Last week flew by! I was a little worried after having the
extra days off for all of the Jewish holidays, but I always seem to find a way
to fill up the time, plus some! On Monday, I attended the October Café Europa
and got to meet even more survivors. I was able to introduce myself to the
group and hand out copies of the flyers for our town hall meetings that were
later in the week. I was also able to give out and collect surveys from
survivors who knew they would not be able to attend the town hall events. I also had the opportunity to talk to
survivors about how they are doing, what AmeriCorps is, and what I am hoping to
do with my time at JFS. It was an amazing opportunity to let the survivor
community know what I am up to, and personally, it meant a lot to me to be able
to sit and talk with them about anything, even if it was just about the weather
or the quality of the pool at the JCC. All of the survivors have been
incredibly welcoming and willing, if not eager, to talk to me and include me in
their conversations, etc.
On Wednesday, we had our first town hall meeting. The first
one was held at the Oak Park Jewish Community Center in Russian. I was a little
disappointed at first because we only had one survivor show up. In hindsight, I
am grateful that he came. We were able to not only find out his needs, but we
were able to learn about his story, his life before, during, and after the
Holocaust. It was a great opportunity for me to connect with a member of the
Russian speaking population. The
following town hall that afternoon, at the same location, but in English we had
a better turnout. We were able to get a lot of feedback from those that
attended, and I was able to collect more survey responses from those we had not
yet reached.
On Thursday, we held two more town hall meetings. The first meeting
was at JFS, and we had two in attendance. While two may not sound like a lot,
we received a ton of feedback from those two people. They were able to bring up
issues and needs that had not been brought up by the previous groups. Our later meeting was held at the Holocaust
Memorial Center and had a smaller than hoped for attendance. We did, however,
have several caregivers also attend, as well as someone from hospice that was
able to provide another dimension of feedback. All of the survivors and others
in attendance that I met with were able to provide critical feedback that will
help shape my direction over the rest of my year. One of the most touching
things to happen was when survivors and their children took the time to thank
me for what I am doing. I am excited to be able to help survivors in any way I
can, and it took me by surprise to be thanked for taking a year and trying to
make a difference.
Now that I am done with the town hall meetings, I will move
on to other parts of my outreach and needs assessment. I am currently looking
into more direct mailings of surveys to survivors to get more feedback, and we are
looking into setting up town hall events for the children and grandchildren of
survivors. My hope is that by talking to the children and grandchildren of
survivors separately I will be able to hear more feedback, and possibly gain a
different perspective on the needs of the survivor community. So far, we have
had over 52% response rate for our mailed survey! That is very exciting, and I
never expected to get such a great response rate. These are just a few of the
things I am looking at doing in the near future. I am more excited now for the
rest of the work I have the privilege of doing than I was when I started the
job.
Until next week...
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