Human Rights so far....

this weekend marks the 3rd time that i have volunteered at the Human Rights center in abby court. So far i have noticed some progress with the soccer field. the first time i went out, there was absolutely nobody, not even goals. This second time around, there were new goals, which made the play area attractive, and we even had an interested crowd from the surrounding buildings. I believe that the problem is not that people do not want to participate, i think that the people observing simply do not know that they are welcome to join. It is up to us to go up to the spectators and invite them to play a match. Saturday, my friend and I aproached a man who had been watching us for a while and as soon as we invited him to play, he was eager to join. He even got a group of 4 of his friends to join in the game. I find that the adults are more interested and attracted to the soccer field than the children are. It is important to use the relationships we establish with the residents on the soccer field in order to encourage more participation, from adults and children alike.

Unfortunately, our ESL group is not such a success story. In my first session, i spoke with a man who was somewhat frustrated with the center's services. He seemed frustrated at the fact that there was no sense of organization with the services the Center provided. He said that he spoke with many people that lived at abby court and that the whole community was frustrated aswell because the center offers services, but when they arrive to these events there are usually not many people there or they sometimes find it closed. I had to explain to him that the Center is in its infancy and that we are still developing different services and trying to better organize our already existing services. Another thing that he and many people in the community do not realize is that most the people that volunteer at the center are students who are there on behalf of this class, therefore the participation of these volunteers is not as strong as other similar volunteer organizations. I just believe that there is miscomunication between what we can provide for the community and what the locals expect from us. hopefully, these kinds of miscommunications can lessen as the Center matures a little more and becomes more established in the community.