Our meeting with Jessica Ross and Lindsay Davis at Treehouse was helpful in a number of ways. On a practical level, this was a nice opportunity for Giana to experience an interview situation and learn more about how to prepare and participate in meeting with people that are interested in enrolling her as a volunteer. She also came with the hope of discovering a way that she could help teen girls in the foster care system that would feel significant and exciting to tackle as her community service project.

Lindsay, the Development Coordinator for Treehouse, gave us a tour of the “Wearhouse,” a store set up for their (foster children) clients with everything from clothing and books to bicycles and toys. They have extremely dedicated volunteers that manage all the aspects of the store – it’s truly impressive. As we walked though, Lindsay shared a number of stories of how others have done creative projects to help stock the store and meet specific needs of the clients.

Our conversation helped us learn about a number of creative out-of-the box projects that other teens have done in support of Treehouse. We also got to delve a little deeper into some of the problems that foster teens have, which led to learning more about the heart-wrenching experience of ‘aging out’ of the system when they turn eighteen. Up to 50% of foster teens are homeless once they’re eighteen and are no longer receiving support! Giana had a strong reaction to this – and so did I. We were shocked and had no idea that so many teens were going directly onto the streets. On the drive home we were also both acutely aware of how grateful we are for having parents, homes, and all that comes with that – especially when you are growing up.

We were very appreciative of our tour of Treehouse – it is very well managed and run by people with a great deal of heart. And we left knowing that it would be a great organization to partner with (for Giana’s project). However, we were also uncertain if there would be a way to partner with them if her focus was on the ‘aging out’ issue. The Treehouse mission appeared to be primarily in service to foster children under eighteen and they weren’t very involved with the issue in which Giana clearly had the most interest.

I initially thought that we would come away from visiting Treehouse with her project more clearly defined. We’re getting close – but we’re not quite there just yet.

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Giana shared with me that her older sister had brainstormed some ideas for her service project that related to empowering girls, and teens in general. Of the topics that had come up, the issue of teen homelessness was the one that Giana resonated with most strongly, but she still wanted to explore other options.

We did a few online searches to see if we could find some ideas for her to consider but not much came of it.

It dawned on me that setting up an information interview with someone in a nonprofit with the mission of serving teens in need would help us get a better handle on what problem Giana might tackle to solve for her project. I thought of Janis Avery, the Executive Director of Treehouse. Treehouse is a wonderful, highly respected nonprofit that serves foster children in Seattle. I emailed her later that day requesting a referral to someone we could speak to in her organization, and within a day we had an appointment set up for the following week.

Field trip!

photo credit: Tim Green

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The VizAbility Project: A Broader View of Service Areas (3rd in a series)

April 14, 2011

Since we last met, Giana had an opportunity to speak with a person involved with the human trafficking issue in Seattle. She decided to donate some time as a volunteer to this organization but was still looking for the focus of her bigger service project. We explored lots of different aspects of empowering girls and [...]

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The VizAbility Project: Diving In (2nd in a series)

April 9, 2011

The focus of our first meeting was to clarify Giana’s vision for the change in the world that she most wants to influence along with the scale and type of service she’d enjoy. We also explored her strengths, goals and preferences. Here’s what surfaced in our exploration about her community service: Her vision for change [...]

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Coaching and Mentoring Through Community Service – Meet Giana (1st in a series)

March 12, 2011

I’m thrilled to be working with a wonderful teen client that has generously agreed to my blogging about our experience as we embark on the journey of her community service project together. This is an ideal opportunity to share how her project unfolds, how we are taking a very intentional approach to her community service [...]

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An Inspired Solution

January 30, 2011

Two Rice University undergraduates, Lauren Theis and Lila Kerr, minoring in global health technologies, were faced with a challenge last year. “We were essentially told we needed to find a way to diagnose anemia without power, without it being very costly and with a portable device,” said Theis, a political science major and native of [...]

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Course Correcting as I Move Into My Vision

August 17, 2010

Sometimes it is fairly easy to start mapping out a plan for getting from point A to point B when it comes to achieving a goal. But stretching into a big vision – one that we don’t know exactly how it’s going to come together – can call for a very different approach. I’m learning [...]

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Assisting Youth with Making a Difference

March 27, 2010

Having clarity about what you want – a vision – is always a good start. And then the time comes to move into action, and that time has arrived for my current project: Empower Youth. I’m creating a website – hopefully launching in May – that will feature and promote young people in their teens [...]

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Apolo Ohno: His Father’s Belief in Him Changed His Life

February 21, 2010

The thing I appreciate most about Olympic athletes – especially Apolo Ohno (Olympic Short Track Speed Skater) – is the example they set for living full-out – no excuses. Apolo responded to the question: What is the #1 thing you’d like to do before you die? His answer: “I’m doing a lot of them. I [...]

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Ugandan Visionaries: Matsiko Children’s Choir

February 7, 2010

The Matsiko Children’s Choir gave the final performance of their U.S. tour Friday night here in Seattle. I was delighted to be in the audience. They are an inspiring group of young children – full of energy, big smiles, wonderful music and dancing. They are also orphans or at-risk in their homeland of Uganda. The [...]

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