics of government, nonprofits and for profit organizations, and the upper classes of our society. William F. Fisher “DOING GOOD? The Politics and Anti-Politics of NGOS,” which gives you a better sense of the inner politics occurring within NGOs and the other organizations and government in the area. 13
Sitting at the Feet of Community: Systems of Oppression and Service-Learning by Chika Kondo When discussing the value of service Martin Luther King Jr. provides a great example about what brings us to serve: “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"’ Martin Luther King Jr.’s reversal of the question in the story highlights the importance of recognizing that engaging in service is not meant to be an activity based on selfishness – we don’t do it just to feel good about ourselves, we do it because our humanity is directly linked to addressing the manifest injustice we see in the world. But, if we lead with thinking that this man needs to be “saved” or “fixed” or “helped” and that we are the ones to do it, our greatest success may be that we only perpetuate the stereotype that he is someone who needs saving and is incapable of helping himself. If we really want to make a difference, we must learn the historical narrative of marginalized communities. We must position our own understanding of what it means to serve in a larger narrative of systemic inequity. The history of oppression is long. Our problems have deep roots and have been made invisible. For instance, many of us celebrate Columbus Day and Thanksgiving as national holidays without acknowledging that the founding of this country sits on the genocide committed against Native Americans. How might our traditions change if we truly acknowledged the harm that has been caused? The process of contextualizing our service in the history of oppression helps us understand that, while good, it is not enough to just build a house or a shelter. We need to link arms with community members engaged in the process of addressing the root causes of inequity – the kind of folks that know the story, have been there longer than us, and will continue to be there when we are gone. What is needed is a fostering of mutual respect, compassion, and empathy in order to recognize how we can begin to honor the spaces of others. Dan Kwong, a LA artist and activist, writes “the mandate to undo racism and other forms of oppression creates a constant struggle for clarity and compassion among people of different backgrounds.” 14
While our acts of service cannot suddenly undo systemic inequity and the marginalization of others, it can provide the opportunity to listen to the stories of others and the possibility of mutually beneficial relationships. There are very few opportunities as a college student to really be able to sink all ten toes into the ground and dive into the messiness of social justice and deepen our understanding as to why it is needed. Having gone on several service learning trips now, I always leave feeling as though I gained so much more than what I was able to give. But this feeling should not stand as an isolated experience in our lives. Instead, I encourage you to expand on your service learning experience. Maybe your service-learning experience ignites a desire to continue to commit to public service and really dive into what solidarity means to you. Maybe it means you become a bit more curious about how social injustice is presented on campus around campus climate and how others perceive of difference. Perhaps you begin to wonder how justice and service apply to your major even if it’s not a social science major. Imagine the kinds of technology that could come out of the materials sciences building that foster self-sufficiency and foster community healing. Or what if all public policy minors and business students developed models that centered on amplifying the voice of the community rather than pushing their own ideals of what the need is. Service is more than just helping, I believe it is a way to connect and transform this world into a place where everyone feels they belong.
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“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.� -Cornel West 18
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