Providing opportunites for volunteering during "The Advocacy Project"

Providing opportunities for students to volunteer in our Baltimore community while speaking Spanish and interacting with Latinos in the city is no small task. It requires a strong relationship on the part of the teacher with the Latino community, and requires these community organizations to find ways to implement high school student support. 

Each quarter, I provide students with a list of volunteer opportunities that I will be present and help to facilitate. I then ask students to indicate which service opportunity they will be attending, or whether they plan to implement their own Advocacy Project volunteer service. 

Below I have provided an example of a hand-out that I generated during 2nd quarter in 2014 to provide students with information on the different volunteer opportunities that would be taking place that quarter.

Advocacy Project Opportunities: Quarter 2                         

Centro Sol: Johns Hopkins University Medical School

-          Embajadores de Salud: this is a “wellness” program oriented to educate the community. Weekly sessions include workouts and monthly talks about health topics. Students can help watch kids of parents in the session. It would be great to schedule series of sessions your students can participate; the holiday season will be particularly helpful. Saturdays 9am (Bayview and venues around Patterson Park)

-          Light the Labyrinth: Session to light the Bayview campus and share the cultural meaning of light, includes African American, Hispanic and Greek. Having students to attend and help with interpretation and with kids will be also helpful. Dec. 2, 5-6pm. Additionally students can help watch kids during the Testimonios session 6-7pm.

-          English education: We are starting a new collaboration with CASA to support English conversations for Spanish speaking students to improve their English. If this is of interest, we can discuss details and logistics.

Creative Alliance: 3134 Eastern Ave.

“We would love 10-15 volunteers on Saturday, Dec 13 during Kwanzaa Family Day from 11am-3pm to assist artists with face painting and drum making. We also need volunteers to help direct people to the building for activities celebrating Kwanzaa”. – Maria Aldaña

Another great opportunity for 5-8 volunteers is Wednesday, Dec 10 4-8pm to help with piñata decorating and cutting paper, learning from our Mexican Piñata Masters. Then, we will need the same volunteers to help on the 2nd day of the workshop on Sunday, Dec 14 from 1-6pm.

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ME LLAMO: _________________________    FIRMA: ______________________

Check the volunteer opportunity you will complete for Quarter 2: Must be returned to Srta. Tomscha by Monday, December 1^st.

________ Embajadores de Salud (Saturdays @ 9 AM)

________ Light the Labyrinth (Tuesday December 2^nd, 5 – 6 PM)

________ English Education (TBA)

________ Kwanzaa Family Day (Saturday December 13^th, 11 AM – 3PM)

________ Mexican Piñata Masters (Wednesday Dec. 10^th, 4-8PM AND Sunday, Dec. 14^th, 1-6PM)

________ I will complete my own Quarter 2 Advocacy Project of at least four hours in length.