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Self-evaluation Checklist
1. Why do you want to get involved? There several reasons why a student
might be interested in adopting an Independent Care Facility. Here
are some reasons that others have decided to become involved:
·
- Make a difference and feeling great - making a difference in your
community feels terrific! It’s an experience like nothing
else!
- Work on a program with some of your best friends - since this
is a program where the students have a substantial amount of control,
you can choose to work alone - or together with a few of your friends,
and divide up the responsibilities.
- Satisfy the service requirements of another program that you may
be involved in. To earn the Eagle Scout Award, Boy Scouts must aacomplish
a service project. The National Honor Society at each school sponsors
an annual service project. The YMCA, and many other social organizations
and churches also encourage members to become involved in a community
outreach project.
- Helping at a Independent Care Facility where a friend or relative
lives.
· Just to help others - spending time to help residents be
able to reach out to their friends and family via email, have an
opportunity to learn from the many educational programs available
online, or become better connected to our world by surfing the Net.
This is especially important to senior citizens that don’t
have reliable transportation or are not quite as mobile as they
once were. You can free them from the confines of a diet of television
and newspapers!
- Help yourself. For those individuals adopting an Independent Care
Facility for three or more months and have an email or letter indicating
satisfactory completion by the Independent Care Facility they adopted
- a cool-looking certificate will be mailed to the facility you
adopted and presented to you. For other awards and recognitions
click here or visit the Recognition section on this site).
One or perhaps a couple of these reasons may be the reason you want
to “get involved.” It’s critical to know why you
want to get involved before you make the decision to become involved.
TIPS: Knowing why you want to get involved means
knowing yourself and is the first question you should ask yourself
when deciding to become involved. If you have questions about if this
program is well suited for you, talking with a parent or another adult
leader may help you assess your own needs and understand if this program
is a good match for you.
2. Can you do the time? This step is one of the most important
of them all. You must ask yourself if you are able to make the commitment
to devote the time necessary to make a contribution at the facility
that you “adopt.” This should be at least three months,
and making yourself available to spend six to nine months is even
better because you will get know the staff, residents, and be able
to provide follow up training. A commitment also means being able
to commit to spending 2-3 hours per week either after school or during
the weekend to help the residents at the facility that you adopt.
TIPS: If you are uncertain about the amount of time you can commit,
consider discussing this with a parent or another adult leader. Knowing
yourself and why you want to help may enable you to prioritize your
other activities. Most significantly, if there is a possibility that
something could interrupt your commitment, be upfront with the Independent
Care Facility manager. A relationship where there are “no surprises”
works best for everyone. If you have questions about some of the specifics,
email us at support@seniorconnects.org.
3. Do you have the skills necessary to become involved? Most college
students, high school students and some junior high school students
have the maturity, knowledge, and teaching skills to be able to make
this type of a commitment. These will be skills that will be important
throughout your life. Since we are “kids,” senior citizens
often will be patient and return the respect we give them. So, being
perfect is not a prerequisite - but knowing yourself well enough is
an important step to making this program - and your life - a success.
- Maturity - this means being able to be responsible and work fairly
independently. If you agree to offer classes on Saturdays at 10:00
- you have to be there. If you arrive late or cancel a class, you
will be impacting others that are counting on you for help. No one
will be looking over your shoulder to make sure that you’re
prepared to teach a class or bring your class materials. It’s
all up to do. This isn’t for everyone - but if it’s
for you - there’s nothing else like it!
- Knowledge - while you should be somewhat computer knowledgeable
and Net savvy, the training programs are fairly straight forward
to make your teaching (and the senior citizen’s learning experience)
a positive one. Unless you are self-taught, it’s probably
best that you have taken a computer applications course at school.
If you have any questions about any of the lesson plans, you can
email Senior Connects for suggestions or recommendations about how
to approach more difficult situations. We have found that 8th graders
have all of the technical skills necessary to teach this entire
class. Sometimes, more computer oriented kids that are in 6th grade
have mastered all of the technical skills necessary to teach a class
– so the amount of technical skills that you have is usually
the LEAST important aspect of assessing if you have the necessary
skills to become involved.
- Teaching skills - this involves practicing (or being very familiar
with) each lesson before you teach a class. A little advance preparation
should take care of this. It also means being patient and appreciating
that what you are teaching may be difficult for some senior citizens
to quickly grasp. This may require lots of patience at time, and
a smile or nod of your head for encouragement. Some seniors are
pretty nervous that they “won’t catch on” - and
may be much more nervous that you are about these classes.
TIPS: If you have questions, a parent or another adult leader
may help you assess your skills and talk together with you about this
program. Also, you can email any questions about some of these esoteric
issues that you have to support@seniorconnects.org.
Someone that has taught this program will get back to you, respond
to your questions, and help you sort things out. While this type of
online assistance is available through the Senior Connects website,
this program is different than many other volunteer opportunities
available in your community - it requires individuals that are comfortable
working more independently and with less adult support than other
volunteer programs. If this program is not quite right for your strengths
and skill sets - there are many other good causes in your community
that you should check out!
4. What are the most important qualities that a participant must
have? That’s an easy one - it’s a desire to make a
difference in your community and to help others. If you possess this,
everything else is pretty easy.
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