LifeMoves: 7/6, 7/11, 7/13, 7/18, 8/3, 8/10 (JOSIE)

Josie Yoon

7/6, 7/11, 7/13, 7/18, 8/3, 8/10; 4-7pm

LiveMoves

Charmayne and Caitlin

cbellamy@lifemoves.org

I helped the Redwood City Family House out with whatever they needed at the time, so for the second half of my visits, I did a few different tasks.

LifeMoves hosts various workshops to help families become independent again, including financing workshops, art therapy, and parenting workshops. During these workshops for the adults, I did activities with the children at a nearby park. By giving the parents some free time, I allowed the parents time to get necessary information without having to worry about worrying their children.

I also did some work on computers, including translating various forms from English to Spanish and helping look for apartments. Although translating forms seems like busywork, it was very important in order for the shelter to accommodate families that only spoke Spanish. I also helped families look for apartments based on the number of people in each family and their desired location, and the rent had to be under $2000 a month. This task was surprisingly difficult and gave me insight into how hard it is to find affordable housing in our area.

My service had an impact on the Redwood City Family House because I was an extra person to help, which was necessary because LifeMoves doesn’t have the funding to have a huge staff. Through this experience, I learned that although I may think I know that, for example, it is difficult to find affordable housing, I can’t truly understand the difficulty without experiencing it myself.