Michelle Lozano UNIV 291 Dr. Green 18 Sept.

2012 Effective Research by Outsiders

Students are made to believe that any service is good service. The fact that most university students the United States are better off economically than people in other countries encourages the notion that we must participate to make a difference in the world. We are never made to believe that our impact can be negative, after all, how can good intentions be misinterpreted? The essay Starfish Hurling and Community Service shines service in a new light, a darker one. When done correctly with the right resources, enough people and with correct background information, service a community to another is positive for all parties involved. This reading highlights the fact that although one may have good intentions, there are many other factors that need to be set before the service is effective for the good of the community being helped.

One belief of the author of the starfish story is that one person doing service for the community is not productive. To best help an entire community, there must be an organized manner to get many people involved in the project. In this sense, the author believes the emotions of individuals motivate them to do projects on their own. This means that more organization and less emotion is needed to get a large amount of people to help a community. This shows us that one

person cannot do all the change, however one person can motivate others and work as a community to help make change happen. The solo approach does not build a sense of community, while a group working together does. Another critique for the starfish approach is that it does not accurately represent service because starfish cannot represent themselves or speak for themselves. In some cases, the people of the community can express their needs and expectations. What if the starfish didnt want to be thrown back into the sea? However, in other cases, there is a language barrier that makes this kind of conversation an impossibility.

The ABCD model informs us of the community strengths and what it has to offer. In this model, the assets of the community are identified and used to benefit the residents and community helpers on the service being done. The reading, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Communitys Assets stresses that service must be asset-based, internally focused and relationship driven. In this way, the community does depend on the major resource (such as the commercial 26th Street of Little Village), but also recognize that additional resources are needed to meet the needs of a high need community. In addition, work must be done to add on to the progress already made by the communitys members which involves leadership within the community and their knowledge. This model informs us that communities do not need replacement help, they need additional support and resources.

Both of the previously stated readings express strongly that the need for service in high need communities is indeed needed, but restricts the way in which we can be involved to fully

immerse in the community without offending its residents and throwing privilege around. The Stoecker text mediates the tension given by the other texts by simply stating the ways that communities need help, and how the want it specifically. He is knowledgeable about specifics because he offers his own experiences, good and bad, of previous service projects. Stoecker begins by addressing who the community is. This is extremely important and can be taken very lightly when assuming that the residents with the most need make up the entire community. In fact, the organized group, institutions, and funders can make up the community as well as those with the problem. As the text goes on, he systematically lists the ways in which people should get involved which consists of diagnosing the problem, prescribing ways to impact it, implementing the strategy, and evaluating the project once it is already in motion.

By specifying the stages that need to be taken for effective service, Stoecker puts to rest the notion that one cannot actually assist a community if privilege is involved. The fact of the matter is that if privilege is recognized amongst those who are doing service and the reason for working on a project is backed good intention and solid knowledge on the communities needs, then effective service work can be accomplished.

Through the readings, one leaves with an understanding that miracles cannot occur within a community in which outsiders come in without knowledge of the needs of residents to help make it a better place. The opposite is stated throughout; the needs of a community can only be met with an organized group of people, good intentions to help people, and strategies to accom-

plish a specific goal. It is clear that outsiders can be helpful to a community if the right measures are taken when doing so.