So… now that it’s LESS THAN ONE MONTH till FYSOP, a lot of you have been asking about where we’re going and what we’re doing for Human Rights this year (and yes, lots of capital letters were necessary to convey our excitement). One of our most important jobs as FYSOP coordinators is visiting the sites you will be volunteering at, in order to make sure they have lots of interesting service for you to get involved in. Here’s a bit of info about three of the sites we’ve visited recently.
1) Kim’s Project
Kim’s project is located at 989 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, just a few minutes walk from BU’s West Campus. Kim’s Project is a program for women affected by the street economy and sex trade. The program offer’s positive alternatives, ensures their safety and raises awareness. Cherie, the director of Kim’s project, was involved in the sex industry for 20 years, before attending UMass Boston later in life. She described to us how many of the young women they deal with are referred to them by the Boston Police Human Trafficking Unit which is located in the same building. Many of these young women have “aged out” of state and federal support systems, and lack the resources and education to help themselves. Kim’s project rely heavily on donations to provide these women with clothing and toiletries etc. In order to help out this organization, we would love it if when you attend FYSOP, you could bring one item of clothing you no longer wear. We know that Kim’s Project, and the women they work with would really appreciate this support.
2) Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services
Located in Worcester MA, about 45 minutes drive from Boston, LIRS’s works to provide assistants to refugees and immigrants. Their director explained to us that they are alerted up to a week in advance when a new refugee family arrives in the country, and in this time have to find them a suitable home, furniture, stock their kitchen with food and prepare a culturally appropriate meal for when the family arrives. We also met the LIRS lawyers, who help the immigrants and refugees with the legal battles that can be involved with becoming a new American. These lawyers were happy to prepare a presentation for us to share some of this information with you all when you go on site. We also got to see the ESL classrooms, where the volunteers will assist in tutoring an ESL class. LIRS also runs a sustainable farm, 15 minutes drive from their Worcester site. This farm teaches the immigrant methods of sustainable farming in the USA, and the small business skills that will allow them to market their produce. They were eager for the volunteers to help out on the farm during one of the days of service. This organization does some amazing work to help people adjust to and become productive in American society, and they were very excited to work with us.
3) World PEAS/New Entry Farms
Located in Dracut MA, New Entry has three farming sites about 40 mins drive from BU campus. We met the farm director, who showed us around all three farms which are located only a few minutes drive from each other, in a beautiful area of Massachusetts. She described the work that the volunteers will perform, suck as clearing brush and weeds, helping rebuild a rock wall and clearing our sheds. She said in the past the volunteers have really enjoyed being able to see the obvious visual improvements they’ve been able to make on these sites. She also described to us some of the difficulties involved with trying to maintain these farm sites, in an area that is growing in terms of residential residents and being continually developed. New Entry has traditionally worked with immigrants, to help them develop them farming and small business skills, and help them learn to farm sustainably. New Entry is increasingly extending their services to American citizens, as they too wish to learn to farm sustainably. New Entry does a great job to positively impact the lives of the farmers there, working to both maintain sustainable farming techniques and providing the farmland in which they are able to develop these skills.
For more information on these sites, and the other prison facilities we will be visiting, check out the “sites” tab at the top of this page. See you all soon!
Emma and Bree
