Hi everyone: I hope you like the new SJLA 2008 blog that Ken Durbin created for your class. Each month, you'll be able to see videos, pictures, students comments, and things that I write as well. You can react to any of it, and I hope that you'll visit the blog frequently.
My question for this month is: Tell me about one or two things you learned on Monday that you took away from the day, that you'll use going forward. What did you pick up that you thought was most important?
I'd like to have your answer by Friday, if possible.
I hope you'll bookmark the blog link so that you can check it often.
Have a great holiday, and thanks for being part of SJLA 2008.
Rick
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
December Class - InnVision/Goodwill
What can I do about homelessness? What do I do when I meet a homeless person on the street? Where do the homeless come from? In their December class the students of the San Jose Leadership Academy asked these questions and many more as they visited two of the shelters in the InnVision network. InnVision is an organization that "is dedicated to empowering homeless and at-risk families and individuals in finding the way home! accomplish this by offering various levels of housing and day programs in a safe and supportive environment that promotes self-worth and independent living."
The day started off in the Montgomery Street Inn where the students heard from many InnVision staff members and toured the facility. The Montgomery Street Inn is a facility that provides homeless men emergency shelter in a dorm room setting while also providing computer services and links to vocational and employment services. The students then moved to the Julian Street Inn. This facility is the only facility in Santa Clara County that provides emergency shelter to clients diagnosed with a mentally illness. Clients at the Julian Street Inn receive one-on-one counseling and support as well as participating in support groups. The groups are designed to help clients increase their coping skills, maintain sobriety, and develop resources to help them maintain independence. The Julian Street clients were gracious enough to sit down together with the Leadership Academy students and have a conversation about their personal experiences with homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness and recovery. Afterward we asked some of the students their impressions of what this encounter meant to them.
In the afternoon the Academy switched gears and headed to Goodwill of Silicon Valley. Though many of our students and staff had heard of Goodwill and some even professed to have shopped there (the author's mother dressed him in Goodwill couture until his early teens), few knew Goodwill's actual mission - to assist people with disabilities or other barriers to employment to achieve their highest potential by providing a broad range of vocational, occupational and education services. After an overview of Goodwill of Silicon Valley from Trish Dorsey, the managing director of Goodwill's Institute for Career Development, the students were given a tour of the facility and participated in some of the warehouse activities including sorting and packaging marker pins and sorting donated shoes destined for, among other places, Northern Africa.
The day started off in the Montgomery Street Inn where the students heard from many InnVision staff members and toured the facility. The Montgomery Street Inn is a facility that provides homeless men emergency shelter in a dorm room setting while also providing computer services and links to vocational and employment services. The students then moved to the Julian Street Inn. This facility is the only facility in Santa Clara County that provides emergency shelter to clients diagnosed with a mentally illness. Clients at the Julian Street Inn receive one-on-one counseling and support as well as participating in support groups. The groups are designed to help clients increase their coping skills, maintain sobriety, and develop resources to help them maintain independence. The Julian Street clients were gracious enough to sit down together with the Leadership Academy students and have a conversation about their personal experiences with homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness and recovery. Afterward we asked some of the students their impressions of what this encounter meant to them.
In the afternoon the Academy switched gears and headed to Goodwill of Silicon Valley. Though many of our students and staff had heard of Goodwill and some even professed to have shopped there (the author's mother dressed him in Goodwill couture until his early teens), few knew Goodwill's actual mission - to assist people with disabilities or other barriers to employment to achieve their highest potential by providing a broad range of vocational, occupational and education services. After an overview of Goodwill of Silicon Valley from Trish Dorsey, the managing director of Goodwill's Institute for Career Development, the students were given a tour of the facility and participated in some of the warehouse activities including sorting and packaging marker pins and sorting donated shoes destined for, among other places, Northern Africa.
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