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One thing has always drawn me towards Warren Wilson is that service with the community becomes an active part of every persons education. Service gives you values and skills that cannot be taught in the classroom but have to be experienced. Each service trip I go on I find myself feeling more humble about what I have been blessed with and the desire to help people who are going through hard points in their lives. It also reminds me that bad things happen to good people, and sometimes you have to reach out and ask for help in order to pick yourself up. For instance on this insulate trip Gary was hit by hard times after he needed an organ transplant, he can no longer work and the medication he needs is expensive. He is now forced to live off disability, which means very little income, and every cent counts in his life. This means that if he can reduce the amount that he is forced to pay to heat his home in the winter he would have more money to spend on other necessities. The home he is living in has lead paint, which is starting to chip and flake; this can be a deadly health hazard. Adding insulates and reducing hazards such as lead paint will greatly increase his current standard of living.

Another great thing about Gary was that he was not shy and came out and talked with us. He told us about the history of the Swannanoa Valley and that his house was old enough to be a historic landmark. How the road he lived on was the most direct way to Mount Mitchell how there used to be an overnight lodge where explorers could stay on their way out into the wilderness surrounding Mt. Mitchell. The lodge was on the highest elevated building at the time of its building. These kinds of things are what make the trips special and the people that you are helping interesting. It is not often anymore that you come across someone who knows so much history of an area. It’s even more interesting when they can tie their own families into the history like Gary could.

For me connecting with the people and realizing what a difference that I am making in their lives is what matters. It’s also nice when they are enthusiastic and willing to teach me things about themselves, and even about new things like Gary was able to.

Student #2

Insulating houses was

Never more fun. With the Thermodynamics class,

Steve and the Insulate Crew, we really got a lot done. From

Under the house with insulation galore, to all the cracks in the upstairs, we didn’t stop caulking until

Lunch was called for.

And, Oh what a lunch! With salad, and chicken meat,

The home owner ate with us, which was really a treat. After this,

Everyone headed back to work, and before we even realized the house was all done. So we got back in the van and and reflected on our fun.

Student #3

I was really satisfied with our Insulate experience this weekend. When we arrived I thought the house looked beautiful. The surrounding land was spacious and there was a stunning mountain view. I loved the huge porch and thought, this might be a nice place to live. While the Insulate folks shared some of the details of the day, I was tickled by you and the other students enjoying the company of the dog. It was sweet to see people eager for their chance to pet her. I like animals and think interactions with them have the ability to offer release from the demands of daily life for a lot of people.

Student #4

The day started off kind of slow and due to my inexperience, I didn’t realize all of the work that would need to be done to make a difference in the home. At first glance, it looked old, but otherwise livable. Still at this point after a day of work, I don’t quite understand how a house is constructed in a way that such a great deal of air can move in and out even from the very interior of the home. I thought that the outer edges of the home were really all we needed to think about, but every crack makes a difference. We should have used the blast door at the beginning of the day. It would have also helped to have the homeowner remove the items from the room I was working in. He said he was not aware that people would be in that room on that day, but I think we could have done so much more if we were able to see the walls AND if we had more caulk guns. Caulk caulk caulk. I was frickin’ dreaming about caulk that night.

Student #5

The homeowner was very nice. I enjoyed how he called the property his “family home-place”, super cute. I feel very fortunate that we were able to interact with him. He was nice and appreciative. I could tell that he wanted to help do things in the home but didn’t really know what to do and maybe felt like he was in the way. By the end of the day he had picked up a foam can and was a-sprayin’. I really enjoyed seeing another side of the AVL community while doing service. I’ve done a few different things around town and I feel like I’ve learn a lot about the income disparities that are not always obvious around here. AVL has some people living in conditions that are almost unlivable, yet in an area surrounded by million dollar vacation homes. It kind of makes me sick. If money is the limiting factor in fixing people’s homes, why don’t we ask the people around us for money? Ugh.

Student #6

I don’t feel particularly closer to any of the students in thermo due to this experience. This surprises me because I thought we would be a closer unit as a result of doing work together. I guess caulking is a solitary job. However, I was really impressed with the people that volunteered to work on the crawl space, specifically Skye. That crawl space was a thing of nightmares and he immediately volunteered without a second thought.

Social Work 2011 Course Reflections on INSULATE!

From an instructor's perspective, INSULATE! is a perfect Intro to Social Work project because it allows students to make connections between social and environmental justice issues and viable solutions. Depending on homeowners (like Mrs. P) the students are able to witness firsthand how their service can impact someone's life.

Thanks for making this a rich learning experience for our students.

Truly,

Lucy Lawrence

Service-Learning Reflection Paper

A. There were many highlights of my experience during the INSULATE service project. I really enjoyed meeting the client, Virginia Plemmins, and having the opportunity to speak with her and hear her tell us about her life. For me it made the experience all the more personal and allowed me to put a face and story to what we were trying to accomplish and why. Another accomplishment I felt was having gained confidence from past experiences with INSULATE projects. The knowledge that I gained from having done this sort of service before, allowed me to provide insight and advice to other folks who were new to insulation and weatherizing work. The past experience also allowed me to feel much more confident in my own capability with the work and I felt able to work effectively both with others and on my own. I think that the problems I faced were issues to do with the materials we were working with such as fiberglass and learning how to work efficiently but also safely. Another issue was the heat, and adjusting my vision from the brightness outside to the darkness of the basement. I guess you could say that the weather affects our comfort levels of weatherizing! Wearing protective gear helped me avoid getting harmful materials in my eyes and also wearing appropriate clothing. Asking for help when I came up against an issue with the task I was attempting to carry out was also a great help. The folks from Community Action Opportunity, Matt and Jay were both wonderful resources of support and knowledge.

B. When we were working on Saturday, I kept trying to think not only about the individual approach to service, that we were assisting Virginia in insulating her house, but trying to view our service as part of a larger framework. Then I thought about environment competence and how this linked to our work. By insulating and weatherizing homes, we are not only cutting costs for folks who fall under the low income/poor bracket, but the levels of energy use are being decreased as a direct result. Thinking about this on a larger scale could mean that this form of service could decrease energy emissions significantly which could be really beneficial in a time where society is in contention over the issue of global warming. Another concept that I considered with this service project was that of ageism. I think that my presumptions about service and also certain stigmas around elderly folks have led me to internalize certain misconceptions of organizations of service. When we initially met Ms Plemmins, a part of me was surprised. Surprised in the sense that most of what I have known and experienced is that society does not really place much value in certain populations, elderly folks being one of them. Part of me assumed that about service organizations too, that they would not invest the time and energy for older clients. I came away feeling that my presumptions had been challenged and was able to dismantle my own disillusionment with service work. That felt really great.

C. I learned that when I have the appropriate knowledge, I felt that I could be a more effective resource for other folks. I also felt confident in my own ability to be productive and see the results from that grow in front of me. I appreciated being able to work with a team of people. Power in numbers is not to be understated, I felt I had a support network and we got a lot of work down and it was really wonderful to have a group of us all working for a common goal, and I know that Virginia expressed how appreciative she was, which made it really rewarding for me.

D. I enjoyed this experience a lot. I can appreciate that INSULATE is not the type of service that many folks would think to get involved with off their own accord, but once we were there, we were in it to win it, in my opinion. There is a definite sense of satisfaction that comes from physical labor, especially when related to service, of seeing the results of your hard work and input. I would do this again.

E. The experience I had on Saturday was really valuable to me so I’m not sure what I’d suggest for improvements to the actual experience. I think that I would love to know how Virginia gets on in the future, if there was a way to find out when the house gets finished and see how effective and helpful the weatherizing and insulation can be.

As I reflect on my experience with INSULATE!, I cannot remove the image of Mrs. Plemmin’s face from my mind. A vast majority of the benefit I felt from working with this program was the human connection, and I felt that I was really able to make that through my interactions with the homeowner of the home I worked on.

In some of my discussions with Mrs. Plemmins, she seemed particularly interested on imparting her values, and suggesting ethical means. This brought me to consider the way in which different cultures and different avenues of Social Work create, practice, and impart their values. “Values are the implicit and explicit ideas about what we cherish as ideal or preferable,” (DuBois & Krogsrud, 96). When Mrs. Plemmins discussed the importance of God with me, I had to reflect on how she wasn’t really telling me about her relationship with God. She was sharing with me her ideas about what she cherished. It was a great exercise in learning how to recognize a foreign value system, and respect it. I was honestly thankful for her advice in putting God first, even though I have no personal relationship with a God. I felt like I learned how to thank her intent after recognizing where she was coming from.

Talking with the men from Community Action Opportunities was also beneficial. I was intrigued as to the trainings, educational paths, and personal interests that led to such work as well as service. It made me consider the relationship between work force and volunteer force. As our textbook says, volunteers have historically been cast as women, and I think a social precedent has been set that jobs such as insulating basements have been typically cast as men (DuBois & Krogsrud, 105). The men that trained us, the work force, and the class that was trained, predominantly female volunteers, fall pretty neatly into place here. What doesn’t fall so neatly in to place are the types of work and service that are being done. Direct service is all about the hands-on, with-people, client-linking work (DuBois & Krogsrud, 105). Policy-making service is working with boards of trustees, review, serving on committees (DuBois & Krogsrud, 105). I’m interested in the overlap. What about the man who works in direct service, cutting fiber glass with me, that also does policy-making service before reaching the site? And which parts does he get paid for? These volunteer and work relationships bring me to consider what the nature of volunteering is; maybe to a regular volunteer, these distinctions are not so important.

I don’t think that I am particularly cut out for this type of work physically. I do highly consider the possibility of being more of an Advocacy or Policy-Making volunteer for an organization like INSULATE!, because I value where they are coming from. Had I researched more about the educational histories of the people who work with Community Action Opportunities or INSULATE!, I might have been more deeply aware of the effects on the community that were being made. I don’t feel that I suffered greatly by showing up to the site less educated, though, as the learning process occurred during the laboring process. That seems fitting.

I began the morning nervously, apprehensively, and sluggishly. I slowly began to understand the gravity of the work we were doing, and as that realization grew, so did my willingness and drive to work. The human connections throughout the day (helping Mrs. Plemmins into her seat, talking about Massachuetts accents while measuring ceiling panels, eating lunch while discussing educational backgrounds) helped me see the broader picture of manual labor. I saw the ripples of our work in the homeowner’s life, in the lives of those hoping to help support her, the lives of those who would move into the house after she no longer inhabited it. The value I hold rests in the image of a 96-year-old woman saying “No one has ever done anything like this for me before”.

References

DuBois, B. & Krogsrud, K. (2011). The Social Service Delivery System. In D. Musslewhite
(Ed.). Social Work (7^th ed.) (p. 96) . Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
DuBois, B. & Krogsrud, K. (2011). Values and Ethics in Social Work. In D. Musslewhite
(Ed.). Social Work (7^th ed.) (p. 105) . Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

“Insulate!” Reflection Paper

Though this was not my first experience working with the program “Insulate!”, I found my time with this group extremely meaningful. In reflection I can see that my first experience with this program was very overwhelming and more of an orientation to the issues surrounding poverty and weatherization. Having that initial introduction allowed my second trip to serve as an opportunity for me to learn about the home owner, her life, her home, and how it all connects to what I have learned about social work so far in this course.

The highlight of my work with insulate was talking with and learning from Mrs. Plemmons. She was remarkable! Mrs. Plemmons did not hesitate to show gratitude, as well as offer insight to only living longer, but living healthier. Though learning form the homeowner had the greatest impact on me, I gained great satisfaction from learning how to install insulation. Though I felt frustrated with myself at the end of our time because I was losing momentum, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment for the work my classmates and I had already finished.

While talking to Mrs. Plemmons, I was able to connect parts of her story to a few things that I have learned so far in class related to social work. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a social worker helping Mrs. Plemmons to live a fulfilling life. Two things that came to mind for me were the systems perspective and her access to resources. Mrs. Plemmons provides a great example of why treating each individual uniquely is so important. She has some very supportive systems in her life such as her family, her church, and her neighborhood. Having access to all of these support systems can provide her with the confidence she needs to pursue the resources that are vital to a healthy life. Mrs. Plemmons mentioned that her daughter-in-law helped her to reach out to Community Action Opportunities about the “Insulate!” program. Having a systems perspective on individual cases can mean the difference in a client gaining access to a necessary resource or not. Just because an elderly woman or man does not pursue an opportunity does not mean they are ignorant or stubborn. Take into consideration their systems, whether negative or positive, as well as their access to resources.

Mrs. Plemmons obviously helped me with many different lessons and concepts, but talking with her also helped me to see the different ways that someone can be a helping person. It is not always strictly about service and physical labor. Sometimes the best service a person can ask for is that you sit and talk with them, and show interest in them as an individual.Though I felt at first that I was being lazy by sitting and talking to Mrs. Plemmons, I ended up realizing that I was doing nothing more than achieving multiple service opportunities! Being a helping person can be a focused job, but it provides the opportunity for diverse service-learning interactions as well.

Overall, I feel as if this trip with my class to weatherize a home was one of the most all-around rewarding service trips that I have participated in during my time at Warren Wilson College. The triad of work, teambuilding, and personal interaction created an amazing experience for me. “Insulate!” provides an incredible service adventure for students interested in any career path, but I feel as if it is buried deep in some of the key issues surrounding the field of social work. Through my five hours of working with “Insulate!” I was able to learn more about social, economic, and environmental justice, as well as apply key concepts that I have learned about the field of social work. This experience could not have held more value for me. I would definitely participate in an “Insulate!” trip again, and would encourage anyone else to do the same.