National Service Leadership Conference

This past week we went to the National Service Leadership Conference. It was an interesting couple of days getting to travel with my Charlotte Americorps team in a 15 Passenger van to Talledega, AL. We drove there on Monday, then spent the next three days attending class sessions, getting to know other Americorps members serving with Habitat for Humanity all over the country, and recharging our passion for the year ahead.

I have returned from the conference full of pride to be back in Americorps, passionate about participating in full time community service, and excited for the year ahead. Being around people doing what I’m doing and passionate about their lives and service and cemented in my mind that I want to continue doing this for another year, and has made me think about where I want to serve. Charlotte is an amazing affiliate, and being around Americorps from other affiliates has made me realize what a great place I serve in, and how lucky I am. Because next year will be my fourth and final year of Americorps service I will have to decide if I want to stay here (and I know I will still have much to learn here) or if I want to travel somewhere new, and experience a different community.

I went to a couple interesting classes this past week. I went to a session on Habitat for Humanity Global Village trips where I learned about the work that Habitat does on an international scale. It was fascinating to learn about the different opportunities Habitat has to go and build in other countries. That class made me very excited for my upcoming trip to El Salvador in April. I also attended a session where long time volunteers/staff spoke about their service and shared their Habitat experience. It was very interesting to speak with people who worked alongside Millard Fuller during the early years of Habitat and how their hard work and dedication helped so many people and expanded Habitat’s reach. I went to a class on volunteer engagement, which was interesting because volunteers are such an important part of the Habitat model, but day to day my team doesn’t see as many volunteer groups. I also went to a class on Critical Home repair, which helped to keep me excited about the work that I do. However I felt like I knew the information presented in that class, having been working in Home Repair since September. Finally I went to a session on engaging volunteers during disaster. I really liked learning about how Habitat for Humanity International trains and deploys volunteers to help affiliates in areas affected by disaster increase their work as the demand increases. I feel like during my years of service with NCCC disaster response was emphasized and I really had a lot to contribute to that conversation.

I also had the opportunity to meet many interesting people, serving all over the country. I connected with other Bike and Build alums, corps members currently serving in NCCC, and got to have thought provoking conversations with the people I currently serve with in Charlotte.

Thursday night, after the closing ceremony we piled into the vans and headed back to Charlotte so we could work in Friday morning. We arrived back at the office at 1:30 am- Just in time for 4 hours of sleep!