Going to the Fortune Society last week was very eye opening. When we went the facility i was expecting to see people who looked like they needed mental help. All of the people living there looked like average, everyday citizens. I questioned why i would have even thought that ex-offenders would look different. One thing i realized was that ex-offenders and thier readjustment to society are somethings that alot of people dont talk about paired with my stereotype that people in "group homes" have mental disabilities. Which when i think about it makes no sense and i think it is because the only facilities i have visited in my life are ones that house the mentally disabled. I really appreciated the tour of the facilty and the degree of openness that Barry Campbell created to ask questions and talk to participants in the program.

This week I started to doubt my abilities to pull off my agreed upon task of coming up with fun, enriching activities for the Farmers Markets. It was Thursday and i looked at exactly what was confirmed for Saturday July 7th, the First Market. I had only one performer who had minimized the band size significantly to fit our budget, no information tables, no workshops, and one cooking demonstration. This did not sound very fun or enriching. So i began to think about how i got to this low point when i had been working on this for 3 weeks. So I assessed:

1. In reality I had only been working on it for about 12 days.
2. I was not pushing people to perform or come on the 7th though it was quickly approaching, rather I just wanted people to pick any day when they were available
3. I did not plan my days out ahead of time and set appropriate goals for each so that i would have everything done by this time.
4. I didnt ask for much guidance.

Overall it was mostly an office week and i was not on the farm. I realized also that i cannot be in an office for long and that i have to be doing active things in future. So this week has been really important for my professional development and task management endeavors.

Farm Daze

So, i definitely did write my first entry and it is currently lost somewhere in some other blog account. Anyways, last Friday, we went on a tour of Brooklyn (Forte Green mostly) with Keith Getter. I found it interesting that he knew so many people. I am really starting to understand the importance of just being a little friendly and being known in a community and how it is such an important resource when trying to accomplish goals as they are at Added Value, where I work, for example. One person who is connected to a lot of people is also beneficial for others and can serve as a liaison, connecting people who have similar professional, personal, or development interests to one another. So Keith knew a lot of people in all different parts of the neighborhood and genuinely seemed to care about them and tap them for their local knowledge, having them give us "lectures" as "professors" while he added on his knowledge of the place. His respect and inquiry for local knowledge was also really important in getting a real feel for Brooklyn life. We talked to a diverse bunch of people including a fruit stand salesman, a customer service representative in a Black-owned and operated local bank,a community elder, a female shop owner and longtime Brooklyn resident, etc.
During the trip, it was kind of awkward talking to, sometimes completely random people, and sometimes felt like we were invading on their time and space, but as i am writing this blog, i am thinking about just how different each of the "professors" were and their different understandings and histories of Fort Greene and surrounding areas and how us stopping them for 2minutes couldn't have put them totally off track and may have even been a welcome highlight to their day, who doesn't like to talk about themselves, what they do and their experience?!
Connections and respecting local knowledge are two principals I have studied about and seen in action in the urban and regional studies major while at Cornell. In one of my classes with John Forrester we conducted interviews and he was the one who told me that people are glad to talk about themselves. I see this rang true even in a completely different context! Its nice to see that what I am learning at school has practical implications. : ) Overall, the tour was very interactive and interesting which helped to keep everyone alert and excited about exploring Brooklyn!

In my work at Added Value, i have been explicitly assigned to do a calendar of exciting events from July to November for farmers markets that happen twice a week. It was daunting at first. Then I was supplied with a lot of leads and great ideas from the staff about what could work at the markets. Then i actually started trying to contact people and what a hard job. It seems like in order to pull this off, i will have to be on the phone and/or computer alllll day! I emailed a lot of people and discovered that that is teh slow way to do things when i thought it would definitely be the fastest. I was so wrong so i wasted an entire day emailing to get maybe 2 responses the next day. So now i have to call all of the contacts and talk to them which can also sometimes be frustrating because the right people are not always at their desks so then you play phone tag with them. Overall calling is the best way to get in contact with people. I have confirmed a couple of people to do different things at Market by calling. Calling people is a little scary because of the immediacy of it. If you don't have all of the answers or the right words, you confuse the other person or sound uncomfortable. On the other hand i may be thinking about it too much. So i have been practicing having all the info i need before i call. The point is that thinking and having to worry about all of the complications makes confirming people for the Market a harder task than i thought, the first Market is on July 7th and is fast approaching and i feel like i have nothing done on the programming end of my job.
I think i have been really helpful doing odd jobs around the farm like cleaning up and organizing the messy greenhouse and directing volunteers on Saturdays to getting a bed ready to seed, or being the third teacher for a class that had too many kids and not enough Added Value instructors, etc. I am learning a lot of new little things every day that make my job much easier and my knowledge about the Farm that much broader. There are still a few logistical things that I still don't understand that I don't think i will fully understand until the youth arrive and the Farmers Markets begin. I cant wait...