Service-Learning

COM 308W

Dr. Silverman

Reflection Paper #1

My community partner for my Service Learning Project is Jericho Road Ministries. They are affiliated with Journey’s End, which is a service for refugees to help them start their new life in America. Jericho Road Ministries provides healthcare to not only refugees but also underprivileged women living in the West and East Sides of Buffalo. This branch of the family practice was started in 2003. They currently have a client base of 5,000 people on the West Side alone.


All of the refugees that benefited from the services provided by Jericho Road in 2005 were determined to be medically-at risk. There were instances of severe malnutrition and low-birth weight babies. This spawned a new idea for Jericho Road Ministries.


They want to create a Women-Mentoring-Women program. This would be staffed by volunteers. The volunteers would go through intensive training to create a trusting relationship with the 100 medically at-risk women that will be picked for the program. The women selected have been suffering from malnutrition, diabetes, anemia and pregnancy related complications. The volunteers would meet with the woman’s case worker and notify her of the living conditions, her day-to day health issues. The mentor will then help the mentee schedule appointments, learn proper nutrition and learn how to use the health care system in the United States, family planning, where to go for available pregnancy care services and environmental awareness which includes home safety. But most importantly, they will create a positive impact on a woman’s life, which will then better her family’s as well.


My job is to help create information such as fact sheets and brochures for the potential volunteers. Information like this will be used in recruiting volunteers and at Orientations. My key public will be the volunteers from churches and organizations like AmeriCorps.


I met with Matthew Tice at Jericho Road Ministries. He is a social worker there and helps with community relations. Walking into Jericho Road, you first see all of the pictures of the families and the women they have helped on the glass where the secretary sits. The secretary was also very warm. You get the impression that at Jericho Road, they genuinely care about the people they interact with. I think the Women Mentoring Women program is a great idea and I cant wait to start working on my informational packet.

Posted by Kelly at 11:37 PM |