My position

A quick overview of my AmeriCorps position. I am a member at a non-profit that helps to create affordable housing for low income families in my county. Specifically, I work in community life where I help organize the pre-school and after school programs for one of our sites. In the afternoons I am an assistant teacher for 1st-3rd graders.
Being part of their community and learning about their lives is really what makes this job so interesting. The community is predominantly Hispanic. Most of the parents of the children I work with do not speak much English and my Spanish is very much lacking. So the language barrier is difficult. I also do not know a lot of about their different cultures and only get an idea of their lives through the stories the kids tell me.

Another obstacle I face is not having a background in education. I'm not sure how to teach these kids or what's the right way to respond to their questions, but it's all trial and error and I'm learning everyday.

I do spend about 2 and a half hours with them daily and enjoy every minute of it. Our goal is to help raise their GPAs so we help with homework, feed them snacks and read to them. As well as do STEM activities with them , which all seems so simple but there is a much bigger picture here and so many obstacles. Working for the non-profit and seeing all the struggles there are in making an after school program work has really opened my eyes.
Not enough money in the budget for snacks, for example. 120 kids in the program 5 days a week, food goes so fast. And we want to give them healthier snacks like fruits and an alternative to potato chips, but that costs about $800 a month. Plus money for paper goods and all the supplies the teachers need. We need working computers. And it would be great to be able to hire more teachers so all the kids on the waiting list for our program would be able to join, but the reality is that money is the main issue and there just is not enough of it to serve our whole community. And it makes me feel like we still aren't doing enough.