1. Introduction:
Learning goals
Class: By being active in community service, students can enhance their cultural awareness and empathy, as well as their group and interpersonal communication skills.
Group: We learned how to communicate better as a group; work better as a group; and learned more about the needs of our community.
Coats for the CSI Refugee Programs Sarah, Nick, Alisha, Jason and Faith 101 – Communication – Dr. Margaret Sass
Reflection:
We set up a coat drive to gather coats for the CSI Refugee Programs. Each one of us had a task to look over.
“After looking into the needs of the community, I gained a new mindset on how I can assist those needs. This was my first real experience working on a group project. I gained more appreciation for the result because we worked towards it as a group.” -Nick
“Overall I thought that few people would donate, but to my surprise, many did. I feel that when it is a good cause, people genuinely want to help out, and it was cool to be reminded of that. The best part was being an instrument in the outcome.” -Jason
“My ah-ha moment was when we finally decided to do a coat drive for those in need rather than a toy drive for little kids. I’m grateful to Gilbert’s Pantry for recognizing needs in our community and giving us the idea to donate to the CSI Refugee Programs.” -Sarah
“I think it is important to volunteer and give back to your community. It helps support your emotional and mental health. You don’t have to have a lot of money to volunteer. If you do have the means to donate or help, then bless someone else whether it be money or time. As for this project, if you have an extra coat that you don’t use and/or need, then donate to a person that can benefit from a coat.” -Faith
“After the project, my eyes were more opened to the needs of the community. There really are less fortunate people who don’t have the opportunities I do. I will definitely be volunteering at places where I can help more people and make a difference in their lives because it is important to always share your kindness and help others that may need it.” -Alisha
Community Partner:
Name: CSI Refugee Programs
Mission Statement
“CSI Refugee Programs is a comprehensive one-stop refugee service program combining initial resettlement services for newly arriving refugees.” (CSIRP, 2017)
Project Purpose /Need:
To donate coats to the refugees for winter warmth.
Course Concepts:
The course concepts we applied to our service learning experience is sociogram, group roles, and nonverbal communication.
Sociogram is a diagram that represents all the interactions and patterns in a group.
Group Roles are patterns of behavior expected in the group members.
Nonverbal Communication is messages expressed through nonlinguistic means (i.e. body movements, voice, and appearance).
Our experience did support the course concepts.
Reference:
CSIRP. (2017) About Company Overview. Retrieved on Dec. 7, 2017
Methods:
Describe what you did and how you did it:
We created a Social Media Page- “Coats from CSI"
We set up flyers in each major CSI campus building
We set up Six different coat donation boxes
We promoted the project through announcements made by the CSI newsletter.
Results:
Set up donation boxes to collect coats for the CSI Refugee Center for this up coming winter.
Two full boxes of coats were donated to the CSI Refugee Center