Profile of a Volunteer

My little sister, Kaitlyn, has followed in the footsteps of her older siblings (my brother and me) and has spent the majority of her youth and young adulthood considering the needs of others over her own. In her undergraduate years, she had attended college in Baltimore and quickly became involved in her community. Not only was she the president of her University's Habitat For Humanity student chapter, but she also began to work as a volunteer within different community outreach organizations working to connect community members with access to health-care. While working with these community health organizations, she helped to file new and existing client information, and in the process was able to learn about a whole community of peoples from their own perspectives. The impact of her volunteer work lent to a positive growth in the community, as she was able to institute more effective systems for practitioners to connect records and provide the community members with the most accurate services. Yet, although her major efforts directly affected her community, they made an incredible impact on her own life. Where she had never worked within a community such as the impoverished Baltimore community, she was able to understand the depths of the the social issues that plague their city and their lives. As she worked both in HFH and these community health organizations, she learned that the city's heartbeat existed in the lives of it's most needy, and the systems that need to be in place in order for improvements in their lives do not exist yet. Although any advocate that works on behalf of children and families understands that the world we hope to live in is not here yet, we can each do our part to build it.