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Spring Flowers

 3 hours For the month of April, I decided to team up with a volunteer group (religious) on the north shore. Small bundles of flowers were donated to us, for us to go into nursing homes and make an impact on family members. I was able to connect with many of the elderly, including a family member, and it was amazing. Something as simple as a flower can truly make someone's day. Hearing their experiences and the smiles light up on their faces when they found out we were there to stay for hours seemed to make every person beyond elated. In the future, I will continue to do this monthly and possibly weekly, depending on the time. This experience was the most hands-on and personal one yet. I truly believe as young people, we have a duty to give back. All of the Covid-19 safety protocols were followed, although we could not get very close to everyone even though we were all vaccinated. This was an experience that will forever be in my heart during these hard times.
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Planting Magnolias with SOUL NOLA and YLC Assist

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    March: 4.5 hours  For the month of March, I decided to team up with SOUL NOLA and the Young Leadership Council. SOUL NOLA stands for Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, and it is a NOLA-grown nonprofit organization committed to driving a more resilient and environmentally equitable New Orleans by reforesting or urban landscape. The Young Leadership Council (YLC) is a group of members that develop leadership skills through community service that makes New Orleans a better place to live, work, and play. SOUL's initiative is even more pronounced locally as a large amount of vegetation was decimated in Katrina and, as we are all very aware, New Orleans is a city that floods. SOUL does weekly plants throughout the year and our partnership for this event was dedicated to the Central City/Uptown area. Volunteers planted trees in groups across the region. The volunteers met at SOUL NOLA's base sight, where we split into groups and were handed shovels, pitch forks, mattocks and gloves.
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Helping the Neighborhood: New Orleans Community Fridges

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 February total hours: 6 For the month of February, this year is a lot different in New Orleans due to the pandemic and the cancellation of Mardi Gras. New Orleans as a city has been through a lot in the past year, and although our city is resilient, we can all agree that this is a time in which we all need a helping hand.  Amidst the hard times, natives of New Orleans came together in the middle of the pandemic and started the group- New Orleans Community Fridges, which is a website as well as a virtual social media platform that is led by community initiative placing. There are over sixteen locations of fully functioning refrigerators that are placed in safe areas around New Orleans. When I first saw this, I was not surprised by how sweet and unique the idea was. As long as the addresses of the locations of fridges became more loud and proud, more locations were added. The way the NOLA fridges work are very simple: go to your nearest community fridge, and try to make sure it is fully
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Providing Culturally Competent Services at COVID-19 Vaccine Sites

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                                                                                                                                                                              January: 2.5 hours   For January’s volunteer work, I decided to join NOLA Ready who partnered with Dr. Alicia  Battle, and hosted a cultural competency training for COVID-19 vaccine site volunteers.  This tr aining was designed to provide participants with  skills  to interact effectively with people from different backgrounds and cultures. The training helped increase us part icipants (volunteers and citizens of New Orleans) awareness of cultural  competence , encourage behavior change, and improve commun ication skills.  This cultural humility training took place via Zoom, where we learned the process of knowl edge, awareness and respect for other cultures.  This was a very interactive zoom session, full of people from all backgrounds and ages. We touched on topics concerning cultural  destructiveness , cultural
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