community service

Well, the most challenging thing has been that this is not my community. Challenging in the way of being thrown right into the multitude of discussions and projects, initiatives, groups, subcommitees-- all dealing with the many issues of such a large community. In Ithaca "community" means well, just Ithaca. Here in NYC it seems to mean very broad and very specific things. In the same conversation mention could be made of one particular neighborhood (ie Park Slope) and the entirety of NYC. This is a big community!
What does this mean for my role? I'm at once responsible for understanding the diversity that exists between different areas of the city, while at the same time keeping in mind that NY policy people and organizational figures talk about the entire city.
In response to this, I find that I must become increasingly sensitive to the fact that there are many factors (besides even just those visible on the surface) to residents' lives. (ok, yes we talked this out quite a bit in our class, but lo and behold I finally am immersed in it).
I can only truly serve the community when I observe and internalize first. I traveled up to the Bronx yesterday to photograph the women who were taking a nutrition education class. I found that they opened up and became comfortable enought to just tell me about their lives because I was interested and asked questions without asserting a strong presence. Granted one of the women there seemed to be able to start a conversation with just about anyone, but still, I enjoyed putting aside my own biases and simply observing and becoming part of their world for a bit. Kind of like turning into the human sponge.
But giving back, putting forth, is much more than this. It is observing, internalizing, as well as reflecting and using all of this to approach people in a humane, thoughtful, and well organized way. My supervisor, Linda, gave me a book on going beyond "telling" to teaching. This involves asking open-ended questions and drawing out from others what they are good at and their strengths. This the way I will go about community service--from a perspective that I don't know everything about the population I'm working with...in fact I might not even know much. But if I listen and teach from a place of belief in everyone's innate ability to want to learn, I can serve and give back what I know with compassion