All Together Now

This is a tribute to Finlandia, the co-op that the volunteers in the Project HEALTH Summer Institute now call home. This house has already given us a stockpile of free goods left behind by former residents in closets and underneath matresses – including a stethoscope and a polaroid camera. But Finlandia has given us a lot more to think about than new toys. Sophia and I expected that squishing a bunch of Project HEALTH folks in a confined space and forcing them to cook and eat and clean together would help forge a tighter community. But I never anticipated what a huge impact it would have on the work that we do as volunteers.

During the academic year, we like to emphasize that Project HEALTH has a huge support network for its volunteers. But in fact the work that volunteers do for their clients is often pretty solitary. When everyone’s schedules get completely wacky about half way through the semester, it becomes impossible to find a common time when we can come together to collaborate on our work. People develop their own strange routines that only they can comprehend. The value of shared work gets lost amidst our rush to simply get the work done.

This summer we have witnessed the complete inefficiency of this individualism. As volunteers at the Family Help Desk, we are asked to spend a minimum of three hours per week researching community organizations that can address the needs of our clients.  Our common living and working environment this summer has underscored that we are continually repeating each other’s work and encountering the same successes and failures. In general, this summer has allowed us to constantly reflect on the model of the Family Help Desk, because we can see how it plays out among volunteers other than ourselves and how it is applied to so many different cases.

This summer has demonstrated to me that one of our central goals for the fall should be to foster more communication between volunteers, and to invest in creating common spaces and times for volunteers to work together. It is incredibly exciting that this summer is pushing all of the Summer Institute volunteers to think critically and innovatively about the Family Help Desk. I hope that we will be able to generate this same energy in the year to come.

-Emma

Project Health – Elevator Pitch

Project HEALTH Summer Institute

by Emma Anselin

I believe that you can only come to know and understand a place if you have walked it. A friend who returned from study abroad once told me that she would always feel closer to Prague than to Providence, because she had spent her time in that foreign city weaving through back alleys and markets and neighborhoods. Her insight really struck me. I rarely make the time to wander and wonder about Providence. It is deeply saddening that I could leave Brown without forging a personal connection to the surrounding urban environment. 

This past weekend, I walked to Federal Hill with a group of friends for a birthday dinner. The walk took us through downtown Providence and across the highway, which roars and churns like an impenetrable barrier. The blocks that immediately surround the highway seem deserted. There are a lot of empty corporate buildings on one side of the divide, and boarded-up warehouses on the other. Was there once a neighborhood, a community, here? I’m sure that many Providence residents could tap the collective memory of the city and answer that question. I cannot. 

There is a cobblestone square in Federal Hill, complete with a sculptured fountain, that can transport your imagination to a European plaza. It serves as a hub for a network of bustling Italian restaurants and boutiques. When my parents visit, I take them to Federal Hill to indulge in food outside the sphere of Thayer Street. I think of this community as a world far beyond college hill, and I give myself a pat on the back whenever I venture there. Yet I know this neighborhood entirely through the energy of its restaurants, rather than the energy of the people who live or work there. 

The only time that I ventured beyond the strip of Italian cuisine in Federal Hill was for a Project HEALTH event, in which Sophia and I photographed neighborhoods with affordable housing. We only had to walk one block to leave behind the neon facades and enter a quiet residential area. Project HEALTH has given me the opportunity to get acquainted with the side of Providence that families witness, love, and struggle with. Clients have graciously shared with me the memories, emotions, and experiences that shape their knowledge of this city. I think that the Summer Institute will allow I and other volunteers to connect to the Providence community on a new dimension – through the organizations that tap into the political and economic structures of this city. I hope that this summer will yield plenty of time for walking, for learning, and for finding a sense of belonging in Providence. These experiences can further lay the foundation for us to work together with Providence residents to create change.