Heat wave in Dayton

Yesterday I had my second training at the Wesley Community Center in Dayton. As I exited the freeway and neared my destination, I noticed a majority of the storefronts lining the streets were empty. Weeds and overgrowth invaded parking lots, climbed up building walls, and engulfed the abandoned homes; trash littered the gutters. But I wasn't necessarily suprised at this sight. My best friend Lisa, a former summer VISTA from this same area, and had told me about the deterioration of this neighborhood and its reputation among many people as a "bad part of town." She told me that many people tend to automatically attribute all violence and crime to people in poverty because they fear what they do not know. (Makes sense.) So I should point out that, like Lisa, I never really felt unsafe during my time in the neighborhood. Instead of feeling scared, I felt...sad, for lack of a better word, to witness a city dying from the inside out.

Unlike the surrounding empty buildings, though, the Wesley Community Center was bustling with activity. Here's a picture of the outside:

Once inside, I navigated the narrow hallways to the computer lab containing 7 desktop computers. The room itself was small, and despite a fan circulating on high speed, the room was also rather warm.

My class consisted of 6 people from 3 different organizations, with half of the counselors taking the class for a refresher after a couple years of inactivity. Even though I had a small, manageable class, as soon as the last counselor walked out the door, I suddenly felt like I had been holding my breath for six hours and I'd finally been able to exhale. These trainings are from 9-4pm with a one hour lunch--so, essentially I am "on" for 6 hours with the occasional 5-minute break sprinkled in for a quick drink of water or restroom visit. I try my best to maintain a high level of energy throughout the day so that I can kindly troubleshoot malfunctioning computers or gently diffuse critical, nit-picky questions over the extensive material. It's a lot of information to work into a dynamic, engaging presentation, but I'm forming my own style. Nevertheless, by the end of the day, my voice--and my brain--are just exhausted.

Of course, it's a good kind of exhaustion. I feel good knowing that I have given these counselors the tools to better serve their communities, and I am hopeful that these "baby birds," as I like to think of them, will be alright flying solo. In reviewing the course evaluations, 8 of the 11 counselors I have trained so far indicated they felt "very prepared" to assist clients with their benefits applications using the Benefit Bank. The remaining 3 felt "somewhat prepared," and that is to be expected. Overall, the remarks were positive, with only a few complaints popping up about the temperature of the room, or boredom during various sections of the training. Meredith and I have discussed modifying the training by having the counselors role-play the first practice scenario in partner teams, (much like the second scenario's set-up) to curb frustration. It's going to be a bit of a trial and error process, and with more and more trainings, I will find my rhythym and best practices for training.

After the training I made a quick drive to Lisa's house, and ended up staying 3 and a half hours before making the journey home! The day ended with good food, good conversation, and a very good friend. It was a good day.