Piece By Piece Internship Overview: Austin Smith

         

When I started as fresh new intern with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), I originally thought it would be different than what I’ve experienced. I thought I was going to be filing papers and etc., like on television. Soon I realized I was in the wrong place. Not to say I entered the wrong building but to say that I entered a place where they did’nt push papers, but instead they went out into the community to make a difference within that community. I realized in this internship that you have to be outgoing and be able to find your voice. I was the quiet guy that sat in the corner and didn’t say much. I could not be that guy in this internship! I learned that you have to realize that you have a voice and the power to make a difference within your community.

I believe I have grown as a person throughout this semester as an intern. I intend to take what I learned here and incorporate it into my future life. If you asked me,“ what was one thing that I learned here?” I would tell you that I learned to take action to change things now, instead of not caring. I’ve learned that if you dismiss something because it doesn’t relate to you, it can still happen to you. As a person I’ve grown to express myself and to become more analytical. At first I did'nt want to speak much. I liked to stay to myself and not talk to many people. Now I’m opening up more with my peers.

 I’ve become more understanding with situations that I have never dealt with. I always felt that if the issue didn’t pertain to me, I didn’t have to concern myself with it. Overtime I’ve realized that it can happen to me one day. So why shouldn’t I make it an important issue to handle before it happens to me?  I also see that being involved is beneficial to my education and safety in the streets. At first I didn’t agree with being nonviolent but in time I have swayed more towards its path. I still feel that if I need to stand up for myself, I will, even if it results in violence. Now bear with me, I try hard to maintain a focus of peace, but it is hard to remain nonviolent. I feel though that I’m working better with achieving the goal of being a nonviolent peace leader. We deal with many issues like this one that I have mentioned. From promoting nonviolence and peace to working with communities and helping them be aware of what’s going on. We’ve been doing many events and through each event I’ve found that my opinion does matter, no matter how much I don’t think it does. Honestly through all the work that we do with other organizations, I feel that we uphold what we say we’re going to do within the community. For example, when we work within the 7^th and 9^th Ward, we make sure that the kids enjoy themselves but as someone who lives in the 9 Ward I would want to see more good things being done in my area.  From my time in this internship I’ve noticed that AFSC is pretty much on the level that they say they’re on. AFSC does a good job promoting their nonviolence policies among young people by doing these events.

We worked so hard learning to make a difference in our communities that we attended multiple training meetings. One of the meetings was The People’s Institute’s Undoing Racism training. At the training, we spoke about different issues within the community and how they related to racism around us. We also talked about different issues that happened to us and how they related to racial discrimination.

Another mandatory meeting for training was the Cultural Organizing Workshop. This meeting was intended for us to team up with different organizations in a closed space and discuss the issues we dealt with and better ways to help get more people involved in cultural organizing.

One community issue that I would like to get involved with would be to help clean up the streets. The people who work to fix streets and make the communities look nice don’t really focus on smaller areas. There are many places that get over looked and need to be landscaped and cleaned. I want to help make these eye sores go away. The people who live in these areas don’t want to see them, and neither do I. That’s what I would like to help with outside of this internship.

Austin Smith Intern PowerPoint Portfolio

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rc7cps3vp3ulz1k/AFSC%20A1%20PP%20Portfolio.pptx?v=0rc-g

Peace and Justice Internship Overview:Isaiah Jones

While at the internship I have learned about a diverse array of subjects and delved deeper into them challenging my personal beliefs and pushing me to expand my understandings. In particular some of the points I have contemplated are nonviolence, cultural organizing, undoing racism, the mission statement of AFSC and issues in the community that I have passion to change.


As a person I find myself inclined to straying away from acts of physical violence but I am aware that I have participated in verbal sparring that can be equally if not more harmful depending on your perspective. I have worked on this and I find that reigning in the lashing out in defense is a hard battle, but in the end it is worth it to keep the peace and find a more positive solution to the situation. For those who are more body oriented I can only imagine that this task is monumental as well. Because of both of these lenses I cannot accept the opinion that nonviolence is anything less than a dedicated courageous lifestyle. It is something that we incorporate into our lives and work on every day, a continuous meditation to be powerful and find the higher path.  While walking down this road I have been into the community and learned to organize from within.


By organizing within I mean that I have had to learn what all effective servants know: the community already knows what it needs and wants. Under this reality the challenge is not how you personally can change everything, but more of an exchange between all those involved to shape the power already there to do what you want it to do. Your job is to be so productive that you are not needed in the position that you arrived in. If you are not performing to that standard then re-evaluation is indeed necessary. In my own life this has shown up as having to acknowledge all of my multiple identities and how those energies individually and collectively effect and interact with all the identities of others in the spaces that I enter, work in and exit. One door that I wish I could leave through and close firmly is racism.

Sadly we live in a country, even a world, where a great enemy of human worth exists. Racism is an oppressive force purposely institutionalized to divide people in order to maintain the status quo.  On top of its own sickening qualities, it is further exacerbated by the way that all oppression is intersectional thereby multiplying its power every time a new characteristic is introduced into the fray (gender, sex, sexuality, class, etc…). The best way to undo this unfortunate situation is to have real conversations even when things get uncomfortable so as to find our authentic selves and free us from this prison. Liberation would further empower the uplifting spirit of love over hate and heal us of these festering wounds within our minds, bodies and souls. Luckily for me I work in an environment that has a powerful mission, vision and values that it strives towards.


The views of the American Friends Service Committee are something that I am entirely grateful for and privileged to be surrounded by. I have found them to be the practical interpretation of faith, positivity and love working for social change that I resonate with acutely. I am fortunate to have been introduced to them so young and I can even say that because of them and the organization that stands upon them that I am a better person and gained a clearer idea of what I want to do with my life. I understand these tenets as acknowledging the humanity of all and actively engaging to fight against the injustices preventing a total realization of potential and denying people’s legitimacy for dignity, respect, compassion and more. But when one is fortunate more is asked of them and because of that I was also asked to ponder issues that I personally care about in the community.

As a person who uses poetry as a way to creatively express myself, I have found that literacy is very important to me. How we read, write and speak are all connected and all play roles in shaping how we construct reality and relate to the world around us. But for me this is not a matter of prioritizing a specific way of engagement over another and more an opportunity to embrace a fuller palate than the one that we are currently working with. In the majority of the current educational system we only acknowledge the presence of one manifestation of intelligence and in that forceful denial of multiplicity we limit our power. According to Howard Gardner there are many ways to be intelligent. In fact there are, if not more, at least eight manifestations (linguistic, naturalist, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical mathematical, musical and visual). And that is not to say that these forms are exclusive as persons may have more than one or a combination of any and all. However, what is popularized as legitimate seems to primarily be logical mathematical with narrow adaption from linguistic to provide for the memorization of information. This limited perspective is problematic because not everyone is the same and therefore not everyone learns the same. For example, in New Orleans there is a large amount of people who are musically brilliant and across the board artistically inclined and magnificent. But because they do not fit into the box they are told adverse messages which are harmful. So we must deconstruct these messages from the core and change the way that we engage people so as to foster growth in all of us.

Check out my visual aide to go with this story
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BAqF3eFFwkvKywgzz71XDmKD9h54TijipeFOQXV4hOg/edit?usp=sharing

Also check out my video to you called "My Acceptance Poem"
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_SA6uR1YJvhdWVjaEtiVWFXSXM/edit?usp=sharing

Isaiah Jones

Sampson Park TURNT UP Reflection: Asia-Vinae

There we were

standing in the middle of the field staring at the children

it

is

about

to

go

down

We were at Sampson Park for three reasons, inform the kids about the school closures, inform them of Stop & Frisk, and do it all while having fun. A lot of people aren’t aware that New Orleans currently uses a social profiling tool called Stop & Frisk. Stop & Frisk is what New Orleans Chief of Police calls “a valuable law enforcement tool” which allows police officers to stop “suspicious” civilians whom fit the profile of someone that “looks” like they might break the law. When asked to define the term suspicious, he was unable to do so. People also often assume that school closures are normal and think they don’t have the right to object or fight for their schools to stay open. We brainstormed what kind of activities we could plan in order to teach them about the issues without leaving them bored. We used the childhood game “Man Overboard” as an example of Stop & Frisk. I served as one of the friskers and had to stand like monkey in the middle in order to try and catch the “suspicious” kids. It was pretty fun as they ran for whatever stereotype they related to. My most memorable moment of the day was my end of the event recap when I got to talk to the kids about Stop & Frisk. The day was definitely a success.

Asia-Vinae Palmer

Sampson Park Turnt Up Reflection- Breial

So last Saturday AFSC hosted a major event at Sampson Park called “Sampson Park Turnt Up: True, Uplifting, Real Neighbors with Talent Using Positivity” and it was amazing.  Essentially, it was an event to bring the community up to speed about some issues in both our schools and our law enforcement.  School closure is a local movement that is beginning to spread across the United States to other places such as Chicago. But on the other hand we have Stop-N-Frisk,  a law in New Orleans, that gives law enforcement officers the right to “stop and frisk” anyone who appears to be “suspicious.” However, AFSC again managed to host an amazing and uplifting event to inform NOLA’s youth.

In this event my role, to me, was to be a facilitator. We created several different activities teaching the youth about their rights when faced with the challenges of a school closing or being stopped and frisked. One of the games consisted of “Stop-N-Frisk Man Overboard.” While the youth were on “base” we called out different stereotypes that could easily fit them but could also, potentially, get them stopped by the police. If the youth fit the stereotype, they were to run in hopes that they would reach the other side of the field (base) without being caught by the police. Ultimately this taught them the different characteristics of what a suspect looks like. But it also gave them some insight as to how Stop-N-Frisk is perceived in the community. Community members are constantly running day in and day out to base (home) hoping they won’t be caught for their individuality.

To discuss my experiences in one word, I’d say the event was rejuvenating. I really enjoyed playing with and teaching the youth. They are so young and energy filled but they truly have great minds for understanding the importance of change and social justice. So to sum it all up, I had fun. I really did.

-BMK

Sampson Park Turnt Up

So last Saturday AFSC hosted a major event at Sampson Park called “Sampson Park Turnt Up: True, Uplifting, Real Neighbors with Talent Using Positivity” and it was amazing.  Essentially, it was an event to bring the community up to speed about some issues in both our schools and our law enforcement.  School closure is a local movement that is beginning to spread across the United States to other places such as Chicago. But on the other hand we have Stop-N-Frisk,  a law in New Orleans, that gives law enforcement officers the right to “stop and frisk” anyone who appears to be “suspicious.” However, AFSC again managed to host an amazing and uplifting event to inform NOLA’s youth.

In this event my role, to me, was to be a facilitator. We created several different activities teaching the youth about their rights when faced with the challenges of a school closing or being stopped and frisked. One of the games consisted of “Stop-N-Frisk Man Overboard.” While the youth were on “base” we called out different stereotypes that could easily fit them but could also, potentially, get them stopped by the police. If the youth fit the stereotype, they were to run in hopes that they would reach the other side of the field (base) without being caught by the police. Ultimately this taught them the different characteristics of what a suspect looks like. But it also gave them some insight as to how Stop-N-Frisk is perceived in the community. Community members are constantly running day in and day out to base (home) hoping they won’t be caught for their individuality.

To discuss my experiences in one word, I’d say the event was rejuvenating. I really enjoyed playing with and teaching the youth. They are so young and energy filled but they truly have great minds for understanding the importance of change and social justice. So to sum it all up, I had fun. I really did.

Sampson Park Turnt Up Reflection- Breial

So last Saturday AFSC hosted a major event at Sampson Park called “Sampson Park Turnt Up: True, Uplifting, Real Neighbors with Talent Using Positivity” and it was amazing.  Essentially, it was an event to bring the community up to speed about some issues in both our schools and our law enforcement.  School closure is a local movement that is beginning to spread across the United States to other places such as Chicago. But on the other hand we have Stop-N-Frisk,  a law in New Orleans, that gives law enforcement officers the right to “stop and frisk” anyone who appears to be “suspicious.” However, AFSC again managed to host an amazing and uplifting event to inform NOLA’s youth.

In this event my role, to me, was to be a facilitator. We created several different activities teaching the youth about their rights when faced with the challenges of a school closing or being stopped and frisked. One of the games consisted of “Stop-N-Frisk Man Overboard.” While the youth were on “base” we called out different stereotypes that could easily fit them but could also, potentially, get them stopped by the police. If the youth fit the stereotype, they were to run in hopes that they would reach the other side of the field (base) without being caught by the police. Ultimately this taught them the different characteristics of what a suspect looks like. But it also gave them some insight as to how Stop-N-Frisk is perceived in the community. Community members are constantly running day in and day out to base (home) hoping they won’t be caught for their individuality.

To discuss my experiences in one word, I’d say the event was rejuvenating. I really enjoyed playing with and teaching the youth. They are so young and energy filled but they truly have great minds for understanding the importance of change and social justice. So to sum it all up, I had fun. I really did.

-BMK

Sampson Park Turnt Up Reflection- Briana

(Youth writing ideas to create their "dream school.")



We held a youth event called Sampson Park Turnt Up: True, Uplifting, Real Neighborhoods with Talent Using Positivity on Saturday April 27, 2013 from 1-4pm. The “Turnt up” event was created to teach and inform youth while allowing space for self-expression in a peaceful way. The themes for our event were local stop-n-frisk policies and school closures. We chose these themes because they were making national news. However, the news reports were only talking about what was happening in New York and Chicago but these two topics have been a huge problem here in New Orleans for a long time. The New Orleans Police Department ( N.O.P.D)  has been using  stop-n-frisk policies on youth in the city daily and local youth didn’t even know that it was a law. I’m still trying to find out if it’s an active law here. We addressed the topic of school closures because they have been closing schools down like crazy here from 2006 until now, yet the closes we have gotten to national news coverage has been Oprah’s show about John Mac.

During the event I was responsible for making sure that the youth understood how the two topics were connected and how they deeply impacted the black community. I created a game called “The Change Starts Now” to show how the schools and the jails are the same but also let youth know that they have the power to change that. I also wrote a speech about the school to prison pipeline which is the pathway from the school system to jail. My speech brought out the real truth about the government and their plans to make money off the black community in new ways. 

This event was one of the smallest we had because it was also the first weekend of Jazz Fest, an international New Orleans music festival,  but we made the best of it. Peace by Piece worked great as a team. Everyone did a great job stepping up when needed and did their activities with good results. I liked the fact that my big brother Justice came to perform his “Better Tomorrow” song, right after leaving from performing at “Jazz Fest”. The kids were responding to him by saying the words along with him and this made the day even better.

Shout out to DJ Act Right! He kept us in a good mood with the music flow. I danced all day long.  The best part of the day was the “Man Overboard”game and “the 3 legged race.” It was nice to see the different aged kids interacting with each other in a peaceful and fun way.  They didn’t know it but they were learning to use team work to win so that they could see that there is power in numbers. This helped them see that if they used team/community work to reach their goals then they could change the way things were in their community. The thought of this new change coming just makes me smile from ear to ear. I know that there is still work to do but we are one step closer.  

Briana O’Neal