The Consequences of Healing

Hello! This is corps member Elisabeth Ivey. I’m sharing a reflection I’ve had about my journey through a year of service. I want to make clear that my interpretation of the following Biblical passage is just that – an interpretation. I welcome dialogue about the passage and any part of this post. You can comment below!

A couple weeks ago, the Scripture reading came from Acts 16, telling the story of the slave girl possessed by a spirit that allowed her to prophesy:

16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Though I’ve heard this story before, it’s been sitting with me these past several weeks. I’ve thought a lot about this woman and this: her healing resulted in a direct loss of value for the people who owned her and benefited from her.

***

I’ve often joked that I should add “anxiety” to my resume because it manifests in behaviors that benefit many workplaces. My anxiety means that I’m early wherever I go. The clock in my car is set three minutes behind so that I don’t show up too early. And before I even leave, an event will slip into my mind hours before it starts, ensuring that I can’t get anything else done for the day.

My anxiety makes me meticulous.

My anxiety pushes me to perform well.

My anxiety makes me want to please everyone around me with disregard to my own feelings.

***

I remember the first time I told someone “no” at the beginning of this service year. A friend asked me to speak on a panel for an upcoming event, and I hesitated because the request came on the tail end of a week that I’d already spent visiting and speaking to classes. I was exhausted. My fatigue came not just from the preparation but from the mental energy it took to overcome the intense and pervasive anxiety that accompanied me when I spoke in front of people. Throughout my senior year in college, I pushed through it. I wanted to grow, and so I shouldered the anxiety and exhaustion that came with these opportunities.

After graduating, I realized I could choose differently. While I still wanted to face my challenges, I realized that I could also choose to care for myself. Distanced from the intensity of academia, I gained enough perspective to understand and identify the unhealthy dynamics that pattern many systems, urging people to push themselves to the limit.

Still, I hesitated to say “no” because I respected this person. I cared for them, and I didn’t want to let them down. And even as I told them I couldn’t help them, I inwardly cringed as I opted not to make up an excuse (“sorry, I already have a meeting at that time”) but to deliver the news with the truth: I just didn’t have the energy to withstand the anxiety.

I fretted after sending off the email, convinced that my decision made me fall from this person’s good graces. In this past year, I’ve struggled with feelings of guilt as I’ve accused myself of being stingy with my time. It’s true – after saying no once, it’s easier to say no again, and sometimes I can veer towards the other end of the extreme where I’d rather isolate myself from the constant demands that wiggle into my life even after college. Balance is a process.

I also remember one of the first times I didn’t arrive to work exactly on the hour or half hour, but a couple minutes past. I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule at my job placement (so I could adjust my schedule as needed), but I mourned what felt like the loss of perfection. I’ve felt that uncomfortable sense of loss in other areas of life, as I’ve eased my grip on the need to have everything ordered in a particular way. Even though it allows me space to breathe easier, I worry about losing my grasp on the “strengths” that helped me function in the workplace, gaining me praise even as I struggled with the burn-out.

***

I think of that girl, the one whose struggle looked like a strength, like an incredible ability that her masters exploited. I think of how her healing meant that according to her masters, she lost her value. And I wonder how she felt. Relieved? Afraid? Conflicted?

Through this year of service, I have struggled, healed, and struggled again. I’ve adapted to new situations and set boundaries to preserve my well-being. I’ve had to face a worldview that I’ve developed through my lifetime that service means self-forgetfulness. To serve others meant I couldn’t serve myself, that I must forget my own needs. As I continue to wade through these murky views, I keep urging myself to settle into the grace I need to acknowledge that my needs are a part of my humanity and my imperfections are not unforgivable.

These changes haven’t come easily, but even as I’ve experienced the growing pains of guilt (for not throwing myself into every possible opportunity) and shame (for failing to live up to a high standard), I’ve also been able to see that I’ve been healthy. In setting boundaries and pursuing healing, I may have limited my value to the world, just like in the story when all the masters cared about was their loss of money.

It makes sense.

The more we live into our healed selves, the less we’ll function in a broken world. Rather than making us worry about falling behind, perhaps the shift should rather incentivize us to invest in the healing of the world alongside ourselves.

Above image by halfrain, used with permission under a Creative Commons License.

Slowing Down: A Reflection on a Year of Service

This week, corps member Elisabeth Ivey shares about some of the challenges she’s faced in her year of service and offers a reflection about how she’s been able to process through the doubts and emerge with a desire to take intentional steps through life. Continue reading below!

A year of service has its challenges, and one of the most significant ones for me was discerning if I’d made the right decision in the first place. Taking a step forward down my chosen path, I looked to either side, wondering if I should’ve chosen one of the different routes my friends had taken.

As a new college graduate, each decision I made felt heavy-laden with pressure, but despite the uncertainty, this year has afforded me time to distance myself from the frantic pace of undergrad years. Through this opportunity, I’ve been able to clearly appreciate where I am, even if I’m still unsure of what’s ahead.

A year of service can mean many things and have many manifestations, and for me, it meant slowing down, which is a reminder I continually need. Recently, I published an article with The Porch Magazine in which I explored these thoughts more deeply. Continue reading below to read how I decided to lean into a meandering way of living.

The Meandering Way

Above image by Eddi, used with permission under a Creative Commons License.

A Day in the Life

Corps member Madi Keaton shares a day in the life at the Sycamore House!

A Day in the Life of a Sycamorean

7:30—Time to get up! If the honking and screeching brakes of the cars on Front Street trying to get to work don’t wake me up, then my alarm certainly will.

7:45—Bed made? Check. Teeth brushed? Check. Face washed? Check. I quickly pick out and outfit and then head upstairs to pack a lunch. Generally, my lunch is made up of a lot of little snacks that we happen to keep around the house, like string cheese, hard boiled eggs, baby carrots, and a piece of fruit. On mornings where I feel especially groggy, I boil some water in our electric kettle to make coffee from our French press. I pour it into my trusty Mason jar, gather my things, and head to my placement!

8:30—Thankfully, my commute to the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project is only a few minutes’ walk from the house. I sign in and head upstairs to my office, where I start my computer and begin checking my email. The rest of the day varies according to the projects I’m working on. I’m either doing research or writing or attending meetings—or a mix of all three! Today, I’m working on a document detailing how to bring diversity and racial equity into the workplace. Many of this year’s trainings have been focused on creating an inclusive and equitable workplace, so I am compiling all of the notes as well as outside research into a comprehensive report that can be referred to for years to come. I am also doing other miscellaneous tasks, like writing emails, printing rebuttals for cases, and having check-ins with my supervisors.

4:30—I leave work and head back home. For now, I’m taking a break from the mental labor of work and watching Netflix until I get ready for dinner.

5:30—I begin to prepare dinner. One of my favorite things to make is tacos. I grab corn tortillas from the fridge. Then, I heat up some black beans over the stove with salt, lime juice, and chili powder. I heat up the tortillas too, melting shredded cheese between them to keep each pair together. Then, I place the black beans and a dollop of salsa on each pair. Simple, but delicious! If some of my other housemates happen to be grabbing dinner at the same time, I’ll generally sit and eat with them.

6:00—I clean up the dishes from dinner and decide what to do with the rest of the evening. Usually, I spend it doing chores like laundry or sweeping a room and then relax for the remainder of the night. Sometimes, I go out to an event, like a book talk at Midtown Scholar or a performance. Occasionally, my housemates will all want to go out and hit our favorite spot—Arooga’s! We collect the coupons off of the back of Giant receipts. They allow for one free drink or a buy one, get one free appetizer. It’s a great way to drink and eat food that is bad for you when you’re on a budget!

10:00—Time for bed! I brush my teeth, wash my face, and set my alarm for the next morning.

Above image provided by Elisabeth Ivey.

Social Justice Session: Ethical Consumption Pt. 2

During our Friday sessions, some of our time has been set aside to discuss issues of social justice. Each of us will have the opportunity to lead the conversation on a matter that’s important to us, and Elisabeth continued the series by sharing about Ethical Consumption.

You can read part one on this topic of ethical consumption by clicking here.

Last time, we dipped into the discussion about how to go about incorporating intention into buying practices. Consider this: you’re at the store, hands on an item, and you have a decision to make. For me, that decision is, do I buy the cheap coffee, or do I buy the coffee that’s a bit more expensive but is advertised to be made in a fair trade manner?

It can seem like a silly question, even petty. But whatever it looks like for each of us, purchasing something we want or need (which is an entirely different subject to discuss) does not always have a clear answer, and it’s important that we ask some questions that will help us unpack those complications.

What makes it difficult to consume ethically? (price, convenience, etc.)
What are some possible responses to these challenges?

When we expand our perspective to realize we’re not the only ones impacted by our shopping decisions, we’ll face some tough questions that challenge our generosity, our budget, and our comfort. As I shared in the first post, I don’t have the means to make a full transformation overnight. So, I take baby steps and hope that I can continue to make incremental changes with the awareness of how my actions impact those around me.

Action Steps

The Journal of Consumer Research did a study back in 2014 to answer this question:

“Why are consumers willing to spend more money on ethical products?”

And they made three motivations: “Contempt happens when ethical consumers feel anger and disgust toward the corporations and governments they consider responsible for environmental pollution and labor exploitation. Concern stems from a concern for the victims of rampant consumerism, including workers, animals, ecosystems, and future generations. Celebration occurs when ethical consumers experience joy from making responsible choices and hope from thinking about the collective impact of their individual choices.”

This study confirms that it’s necessary to take both positive and negative actions. For me, I knew that I didn’t have the means to completely transform the way that I consume materials, so I narrowed my decisions down to a couple of integral items in my life: clothing and coffee. I made the negative choice of deciding not to support companies that I couldn’t for sure say were operating ethically, so I’ve been doing as much secondhand shopping as I can. On the other hand, I made the positive choice buy fair trade coffee. So a negative choice might look like a boycott – to completely reject a company by withdrawing your support or saying that you won’t shop there until they reform. A positive choice would be one that actively seeks out organizations that are doing good and supporting them in their difficult work.

Brainstorm: What items do you consider to be necessities? Pick one of those items and consider how you might alter the way that you acquire that item.
Take the Pledge: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/pledge-be-ethical-consumer

The Catch

While it’s important that we each take ownership of our individual choices, action at the individual level is an incomplete answer. Being an individual ethical consumer is not the answer to the problem of unethical production. As Students for Sustainable Stanford point out, “Ethical consumers also need to realize that a change in the way businesses operate doesn’t only come from consumers’ spending habits. Through political advocacy and education, ethical consumers may have the ability to have stores be held accountable for the things they do to the environment.” It’s important to hold the individual and systemic in conjunction. The enormity of the problem doesn’t exonerate the individual, but the acts of the individual are not enough to completely alter the system.

Going on From Here

Clearly, this is a brief introduction to a vast web of interconnected issues regarding how things are made and how we participate in supply chain. At its surface, the discussion is about which t-shirt to buy. But at its core, these thoughts and dilemmas are about our relationships to each other and to nature. What we’re willing to buy directly implies what kind of treatment we’re willing to allow for our fellow human beings, and though the process can seem like it’s out of our hands, we possess both the individual and collective capacity and responsibility to enact change that will wipe out the injustices in the way items are made and dispensed.

You can take this introduction and go in many directions: into a reflection on privilege, on evaluating necessities, on cross-cultural connections, on advocacy, etc. Whichever thread you latch onto, I hope that you’ll be inspired and challenged to continue leaning in and incorporating thoughtful practice into your life.

I’ll leave you with these words from Dr. Nicki Lisa Cole: “when we consume, we place ourselves into social relationships with all the people who participate in producing, packaging, exporting and importing, marketing, and selling the goods we buy, and with all of those who participate in providing the services we purchase. Our consumer choices connect us in both good and bad ways to hundreds of millions of people around the world.”

Resources

Fashion and Clothing
1. App: Good on You: http://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/ethical-brand-list/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_tribes&utm_content=tribes&utm_term=501547232_16090590_253669
2. Apps: https://mashable.com/2015/04/24/ethical-fashion-tools/#UiXYSGwLFuqa
3. List of ethical brands by type of clothing:
4. Shopping 2nd hand? Look for these materials:
  1. http://moralfibres.co.uk/shop-consciously-fashion/

Works Cited

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140916111903.htm

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings/oppressive-regimes-and-their-allies

https://studentsforasustainablestanford.weebly.com/blog/the-problem-with-ethical-consumerism

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-ethical-consumer-3026072

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/what-supply-chain

https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-myth-of-the-ethical-shopper/

https://guide.ethical.org.au/guide/browse/guide/?cat=700&subcat=702&type=720

https://thegoodshoppingguide.com/fashion-retailers

http://www.ejcr.org/

Above image by fdecomite, used with permission under a Creative Commons License.

Social Justice Session: Place and Space

During our Friday sessions, some of our time has been set aside to discuss issues of social justice. Each of us will have the opportunity to lead the conversation on a matter that’s important to us, and Chloe continued the series by sharing about Place and Space.

Place and Space

“How could our hearts be large enough for heaven if they are not large enough for earth?” – Scott Russell Sanders

Close your eyes and think of your favorite place besides your home in a town, city, or village that you’ve spent a lot of time in.

Open your eyes and reflect on the place you chose. Why did you choose it? Do you have a memory or memories associated with that place? What makes that place comforting, exciting, or necessary to you?

When geographers talk about “place,” they aren’t just talking about a physical location. In fact, there are three fundamental aspects that create a “place.” First, there is the fixed, objective aspect of place: it is a location that can be found on a map. Second, there is the “locale” of place. Locale refers to both the materials that make up the place whether that be bricks and mortar or grass and swing-sets as well as the history of the place. And finally there is the “sense” of place: the subjective, emotional, and personal attachment that individuals have for that place. Place is a meaningful location formed through ritual and routine. It is the local library down the road or the grassy public park behind the school. Space, on the other hand, is an undefined area without these layers of personal and shared meaning.

When we think about “environmental issues,” sometimes our minds go straight to Nature, or the idea of wild animals living in far-away lands untouched by humans. When we think about Creation Care, we might think about protecting endangered species or national parks. It isn’t about people.

In his essay “Buckeye,” Scott Russell Sanders describes his childhood home in rural Ohio, now scarred and polluted. Grieving for the destruction of this place he loves, Sanders says:

“We had no shared lore, no literature, no art to root us there, to give us courage, to help us stand our ground. The only maps we had were those issued by the state, showing a maze of numbered lines stretched over emptiness. The Ohio landscape never showed up on postcards or posters, never unfurled like tapestry in films, rarely filled even a paragraph in books.”

This destruction of places is deeply connected to our nation’s racist history. White settlers, for example, saw this land as empty space, while the Native Americans that already lived here saw the land as a place, full of memory and meaning. What might be empty space for us, might be a sacred place for someone else.

The way that we see place and space has everything to do with the racism and ecological devastation built into our system. The theologian and pastor, Dr. Willie Jennings describes in his lecture “The Origin of Race,” the relationship between race and place, and he reveals the Church’s involvement in creating the current system of injustice. Sanctioned by the Church, White settlers forcibly displaced both Native Americans and the Africans that were brought to the Americas as slaves, violently separating them from the places that were steeped in generations of meaning and cultural identity. Jennings says this trauma has become a part of the land itself as well as generational trauma of those peoples. And he reveals what our role can be in addressing this injustice and generational trauma.

First, he tells us to both learn the history of our places and the spaces and to tell their stories. We must start asking questions like, who lived here before I did? What was this building before it was a library or a church? And who are my neighbors, past and present? Through her placement at Messiah College’s Center for Public Humanities, corps member Elisabeth connects with students who work on a project called Digital Harrisburg, an online curation of the social history of Harrisburg, which includes interactive historical maps of the city as well as a series of place-based oral histories called the “Finding Home Collection.” You can learn more about the history of Harrisburg as a place and the ongoing efforts to tell those stories here: https://digitalharrisburg.com/

Second, Jennings urges us to involve ourselves in what he calls the geographic shaping of our cities, towns, and villages. The fact that poverty can lie across train tracks, or a river, or sometimes just a few streets over from wealth is no accident. It is all based on human-made decisions that become policy through city planning and zoning. And because they are human-made, we can speak out and change them. You can learn more about racially-discriminating practices like redlining here: https://smartasset.com/mortgage/what-is-redlining, or find a City of Harrisburg planning commission or zoning hearing board meeting here: https://cityofharrisburg.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002346628-2019-HARB-ZHB-and-Planning-Commission-Schedule

And finally, Jennings says that we must reframe our theological and cultural ideas around Christian discipleship to focus on the here and now of place. He asserts that the Church’s historical emphasis on time and God’s kingdom as a future reality in a “New Heaven and Earth” is a heresy, declaring that space and place are just as important to God as time. Because of this, we need to develop a vision for the redemption of our spaces and places, of cities like Harrisburg. For Episcopalians, we have spiritual disciplines and practices, like prayer in the Daily Office or the liturgical calendar, that focus on the temporal aspect of our incarnate faith. But what about the spatial? How do we embrace our local places and spaces? What can you do now in the season of Lent to learn, confess, or fight the injustice within your city, town, or village?

If you have any comments or questions, be sure to start the discussion below. We will be continuing our social justice session next week with a discussion led by Katie about mental health.

Dr. Willie Jenning’s lecture “The Origin of Race” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5ZGwuwcHV0&t=2542s

Scott Russell Sanders, “Buckeye,” https://www.terrain.org/essays/29/sanders.htm

Tim Cresswell, Place: an Introduction

Above image by Manchester Archives+ in the public domain.

Behind the Placement: Madi

It can be difficult to know exactly what a service year looks like. In addition to the communal interactions we have as a house, each member of the Sycamore House engages in the community through a full-time service placement. For the next several weeks, you will get a peek into the world of each Sycamore House member, highlighting the unique contributions they make to their organizations. In Behind the Placement, you’ll be able to read about the projects Sycamore House Members work on, the reflections they’ve been having, and how it all ties into their year of service!

Hello, Sycamore Blog Reader!

It’s hard to believe that we’re nearly halfway through our service year here in Harrisburg. It feels like just yesterday that I moved to Front Street and began waking up each morning to the sight of the beautiful Susquehanna. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on all of the projects and tasks I’ve completed since beginning my placement at the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project (PULP) and the Community Justice Project (CJP).

PULP and CJP are both legal aid organizations, which represent both individual and groups of clients that would not otherwise be able to afford an attorney. PULP helps low-income electricity, gas, and water customers who have difficulty affording their bills or have recently been terminated. Much of PULP’s work centers on statewide issues related to access to utility services. CJP focuses on the civil rights of low-income communities, and their cases involve anything from domestic violence law to immigration law.

My job has a lot of variation, depending on the number of projects or meetings I have each day. I started off the year helping with research for a couple of big utility rate cases. When utility companies raise their rates, there is often a chunk of their customer base that cannot afford their higher bills. They may be on a fixed income or working a job with a low hourly wage, and if their electricity or heat bills are raised, they are at higher risk of service termination. This is a huge problem because it is difficult to have a happy and healthy home without electricity, heat, or water.

Contrary to what is shown in TV shows and movies, utility rate cases do not often involve glamorous and emotion-packed courtroom speeches or debates. Instead, there are hours and hours of behind-the-scenes work involving tedious reading just to get one citation’s worth of supporting evidence in a three hundred page-long written testimony. Perhaps this sounds like boring work to you, but to me, it is an exciting treasure hunt. I get to learn a lot while reading through different studies and laws and the pages and pages of reading are always worth the golden nugget of evidence that I’m looking for. I enjoy long-term, in-depth projects that require a lot of creative problem solving and critical thinking—and legal research certainly checks off boxes in all of those categories.

That’s not to say that my placement only involves staring at a screen for hours at a time. I have had many wonderful opportunities to go to conferences and meetings to learn more about other areas of law and government. In the fall, I was able to attend the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network’s annual conference, where legal aid attorneys from across the state came to Harrisburg and spent a day attending and presenting on their areas of legal expertise. I’ve been able to attend brainstorming policy sessions, presentations on housing law, and webinars about current legal issues. I’ve even been able to network with lawyers across the East Coast practicing the types of law and winning cases that I can only dream of.

However, my favorite tasks at my placements involve community engagement. At CJP, I’ve had many opportunities to mail letters to potential clients and create advertisements for free events offering legal advice. One long-term project at PULP serves the community members of Schuylkill County, where a disproportionate number of citizens are finding it difficult to afford water service. We are working with local community organizations and governments to collectively brainstorm and implement solutions to make water more affordable. PULP also has an advisory group made up mostly of former clients. They give meaningful insight about what’s going on in their communities and help PULP to decide what cases and projects to pursue.

Before my year with the Episcopal Service Corps, I was on the fence about law school. Now, halfway through my service year, I have since hopped off the fence and took off running towards preparations for the LSATs. I find great urgency and importance in the work being done at my placements, and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to experience so many sides of the practice of law, as well as to finally have discernment for my future vocation.

-Madi Keaton

Above image by Amy, used with permission under a Creative Commons License. No changes were made.

The Struggle and Hope of Advent

art blur bright candlelight — Photo by Hakan Erenler on Pexels.com

It is the end of the first week of Advent, and, as St. Stephen’s wonderful curate, Rev. Shayna Watson, reminded us last Sunday, we light the candle of Hope this week.

Advent is a time of waiting, anticipation, and joy. But, as one of our Corps Members, Chloe, said recently, it is also a time of facing the darkness of this season and learning to embrace it and the beauty within it, as well as the hope that comes out of it.

We wrestle with the difficult signs of our times- news reports about natural disasters and the realities of climate change, a difficult political climate, and the repercussions of a society that often does not prioritize those in need, to name just a few.

And yet, we people of faith must also find ways to have hope. As Corps Member Elisabeth said in a recent reflection, we wrestle with how to engage with the tragedies of our world, and in wrestling we come into contact with God, just as Jacob who wrestled the angel was touched by God (Genesis 32).

So, we struggle, and we also find ways to act. As author and professor Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Learning to walk in the dark is an especially valuable skill in times like these—or maybe I should say remembering how to walk in the dark, since people of faith have deep pockets of wisdom about how to live through long nights of the wilderness.”

Rev. Shayna also reminded us that, though we are overwhelmed by the problems of the world, we must take small steps. We join in evening prayer each Wednesday evening in December in solidarity with LGBTQ individuals. We are present at the anti- white supremacy rally at the Capitol that occurred on Sunday. We meet with others concerned about climate change at St. Stephen’s and the local community. We invite friends, neighbors, and church members to join with us and celebrate the season at “Cookies, Cocoa and Community” last Friday evening. And we keep the long, slow work of change through our Friday formation times and at our partner organizations: Capital Area Head Start, the Episcopal Diocese of Central PA, Beacon Clinic, Habitat for Humanity, the Sierra Club, The Pennsylvania Utility Law Project and the Community Justice Project, and the Messiah College Office of Public Humanities. The work that each of these organizations is doing contributes to our hope, and helps us to keep going.

May we continue to struggle and hope throughout this Advent season.

-Micalagh Moritz, Program Director

Social Justice Session: School to Prison Pipeline

During our Friday sessions, some of our time has been set aside to discuss issues of social justice. Each of us will have the opportunity to lead the conversation on a matter that’s important to us, and Ben started us out by providing insight into the School to Prison Pipeline cycle.

School To Prison Pipeline

What is the School to Prison Pipeline?

A national trend where children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect, and students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline

Disparities this Creates:

One report found that black children constitute 18 percent of students, but they account for 46 percent of those suspended more than once
Another report found that while 8.6 percent of public school children have been identified as having disabilities that affect their ability to learn, these students make up 32 percent of youth in juvenile detention centers.

What is Causing This Epidemic?

Inadequate resources in public schools
Zero-tolerance policies that automatically impose severe punishment regardless of circumstances
School resource officers patrolling school hallways, often with little or no training in working with youth

Ways to Avoid the Pipeline:

Create supportive, healthy environments in schools
Provide flexible ways of intervention that account for the unique backgrounds that these children come from
Train teachers on the use of positive behavior support for at-risk student

Have Any Questions or Comments? Join the discussion in our comments section!

Ben Shao is a Corps Member with the Sycamore House for the 2018-19 year. His placements are at Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Harrisburg Area and Beacon Clinic. Read more about him here: Meet Ben.

Above image by Ken Teegardin, used with permission under a Creative Commons License.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Over the past few weeks, you’ve gotten a glimpse into each member of the Sycamore House, and we hope that we’ll have many more opportunities to share who we are and learn about you, the people who support and pour into us. Reflecting on the past (almost) two months since we’ve arrived, we wanted to share some of our favorite moments since being members of the Sycamore House.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

file-1 — A photo of the Sycamore House members gardening at the Catholic Worker House.

#1. Our week of orientation was packed. We got to meet Sycamore House board members while also exploring Harrisburg, and one of the places we visited was the Catholic Worker House, which held a spot in Madi’s mind:

My favorite moment so far has been serving at the Catholic Worker house during the first week of Orientation. I love Naed and the work that he’s committed to. It’s also refreshing to be surrounded by so many plants in the middle of the city! It just feels like such holy ground and I can’t help but feel at peace and closer to God every time I enter that space.

#2. Church Service at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral

At the very end of the week, we attended our first service at St. Stephen’s. Here’s a reflection from Ben:

One moment that impacted me since my time in the Sycamore House was the first church service I attended to with my Corps members. It was amazing to be a part of the St. Stephen’s community and seeing all the warmth and generosity towards us from all of the church members. It was a great feeling to feel loved and welcomed by many, and it affirmed my decision to join the Sycamore House!

file-2 — Two Sycamore House members clearing away weeds.

#3. Rising Sun Acres Farm

For one Friday afternoon out of each month, we come together for a service opportunity. We’ve been able to meet so many individuals who are invested in the flourishing of this community, and we hope that we can be some small part of that in our year here.

Read more about why this was Shannon’s favorite moment:

I enjoyed this event, because after moving to an urban area, it was fun to play in the dirt and get our hands dirty!

#4. The Ordination

By attending St. Stephen’s, we have begun to know the people in that community, and one of the members who’s had an impact on us is Shayna Watson, who serves the church as a curate. Some of us got to attend her ordination to become a Deacon, and this became Chloe’s favorite moment:

On the last Sunday of September, St. Stephen’s held an ordination service. The pews were full with clergy, church members, and the friends and family of Shayna and Eric. The sanctuary was full with the vivid red of vestments, bright smiles of loved ones, and the rich sounds of music. And the day was full with smiling at Amy, hugging Shayna, eating homemade chili, and dancing in the basement with my house mates.

file — Five Sycamore House member standing around a bushel of apples.

#5. Apple Picking

For another Friday afternoon in the month, we get to spend time together doing whatever we want to do as a group. For our October activity, we decided to venture out to Strites’ Orchard and go apple-picking. It was an especially fun time for Katie:

A moment that has been impactful since arriving at Sycamore House was apple picking with my housemates at Strites’ Orchard! It was great to spend time together and do something I’ve never had the opportunity to do before.

#6. Undoing Racism Workshop

This past weekend, all of us took part in an undoing racism workshop with over 40 other people. Over the course of two and a half days, we explored the history and definition of racism in the United States, challenging ourselves to commit to the work of undoing racism and restoring human dignity for all. Here is Elisabeth’s reflection from that weekend:

I’ll admit that I wasn’t looking forward to the workshop about undoing racism. While I care deeply about racial reconciliation, my journey has been confusing and messy over the past few years. But during this workshop, I had space to share vulnerably about my struggle in a large group for the first time. I felt heard, and the encouragement and validation I received in the wake of that experience confirmed the decision I made to be honest.

We look forward to many more moments and interactions that contribute to fond memories. Thank you for being a part of that!

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