Celebrating the Holidays at Center on Halsted

Chicago Mayoral Candidate Rahm Emanuel with Matt Tobel (left), Zach Zimmerman '10 (center) and Northwestern Public Interest Fellow Lakshmi Nemani (right)

On Friday, December 10th, Center on Halsted hosted a Holiday Reception for donors, corporate & foundation sponsors, local business owners and patrons to help kick off the holiday season. The event was a huge success with over 400 attendees who were able to tour the Center, learn about all of the programs & services we offer and meet the staff who makes it all possible. Although many of our donors and sponsors have toured the Center before, this was the first time they were given a behind-the-scenes tour of our mental health suites, the State of Illinois HIV/STD/AIDS Hotline Room, and our Youth Space. We also used the Holiday Reception as an opportunity to announce the launch of the nation's first Homesharing Program for LGBT senior citizens. This revolutionary program will help keep LGBT older adults in their homes and provide companionship and support during an otherwise lonely and stressful time in their lives.

The highlight of the evening was when Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff to President Obama and current Chicago Mayoral candidate, stopped by to greet our staff. Rahm has been an ardent supporter of the LGBT community and helped secured federal money to build Center on Halsted in 2007.

All in all the night was a great opportunity for Center on Halsted staff, supporters and patrons to gather together and celebrate our collective accomplishments for the year. I can't believe its already been 5 months at the Center and I'm looking forward to many more great memories to come!

Coming up at Center on Halsted:

January 2011, "By Women For Women" luncheon and comedy show

February 2011, On the Red Carpet Oscar Party

May 2011, Human First 2011 Gala at the Harris Theatre in Millennium Park

Happy Holidays from the best P55 City!

As the calendar year wraps up I figured it's a good time to blog a few of my general thoughts. I guess this notorious Chicago winter has started, and being from New England, I am not really intimidated by the low temperatures and snow, but what has surprised me is the way lifelong Chicagoans respond (mostly by complaining). Not that New Englanders don't complain also, but I've always thought of a rough winter as a badge of honor. I don't know, as one of Steve's long john-sporting roommates, I've been enjoying the sport of getting pumped to go out in these brutal temperatures. The air tastes better, and that cold certainly wakes you up in the morning.

(Speaking of sports, I've also become the office goat for football jokes, given that the Patriots came to Chicago and stomped the Bears last week.)

Anyways, this city is the best. The community out here has been tremendous, with the connection and seminar network of UChicago and Northwestern fellows making for a fine assortment of companions. I know our phenomenal Thanksgiving potluck was a success, and I look forward more school-spanning social events in the new year. When you are in school, you have the particular advantage of having thousands of people in your age range and situation in life to draw on, but in a city you have a random assortment of whoever you can find. The larger fellowship community out in Chicago at least gives you that common ground with a bunch of interesting folks.

This is certainly an interesting time to be here, with the mayoral race heating up. While I can't offer a prediction, I might make a few general observations. Chicago is a very segregated place, by both race and class, and what has surprised me these last few months is how people from certain parts of town have literally no idea what is going on in other parts. The average Lakeview resident for example has no idea what is going on in Lawndale, the neighborhood on the West Side I work in, and vice versa. So I wonder how this territorial city is going to be held together in the next regime, and what role identity politics are going to play. But hey, I've only been here four months, so I'll leave the political forecast to the pundits.

My organization is an interesting little place, and I cannot be happier to come in to an office where every morning people ask me how I'm doing, and they seem genuinely interested in the answer. While the mundane frustrations about non-profit organizations are certainly present, and do pile up from time to time, it is the few times when you can see the direct impact of your work that make it all worth it. I didn't know much about workforce development or ex-offender re-entry before coming to the North Lawndale Employment Network, but I'm glad to have learned as much as I have. I'll end this post with a little anecdote:

My other roommate, Mike (a fellow from last year who stayed on as an employee of NLEN) and I are transit pals, naturally, except on nights when he works late. Occasionally, coming out of work, we'd see this one guy, who would always ask us for change. We kept turning him down, but eventually saw this one guy enough times that we got to talking about our jobs, and encouraged him to come in to our Resource Center and look for work. He told us, "But I've got a felony background," which is of course, NLEN's specialty. Just this week, I'm happy to say he started work. I guess it's important to keep those types of stories in mind, when the routine is getting me down.

Happy holidays, everybody. Looking forward to a great 2011 in a city in the midwest, best city in the whole wide wide world.

First Weeks at Choices

Recently, I introduced the practice of journaling to our youth participants at Choices and decided to follow their example and begin to blog. It is amazing how quickly these first 6 weeks have passed and how much a part of the Choices team I already feel.

Choices provides services to court involved youth that include an after-school program, educational monitoring, and guidance, to name a few. Since my first day, I have been partnering with various members of the Choices team to do school and home visits, becoming familiar with areas of the city I had never been to before, such as Brooklyn and Washington Heights. The school visits allow me to put a face to the voices of the guidance counselors and attendance coordinators from all over Manhattan and Brooklyn that I speak to regularly as we brainstorm ways to improve attendance or resolve any school related issues the participant may be facing. Each youth faces his or her own unique circumstances, and I find more often than not seeking different solutions, be it an alarm clock or childcare for young mothers. I could not have asked for better support than the exceptional guidance I receive from the Choices staff to lead me through this process. I am consistently impressed with the ease with which they navigate the many complex situations of our youth and find innovative ways to reach out to them.

I look forward to sharing more of my experiences. Happy Holidays!

Reflections

With a new class of fellows applying for my position I have had a wave of email inquiries asking about my position. It is exciting that others are interested and it has also forced me to take a moment to reflect on what I've been working on and what I think about my work. I thought I'd share some of these thoughts with the blog.

My favorite and least favorite parts of my job

One of my favorite parts of the jobs is that I have the opportunity to be involved in projects from the beginning to the end. I'm not just doing background research or just writing up results. Having the opportunity to be a part of each phase has made me invested in the work and taught me about what goes into research. Also the staff that I work closest with is very small (there are 5 of us on the center team--we have staff in 5 different research sites in the US and we are like the headquarters) so I am very involved. I feel like my work matter and makes a direct impact on what we as an organization are able to produce. I think part of this is due to my boss, who makes a great effort to engage me throughout the process and account for my own interests. She offers great guidance and is a really wonderful person to work under.

The hardest part of my job that I’ve had to adjust is spending the majority of my time in an office. Now that things have gotten busy around here I am busy going to meetings and interviewing families in the emergency room to help build our dataset. I am treasuring the days that I can stay in my office to get work done. Since Children's HealthWatch research is health policy research a lot of that happens on the computer...doing literature searches, planning analyses, searching for outside data sets, writing etc. This has been an adjustment from college life where you are up and about all the time.


The PP55 community in Boston

I have two mentors who are from the class of '98 and '00. They compliment each other well--one is very interested in what I'm thinking about and interested in my projects at work. He's been great for bouncing around ideas about my work projects. My other mentor is in her final year of residency and has been really great at giving me suggestions of ways to settle into a new city and meet new people. They are very accessible to me and eager to email and chat, but I haven't felt like I've needed to rely on them for much. I think the greatest sense of support I've found was in our first seminar about graduate school. This seminar was with the Harvard equivalent of PP55 and alums were invited to speak. It was more of a casual discussion than a lecture, which I have really appreciated. I found it very helpful to hear about the experiences of people a couple of life stages ahead and learn how they came to be where they are.


Preparation for my job

I definitely felt prepared for the work I am doing. Though I have definitely had to learn a lot about the health programs and policy we focus the most on, but I certainly felt like I had the skills to do this coming out of college. My writing is also being challenged and because I am no longer long writing research papers. I am learning to write policy/advocacy pieces which are not something I learned in college.


Would I accept this position if I did it over again?

Yes, definitely!

Just about five on the Fellowship clock

The air's chilling, my roommates are donning long johns... it's winter-time in Chicago [to the tune of 'Silver Bells'].

And with winter's chill comes ample time for reflection. With reflection, our minds naturally turn, at first, to the individual moments that remain lodged in memory.

night time walks to the gym, shortening the stride to account for the sheet of ice on the sidewalk


fun and Fellow-ship in a Thanksgiving potluck feast


the Salvation Army post on State & Washington, who has just begun to ring his bell


the screech of the El, hopping on at rush hour, and being informed, there's a train directly behind us, so feel free to stay a minute more, and delay your descent from Downtown


sipping a drink with the mentor, discussing the finer works of Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien... and Michael Crichton


sifting through research [flip from Acrobat to the Word, and then to the notepad by your side, and back again], making sense, connecting pieces of the puzzle, and alternating between trying to tell a story, and informing the reader of what's there


All this is to say, it's been pretty good so far.

One of the things that I'm learning while in education is the importance of systemic reform. At Advance Illinois, we're not infrequently using that term. It's taken me a little while to figure out; now, I liken it to a juggler trying to keep plenty of different balls in play. The red balls? That's making sure the state's educators are effective: strengthening preparation, evaluation, certification processes; working to make sure teacher performance plays a greater role. The yellow balls? That's setting expectations high and giving appropriate support: what are the expectations for a child entering kindergarten? The blue balls? That's encouraging innovation and accountability: can we measure conditions for learning throughout the state, and not just in Chicago?

The key is the juggling, the multi-tasking, the synchronizing. There's no silver bullet, no magic initiative. You've got to keep all of those balls in the air at once.

I suppose that's applicable to life as a Fellow in a new city, as well. Work. Friends. Routines. The future. Life itself is its own juggling act, as well, keeping all of those priorities in order... keeping all the balls in the air.  Maybe next month, I'll add another ball to the mix. (I don't yet dare try to go behind the back.)

Knitting in North Lawndale

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but it's definitely not because nothing has been happening here at Better Boys Foundation - quite the opposite, actually! It seems as though each department expands and changes daily, so it can be hard to keep track of things at times. Project LEAD, our elementary-age program, has been holding monthly fundraisers to supplement their budget, including a very successful Haunted House for Halloween. BBF has been selected to be the lead site for an Illinois Governor's initiative to stop neighborhood violence. And upstairs in YouthLAB, where I spend most of my time, our apprenticeships are in full swing.

This fall, BBF is offering six paid apprenticeships that youth can participate in. Half of our apprenticeships are through a program called After School Matters, which was started by soon-to-be-out-of-office Mayor Daley's wife; the other three are run on the same model, but solely through BBF. Currently, we offer apprenticeships in film design, beginning tap dance, advanced tap dance, literary magazines, bike repair, and knitting. I teach the knitting class.

11 high schoolers (2 boys, 9 girls) and myself meet twice a week to learn how to knit. I've been knitting off and on since around age nine; it really picked up my freshman year of college, however. I've been able to use the skills I developed with this hobby to teach my high schoolers a wide variety of skills. None of them had ever knit before, and the first few sessions were a struggle, especially as I attempted to spread one of me, giving individualized, hands-on instruction, across an entire classroom. We're now in the final month, and the improvement is absolutely amazing. Every student has finished their first project (a "dishcloth") and has moved on to their choice of a second - a hat, a scarf, or a pair of wristwarmers. They chose their own yarn, worked with me to choose the correct pair of needles, and are working on learning to read patterns and pay attention to detail. The improvement is truly astounding, but what strikes me most is their eagerness not only to learn but also to teach.

As I mentioned, the kids get paid for participating in this program. I assumed that, as high schoolers, they'd be primarily interested in the money, not the skill - but of course, I was wrong. I frequently have students coming into my office to sit and knit outside of class time, and about half of them knit through the breaks they are given. Many have asked me for needles so they can practice at home. I tend to play a movie or the radio to provide some background noise, yet I never have any problems with keep the kids on task, and they knit while they talk or watch or listen. More than that, they are eager to help each other. When I am teaching a new skill, I often have kids who already know it asking to do the teaching. Some of them have begun recognizing where mistakes have been made in each others knitting, and helping to correct them. Even with the most complicated projects, when one student calls my name, asking for help, another often has solved the problem before I get there. I had high hopes for my knitting class, but I expected to only be teaching the physical skill of knitting. Turns out, I'm teaching a lot more than that, without even trying.

Tigers, Tigers Burning bright

I own a ridiculous amount of Princeton paraphernalia. Between four years of p-rades, countless studybreaks and res college events, and the free cross country team gear, I could probably survive for a frighteningly long time wearing only orange and black. This means that when I go running, I'm more often than not wearing something that identifies my affiliation with Princeton. I often see other people in Princeton gear, and sometimes we make eye contact and I give a knowing smile.

When I run before work, I'm typically in a bit of a haze. At the start of my run, the sun isn't up and most of my brain is still asleep, too. Today, right as I turned into central park, I caught up to a man running ahead of me. He looked pretty goofy with his thin white hair sticking out of his wool hat with a tassel on top. He was wearing a Princeton sweatshirt. I was wearing a Princeton Cross Country vest. As I pulled even with him, he startled me by yelling,

"Princeton! Class of '59!"

I turned and yelled back "class of '10!".

He yelled after me "Go tigers!"

If only I'd stopped to give him a locomotive...next time!

Trip to Episcopal HS

My mentor was sweet enough to invite me over to her home at Episcopal HS for dinner before Thanksgiving. Since I am without a car, I thought it might be fun to hop on my bike and make an adventure of it. Well, it was definitely an adventure. Apparently not all bike paths have lights - go figure, and it is much easier to follow directions when there are actual signs. It was a ton of fun though, and I'm so happy I did it. The mentoring program is so fun! She even gave me cake, and made me healthy cranberry, carrot bread.

Work Friends

Lately I've just been feeling really thankful for my work friends! I work with a great group of people who are upbeat, warm, hilarious, and smart. Yesterday I had a stressful morning in the Bronx (long story). On my way back on the subway, I sent my friends (a group of nurses and social workers) a message describing my adventures. They met me outside the office, and we went to Chipotle for lunch, one of our favorite destinations. (I highly recommend the chipotle-flavored Tabasco sauce!) After chatting with them, I instantly felt so much better. It's not just the occasional lunch outing and vent session that makes me appreciate them, though. Throughout the day, we pop into each other's offices just to chat and check on each other. We're even doing a little holiday gift swap. I am so thankful that I work with people who can make me laugh even in the most stressful situations!

Unexpected Mini-Break

For the first time in a long while, Idil and I realized this morning that we have nothing to do, no ongoing projects to tackle! For the past couple of months, we had been busy doing time studies, phone reports, running a- mini-farmer’s market, helping patients get insurance, shepherding the Ob/Gyn department in the switch from paper charts to electronic medical record keeping, the list goes on. As we finished the tail end on our mini-projects list (preparing documents for the Residents that list their patients), we realized that for this day at least, we have nothing to do.

Our next project coming up promises to be exciting. From the move to a bigger building to the expansion of the patient population, the health center is constantly expanding. We have been hiring new doctors to help accommodate the rising demand for appointments. The trickle down effect is that staffing also needs to increase to keep up with the patients coming to see the new providers. One solution to the staffing demand would be to shuffle current staff around. On Monday Idil and I will be receiving schedules for training to become medical assistants. After the training, part of our duties would be to spend about a day each week helping process patients in one of the three departments (adult medicine, peds, ob/gyn). I am especially looking forward to this experience because not only will we be directly helping out the departments, we finally get to interact face-to-face with patients.

We are savoring this day of mini-rest by posting to the blog, bugging our office mate to help her with some of her workload, and taking a deep breath before diving into the next new thing.

Work work work

December has arrived and with it more and more work! As Foundations approaches the February Beyond School Hours conference (in Atlanta, GA), much of my work is going to be centered around preparing for that. The department I'm working in actually uses the conference as a way to get staff together from the eight "sites" we work with across the country (I'm sure you ALL remember my first post that we work to help get kids reading on grade level by grade 3). So far, all I know is that I have to make posters and help register people, I think, and make sure the technology works and things run smoothly. I have no real planning experience (and I've thrown about three parties in my life) so it's a bit scary, but I'm eager to learn.

I'm not a hugely social person (as evidenced by my lack of party throwing), but I can't wait to meet all of the people I've only so far heard over the phone. We have conference calls all of the time, so I have these mental pictures of various principals, literacy coaches, and others working in schools and districts.

I don't know how much other PP55 fellows have had to deal with commuting, but commuting has turned from totally fine to totally terrible in the span of the 4ish months I've been working. In July and August, driving home at 5:30 wasn't bad--it was as if I had found the "sweet spot" in the span of rush hour and I always got home at around 6:10. Labor Day came around and everyone decided to start working again (teachers?) which destroyed my morning commute and forced me to start leaving 10 minutes earlier (which is devastating to someone who savors every minute of sleep in the morning). But the moment daylight saving(s) time ended, it became pitch black at 5:30. This means everyone drives more slowly and/or more anxiously, and every moment on parts of my drive is like an accident waiting and wanting to happen. Now I get home at around 6:30.

Okay I'm complaining way too much about it, but I had to get it out. It also makes me feel super adult to talk about commuting. Over Thanksgiving I didn't sit at the kids table and I totally talked about my commute with my aunts and uncles. All I need now is a husband and kids (HA).

I should mention that in November I was able to go into Philadelphia to the library at their Regional Foundation Center, with my PP55 mentor. So many great free resources at the library! As Arthur Read says/sings, "Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card!" We then ate at Di Bruno Bros. which may have had the best cheeseburger I've ever tasted.

Tomorrow I'm going into the city again to learn how nonprofits survive in a recession (because seriously, I'm amazed at how well we've done).

The chemical team

When I first started my position in July I was one of the two members of the health department at EDF and the other one was my boss. In early September we welcomed another member of the team and the whole dynamic has changed. Our work has become more team-oriented and it occurred to me that, in the case of adding another colleague, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts (a common phrase about biological organisms!) It is also immensely helpful for me because my new-ish coworker, Jennifer, is in a superb position to give me advice. She recently received her PhD in microbiology before spending a year on capital hill as a AAAS fellow. We share an interesting perspective on the role of science outside of the research world and struggle with many of the same questions, even though she is in the next phase of her career. My discussions with her are always very thought-provoking and, although I can't say I've reached any sort of conclusions yet, I'm gathering a ton of information on different ways to mesh science and policy. She recently brought me along to a dinner for Scientific Women Against Toxics (SWAT - ha!), which I knew I really must go to even though I had just returned from an exhausting trip. I met quite a few interesting people in a relaxed environment and I am eager to attend the next meet-up.

I would also like to echo other fellows' sentiments about the helpfulness of the Project 55 network. The professional development opportunities are much appreciated and my contact with other fellows and alums has introduced me to a lot of great opportunities in DC. Even though I'm in DC for two years, it already seems to be going by too quickly!

Just a random comment in case anyone is interested - apparently the National Zoo has a fantastic light display over the holidays AND it's free this year!
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/Celebrations/zoolights/default.cfm

Back to It

Phew! It's been awhile. I’ve been a bit delinquent with blogging recently. Well, not blogging generally, but blogging here. My hands have been rather full with maintaining my organizations’ blog and social media footprint, in addition to various other responsibilities.

So, while the IIC blog is not exactly a reflection on my experience as a fellow, it is a window into it! If it sounds like I’m about to justify killing two birds with one stone…well…I promise a more personal post soon! For now, http://getgiving.wordpress.com/

Corporate Social Responsibility is the focus of the current series of posts, which were inspired by an article that ran last August in The Wall Street Journal. The article, by Dr. Aneel Karnani of University of Michigan, caused quite a stir in the nonprofit blogosphere.

As a social enterprise offering both corporations and individuals an innovative new philanthropic tool, IIC is naturally interested in the debate around corporate social responsibility. So come on over, and add your thoughts to the conversation!

Life at CEP

Hello everyone!

Now that the Forum is over, things have definitely calmed down around CEP.  We had a whirlwind week in San Francisco hosting our 17th National Forum on Character Education, and it was a blast. More than 600 teachers, counselors, administrators, researchers, and community leaders attended the conference and, though I didn’t get much sleep, I must say that it was wonderful to meet tons of new people and learn more about the character ed. movement.



Most of November at CEP was spent doing Forum follow-up work, including conducting post-event feedback surveys and figuring out bills from several tours and the conference hotel.


Now that December is upon us, it’s already time to start planning the 2011 Forum! We’ve started looking into possible keynote speakers and have begun arranging next year’s schedule.  Leif's been contacting exhibitors who are already interested in exhibiting at the next Forum. 


In other CEP news, all National School of Character (NSOC) applications are due today, so things will soon get busy as we begin selecting our 2011 NSOCs!


Hope everyone else is having a wonderful fellowship year!