With utmost sincerity, I must confess that this report has been the most challenging to date in being brought to fruition, mostly for fear that the words I string together will not do complete justice to the experience that has been such an exhilarating ride since I last wrote. Nonetheless, winter has come and gone, and finally, here is my attempt at sharing the third quarter of my Grinnell Corps Fellowship in Grinnell with MICA.
The Experience Sinceâ¦
While the I still head down to the Vets Memorial Building most Mondays through Fridays, it's in the leaving at the end of each day that I can tell how time has whizzed by. It's changed from leaving the office at 4.30pm into darkness and driving home on snow covered roads with the headlights on to walking out into the still-bright outside and driving home with the windows rolled down. Likewise, with the work that I do, while mostly revolving in and around the Poweshiek County Development Center (PCFDC), it is in the variety and scope of which I've been allowed to delve into that has marked the passing of time as well.
Again, every once in a while, I get to man the PCFDC when Paula has to take a day off, and it's always such a thrill to get to do that. It's a little scary, given the responsibility of it all, but at the end of the day, it's always a rewarding and exciting(!) experience and each time, it never fails to give me new appreciation and respect for the work that Paula does on a daily basis especially when it comes to crisis intervention situations.
Working with the ladies at the family development centre has been a blast as well. I swear, in the future, hearing certain phrases like "I'm losing my miii-iiind!" (sung out loud) and "Chocolate, where's the chocolate, I need some chocolate" or "This d*mned copy machine!!" will definitely bring back to mind familiar memories of moments of shared frustrations and the camaraderie at the office. :
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Project (Free Tax Preparation)
For a quick introduction to what the EITC is, I'm providing a blurb of information from the IRS website: "EITC For Individuals: If you're like millions of Americans, you work hard, but you don't earn a high income, and want to keep more of what you earn. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a credit for people who earn low-to-moderate incomes, EITC can reduce your taxes, and can mean a refund. In simple terms, working families and individuals may keep more of what they work for."
This is second year in a row that MICA has set up free tax-preparation sites in some of the counties in which MICA serves, and truly, it was by the grace of volunteers (most of whom were students from Grinnell College and Iowa Valley Community College) that this program could fly. This program ran mostly on weekends from February to March and after the first week, it was reported that we had prepared 22 tax returns of which $21,926 EITC dollars were claimed.
It was an eye-opener for me in many ways, being involved in this project, one of which was to how insidiously tax laws dictate us in numerous ways we don't realize. Now I am aware of the tax benefits to being legally married (filing as married gets you a better return than filing single or filing together not married) and that there is a good time to get divorced and a bad time to get divorced (something like whether you have been living together for the last 6 months makes a difference in how you can file you taxes, and thus affects your return) down to how tax laws discriminate against single parents. Tax laws do dictate what rights certain people are entitled to and what others are not entitled to through almost seemingly arbitrary laws that recognize (or not) certain things.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not bashing tax laws per se. I think it's tremendously beneficial how programs like the EITC exist, to give a boost to those most in need of it. I'll never forget the lady who turned to her 1 Ð year old upon hearing how much her tax return would be taking into account the EITC amount, saying "Now Mommy can pay the mechanic to fix the van transmissionâ¦oh we were drowning weren't we baby?". Nor will I forget how some folks used their tax refunds to pay off fines to get their driver's licenses back - meaning that there folks could now bring their children to daycare, look for better jobs, and pay off bills that they couldn't pay off before.
Nonetheless, like a lot of other things, low-income folks are at a disadvantage when it comes to filing taxes because tax laws are complicated to the point of confusion that people don't even try to understand them (which leads to not filing their taxes on their own when they would've received a refund even if they didn't make enough to have to file a tax return) and sometimes are taken advantage of by schemes (like taking out a loan on your own tax refund and paying interest on your own money!) that utilize that very fact to make money out of those who can least afford to lose it.
Involvement with Head Start
I have continued my Monday and Wednesday morning jaunts with the Head Start bus to pick up kids from surrounding towns for preschool and also subbed occasionally at the Half-Day classroom. While I enjoy interacting with the 4-5 year olds, my limited tolerance towards spending extended periods (more than 2 hours) with them has made me recognize that I am not one of those gifted few called to working with children. Nonetheless, it has made me all the more definite of my calling to work for children.
And here's why: because it is hard for me to smile and say good morning and mean it sincerely to the parent who puts his or her child on the bus in clothes that reek of cigarette smoke, especially when it's been noted that that child has asthma problems, or when a mom drops off her child at the classroom in the morning with his face still smeared with snot from sleep the night before (and a simple wiping it off with moistened paper towels helps the child breathe so much easier), because when you learn that school may be a safer environment for a child to be in versus their own home .
And then when those owners of the snot covered faces and smart mouths face you and suddenly flash you the most beautifully dimpled smile, or remind you of their guilelessness when they suddenly present you with gems like "When I grow up, I will be twenty!!!", or reveal to you just how much they understand of the world already, it makes me want to fight for the rights of children, especially those that will allow them to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation and , for now, probably the hardest of all to achieve, respect for the views of the child.
The kids that I meet through Head Start, every single on of them carries within them some form of potential, in some maybe more than others, and while they're all little people, as April (the Lead Teacher) calls them, they will all one day grow up and become big people who will engage in being a part of this world.
Low Income Home and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
As we near the end of the LIHEAP season (November '05 - April '06) we have processed close to 600 applications within the Poweshiek County area. Needless to say, these numbers exceed those of the previous year, and it has been incredible to realize that there are at least 600 families out there who live below or at the 150% who qualify for heating assistance.
As the moratorium period drew to a close as of April 1st (the moratorium protects those who qualify for LIHEAP from having their utilities shut off - with the exception of those who use LP/fuel oil) we received calls and visits from folks who were facing disconnection due to lack of payment on their bills. This period has really opened my eyes to the reality of life for different segments of society - for example, those who truly struggle to pay their bills, and make the hard choices between health insurance for their kids, meals on the table, gas for getting to work, or paying the heating bills during the winter months, versus "seasoned veterans" i.e. those who choose not to pay while under the protection of the moratorium and count on using "the system" (community action agency's such as MICA) as a means to prevent disconnection when the time comes around.
Digressing just a little, I have now come to realize some of the positives of having otherwise bothersome paperwork, because it is by having a record of someone's usage of MICA's services/ or payment history towards bills that we are able to better discern how to approach solving a crisis situation that that particular person's in.
An article that may be of interest to those of you who want to know more about the current situation that low-income Iowans face concerning rising energy costs can be found here: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/OPINION...
Thoughts and Reflection
In this last quarter, one of the biggest challenges that I have found myself facing so far is not judging the people whom I serve through this experience. I know that we are not supposed to judge people who come seeking our services, but after 9 months of seeing some of the same folks over and over again, and hearing stories of similar situations, it becomes hard not to. Where does one draw the line between being non-judgmental and being a good steward of the resources that have been entrusted into your care for dispensation? Is person X more deserving, or person Y more deserving of aid when there's a limited amount involved?
Yet how many times has my judgment been proven wrong? For example, the seemingly grumpiest people have been the ones to have brought a smile to my face in the end and often the most rewarding work I have done has come from working with someone whom I initially was wary of working with.
This leads me to tell you about the various kinds of people I've met, and some to a certain extent, gotten to know slightly better in the last 9 months. There's been the most silent, huge-sized, oaf-like elderly gentleman who brought a smile to my face when I saw gently bopping on the balls of his feet to the music that I was playing on my computer while he was waiting for me to bring him his food box, there's been "that dude" who tries to intimidate with his booming voice and spins stories each time he comes into the office like no other, there's been that guy who's responded to my "And how are you today, sir?" with a "Like a bright eyed, bushy tailed squirrel and happy to be alive" in spite of the fact that he was coming in for a food box and assistance with paying his heating bills. There's the elderly lady who calls me "kid" all the time who chats so matter-of-factly about the anxiety that she suffers from not being able to make enough money to pay off her bills, which affects her ability to work, and thus she is being medicated it which in turns adds up to more bills, and oh, all the incredibly brash/brave (sometimes it's hard to tell which it is) young (young = anybody my age or younger) parents who never cease to amaze me at how they themselves are already parents when they're barely done being children themselves. The list goes on and on, I promise.
Over the course of the LIHEAP season, I've had to look at many a paycheque/printout for income verification and it's struck me how many of the folks that we serve at MICA work at places that I pass by on a regular basis, eating establishments around downtown Grinnell, Grinnell Regional Medical Centre, the numerous manufacturing plants along West Street and Highway 6, Wal-Mart, and even at Grinnell College too. Which brings me to another thing that I cannot for the life of me see any justification in at all: It frustrates me to see folks who work, and work hard, at hard jobs, not able to pay their bills. Or not qualify for certain aid programs because they make "too much" but yet are still unable to stay afloat. Someone has to do the jobs they do, and not everybody has the skills or the want for that matter to have a "cushy" office job that warrants getting paid $25 an hour. But shouldn't folks who responsibly hold any kind of job, for a steady amount of time, make enough to allow them to pay the bare minimum of living expenses such as healthcare, childcare, food, shelter, and transportation to and from their workplace?
I don't have the answers yet, but I believe that there are solutions out there that are feasible and enactable, and when I find them, oh am I going to go for it.
Suggestions for the next Grinnell Corps Fellow
--Do try to maintain a good healthy immune system. It will serve you well especially in times of Exposure to Kids' Germs when working with Head Start.
--Develop a thick skin. It will help to adopt a healthy ability see different perspectives when dealing with certain kinds of people especially during crisis situations. Remember, it's not always you you you. It sometimes can be all about things that you have no idea are going on in others' lives until the facts emerge later.
--Prepare yourself for lack of anonymity around town that will make your out of work interactions maybe more than a little interesting than usual. You will bump into the folks you serve in almost any imaginable place you could frequent around town, and sometimes, even out of town, (all in one Saturday, I bumped into MICA clients at: a community event, Fareway, Saints Rest, Wal-Mart, the Strand theatre, and at the very end of the night, even at the Down Under pub!). Be forewarned!
Living in Iowa Milestones
As a wrap up to this report, here are the some of the non-work related things that I've done in the last quarter that I'd like to share with y'all.
--Buying a truck. It's an '84 Ford Ranger, a very sweet (albeit noisy) and reliable ride. I've had fun using it to visit nearby towns like Lynville and Newton, and made a couple of trips to Iowa City with it and I absolutely (when I manage to stick gas prices at the back of my mind) love taking an impulse drive out on the country roads especially during a nice gentle sunset, or late at night right after the rain's stopped with my windows down.
--Entering Mango Fandango (the farm cat that my host family and I adopted early in the summer) in the Poweshiek Animal's League (PALS) 1st Annual Cat Show. Mango won first prize for longest whiskers. :
--With the emergence of spring weather (Iowa weather at its best!) I've made my way to the Krumm Preserve, just a little south-west of town, in the evenings after work and enjoyed walking the gorgeous prairie trail, watching the waves on the lakes and listening to the rustle wind through dry prairie tallgrass.
--Last but not least, I have but 7 more types of sandwiches left on the menu at Chandlebaum's Back Alley Deli to try. It's been hard to go on and try others once you've hit a favourite though. Mine's The Danforth (roast beef, swiss cheese, spiced and oiled, with mayo, lettuce, tomato, on wheat bread), followed closely by The Mouse (lots of cheese).
One of the things that I have enjoyed most about this Fellowship experience is the chance that its given me to explore Grinnell, and discover the many facets of this part of Iowa that I've spent the last 4, no, now 5 years in - through its people, the landscape, and the various experiences that I've been privy to. In the last three quarts of the year, I've had the privilege in getting to know Grinnell (and Poweshiek county as well) in an ever slightly more nuanced way that I do not think I would've gotten the chance to as a student. The Grinnell that I now know and will remember is more than just "the bubble" between 6th and 10th Avenue and East and Park Street. It's an amazing myriad community of people, the complexity and reality of which I struggle to elucidate with mere words.
I intend to make the most out of my last quarter here at Grinnell, some of which has slipped by already, so stay tuned for that next (and final) report! Until then, I hope that everybody stays out of situations where they find themselves having to describe using the term "SOL" (SOL = Sh*t Outta Luck) - yes, that's another one of those "can't help but laugh when you hear it uttered" (presumably Iowan) terms that I've heard used (and learnt the full meaning of) by more than a couple of rather candid folks that I've worked with through MICA.
