Angelica's World

One component of NYU's Office of Student Activities is their Alternative Breaks program. Alternative Breaks is a national program (under the larger umbrella of Break Away) which provides students with alternative (drug/alcohol-free), direct service opportunities during their winter or spring break in various parts of the country (and even globally!). Though I have wanted to participate since being a student at NYU, there has always been some sort of scheduling or financial conflict which has restricted me from doing so. However, as the RA on the community service floor, I finally get to be involved with Alternative Breaks this year!

One component of our floor this year is to provide residents the chance to participate in an Alternative Breaks trip. My Co-RA and I researched numerous different organizations and finally decided to work with Essential 2 Life in Atlanta, GA. We are really excited about customizing the trip to fit everyone's interests and to spend the week with 12 of our residents!

And, in order to prepare for that awesome week, we had to spend this past weekend at the Shawnee Inn in PA at the NYU Alternative Breaks Site Leader Retreat. There were about 50 students there and we received training in diversity, fundraising, education/orientation/training, and reorientation. We also played some team building games outside in the gorgeous weather. Saturday night we had a campfire where we made s'mores and then played Capture the Flag and then on Sunday we canoed with our co-Site Leaders along the Delaware River. It was an amazing weekend. I met some really great people, had tons of fun, ate lots and lots of (yummy) food--everyone knows that's my favorite part, and got even more excited about my trip.

As the Co-RA for a community service themed Explorations community, it is my responsibility to not only provide volunteer opportunities to my residents but also to provide educational experiences for them so that they are able to contextualize their work in the community. Tonight, we hosted a director from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) who is an NYU alum. He was GREAT! The speaker provided us with a ton of important, startling information and gave all of us a better sense as to what the NYC homeless situation is like and how it is being addressed.

The goal of DHS is to find housing for homeless people--initially through shelters but ideally in a permanent setting. We learned that in the Fiscal Year 2009, NYC will spend $754 million on Homeless Services and in 2008, 3,300 individuals and families are estimated to be homeless on the streets (while 35,000 individuals and families currently reside in a NYC shelter). Something I found quite interesting was the discrepancy between the NYC homeless system in comparison to virtually every other U.S. city. The speaker helped us better understand the meaning of $754 million when he compared it to $525,108,935 that is the entire operating budget for Miami and the $15,565,853 operating budget for Wasilla, Alaska.

These are just some of the statistics our speaker from DHS provided us with. He facilitated an intriguing conversation and answered many questions to help my residents and others better understand some of the behind-the-scenes things that go into DHS and homelessness in NYC.