Brown School Students Give their Spring Break for Others Sake

A number of students at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work traded the beaches and beer for service and selflessness on this year's Spring Break. The passion and perseverance these three students demonstrated is remarkable and best understood through their only souvenirs: their memories.

After the Hurricane

Tina Lindstrom chose to spend her Spring Break in Waveland because of her personal attachment to that particular area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Last year, Lindstrom and her nine teammates served with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), where they spent time in Waveland doing disaster recovery work while organizing and building the City of Waveland's Volunteer Center. In fact, two of her former teammates now run the Volunteer Center, enabling Lindstrom to return and stay at the same Volunteer Center she had helped build.

"After living in the Gulf Coast for seven months with Americorps NCCC, it was a humbling experience to return a little under a year later and see how in spite of some significant developments, there is still much disaster recovery work to be done," she said.

Through a partnership between the Waveland Volunteer Center and Restoration Point Foundation, a non-profit which focuses on disaster response and recovery, she was able to work alongside a group of volunteers from Deloitte and United Way.

"At the Volunteer Center, it was rewarding to see how my AmeriCorps team's hard work was greatly appreciated by the spring break volunteers," said Lindstrom.

Lindstrom supervised the group, helping them finish a house and make it move-in ready. Together with her team, they poured a cement walkway, power-washed and stained the deck, landscaped, painted the interior, and caulked among other finishing touches.

"Processing our work in a disaster area through discussion enhanced our understanding and awareness about the Gulf Coast's long-term recovery," said Lindstrom.The week culminated in a typical Gulf Coast shrimp boil complete with potatoes, peppers, onions, and (as tradition dictates) bread pudding for dessert.

"Overall the week was both physically and emotionally demanding, but better than I could have imagined: visiting old friends, making new ones, and working in an area where I feel deeply connected," said Lindstrom. "I encourage everyone not to forget about the Gulf Coast and their need for volunteers and support."

Lindstrom hopes to organize an alternative spring break trip next year, so other social workers can be involved in what she calls "an extremely beneficial and rewarding service trip."

From Brown to Belize

Anna Floreen spent two weeks in Belize volunteering with an organization called AYUDA (American Youth Understanding Diabetes Abroad).Working with five volunteers and two staff members, Floreen collaborated with health educators, doctors, nurses, and youth to gain a better understanding of the needs and challenges that people with diabetes in Belize face everyday.

"We rented a car and traveled the country visiting hospital and homes, establishing connections in hopes of sustaining change and empowerment to the communities most affected by diabetes, said Floreen.

Floreen and her fellow volunteers met their goal of giving communities hope that diabetes is a manageable condition, as well as planning further education and empowerment of the Belizean population on a larger level.

"Having type I diabetes myself, this was quite an eye opening experience," said Floreen. "Many of the children, youth, and families lack the most basic education, resources, everyday supplies, and understanding of their illness that was presented to me nearly 20 years ago at my diagnosis."

AYUDA, with the help of volunteers like Anna Floreen, have been profoundly successful in teaching children with diabetes and their families that a lack of education about their disease can be just as dangerous as a lack of insulin.

The Path to Peace

Over Spring Break, Shantha Ready served as a United States delegate on the Youth Peace Leaders International Council at the 2008 Summit of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW) in Jaipur, India.

The Summit celebrates and continues the work of GPIW, making women's voices heard in international affairs. GPIW was born when a United Nations assembly of 150 faith leaders, only four of whom were women, came together to discuss the MDGs. Those four women and the gender-aware men agreed that a space for female religious and governmental leaders needed to be made. That space has since been realized through GPIW's set of conferences, dialogues, and summits.

At the 2008 Jaipur Summit, over 450 women and men from 45 countries met to articulate, embody, and offer communities "the missing resource of our time: the feminine."

"At the conference, we explored the nature of the feminine principles in the major world religions, engaged in dialogue with people from high-conflict parts of the world, and defined areas in which feminine values and resources can be amplified in public life," said Ready.

In what she calls one of the most powerful moments of her summit experience, Ready met with the former Iraqi minister of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees in her hotel room and together they looked through pictures of Iraqi IDP camps from the week previous.

"I am very grateful for the powerful relationships I have made with such a diverse group of people. I hope to live out the mission of GPIW in my work and spirituality," said Ready.

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis aims to create positive social change through its path-breaking research and educational excellence. The Brown School's international community of faculty, students, and graduates works throughout St. Louis, across the country, and worldwide to apply new knowledge and use the best available evidence to impact policy, practice, and service delivery. The Brown School, which offers a doctoral degree, a master of social work degree, as well as seven dual-degree programs, is home to five research centers:

The Center for Latino Family Research

The Center for Mental Health Services Research

The Center for Social Development

The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies

The Martha N. Ozawa Center for Social Policy Studies

For more information call 314-935-6676 or gwbweb.wustl.edu.

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