Category Archives: Community Matters

Community Matters: Mack McLellan

Mack’s website, Mack’s Amazon wishlist

I asked Mack to be our first presenter because he’s game for most anything, funny, charming, and super personable (I just described every presenter I got, so I actually no longer know why I picked him first). I met Mack on August 13, 2018, after a summer of organizing to prepare for the anniversary of the events of August 2017. I wanted to be doing something proactive for community, not just reacting to the actions of White Supremacists. Mack got invited to this community meeting that I was attending, and the two of us immediately hit it off. Mack has a can do attitude that isn’t bound by following conventions of what’s been done. He just wants to make positive change. I value his perspective immensely– I remember regularly his words about all children– regardless of privilege– needing time with parents, and yet missing that critically important relationship, in wealthy families with nannies, and less affluent families where parents work 3 jobs to make ends meet. His words reminded me of universal needs, and helped shift my perspective to be more empathetic overall.

Mack McLelllan, an African American Man, speaks to a group of people sitting at dining tables.

One way Mack works is to distribute culturally competent books in area neighborhoods through his Bridging the Gap program. He’s pragmatic– what’s more likely to bring kids out– some piles of books? OR some piles of books in front of a bounce house and some ice cream?! Mack meets the community where they are, accepts and celebrates them as they are.

Some highlights from last night:

  • Mack’s description of how mindfulness puts the burden on children to change their behavior without the acknowledgement of context, or change of environment (my summary)
  • His story and picture of a proud Afghani girl wearing a hijab that matched the book’s cover picture of a girl in the same pink hijab
  • Discussion of a literature/book distribution event on grounds for young community members
  • The idea of UVA student-led book drives
  • Seeing people engaged with the event for the entirety of the 2 hours, some staying longer than they meant to, and some staying way longer than the 8:00 close.

 group of people sitting at dining tables in a restaurant. Participants are a mixture of ages -- ranging from early 20s to late 40s, present as different races and genders. They are engaged in small group conversations.

I hope to see you at the next event Tuesday, January 28 with Lisa Woolfork of Stitch Please

UVA students, register for dates in the series here. Community Members, please join us. I appreciate a message letting me know you’re coming, but spontaneity is okay too!

Community Matters: How We Got Here

A year ago my friend Julie Caruccio (you know, Julie, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs; Associate Dean of Students– no big deal) wrote to me “I’d like to formally invite you to collaborate with us on the development of a training program for students interested in doing community engagement.”

This was an exciting moment for me professionally. I remembered finishing my doctorate 15 years ago, and asking myself and my adviser, what am I even doing? Am I even using my education? My adviser assured me that I was okay– that my path would make sense, and that all my experiences would lead me to where I was supposed to go. There’s so much internal and external pressure to “use” your education. As if education isn’t an exercise for each of us to understand our selves and our skills better, that is an end to itself, and doesn’t have to be commodified. I’ve always had a defensive, uncomfortable, and complicated reaction to the combination of holding a PhD and service industry jobs. I honestly don’t think that my degree makes me smarter or more valuable as a human. And yet, I find myself simultaneously wanting recognition for my achievement, and the recognition of the humanity of my fellow service workers regardless of formal educational attainment. Also, I am ambitious– I know that my skills and experience in education and community building could be applied at the university level, even as I am uninterested in and unsuited for the typical academic track. Being recognized as having expertise in training and community engagement was important and meaningful to me.

Julie and I began meeting with a student intern, Maggie Hirshland, and, after her maternity leave, another Student Affairs staffer, Rose Cole. After a week or two of listing frustrations stemming from a couple decades of working with UVA students and faculty (a partial list at bottom), I made a mental shift– remembering that the UVA undergraduate population are an age group that I love, and that they are smart, still developing, and in “education mode”. This realization made me view this work as an opportunity to teach, not just chastise.

Over the course of the spring semester, we worked together to visualize what effective student training for community engagement would look like in the particular environment of UVA. I thought about the internal work we must do for our idealized beliefs to become concrete actions. I thought about what respect looks like in practice. I thought about how our insecurities and discomfort negatively affect the way we move through the world. I thought about how it’s so much more powerful to frame suggestions in positive action to enact, as opposed to as a list of “nos” and “nots”. As I reflected, my thoughts coalesced into a framework to guide thinking before, during and after community engagement. I’ve been fortunate to present this framework in a number of Melissa Levy’s classes within the Youth Development Program, and have applied it in community work.

In the Fall, Julie followed up on one of our ideas of putting on an evening series similar to BE’s study groups, compensating me as a Community Fellow. On Tuesday nights from January to May, we’ll be meeting in the back room of the Blue Moon Diner. I’ve got an amazing slate of Community Members doing work that supports, honors, and nurtures our greater community in a multiplicity of ways. They will present about their work, with time built in for dinner attendees to get to know one another, and to generate ideas that authentically connect the University and greater Cville communities. I plan to reflect on each week’s presentation here. The name of the organization links to some material on each presenter. As they present, their name will link to my reflections. The amazing slate so far includes, these fabulous humans:

UVA students, register for dates in the series here. Community Members, please join us. I appreciate a message letting me know you’re coming, but spontaneity is okay too!

Historical Challenges of Working with UVA students, faculty, staff (an incomplete list)

  • Hierarchical Thinking This shows up as UVA-affiliated peeps thinking that they are smarter, more experienced, more capable, more competent, etc., which in turn leads to savior complex.
  • Access to Resources/Systems UVA peeps have access to space, tools, printing, money– this is not without a cost (hello student debt), but there is an assumption that systems and resources available to UVA’s institutional purchasing power is available to local organizations and individuals. A lack in the community may not be due ignorance, the lack can be due to lack of resources, or a mindful prioritization of different resources or values.
  • Compensation I gave free labor to UVA for many years. It’s sorta like when artists are encouraged to do work for free for “exposure”. When a school has a $9.6 billion endowment, and a $3.5 billion annual budget (!!!), that they can’t pay local content experts $100 to share their knowledge is kinda crazy. Not only is getting promise of compensation in the first place challenging, but the logistics of getting paid is incredibly difficult. I’ve gotten paid 3 different ways in the course of the year. When I do get paid, I get a 1099 at the end of the year, which results in having to file taxes, sometimes a tax penalty, and an additional fee for running a business. Some of this is not the University’s fault, it’s just something that anyone doing work with the University has to factor into their financial well-being. (I’m focusing here on people not employed by/affiliated with the University, but plenty of wage workers, adjunct faculty, staff, student athletes, undergraduates and grad students are under-compensated for the labor that they are doing for the university. That the history of UVA is rife with sexism, classism and racism and that marginalized people, especially Black People, have been exploited for their labor cannot be over-emphasized in these conversations.)
  • Extractive Processes This shows up when the University (students, faculty, staff, administration) benefits more from “community” projects than the actual community does. Community members’ resources come in the form of information, time, stories, money, land, data from unconsented experiments, emotional labor, good will. At the root of this is hierarchical thought and practices. The University in all its forms benefits through resume lines, network building, grant-funding, control of community resources, and an outsized voice in community decision-making due to power and perceptions of expertise.
  • Longevity of Relationships Undergraduate students are here for anywhere from 2 to 6 years depending on transfer status and how long it takes to complete course work. Each “year” can be as short as two 15- week semesters with their own obligations and deadlines. Students have all sorts of other obligations– travel home or to study abroad programs, work opportunities and obligations, varying weekly schedules, exams, etc. All of this is a completely different rhythm than much of the greater cville community, which has public school schedules, calendar years, fiscal years, and generations of living life. It can be very hard to sync up the competing timing needs of the different worlds.

Guiding Questions for Improved Community Engagement

This is the work of Dolly Joseph, and should not be used without express permission and compensation.

Before Engagement

Before heading into a community– for an internship, volunteering, seeking employment, whatever, it’s a good idea to situate yourself in relationship to the new project. 

Feelings

Check in with yourself about how you are feeling– nervous, excited, timid, enthusiastic, apathetic… It’s okay to feel one or all of those feelings, and it’s also important to think about how the display of those feelings might be received by the community member(s) that you’ll be interacting with. 

  • What am I bringing to the community? 
  • How may I be received by this community? How do I feel about that? 
  • What will be challenging? What will be easy? 

Skills

It’s also a good moment to take a skills inventory of yourself. What do you feel like you know how to do well? What could stand some improvement? What skills are you hoping to practice or develop with this opportunity.

  • What am I bringing to the community? 
  • What relevant skills do I have? Is that enough? Where should I grow? 
  • What am I expecting to get out of this interaction? 
  • What am I expecting the community to get out of this interaction? 

Information

It’s important to understand the context of the community that you will be engaging with. Do you have the needed information to engage in a positive manner? Have you gathered information from trusted, accurate sources? 

  • What am I bringing to the community? 
  • How have I educated myself about the community? 
  • What assumptions have I made? Are those fair? 
  • What expertise already exists in this community? 

Resources

Resources can cut across these 3 categories– Resources can be related to access to information, time, money, emotional labor, etc. Often when we do community engagement in the form of volunteering we forget about the resources that are required to accommodate us as volunteers. It’s incredibly important to consider how resources are used when we engage with the community.

  • What am I bringing to the community? 
  • What is the balance between what I will bring to this community (skills, open-mindedness, readiness to work, etc.) and what I will take (time, energy, etc.) 
  • What is the community [giving/sacrificing/risking] by hosting/partnering with me? 

During Engagement

While you are within your community engagement, it’s important to consider how things seem to be going– both good and not-so-good. Remember, none of us are perfect. Often we get into the trap of thinking that there is no room for error. You will make mistakes, and then grow and learn from that practice. Reflecting and adjusting during your community engagement is a great way to improve your current and future experience. 

  • Am I effectively paying attention to direct and indirect communication? 
  • Am I engaging in effective, positive and/or productive interpersonal interactions? 
  • Am I using my skills in an appropriate, effective, and respectful way? 

After Engagement

Even if your most recent community engagement was a “one off” commitment, you will have another experience in your future. It’s important to reflect on how things went so that you can be more effective next time. 

  • How do I know if my interaction was a positive experience for the community? 
  • How did my expectations differ from what happened? 
  • What should I do to have a positive and productive experience next time? 
  • What skills or resources should I access to improve my effectiveness?