How To Serve Better

[Jeff Burger]

Looking for ideas on how to better serve the community.
Im in Boston, Charlestown to be specific. In the 1 mile square that makes up our section of Boston crime has gone up alot...rapes, robberies, attacks,break ins...I believe the stastic was up 300% in the last 2 years.
There is alot of drugs, heroin is making a big come back, its so cheap and available its a gateway drug some kids (being they start with it) that an Angel Dust.

We do free women's self defense classes a few times a year and We have 4 free class a week available for kids.
From time to time we get police officers to come in and talk the kids

Just wondering what you may do in your community or any suggestions you may have for us.


JMB

[jabonn]

Jeff,

I went down last week and became a volunteer firefighter. The small town I live in has a paid staff, but need the help of citizens fo the town. I will be trained just like the other paid staff and when the Lt. feels that I am ready, I can go and challange the state exam.

I think you are right on the money by getting invovled in the community. My thoughts are nothing but good can come of your involvement.

[Abbax8]

Another thought is to get involved in other youth groups that exist in your area. This could be the Boy Scouts, a church youth group, a local sport group. All you need is a sincere desire to help. Training is usually provided. A plus is that as people get to know and respect you, they may even venture into your MA class, and then you can continue to help others in that way.

Peace
Dennis

[fightgrrl]

We also like to get the kids in on the community efforts.
We just did 2 cleanup events, one at a school and one playground. The kids come and help and it is great to see them getting into the spirit of helping out in their community. It is also a great "commercial" for the program.
Next week we march in the Bunker Hill day Parade-a big event around here, and a great way to say Thank You to our supporters and to let people see the kids who are in the program. I just hope its not too hot or pouring rain.

Sioux

[Jeannette]

You guys are inspiring me to get involved with my community! I've been thinking for a long time now about starting a program for teens-at-risk. It would be a free program, they would have to do so many hours of training, then do so many hours of homework tutored by maybe students at university trying to get credit for their teaching credentials. I would like to possibly work with the city so they can fund for their training gi's and wooden weapons. Anyway, the problem is that I work 50 hours a week in my home business, have a family, and find it hard to find good quality time to spend with this project. Once I commit, especially with children, I have to continue it 100%. There are four other teachers besides myself that also work a lot. Any suggestions?

[Jeff Burger]

Only do what you can and are willing to do.
If you take on too much you might end up hating it and then do nothing.

Be creative in finding ways to do what you do.

Be grateful you are in a position to help.
Stay loyal to what you believe in.

Jeff

[Jeannette]

thanks jeff!

[fightgrrl]

Teens are tough because they tend to travel in packs - and the boys often get intimidated by the effort of girls. we did a teen program that started out strong with a 'pack' of students. First the registered boys dropped out when they saw how many girls were in it(you'd think they'd be psyched to be outnumbered). Then, as school work got tough on one girl she quit and the others followed...it wasn't a serious loss to our program as it was sponsored by the local boys and girls club, but we had set out the time for them and other students could have used it. be careful what you offer for free, people think they can walk all over it, especially with at risk kids who often don't have a parental push or demand for consistency, too many times they have been raised with the 'quit if its hard' mentality.
That said, if you start something up, don't be discouraged if it seems to take a LONG time to grow. We are very demanding of our free students and have had to kick a number of them out of the program for non participation, this definitely sorts out the dedicated from the babysitted. Our biggest problem with the totally free programs we have offered is that they have been one free day a week and those students end up with 6 days to forget last week's class, they progress slowly and give up easily. The kids who have had scholarships for the full time(4 days-up to 16 weekly classes)program have progressed in MAs and made bigger life changes and have been with us longer.


Since you are very short on free time perhaps the thing is to make it a one student project..approach schools - teachers and counsellors and have kids apply for the free space, choose one student to get the program and take them through a school year with it. The hardest part would be chosing the winner, since you want to find some one with the potential to do well in MA and the willingness to do that, as well as improve academically, etc. The big plus is you can find someone that will be able to fit your schedules, this way you can work with them more intensively, they will see progress quickly and continue and you can design the bigger program around how it works out.
When you approach people for support they want to see success and sustainability. This would be a good way to test out the program you envision. Training one student that you can really brag about will get people interested and supportive. We put photos from all of our promotions and competitions in the local papers, so the people who have helped us out can see our successes.

One of the long term goals for KICK is to help other schools do what we do. Our focus would be 'do' aspect training not the MA curriculum, but thats in the distance right now.

I f you have any specific questions about how we have gotten things going feel free to ask me or Jeff Burger.

[Jeannette]

wow! Thank you so much. You've given me much to think about. You guys have a really good thing going, an inspiration to many of us out here.

Think I'll go write a plan and definately get help from schools and other resources.

Thanks!

[Mariedke]

As part of our kids/youth classes, we're incorporating a community involvement program every month. Our city police service has a Teddy Bear Drive (all teddy bears donated are labelled with the Kids Help Phone number and are given to children involved in violence/crime, directly or indirectly). We're hoping to have a resource officer speak with our students once a month or so on different topics, such as bullying, etc. We also require our students to perform a certain number of "good deeds" before they can grade (ie: helping mom around the house, helping a neighbour with their leaves).

One idea would be to hold a fundraising event with proceeds going to a youth program (for example, in Canada we have KidSport - a non-profit organization that provides partial subsidies for kids that would otherwise not be able to afford taking lessons or playing a sport; it is used not only for fees but for equipment as well, as is completely confidential).

In our Yellow Pages we have a section for Charitable Organizations and for Volunteering...check there and see who needs a helping hand :)

[Runar Bjaaland]

Hi Jeff,

I was involved in pilot programmes for homeless and law offending youth whilst working for the Department of Community services, where I was able to combine my love for Judo and help kids simultaneously.
I would like to suggest the value of weekend (preferably longer) camps.
I was recently at a Judo camp where the challenge was to train two times a day for six days straight. We learned a lot about fatigue, first aid and comaraderie. After the third day all we wanted to do was rest.

Boot camp with an agenda.
The usefulness of this in a social context is that it takes a lot of effort to organise or participate in such an arrangement. Rewards lie in the promise of furher camps that may be even be found overseas - depending on the abilty of the participants to act a team.
We met kids from all over the world and our martial art gave us all the commonality we needed.

You dont need kids that are already 100% fit or socialised. So long as your organisers are focused on long term objectives and monitor their work with others team leaders. It all depends on planning.

Just an idea!

Cheers
Runar Bjaaland