Civic Engagement 2

I think we made some progress during our meeting; we actually somewhat narrowed down our ideas a lot more quickly than I was expecting. I really like the concept of doing something with children and elderly people. I think the contrast and varying experiences we will have through those two outlets will lend itself very well to our specific topic. While I am much more partial to a whole group project, I think that this could allow enough interaction within the group to be effective. I am concerned about the number of people who seemed opposed to the idea of working with elderly people. Though I have some experience with this type of interaction and am comfortable with it, I completely understand others’ unease. I think that it’s reasonable to expect to have to stretch ourselves a bit, but if the project becomes something that some of the members dread then I think it kind of defeats the purpose.

Honestly, though I like the idea of the split project, I really would prefer to do something as a group. Like I said during our meeting, I think the more think we spread ourselves the less effective we’ll be. For instance, if we start our civic engagement project as one group, and then as we get more involved in it we realize there are one or two ways within this one project that we can split, we’ll have that option. On the other hand, if we have only 5 or 6 people working on a project and we think of two specific ways we want to go within that project, it would be a lot less likely to work out. That sounds pretty confusing, I hope I explained that well enough.

As far as our actual ideas for the project, I really, really like the concept of a sports program for kids. There is myriad research that shows how beneficial physical activity is for children. (As a matter of fact, I’m doing a research project loosely based on that concept!!) Not only does it improve self-confidence, but it even affects things such as on-task behavior, academic achievement, and involvement in other extra-curriculars. Some people expressed concern in the meeting that they don’t have any expertise in any sports, but I don’t think we necessarily need to teach “sports” as much as just a combination of physical activity, competition, etc. We can all play nuecum!!

As most of you are, I’m also a bit hesitant to commit to something on a weekly basis. While I’m not sure what else we should do instead, I think we would be better off aiming for something less demanding so that we aren’t burned out after a semester. I’m not sure who brought it up, but I liked the idea of forming groups of 3-4 and just making sure one of the groups was at the site once a week. (I forgot to mention, this is all assuming that we work through an already-established program, which I think is going to be our best bet.) If we have 3 groups then we’ll each be going to the site once every three weeks, which I think is more than reasonable. In addition to this, I think we could do a Saturday event once or twice a semester. This could be the “fundraising” aspect of the project, if we wanted to attempt that.