Craft Model Questions

Hey guys!
So this week we are to answer these 5 questions, I hope you enjoy my responses (:

1. How do you see creativity being practiced and of use in your daily life?
I live in a co-op and I feel like people in my house are constantly being creative in how they express their feelings and how they handle situations in the house. There are also quite a few foreign exchange students and it is always interesting to listen to how they handle a new situation with their own creative mind. I also speak to my mom daily about any and everything and she is always telling me about new things my god-siblings do, which is normally something creatively surprising. I love hearing about their development and always have a giggle whenever they are being super creative. I have also always admired how creative my mom can be with the children she babysits, she can make the smallest thing they do, seem like the biggest achievement. I realized a couple years back that my creativity is similar to my mother's in that we both are very determined women and will find a way to get what we want. I also love crafting and if I had more free time I would craft all day. It is relaxing for me and I love the feeling of creating something.

2. Discuss what you learned from the examples in the text (Beginner’s guide to community-based arts) and how you would apply these strategies when entering a community like Dove Springs to work on your project.
While reading the text I loved the creativeness and different approaches. The project that I specifically signed up for at Project 2013 is the community health fair and I am eager to be apart of this portion of Project. I feel that communities are so important to the development of people and if a community as a whole takes a stand to change something, then I feel the impact would be much stronger. I really enjoyed the quote from the book, "Everyone's viewpoint is like a part of a wheel.... only by listening to all the different perspectives can you get the whole wheel rolling." I have always been the type of person who loves to get to know people and know where they stand. I feel that in the community we are going into we need to listen to all of the viewpoints and remember that to help the community as a whole, we still need to research and find out what it is that people are feeling or think needs to be done for THEIR community.

3. What might be forsaken in your project work if a balance is not maintained between the stages of the CRAFT model (contact-research-action-feedback-teaching)?


I feel that if any of these stages become unbalanced that the project would suffer. Each of these stages is needed. If there was a mishap in the contact stage the project would most likely not start or be prolonged. If there are mishaps in any of these stages it could make the project a littler harder or you could lose sight of why the project began. There can be healthy changes to a project but also you can become so absorbed by one aspect of the project and neglect the others. It is very important to maintain a healthy balance.

4. How have the program examples in the text helped you to think about barriers to open communication, assumptions about a community and its residents, and common goals you and the people in the community share?
Barriers to communication are something that I often get nervous about during projects with communities. I feel as though there can be the barrier of lack of understanding and being the outsider and I hope that this barrier is not in the Dove Springs community. I also feel that the text reminded me that assumptions about communities can be changed, and I thought of my experience volunteering with homeless street youth. I assumed that they were all rude and would hurt me. After the first month of volunteering my assumptions went away and I was also able to kind of pass over a barrier of misunderstanding and really began to get to know the street youth much better. With common goals I hope that I do not lose sight of the goals of the community while I am so eagerly trying to be as helpful as I can. (I sometimes can be overly helpful and over bearing and I am afraid it scares people lol.)

5. Which of the programs described in the book resonated with you the most and why?
The story "Comadres" resonates with me the most because both sets of my grandparents are from Mexico and I to have felt the sting of Mexican stereotypes. I admire these women and their vision. They are strong Mexican women and they remind me of my Wela Cortez. My Wela, mom and two of her sisters would always hang out on sunday nights like the comadres did. The phrase, "We support, We remember, We fight, We Learn, We inspire each other. We never give up no matter how hard it gets. We are Luchadoras (Fighters)", really stuck with me because this is how my mother, her sisters and my Wela would embrace and support each other.

So sorry this is late!

Introduction and Goals

HI! My name is Aranda Salazar and I am a 2nd year Social Work major. I'm from Brownwood, Texas which is a small town but really an awesome place to grow up. I am SOOOOOOO excited to be attending such a wonderful and prestige university and I hope that my time here shapes me into a super, wonderful, awesome human being who changes the world!
A few things about myself:

• I LOVEEEEE MY FAMILY. They are my biggest motivators and supporters and without them I would be lost. I have three younger god siblings that I get to spend a lot of time with and they are one of the reasons that I try so hard in school, so that they can have a good role model. This is a picture of them!
• I love the spirit and tradition at UT. I came from a small town where football was really important and the passion and love for the game was very noticeable. So whenever I came to UT, (not only for academic reasons, lol) I knew that it also had a great amount of tradition and spirit so I would fit right in with many other dedicated fans. 
• I get a little loud. Sometimes I speak too loudly and forget where I am. If I do this in class, just give me a friendly reminder to use my inside voice.
• I live at Pearl St. Co-op and I love it there! If you ever have any questions about the co-op style of living, I'm you're girl!
• My parents recently became foster parents and we have had 5 precious angels stay in our home. I may randomly smile in class or say something about small people, and many times I am either going to talk about my foster siblings or my god siblings and most stories will be accompanied by a photo.
 

My goals for this course are to gain more experience with community work and I look forward to volunteering with the Dove Springs community. Being a social work major we are required to volunteer 90 hours before we can apply to the major, and the organizations that I have volunteered with have been beyond awesome. I am so excited to help out with Project 2013.

 

P.S. Sorry this is late, I came home for the weekend and forgot how consumed by my family I get whenever I am here.