Natalie Boag- Thinking Globally, Acting Locally

Hi- Natalie Boag here, MNA VISTA serving at Alternatives For Girls located in Southwest Detroit.

As 2020 starts off to such devastating and overwhelming news I hope everyone is doing OK and managing to remain positive.

“Think globally, act locally” has been one of my favorite quotes to drive my year service. While this quote usually refers to environmental activism, small acts you do in and around your community slowly lead to bigger change, I think it can also be applied to our VISTA year. We are taking action to help our own communities, which will slowly lead to national and even global change. That is what I think of when the news gets tough.

Alternatives For Girls' mission statement is to “help homeless and high-risk girls and young women avoid violence, teen pregnancy and exploitation, and help them to explore and access the support, recourses and opportunities necessary to be safe, to grow strong and to make positive choices in their lives”. AFG is not only a shelter for women, but it also has outreach and prevention services. I am providing capacity building services to the Asset Building Program, a college preparedness program for young women in middle and high school. The program has four main components: youth workshops, parent engagement workshops, encouraging financial literacy through 529 saving accounts and mentoring. AFG matches contributions made to 529 savings accounts up to $500. The Asset Building Program is currently merging with another program in prevention, the After School Program, which would take us from 36 participants to over 90 participants. The idea behind this being every middle and high school participant in prevention programs at AFG should be preparing for post-secondary success. This transition is very exciting but also a bit daunting!

So far in my service year, things have gone well. The program has undergone many changes and transitions over the course of the last few months, and I am proud to have contributed to a small part of the changes! My main responsibly is managing the volunteers who serve as mentors to the participants. While I have other small roles: planning college tours, managing the report card tracking system and building partnerships, mentoring is definitely a priority. I provide training for the mentors every other month, and a mentor-mentee event on the month the training does not occur. I manage the mentors by responding to all inquiries, and completing a match support phone call, or reviewing the mentor log they submit.

When I started, there were about 10 active mentors. This month we will be onboarding 22 (!) new volunteers. It is challenging to recruit and engage mentor candidates due to a very lengthy application process. The process can take several months, which causes many volunteers to lose interest. Mentoring is also a very uniquely demanding experience, emotionally, so I imagine it is hard for many women to make the commitment. It is a great success that we will be able to match so many participants with mentors in the upcoming weeks. It is currently the calm before the storm, many mentor candidates are finishing those last few steps of the application process, and then we will begin to interview each one and try to match them with the right participant. After that, a match meeting occurs with myself, the participant, their parent, and the mentor. It is very challenging to schedule this meeting with 1 group, so I imagine for 22 it will extremely difficult. I have to get them done fast, as I have had mentors drop the program if it does not occur quickly.
​
This year, I have been able to participate in many trainings, and professional development sessions on college access and success. It is amazing to see how many organizations around Detroit and the state are working to increase not only the number of students from Detroit attending college but also making sure they have the tools to succeed while in college.

So that is my life here at AFG!