Location: Open Door Shelter
Date: Monday, July 01, 2013; 6:45-8:30 pm
There have been times when I have
struggled to be at projects on time, often rushing at the last minute. Today, on the contrary, I arrived with plenty
of time to spare - at 6 pm in fact. I
settled down and slowly others started to filter in starting with Claire. The volunteers for this evening were
Lindsey, Fahad, Laura, Matt and Aly – whom I knew. As we waited, Claire told everyone that I
would be leading the project in her absence for 3 sessions, starting in
August. Since I consider Claire to be
one of the top Chicago Cares leaders, it would be a challenge to fill her big
shoes. She mentioned that for this
evening’s session, we would be doing 3 main things – ‘Goal Setting’, ‘Conflict
Resolution’ and finally ‘Introducing
Yourself’. It appeared to be a solid
agenda.
 |
| Yeah, none of us could swim! |
We went upstairs and I could not
spot my buddy Kallie. I did however see
Sylvia and she mentioned that she had managed to get 3 job interviews,
including one in TV. I said that was
fantastic and would take her one step closer to her goal of being a
journalist. Claire gathered us around
the table and after the introductions mentioned that our ice breaker game for
today would include us breaking out into smaller groups and finding out 10
things that you had in common. This was
an excellent idea to get us all conversing with the youth and would lead them
to open up to us during the coaching session.
I was in a group with Lindsey and 2 residents – Seina and Idelle. I started by asking Seina if we should all
discuss our favorite food. She said that
it would be difficult for all of us to agree on that, so we started by asking
if anyone were from Chicago. None of us were – that’s one. We went through the other
things that we had in common such as, all have gmail account, all are foodies and like
chocolate, all are night owls instead of early birds, none of us have pets and
the best one – none of us could swim. In
today’s day and age that is very rare for a group of 4 and so we were quite
excited about that. I was pleased to see
the interaction in our group and Seina and Idelle had been totally
engaged. As the various groups shared
their discussions, it was apparent that people had put some effort in coming up
with some unique commonalities and once again, kudos to Claire for her ice
breaker idea.
We then separated in a different
group to start our coaching session and I was with Peter and Sonia, who
also had her 10 month old daughter with her. I asked them both if they had a particular
career in mind and Sonia said that she wants to become a police officer and Peter said that he wants to be a doctor. With
this we were ready for setting our goals.
The first thing I asked is why they wanted to be what they had
said. Peter said that he likes to write
poetry and also science and math. He
said that he was especially good in biology and knew his dissections and other
things like layers of the skin. I said
if he was really interested in this stuff, then he should totally go for
it. I for one hate the sight of blood
and so had never wanted to be a doctor…well the medical one anyways. He said that people have been telling him
that he should be a nurse rather than a doctor because of his present
circumstances. I said that circumstances
change and he should never give up on what he wants to do and be. Having said that, I mentioned that as he
works towards this goal, he should have something else to fall back on. I asked him what his five year goal was and
he acknowledged that he would still be studying. This was extremely refreshing to hear since
this told me that he knew the timeframe to becoming a doctor and that it wasn’t
something he could do in a few years. I
then turned my attention to Sonia, who had said that she wanted to be a
police officer. I asked what her
motivation was and she said that she wants to change the way things are
today. She wants not just to go after
criminals; she wants to understand them - their behavior. I said that perhaps she should be a
detective. She said that she would first
start as an officer. I asked her to describe
her weakness and she said that she does not tolerate stupidity. I said that if this was asked in an interview,
frame it as, “I have high expectations of
others whom I think should be operate at high standards”. I saw Kallie nearby and went to say
hello. She mentioned that she had a job
at the Mayor’s office and thus would be leaving soon. While this is great for her, I would
miss my repartee with her moving forward.
The next topic was ‘Conflict Resolution’ and Claire had
given us a questionnaire with 9 questions that dealt with different
situations. We all decided to go through
them and discuss our answers, including mine.
Peter talked about being a better man.
He said that all minor conflicts can be resolved as long as they are not
harming the team. But if they were, then
it was up to us to bring it to our Manager’s attention. Then we talked about making mistakes and I
said that making mistakes is fine as long as you learn from them and not cover
up. The three of us went through a case
study on conflict resolution and I was glad to see them so engaged. Finally, we talked about how one should introduce
oneself at an interview. It is critical
that you make an immediate impression with the interviewer and so the first few
minutes could potentially make-or-break a candidates chances. I told them to give me their “elevator speech”. Sonia started with her age and birthday and
I said that she may want to skip that since this was a professional interview
and not a casual after-hour’s party.
Peter said that he always wanted to be a cardiologist since he himself
has a big heart. I loved this response
since he had not only communicated his interest, he had done so using humor and
had put the interviewer at ease. I then
asked them both to write down their elevator speech in the form that Claire had
provided.
Our time was almost up and people
were wrapping-up. I saw that Laura was
dancing while listening to something and then I learned that it was a song written by
a resident who was in her group! All the
volunteers had enjoyed themselves and said so as I took a train ride back with
Fahad and Lindsey. Tonight’s session was
another success for both, the youth and us. It is like chipping away at something to get to the core. But if you do it consistently enough, you will eventually get there.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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