Soup and Jump Rope

Esther Schoenfeld

This week, Team Woodlawn decided that we want to address bullying for our community health project. This decision was made partly as a result of our community health profile, according to which there is a high rate of anger and self-esteem problems among Woodlawn youth. Mostly, however, our high school students were inspired to address bullying because it is a presence in their lives.

I am really excited about this project because it takes on public health in such a unique way. Not everyone would identify bullying as a public health problem. The fact that our team did shows that we are really grasping the concept of social determinants of health. An environment in which bullying is acceptable is one in which youth have aggression that they don’t know how to deal with. It is one in which victims can develop self-esteem problems and depression. Their anger may even lead them to bully others. Victims may be afraid to walk outside and exercise because of the prospect of being beaten up. Victims and bullies may turn to drugs and alcohol as a way of dealing with their problems.

It is key that our high school students have a personal connection to the topic; they understand its effects, and their status as students will allow them to reach their audience in a way that they couldn’t if our topic were to be, for example, gang violence.

In addition to planning our project, Team Woodlawn also volunteered for the first time. We didn’t get a chance to volunteer during our first week together, but we made up for it by volunteering at two different spots in one day this week! While both were great experiences, I learned that we can’t necessarily expect the people we are helping to accept us with open arms.

First we volunteered at the soup kitchen of the First Presbyterian Church. The six of us helped pass out the food to people sitting at tables in the cafeteria. While most of the recipients were polite, a memorable few (who were possible mentally ill) bossed us around, even yelling swear words at us when we moved too slowly for their liking. Obviously, none of us was too pleased by this. When we volunteered at a day camp later that day, some of the campers asked to be excused from our Microsoft Word lesson so that they could use the bathroom; when searched for after a delay in returning, they were found jumping rope in the gym.

It is irritating to donate one’s time and energy, only to be met with verbal abuse (or ungratefulness from 8-year-olds). Later though, as I thought about it, I realized that the day was a lesson in flexibility, a lesson that will be important to keep in mind as we proceed with our project: Not everything is going to go according to plan. Not everyone is going to be receptive to our presence and to our ideas. Instead of fighting that as we move forward, we need to know when to ignore people’s disagreements with us, and when to change our strategy to better suit the community’s needs.