AmeriCorps – Serving Chicago

There are nearly 1,200 AmeriCorps members serving in Michigan – with thousands more serving across the country.  Please enjoy this week’s posting from a Michigander serving in Chicago.

My name is Dustin Petty and I am a proud Michigander that has temporarily relocated to the city of Oprah, deep dish pizza, and the Daley dynasty – Chicago.

A little over a year ago, I found myself – graduation in sight and an unpleasant amount of student loans in my future – completely unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. But I knew that I liked helping people, having been brought up to believe it was my responsibility to give back to my community (thanks Mom!). When I heard about AmeriCorps, I knew it was the right fit for me.

After a few months of applying and uncertainty, I was hired to serve as an AmeriCorps*VISTA in Chicago starting in November 2009. I would be working with the Chicago Public Schools’ programs Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS) and Chicago HOPES.

STLS is a federally-mandated program, providing support for homeless students. We will provide transportation to school, uniforms, backpacks, and supplies and advocate for the student’s right to enroll in school without documentation that can get lost when a family becomes homeless.

HOPES is an after-school non-profit initiative offering tutoring and enrichment in 26 of Chicago’s homeless shelters.

Now, with roughly one third of my term of service finished, I feel I can honestly speak intelligently about the homeless situation in Chicago and how it affects young people.

In Chicago, there are more than 13,000 homeless students registered with Chicago Public Schools – a number expected to surpass 15,000 by the end of the school year. Eighty-five percent are African American and approximately 10 percent are Hispanic.

My fellow VISTAs and I (there are 13 of us in total) spend the first half of our days in the office, answering phone calls and attempting to advocate for this population. In the afternoons, we leave our computers and cubicles behind to head to shelters. The shelters aren’t in nice and safe neighborhoods. Most of the schools our children go to are failing. But this is when we feel of use, coordinating the Chicago HOPES tutoring programs and working with these children.

At the shelter I coordinate, I can tell you something special about every single one of our students. There’s the fifth grader who will “borrow” crayons and markers from our supply closet because she wants to be an artist but can’t afford to buy the tools to practice on her own. There’s a third grader who will do anything to avoid reading in front of people because he is afraid of being made fun of when he doesn’t know the words. There’s the ninth grader who doesn’t really like children but when she’s done with her homework, she’ll read a story to one of the little kids.

The thing that amazes me, though, isn’t the vast differences between these children and the ones I’d grown up with. What surprises me is how similar they are to children who aren’t homeless. Yes, the majority of our students may be behind their classmates academically but they just want some attention, to have fun, and the opportunity to prove they can succeed. They just want what every child wants.

For the first few weeks, I found it hard to finish a session at the shelter only to take the train back to my nice, warm bed in my nice, safe neighborhood. It didn’t seem fair.

Once, after an exceptionally long day, I asked my supervisor, the manager of STLS who has also been a social worker for Chicago Public Schools for more than three decades, how she wasn’t always depressed. How knowing the situation of homeless children wasn’t getting any better, how knowing that we had our highest numbers ever didn’t leave her in a permanent funk.

She thought for a second and then assured me that she did, in fact, become depressed sometimes. But the successes – one of our students graduating high school, a family finally getting housing after spending months or years bouncing from shelter to shelter – far outweighed the failures of the system and our society to take care of those who need it most.

I love the service I’m doing and I feel good doing it. There are days I miss my friends, family, and the familiarness of Michigan but here, I am constantly inspired by my fellow VISTAs, supervisors, volunteers at the shelters and, of course, our students. Their youth makes idealism seem like possibility. And I know it may be corny to say that, but if you could witness it too, you’d say the same thing.

In the final analysis, I believe the service of the AmeriCorps*VISTA is to bring to realization a dream American presidents and civic leaders have had for generations: to bring about a great society. A society where no one goes without food, no one goes without shelter, and anyone who wants an education can get one.

We are getting things done for America and I’m proud to be a part of it.