SOMCAN Site Visit!

My schedule has been pretty busy lately and so were the schedules of the youths of SOMCAN but on May 24th, 2012, I was finally able to visit them at their main location, 1070 Howard Street (at 7th St.)! I was so excited to finally meet the youth behind this amazing project and was eager to learn more about the big impact they are making in their community. When Betty and I arrived at their office, they greeted us, offered us food and drinks, and ultimately made us feel welcomed. Shortly after, they started their meeting with a quick introduction with 2 questions: "How was your day?" and "If you were on the Who Wants to be a Millionaire show, who would you call for help?" This is usually how us YEFABers start off our meetings too, with a “How was your day?” and another little fun question. This similarity made it seem like I was just at another regular meeting with my other board members. When everyone finished answering the questions, they got right down to business.

The next thing that was on the agenda was planning for their June 6th fundraiser which will also be located at their main office. They are planing on having art auctions, raffles where you can win an iPad 2, and even sell hand-made jewelry made by Marti, a SOMCAN participant! The money raised will go towards helping with the publication of the comics they recently made with elementary and middle school students.

 

After deciding on which roles each person will play in the fundraiser, they began tackling the next part of business on their agenda which was to assess how well their comic workshops were. In these comic workshops, the SOMCAN youth were hoping to be able to teach the younger youth about issues that were currently in their community such as homelessness and hunger. These workshops took place for about a month where on Tuesdays the youth leaders met up with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and on Wednesdays they met up with 4th and 5th graders. Even though the youth  leaders had some hardships such as the limited amount of time they had with the grade school and middle school children, the workshops were quite successful because it was not only a learning experience for the younger youth but also for the youth leaders of SOMCAN. Since the time lengths of the workshops were quite short, the youth were not able to fully complete their comics. However, since the youth that participated in these workshops were so attached to their comics and showed so much enthusiasm towards this project, the SOMCAN youth leaders are willing to extend the workshops into the summer!

Throughout the entire time of the meeting, there was always a nice energy in the air. Their meeting just had a very bubbly and fun feel to it. I am appreciative that SOMCAN allowed me to join them that day. I also appreciated their willingness to explain something to me whenever I did not quite understand what they were discussing about. In that short amount of time, I was able to see how well everyone clicked with one another. They poked fun at each other, laughed together, and most importantly worked together as a team. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and I can’t wait to see what the next steps are for these amazing youth!

         

           To learn more about SOMCAN and the youth leaders check out their website at: http://www.somcan.org/. Go and support them on June 6th for their fundraiser! Doors open at 6 at the main office (1070 Howard Street (at 7th St.)).