Entry 2: 2+2 = Change

I remember when I was introduced to community-based work. It was during my Pre-Service Orientation for being an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer In Service To America). This was a week long training on community organizing, activism, and sustainability.

It was like I finally woke up and realized that what I wanted to do was bring people together to create community change.

Six years later, I am still awake and working for two non-profits that advocate for Youth Empowerment and School-Based Health Care.

Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) is an organization that hires young people, as staff, trains them and them provides them with opportunities to get out in the community and use their voice!

The North Carolina School Community Health Alliance is the statewide resource organization for school-based and school-linked health centers.

I think it is important to remember how we got to where we are. I feel that it helps me to recognize the lenses that I see the world through.

And if I understand how I see the world, maybe I can understand how the world sees me.

 

Then maybe, a few people working together to make their community a better place, regardless of age, race, or creed…

…could have a really big effect.